Episodes Feed
EP 172: Brittany Leavitt
Brittany Leavitt is a climber, backpacker, educator, and the co-founder and CEO of Brown Girls Climb (BGC). We talked about Brittany’s climbing origin story, her unique family upbringing, unmasking and educating about race, teaching kids at the Smithsonian, the mission of BGC, creating more accessible spaces, lessons from her first road trip, using TikTok to stay informed, climbing goals, inspiration, and much more.
EP 164: Melina Costanza
Melina Costanza is a competition powerhouse and the 2021 US Boulder National Champion. She opened up recently about her struggles with an eating disorder and decided to step away from competitions. We talked about her foot injury and surgery, why patent law is similar to climbing, how sports glamorize suffering, getting stronger during recovery, how gratitude can impact your training, and fun facts about Melina from ketchup to baby teeth necklaces.
EP 157: Jeannie Wall
Jeannie Wall (aka “The Energizer Bunny”) is a world-class skier, life-long mountain athlete, and obsessed climber. She cofounded Broad Beta to cultivate a community for women and genderqueer folks to share their stories of outdoor adventures in the mountains. We talked about lessons from her upbringing, the importance of partnerships and mentorship in climbing, slowing down to go fast, engaging with the edge of our comfort zone, ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and much more!
EP 151: Anna Hazelnutt
Anna Hazelnutt is a professional climber who specializes in difficult single-pitch trad and slab climbing. But don’t let her specialization fool you—she’s an all-around badass! We talked about two of her biggest climbing achievements to date, leaning into her superpowers, top training exercises for slabs, dealing with negative comments online, embracing empathy, comedy as a mechanism for change, and much more!
EP 150: Luke Mehall
Luke Mehall is the creator of The Climbing Zine and The Dirtbag State of Mind podcast. In this episode, we take turns interviewing each other. I ask Luke why he started The Climbing Zine, what lessons climbing has taught him, what themes connect the stories he selects, and how to sustain creative work. He asks me about my origin story with The Nugget, what all of these interviews have brought to my life, and the difficulties I’ve faced along the way.
EP 149: Steven on Kegels and Coffee
New interview featuring me! Isabel von Rittberg is a good friend of mine and the host of Kegels and Coffee. She interviewed me on her podcast earlier this year to talk about my experience with my first-ever panic attack in December of 2021. We talked about what led up to the panic attack and how it was a wake-up call for me, how to stay sane while getting the work done, and much more.
*This was one of the most vulnerable interviews I’ve done. And it’s one of my favorites. Hope you enjoy :)
EP 148: Alan Watts (Repost)
I often get asked, “what is your favorite interview you’ve ever done?” Firstly, I don’t have a favorite. But if I HAD TO CHOOSE ONE, it would be this episode. Alan Watts is a fascinating character in climbing history and a personal hero of mine. This interview was such a treat. I loved revisiting it for this repost. Enjoy!
*This episode was originally published in EP 04, in February 2020.
EP 147: Alayna Joy
Alayna Joy is a queer content creator and YouTuber, and newly obsessed climber. We talked about her journey of discovering she is gay, coming out publicly on her already-successful YouTube channel, how climbing has become an anchor for her, compulsory heterosexuality, questions we should ask ourselves, queerness in climbing, why our climbing progress slows down over time, and much more.
EP 144: Marisa Michael
Marisa Michael is a registered dietitian nutritionist with 20 years of experience who specializes in eating disorders in athletes and climbers. We talked about the characteristics of eating disorders, the line between eating for performance and disordered eating, why losing weight won’t make you climb harder, recommendations for climbers and youth athletes, intuitive eating, Marisa’s sweet tooth, and much more.
EP 141: Robbie Phillips
Robbie Phillips is a professional adventure climber and filmmaker from Scotland. We talked about his recent trip to the Western Isles of Scotland, his path from competitions to adventure climbing, top rope soloing to project hard routes, things he learned from climbing with Dave MacLeod, processing grief, capturing memories through filmmaking, and much more.
EP 140: Tommy Caldwell
Tommy Caldwell is the most accomplished big wall free climber alive. He is best known for having free climbed The Dawn Wall, the most difficult big wall free route in the world. We talked about his achilles injury, doing the FA of Flex Luthor, training for V12 boulder problems on The Dawn Wall, undone lines on El Cap, exploring the limits of human endurance, being vulnerable through writing a book, parenting, and much more.
EP 129: Dorian Evers
Dorian Evers is an individual and couples therapist in Boulder, CO. We talked about navigating different stoke levels in your relationship, how to create a safe space for your partner to be vulnerable, how to have difficult conversations, common insecurities and fears in relationships, tips for long-distance relationships, vanlife dating tips, and much more.
EP 128: Callie Joy Black
Callie Joy Black is a strength coach who specializes in training during pregnancy and postpartum. We talked about the most common concerns she hears from pregnant women, falling risk while pregnant, returning to climbing postpartum, strength training during pregnancy, climbing hard with kids, being selfish and creating boundaries, and being your own project.
EP 126: Devin Dabney
Devin Dabney is a rock climber, routesetter, rapper, music producer, writer, and creator of The American Climbing Project podcast. We talked about using humor to talk about uncomfortable subjects, inviting people into conversations, how climbing saved his life after considering suicide, breaking down barriers to climbing, how competition makes us better, and making a difference in the climbing community.
EP 125: Zofia Reych
Zofia Reych is a Polish climber and anthropologist and author of Born to Climb. We talked about renovating their mid-18th century house in Fontainebleau, researching the book, identifying as non-binary and directing the Women’s Bouldering Festival, what it’s like to be autistic, key chapters in climbing’s history, losing friends in the mountains, and much more.
EP 124: Karly Rager
Karly Rager is a structural engineer turned climbing coach, and the founder of Project Direct Coaching. We talked about Karly’s background and what led her to start her own coaching business, being a female in two male-dominated industries, mental strategies for developing focus and overcoming fear, transitioning between climbing disciplines, using injuries as opportunities, cultivating longevity in our climbing, valuing coaches more highly, and much more.
EP 121: Carol Simpson
Carol Simpson is a 77-year-old rock climber and yoga instructor from Lone Pine, CA. We talked about growing up in the South in the 1950s, identifying as a “tomboy”, feeling pressure to be feminine as a teenager, embracing athletics in her 30s, discovering climbing at age 42, sending her first 5.12a at age 53, yoga as the fountain of youth, and ageism in climbing.
*I loved this conversation. If you enjoy exploring different perspectives from your own, and hearing about others’ lived experiences, don’t skip this episode.
EP 120: Lea Volpe
Lea Volpe is a paraclimber for Great Britain and a 2x medalist at the IFSC Paraclimbing World Championships. Lea holds down a 9-5 job working in health policy, coaches junior athletes, and is essentially a professional climber on the side. We talked about paraclimbing competitions, being diagnosed with Ataxia, how we perceive wheelchairs, empathy in coaching, and much more.
EP 116: Paul Robinson
Paul Robinson is one of the top boulderers in the world and has been climbing at a V15 level for more than a decade. We talked about building his new house, recovering from neck surgery, his recent diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, climbing 1000+ V11s or harder, his analogy of climbing as a book, hardest FAs, trying to climb V16, travel routines, filmmaking, and much more.
EP 112: Favia Dubyk
Dr. Favia Dubyk is a pathologist, cancer survivor, Ninja Warrior, cat lover, and badass boulderer. We talked about the connective tissue disorder that led her to specialize in lowball roof climbing, what it was like to go through cancer and chemotherapy, how she became one of the strongest people in the world at pull-ups, learning how to dyno, and her current V13 lowball roof project.