<p>The gay romance show Heated Rivalry brought an influx of attention to hockey, and gold-medal winning performances from both the women’s and men’s American teams seemed to be priming the NHL for a fresh, diverse group of fans. Then Kash Patel showed up in the men’s locker room.</p><br><p>Guest:&nbsp; <a href="https://www.threads.com/@thefrankiedlc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Frankie de la Cretaz</a>, writer at the intersection of sports, gender, culture, and queerness, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1645036626/?tag=slatmaga-20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Hail Mary: the Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League</em></a><em> </em>and <a href="https://www.thefrankiedlc.news/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Out of Your League</a> newsletter.</p><br><p>Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at<a href="http://slate.com/whatnextplus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> slate.com/whatnextplus</a> to get access wherever you listen.</p><br><p>Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther. </p><br><p><br></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>