The Curling Hotline

It's an emergency podcast of sorts as we managed to snag a one-on-one with Brad Gushue, the brand new High Performance Director of USA Curling, on the eve of his first trip to the States in his official role. It was news that came as a bit of a shock to the curling world when it was announced yesterday, and we ask Brad all about it, from how the role came to be his, why he chose to come back into the curling world so soon after retiring from competitive play, and why he made the decision to lead the USA's program after so many years representing Canada at the highest level.

This episode is brought to you by Goldline Curling. For all of your curling needs, visit goldlinecurling.com.

John is joined for a two-pack of interviews with two men who have had quite the last few months, Paralympic gold medal-winning skip Mark Ideson and Matt Dunstone's new second, Mark Nichols. Mark Ideson is up first, and him and John discuss why this Paralympics was the most memorable of his career, how wheelchair curling continues to grow, Rock League, and of course, that final shot of the Paralympics that secured the gold medal for Canada. Then Mark Nichols joins the show to run down his incredibly busy year, right from the moment he found out his long-time teammate Brad Gushue was retiring until now, where he finds himself joining the reigning Canadian champions, Team Matt Dunstone. He reveals how close he was to actually retiring himself, what is keeping him motivated to keep playing, and what intrigues him about the partnership with Matt. This episode is brought to you by Goldline Curling. For the high performance curler out there, be sure to head to goldlinecurling.com to register for their brand-new incentives program, a first in curling history. And while you're there, you can check out all the products you need to get ready for next season.

Now that the craziness from Rock League has died down, John and Robbie reconvene to discuss all the team changes they missed over the last few weeks. And there was a lot! From Mark Nichols joining Matt Dunstone all the way to the Middaugh family becoming a curling team, we talk through just about every major change and give our opinion on it all. And speaking of changes, Goldline CEO Pete Townshend then joins the show to discuss their new sponsorship model. Curling fans have questions and Pete has answers about how their new merit-based system is going to work, what it means for every tier of the game (including juniors!) and why they feel it's the best move for both Goldline and the game of curling itself.

Rock League Season 1 is now in the books and John and Robbie sit down to discuss it all. We talk about Shield CC's big win, Typhoon's surprise run to the final, and recap some of the biggest surprises and disappointments on the ice this week. And of course we also talk about everything that was decided before a rock was thrown: the format, the rules, what can be improved for next season, and more. All the details you wanted about Rock League but were afraid to ask! This episode is brought to you by Goldline Curling. Get your last-minute curling shopping done before the summer kicks into high gear at Goldlinecurling.com.

In Part 2 of our chats with the Rock League GMs, John sits down with Maple United's Glenn Howard, Shield Curling Club's Carter Rycroft, and Northern United's Christoffer Svae. John starts with Glenn, who played in a pro league once and gets the inside scoop on how that compares to now and why the Rachel Homan/Xenia Schwaller pairing is exciting for both the team and curling in general. Then we find out what Carter and Bompi have been up to for the last few years, how Carter prepared to get involved at the highest levels of the game again, and why Bompi thinks entertainment is just as important as winning in Rock League. We are less than one week away from first rocks at Rock League and we are ready to go!

This episode is brought to you by Goldline Curling. Their end-of-season sale is happening NOW with a ton of great deals and free shipping on any order over $150. Check it out at goldlinecurling.com.

We are just over a week away from Rock League's debut, and a lot of fans are asking about the rules and what exactly is going to differentiate Rock League as a live experience from curling events in the past. Thankfully, John sits down with The Curling Group's rules guru Brent Laing and the CEO himself to get the scoop on what exactly the rule changes are, why they were made, and what has Nic very excited–and a little nervous–as we head into the first-ever Rock League season.

This episode is brought to you by Goldline Curling. Their end-of-season sale is happening NOW with a ton of great deals and free shipping on any order over $150. Check it out at goldlinecurling.com.

John and Robbie are back together to discuss the recently completed 2026 Women's World Championships, and how impressive 23 year-old Xenia Schwaller and her Swiss rink's run to the title was. Rattling off 13 straight wins to capture the title, are they guaranteed to be the sport's next big thing? We also discuss Kerri Einarson's silver medal and what the future might hold for that team before we switch into talking about a bunch of team's futures as the team change news has come fast and furious since the last time we recorded. The men's picture is starting to take shape and we break down all the teams named there, and we tease where we think the women's scene might be heading.

This episode is brought to you by Goldline Curling. Their end-of-season sale is happening NOW with a ton of great deals and free shipping on any order over $150. Check it out at goldlinecurling.com.

The first of two episodes interviewing all six Rock League General Managers, John sits down with the GMs of the Alpine Curling Club (Eve Muirhead), Typhoon Curling Club (JD Lind), and Frontier Curling Club (Chris Plys) franchises to get the inside scoop on their respective clubs. Who is gonna play Mixed Doubles? What does each GM love about their team? And why is Rock League going to be the thing that changes the sport? All that and more as we get ready for Rock League's inaugural 2026 season in just a few weeks in Toronto, ON.

This episode is brought to you by Goldline Curling. Their end-of-season sale is happening NOW with a ton of great deals and free shipping on any order over $150. Check it out at goldlinecurling.com.

John is here to announce all the locations for next year's Slams, as well as to explain the brand-new Grand Slam of Curling format for the 2026-27 season. We have some new events, some new ways to qualify for them, and we have partnered with a slew of World Curling Tour events to bring a whole new meaning to Tier 2 curling.

This explainer is also available in video format at https://youtu.be/qlyieNNVcLc.