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.

Head of the Charles Announcing Committee co-chair, USRowing Para High Performance Director, and Massachusetts native Ellen Minzner. From walk on at Villanova to 5-time National Team member, to her transition into coaching and program development Ellen saw the long game: changing the status quo of her clubs, organizations, and communities. She also gives a peek behind the curtains at the world’s premier annual rowing competition - the Head of the Charles - from her vantage point in the announcers booth on top of Cambridge Boat Club.

In 2002, Lindsay Dare Shoop reluctantly walked-on at the University of Virginia. Within a year she became an NCAA Division I All American. In four years she broke a world record and earned her first World Championship. Within six years her hard work manifested a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Today she seeks to help others remove self-imposed limitations. This Fall, 20 years after it all began, the author of Better Great Than Never returns to UVA as an assistant coach, paying it forward.

This thought-provoking conversation considers serendipity, struggle, pressures on student athletes, walk-ons, team-building, rowing for life, Head of the Charles (and being coxed by Mary Whipple), and a whole lot more.

“Physical limitations only exist if you’re willing to find them.” That’s the philosophy of Mitch King, coxswain for River City Rowing Club in Sacramento, CA. Every day he does countless things that doctors said were impossible when he was a kid diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. Mitch doesn’t call himself a disability advocate, doesn’t want to be an inspiration, and would rather folks didn’t try to tiptoe around his disability. We talk balancing coxing with graduate school, developing a coxing style, team building, motivation on the erg, and shattering expectations.

That place a lot of us call a second home – the boathouse – is on land with a long history. And the waterways we dip our oars in once provided sustenance. Know Where You Row is a campaign across the United States and Canada to explore the spaces and places where we row, which have been – and continue to be – the lands of the native peoples who, for centuries, have stewarded them.

The World's Toughest Row is a 2,800-mile race across the Pacific Ocean. On June 12, 2024, Hannah Huppi, Phil Doyle, and Hunter Deuel of Horizon Racing, will join 20+ teams to shove off in Monterey, CA and race to Kauai, HI in unsupported, man-powered ocean rowing boats. We talk about star-gazing, rowing into the unknown, competitive drive, Cheez-Its, and fundraising for Laureus Sport For Good USA.

Gender Identity Policies series, part 4. The current USRowing gender inclusion policy leaves transgender, non-binary, and other gender nonconforming rowers with very few opportunities to race. Non-binary rower Dr. David Scherzer, and transgender rower/coach Bobbi Kizer, PhD explore their personal journeys with the sport and what policies and petitions mean for the future of rowing.

Gender Identity Policies series, part 3. Kevin Harris’s coaching career began in the early 1990s and culminated with 20+ years at the helm of the University of Tulsa women’s rowing program. Harris offers an in-depth and thought-provoking perspective on DEI, the importance of boathouses as welcoming spaces, the prevalence of transgender and non-binary rowers in the United States, and gender inclusion policies.

Chicago Rowing Union (CRU) is the Midwest's only LGBTQ+ rowing organization, and one of just a few such clubs in the world. CRU member and social media manager Michael Toutloff talks with us about the importance of safe spaces and being yourself, finding community and competition on the water, and proudly flying the flag at regattas.