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.