Off The Couch

Today we’ve got some race recaps for you; our initial impressions of Saucony’s Switchback2 (which features the BOA system); and we discuss the arrival of the first carbon-plated trail shoe, The North…

My Off The Couch co-host Brendan Leonard has a new book coming out, so I talked to Brendan about zen koans, piñatas, other running books, kids, alternate titles for the book, and why Jonathan thinks …

Brendan Leonard & Jonathan Ellsworth talk to Mike Foote, who on 12.31.20, headed out with fellow The North Face athlete, Rob Krar, to attempt an FKT of the Rim to Rim to Rim “alt” route of the Grand …

Brendan Leonard & Jonathan Ellsworth talk to Ed Roberson, the creator of The Procrastinator’s Punishment 50k; the host of the excellent Mountain & Prairie podcast; and the author of a fantastic Books…

Zoë Rom is a runner / scrambler / climber; reader; writer; and host of the DNF Podcast. And we talk about all of this plus her interest in continuing to deepen and enrich running culture; the very sp…

Brendan Leonard and I talk with Peter Bromka, a runner that grew up in Portland, ran at Tufts University in Boston, started trail running around San Francisco, and now, is back in Portland where he r…

Most of you are familiar with the BOA fit system, but do you know what BOA is up to today? Or maybe you’ve thought, What’s wrong with regular shoe laces? We went to the BOA Performance Fit Lab to lea…

Our guest today is Matt Hart, author of the book, Win at All Costs: Inside Nike Running and its Culture of Deception, which is an important book that everyone interested in competitive athletics shou…

If you are interested in product design and the process of innovation, then you need to listen to this conversation. Jean-Luc Diard started as an intern at Salomon, developed the first shaped ski, be…

Billy Yang is (among other things) a runner, filmmaker (Billy Yang Films), podcast host (Billy Yang Podcast), and someone who has been chronicling the sport of running in a fashion that is often beau…

Today we’re putting our Off The Couch co-host, Brendan Leonard (semi-rad.com) in the interviewee seat to hear about his recent FKT; his review of his FKT route and whether you should do it; movies; h…

Six months ago, professional skier, Cody Townsend, hated running. Now he loves it. So what happened?? And will his current training program really get him ready to ski tour up and down some of the gn…

Brendan Leonard and Jonathan Ellsworth talk to Kaytlyn Gerbin about her work as a bioengineer, the Rainier Infinity Loop; running ultras vs mountaineering; why scientists make good ultra runners; che…

Last Saturday, Blister reviewer & accomplished ultrarunner, Maddie Hart, ran the Emma Coburn Elk Run 5k with Blister founder & very unaccomplished runner, Jonathan Ellsworth, and they recorded the ex…

Coree Woltering is definitely one of the most interesting ultrarunners out there, so Brendan Leonard and Jonathan Ellsworth talked to Coree about the one time when a catcall actually worked; why the …

Ryan Hall is a two-time Olympian, holds the U.S. record in the half marathon, and is the only American to run a sub-2:05:00 marathon. But these days, Ryan has cut back quite a bit on his running, and…

Ever feel like you aren’t — or couldn’t ever possibly be — a “real” runner? Most of us have, which is why most of us need to meet Kelly Roberts. Kelly is good at making us feel fine about the fact th…

This week we take a look at the trends in running shoes for 2020. Jonathan Ellsworth is joined by Maddie Hart and Gordon Gianniny to talk about knit uppers on trail shoes (??), massive heels, marketi…

What do Taco Bell, the Harlem Globetrotters, a twisted femur, & Rocky Balboa have in common? They’ve all played a role in the journey of Camille Herron to become a world champion runner and a multipl…