Running a marathon a month would be a challenge. And probably like a walk in the park for David Gething. He ran a marathon a DAY for a week. Wait, there's more... he ran seven marathons in seven days on seven continents, in the inaugural World Marathon Challenge, winning first place. He tells the story of the agony and the jet lag in his book Relentless.

High school graduation rate is too low, drug abuse rate is too high, and the economy could be better. These are among the issues facing communities across Southern Oregon. And Southern Oregon Success is determine to do something about those and more. The project brings together governments, school districts, non-profit groups and more to focus on making communities healthy and productive. Soon-to-be former State Representative Peter Buckley of Ashland is one of two "Success" project co-managers

From the slave trade to legal segregation, many public policies throughout American history have harmed Black communities. These days African-Americans make up more than a third of the prisoner population in the U.S., despite their being just 12 percent of the general population. Filmmaker and activist Raheim Shabazz says this skew begins in public schools, which have become one end of the school-to-prison pipeline. His films, "Elementary Genocide," parts one and two, screen at Southern Oregon

Maybe we don't use them as much in the age of online maps, but atlases are handy books to have. They show you the world. A different kind of atlas, Atlas Obscura, shows you the unique and unusual places and features of the world. Atlas Obscura is a collaborative online project, and it has just published a book version containing some of the highlights. From the upside-down house of Poland to the body of St. Francis Xavier in India, there's plenty to see in the book.

Wild mushrooms are mysterious lifeforms. For instance: we still don't know WHY morel mushrooms bloom after a wildfire. What we do know is that morels pack a delicious punch. They're a distinctive species, popular with foragers, foodies, and with Dr. C. Alina Cansler, a research ecologist at The University of Washington. Dr. Cansler co-authored a study of morels published last month in Forest Ecology and Managment.

This has been the year of the TREX on The Exchange. We just learned a few months ago about wildland firefighters gathering for training exchanges, which they abbreviate TREX. Unfortunately, it's pronounced "treks" and not "t-rex". Anyway, we get to add a W, to make WTREX, because there are training exchanges for women. The very first WTREX just wrapped up in Northern California, after giving women firefighters and managers a chance to sharpen skills and compare notes. The University of

Twelve people shocked the world on Thursday when they found all seven defendants in Malheur Refuge takeover trial not guilty. The whole world watched as Ammon and Ryan Bundy and their co-defendants asserted possession of the refuge for six weeks in early 2016. Oregon Public Broadcasting--OPB--covered the case from refuge to courtroom.

We certainly have an imagination for monsters, especially on Halloween. But imagination does not equal reality. Or does it? Linda Godfrey, author of a dozen books on hauntings and the paranormal, returns with a new volume called Monsters Among Us: An Exploration of Otherworldly Bigfoots, Wolfmen, Portals, Phantoms, and Odd Phenomena. She joins us to unveil the evidence of things that go bump in the night... and sometimes in the daytime.

Halloween seems like an opportune time to explore things that go bump in the night, besides the toes we stubbed groping our way from bed to bathroom. Luckily for the Exchange, there's a Rogue Valley firm dedicated to helping people who suspect their house is haunted, free of charge.

Death isn't usually cause for celebration in the United States. But a tradition born in Mexico changes that from Oct 31-Nov. 2, when Latino communities celebrate Día de los Muertos. These festivities swap mourning black for bright colors, emphasizing quality time with family members both living and passed. Rogue Valley resident Erica Ledesma is a frequent contributor to the bilingual magazine, Revista Caminos. She studied Cultural Anthropology and Ethnic Studies at the UO.