When Survivor premiered, it helped usher in a new era of reality TV.

當《倖存者》首映時，它協助開啟了實境節目的新時代。

The show has evolved over its 50 seasons and fans have debated changes to the game for years.

這部節目在 50 季中不斷演進，粉絲們多年來也對遊戲的變革爭論不休。

So what's the best Survivor season of all time?

那麼，有史以來最棒的《倖存者》賽季是哪一季？

We'll get into it on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour.

我們將在 NPR 的《流行文化歡樂時光》節目中探討這個話題。

Listen via the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

透過 NPR 應用程式或任何你收聽播客的地方收聽。

This is Planet Money from NPR.

這是來自 NPR 的《地球收支》節目。

There's this player in the WNBA, her name is Alicia Clark, who has kind of a reputation.

WNBA 有一位名叫 Alicia Clark 的球員，她在圈內小有名氣。

I think my teammates would describe me as a tough,

我想我的隊友會形容我是一個強悍、

gritty, winning, like a winner.

堅毅、求勝心切，就像個贏家的人。

Can you go into a winner a little bit?

你能稍微詳細說明一下「贏家」的意思嗎？

Like, what does that mean?

像是，那代表什麼意思？

I'm gonna be in the right position at the right time.

我會在正確的時間出現在正確的位置。

I'm gonna be prepared.

我會做好準備。

Yeah, I just want to win at all costs and whatever that looks like,

是的，我只想不惜一切代價獲勝，無論那看起來像什麼，

whatever I need to do is what I'll do.

無論我需要做什麼，我就會去做。

So, and I have a track record of winning.

所以，而且我有獲勝的輝煌紀錄。

Yeah, she's understating it a little bit.

是的，她說得有點輕描淡寫了。

Actually, when we were talking to her,

事實上，當我們在跟她談話時，

the only time she seemed kind of bored

她唯一看起來有點無聊的時候，

was when she was listing her accomplishments.

就是當她在列舉她的種種成就時。

Going back to high school, like, I want to stay championship.

回溯到高中時期，就像是，我想拿州冠軍。

She went on to win championships in college and in overseas leagues.

她隨後在大學和海外聯賽中贏得冠軍。

Then in the WNBA, winning three championships with three of the, how many teams have I played for?

接著在 WNBA，在三個不同的——我待過幾支球隊來著？——贏得了三次冠軍。

So just to be clear, we're talking to a three-time WNBA champion.

所以先澄清一下，我們正在與一位三屆 WNBA 冠軍對談。

Yes.

是的。

Awesome.

太棒了。

But recently, she took part in a competition that had higher stakes

但最近，她參加了一場賭注更高的比賽

than any game she's ever played.

比起她以前玩過的任何比賽都還要高。

Alicia knows long-grueling workouts.

艾莉西亞對長時間且精疲力竭的訓練並不陌生。

She's learned dozens of defensive schemes and offensive plays.

她學過數十種防守方案和進攻戰術。

She's used to practicing, preparing, strategizing.

她習慣於練習、準備和制定戰略。

But this was a totally different kind of endurance challenge.

但這是一種完全不同的耐力挑戰。

Because instead of running drills,

因為她不是在進行反覆訓練，

she was studying contracts and labor law.

而是在研究合約和勞工法。

You know, taking the time to sit down and go through this 300-page document and read.

你知道的，就是花時間坐下來，仔細閱讀這份 300 頁的文件。

And if there's something I didn't understand, I googled it.

如果有什麼我不懂的，我就會用 Google 搜尋。

And I'm like, okay, what does X, Y and Z mean?

然後我就想說，好吧，X、Y 和 Z 是什麼意思？

Oh, okay, got it.

喔，好，懂了。

And so then I would go back and reread a section

於是我就會回去重讀某個部分

and then if there were questions, hey, I saw this.

然後如果有問題，嘿，我看到了這個。

What exactly does this mean?

這到底是什麽意思？

She's doing all of this studying because for the first time in her life,

她做這一切的研究是因為她人生中第一次，

she was going to be negotiating the contract for all the players in the WNBA.

她將要為 WNBA 的所有球員進行合約談判。

And look, it's normal for players to be involved in collective bargaining.

你看，球員參與集體談判是正常的。

When union workers sign a new contract with their employers,

當工會勞工與雇主簽署新合約時，

some of the actual workers have to be part of the negotiations.

必須有一些實際的工人在談判中擔任一部分角色。

So Alicia was going to be one of the players negotiating over things like

所以艾莉西亞將成為負責談判以下事項的球員之一：

parental leave for a 1K matching, housing stipends,

育嬰假、401(k) 退休金提撥、住房津貼等，

and most importantly, pay.

還有最重要的一點，薪資。

What was not normal was how potentially historic this new contract could be.

不尋常的是，這份新合約可能具有多麼重大的歷史意義。

The WNBA has seen astronomical growth since the players got their last contract

自從球員們簽下上一份合約以來，WNBA 經歷了天文數字般的成長。

six years ago.

在六年前。

And the players were saying, wait a minute, this is our moment.

而球員們當時在說，等等，這是屬於我們的時刻。

We want our fair share.

我們想要我們應得的那一份。

Our share should grow as the business grows because we're the reason the business is growing.

我們的份額應該隨著業務成長而增加，因為我們就是業務成長的原因。

All Alicia and the other negotiators had to do was get the league to agree.

艾麗西亞和其他談判代表所要做的，就是讓聯盟同意。

Hello and welcome to Planet Money.

哈囉，歡迎來到《Planet Money》。

I'm Erica Baris and I'm Emma Peasley.

我是 Erica Baris，我是 Emma Peasley。

Alicia Clark and the other players had a once in a generation opportunity

艾麗西亞·克拉克和其他球員擁有一個千載難逢的機會。

to change the future for all of women's basketball and maybe all of women's sports.

去改變所有女子籃球，甚至可能是所有女子運動的未來。

And it came right down to the buzzer.

而且直到最後一刻才分出勝負。

Today on the show, we go court side to one of the most important union negotiations

在今天的節目中，我們深入賽場旁，觀察職業運動史上最重要的工會談判之一

in professional sports history and learn what it's like to be a rookie doing high stakes bargaining

並了解身為一名菜鳥，在攸關重大的談判中是什麼樣的體驗

from bluffs and puffs to strategic silence and something called batten up.

從虛張聲勢與誇大其詞，到策略性的沉默，以及一種稱為「嚴陣以待」的技巧。

And the ringer, economics, swish.

還有那個絕招：經濟學，空心入網。

On the court, Alicia Clark is a forward for the Dallas Wings.

在球場上，Alicia Clark 是達拉斯之翼隊的前鋒。

But over her time with the WNBA, she has been in pretty much every position.

但在 WNBA 的職業生涯中，她幾乎擔任過所有的角色。

Being cut from her team twice, being a bench player, getting the minimum WNBA salary.

曾兩次被球隊裁掉、當過板凳球員、領過 WNBA 的最低薪資。

Being the like middleman in terms of I'm not the superstar but I'm not a rookie.

就像是處於中間地帶，我不是超級巨星，但也不是菜鳥。

Then being a starter, winning all those championships.

接著成為先發球員，並贏得那些冠軍頭銜。

She says that's why she stepped up a couple years ago to help negotiate this contract.

她說這就是為什麼她幾年前挺身而出，協助談判這份合約。

I just knew that my lived experience would be so crucial and beneficial to this negotiation.

我很清楚我的親身經歷對於這次談判將會非常關鍵且有益。

Alicia is the oldest player in the league, 38.

艾莉西亞是聯盟中最年長的球員，今年 38 歲。

And when she first started thinking about these contract negotiations two years ago,

當她兩年前剛開始考慮這些合約談判時，

she knew what she did not want.

她很清楚自己不想要什麼。

The kind of contract she had back when she was a rookie.

就是她剛出道當新人時拿到的那種合約。

What was your salary?

妳當時的薪水是多少？

My salary? Oh, I think I wrote it down. Let me check. Hold on.

我的薪水？喔，我想我有把它記下來。讓我查一下。等我一下。

You're pulling out like a red diary notebook?

妳現在是拿出一個紅色的日記本嗎？

Yeah, I am. I am.

是的，沒錯。

Yes, Alicia Clark starts flipping through a real old school diary.

是的，艾莉西亞·克拉克開始翻閱一本非常有年代感的舊式日記本。

During the contract negotiations, she was making entries multiple times a day

在合約談判期間，她每天都會記錄好幾次，

in her careful cursive writing.

用她那工整的草寫體記錄著。

This is, this was my handy-dandy notebook.

這、這就是我當時的萬能筆記本。

Do you normally keep like a diary or a...

No, I am like a diary like journal person just because I like to remember stuff

and I have so many thoughts.

She finds the page she was looking for.

So my first contract I think was $36,400.

That was during her first WNBA season in 2012.

I looked at it. I was like, okay, I'm making $36,400 for five months.

Like, that's decent.

And I'm like, I'm not going to look at the rest of the months of the year.

We'll figure that out later.

But for these five months, I was just like, this is what professional athletes are making.

Or at least the women professional athletes.

Nothing they had was like what the men had.

Our practice court was a church gym.

Alicia says they flew economy,

in middle seats if you were a rookie.

Didn't matter how tall you were.

And when they traveled, most players had roommates.

Adults, professional athletes, sharing a hotel room.

Did you say anything about it?

Like, I know you were like, well, this is good.

But were you...

Did it occur to you?

You'd be like, wait, should I get more?

Oh no, there was no thought or even opportunity to get more.

That's just what you got.

At the time, the WNBA was not turning a profit,

which is typical for a new league.

Many professional sports leagues don't make money for a while.

Alicia says when the WNBA players asked for more money,

they were always told the same thing.

No one comes to the games.

The revenue just isn't there.

In the beginning, the NBA owned the WNBA.

They're still majority owners.

And in their 2002 negotiations,

the NBA commissioner threatened to cancel the upcoming season.

If they couldn't reach an agreement.

But over Alicia's career, women's basketball has changed a lot.

It started slow.

More people going to games, more television stations showing them.

During the height of the pandemic,

they were one of the only sports on television.

And ever since, women's basketball has gone bonkers.

Remember when Caitlin Clark broke the NCAA all-time scoring record?

Here comes Clark.

How will she go for history?

She got so popular she was invited on Saturday Night Live.

Here to comment is Caitlin Clark.

When Angel Reese's first preseason game with the Chicago Sky

wasn't televised, a fan streamed the game from their phone

and it got 500,000 views.

And off the court, Angel is a regular at the Met Gala.

So now, money is coming in from skyrocketing ticket prices

and advertising revenue.

The league is projected to get $3.1 billion

over the next 11 years from a new media rights deal.

And the players have gotten better deals

as things have changed.

They got rid of the roommates.

Recently, they've been flying charter.

They got parental leave and they got somewhat higher salaries.

Last year, the minimum salary, like for a rookie,

was around $66,000.

And for the first time, the players did get a bonus

because the WNBA made enough money to trigger it.

But going into contract negotiations this year

with the WNBA pie growing exponentially,

Alicia was on a mission.

Can you tell us a little bit about what was on your wish list?

Yeah, I mean, everything.

We were like, where do we start?

Literally everything needed to be thrown out and started over again.

No, literally, that's literally what we said.

We were like, this all needs to be scrapped

and we need to like redo this entire CBA.

The entire collective bargaining agreement.

And if you're going to ask for more of everything,

Alicia learned, you have to be able to explain why.

When an organization is making a profit,

there are no rules that say management has to take this much

and labor gets this much.

You make it up.

And when you're getting ready to negotiate,

one thing you look for are comps in your industry.

Like, other plumbers or teachers or whatever

make this much money so we should make that much.

But there was no comparable professional women's basketball league

in the country.

And just asking for the same is what the men make.

The average men's salary is around $10 million.

Just wasn't going to work.

Because despite all the growth of the WNBA,

it still doesn't bring in nearly the kind of money the NBA does.

The new pie is not that big.

So it was going to take some complicated math

to figure out a fair comparison.

And that was a first big challenge for the players.

As they prepped to start bargaining with the league.

Mind you, Claudia Golden is on our side.

You heard that right, Planet Money Fam.

The Claudia Golden, the Nobel Prize

winning economic historian and labor economist.

23 prizes in the economic sciences was awarded to Claudia Golden.

The prize motivation reads for having advanced

our understanding of women's labor market outcomes.

When the WNBA players ask Claudia

after she won the Nobel to help them negotiate their pay,

she said, okay, but for no pay.

So she was one of the people advising the player side.

Did you get to meet her?

Via Zoom.

Via Zoom.

What was that like?

Can you describe it?

What did she tell you?

I mean, just basically like what you guys are fighting for

is more than fair.

And she was like, honestly,

it's embarrassing what they're paying you guys.

So just to know like to have confidence

that what you're fighting for is more than fair.

And they have it.

We exchanged emails with Claudia.

She didn't want to come on because she wanted the focus

to be on the players.

And she said the math she was doing for them was not

actually complicated.

It was simple.

It's all laid out in an op-ed.

She wrote last year for The New York Times.

Claudia wanted to find what a reasonable gap between the NBA

and WNBA salaries would be by comparing their revenue.

So she looked at what the W and the NBA

each bring in from advertising, streaming, and game attendance.

She accounted for the fact that the NBA season has more games.

The games themselves are longer

and there are fewer WNBA teams.

Then she crunched all those numbers

and estimated that the average WNBA salary

should be about a quarter to a third of the average NBA salary.

In reality, Claudia calculated

it was more like one-eightieth.

And part of the reason that gap existed

is because of the WNBA's previous collective bargaining agreement.

The player salaries were not tied to revenue.

They grew at a fixed rate

that did not account for the incredible growth of the league.

So that is the part of money

that Alicia and her negotiating team decided to zero in on revenue.

They wanted what's called revenue share,

which Alicia says she didn't really understand

in her rookie years.

Like you know what revenue is

and you know like obviously revenue shares like,

okay, you're sharing in the money that you're that's coming in.

But like what does that actually look like

in the terms that they have?

The players did have an opportunity

for some rev share from an earlier contract.

That's how they got those bonuses last year.

But the way the agreement worked,

their salaries and their share of the revenue

didn't grow at the same pace as the WNBA's overall revenue.

If the business grew our share stayed the same.

So they sent their first proposal

to the league in February of 2025.

And what they asked for was 40% of revenue

to split between players.

You know now they were willing to settle for less.

But negotiators usually start out

with something called an anchor number

to influence the direction of negotiations.

By the way, NBA players get about 50% of rev share

using a different system.

In response to the WNBA players proposals,

the league did eventually offer some big jumps in salaries.

At one point they said they'd increased the max salary

from about 250k to more than a million.

But they were still insisting on a fixed rate system.

They were not budging on the players rev share ask.

So they're going back and forth and Alicia

and the other negotiators are following along.

With help from you could say the Claudia Golden team, the math team.

I'm a visual person.

So I needed to see like you can tell me something

but I'm like, let me just see it.

And so they created like pie charts for us.

Like, hey, I love pie charts.

You know, it's amazing.

And so it's like, hey, here is what happened, right?

Like, here's the revenue.

Here's their estimated what they're saying.

What they're offering you is this piece.

Okay, but they told the players now watch the pie

as the years go by.

Look at the revenue the league is projecting.

Here's what they're projecting the league to make

over the next five years.

And here's what happens to your share

that they're offering you over those five years.

And when you see it, you're like, what?

Why is that getting smaller?

Why isn't it getting bigger with the increased revenue?

And it's like exactly.

So in our revenue model,

here's what it would look like.

That was really eye opening.

Because they're like, oh, there's million dollar contracts.

There's this.

There's average salary of this.

And the players just see the numbers.

And where everyone's just like,

but look at the salaries.

And it's like, look at this pie chart.

Look at this chart.

Look at how this, look at the graph.

As the negotiations move forward,

Alicia and the other players on the committee

had to pay the closest attention to every detail.

This was a game they were only just learning to play.

And with any game, there are lots of techniques.

We've actually been looking at a list of

quote hard bargaining techniques

on a Harvard Law School post about negotiation tactics.

Things negotiators might use in a situation like this.

Now, a source with the league told us,

quote, we did not rely on negotiating tactics

or anything of that nature.

But we think that some of the experiences

Alicia told us about sound a little like

some of the tactics on the list.

They said they would lose hundreds of millions of dollars

if they did it our way.

That was their whole spiel.

I mean, they said it in the media all the time.

We would lose hundreds of millions of dollars

if we did it the way the players want to do it.

To us, that sounded a little like a technique

the Harvard Law School calls bluffing and puffing.

Their post says these kinds of exaggerated claims

and misrepresentations can throw negotiations off track.

And Alicia said it really helped

to have their own math in their pocket,

especially when they thought the league

was seriously lowballing them.

What they offered in the beginning was embarrassing.

I was like, this is actually embarrassing

and the fact that you put it in writing

is even more embarrassing.

Because I'm like, we have this amazing staff of advisors

that are giving us facts, not like feelings

and we're all in our feelings about stuff, etc.

But let me show you what is actually here.

That's where the confidence was gained.

Another negotiating strategy

it seemed like the players might have encountered.

This one is on some other lists of labor

negotiating tactics.

It's what you might call a strategic pause.

Like a pause in conversation

or in this case, a pause in the whole negotiation.

Yeah, Alicia says in December,

10 months into the negotiation

after the players sent a new proposal,

the league went silent,

waited more than six weeks to respond.

Our source on the lead side says

this was not a negotiating tactic

and that the union's prior proposal

did not warrant a response.

Regardless, after what seems like a dramatic pause,

the league invited the players

to come to their headquarters in New York.

This was now February.

And so we were like, okay, they're calling it.

Meeting like, surely they're going to come with something.

Right.

And they showed up with nothing.

Why call a meeting then?

That's what we were trying to figure out.

Like you had people dropping everything to come

to New York to be here for this

and you guys don't even show up with a proposal.

Next, the league made a move that to us

sounds kind of like what the Harvard Law School list

calls threats and warnings.

After the six weeks of silence

and the big nothing of a trip to New York,

Alicia says the league gave the players

a suddenly urgent deadline.

If you don't sign a contract by March 10th,

the season will be in jeopardy.

They wasted six weeks

and then all of a sudden created this false timeline

that we all of a sudden all had to be,

had to jump on and it was like,

okay, well, where was the sense of urgency

when you wasted these six weeks?

For the record, our person on the lead side

says it was not a threat or warning.

Either way, by now they were way behind schedule

and the start of the season was looming.

So in March, both sides agreed

to get together in person in New York again.

Alicia packed the bag thinking it's just for a few days.

You know, I was like,

what can we get in this carry on?

And in that carry on was her trusty diary.

This meeting seemed for real

because they had blocked off the entire third floor

of the Langham hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York.

There was a conference room

with a big rectangular table.

And Alicia said the first meeting

between the players and the league was very passionate.