TomorrowTalks with Jemele Hill

Arizona State University welcomed sports journalist Jemele Hill as a guest in its TomorrowTalks series. Hill discussed her memoir "Uphill" (2022) in an online event on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. The conversation was facilitated by ASU’s Aviva Dove-Viebahn, an assistant professor of film and media studies in the Department of English and a contributing editor at Ms. Magazine.
About the book
“Uphill” is an empowering, unabashedly bold memoir by journalist and former ESPN co-anchor Jemele Hill about overcoming a legacy of pain and forging a new path, no matter how uphill life’s battles might be.
Jemele Hill’s world came crashing down when she called President Trump a “white supremacist”; the White House wanted her fired from ESPN, and she was deluged with death threats. But Hill had faced tougher adversaries growing up in Detroit than a tweeting president. Beneath the exterior of one of the most recognizable journalists in America was a need-a calling-to break her family’s cycle of intergenerational trauma.
In Hill’s journey “Uphill,” she shares the whole story of her work, the women of her family, and her complicated relationship with God in an unapologetic, character-rich, and eloquent memoir.
About Jemele Hill
Jemele Hill is the Emmy Award-winning former cohost of ESPN’s SportsCenter and 2018 NABJ Journalist of the Year. She is a contributing writer for the Atlantic, where she covers the intersection of sports, race, politics, and culture. She is also the producer of a Disney/ESPN documentary with Colin Kaepernick. Hill grew up in Detroit, graduated from Michigan State University, and now lives in Los Angeles.
TomorrowTalks place thought leaders of today in conversation with the changemakers of tomorrow: our students. Each distinguished speaker explains how they use writing to address our most pressing challenges.