Sports stories for the next hurdle.
Hurdle with Emily Abbate blends women-in-sport interviews with brisk personal reflections on effort, identity, and recovery. Recent episodes move from athlete styling and sports storytelling to ski mountaineering, hockey representation, morning routines, and fertility decisions.
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Hurdle with Emily Abbate sits at the intersection of women’s sports, wellness, and personal ambition. It has the energy of a runner checking in mid-stride: alert, reflective, and always looking for the next useful lesson. The interview episodes bring in athletes and sports-adjacent voices to talk through careers, confidence, identity, and performance. The Friday episodes are smaller and more intimate. They often turn one recent experience into a practical mindset prompt, whether that is a tough run, a disrupted routine, a recovery week, or a major self-care decision. Recent conversations give the show a broad athletic frame. Jasmine Caccamo talks about styling athletes and dressing for body confidence. Ana Gibson connects professional running, ski mountaineering, Olympic preparation, curiosity, and joy. Other episode titles point toward Laila Edwards on representation and Team USA Hockey, and Andraya Carter on ESPN, presence, and authentic sports storytelling. The through-line is not just achievement. It is how people relate to pressure, discomfort, changing plans, and the bodies they live in. The show likes a comeback. It also likes a concrete takeaway. A missed run becomes a lesson in flexibility. Egg retrieval becomes a conversation about self-love, planning, money, and future options. A morning routine question turns into a case for low-tech rituals, journaling, breath work, coffee, and protected time. Hurdle is polished but personal. It can be earnest, but it rarely drifts into empty pep talk. The best moments translate sport habits into plain language for people trying to pace their own lives with more intention.
Made for: For listeners drawn to women’s sports, running culture, wellness routines, and candid ambition. It especially suits people who want athlete stories with practical reflections on mindset, confidence, recovery, and self-care.
What sets it apart: The show mixes polished athlete interviews with short personal coaching-style episodes, so it feels both access-driven and immediately usable. Its strongest lane is translating sports experience into everyday choices about pacing, resilience, body confidence, and grace.
Hurdle is where real stories meet next-level ambition. Host, veteran journalist and coach Emily Abbate, interviews the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, peeling back the curtain on their journeys through vulnerable, deep conversation. Learn the secrets to their success, including the grit, glory, and crucial mindset lessons that help her level-up. Each conversation, a powerful reminder that we get to overcome, and embrace each hurdle to live happier, healthier, more motivated lives. New episodes every Tuesday and Friday.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · August 2026
Hurdle turns athletic ambition into practical lessons on pressure, consistency, confidence, and resilience.
PlayNext files Hurdle with Emily Abbate under Business & Finance because its best material is about how ambition gets managed, not because it sounds like a money show.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Style advice that treats the fitting room as part of the performance.
The episode sits at the point where style and sport meet, treating clothes as part of how an athlete shows up in public and in private. It moves through fittings, body type, and the mental reset that can come from stepping back and trying again tomorrow, with the strongest…
A runner's route into Olympic SkiMo, shaped by fear, tactics, and steady work.
The episode gives Ana Gibson's move from Jackson Hole to a 2026 Winter Olympic berth a clear arc. It stays strongest when Ana describes the push and pull between fear, curiosity, and steady work, while also showing how track tactics still carry over once a SkiMo field starts…
A clear look at pressure, recovery, and the support that helps keep both in place.
The piece follows a young athlete through expectation, injury rehab, and a major life shift all at once. What lands most is the support system around that stretch: a mother, family, a close friend, and a sports psychologist all help carry the pressure.
A clear look at the cost of keeping going.
Hurdle spends this conversation with Caroline Marks in the space between pressure and pause, tracing the decision to step back after her first Games and why that choice mattered.
A grounded reminder that repeatable effort usually matters more than flawless performance.
Perfectionism is framed as a momentum problem: the wish to improve can harden into a demand for flawless output, and that pressure can make steady work harder to sustain.
Trail running, told from inside race week.
This episode features marathoner Erika Kemp discussing how to prepare for a major race and find your flow state in running.
Emily Abbate answers a listener question about her feelings going into the Chicago Marathon.
Heptathlete Anna Hall shares her journey from heartbreak to becoming a world champion, discussing how to navigate expectations, think forward, and use journaling for success.
Host Emily Abbate announces a shift to Tuesday releases for her podcast Hurdle.
After 35 days away, Hurdle host Emily Abbate says scanning into her Brooklyn gym and buying iced coffee felt unusually joyful.
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross tells Hurdle host Emily Abbate how mindset, family, and training shaped her track career.
Emily Abadi recounts completing a 19-mile treadmill run after wildfire smoke made outdoor running in New York City unsafe.
Style turns into confidence here.
This episode features Eric Galco, director of the NFL's East-West Shrine Bowl, discussing how to evaluate NFL draft prospects, including hidden traits, common mistakes, and underrated players.
This episode features an interview with hockey player Laila Edwards discussing representation in sports, winning gold with Team USA, and maintaining mental balance.
This episode features Eric Galco, director of the NFL's East-West Shrine Bowl, discussing how to evaluate NFL draft prospects, including hidden traits, common mistakes, and underrated players.
This episode features Andraya Carter discussing her career journey at ESPN, emphasizing the importance of being present and authentic in sports storytelling.
Fear turns into curiosity here.
The athlete keeps the conversation grounded.
The interview gets right to the pause.
World champion heptathlete Anna Hall discusses her journey from Olympic heartbreak to success, sharing insights on resilience, journaling, and nutrition in this interview about navigating professional sports.
This episode features Seema Simmons, GM of Nike Running for North America, discussing the importance of embracing vulnerability and trusting intuition in leadership.
Olympic champion Masai Russell shares insights on trusting life's timing and making every moment count through positive self-talk and self-belief.