#371 - We Are Nick Thompson Decoding the Simplicity of Running and Unraveling His Enigmatic Father

Send us Fan Mail Many of us have complicated relationships with our parents and then wonder how much of our inherited traits we are passing to our own children; it’s left up to us whether to nurture and grow those traits, or to discard them entirely. In his new book, “The Running Ground: A Father, a Son, and the Simplest of Sports,” Nick Thompson describes how his dad one day taking him to watch the New York City Marathon led him to a lifelong love of running. Nick, the CEO of the nationally renowned publication The Atlantic, and his dad followed similar paths through New England prep school and then Stanford, and both pursued running to varying degrees, but there their paths diverged. His dad’s life devolved from being a Rhodes Scholar and working inside the Reagan administration to a baffling, hedonistic life overseas. All the while, Nick’s journalistic career blossomed and he became the Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, and running became an anchor of stability. He consistently cranked out speedy marathons in the 2:40s, sandwiched around his own serious health scare. Then an opportunity to train under Nike coaches led him to breakthrough marathon times and a greater awareness of his importance as a husband and father. “The Running Ground” also includes stories about pioneers such as Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, and Suprabha Beckjord, a multiple-time winner of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon, a 3100-mile race run on a half-mile concrete sidewalk loop in Queens, New York. Nick has now ventured into the ultramarathon world, including breaking the previous 50K American 45-49 age group record previously held by the legendary Mike Wardian, running a 3:04:36. “The Running Ground” is a riveting read that deeply explores as only a career journalist can the complexities of why we run – the joys as well as the challenges and frustrations – and exploring that part of our life cycle that includes unraveling the mysteries about our parents. You can order both print and audiobook versions on Amazon. I also highly recommend subscribing to The Atlantic if you, like I do, want to read great in-depth reporting about the people and events that are shaping this world. Nick Thompson nickthompson.com theatlantic.com Instagram @nxthompson “The Running Ground: A Father, a Son, and the Simplest of Sports" is available on Amazon Bill Stahl silly_billy@msn.com Facebook Bill Stahl Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @we_are_superman_podcast YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

You can listen to #371 - We Are Nick Thompson Decoding the Simplicity of Running and Unraveling His Enigmatic Father online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

#371 - We Are Nick Thompson Decoding the Simplicity of Running and Unraveling His Enigmatic Father is an episode from We Are Superman by David Clark.

This episode is 56:38 long.

This episode was published on Jan 15, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from We Are Superman when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.