Friday Inspiration 524

why laughing is important, watching doubles luge for the first time, 20 years surviving stage four cancer

I saw this film at Mountainfilm last May, and have been patiently waiting for it to show up online, as it was the most powerful thing I saw that weekend. Rob Shaver has been living with stage four cancer for 20 years, and he’s still running, with the help of his brother and his mom. I’ll just say that if you have time to watch it, it will affect you. (video)

I loved this explainer of a very simple but important design concept that we probably don’t think about too often: The Molly Guard. Why is it named the Molly Guard? The answer is just perfect. (via Kottke)

I did a “webignar” livestream and question-and-answer session last night about this year’s Running to Stand Still trail running and writing workshop with the Freeflow Institute. If you missed it, you can watch it via this link for the next 40 hours (until 9 p.m. MST February 21). If you don’t want to watch the whole thing but you’d like the discount code for $250 off your registration, just watch until about the 00:20 mark. The code expires at 9:00 p.m. MST Saturday, February 21.

I stumbled upon this Thread about eating for health vs. eating for performance, and I am henceforth treating it as gospel because it validates my belief that I can eat things I like because I spend a lot of time moving my body (it is of course a bit more scientific than that, as the article linked at the end of the thread details).

Maybe you’ve been watching the Olympics lately, and maybe you’ve found the coverage to be enjoyable. But have you read the Olympics stories on Defector? I am including this gift link to Sabrina Imbler’s story “High-Level, Actionable Insights From Watching Doubles Luges For The First Time” because it contains many gems like this sentence: “Doubles luge appears to be the consequence of somebody watching luge and being struck by the idea of stacking another guy on top of the first guy. Apparently back then there were no bad ideas.” [GIFT LINK]

I have been a paying subscriber to Lyz Lenz’s newsletter for a couple years now, and I was delighted to see that the most recent post she wrote was not behind a paywall, because it’s about how Guy Fieri taught her 11-year-old son to love food (and to finally, finally eat something besides chicken nuggets and Go-Gurt).

Perhaps you would enjoy seeing a cutaway rendering of the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, Germany? I did.

Comedian Jimmy Carr makes many valid points about why laughing is important in this essay, but my favorite part of the whole piece was probably the opening paragraph, in which Carr, who is somewhat famous for responding to hecklers when he does standup, tells the story of the best heckle he’s ever heard of, which is simply *chef’s kiss*.

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