The Forward

Tom Torkelson is the Founder of the Idea Public Schools. IDEA was founded to combat educational deficiencies they saw in their students in order to focus on college readiness. Lance and Tom toured one of the Austin schools and then sat to discuss the origins of the school and their 100% success rate of getting kids to college.  

Mia Khalifa is a former adult film actress. A brief stint in the porn industry led her to be named to the ISIS hit list. She joined Lance in Austin to discuss her experience in the adult film world, a conversation she has never shared publicly. She also talked about the stigma around the industry and how the label has followed her. They discuss her passion for sports, her cooking show and challenges of trying to date.

Earlier this year Lance was offered an opportunity to tour the San Quentin Prison and speak to the inmates currently enrolled in The Last Mile program. TLM teaches current inmates the job of coding with the hopes of earning employment in the tech world up their release. After his tour Lance talked with Chris Redlitz, the founder or TLM, about how he created the program and his initial hesitation to accept the invite. Lance also talked with Kenyatta Leal and Chris Schumacher about their experience in TLM. They discuss how they learned to code, job prospects upon release and starting relationships post incarnation. Lance also made a commitment to return to San Quentin to run the prison marathon. For more information on TLM visit https://thelastmile.org/

Vanessa Grigoriadis is a writer for The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, and the author of various books including: Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power and Consent on Campus. Vanessa caught up with Lance on various topics including her new book, consent, and more.

Perry Farrell is a singer-songwriter who is a founding member of Jane's Addiction. Perry founded Lollapalooza in 1991 as a farewell tour for his band. Perry was in Aspen over the holiday break and sat down with Lance after a performance at the Belly Up. They talked about Perry’s visit to the 2004 Tour de France, his vision for what a music festival should look like and his latest ambitious project called Kind Heaven. 

Part two of the Bryan Fogel interview starts with Bryan discussing China’s ability to skate the doping controversy in Beijing.  The two also discuss how much WADA is really doing in the doping battle in particular with the handling of Grigory and Russia. Lance and Bryan discuss the odd circumstances around the deaths to some of the key folks involved in the Russian lab. They close the conversation talking about living in fear of what has been produced by this film. 

Bryan Fogel joins Lance to discuss his Academy Award nominated Best Documentary, Icarus. They discuss Bryan’s original vision of the film and how that changed. Bryan goes into detail about he got to know former Russian anti doping lab director Grigory Rodchenkov. They review the doping program that Bryan was on to compete at the Haute Route. Part one concludes with Bryan elaborating on how Russia was able to circumvent the testing process during the Sochi Olympic Games. 

Heidi Zuckerman is the CEO and Director of the Aspen Art Musuem. Heidi joined Lance to talk about giving opportunities to all for access to the Arts. They also talk about the decision to continue their relationship with Lance in light of controversy. Heidi also discuses her new book, Conversations with Artists, and the challenges of opening a new art museum.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a recently retired NASCAR driver from Kannapolis, NC. He sat down with Lance over the holidays in Aspen to talk about his move from the car to the NBC studio and his introduction into cycling and riding bikes. Dale also discussed the changes in the NASCAR scoring system, his memories of his Dad and his somewhat controversial go to sandwich. 

Lance sat down with American World Cup ski racer and six-time Olympic medallist Bode Miller in Aspen to talk about Miller's decorated alpine skiing career and more. Their candid conversation touched on everything from Miller’s unconventional upbringing, to what it feels like to fly down a mountain at 100 miles per hour, to the mental game of higher-risk sports like skiing and cycling. Miller, now a father of four, also talks about his passion for horse racing, and shares what’s next, following his formal retirement from ski racing.

Nate Bargatze is a touring comedian from Tennessee. Nate dropped by the studio this past weekend before 6 shows at Capitol City Comedy Club in Austin. He talked about his process for writing and working through jokes, his misery being a Vanderbilt sports fan and perceptions about what it is to be a clean comic. Nate is featured in the new Netflix special The Standups and has appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central Presents and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He also talked about working with his Dad who is a magician and whether or not his wife finds him funny.

Dakota Meyer is a United States Marine Corp veteran. In 2009 he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of Ganjgal. He is the first living Marine in 38 years to be honored. Dakota and Lance discussed the battle at length, dealing with PTSD, having a beer with the President and his Own The Dash brand. 

Noah Kagan is an entrepreneur and founder of appsumo and sumo.com. He was the 30th employee at Facebook and went on to work at Mint before founding his own companies. Noah and Lance caught up from the Forward Studios to talk about dealing with getting fired from a company, picking a coach and trying to improve a new skill each year and how to effectively manage your time every day. 

Joe Nick Patoski is an author and journalist who has covered Texas and Texas music for 40 years. Joe Nick and Lance spent an hour talking about writing books with and about Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Selena and the Dallas Cowboys. 

Turk Pipkin is an author, actor and director from Texas. Along with his wife Christy they founded The Nobelity Project. The Project started after they interviewed 9 Nobel Laureates about topics such as hunger, climate change and energy. Turk talked about opening on the road for Rodney Dangerfield, building a library in a Kenan water tank and his Book of the Every Other Month Club. 

Phil Keoghan has been the host of The Amazing Race television show since 2001. The New Zealand native recently completed the documentary, Le Ride. The film follows Phil and his friend Ben as they try to recreate  the 1928 Tour de France route on original bicycles from the same year. Phil joined Lance for a screening of the film in Austin and taped an episode of The Forward. They discussed the difficulty of riding the route, Phil’s discovery of cycling while living in Antigua and his passion for making lists. Le Ride is screening globally on November 9th. Details can be found at http://philkeoghanleride.com/

Roy Spence is a member of the Advertising Hall of Fame and a founding partner of GSD&M. Roy dropped into The Forward studio to talk about getting the Southwest Airlines business which lead to a relationship with Sam Walton and Walmart. Spence also talked about the future of advertising and the ability to change.  They finished up their discussion talking about Roy’s desire to continue to walk across the country and The Promised Land Project. 

Larissa Connors is a professional mountain bike racer and the recent winner of the Leadville 100. In her “spare” time she is a full time math teacher in California. Larissa was in Aspen for the WEDU FIFTY and sat down with Lance to talk riding bikes and juggling a full time job. She may be the happiest guest we have had on The Forward. She also went out and won the women’s field in the FIFTY the day after the interview and returned to California that night to teach school on Monday morning.  

If you’re at all familiar with MLB star outfielder Eric Byrnes, whether it’s from his 11-year pro career or his analyst role for MLB Tonight, you know the word “animated” merely scratches the surface when describing this balls-to-the-wall (literally) personality.  True to form, Byrnes is refreshingly real, rowdy, hilarious, insightful and inspiring during a revealing conversation between two “kindred spirits” that touches on everything from the NFL debate over the national anthem to who will win the World Series. Byrnes, who retired from pro ball in 2010, also talks about taking on various endurance challenges, from the Ironman to the infamous 100-mile Western States Endurance Run. 

For the first time Lance took the Forward Podcast on the road in front of a live audience. Lance interviewed 3 investigative journalists at this years Texas Tribune Festival. Pamela Colloff of ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, Michael Hall of Texas Monthly and Tony Plohetski of the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV talked with Lance for an hour about their experiences and stories of wrongful convictions. All three journalists have written extensively about high profile cases in Texas. They discuss the challenges of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, initial botched handling of cases and life after exoneration.