Rebecca Rusch has won nearly every extreme challenge she's tackled. But her evolution into the "Queen of Pain" began with a childhood struggle with her body. We speak to the top endurance athlete about her relentless drive to excel, the hallucinations that come with pain and the personal journey down the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam that forever changed her. 

The Leadville Trail 100 is one of the most difficult biking races in the world. And yet it regularly attracts the top names in the mountain biking community and local heroes alike. Ahead of next week's podcast with top endurance athlete Rebecca Rusch, we dive into the race's particulars but also into the life of the charismatic founder who created it as an act of desperation. 

Surfer, musician, on-camera talent, Sal Masekela has worn a number of hats in his two-decade (and counting) career. From commentating on the X Games to producing the VICE World of Sports, he talks to us about the through line in all of his storytelling. And the family history that helped shape him. 

The first ever X Games featured competitive bungee jumping, kite skiers flying way off course and so, so much neon. We look back at the adrenaline-soaked birth of an industry.

Entrepreneur Tom Bilyeu used his family problem with obesity as the fuel to start a billion-dollar company. He’s since transitioned into a new line of work, querying entrepreneurs and empowering listeners on his successful podcast, Impact Theory.

Magician Adam Trent knows that his performance discipline isn't always fully appreciated. In a hilarious hour of conversation he talks the triumphs and humiliations of his life as a magician, his power to connect to an audience of any size, and a new series on RBTV which has him criss-crossing Europe with magic serving as his only currency.

All of LA looks like a movie set at times. Even more so when you're standing in front of the Magic Castle. Ahead of next week's interview with magician Adam Trent we dive into the wild, weird history of the Gothic mansion near the Hollywood Hills where entrance is only guaranteed in formal wear and by invitation. Magicians have never felt so cool.

When former happy-go-lucky pro surfer Jon Rose hit the skids in his personal life, a trip to Indonesia transformed him. We talk to the founder of the water filter nonprofit Waves4Water about selfishness, the problem with the 'humanitarian' label, and his recent decision to give up a permanent place of residence for a life on the road. 

Ahead of our conversation with a surfing humanitarian, we take a look at the global issues around access to water and the unique group of nonprofits - and their personalities - looking to change that. 

When David Colturi steps to the edge of the 89-foot cliff diving platform, it takes everything he has in his years of experience to control and focus the fear coursing through him. Then it takes only 3 seconds for him to hit the water at speeds upwards of 52 mph. We talk to the former college diving champion and Red Bull Cliff diving athlete about his summer as a show jumper in the midwest, training his mind, and the challenge of building a career in a niche sport.  

Ahead of next week's podcast with cliff diver David Colturi, we rewind the clock to a man named Teddy Stauffer. The Swiss-born big band leader fled the Nazis and created a nightlife paradise in the sleepy fishing village of Acapulco in the 1940s and 50s. The crown jewel? La Perla, where Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth gathered to party and watch the famed cliff divers of La Quebrada breathe new life into an ancient sport.

When Dylan Bowman laces up his shoes to prepare for another 100-mile race, he's not chasing competitors, or split times, but silence. The ultra-runner is one of the bright young lights in the painful, and often dangerous, endurance sport. He tells us what he learned from overtraining, pushing the pain threshold and why his worst attributes serve him well on the trail.

For a sport as odd as ultrarunning, it's somehow fitting that the first man to complete a 100-mile race is Gordy Ainsleigh. In 1974, the Vietnam-war protesting, free-love-having Northern California native decided to enter a horse race without a horse. And because of that, an athletic movement was born. We talked to Gordy about love, untrustworthy friends, and how the two forces conspired to create ultrarunning's grandaddy race, the Western States 100.

A multi-instrumentalist at a young age, Tom Holkenborg never met a music genre he didn't like. He went from a Dutch new wave band to producer of the international mega-hit "A Little Less Conversation," with which he accomplished two things: getting Elvis Presley's estate to agree to the sample, and putting his name on the global charts. So what did he do next? Moved to Hollywood to start at the bottom as a film composer. Holkenborg stopped by and talked to us about the importance of failing...

In this age of Hollywood blockbusters, the star actors and merchandising possibilities often outshine the music. That was the case in 1933 as well, until a child prodigy rescued one of the potential biggest flops of its time - King Kong - with something called a film score. Ahead of next week's chat with musical talent and composer Junkie XL (Mad Max, Deadpool), we dive into the life of Max Steiner, who went on to compose the scores for Gone with the Wind and Casablanca, and ushered in a new...

A hell-raiser at a young age—when he got into knife fights and raced around in the hotrod scene—Robert Williams grew to become the leader of a rebel art movement. A painter of pornographic, eye-popping illustrations steeped in the counter-culture of the 1960s, Williams was creating work that put anyone who sold it at risk of imprisonment. But his faith that he would find an audience endured. And he did. The southern raconteur spoke about creating Juxtapoz magazine, the high stakes of the art...

Ed “Big Daddy” Roth was the most creative builder in the booming hotrod scene of the 1950s and 60s—and the cartoons he drew captivated wannabe bad boys across the country. Things were cruising until he got mixed up with the Hells Angels. In this preview podcast, we delve into the life and legacy of one of the most colorful men in American car culture.

More than a festival or eye-popping art and fashion extravaganza, Afropunk is a cultural movement. For black folks who feel mis-cast as Hip-hop and R&B enthusiasts, for members of the LGBTQ community, and for all those who think differently. Guiding it are founders Jocelyn Cooper and Matthew Morgan, the polished daughter of civil rights fighters and a London hustler of the most worthy order.

Ahead of next week's podcast with Afropunk - we look into the origins of the music, arts, culture and fashion festival, and how it all began when a 21-year-old party promoter felt disconnected from the punk scene.

Miles Chamley-Watson is unlike any fencer you’ve ever seen. The lean, tatted-up, fast-talking 6’4” athlete is America's best hope for a historic first gold medal in men’s fencing. He reminds us of Dennis Rodman, though he thinks of himself as more of a David Beckham. And with Nike and a number of other sponsors in tow, he’s aiming to be the first fencing athlete to cross into the mainstream. We talked about his sport’s elitist reputation, how a broken relationship both fuels his competitive...

There have been some remarkable achievements in the world of mainstream sports this year, but this episode isn't about those. We look back on a record-breaking year from a wingsuit pilot, an ultra-runner and a couple of Olympians.

Travis Rice is the man behind the biggest snowboarding films of all time. But the top snowboarder remains an enigma of sorts. In his new film, The Fourth Phase, his relentless drive, and the consequences that come with it, are firmly in the foreground. From surviving an avalanche during filming, to finding peace out on the ocean, Rice opens up about his desire to seek the unknown, and the realization that every journey has its limits.

As a kid on Maui's north shore, Ian Walsh would often hitchhike to nearby beach and reef breaks to surf. He'd ride anything, but when he first tackled a wave over 20 feet, as a teenager, he could imagine doing nothing else. In the last decade, Walsh has become one of the biggest names in the brutal, dangerous and thrilling sport of big wave surfing. But it's dedication to improving the preparation and safety of big wave surfers that might prove his lasting contribution to the sport. In his...

The visibility of big wave surfing has grown exponentially in the digital age, with the feats of the small, global tribe of surfers taking on 5-story waves available on every social media feed. But as the stakes get bigger, the preparation has gotten more sophisticated. In this preview of next week's podcast with guest Ian Walsh we talk about the evolution of safety in the water, from the man who introduced lifeguarding in southern California to the Co2 powered wetsuits saving the lives of...

Jon DeVore's first attempt at flight involved a tarp and climbing to the top of his parents' garage in Alaska. It didn't go smoothly. The adventurer has since become one of the top skydivers and wingsuit pilots in the world, getting calls to perform stunts in Hollywood blockbusters and competing in new races like the recent Red Bull Aces wingsuit competition. Like most who ply his trade, DeVore seems cut from a different cloth; a man who feels more at home screaming alongside mountaintops...