The Athletic Philosopher Podcast

This episode is all about the Tribal Training Book Club I launched and how reading the first title unfolded. I picked 'Walden' by Henry David Thoreau for a few reasons and I detail all the lessons learned.
The importance of community and leadership in holding you accountable to establishing a daily practice was one big takeaway. 
Another was the value of internal knowing and how to create ease in a process that involves doing a hard thing, expressed through my own struggle to cement a daily reading habit into my lifestyle after leaving my university professor position.
Final takeaways include how to mine athletic knowledge from Thoreau's experiment in experiential philosophy and a clarion call to live the life YOU DEMAND and DREAM about living. 

I'm a GIANT ice hockey fan and a couple of gigantic records have fallen in the past few weeks that made me want to reflect on the meaning of breaking through in sports.
Centered on the greatness of the legendary careers of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, I discuss their records and the deep significance sports holds in breaking limitations in the mind by forcing us to 'watch the impossible become possible'
The athlete's are praised as heroes in the Ancient World precisely for their ability to defy expectations and soar beyond what anyone believed was once possible. I want us to understand how to understand these records so we can leverage the moment we witness athletic perfection in an elite athlete to breakthrough in our own lives.
If you just watched the impossible happen, what else could be illusory when thinking about the limits of your own potential and destiny? 

This is a fun episode where I go all in on the value of going on camping adventures with your family. Part philosophy, part narrative, I dive into the past as tell a great story from the first time my wife and I took our 4 month old daughter tent camping. 
The modern world is oversaturated in comfort to the point we isolate from eachother even inside our own homes. Camping brings us into moments of close discomfort that force creative problem solving together.  Those moments are the meaningful memories that create the texture of a beautiful life and bond the family tightly together through experiences of shared struggle. 
Partly inspired by reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau, I leave you with this quote of his that captures the theme of this episode and urges you to get lost in the woods and take an adventure with those closest to you.
"We should come home from far, from adventures, and perils, and discoveries everyday, with new experience and character." 

This is a bit of different episode where I respond directly to a question one of my followers and friends asked me on social media. They wanted to know where the term 'elbows up' comes from in hockey and why the new Canadian Prime Minister and many Canadians are using this term to discuss their political stance against perceived American aggression.
I spent years researching and writing about Canadian national identity and it's relationship to ice hockey so I took the opportunity to respond in podcast form. Part history, part philosophy, part politics, this episode swirls around the current thing but hopefully doesn't add to the silliness.
In the end, it's important to know how sports animates communities through identity so that we can recognize when sports are being used to persuade us into accepting a position that helps a politician while not necessarily using sports for their true and deep purpose. 

Adults make the world too serious by misunderstanding play and then wonder why they lead unhappy lives empty of meaning. It's the same as a child who's told that they must always be doing serious work. This is a clarion call to stop consuming play and start creating it as an adult.
In Episode 31 I swirl hard around one of my core pillars of athletic morality, the importance of fun. Instead of just skimming the surface I wanted to really explore the simple wisdom of this phrase and how it not only guides us in fitness but in orienting our lives towards deep meaning. 
Once we take seriously the importance of play to our growth, learning, and expression, it's impossible not to move it more towards the center of your values. 
As the saying goes "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Stop living dull, start living beautifully, go all in on PLAYING THE RIGHT WAY. 

Episode 30 was tough to record because I'm forced to open up about the REAL reason I failed to hit 100 miles last year at the 2024 Prairie on Fire Backyard Ultra. After months of reflection and rethinking logistics and strategies I came face to face with the real truth of why I decided to stop running after 21 hours and 87.5 miles.
A philosopher goes to the truth, and finds the courage to face it directly and learn from it. I hold nothing back in exposing a mindset gap that cost me a chance to hit the target I'd aimed at. 
I share this story to encourage you to sign up for a race, train hard towards it, and be courageous to learn honestly from the results no matter if they are good, bad, or neutral. That's how we can leverage the objective outcomes to create powerful subjective growth, the perfect harmony for competing in sports to grow and develop your character. 

Episode 29 doubles down on an emerging format for my solo podcasts I hit upon in Episode 28. Using the same conversations and concepts I preach in my coaching calls lit me up and helped me find a dramatic and passionate voice on that pod and I wanted to try it again.
"The Truth is in the Training" is a tag I've developed over the past year of coaching, training, and competing and I wanted to explore that idea first broadly and then circle back to a specific example of why it's such a good frame with some experiences I had over the weekend. 
I swirl around the different types of truth we can find from consistent training:
-The objective truth of each training session
-The subjective truth of our self-discovery through training
-The compounding of both these truths to reveal long term processes 
-The spiritual truth of learning to trust faith as a guide through adversity
-The existential truth of consciousness, reality, and how we experience the world 
Thanks for coming on the journey with me! 

Episode 28 deals with a topic close to my heart. Instead of focusing on mindset in the athletic pursuit of self discovery and improvement I want us to instead aim towards our heartstance.
The idea of the open and closed heart leading towards and away from the truth is an idea that's fascinated me since stumbling across the phrasing and ideal while reading the Exodus story. I've recently started applying it to myself, my endurance training teammates, and the athletes and individuals I coach and love how it's orienting us all towards the deeper spiritual truths of our athletic training.
This is my opening salvo to the world, stop telling me what's on your mind and instead show me what's inside your heart! 

Best Day Ever as I welcome my brother, tribal teammate, and legendary athlete, trainer, and adventurer Mike Donatelli to the show.
We discuss why fun is perhaps the most important element of a consistent fitness routine. Aimed at beginners, experts, and every one in between in the fitness world, we dive into the meaning of fun in training and how to properly orient your fitness around it.
We talk competition and life goals as ways to stay discipled even when fun is first on our minds and hearts. The positivity is off the charts, hard not to get fired up around Mike. This is my type of philosophy, one that's lived in real life for a beautiful life!
Check Mike out in the following places
@mikeddonatelli (X, IG)
https://mikedonatelli.substack.com/ (Substack)

This episode I welcome AJ Londono, owner of ELVT movement, to the show to discuss broad philosophies of movement, flow, challenge, life, and the pursuit of creativity and fun through movement, exercise, and sport.
AJ teaches unique concepts of motion and ties them to a philosophy of life growth and purpose. We dive deep into his idea and how they align with ancient Greek and Taoist conceptions of competition, meaning, and aim. 
Thank you for the great conversation AJ. Check him out on social and ELVT here: https://direct.me/flowwithaj