Pod Insights Pop Culture Happy Hour Winter Olympics and What’s Making Us Happy About this episode The Winter Olympics are well underway, and we’ve got thoughts from an avid Olympics watcher and a reporter who’s covering the games in Italy. Whether it’s butt on the couch or feet on the ground – we’ve got you covered.
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0:19 Speaker 01 The Winter Olympics are well underway, and suddenly your feet is thronged with terms that only seem to get trotted out every four years. Monobob, kiss and cry, triple cork, sal cow.
0:29 Linda Holmes? We've got thoughts from an avid Olympics watcher, and we're checking in with an NPR reporter who's covering the Games in Italy. Whether it's butt on the couch or feet on the ground, we've got you covered. I'm Linda Holmes.
0:41 Speaker 01 And I'm Glen Weldon, and today we're talking about the 2026 Winter Olympics on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining us today is NPR general assignment reporter Rachel Treisman. She's covering the Olympics in Milan as figure skating correspondent. Hey, Rachel, welcome in. Thank you. Great to be here. It's great to have you. Okay, so we should note that we're taping this on the morning of Wednesday, February 18th, so there are some big results we don't yet know. And look, we can't possibly get to everything, so we might not talk about your favorite sport or event today. Linda, I've known you for a while. I know when the Olympics come around, you go all in. You're on track to watch some of every sport this year. What are your overall thoughts from 30,000 feet, the panopticon view of these Olympics as a home viewer?
1:24 Linda Holmes? You know, I did, with the Summer Olympics a few years ago, I did watch every sport in the Summer Olympics and then wrote about what I had learned about them. The Winter Olympics are a little bit different because the number of events, the number of medal events, is much smaller. The scope is smaller. The Summer Olympics, I think, have much more of a, like, over here, it's people sword fighting, over here, it's people riding horses, or running really fast, or throwing things, or swimming. And it kind of has a massiveness to it that the Winter Olympics don't quite have. The Winter Olympics, to me, are a little bit more on a few tracks. And there are exceptions, but you have your kind of big team sports, you're curling in hockey, and you have all your skating, you have sliding down a track really fast.
2:10 Linda Holmes? Which is all your luge and bobsled and things like that. And then you have your skiing and there's a few other things and combinations of things, but a lot of it is on those tracks. I do find it really fun to watch the mix of sports cultures in these events. Because if you watch like figure skaters, they've been doing this their entire lives. In many cases. They are incredible perfectionists. Many of them, if they have a bad skate, if you, when you see them afterwards, they will just be devastated, things like that. Whereas there's a whole chunk of the Winter Olympics that comes from more of an extreme sports background. Some of the snowboarding, some of the freestyle skiing type of stuff.
2:54 Linda Holmes? And a lot of those people, if they fall, they'll just jump up and immediately like pump their fists like, oh, well. I just find it really interesting that there are so many different kinds of cultures represented. But yeah, I love the Winter Olympics. I love watching the Olympics. I feel like these Olympics have not necessarily been, and I think this is a good thing, have not necessarily been for people who want to see the most heavily promoted American athletes be like incredibly successful. They've been much more of a mix of different things, maybe more low profile stories, maybe more like you may be sad about the US athlete, but really happy about somebody else. That's kind of my quick takes such as.
3:36 Speaker 01 No, no, that's great. That's butt on the couch. So we're going to go to feet on the ground now. Rachel, you're there, you're in the stands, you're covering this. What does it feel like?
3:43 Speaker 03 Yeah, I loved Linda's recap. It was helpful to me too, because I should say I have been in Milan for the last almost two weeks. And only three of the sports are happening here. So I have gotten to see all three sports that are happening here. Ice hockey, speed skating and figure skating and figure skating has been my main focus. So I've spent most of my time there. I do think getting to watch speed skating, which one of the like short track speed skating shares a rank with figure skating. It's as a viewer, not relying on the TV, not relying on commentary. It's a really different experience to watch figure skaters. Like you said, they've trained for so long. They're doing a routine where, yes, it's technical skill, they're hard numbers and scores
4:25 Speaker 03 that the judges give, but a lot of it feels like it's kind of vibes based. And then watching something like hockey or speed skating where it's like, there is one way to win. It happens really fast. If you blink, you're gonna miss it. If you look at your phone for one second, you're gonna miss the whole thing. Like, it's been a really interesting and, no pun intended, like, eye-opening viewing experience because you really have to figure out what to pay attention to in each sport and sort of how to measure your focus, which is very different than watching on multi-view as I've done in the past.
4:53 Speaker 01 Yeah, sure.
4:54 Linda Holmes? One of the, I would say, there are a few reasons why I never became an Olympic athlete, but one of them is that when I think about somebody like a figure skater who trains really often for something like 15 to 20 years with their eye on a very specific year that they might go to the Olympics, and then you have that one moment where something goes wrong, I think trying to work your way through that psychologically must be incredibly difficult. And so in some ways, the parts of figure skating that I find the most enjoyable are the people who come in and they're like 12th and they just, this is what they do, they love
5:37 Linda Holmes? it, they have a really good program, they're so happy, everybody hugs them, they're completely satisfied with their experience because they did not come in expecting necessarily to medal. And you feel like they've really had a good and happy experience. And as opposed to somebody like Ilya Malinin, who came in as this heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy favorite to win a gold medal in the men's singles, who came in and whole program was a, you know, several falls and just kind of felt very messy. And I don't know what it's like to be that kid in that situation, you know?
6:11 Speaker 03 Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I just, it's been so fun to see those people who are, there was a Georgian women's skater who was so happy to be in fourth.
6:20 Linda Holmes? Yeah.
6:20 Speaker 03 Like, she celebrated for so much longer than I think lots of people who were even ahead of her. And I will say, I haven't watched in person, but I did watch Chloé Kim's event, the half-pipe snowboarding, and that I had sort of forgotten since the last Olympics. It must feel, I mean, so much pressure still, but it's so nice that it's best of three runs. And it made me think, like, I couldn't imagine if figure skating was like,
6:40 Speaker 01 Yeah.
6:41 Speaker 03 Yes, some people do the team event, they have two events, yes, there's many opportunities. But just the idea that, like, if you fall once, you can try again, at least at a certain point in the night, that was really like a refreshing, cool thing. And I know it probably doesn't take that much pressure off, but as a viewer, it made me feel a little bit less anxious for everybody.
6:57 Linda Holmes? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree.
6:58 Speaker 01 So, Rachel, let's go to the feet-on-the-ground aspect of this. I mean, you're there, but this is a very sprawling Olympics. It's all over the place, and you're not seeing everything. So are there any aspects of the home viewing experience that you kind of miss?
7:12 Speaker 03 Yeah. First and foremost, I'm very happy to be here. This is, in so many ways, way better than I imagined. I will say I have two main gripes.
7:20 Linda Holmes? Let's have it.
7:21 Speaker 03 One gripe is, and I think other people will say the same, even the trio of sports that are all happening, quote-unquote, in Milan are pretty sprawled out. It can take a while to get to and from. And once you're there, something I didn't think about from my couch is that the rinks are actually pretty cold, and so you have to dress appropriately. And both of the rinks that I've been to lately have vastly different temperatures. So in one of them, like, yesterday, I was wearing my hat as a hand warmer. And then I went to a different rink, and I was kind of, like, sweating in my layers. So I just think being able to control when you tune in, how far in advance you're teed up on your couch, how many layers you're wearing, that's kind of luxurious in comparison. And then on a more serious note, I am not a sports reporter, I'm a big fan of the Olympics,
8:05 Speaker 03 but there's a lot that I don't know unless somebody tells me about. And so when you're in the room for these things, you're not hearing the commentary, you're not hearing any sort of, like, hot mics. Like, I know that there have been some skaters, for example, who come off the ice, and they say something, and I find out about that later. It's been interesting. That was also the case for the opening ceremony, which I was very lucky to get to attend. And that was like fully a fever dream because we had a way to look at our like a guide on our phones of the symbolism of different things. But I was also, you know, taking notes on my phone. So I had to kind of toggle back and forth. And I would look up at times and just be like, what is that? And I think people at home probably had the same questions, but it is sort of nice to have that person
8:47 Speaker 03 in your ear or easily accessible in the moment to find out what that symbolism means or why that jump got docked so many points at one point. I mean, I did have really good commentators recently because I sit with other journalists who have figure skating for a long time. And so it's fun to kind of elbow them and be like, what, what? You get a lot more of the vibes of the feeling of the sounds, sights, smells, et cetera, obviously, but processing them on like a technical level is a lot harder.
9:14 Speaker 01 That's interesting.
9:15 Speaker 03 Yep.
9:15 Speaker 01 Linda, for as long as I've known you, the Winter Olympics means the return of curling, Linda. More so than the last couple, I think, but you know, and this always happens, but I think this year you're going even harder.
9:27 Speaker 03 Yeah.
9:28 Speaker 01 So say more about that. What is it about curling that intrigues you so much?
9:32 Linda Holmes? Well, one of the things that people have mentioned to me is that curling has some of the same advantages as baseball, which is the other thing I other sport that I love and adore.
9:41 Speaker 01 Unlocked it.
9:41 Linda Holmes? It's a little bit meditative. Foolish people think it's boring. It has a lot of strategy that's not necessarily entirely obvious when you come into it. I would even say throwing a curling stone, when you're doing that, you're ultimately trying to make it land in a particular place, even though it's not going to travel in a straight line, which has some comparisons to pitching. Well, and the other thing about it that I love in the case of curling is that, you know, they are mic'd. And you can listen to the entire conversation where they're saying, I don't like this shot because blah, blah, blah. I'm afraid that if we do this, they're going to do that. And I don't want to leave this lying here. And how much risk
10:22 Linda Holmes? do you think we should take? And I think it's really, really fun to be in on those conversations. I also started my curling this year, watching Corey TC and Corey Dropkin, a man and a woman who competed in the mixed doubles, who are both named Corey, which is just hilarious and adorable. They're Minnesotans and they won a silver medal in the mixed doubles. And I think I just found them really appealing. And mixed doubles is a slightly easier way to get into watching curling because the matches are a bit shorter. And the whole thing is a little bit abbreviated compared to the four person teams that compete against each other, the men's and women's teams that compete against each other. I love to watch a sport where nobody's famous. Literally in the
11:05 Linda Holmes? United States, no matter how good you are, you are not famous, except maybe for like three days at the Olympics. And so you're still going to be a person who has a job. You're still going to be a person who does other things. And it's this wonderful moment where, you know, suddenly everybody is really excited about you. And I think it's just, it's just awesome.
11:28 Speaker 01 Yeah. Rachel, you're a reporter, but you're also a person. You have likes. Do you have an event or a sport that speaks to you like curling does to Linda?
11:37 Speaker 03 Um, I don't think I can speak as eloquently about anyone's sport as Linda has about curling. And I just have to say, there's so much of it. I'm so impressed that you're watching it all. It's like the one thing that's on every single day.
11:49 Linda Holmes? Well, I certainly can't be claimed to watching it at all, but I have watched a lot.
11:53 Speaker 03 Okay. Okay. I think that's more than a lot. Yeah. But in the vein of like niche fun things that I've sort of grabbed on to, I really like the sort of stuff that's happening on the ice behind the scenes. So of course there's Zambonis, but I'm talking about like the cameraman who skates out there with his rig to film the reactions, the little kids who sit on the sides and then skate on to grab the stuffed animals that people throw, that fans throw. I really like the behind the scenes operations of that. And I'm kind of obsessed with all of those figures too. The people who patch the holes in the ice. One sport that I, or one- Category of sport that I'm pretty bummed I'm not in the same place as is all of those sliding sports. Basically, like Lynda said, the various ways to throw yourself down a track of ice as fast as humanly possible, if not faster. I am fascinated by all of
12:37 Speaker 03 them. I think skeleton especially just seems so harrowing. You're going so fast. Your head is so close to the ground. I remember talking to Mystique Rowe, who's one of the US skeleton athletes, back at a media event last year. And she was saying that she's afraid of roller coasters. And I feel like all of those athletes are kind of like the SNL sketch making fun of it. Like, it is really scary, no matter how many times you do it, I think. But I'm really happy for Alana Myers-Taylor getting that gold in front of her kids. I think there have been so many amazing, heartwarming sliding stories. And the new women's doubles luge event is super cool. The memes are hilarious. But in all seriousness, I think it's very cool that they're adding more ways for women to participate. And I also
13:18 Speaker 03 am really partial to all the videos of normies like Colin Jost trying out the bobsled. I think it's really puts it in perspective how absolutely terrifying it must be. So the sliding sports, I hope to pay, I hope to pay even more attention to it than next Olympics. But from what I've been able to watch, even from Milan, it has really been amazing.
13:36 Linda Holmes? Yeah, and I think like for celebrity rando sliding, I also would give a shout to Flavor Flav and his skeleton run. Out of all of the celebrities who sort of show up at the Olympics and end up, you know, doing various different like promo type things at the Olympics, Flavor Flav, I think, is my favorite. Because he also has a history of like bankrolling teams and financially supporting them. And he's like, he seems to be just like, super serious about his support of the Olympics. And I absolutely love Flavor Flav at the Olympics is one of my favorite things. And he had a, as I said, a skeleton run. Skeleton is so terrifying to me. You just have to be a certain kind of person, which I'm not.
14:19 Speaker 03 Very iconic hype man.
14:20 Speaker 01 All right, well, that's what we think about the Olympics from afar and from on the ground. We want to know what you think about the 2026 Winter Olympics. Find us at facebook.com slash PCHH. And you can read more about Rachel's experience covering the home stretch of the Games and the closing ceremony. And NPR's Rachel Goes to the Games newsletter at npr.org slash Winter Games. Go there. It's great. I love it a lot. Up next, what's making us happy this week.
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16:05 Speaker 01 Now it is time for our favorite segment of this week and every week. What is making us happy this week? Linda, what's making you happy this week?
16:12 Linda Holmes? Well, I want to talk about a book that just came out this week. It is a book called Murder at 30,000 Feet. It is by Susan Walter. I am a person who reads a lot of thrillers, a lot of like mystery thriller type things. This is what you would call a locked room mystery in that it involves something that happens in a room that it would appear that it has to involve somebody who was there. But the version of the locked room here is a plane in flight. So it's about a murder that takes place on a plane in flight. And there is an air marshal, and there is a baseball team, and there are some parents, and there is a connection to a scandal from the
16:54 Linda Holmes? Town that the baseball team is from and there's a baseball bat that comes into play.
16:59 Speaker 01 Yeah, sure.
17:00 Linda Holmes? I really liked it. I found it really engaging, quick. It's just the kind of mystery slash thriller that I just find very pleasurable to tear through. I think I read it in either one sitting or two. Again, it's called Murder at 30,000 Feet by Susan Walter. And definitely, definitely recommend.
17:20 Speaker 01 All right. Great pick. Thank you very much. Rachel, what is making you happy this week?
17:25 Speaker 03 So I have been listening to the same audiobook for a couple of weeks in between running around at the Olympics and other various activities, and that is Ina Garten's memoir, which she reads on audiobook. It's called Be Ready When the Luck Happens, which I will admit the title really got me, especially this month. I have really, really enjoyed it. There was so much I didn't know about her. She used to work in energy policy at the White House. Of course, I know about Jeffrey and their amazing romance. But I've really enjoyed learning about someone who has sort of been a figure my whole life, consuming media and food and food media. I also just think it's delightful to hear her talk about the problems that she was dealing with, some of which are very serious, starting a business, being sort of thrust into this celebrity role
18:09 Speaker 03 and trying to stay true to herself, but also like renovating her second apartment in Paris and trying to figure out how to make gourmet food sell when people don't always want to spend that much money on a brownie. So I have really enjoyed hearing her power her way through problem solving, some things that I will hopefully or maybe never have to deal with. But like the thing that really hooked me in early is when she talks about not wanting to keep working in energy policy. And she says, I don't want to write papers about enriched uranium. I want to bake cookies. And I feel like in the wintertime, as I was packing for this trip and then taking the metro all around Milan, that really hit home. So that's Ina Garten's audiobook memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens.
18:48 Speaker 01 Okay. Thank you very much, Rachel. All right. What's making me happy this week? Strip Law is a new adult animated comedy on Netflix. Adam Scott voices a very schlubby, kind of down on his luck lawyer in Las Vegas, who realizes that the only way he can succeed in Vegas is by Adding some razzmatazz, some showbiz to his practice. He gets some help from a magician voiced by Janelle James, who shows him that the only way to win over this city's incredibly dirtbaggy judges and juries is with cheap stunts and shenanigans. Now, that sounds almost like an actual premise. This show doesn't care about the premise. It doesn't care about anything. It just goes big. It's dumb. It's goofy. It takes nothing seriously. But the jokes land. It combines two things I don't care about, which are lawyer shows in Las Vegas.
19:33 Speaker 01 But the writing is really sharp and the jokes come fast. And I mean, I can't with this voice cast, right? I mean, it's targeted to the glens of the world. You got Scott, you got James, you got Steven Root. You got Keith David, right? You got Paul Leftonkin shows up on the episode two. What am I, made of stone here? It's for me. I'll be honest, I was on the fence. And then in the second episode, there was this blink and you'll miss it joke that's like Zendaya is Meetchy joke that just comes and goes. And I was like, well, damn it.
20:00 Linda Holmes? I was just thinking about that the other day.
20:02 Speaker 01 There it is. I mean, it's for me. It's Strip Law on Netflix. And that is what is making me happy this week. If you want links for what we recommended, plus some more recommendations, sign up for our newsletter at npr.org/popculturenewsletter. And that brings us to the end of our show. Rachel Treisman, thank you for being here. Linda Holmes, thank you.
20:21 Linda Holmes? Thank you, buddy.
20:22 Speaker 03 Thank you.
20:23 Speaker 01 This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Hafsa Fatma and Mike Katsev, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. And Hello, Come In provides our theme music, of course. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Glen Weldon, and we'll see you all next week.
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