Robert Gallery is a retired NFL player turned advocate for mental health—especially psychedelic treatment because ibogaine, more specifically, has been an integral part of his journey. The physical dominance that notched Robert as a former second overall NFL Draft pick and helped him carve out an eight-year career in the NFL devolved into a severe mental health spiral after retirement. He was facing the aftereffects of brain injuries while navigating terrifying bouts of rage and suicidal thoughts, all layered on top of the realities and identity change of retirement.

Robert got help, renovated his life, and has since become an awesome advocate and spokesperson of mental health. He now lives in service, using his experience to help others through his nonprofit Athletes For Care and sharing his story.

Robert also happens to live in Lake Tahoe and is a snowboarder, so he and I linked up for a conversation. I’m sharing this conversation now because we just wrapped up May, which was Mental Health Awareness Month. June is now Men’s Health Month, and mental health is a key part of that conversation.

This conversation will resonate whether you’re interested in football or not, psychedelics or not, or if you’re a man or not. I guarantee it has something that every single one of us can learn from.

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This episode is brought to you by I Give A F*ck About Mental Health. For 20% off, use code POD20 at checkout: https://drew-petersen.com/shop

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Check out more from Robert Gallery: therobertgallery.com

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Learn more & support Athletes For Care: athletesforcare.org

Read more about Robert’s story via NYT / The Athletic: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6713102/2025/10/27/robert-gallery-raiders-psychedelic-drug/

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Tim Tollefson is a professional ultrarunner, community builder, and role model of mental health and eating disorder recovery. Tim has chased finish lines all over the world, notching third place at UTMB, a top-5 at Western States, and wins including Javelina Jundred, Lavaredo 120K, Canyons 50K, Ultra-Trail Australia, and more.

But he crossed perhaps his greatest starting line of all time when in 2022 he opened up publicly about his journey with eating disorder recovery and mental health in a manner that was deeply genuine and very unique for a man in his position. His impact had ripple effects way beyond the sport of running.

Since then, Tim has also built a community nexus through his races Mammoth Trailfest and The Mammoth 200.

I linked up with Tim in spring of 2025 for a gondola gab at Mammoth Mountain. Personally, his story and his effervescence has had a tremendous impact on my life and my own mental health journey. Our conversation went far beyond eating disorder recovery. I was grateful for the opportunity to go deep on mental health, the ongoing practice of recovery, masculinity, and his appreciation of community within his personal growth.

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Sidenote: You may be able to tell in the intro & outro that I originally planned to publish this episode at the first launch of the podcast. But it felt best to leave it till now to finish up Mental Health Awareness Month. I am delighted to finally share it with you.

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This episode is brought to you by I Give A F*ck About Mental Health. For 20% off, use code POD20 at checkout: https://drew-petersen.com/shop

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Follow Tim on Instagram: instagram.com/timtollefson

Mammoth Trail Fest: mammothtrailfest.com

The Mammoth 200: themammoth200.com

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Mental Health Awareness Month continues with Shannon Decker, the executive director & co-founder of The Speedy Foundation, whose mission is to prevent suicide and take action for mental health through education and awareness. Founded in memory of Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, an iconic American, Olympic & World Cup aerials skier who died by suicide in 2011, The Speedy Foundation is in some ways one of the original mental health non-profits related to skiing.

Shannon is an absolute powerhouse of change and impact. I love working with The Speedy Foundation and Shannon has become a treasured mentor to me and one of my all-time favorite people to work with in the mental health and suicide prevention realm.

We had this conversation after wrapping up a week together where we teamed up for me to speak in local schools in North Lake Tahoe. The week epitomized the gratitude I have for the work I get to do and the opportunity I savor to team up with Shannon to help our communities. So, my goal in having Shannon on the podcast was to distill some of what it’s like to learn from her.

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Learn more & support The Speedy Foundation: thespeedyfoundation.org

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This episode is brought to you by Salomon. To check out the QST line of skis, and all Salomon ski gear, visit https://salomon.pxf.io/DPP

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Dillon Osleger is a geologist, professional mountain biker, conservationist, and author of the new book Trail Work: Restoring the Paths and Stories of America’s Public Lands. The book is a love letter to trails themselves, but seen through the lens of public lands, conservation, and a vision for the future of all the above. Within the book, Dillon weaves together the perspectives he has learned through trail building, conservation, academic study, and perhaps most importantly, his lifetime spent on trails.

Fittingly, Dillon and I first connected through a pursuit parallel to the book itself: lobbying for climate action in Washington D.C. with Protect Our Winters. Dillon’s ability to combine passion and storytelling into purpose was most impressive because it was obvious how smart he is. This book, his debut as an author, stands out to me in the same way as meeting him in person.

I viewed this conversation and Trail Work as the perfect opportunity to break the format of interviewing my guests on chairlifts. Dillon and I had this conversation beside a trail near his home in Truckee, CA. Afterwards, as we walked out, Dillon shared with me that he would take his notebook nearby when he’d hit writer’s block on the computer inside.

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This episode is brought to you by Protect Our Winters. To learn more and to join Team POW, visit protectourwinters.org.

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Buy & read Trail Work: https://www.heydaybooks.com/catalog/trail-work/

Buy & read Trail Work on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Trail-Work-Restoring-Stories-Americas/dp/1597147133

Follow Dillon on Instagram: instagram.com/dillon.osleger

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I’m starting off Mental Health Awareness Month with Annekë Efinger, Co-Founder and Director of Community Engagement at Love Like Ky, a mental health non-profit based in the Wood River Valley of Idaho, where Sun Valley is located. Founded by the Efinger family in memory of Annekë’s brother Kyler, their work largely focuses on their local community, but also branches wider, especially to mountain towns across the West.

I originally connected with their family when doing speaking events with my mental health films in Sun Valley. We’ve stayed in touch ever since. One of the things I love about Love Like Ky is their solutions are fun, inclusive, and cool, and that’s why I personally see how this impact can spread to so many of the communities we care about.

We focused this conversation on those lighthearted initiatives. And while we specifically talk about the power of a chairlift conversation, I hope that you’re left feeling the magic of a chairlift conversation like we both were too.

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Learn more & support Love Like Ky: lovelikeky.org

Follow Love Like Ky on Instagram: instagram.com/lovelikeky_

Learn more about TogetherWe (formerly the 5B Suicide Prevention Alliance of Blaine County): togetherwe5b.org

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This episode is brought to you by Salomon. To check out the QST line of skis, and all Salomon ski gear, visit https://salomon.pxf.io/DPP

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Rollie Williams is a climate comedian as well as the creator and host of the wildly popular Climate Town. What’s a climate comedian, exactly? Well, someone who knows how to make a joke out of something very serious in a manner that welcomes people into the conversation to make them care.

I’m sharing this episode now to bridge between Earth Day last week and the upcoming arrival of May, which is Mental Health Awareness Month. Climate anxiety is personally knocking on my door and I’m also encountering it as a more frequent, more present component of the communities I connect with about mental health. I was excited to have this conversation with Rollie and share it with all of you because I personally use humor as an essential tool of survival.

This episode was recorded live on stage at the historic Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado. The in-person event was a celebration of Earth Day in partnership with Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES), Aspen One, City of Aspen, CORE, and POW.

This episode is brought to you by Protect Our Winters. To learn more and to join Team POW, visit protectourwinters.org.

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Subscribe to Climate Town on YouTube: youtube.com/@ClimateTown

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Recorded live at the Wheeler Opera House, Aspen, Colorado.

Venue partnership courtesy of the Wheeler Opera House, a department of the City of Aspen.

Jason Blevins has been writing about mountain towns and the ski resort industry for over 30 years. Jason is a co-founder and reporter of The Colorado Sun and has rightly become one of the most revered and bonafide experts on many of the most relevant, pressing topics in mountain towns: housing, public lands, economics, and mental health.

Rather than just interview Jason about a specific story he’s currently reporting on, I wanted to get to know him as a human a little better, so I asked him about the perspective and lessons he’s learned through his experience. While Jason is an exceptional reporter and journalist, I think any loyal reader will also attest that he puts a noticeable passion into his work.

Jason has interviewed me countless times in the past handful of years about the mental health crisis of the Rocky Mountain West. I really appreciate the effort and interest he has put into reporting on this reality, and it’s part of what we choose to talk about for the interview.

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This episode is brought to you by Salomon. To check out the QST line of skis, and all Salomon ski gear, visit https://salomon.pxf.io/DPP

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Read & subscribe to The Colorado Sun: coloradosun.com

Sign up for Jason's newsletter The Outsider: coloradosun.com/outsider

Recent story by Jason about the current mental health reality in mountain towns this spring: coloradosun.com/2026/04/13/mental-health-mountain-towns-offseason/

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A New Winter reimagines the history of skiing. Sofia Jaramillo’s landmark photography project saw the early depictions of skiing, its narrow vision of who belongs on the slopes, and reenvisioned it by creating vibrant renditions of classic photos, but now with people of color.

Sofia Jaramillo is a Colombia-American photographer and director based in the Mountain West. Her resume spans documentary, editorial photojournalism, and prominent commercial work, shooting for publications like National Geographic and The New York Times and clients like The North Face and Ford.

A New Winter not only took her professional experience, but also her personal history growing up as a Latina girl in Sun Valley, making it a deeply emotional, impactful, and actualized project. I was first captivated by the imagery, but when I first met Sofia I was equally captivated by the passion, care, and self she put into the project. The story behind it, and the essence captured within its images, makes Sofia’s passion something that can shift culture much further than Sun Valley and much further than the sport or community of skiing.

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This episode is brought to you by Salomon. To check out the QST line of skis, and all Salomon ski gear, visit https://salomon.pxf.io/DPP

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Check out A New Winter & Sofia’s website here: sofiajaramillophoto.com/a-new-winter

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A flood of green stickers in the Alta ski community became a movement for mental health that has reached far wider. The seemingly simple text “Hug your homies and tell them you love them” was Dan Parisi’s effort to start difficult conversations following the loss of a friend in the community to a death by suicide.

Dan himself embodies the message and the energy. He’s welcoming, quick to flash a smile whenever anyone makes eye contact, and of course dishes out hugs like they’re free stickers. But he also knows personally that these efforts to create an open, vulnerable culture around mental health are what his community needs on a deep level. He channeled his heartbreak and the nature of collective grief in a unique way.

I used to live in Utah and called Alta Ski Area my home mountain when I was there. So when I started seeing these stickers all over—online and in-person across the West—I got curious to the story behind them, the positive energy they were spreading, and the impact of their movement. Connecting with Dan on a personal level, linking up for this interview, and chasing him around Alta was indeed pure joy.

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This episode is brought to you by Salomon. To check out the QST line of skis, and all Salomon ski gear, visit https://salomon.pxf.io/DPP.

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Check out, shop, and support Hug Your Homies: https://www.hugyourhomiesworldwide.com/

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Auden Schendler is one of the most influential and impactful leaders on climate and sustainability in the outdoor world and industry. His latest book, Terrible Beauty, does a brilliant job of addressing climate change head-on, in a frank, realistic manner while being shockingly hopeful, personable, and invigorating.

Auden ran sustainability programs at Aspen Skiing Company and Aspen One for 26 years. He was also a Board Member of Protect Our Winters for 10 years, and Board Chair for four of those years. Now, he humbly, confidently, and simply calls himself an author and climate activist. Auden’s leadership within the outdoor world and into society beyond continues on, and we’re lucky he’s leading the charge.

I’ve long looked up to Auden for his work, and while we could have talked for hours, I decided to focus this interview on Terrible Beauty. Through the lens of the book, Auden’s ability to tell it like it is about climate change, the fossil fuel industry, corporate sustainability, complicity, and hypocrisy is unmatched and exactly what we need. It’s also why I started this podcast; it’s about being real.

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This episode is brought to you by Protect Our Winters. To learn more and to join Team POW, visit protectourwinters.org.

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Buy/read Terrible Beauty: https://audenschendler.com/

Connect with Auden for speaking & book talks: https://audenschendler.com/contact

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