steady state podcast
Steady State Podcast reframes the popular, yet limited narrative about rowing culture. We celebrate the expansive array of rowers, coaches, and coxswains in a podcast designed to savor real-life experience from launch to cox seat at every level.
SPECIAL SERIES:
Heart Attacks, Emergency Preparedness, and Response
Rethinking Flying Solo: Bill Byrd Has a Change of Heart
Bill Byrd has been rowing for nearly six decades and was a founding member of Willamette Rowing Club in Portland Oregon. One morning in 2018, he suffered a heart attack while training in his single. This is a story about living well, being prepared, the power of having all hands on deck, and survival.
Bonnie Garmus: Life Lessons in Balance
Bonnie Garmus was a competitive masters rower for years before an offhand comment during a business meeting prompted her to begin writing her first novel, "Lessons in Chemistry," which has been adapted into a hit Apple TV+ series. Everyone wants to talk with Bonnie about the book’s main character, Elizabeth Zott, so we turned the table to ask Bonnie about the role rowing plays in her life – and her best selling novel.
Giving and Getting Support: Burnham Boat Slings’ Peter Kermond
Peter Kermond has been the face and voice of Burnham Boat Slings since purchasing the business in 1999. When he's not in the shop, or out rowing, he is probably manning a Burnham booth at a regatta. That’s where we met him – at Head of the Charles – in 2022, just a month after he survived a widow maker heart attack. Peter and his wife Carin Reynolds are both successful national team and masters rowers and high school coaches. They are a testament to teamwork, as they navigated Peter’s health emergency and rehabilitation, and his return to racing.
How to Thrive: Lessons from ZLAC, the World's Oldest Women's Rowing Club
Established in 1892, ZLAC's unique structure allows for both competitive and social memberships. You don't have to row. New members are added to generational Crews to bolster cross-program and boathouse interaction and provide personal connections to members in a similar age range for support. As far as we know, ZLAC is unique in this offering. Be prepared to take notes and consider what more your club could do to help build and sustain community.
Sue and John Hooten's Mutual Admiration Society
A member of the first U.S. women’s Olympic team and a longtime masters rower, Sue Hooten has a lifetime of rowing memories. She learned to row in California in the early 1970s, really appreciated the boathouse sock box in Philadelphia, and has raced around the world. In March 2018, her husband, former National Team and Vesper Boat Club coach John Hooten, had a medical emergency on the water while training in his 1x. He was out with his training partner, without a coach, and – like most rowers – was not wearing a PFD.
For One Heart Attack Survivor, the Beat Goes On
HEART EMERGENCY SERIES: PART 1 - David Setter and his wife were pushing through a tough gym workout when suddenly he didn’t feel well. He describes his heart attack that days as “feeling like the 1500m mark of a 2k,” despite a massive blockage that could have killed him. They tell us about remaining calm in the moment, motivation in rehab, and learning to find more joy in rowing.
Coach Libby Boghossian Picks Up Where SafeSport Leaves Off
Teens are aware of stranger danger from a really young age, but most of them have never thought about misconduct from known adults. Using SafeSport training as a springboard, Coach Libby Boghossian leads in-depth discussions with her Brookline High School rowers about the concepts of consent, power imbalance, and coercion.
The Jen Huffman Connection
After guilt-tripping her son into learning to row, Jenn followed suit. At 38 she stepped into a boat for the first time and quickly became an accomplished masters rower. She also gained new appreciation for her grandpa – Joe Rantz – who was a member of the 1936 University of Washington V8 that won Olympic gold in Berlin. By unlikely happenstance, Joe’s scrapbooks became the spark for The Boys in the Boat.
2023: Year in Review
In this special episode, co-hosts Rachel Freedman and Tara Morgan take a look back at 2023. Go behind the scenes of Steady State Podcast to learn more about Rachel and Tara's rowing careers, listen to clips from some of their favorite season 4 episodes, consider their big takeaways from interviews with nearly 40 guests in the past 12 months, and get a peak at what's to come in Season 5 in 2024.
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