Something shifted in figure skating. And I noticed it before I even knew it was a thing.

This episode picks up where we left off with Amber Glenn, but instead of focusing on her individual story, we zoom out to the culture she's helping create around her. Because the friendship culture in figure skating right now is unlike anything the sport has seen before, and we need to talk about it.

We start with where figure skating has been in the past; the rivalries, the drama, the infamous Tonya Harding era, and a sport historically defined by cold competition between athletes who were supposed to be enemies. Then we get into where it is now.

At the 2026 Milan Olympics I kept noticing something: these athletes were showing up for each other. But what surprised me the most was that it was not just for their own teammates, but for athletes in every country.

We talk about Amber Glenn shielding Kaori Sakamoto from the cameras during one of the hardest moments of her career, and what Sakamoto said about Amber publicly at Worlds that brought both of them, and honestly me, to tears. We talk about Alysa Liu and Ami Nakai and a moment in the kiss and cry that says everything about this generation of skaters.

Then we get into Ilia Malinin and Cha Jun-hwan; two athletes who suffered devastating losses at these Olympics, and what they both chose to do immediately after. They went to congratulate Mikhail Shaidorov, who had just won Kazakhstan's first ever Olympic gold medal in figure skating. In their worst moments, they chose to act in kindness. Acts we don't see enough of in the world these days.

We close with the exhibition gala, Niina Petrokina's absolutely iconic Cell Block Tango moment that somehow involved skaters from four different countries, and why I think the way these athletes support each other might be exactly what pushes this sport further than it's ever gone before.

These are some of the moments that grabbed me and inspired me to create this podcast in the first place. So give it a listen, and hopefully you'll get some of those warm feels, too.

This episode is for the LGBTQ family. And honestly, for anyone who has ever felt like they had to hide part of themselves to fit in.

This week we're talking about Amber Glenn, three time U.S. national champion, Olympic gold medalist, and one of the most refreshing human beings in figure skating right now. And we are going to get into it.

We talk about her journey to coming out as bisexual and pansexual in a sport with a traditionally conservative image, what that cost her, and what it gave her. How being fully herself transformed not just her life but her skating. The role Timothy LeDuc played in creating a safe space for her before she could create one for others. How she has spent years quietly and not so quietly pushing back against the gender norms that figure skating has enforced forever and why that matters way beyond the ice.

We talk about what it means to be an older woman in a sport that tends to celebrate youth, and how she got to the Olympics at 26 and made it count anyway. Her outspokenness at the Milan Olympics, because she had something to say and she said it, and I have a lot of feelings about that. The scoring bias against women in figure skating and why she keeps doing her thing anyway.

And the backbends. We absolutely talk about the backbends.

Amber Glenn is a queer icon and she has earned every single word of that title. This one hit deep for me personally and I hope it does for you too.

Trigger warning: this episode touches on mental health struggles, eating disorders, and depression.

We're back for Part 2 of the Ilia Malinin deep dive, and this one hits different.

We open with some math, bad math actually, because before we can talk about what happened at the Olympics, we need to establish exactly who we're dealing with and how many hours of work got him there. Spoiler: it's an unhinged number.

Then we let Ilia himself set the tone. In his own words, from a recent appearance, he tells us exactly what this whole journey has meant to him; and honestly he describes the thesis of this entire podcast better than I ever could.

Then we go back to Milan. To the free skate. To the moment the most inevitable gold medal in decades just... didn't happen. We talk about what it was actually like to watch that unfold, why it was so hard to see, and why he can still look adorable even when he's devastated. Quite the accomplishment.

From there we get into what came after; how the world reacted with compassion instead of cruelty, and why that's not an accident. We talk about Simone Biles and the cultural shift she helped create that made space for a 21 year old to fall apart publicly and be met with grace instead of criticism.

And then we talk about what Ilia actually did with it. The grace. The sportsmanship. The way he handled the media when they came for him immediately after. The way he showed up anyway, every single time, and inspired everyone around him in the process. The way he deals with failure is honestly one of the most inspiring things I've ever watched, and I really don't think I will ever be over it. In the best way.

This is the episode that turned me from a fangirl into someone who is genuinely moved by this person. I hope it does the same for you.