The Trail Ahead

In the last episode of Season 3, Faith and Addie recap the season, share their reflections and discuss the tension of holding both hope and motivation to continue to make change. The hosts recount past guest conversations, learnings they’ve taken away from these discussions and questions they get asked most as they continue to tackle the dialogue on The Trail Ahead. Plus, we welcome Faith back after maternity leave and get to hear how she and baby Yaya are doing!

Kayla Jeter is a Cleveland Ohio native, former professional volleyball player, mindset coach, personal trainer, stress-management coach and wellness entrepreneur. She is the founder of #100MilesofSummer, a global running community and founder of Soho House Chicago Run Club. Kayla is a global Lululemon ambassador and a member of the Lululemon FURTHER initiative. On this episode, Addie is joined by The Trail Ahead Season 2 guest, Kamilah Journét, as a guest co-host.

Chelsea Murphy is an outdoor advocate, enthusiast, creative, and inspirer. She is the mother of three, and is on a mission to create a better, more inclusive outdoor culture for her mixed children. Born in San Diego, CA and raised in Tacoma, WA she has always had a connection with nature and the outdoors. After moving to the mountains, she immediately recognized the lack of diversity in outdoor adventure. Chelsea started @she_colorsnature to create a community space for celebrating diversity outside. She also uses her platform to encourage parents to spend time outside with their kids, and centers her mothering philosophy on spending at least 30 minutes outside each day. In this episode we hear from her about navigating historically white spaces, balancing the important job of being a mother of three while leading and curating an online community space, reframing narratives, moving into storytelling behind the camera and much more. This episode is edited by Misty Avinger. Our theme music is by Alekesam, check them out via the link in our shownotes.

Yatika Starr Fields, is a Painter and Muralist who lives and works in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yatika Fields is part of the Cherokee, Creek and Osage Tribes. He is also a Bear clan member. While attending the Art Institute of Boston from 2000 to 2004, he became interested in Graffiti aesthetics, which has been integral to his knowledge and process along with Landscape painting- and continues to influence his large- scale projects and studio works. His artworks explore the themes of family, community, and cultural diversity to illustrate its significance in societal norms for Native Americans. In addition, he is an avid distance runner who both runs and bikes ultra-marathon distances. He is involved with collective efforts to increase visibility, participation and acknowledgement of Indigenous voices, places and people in outdoor pursuits. He is a frequent collaborator with Rising Hearts, an indigenous led grassroots organization with a vision for a socially, economically and environmentally-just world, they often use running as a medium for activism and advocacy. In this episode we talk about finding healing through running and returning home, the many shared parts of our identities, Yatika's advocacy efforts that have led to name changes of offensive race events and much more. This episode is edited by Misty Avinger. Our theme music is by Alekesam, check them out via the link in our shownotes.

Stefanie is an ultra trail and road runner located in the Front Range of Colorado. She is the 2021 USATF 100-mile road champion and course record holder (6th fastest all-time American woman for the distance). She is also a foot and ankle surgeon alongside her husband, with a passion for treating athletes. Stefanie is passionate about increasing BIPOC representation in distance running and newly a member of the Lululemon FURTHER initiative cohort, which aims to address the data and research gap that exists in women's endurance running. She is the co-host of the Making Strides podcast which she describes as “a space to share our experiences as BIPOC female runners, as well as a space to discuss the nuances that come with our perspectives: safety, sponsorship and contract negotiations, mental health, current events in the running world and beyond.” In this episode we discuss how she started running 5k's with her dad as young as 7 years old, how her first 100 miler race ended in one of the biggest surprises of her life, as well as diving into her many passions.

In this conversation with Mirna Valerio, ultramarathoner, cyclist, skier, author, and so much more, we start with the origin story of how she fell in love with running and then dive into what it means to know and love your body in all of its stages - especially during recovery. We also talk about her memoir, A Beautiful Work in Progress, what she is excited about next, ansd how she's pushing her limits to go FURTHER as part of a new initiative with our episode sponsor lululemon. Our debrief this episode features acclaimed ultrarunner and long distsnce coach Megan Roche of SWAP Running. Related Episode Links: Mirna’s Website: https://themirnavator.com/ Mirna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themirnavator/ REI Presents: The Mirnavator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5-CSQcYeXk Lululemon’s FURTHER project: https://shop.lululemon.com/story/run-further Azores race Coalition Snow: https://www.coalitionsnow.com/ National Geographic Adventurer of the Year: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/mirna-valerio-ultramarathon-runner One of Mirna’s Favorite Races, Azores Trail Run: https://www.instagram.com/azorestrailrun/ Megan Roche of SWAP Running: https://swaprunning.com/ Some Work all Play podcast: https://swaprunning.com/podcast Our Theme Music is by Alekesam: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2JM2yzMSOgq7VeG6nKm3PY?si=tGkc2q88QHm1nwDD2kYk3A

Ingrid Backstrom has been a professional skier for over twenty years and is a household name and someone widely considered a “legend” in the world of free skiing. She is also a mother, a filmmaker, and co-founder of S.A.F.E. A.S. backcountry clinics. In this conversation we discuss Ingrid’s professional skiing career and her journey as a woman in a male-dominated sport. We also talk about her work to make skiing more fun and inclusive, how she has learned from mistakes along the way, and how you don’t have to be a mom to “ski like a mother.” We first connected with Ingrid around “The Approach” film, a project she’s been helping lead for the past three years. We talk about the joy of seeing others learn to love a new passion, learning to look a life from a different perspective and making mistakes along the way, how to interrupt an entrenched industry - even as an underdog, what she's learned in her 20 years of being a pro-skier and much more. Our "debrief" this episode is a conversation between host Faith Briggs Rose and her mother, Hope Briggs. Faith asks her mom about what it's been like to be a white woman navigating racial awareness, based on being in an interracial marriage for almost 40 years, especially coming from a sheltered background. It's a challenging, illuminating and raw conversation. Follow along and learn more about Ingrid on Instagram via https://www.instagram.com/ingridbackstrom/

Welcome back to Season 3 of The Trail Ahead, hosted by Faith E. Briggs & Addie Thompson. In this episode they reflect on why bringing together their multiplicities of identity is essential to their theory of change - which is (clumsily) that with a multi-racial dialogue that seeks to amplify the voices on the frontlines of environmental justice they can encourage more people to fall in love with the natural world and aim to protect it. They discuss the potential flaws in this theory, how it has changed, how much they are learning and where they go from here. While Addie and Faith originally met through trailrunning, they bonded through their passions. Faith is a documentary filmmaker with a background in representation and a focus on identity politics. Addie's road to stories is grounded in work that has been a mix of climate policy and environmental grantmaking. It is at this intersection where these conversations live. This episode reflects on previous seasons and gives some sneak peeks on the kind of conversations coming down the road. Theme music is "All is Forgiven" from the band Alekesam and the Album Sound Proof Heart. This episode is sponsored by Subaru, learn more on social via @subaru_usa. Additional music comes from Track Club by Marmoset.

This week we feature an episode of a podcast we love that is also working toward a more inclusive and community minded outdoor community: The Outside Voices Podcast. Outside Voices Podcast: https://www.outsidevoicespodcast.com/ Outside Voices on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outsidevoicespodcast/ Cassandra Lam of Collective Rest & The Cosmos: https://www.collective-rest.com/ Article about The Cosmos in The Lily: https://www.thelily.com/what-does-it-mean-to-come-together-as-asian-american-women-this-group-has-been-seeking-an-answer/

In this episode Addie and Faith revisit some of their favorite quotes from the last season. They dive into ideas from earlier episodes that have impacted their thinking about how we co-create a more inclusive and welcoming outdoors while caring for our planet and each other. Topics include moving beyond white guilt, holding yourself accountable to action, holding the door open for others, gatekeeping and geotagging, the reality of feeling unsafe in the outdoors and more. The voices you'll hear in this episode include Dr. Carolyn Finney, Dr. Rae-Wyn Grant, Alex Piechowski-Begay, Erin McGrady, Atongular Monique and José González.

Growing up in Nebraska, Wyn Wiley (he/him) tried to hide his queer identity and some of his more feminine traits. First by playing small and then trying hard to overachieve, often to the detriment of mental health and well-being. After finding his identity as a drag queen specializing in all things outdoors, the transformation into Pattie Gonia (she/her) has come with both a lot of freedom and a lot of learning. In this episode questions about shifting privilege and sharing power are front and center. Now, Pattie refers to herself as a professional homosexual, working in front of the scenes and behind it to work with likeminded outdoor advocates to help co-create a better, more welcoming, more inclusive outdoors. This episode discusses how the queerness in nature brings her joy, how queer youth are bringing hope for the future, “honoring the try” when it comes to allyship and how to keep putting your best foot forward, even when you stumble, and how to do it as often as possible in fabulous heels.

As the summer comes to a close we are excited to share a few updates. Tune in to learn about all that's taking place with us, why Faith isn't in this episode and what's to come in the coming weeks.

Carolyn Finney, PhD is a storyteller, author and a cultural geographer who is deeply interested in issues related to identity, difference, creativity, and resilience.The aim of her work is to develop greater cultural competency within environmental organizations and institutions, challenge media outlets on their representation of difference, and increase awareness of how privilege shapes who gets to speak to environmental issues and determine policy and action. She holds a B.A. and M.A. (both of these degrees focused on gender and environmental issues in Kenya and Nepal, respectively) and aPh.D. (which focused on African Americans and environmental issues in the U.S.). Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors. (Bio excerpts from her personal website)