Outspoken

Here’s SCAPES 002, the second installment in Taylor Phinney’s mix series. A note on this mix from Taylor: “The goal it seems, at least from my limited and beginner perspective, is to lose touch with that impulse in this maze of windows—to feel and act with total awareness and presence—almost ‘coming to’ on the other side of time.”

If you enjoy what you hear, please throw us a review. We’d also love your support. Become a member and help us create more of the stuff you love by going to thereabouts.ghost.io.

web: [email protected]

insta: @hereorthereabouts

Taylor: @taylorphinney

For the last three months, we’ve watched from afar as bombs crater buildings, tanks trample fields, and families flee from their homes in Ukraine. And once again we’ve been confronted with the question: why does sport matter when people are literally fighting for their lives?

Valentyna Veretska has an answer. The Ukrainian marathoner fled the country with her 11 year-old daughter upon hearing explosions on the morning of February 22. She won the Jerusalem Marathon just a month later. Her story behind that one line on a race result reveals that sport can play a role in our lives that maybe we don’t even fully understand.

We’ll let Valentyna explain. And if you feel moved, please donate to the World Central Kitchen in her name. We’ll be giving her medal from the race to a donor via our Discord.

Outspoken is a thereabouts production. Produced and edited by Abigail Levene, & Angus Morton. Sound design and mix by Ben Cranell. Executive producers Isaac Karsen & Angus Morton. Music by the enigmatic Builders Tea.

Join our community over at www.thereabouts.ghost.io

Music: @_builderstea

thereabouts: @hereorthereabouts

Abby: @aplevene

Gus: @thatisgus

We spend a lot of time discussing the concept of sport, the athlete and the role they play in wider society. As we have been writing and editing the next episode of Outspoken we have been confronted with this question in light of a major war. Of course that changes things dramatically right? Or does it? As we’ve been debating this we keep coming back to something a guest said on a previous episode of the show. So today we wanted to dive back into the archive with alpinist, Adrien Costa.

As I said we have a brand new episode of Outspoken coming next week as well as more Ramble and Scapes in the works.What is an athlete? It’s a simple question with a myriad of complicated answers. Or is it? Adrien Costa had the cycling world at his feet, amassing an incredible resume before the age of twenty when seemingly out of the blue he decided to leave the sport entirely.

Finding himself in the mountains once again but this time closer to their summit Adrien was again pushing himself in pursuit of his limits, that is until the universe pushed back. Adrien lost his leg in a climbing incident. But rather than let his injury define him, he’s channelled that brush with death to find clarity on what it is to be an athlete and a human being.

Outspoken is a thereabouts production. Produced and edited by Abigail Levene, & Angus Morton. Sound design and mix by Ben Cranell. Executive producers Isaac Karsen & Angus Morton. Music by the enigmatic Builders Tea

If you like our films, podcasts please become a member. You can sign up at our website: thereabouts.ghost.io

Music: @_builderstea

thereabouts: @hereorthereabouts

Abby: @aplevene

Gus: @thatisgus

In the third episode of RAMBLE Gus and Lach talk about the Sea Otter Classic, the rising level of the Pro Peloton and how guys like Tadej Pogacar can be competitive in the Alps as well as on the cobbles and many other things.

If you enjoy what you hear, please get in on the ground floor and support us, become a member and help us create more of the stuff you love.

web: thereabouts.ghost.io

insta: @hereorthereabouts

Lachlan: @lachlanmorton

Angus: @thatisgus

Introducing our new mix series by @taylorphinney. In his own words, “Scapes is an evolving exploration into the transference of energy between different sources of audio. Each episode will vary in emotion and intensity, while reflecting an abstract narrative which is intended to be perceived uniquely by each listener."

If you enjoy what you hear, please get in on the ground floor and support us, become a member and help us create more of the stuff you love at thereabouts.ghost.io

We now have a Discord server: https://discord.gg/vKveBq8b

web: thereabouts.ghost.io

insta: @hereorthereabouts

Taylor: @taylorphinney

In this episode of Ramble we talk about a whole bunch of shit. Might as well just listen to it.

If you enjoy what you hear, please get in on the ground floor and support us, become a member and help us create more of the stuff you love.

web: thereabouts.ghost.io

insta: @hereorthereabouts

Lachlan: @lachlanmorton

Angus: @thatisgus

PSA: We are sustained by the Thereabouts community. If you like our shows please support us by becoming a member over at thereabouts.ghost.io

Introducing Ramble, our new podcast with the Morton brothers Lachlan and Angus. It is, well, a rambling, exciting, at times interesting, at other times dragging, occasionally nagging radio show that touches on the world of Professional Cycling, among all other things going on in the world of Lach and Gus.

Web: www.thereabouts.ghost.io

Thereabouts: @hereorthereabouts

Lachlan: @lachlanmorton

Angus: @thatisgus

We hope you enjoy.

Season 3 of Outspoken kickoffs with Taylor Phinney, longtime Thereabouts friend and first time Thereabouts Audio Wizard in Chief. Taylor has publicly discussed his retirement from professional cycling, but we remained a bit miffed how the American superstar, the media darling who ushered US cycling into the digital era, could walk away at age 29 and the prime of his career.

Chatting with Outspoken from Girona Spain, the typically enigmatic Taylor gives raw insight into the confining nature of professional cycling. He unearths his initial motivation for pursuing sport at the highest level – and confronts how reality clashed with that fantasy.

“You realize that actually, you’re not like Harry Potter. You’re not the hero of the story because you have to shut up.”

–Taylor Phinney

For Taylor, sport is like an hourglass: the grains of energy invested simply slip down into energy dissipated. You invest all of your strength, all of your time, all of your soul, and yet you get nothing in return. Taylor explains how athletic’s fleetingness gave way to craving permanence through art.

The reasons for Taylor’s meteoric rise and abrupt exit from professional cycling raise questions about what it means to be a great athlete, what it takes to remain one, and what weight we should bestow those qualities. The same properties that instill Taylor with introspection and artistry, that innate ability to transcend his own perspective and consider his life in relation to the universe around him, may be exactly why he walked away from sport with theoretically much more to give. To what degree is consciousness incompatible with competition?

Reflecting on his quest to live a meaningful life, Taylor feels compelled to give back to the sport that raised him. And in doing so, he shares how he rediscovered a pure love for exploring on two wheels.

If you want to listen to this episode, as well as all past and future episodes of Outspoken, tune in wherever you listen to podcasts. And stay tuned for Scapes, a sonic tour inside Taylor’s mind. The first episode will be dropping here in a couple weeks.

Texts from the episode:

How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart, by David Foster Wallace.

“What’s the Deal, Hummingbird?” by Arthur Krsytall. The New Yorker, January 24, 2022 Issue

Website: www.thereabouts.co

Guest: @taylorphinney

Written, produced edited: @thatisgus

@aplevene

Executive Producer: @isaackarsen

Sound design/Mastering: @bencrannell

Music: @builders_tea_

Production company: @hereorthereabouts

What we meant to say...

G’day sports fans,

If you’ve missed us or wondered if we’d fallen off the face of the planet, we apologize we’ve been busy making films, but surprise our podcast is back.

Gus and I have A quick word for you before we kick off season three of Outspoken.

The first episode of the new season, with Taylor Phinney, represents a homecoming of sorts. I want to say that Taylor’s story is in a way inextricably linked to mine, and that of thereabouts. His story feels personal, like meeting an estranged family member for the first time after twenty five years of living. As friends we’ve both been trying to figure out our place - reconcile our love for the sport that has shaped us, with our lived experience within it. It's taken years but finally it seems as though our paths are converging.

The new season of Outspoken with returning host Abby Levene, kicks off a family of new shows we are producing. One of which is with the better half side of the Morton family tree, Lachlan, and the other is with Taylor Phinney. After years of figuring out our place in this world, we realize it’s time that we just carve out our own. So we are, and we want to invite you in.

Along with the new shows In the coming days we are launching a new discord, and webpage which we encourage you all to check out and join. We’re also carving out a growing space for content, merch, and opportunities to bring the community together.

Thereabouts exists because of you, and we have settled on a sustainable model that allows us to create more, more frequently and at the highest quality. So we have come up with a way for our members to directly support the content and each other as we grow this thing, together. We are starting small, but it’s just the beginning. We would love it if you join us for the ride and help us to shape the future of Thereabouts

We believe that Sport can provide a world of new perspective, and I don’t mean that in a grandiose hand clappy, enlightened one kind of way. I mean that sport does change all of us, regardless of our mode of engagement, in subtle, personal ways. Ways that help us understand the world. Those are the experiences we want to share with you, because we feel that is important.

So with that, welcome to Outspoken season 3

A new episode of Outspoken continues our deepdive into the issue of trans rights in sport.Rugby prides itself on a motto of “rugby for all.” Yet on October 9, 2020, World Rugby banned trans women from the highest level of the sport — becoming the first international governing body to do.

The “science” used to justify this ban is a sham. We get into that. But frankly, scientific arguments around this issue in rugby, running and sport at large misses the actual point.

What those arguing against inclusion seem to forget is that they are toying with real people’s lives, including the life of the brilliant, kind, and delightful Grace McKenzie.

Sport has played an integral role lifting Grace up throughout her life, and ultimately affirming her as a human.

World Rugby striped that sanctuary away. Yet Grace rose to the challenge to fight for this foundational human right

If you want to listen, you can find the episode wherever you listen to podcasts.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Since recording, the Rugby World Cup has been moved to 2022.

You can sign the petition in support of Grace and her fellow trans ruggers here: https://www.change.org/p/world-rugby-keep-rugby-open-to-trans-women-athletes

Outspoken is a thereabouts production. Produced and edited by Abigail Levene, & Angus Morton. Sound design and mix by Ben Cranell. Executive producers Isaac Karsen & Angus Morton. Music by the enigmatic Builders Tea.

Watch our films, read our stories and much more over at www.thereabouts.co

Music: @_builderstea

thereabouts: @hereorthereabouts

Abby: @aplevene

Gus: @thatisgus