Extreme adaptability and versatility can be found throughout the animal kingdom, but may have found their peak expression in Alexi Pappas. As a runner, Pappas was a two-time All-American for Dartmouth who set a national record running for Greece at the 2016 Olympics. As a performer, she was a member of Dartmouth鈥檚 gut-busting Dog Day improv group before going on to write, direct, and star in several feature films, including Tracktown, Olympic Dreams, and Not An Artist. The further into her career Pappas gets, the more running influences her art, and her art influences her running鈥攁ll of which she talks about in a way that makes you understand how she鈥檚 risen so high in two fundamentally different worlds.

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When Lawlor Coe lost his brother Hunter to suicide, one of the ways he coped was by lacing up his joggers and running. At first, he was trying to elude his grief; over time he found that the physical suffering he endured on the trail helped him find a way toward peace and, from there, joy. After sorrow and anger, Lawlor and the Coe family developed a sense of purpose: to honor Hunter鈥檚 life and the characteristics that made him a great brother, son, and friend. They that supports groups offering transformative experiences for young people in need of mental health support, and Lawlor now understands what he was running toward all along.

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The blissed out, swell chasing surfer with a single-minded focus on the next great ride is a pervasive outdoorsy archetype that鈥檚 completely at odds with the lived experience of many surfers. Take historian Kevin Dawon, a professor at UC Merced, for whom surfing serves as his connection to a rich tradition of African aquatic culture. Dawson is credited with resurfacing the first account of surfing in Africa, from 1640鈥攎ore than 100 years before Captain Cook鈥檚 famed account from Hawaii鈥攁nd his research centers centuries of oceanic accomplishment by Black communities there and in North America that have been ignored or actively erased. Dawson鈥檚 experiences in the waters of Africa, the Caribbean, and his native California bear little resemblance to what many people think of when they hear 鈥渟urfer,鈥� but they鈥檙e drenched in a joy that鈥檚 recognizable to anyone who has ever played in the waves.

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The River Guide is an outdoor archetype, a sunburnt romantic whose everyday existence is a bucket list adventure for the rest of us. They read inscrutable water, navigate person-eating hazards, and exude a natural connection to the canyons through which they guide us鈥攁nd, in the Grand Canyon, all of that gets turned up to 11. Cindell Dale has guided 鈥渢he Big Ditch鈥� since the early 1980s, part of the second generation of women who broke a glass ceiling that dictated women weren鈥檛 capable of piloting the Cadillac of white water: the dory. These 16-foot, v-shaped wooden boats are the preferred craft of many Grand Canyon guides, and listening to what Dale has learned after more than 40 years piloting one through one of the seven natural wonders of the world is the next best thing to sitting in her boat.

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We love our stories of human endurance, from Shackleton鈥檚 famed expedition to the 11-hour Wimbledon match to days-long ultramarathons. Hell, even the Coney Island Hot Dog eating contest is broadcast on television; that鈥檚 just how much we celebrate a person pushing themselves to the brink. But the moments that inspire the most are the ones in which a solo athlete has spent everything physically and mentally, and is forced to find a new gear emotionally. And for Ironman World Champion Chelsea Sodaro, her moment had nothing to do with swimming-biking-running 140 miles. At the same time Chelsea was standing atop triathlon podiums, she was ravaged by postpartum depression, including near-constant anxiety about mass shootings. What is so stirring about Chelsea is not her ability to push herself past the edge of what鈥檚 physically possible, but her emotional abilities to handle what happened when that edge pushed back.

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In celebration of summertime road trips, this week we鈥檙e revisiting an episode from our archives that is one of PaddyO鈥檚 favorites. In 2021, two men set out to do something seemingly impossible. And also pretty dumb. Motorcycle gurus and YouTube stars Zack Courts and Ari Henning squeezed together, 鈥渂uttcrack to belt buckle鈥�, on a minibike鈥攁 vehicle roughly the size of a children鈥檚 bicycle and powered by an engine that can barely run a lawn mower鈥攁nd drove 400 miles from a cornfield in Nebraska to a little place called Aspen, Colorado. Sound familiar? It should. That鈥檚 right, this is the same iconic road trip that Hollywood stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels鈥� Harry and Lloyd took in the cult classic Farrelly Brothers film Dumb and Dumber. The big difference is that this time it wasn鈥檛 a hilarious 3-minute movie montage. This road trip was for real. So what do you learn when you take a funny joke way too far? We鈥檙e glad you asked 鈥�

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Famous Hollywood actors aren鈥檛 outdoorsy, right? They鈥檙e too busy being鈥ell, famous to enjoy the outdoors and certainly too fancy to listen to a podcast about the surprising impacts of a life outside, aren鈥檛 they? Turns out, HBO鈥檚 鈥淭he Righteous Gemstones鈥� star, Tony Cavalero, is a longtime listener of the 国产吃瓜黑料 Podcast because he鈥檚 been obsessed with outdoor adventure since first donning a Boy Scout uniform as a kid. And, Tony鈥檚 path crossed with host PaddyO鈥檚 decades before either of them decided to move out West to make something of themselves. But Tony and PaddyO have more in common than a 鈥済o West, young man鈥� past. Both have felt the crushing weight of active alcoholism and drug addiction. Luckily, they also are both in long term recovery and have a shared joy and gratitude for the rekindling of dormant passions, like adventuring outside and laughing your ass off.

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Alex Honnold is the most accomplished and daring rock climber since the invention of the chalk bag. He grabbed global attention for his free solo ascent of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, immortalized in the Academy Award庐-winning documentary Free Solo. This monumental feat solidified his status as a superstar of the climbing community and a guru of staying calm in objectively terrifying situations. But鈥ow? That is exactly what Shelby Stanger, host of REI鈥檚 Wild Ideas Worth Living Podcast sponsored by The REI Co-op Mastercard, set to find out on stage at the 国产吃瓜黑料 Festival in Denver, Colorado. Turns out, Alex Honnold can push fear aside in order to achieve his goals, whether that鈥檚 climbing a sheer towering wall or advocating for conservation causes.

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Throughout professional skier Sierra Schlag鈥檚 childhood, her Japanese heritage and cultural practices made her the target of racist bullying. Then, when she traveled to Japan to visit family as a child, and later as an adult, she was referred to as 鈥淣isei鈥濃�攁 person born in North America whose parent(s) immigrated from Japan. She couldn鈥檛 make sense of being seen as white in Japan and Japanese in America, but she found an unlikely method of wholeness: skiing. Turns out, 鈥奵atharsis comes in many forms, including with anxiety that ultimately helps us understand where we came from, where we are, and what defines us.

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For decades, legendary magician David Blaine has completed record-breaking stunts that defy the impossible: He has held his breath for more than 17 minutes, was buried alive for seven days, frozen alive for three days, fasted for 44 days, caught a bullet fired from a gun in his mouth, and so much more. In his new National Geographic series David Blaine: Do Not Attempt, he travels the planet to learn from extraordinary performers. What drives him to probe our capacity for fear, risk, and pain? There鈥檚 nobody better to talk to Blaine about this than Diana Nyad, the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage, covering 110.86 miles in just under 53 hours. In this riveting conversation recorded at the 2025 国产吃瓜黑料 Festival, these two icons explore the art of human endurance.

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