Cartoonist Alison Bechdel uses running to overcome a drinking habit, and Jack Kerouac self-destructs.

In 2017, Hillary Allen took a fall during a race that almost ended her life, and her running career. She says the survival story really begins the day she took her first steps, and all the days after that. Hillary reflects on injury, survival and identity. Plus, Scott Fitzgerald cracks.

Peter Sagal says he might not have been born to run, but he has used running throughout his life as a way of exploring success, failure, and all the life that happens in between.

Breaking a world record caused Mike Foote to realize he needed help. And, T. S. Eliot re-invents modern literature while depressed.

A divorce led Ben Gibbard to reexamine his creative approach to songwriting and trail running. Plus, a brief history of Japanese ceramic repair.