Outside Podcast

You’ve surely heard the stories of a deeply competitive athlete whose drive to win has wreaked havoc on those around them. But can the positive attributes of competitive drive, like  goal setting and persistence be harnessed to achieve something totally different than dominance—even something altruistic? If you’re mountain biker Eliot Jackson, the answer is yes.

Eliot parlayed national championships in motocross into top 10 finishes in downhill mountain bike racing. When he retired at 36 years old, Eliot shifted his drive to confront the racism in cycling, sparked by the national racial justice reckoning that swept the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

In 2020, Eliot founded Grow Cycling,  a foundation to promote access and inclusion in the sport. Under Eliot’s guidance, the foundation turned ideas into real life solutions, starting with a 50-acre bike park in Inglewood, California. It's a shining example of a vibrant, diverse bike scene and how individual competitiveness can create real community.

Recorded live at Trailborn Jackson Hole, presented by Outdoor Collection by Marriott Bonvoy.

What does Jackson Hole look like through the eyes of a big-mountain ski superhero who's just as excited to talk about the town's artists and musicians as its powder? On this special episode of the Outside Podcast, brought to you by Outdoor Collection by Marriott Bonvoy, we sit down with Jim Ryan, recorded live at Trailborn Jackson Hole in Jackson, Wyoming.

Jim is a Vermont ski racer who headed west when his race career ended, and he became a fixture in the Jackson community, and not only in the ways you'd think. He's respected by the town's world-class athletes, but he'll just as happily tell you about its swing dancers, its creatives, and its... LARPers?

Together, it adds up to one big idea: you've been thinking about Jackson all wrong. By the end, you'll be booking your own stay at Trailborn Jackson Hole to see it for yourself.

Plan your stay at Trailborn Jackson Hole, part of Outdoor Collection by Marriott Bonvoy: https://www.marriott.com/brands/outdoor-collection.mi

Most of us, at some point in our lives, will put a goal aside, with every intention of coming back to it later on in life. Maybe it’s that marathon you always thought you should run. Maybe it’s going for that big promotion at work. Or perhaps it’s trying to learn how to play guitar or a new sport or…the list is endless.

The point is, we all have dreams, big, small, audacious, or somewhere in between. But, while the goal setting is endless, the follow through is often nonexistent. Unless you’re pianist, composer, and sailor Anne-Marie Keane, who's currently fulfilling a life-long—and long delayed—goal of sailing the globe. In today's episode, she gives a master class in navigation, not just of the seas, but of a life well lived.

On this week's Long Read, with Outside Magazine's Features Editor Fred Drier, we welcome you to fall—specifically, to Oktoberfest. Thanks to the magic of marketing, the German festival where people don lederhosen, drink beer, and sing songs has spawned a new tradition.

Masskrugstemmen is the German word for competitive steinholding. You heard that right; it's a competition in with competitors hold beer steins full of beer and ... well, that's about it.

In 2025, reporter Martin Fritz Huber traveled to Central Park to check out the Masskrugstemmen National Competition, to soak up the suds and the fun at the event, and then for this story, he took a deep dive into the wacky world of Steinholding.

This past July, host PaddyO checked the box of a bucket list adventure 20 years in the making: boating all 280 miles of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. And, of course, he couldn’t go without a microphone stuffed into his drybag. PaddyO interviewed a handful of guests, complete strangers to him, and a few dory boat guides tasked with navigating more than 250 rapids over 15 days. Sure, the Grand is known for its beauty and thrills, but there is something else that draws people here. When boaters arrive at the Lee’s Ferry put-in, somehow, the Grand Canyon becomes whatever they need it to be–-a mirror, a teacher, a therapist, a parent. By the time you hit the Pearce Ferry takeout two weeks later, you’re a different person. Skeptical? Just listen.