It is hard for humans to survive on their own.  They need a tribe.  Challenges and pressures are hard on an individual in a group, but much greater for an individual in isolation. We talk about the ancient tribal human behaviors: loyalty, inter-reliance, cooperation - that flare up in communities during times of turmoil and suffering.  What can we learn from our tribe?  What can we do to help our tribe flourish.

Just over a year ago, we did a podcast referring to Sebastian Junger's book, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging.  As it turns out, Sebastian was a runner, and a pretty good one.  Today, Sebastian joins The Nation and help us understand the concept of Tribe better and how it can relate to running.

Pick up this book in audio or in print

Ultra Adventurer and leadership coach, Brian Chontosh, aka Tosh, rejoins The Nation to dive into the mental side of endurance sports.  He recently competed in a unique challenge: 24 hours in an enclosed shipping container trying to run as many miles on a Trueform treadmill.  No light, no watch, no data, virtually sensory deprived.  Listen to his experience in preparation and execution.  There are many things that we all can take away and use in attempting new challenges.

Short video of the challenge

Ideas that came from the podcast:

• "The less stuff I have, the more I rely on myself"
• Advice vs. opinion - different levels of importance
• Practice vs. training
• "pushing the mind's mind away"
• Slice the problem - Big problems  have Big solutions.  Break these Big problems into smaller problems and find the small solutions for them.

Check out these links:

• Crooked Butterfly
• Tosh's Instagram

Returning guest, Chadd Wright joins The Nation with his training partner and teammate Shawn Webber to discuss their "training missions".  They are preparing to run the inaugural running of The Revenant Ultra Adventure Race in New Zealand in January 2019.

You can follow their training missions on Facebook

Listen to Chadd's original podcast, "Readiness Through Training"

There is a unique vocabulary for the Trail Running tribe.  Ashley Walsh and Andy Jones-Wilkins join The Nation to discuss some of these terms.