The best Pickleballers episodes of 2025

Alex Lantz

Director of Content

Last Edited

Dec 31 2025

The Top 5 Pickleballers episodes of 2025

NO. 1 -- ANNA LEIGH WATERS

Anna Leigh Waters, the most dominant pickleball player to ever live, joined the podcast along with her mother and coach, Leigh Waters, in June. Jared and Roscoe discuss their pickleball journey, Anna Leigh's climb to No. 1 and what it takes to stay at the top of a sport that is rapidly changing.

NO. 2 -- BEN JOHNS

Widely considered the Michael Jordan of pickleball, Ben has racked up 150+ gold medals and once ripped off a 108-match winning streak in singles. Mind-bending dominance. In this episode, Ben opens up about what it’s really like to be the greatest pickleball player alive. He takes us back to his childhood, the moment he fell in love with the game, and how Kyle Yates took him under his wing as he climbed to World No. 1. Ben also shares never-before-heard stories about his on-court dynamic with his brother, Collin Johns, the criticism that he can sometimes look too relaxed, and whether he believes the “next Ben Johns” even exists.

NO. 3 -- PARRIS TODD

Parris Todd joins us for one of our most raw, real conversations yet. She opens up about her early days as a tennis prodigy, turning pro at 14, and traveling the world alone as a teenager chasing a dream. We talk about the pressure, the sacrifices, and what eventually led her to walk away from the sport. Parris shares how she built a fashion brand from scratch, the mindset shift that brought her to pickleball and how she’s now redefining what it means to be a professional athlete in this sport.

NO. 4 -- TYRA BLACK

Tyra “Hurricane” Black grew up in the pressure cooker of junior tennis — sitting courtside in a stroller while her dad coached pros, traveling the world alone at 13, and being turned pro without even knowing it. The burnout, stress, and antidepressants that followed nearly pushed her out of sports for good. Then an earthquake in Turkey became her wake-up call. Tyra came home, tried pickleball, and everything changed. Within two years she went from complete beginner to top-5 in the world, got signed to an MLP team before ever playing a tournament, and even beat Anna Leigh Waters — all while rediscovering joy for the first time in years. In this episode, Tyra joins Roscoe and Jared to talk about leaving tennis, how pickleball helped her get off antidepressants, battling an autoimmune scare, MLP drama, protecting her Dallas Flash teammates, quitting singles after a PPA title, and what she wants the sport to become. Raw, honest, and insanely inspiring.

NO. 5 -- MATT WRIGHT

Matt Wright is one of the most polarizing, respected, and mysterious players in pickleball — and somehow, he had never done a real pickleball podcast … until this one. At 48 years old, Matt is still making PPA finals, still out-thinking kids half his age, and still one of the most entertaining players on tour. In this episode, Matt sits down with Roscoe and Jared to finally tell his full story: from obsessed tennis kid in Wichita, to #1 at Michigan with Tom Brady in his dorm, to discovering pickleball through a made-up “mini tennis” game with a wooden mallet. He opens up about the first U.S. Open, early days with Lucy Kovalova, his loyalty to Connor Pardoe and the PPA through the tour wars, the Riley Newman breakup, what it was really like playing with Ben Johns, the Julian Arnold rivalry, cheating vs. trash talk, and why he thinks pickleball is at a crossroads: chess match or power game?

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