Dirtbag Dreams: A History of Mountain, Ultra and Trail Running with Carl Morris (Sunday Conversation)
5/24/20261 hr 32 min
Carl Morris, author of "Dirtbag Dreams: A History of Mountain, Ultra and Trail Running," joins the show to discuss the past, present, and future of our community.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsFinn Melanson· Host0:00
Welcome back or welcome to The Singletrack Podcast. I'm your host, Finn Malanson, and in this edition of our Sunday conversation, we are talking with Carl Morris, a sociologist, historian, and social psychologist over at the University of Lancashire. Carl is also a passionate fell and ultrarunner who recently published a book. It's called "Dirtbag Dreams," and it traces the development of mountain ultra and trail running in North America and the United Kingdom over the past 200 years. It's a fantastic historical accounting of our world. I really enjoyed it and figured it was worth reaching out to Carl for a conversation that you would probably get a lot out of. So that's the gist of it. We spend about 90 minutes talking about pedestrianism, transcons, early trail races like Mount Wilson, Mount Baker, and the Dipsea, the impact of the Kennedy administration on ultrarunning, uh, how Western states influenced the modern era of our sport, and what to make of what's happening today in order to get a sense for what the future might hold. Carl Morris, it is a pleasure, it's an honor to have you on The Singletrack Podcast. How are you doing today?
Carl Morris· Guest1:06
I'm great, Finn. Yeah. How are you?
Finn Melanson· Host1:09
I'm doing good. It's, it's 8:00 AM over here in Salt Lake City, Utah, and we have a relative newborn. She's 20 months old, and I didn't sleep much last night, but- Ah. [chuckles] ... I told you, I told you pre-recording I am so excited for this conversation. So got a cup of coffee, and I'm locked in.
Carl Morris· Guest1:25
Great. Okay.
Finn Melanson· Host1:26
Um, okay. Coming into this book,