‘Heated Rivalry’ is a steamy export from a frigid place

Today's story: When a Canadian producer pitched a TV adaptation of a gay hockey romance novel, major U.S. streamers hesitated. It was about a niche sport, featured explicit same-sex scenes, and was based on a romance novel. But a smaller Canadian platform took a chance on the story, and the series became a massive hit in Canada and around the world. Its success surprised everyone. But the clues to its success were there all along. Transcript & Exercises: Get the full story and learning resources: -- Plain English helps you improve your English: Learn about the world and improve your English Clear, natural English at a speed you can understand New stories every week Learn even more at PlainEnglish.com Mentioned in this episode: Hard words? No problem Never be confused by difficult words in Plain English again! See translations of the hardest words and phrases from English to your language. Each episode transcript includes built-in translations into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Turkish. Sign up for a free 14-day trial at PlainEnglish.com

You can listen to ‘Heated Rivalry’ is a steamy export from a frigid place online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

‘Heated Rivalry’ is a steamy export from a frigid place is an episode from Plain English Podcast | Learn English | Practice English with Current Events at the Right Speed for Learners by Jeff B. | Chicago, IL, USA | Helping you upgrade your English every week.

This episode is 15:51 long.

This episode was published on Mar 2, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Plain English Podcast | Learn English | Practice English with Current Events at the Right Speed for Learners when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.