Every sports fan has a defining moment — and for Victoria Matiash, it started with heartbreak. She shares her number one sports memory from her university days, when skipping class for a ticket led to a lifetime of fandom. From the sound of the crowd to the scale of the moment, Victoria recalls how the 1985 loss wasn’t an ending but the spark that kept her hooked, waiting for the payoff.
This conversation moves from nostalgia to connection — exploring how sports build community, shape identity, and still give us chills decades later.

GUEST:
 Victoria Matiash

Originally aired on 2025-10-23

Every sports fan has a defining moment &mdash; and for Victoria Matiash, it started with heartbreak. She shares her number one sports memory from her university days, when skipping class for a ticket led to a lifetime of fandom. From the sound of the crowd to the scale of the moment, Victoria recalls how the 1985 loss wasn&rsquo;t an ending but the spark that kept her hooked, waiting for the payoff. This conversation moves from nostalgia to connection &mdash; exploring how sports build community, shape identity, and still give us chills decades later.
GUEST: Victoria Matiash
Originally aired on&nbsp;2025-10-23

Shane Hewitt & The Nightshift is your late-night companion for real talk, bold ideas, and unfiltered conversations that matter. Hosted by Canadian radio veteran Shane Hewitt, each episode dives into the headlines, human stories, and hidden truths shaping our world—always with curiosity, compassion, and a sharp edge.

From politics and pop culture to mental health, technology, and everyday life, this podcast is where night owls, deep thinkers, and curious minds come to connect. Featuring expert guests, passionate callers, and Shane’s signature style—thoughtful, fearless, and refreshingly real.

If you crave meaningful dialogue, smart perspectives, and late-night radio energy in podcast form, subscribe now and join The Nightshift.

Shane Hewitt &amp; The Nightshift is your late-night companion for real talk, bold ideas, and unfiltered conversations that matter. Hosted by Canadian radio veteran Shane Hewitt, each episode dives into the headlines, human stories, and hidden truths shaping our world&mdash;always with curiosity, compassion, and a sharp edge.
From politics and pop culture to mental health, technology, and everyday life, this podcast is where night owls, deep thinkers, and curious minds come to connect. Featuring expert guests, passionate callers, and Shane&rsquo;s signature style&mdash;thoughtful, fearless, and refreshingly real.
If you crave meaningful dialogue, smart perspectives, and late-night radio energy in podcast form, subscribe now and join The Nightshift.

Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift

Shane Hewitt is known for his engaging and relatable on-air personality, which captivates listeners. His ability to blend insightful commentary with humour and empathy creates a genuine connection with listeners.  Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift provides relatable content, informative discussions and expert insights – along with a balance of anecdotes and entertainment.

Shane Hewitt is known for his engaging and relatable on-air personality, which captivates listeners. His ability to blend insightful commentary with humour and empathy creates a genuine connection with listeners.  Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift provides relatable content, informative discussions and expert insights – along with a balance of anecdotes and entertainment.

NEW - The Game That Made a Fan: Victoria Matiash on Heartbreak, Hope, and Hockey Magic

Celebrity meet and greet transactions follow predictable patterns when you appear once. You're in line for your ten-second window with someone from something you genuinely love. The interaction stays surface level. Forced smile. Generic acknowledgment. Walk away deflated. Greg Sestero from The Room meets thousands at cult film screenings since the 2000s. First encounter provides exactly this experience. So does the second.

Pattern breaks somewhere between encounter four and five. Edmonton 2016: standard meet-and-greet treatment. Calgary events building slowly from generic "hey sport" to actual recognition. Fifth encounter: random sidewalk meeting outside sold out show. Greg stops, points, "I know you," offers free tickets. The conversion required thirty viewings of the worst film ever made. Multiple years of showing up. Each event adding incremental recognition until transactional treatment shifts to genuine connection. Opposite approach exists: Baltimore airport, mystery TV actor keeping head down while fan loses composure taking pictures. Rental car line allows acknowledgment of weirdness without demanding identification. Boundaries maintained, interaction stays respectful.

Recognition requires accumulated presence. Transaction stays transaction when you only show up once because celebrities meet too many people to remember single encounters. The number between deflation and connection is somewhere around five.

Topics: celebrity meet and greet expectations, fan recognition strategy, The Room cult phenomenon, repeated celebrity encounters, respectful boundaries

RUNDOWN: The team breaks down how five separate Greg Sestero encounters over multiple years converted generic treatment into genuine recognition, and why respectful boundaries matter in both repeated and one-time celebrity interactions.

 

Celebrity meet and greet transactions follow predictable patterns when you appear once. You're in line for your ten-second window with someone from something you genuinely love. The interaction stays surface level. Forced smile. Generic acknowledgment. Walk away deflated. Greg Sestero from The Room meets thousands at cult film screenings since the 2000s. First encounter provides exactly this experience. So does the second.
Pattern breaks somewhere between encounter four and five. Edmonton 2016: standard meet-and-greet treatment. Calgary events building slowly from generic "hey sport" to actual recognition. Fifth encounter: random sidewalk meeting outside sold out show. Greg stops, points, "I know you," offers free tickets. The conversion required thirty viewings of the worst film ever made. Multiple years of showing up. Each event adding incremental recognition until transactional treatment shifts to genuine connection. Opposite approach exists: Baltimore airport, mystery TV actor keeping head down while fan loses composure taking pictures. Rental car line allows acknowledgment of weirdness without demanding identification. Boundaries maintained, interaction stays respectful.
Recognition requires accumulated presence. Transaction stays transaction when you only show up once because celebrities meet too many people to remember single encounters. The number between deflation and connection is somewhere around five.
Topics: celebrity meet and greet expectations, fan recognition strategy, The Room cult phenomenon, repeated celebrity encounters, respectful boundaries
RUNDOWN: The team breaks down how five separate Greg Sestero encounters over multiple years converted generic treatment into genuine recognition, and why respectful boundaries matter in both repeated and one-time celebrity interactions.
&nbsp;

Most Fans Get "Hey Sport," Ryan Got “Hey I Know You!”

Valentine's Day expectations hit different when Dr. Betsy Chung asks the question you're not ready for. You're seeing ads pour in, urgency building, pressure mounting to do something for Valentine's Day. Flowers so expensive, heart-shaped chocolates everywhere, commercialism creating panic where guy's card gets declined in flower shop line and multiple men fight over who gets to pay for him. Meanwhile Betsy gives her clients a choice: do you want a fulfilling relationship where you feel close to them, or do you kind of just want to do your own thing and you guys are just coexisting with each other? Just because a relationship lasts doesn't mean it's working. A lot of people stay in relationships for life and it ends up becoming something where they're just kind of roommates.

You're thinking until the kids grow up and then we'll fall in love again. That timeline adds more pressure without fixing roommate mode. What actually deposits into relationship isn't February 14th gesture. It's learning to appreciate your partner, not even just who they are as people, but how they contribute to your day to day and how they are being a partner to you. Example: my partner leaves work early every Thursday to go pick up the kids because on that particular day there's this meeting that I have to stay late for. Little things like that we tend to overlook in terms of types of sacrifices or accommodations two people make. As human beings we are kind of built to look for all the problems all the time.

The workbook first exercise is learning how to appreciate your partner. The Valentine's Day ad sells you flowers. The actual relationship work is noticing Thursday afternoon schedule adjustments. One costs $80 and lasts a week. The other is free and compounds.

Topics: Valentine's Day pressure, relationship roommates, partner appreciation, intimacy work, long-term relationships, daily contributions

GUEST: Dr. Betsy Chung | Dr. Betsy Chung Psychotherapy | Relationship Expert and Therapist | California, USA , author of The Couples Skills Workbook

RUNDOWN: Dr. Betsy Chung contrasts Valentine's Day commercial pressure with actual relationship deposits, asking whether couples want fulfillment or are okay coexisting as roommates while kids grow up.

Valentine's Day expectations hit different when Dr. Betsy Chung asks the question you're not ready for. You're seeing ads pour in, urgency building, pressure mounting to do something for Valentine's Day. Flowers so expensive, heart-shaped chocolates everywhere, commercialism creating panic where guy's card gets declined in flower shop line and multiple men fight over who gets to pay for him. Meanwhile Betsy gives her clients a choice: do you want a fulfilling relationship where you feel close to them, or do you kind of just want to do your own thing and you guys are just coexisting with each other? Just because a relationship lasts doesn't mean it's working. A lot of people stay in relationships for life and it ends up becoming something where they're just kind of roommates.
You're thinking until the kids grow up and then we'll fall in love again. That timeline adds more pressure without fixing roommate mode. What actually deposits into relationship isn't February 14th gesture. It's learning to appreciate your partner, not even just who they are as people, but how they contribute to your day to day and how they are being a partner to you. Example: my partner leaves work early every Thursday to go pick up the kids because on that particular day there's this meeting that I have to stay late for. Little things like that we tend to overlook in terms of types of sacrifices or accommodations two people make. As human beings we are kind of built to look for all the problems all the time.
The workbook first exercise is learning how to appreciate your partner. The Valentine's Day ad sells you flowers. The actual relationship work is noticing Thursday afternoon schedule adjustments. One costs $80 and lasts a week. The other is free and compounds.
Topics: Valentine's Day pressure, relationship roommates, partner appreciation, intimacy work, long-term relationships, daily contributions
GUEST: Dr. Betsy Chung | <a href="http://drbetsychung.com/" data-testid="inline-card-resolved-view">Dr. Betsy Chung Psychotherapy | Relationship Expert and Therapist | California, USA</a> , author of The Couples Skills Workbook
RUNDOWN: Dr. Betsy Chung contrasts Valentine's Day commercial pressure with actual relationship deposits, asking whether couples want fulfillment or are okay coexisting as roommates while kids grow up.

The Relationship Question You're Avoiding While Shopping for Heart-Shaped Chocolates

Missile defense spending just hit a new level of absurd. You're being told a shield will protect North America from nuclear attack. The current system? Fifty percent success rate in scripted tests where defenders know exactly when and where the missile is coming. Oh, and it only works in daytime. You're essentially watching your government consider paying for a system that fails half the time under perfect conditions and goes blind after sunset.

Trump wants $61 billion from Canada for Golden Dome or he threatens annexation. The math is backwards. Noakes points out you could pay Trump, Xi, and Putin a billion dollars each per year for the rest of their lives to not fire missiles and still spend less. The program offers zero civilian technology spinoffs unlike past defense projects. The physics haven't changed since the 1980s when Reagan bought into laser fantasies from defense contractors. Intercepting a falling warhead is like shooting a bullet with another bullet, except the bullet costs a trillion dollars and misses most of the time.

This isn't about protection. Russia spent four years and hundreds of billions in Ukraine and accomplished essentially nothing, yet somehow poses an existential missile threat worth bankrupting three superpowers to defend against. The real threat is decision-makers choosing fear-based spending over information sovereignty.

Topics: missile defense spending, Golden Dome program, Canada defense budget, Strategic Defense Initiative, Iron Dome limitations

GUEST: Taylor C Noakes | http://Taylornoakes.com

RUNDOWN: Historian Taylor C Noakes breaks down why Trump's Golden Dome missile defense system is a trillion-dollar fantasy based on 1980s Star Wars technology that never worked, and why Canada's $61 billion ransom payment makes less sense than just bribing world leaders directly.

Missile defense spending just hit a new level of absurd. You're being told a shield will protect North America from nuclear attack. The current system? Fifty percent success rate in scripted tests where defenders know exactly when and where the missile is coming. Oh, and it only works in daytime. You're essentially watching your government consider paying for a system that fails half the time under perfect conditions and goes blind after sunset.
Trump wants $61 billion from Canada for Golden Dome or he threatens annexation. The math is backwards. Noakes points out you could pay Trump, Xi, and Putin a billion dollars each per year for the rest of their lives to not fire missiles and still spend less. The program offers zero civilian technology spinoffs unlike past defense projects. The physics haven't changed since the 1980s when Reagan bought into laser fantasies from defense contractors. Intercepting a falling warhead is like shooting a bullet with another bullet, except the bullet costs a trillion dollars and misses most of the time.
This isn't about protection. Russia spent four years and hundreds of billions in Ukraine and accomplished essentially nothing, yet somehow poses an existential missile threat worth bankrupting three superpowers to defend against. The real threat is decision-makers choosing fear-based spending over information sovereignty.
Topics: missile defense spending, Golden Dome program, Canada defense budget, Strategic Defense Initiative, Iron Dome limitations
GUEST: Taylor C Noakes | <a href="http://Taylornoakes.com" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="">http://Taylornoakes.com</a>
RUNDOWN: Historian Taylor C Noakes breaks down why Trump's Golden Dome missile defense system is a trillion-dollar fantasy based on 1980s Star Wars technology that never worked, and why Canada's $61 billion ransom payment makes less sense than just bribing world leaders directly.

NEW - The Game That Made a Fan: Victoria Matiash on Heartbreak, Hope, and Hockey Magic

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