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It mixes easily with water or smoothies, making it simple, enjoyable routine that you can stick to every single day. Right now get 15% off the super elixir at wellco.com and use Kate Casey 15 at checkout. Try it for yourself and feel a difference within weeks. That's W-E-L-L-E-C-O.com code Kate Casey 15 at checkout for 15% off the super elixir. 15% off at W-E-L-L-E-C-O.com promo code Kate Casey 15. First time orders only. Welcome back for another episode of Reality Life with Kate Casey. Hope that you're having a great week. I've got a great episode for you today. It is jam packed. But the first thing I want to tell you is that there's an update in a Netflix Unsolved Mysteries case. You know I love this show. It is a modern reboot of the classic documentary series that many of us watched as kids. It investigates real life perplexing cases, including cold cases, disappearances, murders, paranormal phenomena. It is produced by the original creators. They have actually been on this podcast several times to talk about the series in specific cases. The series uses a character driven approach so it highlights the stories of families, journalists, and detectives that are searching for answers to unsolved events. So there was an episode and you may remember you're going to go back in time in your head. Volume 3 Episode 9 was an episode entitled Abducted by Appearant. It was released on Netflix in November of 2022. And the episode included a segment on missing children featuring a photo of one Kayla Unibom. And she was abducted in 2017. So if you want to go back in time if you had not watched that episode, Kayla was just nine years old living in Illinois when her life changed forever in the summer of 2017. So at the time her father Ryan Asurka had full legal custody of her and her mother Heather did not have custody but was allowed supervised visitation. On July 5th, 2017, after a visit with her mother, Kayla never came home. Heather told Ryan that she and Kayla were going on a camping trip but neither of them returned. So soon after Ryan reports Kayla missing and police issue a felony warrant for Heather on kidnapping and child abduction charges. So for almost six years, her whereabouts are unknown. Authorities filed numerous leads but non-resulted in her being found. And over the years, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which you may remember I interned for in college, they work with the family to spread Kayla's story widely including age progress photos showing what she might look like now. So the effort gained a powerful boost when unself mysteries included her case in that segment on long-term missing children showcasing again that age progressed image to millions of viewers. So this is what is incredible. In May of 2023, a store employee at Plato's Closet thrift shop in Asheville, North Carolina sees a teenage girl shopping with a woman and immediately recognizes Kayla from that Netflix episode and immediately contacted authorities. Police confirmed the girl was Kayla 15 years of the time, safe, reunited her with her father shortly afterward and her mother 40 years old at the time was arrested in Asheville on that same day on an outstanding warrant for child abduction and held on $250,000 bond. So in more recent developments, she's changed her plea to guilty in the abduction case as part of legal proceedings and faces sentencing for up to three years in prison. And all because of that Netflix unsolved mysteries. So if you want to go back and watch it, it's volume three, that's how they called their seasons, volume three, episode nine, it's called abducted by a parent. And I remember when I was talking to Terry, who's the show creator, she said, they continue to get lots and lots of tips. So I'm hoping this results in more cases. Now, oddly, I had come across, you know, on social media and on websites, sometimes I get sent things. There was this go-fun meet in which a father by the name of Kendall Seymour had said the following. He said, on Sunday, November 30, my ex-wife, Fluta Europe, kidnapping all three of my kids and her fourth child from another dad, we didn't learn until Tuesday, December 2nd that anyone who was missing, she forged passport documents for the kids left behind a note, dictating a delusional message from God, promising her she would be in Italy by Christmas, a to-do list that mentioned shred paperwork, destroy identifying photos, throw away phone, purchase pre-paid phone. He said, I know someone who was dropped off in a foreign country at eight years old when they couldn't speak the language and they strongly suggested that we personally go pick them up wherever they are found. This momentumized the trauma if we can be there to get them as soon as possible after mom is arrested, they will feel safer and not suffer as much wandering what's going on, not only to them, but to their mother and to their future. And so, of course, I'm in spins. The idea of the parent taking children to another country, it felt like that, you know, not without my daughter made for TV movie starring Sally Field, like how awful. What you're up against? And then I was checking for updates. There was an update in January. The kids are trapped in Croatia in a state-run orphanage. Can you imagine this? We're in the country trying to get kids out of custody of the local government. We have to hire Croatian lawyers who specialize in child abduction, create and submit head convention applications, hire court approved translators and extend our stay here by an unknown amount of time. All to work on getting the kids released from government custody. Therefore, we decided to raise our goal, although we are happy the original goal is met. This will be something that we will be entirely consumed by for flights here and back. And of course, it's the most extensive place, one of the most expensive places to fly and to stay out of all possible locations, you know, on the radar. And there was a picture of the woman that they showed, like getting under the plane and her face just looks sinister, like this smirk on her face. So luckily, on the first, he said we're on our way home. And then he gave more of an update. He said, after so much work from so many people, the social service employees informed us that the police had finished their investigation and returned the children's passports and gave us to go ahead to pick up the kids from the children's group home in the morning. And again, said thank you so much to everybody who helped locate them. We unfortunately don't have an official update on the fifth child. Apparently, there was another child that they learned throughout this process that was there as well. And they're reserving funds for any legal help that he would need to get himself into a good situation whether he considers home to be. So unbelievable story. It's this father in Utah with three children and then also her child from another relationship. And she has these delusional messages from God, kidnaps the children and they end up in an orphanage in Croatia. I am so grateful for all the people that helped him and that he was able to get them, but what an unimaginable story. All right, now today's episode, I told you last week that there was a series on Netflix that I wanted you to watch. It's called glitter and gold ice dancing and it's the road to Milano, Cortina, which of course is the winter Olympics. There are certain Olympics sports that feel so unique, so interesting, so untouchable, like they don't belong to the normal world. And I think ice dance is one of them because if you've ever watched it, it really watched it. You know the feeling. It's like the lights go down, the crowd gets quiet and it's two people kind of holding hands as they're going out and you can never figure out if they're in love or not. And I think if you remember Merle from Dancing with the Stars, she did the same thing when she danced with Max. Like you're totally convinced that she's in love with the person that she's dancing with, of course, we know now that she was like engaged to somebody else at a time or about to be. So there's something very interesting about the ice dancing. It's without all the big jumps that you see in the couples dancing, but it's like you're watching a relationship or watching a negotiation. Like you're watching what might be the most high stakes version of couples therapy that's ever been put on TV, except it's happening on razor blades and at 30 miles an hour while judges are deciding whether they were emotional enough. It's fascinating. So when I found out there's this doc series and I started to watch it, I was like, I've got to tell everybody about this. Now I find that a lot of sports documentary series. If it's unfamiliar to me or to other people, you want to know kind of the the ins and outs of the sport, the training, the meals, like how long you're training, like all the background information. So I wanted to bring this to you. So ice dance is this discipline of figure skating, but it's fundamentally different from what most people think of when they think of the Olympics, because this is not about someone launching their air like a superhero doing the, you know, double axles. This is not pair skating where someone is being thrown across the ring like a human missile. This is ballroom dancing on ice. It's rhythm, it's precision, footwork that is so detailed, it looks like someone wrote an entire novel in cursive with their skates. And unlike other disciplines, ice dances rules that are almost hilariously specific, because the whole point is to keep the focus on the dance. Again, no jumps, no throw jumps. The lifts are restricted. You cannot just hoist your partner over your head and call a choreography. It has to feel like dance. So it has to feel intentional. It has to feel effortless, which is ironic because nothing about it is effortless. Traditionally under ISU rules, teams are still made up of one man and one woman internationally, even though some countries are starting to allow same-sex teams domestically. The ice dance has been around officially since 1952 at Worlds with its Olympic debut in 1976. So it's younger than other disciplines, but it's always been the most psychologically fascinating because ice dance isn't just a sport. It's really kind of like a story. So where did it all begin? It actually evolved from something incredibly romantic. In 1800s, people would skate socially, couples doing waltzes on frozen ponds. And it wasn't about metals, it was about closeness, about movement, about community. Jackson Haynes, which he was an American skater, helped popularize dance elements that spread through Europe and then shaped what skating would become. And then slowly it went from hues and social waltzes to national competitions in the 1930s to first international event in 1950 and then to the Olympic ice dance in 1976. So for years, Britain dominated. And then the Soviets dominated. And then in the early 2000s, North America came in and basically said, what if we made this cinematic? So now ice dance is one of the most watched, debated, and emotionally exhausting events of every winter Olympics. So the scoring, spreadsheet meets soul. Here's the thing about ice dance. It looks like pure emotion. But underneath that emotion is a scoring system that is so detailed, it actually feels like doing taxes while wearing sequins. Every program has two parts. You've got the technical element score, the TES. This is where they score step sequences, lifts, twizzles, and spins. Each element has a base value. And then the judges add grade of execution from negative five to plus five. So yes, your entire Olympic dream can hinge on whether your footwork looked crisp enough. And then there's program component score, PCS. And this is where it gets personal. Because PCS is artistry, skating skills, transitions, performance, interpretation, composition. That's the thing that makes people cry. So the total is TES plus PCS minus deductions. And those deductions can come from falls, timing violations, or honestly just like the vibe being off, which brings us to the eternal truth of ice dance. It is structure, but it is never fully objective. And that's where the drama lives. Ice dance has always been criticized for its subjectivity. Because how do you measure chemistry? How do you quantify musicality? How do you score the moment when two skaters look at each other like they are either soulmates or maybe even enemies? There has to be allegations of bias going back decades too that we have to address. So Nagano 1998, the post-salt-like 2002 fallout. And while ice dance wasn't always the headlight scandal, it's always lived in the shadow of who is being rewarded and why? Which is why the sport is so addictive. Because it's never just about skating. It's about perception. It's about politics. It's about storytelling. And you can go back in the archives of reality life with KKC and listen to a bonkers gold metal scandal involving Canadian ice dancers. And I will post that so you can listen to it and watch it on YouTube. Okay. So this is why this Netflix series is inevitable. Again, enter glitter and gold ice dancing. And of course, Netflix makes the series because ice dance is basically prestige television already. So this docu series goes behind the scenes of elite teams chasing Milano, Cortina 2026. And what it captures so well is that ice dance, again, is not just a sport. It's an ecosystem. The training, the travel, the pressure, romantic tension, partnership dynamics. The fact that your entire career depends on another human being showing up, staying healthy, staying committed, and not emotionally unraveling two weeks before worlds. So I guess I could bus say that it's dance moms meets succession, but on ice. So there are stars of the series. There are three teams. And of course, the Olympic storylines. So the first that you need to know about is Madison Chalk and Evan Bates. They are the legacy couple. They are from America. They're basically American ice dance history at this point. Seven time US champions, three time world champions, Olympic team gold medalists. They have been together since 2011. Then they started dating in 2017. And they got married in 2024. So now they are in their mid 30s. And Milano, Cortina may be the final chapter, which makes every performance feel like a farewell tour. And those are always dangerous because sometimes the veterans have nothing left to prove. They're going to put it all out there. And that's sometimes exactly when they become unstoppable. And they're gorgeous. And then you think about the logistics. Like the other teams are they can have to get two separate rooms. What's the budget like? And then they have to like split the coach costs and all of these things. But it doesn't make it easier when you're just a married couple. And you can stay in one room and share the cost of the coach, etc. And of course, you don't have to fake that you want to make out with them. And unbelievably, they all kind of seem to know each other. And there's some sort of like, you know, I dated that person when I was like eighth in the eighth grade. It's a very small world. So all of their lives really overlap. And then you have to compete against them. Good Lord. Okay. Then you have Piper and Paul. They're the Canadians. The art kids with nerves of steel. So Canada's most creative charismatic team. And they take risks. They do programs that feel like fashion editorials. They skate to RuPaul. I'm not key. They're the best music. They reinterpret Vincent. They understand that Ice Dance is as much about cultural impact as it is about metals. And Piper's personal story, she returned after Ovarian Cancer, which adds a layer of resilience that makes her journey feel bigger than the sport. And then Paul is one of the most prominent out LGBTQ plus athletes in skating brings representation that matters. So they're skating with heart and sometimes heart wins. Of course, they've been competing against their friends from childhood, which adds another element. Then you have Guillaume and Laurent's, the plot twist. This one's kind of fun. I think you guys are going to be into this. So this is really one of those twists that nobody saw coming. So Guillaume Olympic champion, legend, retired and then suddenly comes back and with a new partner, Laurent's. A partnership formed in 2025 fueled by Olympic ambition, citizenship, logistics, and the kind of reinvention that only happens in elite sport. So they're already winning. Already contenders. Already one of the most fascinating questions of 2026 is, is this a comeback genius? Again, Guillaume coming out of retirement and then he pairs up with Laurent's and then she's trying to get citizenship so she can skate for another country. So is this chaos or both? So then that brings us to Milano Cortina, 2026, the countdown. Now, as you know, as I've mentioned, opening ceremony begins February 6th. So the Olympics are February 6th through the 19th. Rhythm dance, free dance, the top 20 advance and the podium battle is going to be brutal. Veterans chasing legacy, artists chasing redemption, new partnerships chasing immortality, and hovering over all of it is the question that ice dance always asks, who is going to tell the best story on the ice and who will the judge agree should be the winner. So over those three episodes, you're going to want to watch this because in the moments before they start to compete, you're going to get to know them. You're going to be in their houses. You're going to see them eating. You're going to see them training. You're going to see the back stories, the fights, the relationship dynamics. So typically, if all of a sudden you start watching an Olympic event, sometimes they'll do like a pre-package. You know, they'll give you like three to five minutes. Okay, this is who this person is. They're from here. This is their husband or their wife. Maybe these are their parents and then they'll cut to the parents that are crying in the stands. I always want more because even when those pre-packages, three to five minutes, even when I was a little kid watching the Olympics, I was like, okay, now I'm into this person. I really want to win. I want them to win. I'm invested in their story and the idea of them having this big comeback or the underdog story or maintaining their champion legacy. But in this case, you're going to see all of that, but also over a period of time because it's really kind of like the year before the Olympics. So you meet their judges, you see them in the ranks. Like Piper, for example, lives in Canada and I want to know where she lives because I want to go take vacation there. It looks beautiful. And then the heart, the heart-pounding moment of like, is Laurence going to be able to change citizenship? Is she going to be able to skate? Guillaume coming back. I mean, I'm telling you, you're going to be so sucked into this world and I got to tell you, things have been dark lately and you know it's true. This is what you guys need. You want to escape to another part of the world. And if you are ever an athlete, I'm sure that you enjoy me in saying that there are many times that you run through your head. If I had gone a different route, could I have been a Philips? I know it's a little bit delusional, but you've been there. You've placed yourself there in your head. I've been there. I've actually there a lot. I still believe that I could have played for the US field hockey team. I know I'm crazy. But it's just a fun walk through someone's life. And that really is the best inscripted TV. It's going to take you into a world that's so disillmoist, just similar than yours. And you get to feel like you're walking through someone's life and then be with them in a huge milestone in their life. So I recommend it to you. I want you to watch it. Again, Ice Dance is just one of the strangest things humans have ever decided to turn into a competition because it is really truly like telling a story on ice. And you can't figure out if these people really want to get it on, if they hate each other. And just how specific the judging is, it seems so impossible. And that's what makes you respect these athletes so much. It's basically intimacy with rules, art with math, love stories, judged on technical panels. And now they're inviting the world backstage where we're heading into Olympics where ice dance may be more visible than ever. And because when you strip away the sequence, the glamour and the choreography, what you're left with is this. Two people want sheet of ice and four minutes to convince the world that they're flying. So glitter and gold ice dancing Netflix. I really think you're going to like it. Report back to me what you think. Of course, go to my list at kkc.substx.com to check out the What to Watch list. There is so much stuff for you to watch. And I'm telling you, I'm bringing couples together. I'm bringing families together. I'm making single people happy because they don't have to go to some gross bar and meet some stranger who is a bag of bullshit. And you can just enjoy yourself after a long week. I'm telling you, I've got you covered. Go to kkc.substx.com. Please check out the bonus episodes on Apple Podcast. And especially the Patreon series tell me everything with Mary Peeing Gilbert. Every week we're sharing stories this coming week. I'm going to tell you the rest of the Ponzi scheme story, which is insanity. And I think I'm also going to tell you the story about the Real Housewives interview that I didn't ever post because that's a good story too. So check out tell me everything on patreon at patrnoand.com.com. backslashkkc. And of course the Facebook group reality life with kkc and lastly follow me on its social media. I'm on Instagram at at kkcca TikTok. It's kkc and Twitter threads and blue sky at at kkc. Check back tomorrow for an all new episode. Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. 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