The Joy of Difficult Things
A podcast about why athletes choose to do difficult things, and what they find on the other side.
Hosted by Hector Alexander. New episodes every Tuesday and Friday.
Why we're making this
Somewhere in western Saudi Arabia, about four months into cycling from London to Bangkok, I sat on a kerb with a broken wheel and no idea how I was going to get to the next town. I was cold, a bit frightened and (if I'm truthful) quite close to giving up.
It was one of the best days of my life. I just didn't know it yet.
I've spent years since trying to understand why it made an impact, and why I got on the bicycle in the first place. Why is it that the days we remember are almost never the easy ones? Why do the people I admire most keep choosing things that look painful? And why, when you ask them about it, they don't talk about the pain. They talk about joy.
So I started asking. This podcast is those conversations.
Who you'll hear
The athletes we work with at Loaf. Ultra cyclists, mountain runners, skiers, surfers. People who have spent their lives doing difficult things on purpose. Not the highlight reel, crossing the finishing line. The bit before it: where it started, the thing that nearly broke them, what keeps them coming back, and what's next.
The real subject isn't the sport. It's what difficult things teach us about living.
For athletes
If you've got a story worth telling and a community that would follow you somewhere hard, I'd love to hear from you.
hector@loaf.so