Season 3 – Stories That Stick rolls on with our True Stories theme, and this time it’s Cade’s pick: I, Tonya — the wild, stylized retelling of the Tonya Harding / Nancy Kerrigan saga that took over the ‘90s. Cade talks about remembering the real media frenzy as a kid, watching figure skating with his family, and how surreal it is to see that chaos re-framed through this movie’s “based on a true lie” lens.
In this episode, Cade & Kit dig into why I, Tonya works so well as a film even if it clearly takes liberties with the facts. They talk about the mockumentary style, the fake “talking head” interviews, and all the ways the movie blurs the line between documentary and drama to show how media can fully control a narrative — especially in a pre-social media era where Tonya had no platform to defend herself.
They also unpack the harder parts: the classism in figure skating, the way Tanya never “fit” the elegant ice princess mold, and how that shaped judging, scoring, and public perception. Kit and Cade spend time on the abuse storyline too — from Tonya’s mother to her marriage — and how the film uses dark humour to make something heavy watchable without letting it off the hook. They also touch on the ethics of portraying real trauma this way, and what might have actually been true behind the tabloid headlines.
Finally, they talk about the lasting impact: Tonya being banned from skating, pivoting into boxing, and becoming one of the most “useful” villains in pop culture history. Both Cade and Kit rate I, Tonya a 7/10 – a sharp, stylish, rewatchable take on a story they both grew up hearing.
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