Forged Youth | Legacy Within
Forged Youth: Legacy Within
What if the conversations you needed most as a teen athlete were finally being had, openly, honestly, and with purpose?
Forged Youth: Legacy Within is the podcast that equips youth athletes (ages 12–24), their parents, and coaches with the mental tools, emotional resilience, and life insight to rise above the noise and grow into strong, intentional human beings.
Each episode features real, raw conversations with professional athletes, CEOs, and cultural leaders sharing what they wish they knew when they were younger. We unpack topics like mental grit, overcoming adversity, identity beyond sport, and building a life of purpose, even when things fall apart.
Hosted by former elite athlete and mental health advocate Mariel Nichole Anderson, this podcast is your companion through the messy middle of chasing big dreams, and becoming someone even bigger in the process.
Because you weren’t born to just survive sport. You were made to be forged by it.
Episodes
96 episodes
Ep. 42 - Why Athletes Have the Advantage: Turning Athletic Skill Into Opportunity with Rae Irelan
What if the skills that make you great in your sport are the exact same ones that unlock success in life and business?In this episode, we sit down with Rae Irelan, transformational business strategist, speaker, and former professi...
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Ep. 41 - Why Fitting In is Holding You Back with Greg Stewart
What does it take to stop trying to fit in and start standing out? In this powerful episode, we sit down with two-time Paralympic gold medalist, world champion shot-putter, author, and speaker Greg Stewart for a conversation that goes far beyon...
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Ep. 40 - When It All Falls Apart: Rebuilding Identity In and Around Sport
What happens when everything you’ve built your identity around suddenly gets taken away?In this episode, we sit down with Dallas Soonias, a former Team Canada volleyball player turned filmmaker, to unpack the reality of chasing el...
Ep. 39 - Multiple Teams, More Drama: What Youth Sport Culture Gets Wrong - Q&A with Mariel and Jordan
This week on Forged Youth's Q&A episode, Mariel and Jordan are responding to a real post from a hockey parent, and it opens up one of the most common conversations happening in youth sport right now: should my kid be playing on more than on...
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Ep. 38 - Lessons from Skateboarding Culture with Hippie Mike
What if one of the best environments for developing resilient athletes… had no structured practices, no yelling coaches, and no guaranteed success?In this episode, we sit down with Hippie Mike to explore what decades in skateboarding cul...
Building True Confidence: What Every Athlete (and Parent) Needs to Know | With Shawnee Harle
What actually builds confidence in athletes?In this powerful conversation, Mariel sits down with Shawnee Harle, Olympian, sport psychology expert, and one of Canada’s most respected voices in athlete development, to unpack t...
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Ep. 37 - Finding Joy Again in Youth Sports: Q&A with Mariel and Jordan
How do you motivate your child to give their best in sport… without making them lose their love for it? That’s the question Mariel and Jordan tackle in this Q&A episode.A parent of a swimmer asked how to motivate their child to swim ...
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Ep. 36 - There's No Straight Path to Success with Ben Boudreau
What if the path to your dream isn’t straight? What if it zigzags through setbacks, detours, risks, and reinvention?In this episode, we sit down with Ben Boudreau, a former professional hockey player and coach, to unpack what it really m...
Chilliwack Giants Special: Who Are You Without the Game? with Sean Millington
What does it take to build a career and a life that lasts?Longevity. Identity. Resilience.In this special episode promoting the Building Resilience On & Off the Field event on March 5th, we sit down with CFL legend Sean...
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Chilliwack Giants Special: The Unseen Work Behind Success with Angus Reid
What does it take to last 13 years in professional football?Consistency. Preparation. Leadership.In this special episode promoting the Building Resilience On & Off the Field event on March 5th, we sit down with former C...
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Ep. 35 - The Psychology Behind Sustainable High Performance with Chris Bodman
What separates talented athletes from consistent performers? Psychological skill.In this episode of the Forged Youth Podcast, we sit down with performance psychologist Chris Bodman, founder of LMNTARY Performance, to unpack what i...
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Chilliwack Giants Special: Raising Athletes Who Win at Life with Bill Loewen
What if youth sports weren’t just about wins and losses, but about building resilient, confident young people?In this special episode, Mariel sits down with Bill Loewen of the Chilliwack Giants to talk about why March 5th is about far mo...
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Ep. 34 - Hard on themself? Why Self-Criticism Is Hurting Performance: Q&A with Mariel and Jordan
“Being hard on yourself” is worn like a badge of honour in youth sports, but what if it’s actually hurting performance?In this episode, Mariel Anderson and Jordan Owens unpack a powerful and often misunderstood topic for sports parents.....
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Ep. 33 - How Better Warm-Ups Create Better Athletes with Rett Larson
What if the most important part of practice isn’t the drill… but the first 10 minutes?In this episode, Mariel sits down with Rett Larson, an elite international strength and conditioning coach and the creator of the No Zombi...
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Ep. 32 - Raising Confident Athletes in a Results-Obsessed World with Nate Last
What if the biggest thing holding young athletes back isn’t effort, talent, or motivation, but where their attention lives?In this episode, Mariel sits down with Nathan Last, founder of Mental Grit, to unpack the mental skills t...
Ep. 31 - Visualization That Actually Works: How Elite Athletes Train Their Mind Q&A with Mariel and Jordan
Visualization is one of the most misunderstood and underused tools in youth sports.In this episode, Jordan Owens and Mariel Anderson break down what visualization actually is, why vision boards are just the starting point, and h...
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Ep. 30 - Carrying the Weight of the Dream: James McGee’s Story
In this episode, we sit down with former professional tennis player James McGee for a conversation about life inside elite sport and what comes after it.James shares his journey from growing up in Dublin as Ireland’s top junior player, t...
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Ep. 29 - The Human Side of Performance with Will Lee
What does it really mean to support athletes as whole humans?In this episode, we’re joined by Will Lee, Registered Clinical Counsellor and Mental Performance Consultant, for a deep and grounded conversation about mental h...
Ep. 28 - When Youth Sports Feel Unfair: Focusing on the Controllables with Mariel and Jordan
What do you do when your athlete feels set up to fail?In this episode, Jordan and Mariel unpack a real post from a hockey mom whose 9-year-old son is stuck on a struggling team and use it as a powerful entry point into one of the most im...
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Ep. 27 - When Your Sport Tries to Break You and What You Do Next with Andrea Wieland
What happens when the thing you’ve built your identity around suddenly feels uncertain or is taken away altogether?In this episode, Olympian Andrea Wieland joins the conversation to speak honestly about the psychological side of competit...
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Ep. 26 - From Survival Mode to Freedom: Why So Many High Performers Never Feel at Ease with Adrien Plavsic
From the outside, Adrien Plavsic had everything young athletes dream of: a long NHL career, Olympic success, and years competing at the highest levels of professional hockey. But internally, his experience was very different. In this episode, A...
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Ep. 25 - When Your Athlete Gets Cut: The Moment That Builds or Breaks Them with Mariel and Jordan
Getting cut is one of the rawest, most emotional moments in youth sports and for many families, tryout season feels more like heartbreak season. In this Q&A episode, Mariel and Jordan break down what really happens to an athlete’s confidenc...
Ep. 24 - Inside the Athlete Brain: Sleep, Stress, Burnout & Real Recovery with Dr. Claire
Dr. Claire joins the podcast for a powerful conversation that every parent, coach, and athlete needs to hear. With a background in neuroscience, physiology, and youth mental health, she breaks down what’s actually happening inside the bodies an...
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Ep. 23 - Why Mental Performance Isn’t Optional is Daria Albers
In this conversation, Daria Albers opens a window into what true high-level performance really requires. A world-class mental performance coach and former professional fighter, Daria works globally with UFC athletes, Special Operations Forces, ...
Ep. 22 - How Hard is Too Hard? Q&A with Mariel Anderson and Jordan Owens
In this week's Q&A, Mariel and Jordan dig into one of the most confusing issues facing youth sports today: the blurry line between a firm, well-intentioned coach… and one who crosses into harmful territory.Throughout the epi...
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