How hard is your life? Is what you have in your hands now the worst pain ever? Is it?

The River of Life, Episode #12 with co-host Spencer Ploessl.If you have never listened to our podcast before, I will give a brief overview: my varying co-hosts flip a coin that decides who asks the first question. We then go back and forth and anything...

Speedy Pete Laubmeier puts his family first, helping others second, and dirt bikes third. With almost 30 off road motorcycle championships under his belt, Speedy and I discuss best self, winding down a log racing career, and doing what we think is right.

There are ultra athletes, and then there is John Stamstad. John has won the Iditabike bike race in Alaska 8 times and a list of accomplishments both cycling and running on foot that would boggle your mind. Please tune in for a brutally honest talk about life, the hard shit and the good stuff.

There are those people who are thinkers, and then there are others who are doers. Dennis Dodson is both, but there have been many ups and downs along the way. With a master’s degree in Cultural Sociology and enough life adventures to fill a small library, Dennis continues to share his thoughts and his stories in this final part of our conversation after his big bike ride to Washington, DC from Santa Fe, NM. Currently, Dennis is disabled and unable to work because of his struggles with his mental health, although you will not really hear it. During episodes #3 and #8 with Dennis, he speaks of his mental health often and how he has learned to find the silver linings in life. In this episode #9, we journey back to some of Dennis’ most influential and painful times, as a young boy in Baltimore. Dennis explains how he suffered verbal, emotional, and physical abuse at the hands of his babysitter. Sexual assault is not usually discussed in public, but Dennis reveals how as a 12-year-old paperboy, he was cornered and sexually assaulted by a large overpowering male pedophile in an apartment building laundromat who had been marking him. My co-host flexes his bravery muscles here and lays it all out. Dennis gives us the background of how his unhealthiness resulted in a near-death experience from an unrealized blood sugar condition and landed him in the hospital, in a diabetic coma. From there, Dennis committed to getting healthy again, losing over 50 pounds and starting to ride his bike once more. Of course we discuss voluntary simplicity, poverty, the commodity fetish, homelessness, racial and cultural exclusion, and the abyss of suicidal tendencies. I have loved every single one of my eight episodes so far, but I think this might be the most poignant collection of talks to date. Per usual, we go deep immediately, and I ask Dennis how he thinks we as a country could become more like small town USA again. I hope you give it a listen, leave a review, leave a rating, and share this episode with friends and family. You can find Dennis on Instagram @thesociologyofart And you can support Dennis’ DC ride causes here: Three Sisters Collective.org in Santa Fe https://threesisterscollective.org/donate/ Native American Relief Fund / New Mexico Community Foundation (website currently unavailable) Thank you all. ~ RogerRayBird

Dennis recaps his 2,500-mile bike ride to attend the BLM march and we dig deep and shed some tears discussing the simple life, lost loves, addiction, and mental health.

Ray lived a happy-go-lucky life in his younger years, but his alcohol and drug addictions were keeping a meaningful life out of reach. Ray then decided to take his life back from the forces trying to kill him. Buying a mountain bike and turning his back on his addictions, Ray built and opened the world's first indoor mountain bike park in Cleveland, Ohio. The park’s life-changing experience serves tens of thousands of people from all around the world. Ray has been afforded the opportunity to now see life from two opposing views. Almost three years ago, in September 2017, Ray suffered near-fatal injuries from an accident and now he is challenged in ways most of us could never even imagine. We discuss his new life in his wheelchair, making a difference in people’s lives, the gift of long-lasting friendships, and more. Please give us a listen and you will hear Ray’s kind heart come through in his words.

Integrity, truth, lies, divine discontent, happiness at home and at work, helping others achieve more than they want for themselves, and the question of ever lasting love as a myth or is there a happily ever after?

Episode #5 features my co-host and Baltimore buddy, David Tambeaux. We discuss taking a head-on approach to life, relationships, and work, as well as the critical nature of a solid foundation of truth and great communication. David shares his struggles of helping with the poor mental health of a family member and how he tries to stop short of enabling. Some of us try to keep certain behaviors alive and well either at home or work but many times we cannot do it in both environments simultaneously- we discuss this at length. This, a well-rounded conversation about trying to do more of the helpful things and do less of the harmful things in all areas of our lives. Critical to all of these are the different ways we can become better communicators. Tune in, review, and share!

My co-host Laird Knight is a husband, father, works as a realtor in Morgantown, WV USA, he invented 24-hour mountain bike racing in 1992, and he is in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Laird grew up as an Army Brat to a father who was a Vietnam combat officer and an alcoholic. Laird and his wife Barbara adopted three children of color from Ethiopia who are biological brothers and sister. We discuss the trauma carried from childhood into adulthood, the top three things children need, the high value of community, and the quest for honest integrity. Laird is extremely brave and brutally open about his resulting challenge with self-esteem. Hard truths are discussed around the concept (myth?) of 'Love Story', and also trying to achieve workability throughout our lives. Laird performs an absolute rockstar closing you don't want to miss!