Alex Hutchinson's new book Endure traces the intellectual history of the concept of endurance. He weaves together stories of epic moments that test the limits of human endurance, including Henry Worsley's fatal journey across the Antarctic, the Tor des Geants, an endurance trail race that covers 24,000m of elevation, the epic ride of the Tour de France, and a non-stop 692km race in the Yukon Arctic Ultra. 

Underlying these moments of extreme human endurance and details of sport physiology is a simpler story --the narrative of a personal discovery of the author himself. On this week's episode of The Shakeout, we speak with Hutchinson about the intimate stories of his own running successes and failures he shares in Endure and how he discovers that the concept of endurance is at the heart of what it means to be human.

Audio footage taken from the National Geographic documentary film Breaking2.