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The Trailhead: Daily Summaries Delivered
by UltraSignup
The Trailhead isn't your typical trail running podcast—we're not dissecting splits or debating race strategies. Instead, hosts Zoë Rom and Brendan Leonard take you straight to the heart (and funny bone) of the sport, celebrating the people, stories, and quirks that make trail running so special. With a mix of humor, heart, and a little irreverence, we explore the personalities, people, artists, and everyday athletes who give the sport its soul—because trail running is about more than just the miles.
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- 6 days ago1h 2m
What a Doctor Who Wins 100-Milers Wants Runners to Know
Dr. Teddy Bross is a family medicine physician at Highpoint Direct Care in Golden, Colorado, where his practice focuses on athletes and active adults. He is also a three-time Western States finisher and the 2025 Ouray 100 champion. In this conversation, Teddy explains direct primary care, and why it means an hour with your doctor instead of eight minutes. He covers why a runner's bloodwork can alarm a provider who doesn't know what creatine or a morning run does to your labs, and why your mid-race nausea is probably pacing, not the gel. Brendan asks whether ultrarunning is actually good for you and whether endurance athletes over 40 should get a coronary calcium scan. Zoë asks when health screening stops being useful, and Teddy weighs in on how thin the evidence for BPC-157 really is. Also covered: the appendix as your gut's junk drawer, and the treadmill in his exam room.
- 2 weeks ago1h 36m
Introducing The Claims Department with Zoë Rom & Nick Tiller
We just launched a new show on the UltraSignup network, and this is your first listen. The Claims Department puts fitness, health, and wellness science under the microscope. Zoë Rom co-hosts with Dr. Nick Tiller, an exercise physiologist, researcher, and author of The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science. Every episode, they pick apart something you've probably seen on your feed: a supplement, a gadget, a training trend, or a confident claim from a famous podcaster. They look at what the research actually says, and they show you how to work it out yourself next time. In this first episode, Zoë and Nick dig into peptides. That covers BPC-157 and TB-500, the so-called "Wolverine Stack," and why so many athletes are injecting compounds that were never approved for human use. They also get into the fine print behind a wearable company's health claims. Like what you hear? Follow The Claims Department on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every other Thursday. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0WBiQDtu4QXau4faFBr0qx Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-claims-department/id6822333314 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT0ovVd1qK7A
- 2 weeks ago48 min
What Exercise Does (And Doesn't Do) For Your Metabolism with Evolutionary Anthropologist Herman Pontzer
Herman Pontzer is a professor of evolutionary anthropology and global health at Duke University, a leading researcher on human energy metabolism, and the author of Burn and Adaptable. In this conversation, Zoe and Brendan ask Herman whether anyone should genetically test a four-year-old for sprint potential (no, just take him outside and see if he likes running). They also get into why the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania burn about as many calories a day as sedentary adults in industrialized countries, and what happened to the metabolisms of runners who ran a marathon a day from Los Angeles to Washington, DC. Herman explains the ceiling on human endurance and why pregnancy sits right up against it, why exercise is great for nearly everything except boosting your metabolism, and why the longevity influencer starter pack of testosterone, growth hormone, and protein might be exactly backwards. Plus: the high-altitude gene Himalayan populations inherited from a Paleolithic fling with Denisovans.
- Sep 30, 20261h 6m
Why Do Trail Runners Dress Like This Now? Lee Glandorf on Race Whimsy, Bandanas, and Style
Lee Glandorf is a writer, brand marketer, former Yale rower, seven-year Tracksmith veteran, and the creator of The Sweat Lookbook, a newsletter about sports and fashion through the lens of the female athlete. In this conversation, Zoë and Brendan finally ask the question keeping them up at night: why is everyone dressed like it's 2003? (Bandanas. Oakleys. Boxy chore jackets with no discernible weatherproofing.) Lee makes the case that creative directors discovering trail running might be the unified theory of everything. She also covers why race whimsy lets women show up sparkly and fast at the same time, why road runners are dressing like pros at 3:35 marathon pace, what happens when the internet finds a running vest with more frills than pockets, and how to have personal style without becoming a walking billboard. Also: long shorts populism. This episode is brought to you by Running Warehouse, which has everything you need for fall training, from grippy trail shoes to wool socks to a headlamp for when the sun decides to sleep in. Shop at runningwarehouse.com?from=ultra.
- Sep 15, 202653 min
The Freedom of Being a Beginner with Oladimeji "Dim" Ajegbile
Oladimeji Ajegbile, known online as Hello Dim, went viral for filming bike rides through Edinburgh with his two-year-old son perched on the handlebars, narrating every tree and bus he sees. He's also a former architect, UX designer, startup founder, stay-at-home dad, and, as of last year, a runner who clocked a sub-50 10K on roughly two training runs and just finished his first half marathon with a 50K trail ultra on the calendar. Zoë and Brendan talk with Dim about why the toddler videos connected when a decade of content didn't, the 90-day rule he uses to test every new pursuit, what the Piston Cup in Cars taught him about chasing medals, learning to ride a bike at 21, running the Union Canal in the pitch-black Scottish dark, getting dizzy at 30K of a track ultra, and his Substack essay on why achievement won't fix your emptiness. It's a conversation about being a beginner on purpose, making things for the process instead of the result, and what happens when the internet decides which part of your life it wants to see.
- Sep 1, 202655 min
Margaret Glaspy on Pain Caves, Typewriters, and Running on Tour
Singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy joins Zoë and Brendan to talk about the strange and surprisingly rich overlap between running and making art. She shares how watching her mom run planted the seed early, growing up close to the Western States course, how Courtney Dauwalter and Addie Bracy helped draw her into ultrarunning, and why learning to sit with discomfort has changed far more than her athletic life. Margaret also talks about quitting social media, writing songs on a typewriter, finding solitude in anonymous hotel gyms, and the logistical challenge of training while touring in a van. Plus: the financial risks of falling on your guitar-playing hand, the unexpectedly deep musician-to-ultrarunner pipeline, and what Margaret might learn from how ICU nurses train for ultras.
- Aug 18, 20261h 10m
Doing It The Hard Way is the Point - With Writer Sam Robinson
Sam Robinson writes the Substack Footnotes, works as a content designer at YouTube, and has a PhD in seventeenth-century science, religion, and philosophy, which makes him exactly the right person to ask why we're all trying so hard to optimize a sport whose whole appeal is that it's beautifully pointless. Zoë and Brendan get into the tension with him: distance running rewards incremental gains and deferred gratification, and it's also the least efficient way imaginable to get from point A back to point A. Sam talks about racing above Stinson Beach with his head down, missing the view; about eating a protein bar in the shower at 4:58 a.m. to make a 7:30 meeting; and about how a three-year-old and a torn meniscus have both forced a slower relationship with the sport. The back half turns to Sam's piece on the fragility of type two fun and the male friendship crisis, what happens to shoulder-to-shoulder friendships when the run club scatters and the knee gives out, and whether shared mileage alone can hold a community together. Along the way: Robert Caro, Oliver Burkeman, Benjamin Franklin prosecuting his breakfast, and the unsettling possibility that morning-routine influencers have never actually seen American Psycho. Read Sam at footnotes.substack.com. This episode is brought to you by Running Warehouse - join our club here.
- Aug 4, 202657 min
What If the Hero's Journey Is the Wrong Story? With Heather Hansman
Heather Hansman is an award-winning outdoor journalist, an Outside columnist, and the author of Downriver and the bestselling Powder Days. Her new book, Fierce Country: The Untold Story of Three Women Who Ignited America's Love for the Wild, is out now. In this conversation: the therapist who mapped the heroine's journey, and the very famous mythologist who told her women don't need one; Georgie White swimming Grand Canyon rapids in 1945 in tennis shoes and a couple of hard candies; why there always seems to be exactly one available spot at the top for a woman, and what that has to do with the way we talked about Rachel Entrekin winning Cocodona outright; topophilia, or what happens when the love of your life turns out to be a landscape; and whether the American myth of the lone tough guy summiting the mountain is, frankly, a pretty boring story. This episode is brought to you by LMNT. Go to drinklmnt.com/UltraSignup for a free sample pack with any order. Featured race: the Bear Canyon Trail Run in Sandy, Utah, on Saturday, October 10. Formerly the Corner Canyon Ultra, now with a new name and a new course. The 11 Mile Classic climbs over 4,000 feet in five miles, the 20 Mile Challenge runs that loop twice, and there's a 5K if you'd like to keep your quads. Every dollar raised goes to an individual or family facing serious hardship, nearly $70,000 to 13 recipients since 2013. Registration closes Wednesday, October 7. Sign up at UltraSignup.com. The Trailhead is part of the UltraSignup Podcast Network.
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About The Trailhead
The Trailhead isn't your typical trail running podcast—we're not dissecting splits or debating race strategies. Instead, hosts Zoë Rom and Brendan Leonard take you straight to the heart (and funny bone) of the sport, celebrating the people, stories, and quirks that make trail running so special. With a mix of humor, heart, and a little irreverence, we explore the personalities, people, artists, and everyday athletes who give the sport its soul—because trail running is about more than just the miles.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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When a new episode drops, our AI transcribes and analyzes it, then generates a personalized summary tailored to your interests and profession. It's delivered to your inbox every morning.
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How often does The Trailhead release new episodes?
The Trailhead publishes biweekly. Our AI generates a summary within hours of each new episode.
What topics does The Trailhead cover?
The Trailhead covers topics including Sports, Fitness, Running, Health & Fitness. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
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