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Episode 41 and Wendi and Dfernando's guest interview is Canadian multi-medalist Olympic ice dancer and linquist Paul Poirier.   Paul Poirier started skating at age five.  In standard Canadian tradition, he was put into ice hockey along with his brothers but instead of chasing the puck, he would spin on the face-off dots.  Once he was officially enrolled in figure skating, he loved being able to do what he wanted.  From ages 9 to 18 he split his time between ice dance and men’s singles; focusing more on ice dance because his career was more established in this form and he liked the artistic freedom it provided.  In July 2011, Poirier teamed up with Piper Gilles. At their first national championships together in January 2012, they won the bronze medal in ice dance but were ineligible to compete internationally that season because Gilles had competed for the United States the year prior. They debuted as a couple on the ISU Grand Prix in the Fall of 2012 and competed at their first World Championships together in 2013. In May 2013, Poirier suffered a right ankle fracture dislocation and underwent surgery to insert plates and screws. They were able to compete at the 2014 Canadian Championships, but weren’t quite physically or technically ready to take their best shot at qualifying for Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games and missed the Olympic team by one spot. That fueled their fire for the next quadrennial. After winning silver at the 2014 Four Continents Championships, they had one of their strongest seasons in 2014-15, winning a pair of silver medals on the Grand Prix series and qualifying for the Grand Prix Final. They went on to post a career-best finish at the World Championships, placing sixth. Gaining a reputation as innovative skaters who try to do the opposite of what people expect, Gilles and Poirier had their partial step sequence from the 2015-16 short dance adopted as a new pattern dance by the ISU and dubbed the "Maple Leaf March". They had been struggling with that program all season, tweaking it constantly and changing the music entirely three weeks before the Worlds, where they ended up placing fifth in the short dance to put them into the final flight for the free dance. At the 2017 World Championships they recorded their second straight eighth-place finish. After winning silver at the 2018 Canadian Championships, Gilles and Poirier competed at PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games where they had yet another eighth-place finish. They followed up by matching their career-best World Championship result a month later. Poirier had a prior successful partnership with Vanessa Crone that included a World Junior silver medal in 2008, a Canadian title in 2011, and competing at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Poirier completed his Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics at the University of Toronto.  Passionate about language, he continues to spend time reading and doing linguistics research.  He is currently training with Piper Gilles for the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games.  Also on Episode 41, Wendi and Dfernando talk about non-celebratory Valentine's Day, the release of BARB a STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR and those 1970s TV commercials featuring creepy stop-motion dolls.  And on the RIPE a ROTTEN REPORT there's the 2012 fashion documentary VERSAILLES '73: American Runway Revolution, Gen Z vs. Gen X, the hilarious Cheri Oteri and slow texters.    Follow us on our Instagram:  Wendi McLendon-CoveyDfernando ZarembaGENERATION RIPE ...  and our guest Paul Poirier and his Twitter.  Remember to subscribe, rate a leave a review for GENERATION RIPE Visit Dfernando Zaremba's website: dfernandozaremba.com