After she comes home from practice at 7 or 8 p.m., Texas women’s basketball’s Aaliyah Moore opens her laptop, grabs a microphone and records an episode of her newly released podcast “Moore Access.” Moore, who is a communication and leadership junior with dreams of going into broadcasting, found a podcast to be the perfect starting point.
“(I want people) to see the real, raw me,” Moore said. “Just to see that we are more than athletes. I feel like people put a big emphasis on what we do on the court. … I just want people to see my personality, who I am, why I love my family so much, why I do this so much.”
Moore is supported by ZIYNX, a platform that connects student athletes to the workforce. On Feb. 29, ZIYNX launched their new Student Athlete Podcast Network with the first episode of “Moore Access.”
“We provide athletes with the resources to understand themselves and how to navigate life after sports,” Randy Paul, ZIYNX content studio manager, said. “It’s not until now that athletes are starting to speak for themselves.”
Moore first heard of the platform at the Black Student Athlete Summit in May 2023, where they hosted a competition in which athletes would make a short video and compete for a cash prize.
“I love to talk, that’s right up my alley,” Moore said. “I was one of the videos that was picked, and from there, I just started growing a relationship with ZIYNX.”
Through this growing relationship, Moore found out about the opportunity to start a podcast of her own and submitted a tryout video.
“(We wanted to work with her because of) her energy, her attitude, because she has dreams to be in broadcasting and journalism,” Paul said. “It was very natural to her to just speak, and we wanted to get to know more about her.”
Moore relies on her ZIYNX partners to help her balance academics, basketball and the podcast, especially with the upcoming March Madness tournament. As a junior, she has also learned how to manage her time and work around her schedule.
“There are some days where I’m running around, crazy,” Moore said. “I just try my best every day. That’s all you can do. … Freshman me was not really catching on to it, but I’ve learned.”
The plan for ZIYNX and Moore is to release 10 episodes, with the possibility of extending it further. Moore wants to have friends or people she admires in the weekly episodes, including WNBA star and friend Maddy Siegrist.
Paul hopes “Moore Access” can be the standard of how athletes are perceived on and off the court by showing their raw and uncut selves.
“My biggest goal with this podcast is for people to get to know me on and off the court. … It’s supposed to be fun, goofy and just show my personality,” Moore said.
