Broomgate: A Curling Scandal

4.8 (270)
COMEDY
WEEKLY SERIES

For years, players have been too afraid to talk about it. But now, the truth about a broom that almost destroyed curling is finally coming out. Over the course of six episodes, semi-professional curler and fully professional comedian John Cullen (Blocked Party) is exposing the unbelievable, never-before-told scandal that rocked the sport of curling. Yes, curling.

EPISODE 1

E1: The Mystery Broom

It’s 2015 and we’re at the international Grand Slam of Curling, hosted in Paradise, Newfoundland. A team led by home crowd favourite Brad Gushue debuts a new and strikingly effective new technique. Instead of sweeping the way curlers always have with two brooms, they’re using only one. Within weeks, every competitive curling team on the planet would switch to this technique and the special broom that enabled it. It was the start of the biggest scandal in curling history.

27 min
EPISODE 2

E2: Magic Mike

Flush with an infusion of cash from investors the brothers behind the Hardline Curling company are ready to take their revolutionary curling broom into the world. Now all they need is to convince a bonafide superstar to use it. Enter Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen.

23 min
EPISODE 3

E3: The Chess Master

Some people say Brad Gushue, Olympic gold medalist and world title holder, plays the sport of curling with the strategy and cunning of a chess grandmaster. So when he starts losing to two particular teams, he takes a closer look at why and he zeroes in on their brooms.

24 min
EPISODE 4

E4: Rumble at High Park

Another company, BalancePlus, decides to get into the broom modification game to challenge the Hardline broom. It all comes to a messy confrontation when teams go head to head at a 2015 bonspiel. The ice ends up shredded — and an emergency meeting is convened in Toronto to decide what to do.

30 min
EPISODE 5

E5: Sweeping Summit

For as long as curling has been a game there was nothing in the rulebook about brooms, and so players had nowhere to turn when Broomgate hit. Tensions kept growing, and there were near blow ups and confrontations on-ice. What’s a World Curling Federation to do? Create a sweeping summit — and decide the future of the sport forever.

33 min
EPISODE 6

EP 6: Broom to Broom

Host John Cullen has a heart-to-heart with producer Kathleen Goldhar about curling, Broomgate, and all the bonus stories they left on the cutting room floor.

29 min

See All Season 1 (6)

TRAILER

Introducing Broomgate: A Curling Scandal

A six-part series that tells the never-before-told story of how a broom almost killed curling. Featuring interviews with some of the biggest names in curling — and the men behind the infamous broom. Releasing May 6, 2024.

2024-04-25

•

3 min

Celebrate the beauty and messiness of human connection. Real stories of real, complicated relationships. How does it feel when your dead mom’s Italian ex-lover won’t stop writing you? Or when you try to connect with your queer identity by... doing drag as your grandpa? Award-winning documentary storytelling that cuts right to the heart. Season 4 coming October 6. Hosted by Lu Olkowski. Produced by Mira Burt-Wintonick and Cristal Duhaime. Have feedback or questions about the show? Reach us at: loveme@cbc.ca

4.5 (514)

SOCIETY & CULTURE
In a moment of fate in 2017, Dane is gifted a bundle of old love letters and theatrical scripts. They were written by a man named Daryl Allen in the years before AIDS took his life in 1991. Daryl was a bisexual man and amateur playwright who lived in San Francisco through the 70s and 80s. Along with the letters, Dane is given a task: tell Daryl’s story and give his theatrical work the audience it lost when his life was cut short by HIV. Over the next five years, Dane settles into the role of detective, using Daryl’s letters to track down his exes, his old friends, and his relatives. Dane is taken from Montreal to San Francisco,from small-town Kansas to the Vietnam War. As his investigation unfolds, Dane discovers striking similarities between himself and Daryl, raising questions about how the AIDS crisis shaped today’s queer communities and launching a dialogue between generations. Part investigation, part historical documentary, and part love story, Resurrection asks us what we leave behind when we go. While HIV/AIDS is a major theme, Daryl’s story proves that for every person lost to AIDS, there’s a life story that started long before a diagnosis and is just waiting to be resurrected. Get lost in someone else’s life. From a mysterious childhood spent on the run, to a courageous escape from domestic violence, each season of Personally invites you to explore the human experience in all its complexity, one story — or season — at a time. This is what it sounds like to be human. Hear episodes early and ad-free on CBC Stories Premium on Apple Podcasts. Season 1 | Run, Hide, Repeat: a story of a childhood spent on the run. Season 2 | Welcome to Paradise: a courageous escape from domestic violence. Season 3 | Short Sighted: an attempt to explain what vision loss feels like by exploring how it sounds. Season 4 | Sorry About The Kid: an emotional, deeply personal meditation on the loss of a sibling. Season 5 | Toy Soldier: The unbelievable story of a Jewish boy amongst Nazis. Season 6 | Forever is a Long Time: Every living member of Ian Coss' family who has been married has gotten divorced. Can his marriage end differently? Season 7 | NO: Kaitlin Prest found herself wondering if the world forgot the lessons that shook 2017.

4.5 (526)

DOCUMENTARY
Normally, therapy sessions are totally confidential — but this podcast opens the doors. In this season of Other People’s Problems, Dr. Hillary McBride explores the transformative power of psychedelics in a therapeutic setting. With her psychological expertise, Dr. Hillary leads her clients through drug-assisted therapy, guiding them to new heights on their healing journeys. Experience these real, unscripted sessions firsthand as they unfold in each episode. This season offers an unprecedented look at psychedelic psychotherapy, breaking new ground in the podcast space and demystifying this often misunderstood practice as a powerful tool in trauma recovery. Season 5 of Other People’s Problems will be available everywhere on May 12, 2025. Hear episodes early and ad-free on CBC Stories Premium.

4.5 (766)

SOCIETY & CULTURE
If you’ve ever been to Newfoundland, you know it’s a place where fog can envelop you so deeply, you don’t know where you’re going or where you came from. When two men, born in the same rural Newfoundland hospital on the same day, discover an unbelievable 52-year-old secret, it changes the way they see themselves forever. But this isn’t the end of the story. Because it turns out these men are not alone. A series of other close calls and near misses have begun to emerge, and not only at Come by Chance hospital. Come By Chance is a story about what it means to belong in a family — and how a twist of fate can upend the life you thought you knew. Hosted by Luke Quinton. Seven episodes releasing Tuesday, June 4, 2024.

4.6 (153)

SOCIETY & CULTURE
Kaitlin Prest, creator and host of the Prix-Italia winner The Heart, presents the first audio fiction from CBC Podcasts. The Shadows is a story about the anatomy of a relationship: a crush, a choice, a resentment, and an end. Named an Apple Podcasts Series Essential.

4.5 (226)

ARTS
If laughter really was the best medicine, Gavin Crawford would have cured his mother of Alzheimer’s disease. As a son, his mother’s dementia has been devastating. As a comedian though… it’s been sort of funny. Honestly, how do you respond when your mom confuses you with her teenage crush and wants you to take her to the high-school dance? Well, you laugh. Because it’s the only thing you can do. In this seven-part series, Gavin tells the story of losing his mother — his best friend and the inspiration for a lot of his comedy — to a disease that can be heartbreaking, but sometimes also hilarious. He’s joined by comedian friends who share their experience caring for family members with dementia. The result is a cross between an improv act and a support group. Part memoir, part stand-up, part meditation on grief and loss, Let’s Not Be Kidding is a dose of the very best medicine for anyone dealing with hard times. Listen ad-free by subscribing to the CBC Stories Premium channel on Apple Podcasts (apple.co/cbcstories). For more content from Gavin, check out Because News: cbc.ca/becausenews

4.8 (472)

COMEDY

View Subscription FAQs

John Cullen

Host

4.8

out of 5

270 Ratings

Great podcast

Jan 16

Mppp85

Great podcast but it does feel like John is maybe a bit too close to the story and had a slight bias to the hardline side of the story. An example would be mentioning 3 times in Ep5 that McEwen was not invited to the summit, but never mentioning no one from Team Howard or Epping was there either.
Broomgate is fantastic

2024-11-19

xcvb189

I thought this was a fabulous podcast. Thanks for the great work.
Terrible name

Jan 3

Pointy91919

I have listened to a few minutes of this but I just can’t continue. The use of ‘gate’ just sends me into a rage - not just in this case but in any scandal that has nothing to do with Nixon or the Watergate hotel or for that matter gates themselves. It is laziness at its peak. Inflategate, ferrygate, bingogate and it goes on and on and on. I just can’t take it seriously and I will not support its use in any scandal naming conventions except of course for Watergate itself - in fact why not call it Curlingwater or Inflatewater?
Theme music top notch

2024-12-07

Thescriptguy

Just a shout out to the theme music team. Well done! You nailed the vibe and made it whole unique to the content of the show without becoming cheese. Great work. Show is also good! T

For years, players have been too afraid to talk about it. But now, the truth about a broom that almost destroyed curling is finally coming out. Over the course of six episodes, semi-professional curler and fully professional comedian John Cullen (Blocked Party) is exposing the unbelievable, never-before-told scandal that rocked the sport of curling. Yes, curling.