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Nathaniel Herz

Nat Herz is an Alaska-based journalist who moonlights for FasterSkier as an occasional reporter and podcast host. He was FasterSkier's full-time reporter in 2010 and 2011.
The Devon Kershaw Show: Christmas recap in Davos with the US Ski Team men

It’s vacation time. We hear from some of the U.S. Ski Team men holed up in their Christmas cottage in Davos, Switzerland — featuring a new lightning round quiz segment — and Devon and Nat take us through the weekend’s results. Happy holidays: We’ll be back during the Tour de Ski. Questions, comments, want us to use less (or more) profanity? Reach us at devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com.  

The Devon Kershaw Show, Lillehammer Recap: Did u know Norwegians are good at skiing?

Norwegians are born with skis on their feet, blah blah blah, we know. They’re good at skiing and they won pretty much all the races on home snow this weekend…but they were still fun events to watch. Devon reports from Norway while Nat tunes in from melting Alaska; they don’t need any stinkin’ guests this week. Got questions for us? New cross-country skiing meme accounts we should follow? nat@fasterskier.com and devon@fasterskier.com. We’ll be back soon....

The Devon Kershaw Show: A breakout McWeekend in Ruka, and much more from Finland

Devon has a cold, but don’t let that deter you — he perseveres, and we welcome special guess Zanden McMullen after his breakout weekend in Ruka. We’ve got recaps of the astonishingly entertaining racing in Finland, plus bonus discussion of sponsorship feuds and other news. Send us your questions, comments, fan mail and hate mail: nat@fasterskier.com and devon@fasterskier.com. We’ll be back after Lillehammer.  

The Devon Kershaw Show: Thanksgiving turkeys (and stuffing) with Canada’s Julia Ystgaard

It’s race season, baby. It’s also Thanksgiving week, at least in America. Tune in to learn how to avoid turkey legs while you’re racing and for a full recap of last weekend’s competitions in Sweden and Norway. Didn’t know the name Andreas Ree before Sunday? We’ll catch you up. Julia Ystgaard, Canada’s World Cup coach, joins us to break down her team’s solid performances, as well. It’s also the time of year when we remind...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Burger King and the Thugometer

You know you missed us. Devon and Nat return with a soft launch into the 2025 winter season. We cover off-season developments and other hijinks, from the still-missing Russians to Therese Johaug’s return. Read here and here if you want to understand wth the references are in the show title. We’ll be back soon. Hit us up at nat@fasterskier.com and devon@fasterskier.com; we’re psyched to be back.

Gus Schumacher went to D.C. to testify on climate change. Then a senator dredged up four-year-old tweets.

This story was first published by Northern Journal, Nat Herz’s news site and newsletter in Alaska. Subscribe here. Gus Schumacher, the Anchorage Olympic cross-country skier, arrived at his first-ever congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., knowing he could be a target. The Senate Budget Committee’s chairman, Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, invited Schumacher to testify last week in one of a series of more than a dozen hearings about the harm climate change is inflicting on...

The Devon Kershaw Show, Glitter Edition: Jessie Diggins Joins Us

Jessie Diggins should not need an introduction at this point, but for anyone who needs a quick reminder: This episode of the Devon Kershaw Show features the best American cross-country skier of all time. Diggins has three Olympic medals to her name, a gold from the last World Championships and, most recently, a crystal globe she was awarded a few days ago as the past season’s overall World Cup champion. Diggins joins us for a...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Finale in Falun, or the not-last episode of the 2024 season

Reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated. Apologies for the tardiness of this episode, but we’re back with a wrap from Falun, the last World Cup weekend of the season. It’s just Devon and Nat kicking it old school again here, but we’ll return soon with some guests. Seriously. Send us your 2025 predictions, Russian troll comments and Gjøran Tefre memes: devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com. Thanks for hanging out with us for the whole World Cup...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Winding down 2024 in Norway, with guest Sam Hendry

Long distance in Oslo, city sprints in Drammen. The World Cup takes its late-season swing through Norway and Devon and Nat have a full breakdown, with special guest Sam Hendry, a Canadian athlete who’s had some standout results late this season. We’re sprinting to the finish of the 2024 podcast season. Send your long-shot requests for off-season content to devon@fasterskier.com and nat@fasterskier.com. We’ll be back in a few days.  

The Devon Kershaw Show: Dr. William Poromaa is the cure for your World Cup withdrawal

It’s been a minute. We, and the World Cup circuit, took a break from racing, and podcasting, last weekend, but things are about to heat up again in Lahti, Finland, and we thought now was the perfect time to bring you an interview Nat did in Canmore with up and coming Swedish talent William Poromaa. Nat and Devon will be back with a recap after the races in Lahti this weekend. Send us your questions,...

Can jet-setting ski racers be climate activists? Schumacher, Diggins lean into “imperfect advocacy.”

MINNEAPOLIS — After Gus Schumacher’s upset win at an international cross-country ski race here last week, one of his first moves was not to celebrate at a bar, but instead, to stand in front of the crowd and talk about climate change. With hundreds listening to the panel discussion from the grandstand, Schumacher, his teammate Jessie Diggins and activist and author Bill McKibben passed a microphone back and forth. The subject, for Schumacher, is immediate...

Norway had 10 wax techs. Estonia had a fanny pack and a borrowed wax bench.

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. CANMORE, ALBERTA — With his fanny pack of kick wax and Kia minivan, you could have easily mistaken Alvar Johannes Alev for a weekend warrior cross-country ski dad in this Canadian mountain town....

Schumacher’s Win—World-Class Talent is “Still in There”

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. MINNEAPOLIS — Gus Schumacher, a 23-year-old from Anchorage, accomplished something Sunday that no American man had done in 40 years: he beat every single Norwegian, Swede, Finn and all other comers in an...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Minneapolis magic with Muzzy, Benny and an extra special guest

What a weekend. If you weren’t able to make it to Minneapolis, we had the good fortune of taping this episode of the podcast in front of a live audience at a local brewery, and we think it brings through a little of the amazing atmosphere. British skier Andrew Musgrave joined us in-person, Ben Ogden zoomed in from mono jail and a very special guest whose name ends with Schumacher joined us mid-pod. The audio...

Witkowski Revels in Last-Minute Minneapolis World Cup Call-up

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Most of the athletes competing Saturday on cross-country skiing’s World Cup circuit in Minneapolis arrived at the venue on a bus, chartered by organizers to carry racers from the official event hotel. Then,...

Tears and Glitter Flow in Minneapolis as Diggins Finally Comes Home

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. MINNEAPOLIS—The suspense and the nerves built all morning at Theodore Wirth Regional Park, where America’s cross-country skiers were set to contest their first World Cup race—the sport’s top competition circuit—in 23 years. By...

For U.S. Skiing, Minneapolis is a High-Water Mark

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. MINNEAPOLIS — The last time cross-country ski racing’s most elite race circuit, the World Cup, traveled to the United States from Europe, Jessie Diggins was nine years old. At the time, in 2001,...

With Fresh Snow, Minneapolis World Cup is a Party in the USA

MINNEAPOLIS — All winter, cross-country ski race organizers in this midwest metropolis faced weather that just wouldn’t cooperate. Heading into the weekend, it had not snowed in Minneapolis in nearly a month, with daily high temperatures above freezing every single day since late January. All this as a local nonprofit, the Loppet Foundation, was set to host the first cross-country World Cup events in America in more than two decades — after a last-minute, coronavirus...

The Devin Kershaw Show: Canmore is a wrap. On to Minneapolis.

We’re back, with our fourth? Fifth? episode in the past week. It’s been a whirlwind, but we’re still here to wrap up the last day of World Cup racing in Canmore. Amazingly, Nat is posting this podcast from a moving airplane between Calgary and Toronto, with Victoria Carl and Katharina Hennig sitting a few rows up. We’ll be back with more action from Minneapolis, including a show with a live audience late Sunday afternoon at...