Podcast appearances and mentions of rachel reid

It's Pride Month, and Caitlin is kicking things off with a very queer, very passionate, very neurodivergent deep dive into Heated Rivalry—the gay hockey romance that has officially become a hyperfocus.

Zum ersten Mal fühlt sich zwischen Shane und Ilja etwas anders an. Während Shane Zeit mit Hayden und dessen wachsender Familie verbringt, wird immer deutlicher, wie wenig Platz es in seinem Leben bisher für echte Nähe gab. Gleichzeitig beginnt Ilja, sich Fragen zu stellen, die er jahrelang erfolgreich verdrängt hat. Was passiert, wenn aus Gewohnheit, Verlangen und Rivalität plötzlich etwas wird, das sich nicht mehr kontrollieren lässt?Flo und Nadine sprechen über die überraschend alltäglichen Seiten von Heated Rivalry, über emotionale Intimität, die kleinen Gesten, die oft mehr bedeuten als große Liebeserklärungen, und über einen Moment, der beide Figuren völlig aus dem Gleichgewicht bringt.Natürlich wird es trotzdem chaotisch: übermotivierte Familienplanung, protzige Sportwagen, fragwürdige Cottage-Definitionen, sehr romantische Sandwiches und eine Hotelzimmer-Szene, die emotional deutlich mehr Schaden anrichtet als jeder Check gegen die Bande.Heated Rivalry von Rachel Reid zeigt in diesen Kapiteln eindrucksvoll, warum diese Geschichte weit mehr ist als eine Sports Romance.Hier geht es zu unserem Discord-BuchclubHier könnt ihr uns über Steady unterstützen: Bei Steady unterstützenHier geht es zu Nadines Youtubekanal: Aus Liebe zum BuchGame Changer (Band 1): https://tidd.ly/4aTNygu (Werbung/Afiiliate)Heated Rivalry (Band 2) https://tidd.ly/4ptXlxd (Werbung/Afiiliate)Tough Guy (Band 3) https://tidd.ly/4l4NNrR (Werbung/Afiliate)Common Goal (Band 4) https://tidd.ly/4l9WCkw (Werbung Afiliate)Role Model (Band 5) https://tidd.ly/4aU34Zr (Werbung Afiliate)The Long Game (Band 6) https://tidd.ly/4sv4LlH (Werbung Afiliate)Zitronenkind: https://tidd.ly/4mXc3xa (Werbung/Affiliate) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ACOFAE Podcast presents: Heated Rivalry: "All romance feels like fantasy at this point." Shane Hollander. Ilya Rosenov. You know the names. You've probably seen the show, and the books are more than likely on your radar. It's Pride so let's let the boys have some fun as ACOFAE discusses book 2 in the Game Changer series by Rachel Reid, Heated Rivalry. A first for Laura Marie, (a sports romance!) Takes readers on one of the longest situationship rides ever as these two hockey players from difference countries and teams fall in love. An MM romance that is sweet and tender, as well as poignant and subtle, Shane and Ilya will stay with you long after the book is finished. Longtime listeners will not be surprised to learn that Jessica Marie has been all over this series and has the books to prove it. TW / CW: discussions surrounding homophobia For additional TW/CW information for your future reads, head to this site for more: https://triggerwarningdatabase.com/ Spoilers: Heated Rivalry (book and show), Game Changers (book 1), ACOSF Mentions: The Devil Wears Prada, Pose, Brokeback Mountain, Euphoria *Thank you for listening to us! Please subscribe and leave a 5-star review and follow us on Instagram at @ACOFAEpodcast and on our TikToks! TikTok: ACOFAELaura : Laura Marie ( https://www.tiktok.com/@acofaelaura) ACOFAEJessica : Jessica Marie (https://www.tiktok.com/@acofaejessica) Instagram: @ACOFAEpodcast https://www.instagram.com/acofaepodcast/ @ACOFAELaura https://www.instagram.com/acofaelaura/ “Lost in the sauce.”

Bei den Olympischen Winterspielen in Sotschi wird aus Heated Rivalry plötzlich bitterer Ernst. Shane trifft auf bekannte Gesichter am Strand, während Ilja in Russland immer mehr unter Druck gerät. Flo und Nadine sprechen über toxische Eltern, die brutale Einsamkeit von Closeting im Profisport und darüber, warum Ilja ausgerechnet in Boston zum ersten Mal so etwas wie Zuhause fühlt.Natürlich wird es trotzdem chaotisch: viel zu schmale Olympia Betten, heiße Hockeyspieler, aggressive Fans, ein sehr geladenes Bühnenprogramm in Las Vegas und die wahrscheinlich intensivste Hotelzimmer Szene bisher.Game Changer gehört zur Heated Rivalry Reihe von Rachel Reid und genau diese Kapitel zeigen wieder, warum diese Geschichte so viele Menschen emotional komplett zerstört.Hier geht es zu unserem Discord-BuchclubHier könnt ihr uns über Steady unterstützen: Bei Steady unterstützenHier geht es zu Nadines Youtubekanal: Aus Liebe zum BuchGame Changer (Band 1): https://tidd.ly/4aTNygu (Werbung/Afiiliate)Heated Rivalry (Band 2) https://tidd.ly/4ptXlxd (Werbung/Afiiliate)Tough Guy (Band 3) https://tidd.ly/4l4NNrR (Werbung/Afiliate)Common Goal (Band 4) https://tidd.ly/4l9WCkw (Werbung Afiliate)Role Model (Band 5) https://tidd.ly/4aU34Zr (Werbung Afiliate)The Long Game (Band 6) https://tidd.ly/4sv4LlH (Werbung Afiliate)Zitronenkind: https://tidd.ly/4mXc3xa (Werbung/Affiliate) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Send us Fan MailOn this episode of The Book Fix, your hosts Yajaira and Cheli dive into the addictive, tension-filled world of Heated Rivalry—a hockey romance that somehow turns pure animosity into something way more dangerous… and way more irresistible.We're following Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, two rival NHL players whose careers are defined by competition, pride, and years of mutual hatred. But behind closed doors? That rivalry takes a very different turn. What starts as a secret, physical outlet between enemies slowly evolves into something deeper, messier, and a lot harder to ignore—especially when careers, reputations, and personal identities are on the line.Yajaira and Cheli break down the slow-burn tension, the emotional payoff, and why this enemies-to-lovers story hits so hard. From elite sports pressure to hidden relationships and vulnerability beneath all that bravado, this book delivers angst, heat, and surprisingly tender moments that kept us hooked.Is the chemistry worth the chaos? Did the secrecy add to the tension or just stress us out? And why are we still not over that long-term buildup?Tune in for all the takes, the thirst, and the chaos—because this rivalry? It's way more than just a game.Support the showOur Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thebookfix?utm_source=linktree_admin_sharebecome our Patron ♡ https://www.patreon.com/BookFixbuy us a book ♡ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thebookfixBusiness Inquiries: thebookfixpodcast@gmail.comfollow us on Tiktok! ♡  https://www.tiktok.com/@thebookfix

How is AI transforming accessibility for indie authors — and why should you care even if you consider yourself able-bodied? What happens when the tools designed to help people with disabilities end up making everyone's creative business better? Jeff Adams, accessibility expert and romance author, explores how AI is opening doors that were previously closed. In the intro, Spotify Audiobook Innovations; The Economics of Convention Life [The Indy Author]; Friction in your Author Business [Self-Publishing with ALLi]. Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, self-publishing with support, where you can get free formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Just go to www.draft2digital.com to get started. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Jeff Adams is the author of YA thrillers and gay romance, and the co-author of Content for Everyone, a practical guide for creative entrepreneurs to produce accessible and usable web content. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How ending a long-running podcast made space for more writing — and how to know when it's time to let go of a good thing What accessibility really means for indie authors and why your digital content might be excluding part of your audience How AI agents like Claude Cowork are removing physical and cognitive barriers for authors with disabilities, chronic pain, or limited energy The culture of shame around AI use in the writing community and why blanket anti-AI statements can be ableist Practical tools including NotebookLM, ElevenReader, and ChatGPT for marketing copy, metadata management, and multimodal research Exciting futures in personalised reading, real-time translation, and AI browser agents that could change how everyone interacts online You can find Jeff at JeffAdamsWrites.com. Jeff also now has a SubStack at contentforeveryone.substack.com Transcript of the interview with Jeff Adams Jo: Jeff Adams is the author of YA thrillers and gay romance, and the co-author of Content for Everyone, a practical guide for creative entrepreneurs to produce accessible and usable web content. Welcome back to the show, Jeff. Jeff: Thanks so much, Jo. It's good to be back. Jo: It is. You were last on the show in March 2023, so over three years ago now. Give us a bit of an update on your writing and publishing business and what it looks like at the moment. Jeff: Sure. I think the biggest thing that happened is that my husband Will, who is also a writer, we ended the Big Gay Fiction Podcast at the end of 2024, after 470-something episodes. It was basically time to do that. So we both focused on writing from that point. In 2025 we had some of our biggest successes in getting writing out into the world. I refound my groove—my difficulty in writing went away finally. We talked a little bit about that back in 2023 too. Will started a new pen name and started producing again, and it was really good to be able to move in that direction. Jo: Was this the hockey romance that really hit at the right time? Jeff: You know, I wish I could have capitalised more on Heated Rivalry when it came out, but I did get hockey books out, and I think I did get to ride that wave a little bit there too. Jo: Yes, and if people don't know about that, that was a super popular streaming series. Was that based on a book? Jeff: It was, yes. Rachel Reid was the author of that book and that series that then Jacob Tierney optioned and made into what fairly turned into a global phenomenon at the end of 2025. Jo: Yes, absolutely. Although I particularly liked Red, White and Royal Blue. That was the one I liked. Not so much into hockey. But anyway, I just wanted to ask you about the Big Gay Fiction Podcast. As you say, you did hundreds of episodes over many years. You and I met over podcasting. You've had lots of connections with people. You ended it, and I know you struggled with ending it, but it sounds like it went really well for you. So maybe you could talk a bit about— How do you know when it's time to end something—a good thing rather than something bad? Does that make more space for writing, essentially? Jeff: It absolutely did make more space for writing for both of us, in particular for me because I have a day job. I balance everything on the creative side with the day job. Will and I had been talking about it for over a year. It just was like, it's really time. After nine years, getting to that 470 mark, we thought about trying to get to 10 years and we thought about, if not 10, then getting to 500 and ending on a milestone. As we looked at everything in our creative business, it was like, this is fun, we enjoy it, but we're not getting as much out of it as we might be if we were actually also writing books, which we also really want to do. It became a time thing and what was the best use of the time. We absolutely miss it occasionally. The whole Heated Rivalry thing, I would've loved to have had episodes to talk about that on, but in the long run, it was worth it. Jo: I mean, one of the things with a podcast, particularly around fiction, was that it was a marketing angle for your fiction. This show is a marketing angle mainly for my nonfiction. So what did you replace the podcast with, in terms of book marketing? Jeff: It was really stepped-up email marketing. I'd always had a list. Will started a list, of course, as he started his new pen name. So it was really turning on that, focusing on that, getting some email marketing with a Bargain Booksy and a Fussy Librarian and a BookBub occasionally to do that work. To be honest, even though we covered things in our genre that if you like what we're talking about, you should like our books, there was never as much of a connection there as you'd want there to be. Even from that book marketing angle, these other things that we can do, it's also a better spend of the money to get those types of promos than it was to continue running the show. Jo: Yes, that is interesting. I mean, obviously I think about podcasting a lot since I have this one, and I put Books and Travel on a hiatus and that was meant to help my fiction and definitely didn't help my fiction sales. But I want to bring it back again because I love doing it. Do you have this hankering sometimes? Do you think you'd ever do the podcast again? Because you are also quite into all the technical stuff and all that. Jeff: It's possible. I've toyed with the idea of doing a short accessibility podcast geared towards creatives, tilting to the same audience that Content for Everyone does. Then I come back and look at the time—is my time better served writing new fiction or perhaps starting a Substack, which I also toy with the idea of, for accessibility stuff? So it bounces around in my head to do another show, but I haven't really decided to jump on that yet. Jo: Yes, and I think that waiting is really good. As you say, you quit a big thing and you don't have to rush to fill it again. I love that you guys are writing more books. So I wanted us to talk about that up front because I know people who listen to this show—I encourage people to start podcasts if you want to, but equally it can take a lot of time. So that's fantastic. Now, you mentioned accessibility, and I feel like the word can be quite difficult for people. So let's just start with a definition. What is accessibility? Why do you care and why should we care? Jeff: So accessibility is really about making sure that whatever the thing is, whether it's something out in the physical world or in the online world, that everybody has access to it. Access to the information, access to getting into a building or being able to cross the street appropriately, whatever that is—that the accessibility of the thing is high. So that regardless of who is approaching it, they can interact with whatever the thing is. If we put that into the digital world, it's about making sure that text on a screen can be perceived by anybody, whether they're trying to read it visually or if they're trying to read it through a screen reader or through a braille monitor. Whatever that is, they need to be able to interact with it, get the information they need, do all the functions of whatever it is on the screen. Check out on Amazon, check out at their favourite e-commerce place, be able to get the products in their cart, check out, et cetera. For creatives, it's about the things that we do: the websites that we build for ourselves, the e-commerce platforms that we use, our email marketing, our social media posts. Making all of that as accessible as we can so that we're not perhaps missing a part of our audience or our prospective audience from being able to engage with our work and in turn, hopefully, buy our books and enjoy our books and become a fan. This became important to me because of my day job. I hadn't really considered this—like, I think most people don't—until I started working at UsableNet. It's going to be 15 years I've been at that company come this autumn, and I really started to see the impacts because UsableNet is all about accessibility on the digital front. I really started to learn, being a project manager for them, what all of that meant and how it impacted people who couldn't buy something online, couldn't book a hotel room, couldn't book an airline ticket. It just really became something I got passionate about. I ended up writing the book because I realised that nobody talks to creatives about this. Nobody tells the independent author what they should do to help make their digital stuff accessible so that they don't miss people. I never expected my day job to interact with my creative side so much, but this certainly has over the last few years. Jo: I mean, has it got better? Like we said, you were on here three years ago. We did talk about some of the things around EPUB formats and taking off DRM and what we need to do on our websites—labelling images, for example, and that kind of thing. Do you think accessibility has gotten better? Jeff: I think the awareness of it has improved, both within the creative community and in the broader web ecosphere, that the awareness is better. There's so much knowledge that needs to go into creating something that is accessible. Sometimes there's so much that you have to think about with colours and alt tags on images and all the little bits and pieces, if it doesn't really come to muscle memory, it's easy for it to fall off. There's a survey that's done by WebAIM every year about the top one million homepages out in the universe, and they surveyed those for just the things that an automated scan can detect, which is a small portion of overall accessibility, and the number of errors across that top million actually ticked up this year. Even though there's all these laws around the world—people get sued all the time in the US—the number of errors ticked up for the first time in a few years. So I think the awareness is up, but I think being able to take action on it and make the time to take action on it isn't where it needs to be. Jo: So last time you gave us all those tips. I'll refer people back to that and also to your book Content for Everyone, which has got loads of great stuff in. I wanted to talk to you for this show because I was sitting watching Claude Cowork—now I use Claude Code a lot more—but updating 140 titles on IngramSpark, where me clicking things and there's like 15 clicks per record on IngramSpark updates for pricing, is an absolute nightmare. I was watching the AI do the work and I realised this isn't just saving me time, it's actually saving my wrist and my arm from repetitive strain injury. That's when I thought about this accessibility thing. As you mentioned, for example being physically accessible into a building, say someone's in a wheelchair, they can't necessarily get into a building if there's no ramp. I was thinking that for many years, being an indie author, being a writer online, there's also been these physical barriers because there's a lot of plumbing and clicking for us. So I wondered, starting with an attitude around a shift in who this is opening up to— How is AI starting to help people with these accessibility issues? Jeff: Yes, there's so much opportunity around this. We should note, just to timestamp this, that we're talking on 14th April 2026, because who knows what will change, even in an hour from now. I think Cowork was one of the first things that we saw, and that's only been out since the very top of this year. Being able to do actual agentic tasks. Other things have sort of gotten there, but Cowork really opened it up. You mentioned the repetitive stress that you would've had clicking all of those forms on IngramSpark across 140 books. But there's that type of stress, chronic pain, cognitive drain for somebody who may have some cognitive disability and trying to work through that form. The cognitive energy just might drain out and maybe knock them out for several days after trying to get through that, or the tasks take them multiple days to do. Someone who has lower vision, someone who's trying to work through that form with a screen reader—all of that draws energy, draws focus. Now we've got something where, with plain language, we could say something like: here's all my pricing information, I've logged into IngramSpark, go update these books. Obviously the prompt's going to be a little more than that, but in broad terms, that's what we're going to tell it. Jo: Hmm. Jeff: And being able to have it go through and do the thing. If it gets stuck, have it come back and say, “Hey, I've got trouble with this. Please help me.” That can just free up so much of the drains that people can have—the things that can take them out of doing the part of the work that they need to do for an author business. They can go write the book through whatever process you're going to use to do that, rather than getting caught up in something like having to update all those books on IngramSpark. Jo: You mentioned writing the book there. I have this real sense of being an able-bodied indie author in terms of my computer use and my ability to write a whole book, a 70,000-word thriller that I write regularly. We're all special in some way, but I do have a reasonably normal brain where I can do this work without too much strain. It's hard work, but I can do it. I meet people who are now using AI to help them write, to help them organise their work—maybe someone has dyslexia or ADHD or cognitive issues or pain—there's just so many things that I take for granted that don't affect me. I hear from people who, at this point in time in the community, are almost shamed for using AI to write. So I wanted to bring this up to discuss it under the terms of accessibility. Do you have any thoughts on that? Jeff: I have real difficulty with people who will say anything in the broad range of, “I don't need to use this thing, and therefore you should not either.” Which is adjacent to indie anti-AI speak that there is out there. Certainly we're living right now at probably the highest point that it's ever been, where more and more there's a sentiment towards not using AI for whatever the reason is. I totally respect that people can have concerns about the environment and about energy use and water use, et cetera. Not to mention all the other things that are on the more difficult side of AI. To shame someone who may not be able to put their story out there without the use of that AI, whichever one they're using, or to shame them because they're using AI to run part of their business—updating IngramSpark, doing other things like that—I think it can come down to there being some ableism there. Ther is some privilege behind that too, where they're just like, “I don't need this, and you shouldn't have it either.” I want to give people just a sliver of an idea of what this can mean for someone who is disabled and what AI can unlock for them. There is a person on LinkedIn that I follow whose name is Hannah Desmond. She's an ADHD coach and a former software developer, and very recently she posted this on LinkedIn. This is a paraphrase of what she said, but: having something that can meet you where you are and help you bridge that gap is what I think I have found so helpful about using AI. Here's what I keep coming back to. Without that support, I wasn't more motivated or more capable. I was just stuck. That's the bit that gets lost. We've been taught that struggling is how you know you're doing it properly. So when something reduces the struggle, it can feel wrong—even when it's the thing that actually makes the work possible. Because there's a difference between avoiding thinking and being able to think at all. I think that rounds it up. She's talking about her time as a software developer, but you can apply that to any realm of AI when we're thinking about trying to shame someone for why they may be using it. We may not know that they have a disability because we don't always share that part of ourselves. So I really feel strongly about that and how we are in this culture of shame. Jo: Yes. It drives me up the wall, actually. But I will also say: you don't have to have a disability or accessibility issues in order to use AI in whatever way you personally decide is okay—talking to the listeners now. I think Orna Ross from the Alliance of Independent Authors says it well, which is you should have your own AI policy. So you personally decide where your lines are, how it helps you, what you want to keep for you, and what you want help with. I was also thinking in terms of accessibility around money. Again, for many of us, professional cover design, professional editing, professional human-level translation, these are things that are pretty pricey for many people. So again, this makes it more accessible. One of the reasons we got into the indie way and being indie authors was to try and remove the barriers to entry to people who have been excluded from the environment of publishing. So, yes, it is really hard to talk about this, and yet that's why I wanted to talk about it, because— There's so many variables for each individual and there's no situation that's the same, really, is there? Jeff: No, not at all. The things that I may need to do my work in the most efficient way possible is different from the way that you're going to work, is different than the way my husband's going to work, is different than every other person and the way that they're going to work. Which is why any kind of blanket statement about “I don't need something and therefore you shouldn't need it either” can just be so problematic, because we have no idea what someone else is going through. Either it's a permanent part of their lives or maybe it's something that is happening temporarily with them where they might need to leverage other tools. Jo: Yes. Talking about that temporary, I think I really got the first sense of this when I had COVID the first time, which was really bad. I remember I was so sick, the only thing I could do was listen to an audiobook. I couldn't think, I couldn't read. It was really probably months of not having my brain back. Then the other thing that's happened as I age, as women age, is menopause kicks in and the brain fog is a real thing. I've heard from other people too who've said having Claude or whoever, an AI tool, to help with the brain fog is so important because otherwise I just wouldn't be able to gather my thoughts. Again, as you said— Even if we don't need these things now, it's quite likely we're going to need them at some point, given ageing, given the potential for injury and disease. I mean, we don't escape this alive, do we? Jeff: Yes, that's a great point because unless we're extremely lucky as individuals, we're all likely to have some sort of a disability in our lives at some point. I know for me, as I age and my eyes get more and more tired after being in front of a screen all day for work, and then whatever creative stuff I do in the afternoon on a book—when it comes near bedtime and I do want to read, I probably want to do that with an audiobook, much more audio, especially for any long reading project. That can also be like, if I have a long document or a long article to read, I am likely to give it to ElevenReader, let it load itself up, and then listen to it, because I take the information in better than trying to follow words across a screen. Jo: Yes. Jonathan, my husband, now also listens to a lot of academic papers on ElevenReader. Most of us will know it as where we publish some audiobooks from ElevenLabs, or you can also publish other things there. So it is super useful to think about what we can do with ElevenReader. Another thing that I found really useful recently is NotebookLM. On NotebookLM, there is a free tier. You can put various things in there and then create a custom audio. So this is something I've been doing as part of research. You can put in, say, 10 YouTube videos or some PDFs or your book or whatever, and then you can create a custom audio. Then I'll go for a walk and I'll listen to the custom audio, and then I'll go back and look at the detail of what it was. It gives me the framework of whatever I'm thinking about on a broader level, and then I can come back to the details. So again, it's this multimodal approach that can help us manage our energy, I guess. Jeff: And it's all about the managing of the energy, I think, too. That is a great way to think about the accessibility of it all. You mentioned a great use there for NotebookLM. That could also be putting your book in there and having it help you build a world bible or something like that. Or building marketing materials off of that. There's a lot of things now that NotebookLM can do in terms of helping you create FAQs maybe for a newsletter or for your website, and building video stuff off of the material that it has. So there's a lot of options there, and ever-growing options that can be useful for someone to manage any number of the things that they may need in their creative business. Jo: Yes. In fact, talking about Claude, there are a lot of Claude plugins now, skills and integrations. Shopify just released a Claude plugin and many of us now have Shopify stores. I have a lot of products with a lot of different variations and the metadata. There's so much metadata. And again, I'm just so pleased now that I can work with Cowork and get it to actually update directly into Shopify. In fact, coming back, you mentioned updating alt tags earlier. That's something again that AI could help you update—the back list of your alt tags on a website. I've now got my Cowork doing EPUBs so I could finally update all my EPUBs with back matter and all of this kind of thing. So I feel like perhaps we could go beyond accessibility to talk about amplification. All the things that we didn't do because it was too tiring and we just couldn't be bothered, or it would just be way too much work, that now it's opened up as a possibility because of these tools. Jeff: Absolutely. I mean, you look at a backlist as large as yours and the things that you're now able to do. I didn't know that Claude had a Shopify plugin. So the abilities that we have now to maybe do things in the business that we hadn't before. One of the things I've been working with Claude on is rewriting my website and creating a more proper website for Will. I'm really making sure that it is not only SEO prepared but also GEO prepared, with all the metadata and all the backend code schema that it needs so that LLMs can find me, can understand what I do, can understand the books, branch out to the other areas that it needs to. Doing that through WordPress would've been so much more difficult, even with Claude, that to be able to rewrite the site in a way that is going to let me manage it better so that I will do it on a more consistent basis. Whatever that thing is, we're now able to do these things. That could be updating keywords in Amazon or making sure we're aligned across all of the sales platforms that we might be on and things like that, that Claude can do and do well. Jo: Yes, I think marketing is just the killer app really for people, isn't it? I think most authors do not enjoy marketing. I find Claude better for creative work, for strategic work, for doing work through Cowork or Code, but— ChatGPT with marketing copy is very, very good. So I've actually been using that as we record this. I've got a Kickstarter launching next week, so I've been getting it to do ad copy and social media copy and all that kind of thing. This is stuff when you have to produce—give me 20 taglines, give me 20 hooks, give me another 20 and another 20. I mean, we just cannot do it as humans, right? Jeff: Yes, I have found GPT wildly helpful. I mentioned trying to get Bargain Booksy and Fussy Librarian promos. Jo: Mm. Jeff: And you have to give it the marketing hook, and it can't just be the blurb that's on Amazon—it's got to be something fresh, and they each have slightly different requirements. Having GPT—here's the blurb, give me a dozen different options—and then I may take pieces of all of them and create one of my own. But it reworks that much faster than my brain was ever going to try to find the right thing I want to give to Bargain Booksy. Jo: Yes, you are right. Or it says write this in 300 characters or less. Jeff: Yes. Jo: I do exactly the same. That kind of transformative work can be really good. In fact, there was somebody I know who has been rampantly anti-AI for years and then said, “Would this help me? I have to do a synopsis for an agent, so I've got this 100,000-word book and it needs to be a 10-page synopsis. How would I do that with AI?” So I was encouraging her to take each chapter and ask it to summarise the chapter, and of course read through it and everything. But I mean, doing a synopsis once you've actually written a book—that can be super useful. So I think what we're saying is— There are levels of need in terms of both the author and the audience. Then there are levels of your personal use from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of how far you want to go in every area of the business. And in that way, it's just different for everyone. Jeff: Yes, and I think getting to that mindset shift that we were talking about a little bit—it can be so easy to dip your toes in. That one author came to you and said, “Do you think it could do this?” And I think that's the beginning exploratory area for perhaps anyone. People are going to hear us talk about this and it might inspire them to go try something that we've talked about. But these things, whether it's Claude or GPT or Gemini or whichever one it is, you can come to it and say, “I'm an author, I have X, Y, Z going on in my life”—whether that's a disability, whether that's a time constraint because you have a day job and maybe you have kids and a family that need your attention—”I have these time constraints, I want to do X, Y, and Z in my business. How can you help me with that?” It's going to tell you what it can do to help you with that. I would even say, if you have the ability to have multiples of these, you could ask the same question to GPT and Claude, and they're going to give you similar answers in some instances, but they may also have different ones because of the abilities that the different platforms have around these things as well. That can help you make that mindset shift of, “Well, now I see that it can do that. Could it also do this?” And then ask it if it could do that. Because I know for me, Jo, I've taken so much from you and your journey with Cowork that it's like, “Oh, she did that. I wonder if I could do this.” And all of that piles on top of itself. Then eventually I think your brain starts to think on its own, “Oh, I have to do this task. Can Claude maybe do this for me? Let's go find out.” Jo: Yes, and if it couldn't do it for you yesterday, you never know, it might be able to do it tomorrow. Jeff: Right? Because I haven't tested yet its new ability to actually use your computer. Jo: Mm. Jeff: And I'm curious what that might open up. Because one of the things that I've seen that I wish it would do is be able to take the EPUB that's on my drive and actually put it into a platform I'm trying to upload to. Cowork on its own hasn't been able to cross that barrier, but I wonder if with computer use added to that, if it could. Like, “here's the EPUB, upload that over there,” be able to pick it from the file picker, essentially. Jo: Yes. I think, well, a little tip for everyone: I wouldn't give access to your entire file system to the AI. Jeff: That's a good point too. Jo: Yes. I have a Claude folder in my drive and it only has access there. So if you put files in that drive, it might be able to do that. But I know what you mean. I have been using it to help me publish things in German on KDP. Now I can use the browser, so you can actually do that. In terms of uploading the actual file, I know what you mean. These things will change. As we record this, again middle of April, we are almost about to get the next models being Mythos, which might be Claude 4.7 Opus, or also ChatGPT has a new model coming, and these models are getting very powerful. With every shift they can do more things. So as you say, the very first thing to do is ask it, “I want to do this—what are my options?” And some of them, for example, doing an AI-narrated audiobook, ChatGPT and Claude don't do that. You want ElevenLabs or one of the other services for that, but they can tell you what your options are. So that's one thing, but I wondered if you have any thoughts on the gaps that you are seeing. You mentioned one there around file uploads, but— What do you hope might come and some of the things that might be exciting if they arrive? Because you never know, they might be here already. Jeff: There's certainly some movement in some areas. One of the things I'll share is, in March I was at the 2026 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference—CSUN is California State University, Northridge—and they've run this conference for some 40 years now. One of the sessions I went to was from Tara Maisel—I hope I'm pronouncing her last name right. She's a senior project manager in books accessibility at Amazon, and she was doing a session specifically on readability. She had all kinds of statistics and information about what goes into making something readable. One of the things she talked about with AI was the future of personalised reading. If you think about the Kindle app, for example, there's a lot of settings you can make there—font size, colours, brightness, text spacing. There's a lot of tools in there. She was pointing out that potentially readers don't even know what they actually need for the optimised visual reading experience. She sees a world where AI can perhaps do an analysis of your reading behaviour and then help you find the optimal settings. Maybe even multiple optimal settings for, say, if you were reading in a room that had daylight versus at bedtime, and the ways you might shift it. I was almost thinking of this like when you're at the optometrist and they're like, “Which lens is better—this one or that one?” Jo: Oh, sometimes that is very hard. Jeff: Yes. It's that AI could step you through that a little bit to help you find that optimal reading experience in that moment. And then it might even notice, potentially, if you're changing something in the way that you're moving through a page, that it might flag to say, “Hey, do we need to adjust something?” Some other areas that I think are really exciting, for everyone and perhaps particularly for people who are disabled and needing the support of some assistive technology, is what we're seeing in the browsers. OpenAI's Operator has been out for quite a while now, since sometime I think autumn of last year. Perplexity Comet has been around even longer. Then we've got browser extensions from Gemini and Claude that are available, that can let you just type natural language. You know, “Please go find for me jeans in this size that are on sale on this website. Find me the best price for blue jeans on this site and this size,” and it'll just go do it. Which can certainly speed things up for people in the disabled community to find things quickly, to spend time navigating less, and maybe ending up with the AI coming back and saying, “I found these five things. Which one would you like me to buy for you?” Or, “I found this one thing that you do need and it's waiting for you in your shopping cart.” The ability for that on the horizon is an amazing jump from an accessibility point of view. But really it's one of those things that accessibility will then help everyone because we can all just shop that way, if we choose to. These are early days for these browsers and these extensions. The other side of it comes back to basic web accessibility too, because I've seen these types of activities not work so well on a site that may not actually be accessible on its own. A great example is something I ran into with Claude Cowork about a month ago. I was testing to see if it could help me navigate and get things uploaded together for a site where I wanted to upload books, knowing again that it's not going to upload the actual file, but it could fill in the metadata from my master database of metadata stuff. There were areas on the site that it actually couldn't hit the button, because the site itself was also not functional to a screen reader. So there are gaps there. It's early days, but I really see that as an interesting future that'll really help people with disabilities—but again, help everybody too, just manage time better. Jo: I know exactly what you mean there. I've done some collaborative work with Claude Code when it's like, “I can't click the button,” and I'm like, well, I'll click the button—you fill in everything else. Jeff: Exactly. Jo: It's actually quite a funny situation. But goodness, coming back to IngramSpark again—these things need APIs. We need better functions. It's funny because I think a lot of traditional publishers have these APIs or backend upload things that you can do. I'm like, well, we need to get to that with these systems. But I think things will change. Another thing that I think has also shifted is the use of voice. Voice for dictation—it used to be with dictation that you would have to say “comma,” “open quote,” “new line,” and all of that. And you'd also have to make sense. Whereas now I feel like you can just dictate a whole load of things to these AIs and then say, “Tidy that up,” and they will do a lot more than the old situation. So I think voice will also help. Also automatic translation. I don't know if you know this about X, and if you're on X anymore, but just this week they've made it multi-language. So I can read tweets by people who've posted in another language in English. I can read something from Korean or read something that someone French has posted and it gets translated. It has made a huge difference to the content I'm seeing, which is fascinating because I don't think we've ever had this kind of automatic “everything is translated into your language” situation. It's really got me thinking about how [automatic translation] might work for eBooks or other things if the rights are there. I don't know. Have you seen stuff like that? Jeff: There's so much available now with voice and the ability to not have to speak all the other stuff that went with it—comma, full stop, next line. It was a little mind-bending sometimes, trying to think about quote marks and all that stuff. And now it's so good. Different platforms do it to different degrees of ability. Even being able to speak your prompts into the very platforms themselves without having to type all of it. Chronic pain comes to mind, any kind of mobility thing—all the typing would be a drain or maybe even impossible. So the voice ability is so powerful there and unlocks more things. At the same time, those translation abilities—I believe AirPods now have the ability, if you've got the right stuff on your phone, that you could be talking to somebody, they may speak back to you in a language you don't speak, but your AirPods will give it to you in your language. Jo: Hmm. Jeff: Google has, I believe, a live captioning app that you can use. I think there's even a split screen—I don't know if that's available now or something in their future—where you could put the phone on the table and tell it who's looking at what side of the screen, and it'll put the language that I need on my side and the language the other person needs on the other. So there continues to be such a shift in how we're being able to translate stuff that really opens up communication and can open up our books to so many more people. I'm very interested to see—I haven't pulled the trigger on this yet—but how Amazon's auto-translation rolls out and how that's received in terms of the accessibility around our books and being able to put it in someone's hands who doesn't speak—I think it's only English to other languages right now—but who doesn't speak the language it was written in but wants to read that book. We could never, as indies, or really even big five publishers, wouldn't have the money to create custom translations everywhere. But if the AI can help do that and spread those books around so that everybody could have the story they want to read, I think that's such a win for the reading audience. Jo: Yes, I think it's so exciting to think what might be coming, and that's what I want to stay on the side of on the AI discussion. There's enough negativity out there and you can get that information somewhere else, but for me I want us to stay on the positive side of how this helps both the author and the reader. And hopefully the community, to create more and read more and enjoy being human more. Right? Because I find that I do get out more and listen to stuff, or I'm out walking instead of at my desk, and I mean, that's what it's about. I'm pretty excited about the future. How about you? Jeff: I am. I think there are, quite honestly, some scary things that could be out there in the future. I mean, there's been a lot of talk about what Mythos is capable of. But on the other side of it, there are all these advances. I also look back at Google and AlphaFold and what DeepMind was able to do there for science. There's more of that stuff out there, and individually for each of us, spending a little bit of time—and I do have to say, I think you need to spend time on a paid plan because the free stuff doesn't give you the idea of what these platforms are actually capable of. So if you only drop in, even briefly, to experiment on one of the $20-a-month plans and give it your situation, ask it what it can do for you, I think you'll see where, on a personal level, AI will help you unlock some things. It can help you move some things to the next level in your business that for whatever reason you haven't been able to do. You don't have to use it for everything. You may decide that it's still not for you for whatever reason, and that's fine. But I think there's so much to explore here and to let your curiosity run for a little bit to see what's possible and what you might unlock with it. Jo: Brilliant. So where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? Jeff: So pretty much everything lives at JeffAdamsWrites.com. Jo: Well, thanks so much for your time, Jeff. That was great. Jeff: I loved it, Jo. Thanks for having me..The post Accessibility And AI: How New Tools Are Opening Doors For Indie Authors With Jeff Adams first appeared on The Creative Penn.

In dieser Folge sprechen Flo und Nadine über Kapitel 8 und 9 von Heated Rivalry aus der Game Changer Reihe von Rachel Reid und endlich wird's emotional. Zwischen Rookie Awards, Las Vegas, heimlichen Küssen und peinlich ehrlichem Sexting merken Shane und Ilya langsam, dass da längst mehr zwischen ihnen ist als Konkurrenz. Außerdem reden Flo und Nadine über Fußballhass, Las Vegas Vibes, rote Haare, Anne of Green Gables, Pushy Sporteltern und warum Fast and Furious vielleicht die wildeste Filmreihe aller Zeiten ist. Eine Folge voller Chaos, Gefühle und ganz großer Slow Burn Liebe.Hier geht es zu unserem Discord-BuchclubHier könnt ihr uns über Steady unterstützen: Bei Steady unterstützenHier geht es zu Nadines Youtubekanal: Aus Liebe zum BuchGame Changer (Band 1): https://tidd.ly/4aTNygu (Werbung/Afiiliate)Heated Rivalry (Band 2) https://tidd.ly/4ptXlxd (Werbung/Afiiliate)Tough Guy (Band 3) https://tidd.ly/4l4NNrR (Werbung/Afiliate)Common Goal (Band 4) https://tidd.ly/4l9WCkw (Werbung Afiliate)Role Model (Band 5) https://tidd.ly/4aU34Zr (Werbung Afiliate)The Long Game (Band 6) https://tidd.ly/4sv4LlH (Werbung Afiliate)Zitronenkind: https://tidd.ly/4mXc3xa (Werbung/Affiliate) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Judge John Hodgman and Bailiff Jesse Thorn are clearing the docket this week with guest star Rachel Reid, author of the Game Changers romance novel series that spawned the viral television sensation, HEATED RIVALRY!  Rachel joins us in passing judgement on all things romance-tok, like: what's a better trope, friends to lovers or enemies to lovers? What's the weirdest romance-novel trope she's ever read? And what's a good entry-level romance novel to convince your judgemental book group? Also, Rachel shares what it was like to “come out” as a romance novelist to her parents, her favorite young adult book series (hint: it was for kids who love responsibility), and which famous major-league hockey players have brought up HEATED RIVALRY to her in real life. Plus: a sneak preview of the next book in her Game Changers series!  NIGHT COURT is coming to the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA on June 11th! To suggest a title for a future episode, keep an eye on the Maximum Fun subreddit at reddit.com/r/maximumfun! Have a dispute that you can't settle? No dispute is too small for the honorable Judge John Hodgman and Bailiff Jesse Thorn! Submit your cases directly to the court at: maximumfun.org/jjho Judge John Hodgman is member-supported! Become a member to unlock special bonus episodes and more. Memberships start at just $5 a month. Just tap here!

Canadian author Rachel Reid talks to us about the the phenomenon which has followed the publication of her books about the romantic relationship between rival ice hockey players.We speak to author Yang Shuang-zi and translator Lin King, the author and translator of this year's International Booker Prize winning book, Taiwan Travelogue. And Mull Historical Society's latest album In My Mind There's A Photograph sees singer-songwriter Colin Macintyre work with lyrical contributions from a panoply of world-leading authors. He reveals his collaborative process with the likes of Irvine Welsh, Ali Smith, Irenosen Okojie, Yiyun Lee, and Sir Alexander McCall Smith, and performs a track live in the Front Row studio. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

« Niais », « sexiste », « mal écrit », abêtissant... les critiques à l'égard de la romance sont souvent virulentes. On aime mépriser ces histoires d'amour qui finissent toujours bien et railler au passage leurs lectrices ou spectatrices. Car si les hommes ont souvent un rôle important dans l'intrigue, les romances, en version papier ou filmée, sont principalement consommées par les femmes. Le genre est donc mal vu mais n'en est pas moins populaire. La romance booste carrément le secteur de l'édition. Selon l'institut Gfk, 12 millions d'exemplaires de livres catégorisés « romance » ont été vendus en France en 2024, pour un chiffre d'affaires estimé à 165 millions d'euros. Et parmi les auteurs internationaux les plus connus du genre, on retrouve Emily Henry, Ali Hazelwood, Morgane Moncomble, Sarah Rivens, Azra Reed, Kentin Jarno et Rachel Reid. Largement portée par les réseaux sociaux et des communautés comme BookTok, la romance s'est largement diversifiée depuis l'âge d'or des Harlequins pour toucher une autre génération de lectrices. « Romantasy », « dark romance », « new romance »,... le genre se réinvente et sort des clichés du roman à l'eau de rose.   Après le mouvement MeToo qui a requestionné les rapports hommes-femmes, comment expliquer le succès grandissant de la romance ? Amour, sexualité, pouvoir, que racontent ces histoires sur nos sociétés ? Et pourquoi les hommes sont si peu à en lire ou en regarder ?   Avec : • Christine Van Geen, professeure de philosophie à Rennes et autrice de Love Stories – Pourquoi les romances nous font du bien (Les arène, 2026) • Grâce Minlibé, écrivaine, blogueuse ivoirienne, autrice de Tristesse au paradis (Vallesse Éditions).   En fin d'émission, la chronique Voisins connectés d'Estelle Ndjandjo sur l'évolution des sociétés africaines mondialisées à travers les écrans, les réseaux sociaux et la technologie.  Dans ce nouvel épisode, Estelle nous parle d'amour ou plutôt d'une émission de rencontres en ligne qui fait beaucoup parler d'elle. Elle s'appelle Pop the Balloon — « éclatez le ballon » en français — un concept afro-américain qui s'exporte désormais en Afrique.  Programmation musicale :  ► Mais je t'aime - Grand Corps Malade, Camille Lellouche  ►  Mi-Amor - Ssaru, Trio Mio. 

« Niais », « sexiste », « mal écrit », abêtissant... les critiques à l'égard de la romance sont souvent virulentes. On aime mépriser ces histoires d'amour qui finissent toujours bien et railler au passage leurs lectrices ou spectatrices. Car si les hommes ont souvent un rôle important dans l'intrigue, les romances, en version papier ou filmée, sont principalement consommées par les femmes. Le genre est donc mal vu mais n'en est pas moins populaire. La romance booste carrément le secteur de l'édition. Selon l'institut Gfk, 12 millions d'exemplaires de livres catégorisés « romance » ont été vendus en France en 2024, pour un chiffre d'affaires estimé à 165 millions d'euros. Et parmi les auteurs internationaux les plus connus du genre, on retrouve Emily Henry, Ali Hazelwood, Morgane Moncomble, Sarah Rivens, Azra Reed, Kentin Jarno et Rachel Reid. Largement portée par les réseaux sociaux et des communautés comme BookTok, la romance s'est largement diversifiée depuis l'âge d'or des Harlequins pour toucher une autre génération de lectrices. « Romantasy », « dark romance », « new romance »,... le genre se réinvente et sort des clichés du roman à l'eau de rose.   Après le mouvement MeToo qui a requestionné les rapports hommes-femmes, comment expliquer le succès grandissant de la romance ? Amour, sexualité, pouvoir, que racontent ces histoires sur nos sociétés ? Et pourquoi les hommes sont si peu à en lire ou en regarder ?   Avec : • Christine Van Geen, professeure de philosophie à Rennes et autrice de Love Stories – Pourquoi les romances nous font du bien (Les arène, 2026) • Grâce Minlibé, écrivaine, blogueuse ivoirienne, autrice de Tristesse au paradis (Vallesse Éditions).   En fin d'émission, la chronique Voisins connectés d'Estelle Ndjandjo sur l'évolution des sociétés africaines mondialisées à travers les écrans, les réseaux sociaux et la technologie.  Dans ce nouvel épisode, Estelle nous parle d'amour ou plutôt d'une émission de rencontres en ligne qui fait beaucoup parler d'elle. Elle s'appelle Pop the Balloon — « éclatez le ballon » en français — un concept afro-américain qui s'exporte désormais en Afrique.  Programmation musicale :  ► Mais je t'aime - Grand Corps Malade, Camille Lellouche  ►  Mi-Amor - Ssaru, Trio Mio. 

Author Rachel Reid (Heated Rivalry) joins Nicole to chat about the wild, viral success of her steamy queer romance novels and the hit TV adaptation. She shares how she met her husband while performing a smelly, hockey-themed burlesque act, and the dynamic that keeps their 20-year one sided open marriage working for them. She discusses the creative process behind writing explicit romance between men, and exactly why she absolutely does not want to hear your glowing reviews of her work. Plus, Rachel opens up about navigating her recent Parkinson's diagnosis.Watch this episode on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWontYouDateMePodcastTake our listener survey and shape the future of the podcast!Support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:• FirstLeaf: Get personalized wines, delivered. Head to TryFirstleaf.com/DATEME to sign up and you'll get 50% off your first box PLUS free shipping for an entire year• Wayfair: Get prepped for patio season for way less. Head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.Follow:All Links: linktr.ee/whywontyoudatemeTour Dates: linktr.ee/nicolebyerwastakenYouTube: @WhyWontYouDateMePodcastTikTok: @whywontyoudatemepod Instagram: @nicolebyerX: @nicolebyerThis is a Headgum podcast. Advertise on Why Won't You Date Me? via Gumball.fm.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Flo und Nadine tauchen diesmal in die Kapitel 6 und 7 von Heated Rivalry aus der Game Changer-Reihe von Rachel Reid ein. Das erste große Aufeinandertreffen von Shane und Ilya steht an und die Spannung ist kaum auszuhalten. Während Ilya gewohnt selbstsicher auftritt, zerdenkt Shane wirklich alles. Vom Hotelzimmer über seine eigenen Gefühle bis zur Frage, warum ihn dieser russische Hockeyspieler so komplett aus dem Konzept bringt. Flo und Nadine sprechen über nervöse Anziehung, ikonische Dialoge und warum diese Begegnung für die Dynamik der beiden so entscheidend ist. Nebenbei geht es auch um Podcaststress, rote Augen und die große Frage, warum Ilya eigentlich immer so verdammt cool bleibt.Hier geht es zu unserem Discord-BuchclubHier könnt ihr uns über Steady unterstützen: Bei Steady unterstützenHier geht es zu Nadines Youtubekanal: Aus Liebe zum BuchGame Changer (Band 1): https://tidd.ly/4aTNygu (Werbung/Afiiliate)Heated Rivalry (Band 2) https://tidd.ly/4ptXlxd (Werbung/Afiiliate)Tough Guy (Band 3) https://tidd.ly/4l4NNrR (Werbung/Afiliate)Common Goal (Band 4) https://tidd.ly/4l9WCkw (Werbung Afiliate)Role Model (Band 5) https://tidd.ly/4aU34Zr (Werbung Afiliate)The Long Game (Band 6) https://tidd.ly/4sv4LlH (Werbung Afiliate)Zitronenkind: https://tidd.ly/4mXc3xa (Werbung/Affiliate) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Radio 831, where hosts Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall share their romance origin stories and make the case for why romance is fiction's most underestimated genre. Then they sit down with Jen Prokop, co-host of the Fated Mates podcast, to break down what actually makes a romance a romance: the HEA, the theory of change, the unspoken rule that love has to make you better. Plus: what our hosts can’t wait to read and watch this summer. Sanjana Basker’s romance origin story: period pieces and Lisa Kleypas’s historical romances. Tyler McCall’s romance origin story: The Idea of You by Robinne Lee (and Harry Styles fanfic) and Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade (related: this Jezebel article). Four examples of romance at its best, from Jen Prokop, co-host of the Fated Mates podcast: The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn, Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, and Indigo and Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins. Summer releases Tyler and Sanj are hotly anticipating: Rivals Season 2 (May 15), Score by Kennedy Ryan (May 19), Just a Highland Fling by Naina Kamar (July 21), Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon (July 14), The Invite movie (June 26), I Want Your Sex movie (July 31).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 6, The Passing Winter, finds Benedict doubling down on his cottage solution, convinced he has found a way forward for himself and Sophie. Sophie, meanwhile, is forced to reckon with the practical consequences of their intimacy, and the two of them begin confronting what their future might actually require. Elsewhere, Penelope faces renewed pressure over Whistledown, Alice continues learning the realities of court life beside the Queen, and Anthony returns to London to dominate proceedings as the Bridgertons adjust to life with a new heir. Featuring: - Organisational queens - Several consecutive character spirals - Sibling rivalries - A lot of unwelcome reality checks - Cressida apologism - Unrecognised power imbalance - Kate apologism - Actual and metaphorical cross-class cosplay - Bridgertons always choose themselves - A bummer of an ending Here are is the media we talk about in this episode: - Bridgerton, a television series - An Offer from a Gentleman, a book by Julia Quinn - When He Was Wicked, a book by Julia Quinn - ‘A Husband for Fanny', included in Snowdrift and other Stories, a short story by Georgette Heyer - Heated Rivalry, a television series by Jacob Tierney - Married at First Sight, an Australian reality television series - The Beckham family feud - The ‘Firm', a description of the British Royal Family - Mean Girls, a film by Mark Waters - Romancing Mr Bridgerton, a book by Julia Quinn - ‘Just What I Needed', a song by The Cars - ‘Fields of Gold', a song by Sting - Jurassic Park: Rebirth, a film by Gareth Edwards - Gosford Park, a film by Robert Altman - Les Miserables, a novel by Victor Hugo - Schitt's Creek, a television series by Dan Levy and Eugene Levy Our guest host this episode is the luminous Mirandi Riwoe. You can hear more from Mirandi on instagram or read her beautiful novels. Mirandi has brought something for your (heaving) TBR pile: Check out The Mission House by Carys Davies on her recommendation! Mirandi also asked us for recommendations. We suggested Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, and The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton. We also talked about The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Don't forget you can find us on facebook @bridgertonpod and instagram and bluesky @wwddpod and join the conversation using the hashtag #WWDDpod. Please follow us on your favourite podcast provider! Leaving a 5-star rating and a review will not only help us find more listeners, but also keep you regular (iykyk). This episode was recorded on the traditional and unceded land of the Kaurna, Jagera, Turrbal, Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people. Our editor is Ben McKenzie of Splendid Chaps Productions. If you need production work completed, you can find them here: splendidchaps.com

KLAXON! KLAXON! It's the MaxFunDrive!  The best time of year for you to become a Maximum Fun member! Memberships start at just $5 a month, which gives you access to our entire library of bonus content. Our special MFD bonus episode this year is "Judge John Hodgman Gets the Munchies!" We tried some of our audience's favorite, if not creative and shocking, munchies. But, if we get 350 NEW members by the end of Friday, 4/24, John, Jesse, and Jennifer will eat one munchie that was too scary for us to contemplate: A Peanut Butter and Spicy Tuna sandwich. Join us now at maximumfun.org/joinjjho! And if you are already a member, THANK YOU FOR CONTINUING TO KEEP JJHO GOING! Blair and Kristen love to go camping in all of Utah's national parks. Blair will only use his special canvas tent. Kristen says his tent is lovely but it's too cumbersome. She wants to add a lightweight nylon tent to the rotation. But Blair says NO to nylon! He says it's his tent or he's going to TAKE A HIKE! Who's right? Who's wrong? Have a dispute that you can't settle? Are you a hockey lover, a book-tok lover, or just…a lover in general? We are gathering your most HEATED Rivalries slash disputes for a very special upcoming episode with guest Rachel Reid, author of Heated Rivalry and the book series the tv show is based on. We'll pass judgment on everything from hockey etiquette to your favorite literary smut (said with support and affection)! Submit your cases directly to the court at: maximumfun.org/jjho Judge John Hodgman is member-supported! Become a member to unlock special bonus episodes and more. Memberships start at just $5 a month. Just tap here!

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on 'Heated Rivalry' at this year's BookCon.

Buckle up, babes, we read 500 First Editions by Queen Maggie Gates this week! This is the final installment in the Romantics series and–spoiler alert–it might be her best book yet. Relationship coach Ryan Ford bets romance author Willow Winslet that he can make her fall in love with him in 12 weeks with his patented Ford Method. If he wins, she has to endorse his program. If she wins, he'll stop podcasting. Any bets who who'll win?SOS: Railed: A Why Cho-Cho-Choose Romance by Zane E. StoriUp Next: Penalty Play by Julia ConnorsWhat We're Reading:Cursed with Benefits by Roxie RayHeated Rivalry by Rachel Reid (re-Reid)Follow us on SpotifyWebsite: www.chicklitbookclubpodcast.comMerch: https://chicklitbookclubpodcast.threadless.com/TikTok: ChickLitBookClubInstagram and Threads: ChickLitBookClubPodcastPinterest: ChickLitBookClubPodcastBlueSky:@clbcpodcast.bsky.socialYoutube: @ChickLitBookClubEmail: chicklitbookclubpodcast@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tune in as Andrew (@_theinsomniaclibrary_) collaborates with the podcast for a discussion on Heated Rivalry, the 2019 queer sports romance novel by Rachel Reid that follows star hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov as their eponymous rivalry quickly and secretly turns into a years-long dynamic of spice and then love. Shane being autism-coded up the wazoo, comparisons between this book and the TV adaptation, the sex scenes being a necessary part of the story, and pushing back against the superficial jokes and bisexual erasure that have been aimed towards HR stand out as some of the talking points for this episode.TW: sexual content, homophobia, parental death, grief, chronic illness, alcohol, medical injury, suicide (in the past), drug abuse (in the past), and mention of pregnancySpoilers unofficially start for the TV show at 27:35 and then officially start for the book at 34:20Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastrHere's how you can learn more about Palestine and IsraelHere's how you can keep up-to-date on this genocideHere's how you can send eSIM cards to Palestinians in order to help them stay connected onlineGood Word:• Andrew: Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos• Arthur: Stranger by the LakeReach out at email2centscritic@yahoo.com if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, Letterboxd, and TikTok: @arthur_ant18Follow Arthur on Bluesky: @arthur-ant18Follow the podcast on Twitter: @two_centscriticFollow the podcast on Instagram: @twocentscriticpodFollow Arthur on GoodreadsCheck out 2 Cents Critic Linktree

This week we discuss:  00:00 The Coachella Firebirds Goalie Frenzy 04:34 Colorado Avalanche fans rally to name a whale after Parker Kelly 09:23 Michael Misa's got speed! 10:54 The San Jose Sharks flop against the Vancouver Canucks 15:55 Who will clinch the final playoff spots in the Western Conference? 21:01 These playoffs drought teams have clinched! 28:25 OOOoooOOOooo I'm Alex Wennberg! 30:52 The Utah Mammoth unveil the Zammoth 33:20 The San Jose Barracuda are headed to the Calder Cup Playoffs 34:29 Wedding celebration at an Ottawa Charge game 35:36 The PWHL release their Pride Collection 37:24 Connor Storrie in Look Behind You 45:55 Ottawa Senators invite Rachel Reid to their Pride game 47:34 Jey vs Maple Leafs fans 50:55 Sharks players react to Heated Rivalry 59:31 Heated Rivalry lookalike winners attend a PWHL game 1:03:10 Golden State Valkyries updates Partnership with www.thehockeypodcastnetwork.com  Sponsored by draftkings.com  Follow/subscribe to us at over_theglass on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Bluesky, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and wherever you get your podcasts!  Check out our website! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠overtheglasshockey.wordpress.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Love what we do? Share with a friend!  Or leave us a tip (if you're able)! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi.com/overtheglasshockey⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Opening Track: Make It Happen by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.fiftysounds.co⁠⁠ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Host Jo Reed is joined by Kirkus fiction editor Laurie Muchnick for a deep dive into Rachel Reid's six-book Game Changers series. The basis for the HBO sensation Heated Rivalry, the books are a blend of pro hockey, queer romance, and unapologetic “spice.” The conversation zeroes in on two key audiobooks—Game Changer, read by Tor Thom, and The Long Game, read by Cooper North—highlighting how each narrator shapes character, tone, and emotional depth in very different ways. Along the way, Jo and Laurie consider what these romances promise (yes, a happily-ever-after), what they explore (from homophobia in sports to mental health), and how listening—especially to scenes of intimacy—changes the experience. A lively look at a very hot series—where performance shapes the story as much as the writing, and the chemistry comes through loud and clear.   Audiobooks Discussed: Game Changer by Rachel Reid, read by Tor Thom (Tantor Media) The Long Game by Rachel Reid, read by Cooper North (Harlequin Audio)   Other audiobooks in the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid:  Heated Rivalry and Tough Guy, read by Tor Thom (Tantor Media) Common Goal and Role Model, read by Cooper North (Harlequin Audio) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

【一起来读书吧 Bookclub】 4月18日，我们想和大家一起线上共读日本作家柚木麻子的小说《黄油》。 我们希望借这次读书会，为社群创造一个空间，共同探讨：在东亚社会里，一个女人拒绝缩小自己，要付出怎样的代价？为什么女性的胃口会被视为激进与危险？我们会一起深挖：一个关于记者、命案与极致美食的故事，如何帮助我们重新审视女性气质、亲密关系，以及照料工作背后的权力结构。 买书链接：https://s.click.taobao.com/MbGhQdm 读书会链接：https://luma.com/niuc21km 【聊了什么The What】 在世界秩序摇摇欲坠的当下，感谢这个来自加拿大的小而美的剧组为我们端上了一份纯粹的爱。Shane 和 Ilya，这对职业赛场上的宿敌，在漫长的情感拉扯中，为我们贡献了流行文化中最珍贵的“渴望感”（Yearning）。 本期节目，我们姗姗来迟，资深竞体同人女小杨、一芳与巅学Phd Nancy激情复盘这部现象级剧集。我们聊了聊那些“没有一个浪费镜头”的拉扯，聊了聊从姓氏呼唤到本名之间那段神圣的距离，也聊了聊剧组的特殊融资模式、以及这种融资模式或许是当下好莱坞需要的。 In a moment when the world order feels like it's teetering on the edge, we're grateful to this small but beautiful Canadian production team for serving up something pure: love. Shane and Ilya — sworn rivals on the professional ice — give us, through their secret relationship and long emotional push-and-pull, one of the most precious things in pop culture right now: Yearning. In this episode, Xiao Yang, Yifang, and Nancy passionately break down this phenomenon of a series. We talk about those intimate scenes where "not a single shot is wasted," we talk about the sacred distance between being called by your last name versus your first, and we talk about the show's unique financing model — and why that model might just be what Hollywood needs right now. 【时间轴 The When】 00:00 - 译林版《黄油》读书会报名信息与背景介绍 01:31 - 《Heated Rivalry》扫盲：职业冰球、宿敌文学与Rachel Reid 原著 08:38 - 剧中情感纠葛的细腻处理 12:40 - 特别的融资模式和制作文化 21:08 - 如何通过性描写推动角色成长与剧情 56:34 - 我们需要阳光且直给的酷儿故事 01:31 - Heated Rivalry 101: professional ice hockey, rivals-to-lovers literature, and Rachel Reid's source novel 08:38 - The show's nuanced handling of yearning and entanglement 12:40 - The show's special financing model and production culture 21:08 - How love scenes drive character growth and plot 56:34 - Why we need sunny, straightforward queer joy stories 【买咖啡 Please Support Us】 如果喜欢这期节目并愿意想要给我们买杯咖啡： 海外用户：https://www.patreon.com/cyberpinkfm 海内用户：https://afdian.com/a/cyberpinkfm 商务合作邮箱：cyberpinkfm@gmail.com 商务合作微信：CyberPink2022 If you like our show and want to support us, please consider the following: Those Abroad: https://www.patreon.com/cyberpinkfm Those in China: https://afdian.com/a/cyberpinkfm Business Inquiries Email: cyberpinkfm@gmail.com Business Inquiries WeChat: CyberPink2022

This week on Smut Club Chelsea and Hannah are reviewing Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid.You can find every episode of Smut Club at www.smutclubpodcast.com

Showing off my new tattoo to celebrate AMONG THE THORNS! I'm also talking option books and how no one deserves - or should count on - having their traditional publishing contract renewed. My villain origin story on why I don't like standing at signing tables and booths. Finally, my thoughts on using generative AI "only" for brainstorming. Spoiler: I think it shoots your creativity in the foot.***Romance fiction readers believe in Happily Ever Afters.

We conclude our arbitrary celebration of Canada Month with a playoff episode that went into overtime. Yes: we read Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid. We needed two guests to handle a title of this magnitude, so we were joined by fangirl in STEM Sarah and authentic Canadian/Canadien Kathleen Gros, author and artist of several books including Anne: An Adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (Sort Of). Listen to this episode while driving to the cottage! Readers advisory: Here. Footnotes: Canadian Heritage Minutes “Heated Rivalry Is Chess” by Rebecca Alter “Weapons' Hot Dog Scene Is Actually a Heartfelt Tribute to Zach Cregger's Late Friend” by Tai Gooden “Those Tuna Melts in Heated Rivalry are So Gay” by John Birdsall Important Heated Rivalry Fan Art Coming up next: Remain by Nicholas Sparks with M. Night Shyamalan.

I went on a bit of a rant today about writers using generative AI, along with a deepish dive into the Shy Girl controversy and why it really annoys me that I might have to declare I don't use that shite to write my books. SPOILER: I DON'T.The video breakdown of SHY GIRL is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbeKTa5xhZo***Romance fiction readers believe in Happily Ever Afters.

Looking for the hottest MM, enemies-to-lovers book about hockey that inspired a hit Netflix show? Well we've got you covered! This week we read "Heated Rivalry" by Rachel Reid and it everything we had hoped and so much more. Like, way more. Maybe more than we needed?Mean Book Club is four ladies (UCB, BuzzFeed, College Humor, Impractical Jokers) who read, discuss and whine about NYT bestselling books that have questionable literary merit. It's fun. It's cathartic. It's perfect for your commute. New podcast (almost) every Tuesday! Here's the Season 21 reading list:Rose in Chains by Julie SotoHeated Rivalry by Rachel ReidNinth House by Leigh BardugoPowerless by Lauren RobertsThe Secret of Secrets by Dan BwonRemarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van PeltSometimes I Lie by Alice FeeneyQuicksilver by Callie HartSend any future book suggestions to meanbookclub@gmail.com! Follow us on the socials @meanbookclub!Rate, like, subscribe, and check out our Patreon page at patreon.com/meanbookclub to become a true patron of the mean arts.CREDITS: Hosted by Sarah Burton, Clara Morris, Johnna Scrabis, & Sabrina B. Jordan. This episode was produced and edited by Sarah Burton and Blake Opper. Special thanks to FSM Team for our theme song, "Parkour Introvert." You can get it here: https://www.free-stock-music.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/mean-book-club--3199521/support.

Calling all Loons! You've heated and reheated the rivalry, and now it's time for us to talk about what you should read between now and Season 2. We're joined by friend and fave of the pod, Christopher Rice, who writes m/m and sometimes m/m/m romance as C. Travis Rice. We talk about our feelings about Heated Rivalry, about the books and their impact, and about the transformational work of the show…and then we fill your to-be-read piles with books we thing deliver the same kind of emotions. We had a great time, and you will, too.If you want more Fated Mates in your life, or you want to talk more about Heated Rivalry & romance novels, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.Our next read along is The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie by Jennifer Ashley. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.NotesWelcome back Christopher Rice who writes romance under the name C. Travis Rice. Christopher and his best friend Eric Shaw Quinn host a podcast called The Dinner Party Show. You can listen to their Heated Rivalry episode here, and Eric's tuna melt thoughts start around the 18:30 minute mark. Their episode with Dateline producer Josh Mankiewicz aired on March 1st. You can watch the documentary Anne Rice: An All Saints' Day Celebration for free at her website.Wesley Morris's essay in the New York Times, I'm so Used to Gay Tragedies That I Almost Missed Romance. The Heated Rivalry Crave social media feed highlighted the power of the adaptation by showing the cast reading from the books, juxtaposing scenes from the show with the text, and loving Rachel Reid!Good Will Hunting is 29 years old! Okay, I know that Ryan Coogler has made a couple of Marvel movies, but he's also writing dazzling original films like Sinners!Olympians in Italy ran through 10,000 condoms in 3 days and the Village needed to do some restocking. Here's one athlete's history of condoms at the Olympics.To be fair, adding a pitch clock and changing other MLB baseball rules have shortened the running time of most games.For more information about gay rodeo, follow the instagram of the International Gay Rodeo Association. Pick Up Men is the first book in the Pick Up Men series by LC Chase.SponsorsJayne Ann Krentz, author of The Shop on Hidden Lane, available in print or ebook. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.The Romantasy Letters, a new kind of romantic fantasy storytelling, delivered right to your door twice monthly. Use the code FATED to get 20% off your year's subscription. Learn more at RomantasyLetters.com.Blue Box Press, publishers of Jennifer L. Armentrout's Dream of You, a Wait for You novella. Available in print, ebook or audiobook from Amazon & Barnes & Noble.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It's so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates. Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough. If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.

The doctor is in the house! That's right, folks! Dr. Carolyn Cocca is back to teach the Talking Comics crew about queer delicacies, how the color of paper can change your perspective, and more! Plus, Aaron hits the ice with more gay hockey romance stories, Bob votes Pamela Isley into office, while Steve travels to Woodbrook for a beary bloody finale! Books: Queers at the Table: An Illustrated Guide to Queer Food, with Recipes, The Delicacy, Star Trek: Coda (novel trilogy), The Color of Paper: Representing Race in the Comics Medium (academic book), Searching for Feminist Superheroes: Gender, Sexuality, and Race in Marvel Comics (academic book), Martin Short's I Must Say and Jeff Hiller's Actress of a Certain Age (audiobooks), Alter Ego #198, Poison Ivy #42, Batgirl #17, Touched By a Demon #2, Narco #1, Time to Shine (novel), The Shots You Take (novel), Egotistical Puckboy (novel), Irresponsible Puckboy (novel), Beneath the Trees Where Nobody See: Rite of Spring #6, Tigress Island #1, D'ORC #2, Camp Damascus (novel), Mister Magic (novel) Additionally, a message from your cranky uncle Bob (and a way to support him: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-bob-reyer-a-hero-in-need). The Comic Book Podcast is brought to you by Talking Comics (talkingcomicbooks.wordpress.com). The podcast is hosted by Steve Seigh, Bob Reyer, Joey Braccino, Aaron Amos, John Burkle, and Bronwyn Kelly-Seigh who weekly dissect everything comics-related, from breaking news to new releases. Our Instagram handle is @TalkingComicsPodcast and you can email us at podcast@talkingcomicbooks.com.

This March, Worst Bestsellers is celebrating our neighbor to the north with our first ever Canada Month. We’re kicking it off by talking to Canadian treasure Ann Foster (host of Vulgar History, author of Rebel of the Regency:  The Scandalous Saga of Caroline of Brunswick, Britain’s Queen Without a Crown) about another Canadian treasure: Bear by Marian Engel. This book walked so that shifter romances could gallop. Listen to this episode while you’re alone in the woods. Readers advisory: Here. Footnotes: “Canada’s Most Controversial Novel” by Emily Zarevich. Kanata Classics Coming up next: Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid.

Kelly and Ragon are diving into prophecy, patriotism, and porch-debate energy in Rilla of Ingleside. From Miss Oliver's eerie dreams to Norman Douglas's keyboard-warrior vibes, we unpack all the different ways the Glen justifies — and questions — the war. Is it fate? A moral necessity? A cosmic inevitability? As we start wrapping up our Rilla season, we zoom out to listen to the full chorus of opinions shaping wartime life at Ingleside. Inspired by: Kelly is inspired by Heated Rivalry!  Whether you watch the show on HBO/Crave or read the book by Rachel Reid, enjoy some fun, romantic, spicy distraction.  Kelly especially recommends the third book in the series, Tough Guy, for some Anne of Green Gables references! Ragon is inspired by the game, Let's Hit Each Other With Fake Swords for some silly family fun. You can support the pod by shopping through our Bookshop link for any books we've recommended!   If you want to get a free logo sticker from us, either leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or share your love for the pod on social media!  Send us a photo of your share or review at either our email: kindredspirits.bookclub@gmail.com or on our KindredSpirits.BookClub Instagram. 

Paramount and DC sittin' in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! That's right, folks! The whole world's on fire, but we're still here, making things happen and talking about comic books! Things get a little heated on this week's episode as we debate the powers of the Scarlet Witch, bemoan the Pramount and Warner Bros merger, and gripe about the ongoing winter weather! If you're hoping for some true "old man" energy, look no further! Books: Absolute Batman #17, The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery #1, Rogue's Gallery #1-4, Mapping the Interior (novel), My Husband's Wife (novel), Queen of Faces (novel), Resident Evil: Requiem, New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident #1, Time to Shine (novel), Sorcerer Supreme #3, It's Jeff meets Daredevil, The Rocketeer: The Island, Elsewhere #1-8 Additionally, a message from your cranky uncle Bob (and a way to support him: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-bob-reyer-a-hero-in-need). The Comic Book Podcast is brought to you by Talking Comics (talkingcomicbooks.wordpress.com). The podcast is hosted by Steve Seigh, Bob Reyer, Joey Braccino, Aaron Amos, John Burkle, and Bronwyn Kelly-Seigh who weekly dissect everything comics-related, from breaking news to new releases. Our Instagram handle is @TalkingComicsPodcast and you can email us at podcast@talkingcomicbooks.com.

Loon Comrades! You know this couldn't be a book podcast if I only gave you an episode on the Heated Rivalry show. Today, I'm talking about Heated Rivalry: the book by Rachel Reid with my certified Local Gay Icon™  friend, Braun, who says both the show and the book changed his life, and his perspective on the possibilities of queer media. We squeal over Shane, Ilya, Scott, and Kip; pitch some fanfic ideas featuring a surprise guest we're both a fan of; and talk about how the book differs from the show (and which one we like better). Also, stick around to the end to listen to us convince you to run for local office! Connect with Braun: Instagram Fated States Oath (local political donation)   Subscribe! Follow! Rate! Review! Tell your friends and family! Bookshop.org Storefront: buy a book mentioned in the episode through this link and I earn a small commission Buy me coffee WRION merch! My feminist, sapphic, bookish Etsy shop! Instagram/Threads: @wereaditonenight TikTok: @wereaditonenight Facebook: We Read It One Night Email: wereaditonenight [at] gmail.com

On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing: Bookish Moments: A new bookish metaphor and book moms in the wild Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: Explaining a Currently Reading literary society Before We Go: our new segment featuring bookish friend posts and a sleeper hit you should read. Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site). . . . 1:44 - Bookish Moments of the Week 1:52 - Currently Reading Website 1:56 - Books We Want To Press Into Your Hands 3:03 - Best Books for Babies and Kids 3:42 - Castle of Water by Dane Huckelbridge 5:55 - A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on HBO Max 7:12 - Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin 7:16 - A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R. R. Martin (all 3 Dunk and Egg novellas) 7:55 - Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid 8:33 - Current Reads 8:41 - The Secret Library by Kekla Magoon (Kaytee) 11:47 - The Book Wanderers by Anna James 11:50 - The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 11:54 - The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 13:08 - Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (Meredith) 15:10 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 15:11 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams 15:45 - Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 22:27 - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline 24:10 - Six Feet Over by Mary Roach (Kaytee) 27:20 - Gulp by Mary Roach 27:21 - Bonk by Mary Roach 27:22 - Stiff by Mary Roach 28:51 - Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (Meredith) 32:06 - Agatha Christie's Marple by Mark Aldridge 34:18 - The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden (Kaytee) 34:33 - Charter Books 39:00 - Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Meredith) 42:28 - Dracula by Bram Stoker 45:21 - Turning Instagram into Bookstagram 47:25 - Sign up for the newsletter on our website 47:26 - Currently Reading Substack 50:48 - Currently Reading Instagram 50:54 - @HelloSunshine on Instagram 50:58 - @BookRiot on Instagram  51:00 - @NYTBooks on Instagram 51:40 - @Iamblackharry on Instagram 52:10 - Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak 52:28 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 52:42 - The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower 53:42 - The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 53:48 - God of the Woods by Liz Moore 54:03 - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 56:13 - Sarah's Bookshelves Live 58:44 - Before We Go Meredith highlights a bookish friend post 59:34 - The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver 59:54 - The Correspondent by Virginia Evans Kaytee's Book She DNF'd: 1:01:22 - The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor 1:01:28 - Bookshelf Thomasville 1:02:57 - From the Front Porch podcast Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. February's list is a special romance curated list from Open Door Romance, The Novel Neighbor's Romance adjacent bookstore in Plainville, MA. Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads | Substack | Youtube The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

The boys are back in town as Steve, Bob, Aaron, and John wax rhapsodic about problematic reading habits, our favorite romantic comedies, the art of adapting Lovecraft, zombie hierarchies, and one exceptionally explicit car wash.Books: DC KO #4, G.I. Joe A Real American Hero #325, Bleeding Hearts #1, The Thing on the Doorstep #1, Ultimate X-Men #17-24, Common Goal (novel), Role Model (novel), The Long Game (novel), Dungeon Crawler Carl (novel), One Piece Season 1 (TV series), Bugonia (movie)The Comic Book Podcast is brought to you by Talking Comics (talkingcomicbooks.wordpress.com). The podcast is hosted by Steve Seigh, Bob Reyer, Joey Braccino, Aaron Amos, John Burkle, and Bronwyn Kelly-Seigh, who weekly dissect everything comics-related, from breaking news to new releases. Our Instagram handle is @TalkingComicsPodcast, and you can email us at [podcast@talkingcomicbooks.com].

Ilya Rozanov. Shane Hollander. Two of hockey's greatest young goal scorers are also trying to score...with each other?? Reid's breakthrough hockey romance has become a true pop culture phenomenon, so we figured it was time to lace up the skates and see what the puck is going on with this most heated of rivalries. Happy belated Valentine's Day!This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain.Head to MarleySpoon.com/offer/OVERDUE for up to 25 FREE meals!Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise on OverdueSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

  Thank you for tuning in to Episode 314 of the Down Cellar Studio Podcast. Full show notes with photos can be found on my website. This week's segments included:   Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins Brainstorming From the Armchair Knitting in Passing KAL News Contest, News & Notes Life in Focus On a Happy Note Quote of the Week   Off the Needles, Hook or Bobbins   Hattie's Rainbow Mittens Pattern: Little Waiting for Winter Mittens by Susan B. Anderson- $4 Knitting Pattern available on Ravelry Yarn: Knit Picks Felici Worsted in the Vegas Baby colorway Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page About the colorway- stripes of gray, blue, green, mustard, red and pink.   Hattie's Sparkly Mittens Pattern: Little Waiting for Winter Mittens by Susan B. Anderson-  $4 Knitting Pattern available on Ravelry Yarn: Fingering yarn held double- 1 sparkle & 1 non-sparkle base (sparkles are 20g minis from Legacy Fiber Artz Advent calendars of years past) Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page   Traveler Sweater Pattern: The Traveler by Andrea Mowry ($9 pattern available on Ravelry & the designer's website) Yarn: Hazel Knits Small Batch Sport (90/10 SW/Nylon) in a sage green Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm) & US 4 (3.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Size: 3 Drawstring- fingering weight yarn- US 6 DPNs. I washed it several times, because it was bleeding yellow. I had to wash it several times before all of the rest of the dye let go. Finished. Washed it. Sleeves were too big. I had 28 purl ridges on the sleeves, I ripped back 7 and then worked the ribbing. Wore to Hattie's birthday dinner. Very comfy cozy. I am finding the weight of the hood wants to pull it back on my neck which I'm not sure I love. Have you found this?   Woolens & Nosh 2025 Advent Socks Yarn: Woolens & Nosh, 75/25 Superwash Wool/Nylon 2025 Advent Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Finished right after I finished the last episode. Love these so much!   Dory Pattern: Mega Ray & Sea Friends by Theresa's Crochet Shop- $15.50 pattern on website or Etsy Yarn: Knit Picks Brava minis in Celestial, Custard, Black & White Hook: C (2.75 mm) Ravelry Project Page   Gus the Dino Pattern: Gus the Dino by KP Crochet Patterns. $8.50 US Pattern on Etsy (on sale right now) Yarn: Bernat Blanket in Misty Green & Parfait Chunky in White Hook: J (6.0 mm) Ravelry Project Page 35 mm eyes were too big! I bought smaller ones, beheaded Gus and gave him a new head with new eyes!   On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins   Back to the Future Socks Yarn: Legacy Fiber Artz Steel Toes. Micro-Sock Kit in the Back to the Future Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Back to the Future Sock set- gifted to me by Sue & Chelsea- part of their 4 Sundays of Advent yarn in 2025. About the Colorway- speckles of pink, orange, yellow purple and blue with a blue/purple mini. Progress- just about to toe of sock 1   Arielle's Socks Yarn: Edelweiss Fibres Standard Sock (75% SW Merino/25% Nylon), 425m for 100g in the Hillside Heather Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page About the colorway- maroons, browns and greens. Cast on both on separate needles. Progress- a few inches into leg on one sock, ready to work the toe on the other US 6 shoe. 7.25 inches before toe. About 8.5 inches total foot length.   Kirby Wirby 2025 Advent Socks Yarn: Kirby Wirby 75/25 Superwash Merino/Nylon in the 2025 Advent Christmas Toys from the 80s 24 Stripe Colorway Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Ravelry Project Page Yarn theme: Christmas Toys from the 80s Progress- turned heel on sock 2   Pucker Brush Farm BFL Sweater Spin Fiber: 16 oz of multi colored BFL roving from Pucker Brush Farm (purchased at Rhinebeck 2025), 4 oz Merino in a mustard color Ravelry Project Page I am planning to knit a Traveler sweater inspired by Emily Curtis' handmade version- click here for her Ravelry Project Page. I was thrilled to see a recent post on Emily's Instagram that she made a YouTube video about this spin/knit. I plied up about 8.5grams of the BFL with the Finnsheep. 23 wraps (690 inches/19 yards) .3 ounces / around 8.5 grams I've been keeping my wheel next to my spot on the couch and spinning if not every day, then more days than not.   Handspun documentation I went through nearly all of my handspun skeins of yarn. I made updates in each page on Ravelry to add skein information. You can enter length and weight and it add that to your stash.  I also ended up changing the names of the finished projects to include the weight and length! I wrote yarn weight (dk sport etc) on physical tags i have on the yarn. So much easier for me to work with.   Brainstorming I have 3 skeins of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool that I used to start a Waverly Cardigan (but the gauge is just too tight)- click here for my Ravelry Project Page. I think it might be good for the Lakes Pullover by Ozetta (Ravelry Pattern- $8 knitting pattern). I found this by searching the yarn on ravelry then doing the advance pattern search to look for sweaters people knit with this yarn. Related- Eileen recently asked if someone in our group had knit a certain pattern she had questions about before purchasing/committing to. If you look at the pattern on Rav and click the Projects Tab. You can use the filters there to select "Made by Group Members" and then click on the Rav group you want to look in. You can use that to see who you want to chat w/ about it. ElizabethisKnitting (on Instagram- shared her Winter Soul Sweater in this post. Its so beautiful! Why are you not all knitting this? Great question. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.   From the Armchair   Greenwich by Kate Broad. Amazon Affiliate Link. Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino. Amazon Affiliate Link. The Maid by Nita Prose. Amazon Affiliate Link. Little One by Olivia Muenter. Amazon Affiliate Link Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid. Amazon Affiliate Link. The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie (A Satirical Novella) by Freida McFadden. Amazon Affiliate Link.   Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases.   Knitting in Passing At Hattie's birthday dinner, Emelyn asked for help crocheting a circle. They were making a stuffed animal to look like a stage like and had everything done but the center bulk part. Aila also ended up working on it with us.   OMG Sock Classes are finished! All of my students turned their heels, some did both socks. Many did their toes and kitchenered. They all had fun and were far more successful than they anticipated so that was very exciting.   KAL News   Pigskin Party '25 is over! Event Dates: KAL Dates- Thursday September 4, 2025- Monday February 9, 2026   Updates In This Episode Official Sponsor for Quarter 4 (January)- Yarnaceous Fibers- winner announced Commentary from Mary January Participation Prize Winners Announced Grand Prize winners will be announced in the next episode. Commentator Update Thanks to everyone for another fantastic season! The February huddle has been full of chatter about all the projects people rushed to finish before the deadline. However, one of my favorite conversations has been in response to beachsideknits2's question: What is weirdest/most random thing you've ever made?  Here are some fantastic answers (prepare to be wowed!)   Beachsideknit2's succulent pillow- Ravelry Project Page   Tanksoup's Tiktaalik (in case you are like me and had no idea what a tiktaalik is, it "is a 375 million year old fossil fish that was discovered in the Canadian Arctic in 2004" according to this site. Check out Tanksoup's Ravelry Project Page    Leahbothe's nose sweaters- Ravelry Project Page   And socalknitgirl's top hat—Ravelry Project Page   I hope everyone has as much fun as I did this season!  See you all this summer for splash pad party!   Mary     Contest, News & Notes   Ross Farm fire   Check out this news article with details about the fire. Click here if you're interested in donating or consider purchasing yarn, fiber etc and letting these sheep live on even after they're gone.   On a Happy Note I bought a new car! I went to see Sleepwalker at a local theater.  Here's a link to a review that sums up some of my thoughts. I went to see Some Like it Hot in Boston. Megg & I got a fabulous dinner beforehand at Yvonne's. Our waitress even brought over a delicious dumpling dish for us to try (sans lobster). Friday date nights with Dan Running into Riley & her bestie Ellie at Lucky Finn, my current local favorite coffee shop- after the gym on a Saturday morning. It was so hilarious! Very much enjoyed Pluribus on Apple TV+.  Seeing Millie in Finding Nemo Jr. and an early dinner after with family. Mani/pedis with Megg, Eme & Hattie for Hattie's birthday. Super Bowl- while we lost it's always fun to watch. I enjoyed the commercials, and had fun cheering on the Seahawks kicker Jason Myers who played football at Marist where I went to college (now Marist University) Hattie's 8th birthday dinner. Dad and I did a Zoom beforehand in celebration of what would have been Mom's 70th with a few of her cousins.   Quote of the Week Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. -Dalai Lama     ------   Thank you for tuning in!   Contact Information: Check out the Down Cellar Studio Patreon! Ravelry: BostonJen & Down Cellar Studio Podcast Ravelry Group Instagram: BostonJen1 YouTube: Down Cellar Studio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downcellarstudio Sign up for my email newsletter to get the latest on everything happening in the Down Cellar Studio Check out my Down Cellar Studio YouTube Channel Knit Picks Affiliate Link Bookshop Affiliate Link Yarnable Subscription Box Affiliate Link FearLESS Living Fund to benefit the Blind Center of Nevada Music -"Soft Orange Glow" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/ Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases.  

In which Christopher and Eric lose their collective minds and join the delirious, global freakout over the groundbreaking, generation-defining series, HEATED RIVALRY. They had no idea that when one of our Very Important Party People showed up in their VIPP Facebook group --sign up now-- talking about a "puck and **ck" show coming to Canadian television most of the planet would soon be in its firm, confident grip. Christopher and Eric dish on hot hockey players, MM romance, their own super gay books as well the geniuses that are Rachel Reid and Jacob Tierney.  Is it still a bromance if they kiss? Bromance Month continues with this spicy Valentine.

Rachel Reid is the New York Times bestselling author behind Heated Rivalry, the novel whose television adaptation introduced her Game Changers book series to millions of new fans. Reid sits down with Jenna Bush Hager to talk about how the explosive success of Heated Rivalry has transformed her life, what it was like receiving a life-changing DM from filmmaker Jacob Tierney just days after her Parkinson's diagnosis, and the pressure of continuing to expand the Game Changers series with millions watching closely. Plus, Reid teases what to expect from the series' latest book, Unrivaled, and opens up about if she knows how Shane and Ilya's story ends. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We're days away from Valentine's Day, and the TC crew is showing their love of comics with lively conversations about Storm: Earth's Mightiest Mutant, Superman: Chains of Love, Escape, The Nice House By the Sea, D'ORC, Planet of the Apes vs. Fantastic Four, and much more! In addition to comics, we also discuss Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl, Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Half-Time Show, and Rachel Reid's Game Changers novels.Books: Storm: Earth's Mightiest Mutant #1, Superman: Chains of Love Special, Knight City #1, The Nice House By the Sea #1-7, D'ORC #1, Escape #3-5, Poison Ivy #41, Planet of the Apes vs Fantastic Four, Planet of the Apes VisionariesOther Stuff: Dungeon Crawler Carl (novel), Common Goal (novel), A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (TV series)The Comic Book Podcast is brought to you by Talking Comics (talkingcomicbooks.wordpress.com). The podcast is hosted by Steve Seigh, Bob Reyer, Joey Braccino, Aaron Amos, John Burkle, and Bronwyn Kelly-Seigh, who weekly dissect everything comics-related, from breaking news to new releases. Our Instagram handle is @TalkingComicsPodcast, and you can email us at [podcast@talkingcomicbooks.com].

Who wants to go to the cottage? Wonder Man does! This week, Aaron returns to the show to discuss Heated Rivalry, Wonder Man, Wolves, and more!Books: Malevolent #1, Game Changers (novel), Heated Rivalry (novel, TV series), The Copenhagen Test (TV series), Red and the Wolves OGN, King Sorrow (novel), Absolute Batman #16, Harley & Ivy: High Crimes #3, Harley x Elvira #4, Sorcerror Supreme #2The Comic Book Podcast is brought to you by Talking Comics (talkingcomicbooks.wordpress.com). The podcast is hosted by Steve Seigh, Bob Reyer, Joey Braccino, Aaron Amos, John Burkle, and Bronwyn Kelly-Seigh, who weekly dissect everything comics-related, from breaking news to new releases. Our Instagram handle is @TalkingComicsPodcast, and you can email us at [podcast@talkingcomicbooks.com].

Move over RuPaul's Drag Race! Straight women are now obsessing over a whole new TV show packed with competitive queens, only this time it's hunky hockey players playing a little tonsil hockey off the ice.Heated Rivalry, the sizzling new TV show based on Rachel Reid's bestselling series about the secret gay romances of rival star hockey players, is scoring big with audiences. Like Brokeback Mountain, it's got everyone thinking about how the puck slides into the net without lube.The series has also sent the four lead actors' careers skating into the spotlight, leaving fans drooling over every off-ice action in their real-life love lives. Looks like the ice isn't the only thing getting slippery.Today we take a look at the cultural impact of all the new queer TV shows streaming right now, including: Pluribus, Heated Rivalry, Stranger Things, Starfleet Academy, and, of course, RuPaul's Drag Race. Plus-- • Hands Across America is about to celebrate its 40 year anniversary in May. Can we unite the country again to fight hunger and poverty?• How the Love Boat sank after they let go of the original Julie. • How to make a tuna melt sandwich.• Remembering Chicago LGBTQ legend Rick Garcia, who died this month, he was 69. 

In Episode 215, Sarah and Catherine of Gilmore Guide to Books share the best backlist books they read in 2025. They discuss their top 5 backlist books from last year, highlight some underrated backlist gems, and review their backlist reading statistics. Devoting an entire episode to backlist reading is both a team and listener favorite annual tradition!  This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog. Announcement The Best of the Backlist Guide: Favorite Backlist Books Read in 2025 is available now! Members of the Sarah's Bookshelves Live community share the best backlist book they read last year in a beautiful PDF guide. To get the guide, you can sign up to join us on Patreon here. or Substack here. You'll also get access to monthly bonus podcast episodes and the new-for-2026 Rock Your Reading Tracker and the Lite Reading Tracker. Highlights Sarah and Catherine share their full stats for backlist reading in 2025. Backlist reading quantity was stable last year for Sarah, but backlist reading quality dipped a bit. Catherine had a slight increase in the number of backlist books she read, AND her backlist reading remained incredibly successful. Sarah's backlist reading may change just a bit looking ahead to 2026. Our Top 5 Backlist Books We Read in 2025 [10:44]  Catherine The No-Show by Beth O'Leary (2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [10:50]  Georgia by Dawn Tripp (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [17:44]  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (2008) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [23:48]  Don't You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane (2019) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [30:57]  The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell (2013) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [38:21]  Sarah The Force of Such Beauty by Barbara Bourland (2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [13:37]  The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis (1983) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [20:58]  We Burn Daylight by Bret Anthony Johnston (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [27:42]  Family Happiness by Laurie Colwin (1982) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [35:30]  Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [40:37]  Other Books Mentioned The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (2019) [13:19]  The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin (2023) [20:28]  Smacked by Eilene Zimmerman (2020) [20:31]  Nowhere Girl by Cheryl Diamond (2021) [20:33]  Heated Rivalry (Game Changers, 2) by Rachel Reid (2023) [33:50]  Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin (1978) [37:58]  Guess Again by Charlie Donlea (2025) [40:54]  Underrated Backlist Gems [43:34]  Catherine Miss Jane by Brad Watson (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [43:46]  Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [48:40]  Sarah Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [46:28]  Euphoria by Lily King (2014) | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [51:04]  Other Books Mentioned Talking at Night by Claire Davelery (2023) [48:25]  Slanting Towards the Sea by Lidija Hilje (2025) [51:20]  Heart the Lover by Lily King (2025) [51:38] 

In this listener-commissioned bonus episode, we break down the internet's favorite hockey romance through a gymnastics lens — rivalry, pressure, secrecy, slow burns, and why elite athletes are like this. It's an adult conversation with minor spoilers, wheeze giggles, and Oscar's for butt. Commissioned by Karla. This is her fault. Thank you, Alyssa for proving our point with her Ilya speech. UP NEXT Fantasy Gymnastics podcast every Wednesday College & Cocktails : Sunday Jan 25th, 12:00 PT after UCLA at Michigan State (FOX) 2026 Cocktail and Mocktail menu here Add exclusive Club Content like College & Cocktails to your favorite podcast player (instructions here). SUPPORT OUR WORK Club Gym Nerd: Join Here Fantasy: GymCastic 2026 College Fantasy Game now open. Never too late to join! Merch: Shop Now Newsletters The Balance Beam Situation: Spencer's GIF Code of Points Gymnastics History and Code of Points Archive from Uncle Tim Resistance Resources CHAPTERS 00:00 – Kentucky Gymnastics Recreates the Heated Rivalry Pump-Up Speech 00:00:17 – Welcome to GymCastic (Bonus Episode) 00:00:45 – You Don't Need to Know This Show (We'll Explain Everything) 00:01:04 – Adult Conversation Warning (Minor Spoilers) 00:01:38 – What Is Heated Rivalry? 00:03:05 – Hockey the Way Jade Carey's Floor Is Choreography 00:04:40 – Why Are We Doing a Podcast About This? 00:06:10 – The Books: Game Changers Series by Rachel Reid 00:07:05 – Why People Are Obsessed With This Show 00:10:00 – Secret Romance, Gay Panic, and Years of Tension 00:13:25 – The Stairs Scene, Chirping, and Competitive Flirting 00:17:05 – Gay and Bi Representation That Feels Real 00:20:20 – From Coco Gauff to SNL to Massive Fan Edits 00:25:40 – Casting Heated Rivalry for Gymnastics 00:29:30 – Greatest of All Time Criteria (Hot, Dominant, Iconic) 00:33:40 – If Not Russian, then who?  00:37:10 – Why a Lesbian Version Wouldn't Work (Sue Bird Was Right) 00:40:20 – Khorkina for Maximum Chaos Casting 00:43:30 – Why Sports Movies Are Never Realistic (And That's Fine) 00:46:40 – The Gym Mom vs Kip's Dad: Loyalty and Support 00:49:50 – Secret Relationships vs The Closet 00:53:10 – Panic, Fear, and Being Recognized 00:56:10 – Complications of Secret Hookups (Spring Break Story) 00:59:50 – Sub Dom Dynamics in Elite Sports 01:06:40 – Is This a Turning Point for Sports Fan Fic Smut?  

Cathy and Todd discuss Why Heated Rivalry Matters, digging into why this hockey romance has become such a cultural lightning rod and emotional touchstone. They talk about Rachel Reid's novel and the TV adaptation, but mostly they focus on what's really happening alongside the sex scenes: two very different expressions of masculinity learning how to coexist without hierarchy, punishment, or performance. The conversation moves from the slow-burn relationship between Shane and Ilya to why so many women, queer viewers, and romance fans trust this story and feel oddly comforted by it. They explore how the show models emotional safety, real repair, and power that doesn't turn into harm, and why that feels rare right now. It's a mix of pop culture, psychology, and cultural reckoning about intimacy, vulnerability, and what people are longing for in relationships today. Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy's Substack Order Restoring our Girls Join Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week's sponsor(s): Avid Co DuPage County Area Decorating, Painting, Remodeling by Avid Co includes kitchens, basements, bathrooms, flooring, tiling, fire and flood restoration. David Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780 MenLiving – A virtual and in-person community of guys connecting deeply and living fully. No requirements, no creeds, no gurus, no judgements Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us Follow us on social media Instagram YouTube Facebook Buy and leave a review for Cathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable World Find everything ZPR on our Resources Page Guys- Complete a MenLiving Connect profile

Leah, Kate, and Melissa preview January's major SCOTUS cases, including disputes over trans kids' participation in team sports, a concealed-carry ban in Hawaii, and Trump's attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. The hosts are then joined by Georgetown Law Professor Marty Lederman to break down the administration's flimsy legal case for the regime-change operation in Venezuela, as well as the Court's shadow docket ruling on the federalization and deployment of the National Guard in Chicago. Finally, some news: the horrific murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis, the Court's opinion in an important habeas case, and an unhinged tweet from Trump's Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.Favorite things:Leah: Jan Crawford's attack on SCOTUS “corruption” narrative was its own substantive-free narrative, Chris Geidner (Law Dork); The Year America Broke Open, Sherrilyn Ifill (Sherrilyn's Newsletter); State v. Johnson (Wyoming Supreme Court); Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid and on HBO Max (Game Changers series); Rally for America's Workforce: PAWA to the People on  Wednesday, 1/14/26 at 12:00pm at Upper Senate Park in DCKate: Audition, Katie Kitamura; A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck, Sophie Elmhirst; The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann; The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Robert Caro; FOTP Steve Vladeck's Senate Judiciary Committee testimonyMelissa: The Heir Apparent, Rebecca Armitage; Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin; Ziwe's interview with Vince Staples Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2026! 3/6/26 – San Francisco3/7/26 – Los AngelesLearn more: http://crooked.com/eventsBuy Leah's book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad VibesFollow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025! 3/6/26 – San Francisco3/7/26 – Los AngelesLearn more: http://crooked.com/eventsOrder your copy of Leah's book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad VibesFollow us on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Reality TV producer and Fixing Famous People co-host Chris DeRosa joins Kate to discuss the latest season of The Kardashians on Hulu and Heated Rivalry, now streaming on HBO Max. The series is an adaptation of Rachel Reid's bestselling novel about professional hockey rivals Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov whose rivalry turns into a secret romance. Reality Life with Kate Casey What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey Twitter: https://twitter.com/katecasey Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/katecaseyca Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itskatecasey?lang=en Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113157919338245 Amazon List: https://www.amazon.com/shop/katecasey Like it to Know It: https://www.shopltk.com/explore/katecaseySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The new show Heated Rivalry is a very sexy and very queer hockey romance streaming on HBO Max–and it's a phenomenon. It follows archrival players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) as they carry on a clandestine affair off the ice. And since it's based on a whole series of interconnected romance novels by Rachel Reid, it may be with us for a very long time.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

“Heated Rivalry,” a TV adaption of Rachel Reid's gay romance novel, has taken social media feeds and group chats by storm. Thanks to a deal with HBO, this Canadian TV show has been steaming up living rooms across North America, and has become one of the streamer's most-watched shows.The series centers on two rival hockey players, Canadian Shane Hollander and Russian Ilya Rozanov, who in public are fierce competitors but in private nurture a blossoming romance.Today on “Post Reports,” host Martine Powers speaks with Lifestyle reporter Rachel Kurzius and Style reporter Shane O'Neill to talk about the show's depictions of gay intimacy, why this extremely steamy show has struck a chord with audiences, and what it says about our collective anxieties around sex and relationships.Today's show was produced by Thomas Lu. It was mixed by Sam Bair. And edited by Peter Bresnan.Subscribe to The Washington Post here.