The Forward

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.

Luke Bryan is an American Country musician and songwriter. Bryan has currently sold over 7 million albums and over 27 million singles worldwide. Luke met up with Lance in Austin, Texas to talk: writing songs for artists, performing in Houston after the flood, raising a family, performing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, and more.

Joshua Keith "Josh” Ostrander is an American singer-songwriter and producer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is best known under his musical alias: Mondo Cozmo. Mondo met up with Lance to talk: writing songs, supporting yourself while making music, and even playing a couple songs including his single: “Shine."

Emmanuel Acho is a former college and NFL linebacker. He currently works in television as a football analyst. He dropped in to The Forward studio to talk: paying NCAA athletes, the business of football, the helmet technology in contact sports. He also discusses his family work in Nigeria and his experience in getting cut by NFL teams at interesting times.

Rickey Gates is an ultra runner hailing from Colorado. He just completed a self supported trans America run over 5 months. He and Lance caught up in Aspen to discuss why he chose to run across the country, his time living in Antartica, working with the 10th Mountain Huts and the explosion of trail running.

Benjamin Gibbard is an American singer, songwriter best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie. He is also one half of the electronica duo the Postal Service. Ben met up with Lance before playing the Velorama at the Colorado Cycling Classic to talk: his music career, his legal activity with the United States Postal Service and trading in alcohol for running trail ultras.

Clarence Greenwood AKA Citizen Cope is a songwriter, producer and performer. In between dates at the Belly Up, in Aspen, Cope dropped in to talk with Lance. They both talked about their experiences of growing up without a father present and the impact of how they parent. Cope's experience with the Turn Around Arts program in DC. And closing with a couple of live songs.

Charif Souki is an Egyptian-born American businessman who co-founded and was CEO of Cheniere Energy, an oil and gas company specializing in liquefied natural gas. In 2013 he was the highest-paid chief executive officer in the United States. Charif and Lance caught up to talk: moving forward, being fired from the company he founded, supporting Hillary Clinton, and more.

Troy Aikman is a Hall of Fame quarterback who led the Dallas Cowboys to three Super Bowl Titles. He is currently half of the lead broadcast team for NFL on Fox. Lance talks with Troy about concussions and health in sports, playing in the social network age and what it takes to prepare to do television analysis.

Ryan Holiday is a best selling author who has written: "Trust Me I'm Lying", "Ego is the Enemy" and his latest "Perennial Seller." Lance caught up with Ryan in Austin to talk: marketing a book, stoicism, speaking to sports teams, the Gawker fallout and their shared passion for Iron Maiden.

Jonny Craig is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter best known as the frontman for Slaves, Dance Gavin Dance and Emarosa. Jonny’s 17 year career has contained much controversy including his struggle with heroin and drug addiction, being kicked off the Warped Tour, kicked out of multiple bands, and much more. Jonny, now in his 3rd sober month after a recent time in rehab, sat down with Lance to discuss addiction, touring, tattoos and much more.

Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright and professor from Baltimore, Maryland. Her latest project Notes from The Field takes a look at personal accounts of students, parents, teachers and administrators caught in America’s school-to-prison pipeline. They talked about what it takes to inhabit multiple people in one performance, her experience “being” Lance in a production, and an analysis by Lance of where he is in his life.

FK Day is a co-founder of the SRAM Corporation, a bicycle component manufacturer based in Chicago. After a trip to Sri Lanka following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami FK and his wife Leah were inspired to help via a bicycle distribution system. They founded World Bicycle Relief. WBR is a comprehensive bicycle distribution program to aid poverty relief in developing countries around the world. To date WBR has donated over 300,000 bicycles. FK was in Aspen with Lance to discuss their old history together at SRAM, World Bicycle Relief and how people can help.

Lance Armstrong shares his perspective on the 2017 Tour de France co-hosted by longtime Austin radio personality JB Hager. Stages airs about an hour after each stage finish, from July 1-23 at StagesPodcast.com. The first episode is the preview show.

Anne Hed cofounded HED cycling with her late husband Steve. Their focus is to bring a rider the best possible, most reliable, fastest and most well-rounded cycling products. Lance stopped into the HED headquarters in Minnesota to catch up with Anne. They talked about her decision to continue on with the business after Steve’s passing a few years ago. They discussed being one of Lance’s first sponsors as a teenager, patterning on a new bike and memories of Steve.