Since Rookie Season Podcast

Welcome to Since Rookie Season, a Heated Rivalry fan companion podcast, where your hosts, Amanda, Lau, and Lauren break down the episodes from the Crave Canada television series, the Game Changers novels, and various media surrounding this fan phenomenon.

Amanda (they/them) is Since Rookie Season’s gen-z representative, mediator, and editor. They have two B.S., one of which in Sociology, and have a strong interest in feminist theory and intersectionality. They grew up playing roller hockey but have no other awareness in hockey other than what Lauren says. Having engaged in fandom since childhood, Amanda is excited to delve deep into both fandom and media analysis and explore nuances in this universe.

Laura - Lau (she/her) is Since Rookie Season’s language, narrative, and on-screen intimacy expert. She has a PhD in Romance Studies from Duke University and her research focuses contemporary Francophone, Creolophone, and Hispanic narratives, trauma informed pedagogy and arts, romances languages and translation, Queer Studies, and Haitian Studies. She also has training as a Consent-forward artist from the Intimacy Professional Association. She is a big fan of queer stories in all formats!

Lauren (they/them) is Since Rookie Season’s fan and hockey guru and intersectionality extraordinaire. They have a PhD in Texts and Technology from the University of Central Florida (where they met their bestie, Amanda) and their research is situated at the intersections of fan and audience studies, media studies and disability studies. Their work is interdisciplinary, and connects to the larger fields of critical platform studies, online labor, and race, gender and sexuality studies. They have been a hockey fan for several years and support the Chicago Blackhawks (*sigh*), the Minnesota Frost, Laila Edwards, the haunted Victorian child that lives inside of Quinn Hughes, and the Big Boy that is Matt Rempe. They are a life long romance reader and fandom enjoyer, and were deeply involved in the heyday of 2010s tumblr.