This Motorcycle Life Podcast

This Motorcycle Life is taking an indefinite hiatus from producing new episodes. A message of thanks from host and producer Bruce Philp.

Would you ride with me? Should I ride with you? What does it take to be a great riding companion, or even know one when we meet one? Meet Bubba Eisenhauer, a former US Army Ranger officer who knows a thing or two about rolling with people you can trust. On the road as in combat, skill and reliability turn out to be mere table stakes. An inspiring conversation that reveals what being a great riding...

Do women experience motorcycling in their own way? Meet lori lozinski, a Canadian filmmaker and feminist whose own motorcycle life answers that question with a passionate ‘yes’. Using her personal journey as a template, lori has explored on film the particular magic that brings women and motorcycles together, and the special freedom that comes with that union. Two films into a trilogy on this them...

Who on earth would ride a motorcycle in a city like New York? Meet Brian Lau, a gifted young photographer who set out to document Gotham’s vibrant motorcycle scene in search of an answer. Despite not being a rider himself, he found a welcoming community among that city’s ‘rowdy’ motorcyclists and, through his lens, a fierce sense of family that’s deeply familiar to everyone who rides. But Lau’s gr...

Every new rider is somebody’s kid, but what if that new rider is your kid? There’s no more emotionally complicated moment in a motorcyclist’s life than the day their offspring gets a motorbike of their own. Meet Wes Stephenson, who has been both that excited kid and that terrified parent in the course of his long motorcycle life. If you ask him, the recipe for being a great motorcycle mentor is mu...

Why does motorcycling inspire so much creativity in the people who do it? From true artists to passionate amateurs, something ineffable about these machines compels many of us, including this podcaster, to share the ride with the rest of the world… or at least with each other. For its fiftieth episode, TML turns the mic on its host in a conversation with fellow podcaster, Chasing The Horizon’s Wes...

What drives motorcycling’s late bloomers? Are mid-life bikers trying to turn back the clock, or is there some wisdom in putting on that helmet just when life is getting comfortable? Meet Catherine Meade, who jumped into motorcycling with both feet at the age of 46. From the grumpy streets of Toronto to the cavernous potholes of Botswana, Catherine chose motorcycles as her next chapter in a lifetim...

How can we find goodness in a world gone mad? Obviously, the answer is on a motorcycle… though maybe not the way you think. Meet Harold Serrano, a kid from New Jersey who’s begun a global odyssey not to escape reality, but to reimagine it. In a lively conversation that careens from Plato’s Cave to facing bandits on a lonely Columbian highway, Harold’s unconventional take on moto-touring reveals ye...

How do you pass on your love of motorcycles to the people who matter the most? Sometimes, the answer is a motorcycle. Meet Larry Gibson and grandson, Eric Clingenpeel, two of four generations to own and ride the same 1947 Indian Chief since its discovery in a barn in 1954. After nearly 70 years, the love and adventure invested in this machine have given its motorcycle-loving family a wealth of sto...

Are motorcycles really as therapeutic as we think they are? Are we just having fun when we ride, or is something more profound going on under our helmets? Meet lifelong rider Dr. Joe Leondike, a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force. A psychiatric nurse practitioner who treats PTSD patients, Joe says the conditions that help a mind heal itself are a lot like the ones we experience in the saddle....

Can an epic ride really change your life? Meet Chris Donaldson, whose unplanned 39,000 mile odyssey still burns bright forty years later. Bright enough to write a vivid book from his original diary. Bright enough to keep the motorcycle he rode. Bright enough to want to finish the intended journey on that same bike at the age of 63. Interrupted then by a revolution and now by a pandemic, Chris rema...

What makes a great mechanic tick? Meet Miss Emma Booton, a ‘humble wrench’ who builds, restores and fixes some of the Bay Area’s most special motorcycles. What begins as an inside look at life in the back of the shop becomes an expansive conversation about the role of machines in motorcycle culture… and a profile of someone who’s dedicated her life to keeping our love for them burning. An affectio...

What is a motorcyclist? And are we really as different as we feel under our helmets? Meet documentary photographer David Goldman, whose continuing odyssey to document our community might just be the most ambitious attempt to find out ever… even if that wasn’t the plan. Goldman’s growing collection, The Motorcycle Portraits, portrays the faces and voices of motorcycling with an authenticity that su...

Is dirt riding as good for us as everyone says it is? Meet retired NHL power forward Scott Thornton, whose transition from life in professional hockey began in earnest with a ride in the woods. Unsurprisingly for an elite athlete, Thornton’s off-road riding career would draw him to the unforgiving world of hard enduro. But what he found was something more satisfying than adoring crowds and more un...

Is progress costing motorcycles their souls? Not if we do it right. Meet Nashville recording engineer and avid rider Chris Mara. In his business, the war between the analog past and the digital future was settled a generation ago. His take? It’s all good. If the music industry can teach motorcyclists anything, it’s that yesterday and tomorrow can get along fine together, if we simply decide to let...

What if one terrible moment on a motorcycle took away almost everything that mattered to you? Would you ride again? Meet Omar Petralis, who’s lived through exactly that nightmare. His answer might amaze you… or it might not amaze you at all. Either way, Omar’s story is dramatic proof of the deep hold motorcycles have on the people who ride them, and of how resilient our passion can really be. A ra...

Are endurance motorcyclists crazy? Iron Butt riders call themselves “the world’s toughest,” so you know there’s more going on here than long hours in the saddle collecting gas receipts. Meet Rick Muhr, an overnight convert to endurance motorcycling. Muhr, a marathon running coach, was a casual sunny day rider until the tragic events of the 2013 Boston Marathon sent him on a healing journey that ch...

If you had to do it again, how hard would you fight to have a motorcycle in your life? Meet Angie Sandow, whose mid-life return to riding faced her with every obstacle you can imagine, starting with the fact she had been born with only one hand. Angie shares the story of how a cancer diagnosis and a random gig with her AC/DC tribute band led her back to her childhood passion, and with it a newfoun...

Are motorcycles beautiful? What is it about the sight of our bikes that sets our hearts on fire all over again every spring? Meet Amy Shore, an avid rider and automotive photographer who has made a career of documenting beautiful machines and the people who love them. She calls motorcycles “the most artistic form of transport”. But in a conversation by turns funny and insightful, she dispenses wit...

Where is motorcycling going? Depending on whom you listen to, the answer can be anywhere from soulless techno-utopia to outright extinction. In this episode, we’re listening to legendary racer, designer, engineer and entrepreneur Erik Buell, who thinks the sky’s the limit. In a wide-ranging conversation that takes us from his “terrifying” 1980s race bikes to the electric imperative that could secu...

Are motorcyclists really adrenaline addicts? Meet Axe DeKruif, the ultimate edge case. After a lifetime of chasing adrenaline highs with anything on wheels, Axe decided to scratch that itch once and for all by doing something nobody had ever done… cross America from sea to sea on a motorcycle in 33 hours. In this conversation, Axe talks about the path that led him to that bonkers ride, how he did...

The most awkward dance in a motorcyclist’s life is the one we have with our limits. Meet world class adventure rider Jocelin Snow, who thinks it’s often ourselves who make that dance so difficult. From the steppes of Mongolia to her own back yard, Jocelin’s life has been a call to adventure, and her work has been to empower everyone who hears it with the skills to go. By turns funny and inspiring,...

Do you still remember your first time? The elation of that first season is a big part of what makes motorcycles so addictive, and it can become elusive as the years go by. Meet Neale Koumbiadis, whose motorcycle life is so new he doesn’t even own a bike yet. Just weeks into his journey, Neale - who also flies airplanes - described his first ride around a parking lot as “the most liberating thing I...

Is riding a motorcycle really like meditating? Meet Ven. Kusala Bhikshu, a Buddhist monk who has spent more than 20 years navigating the mean streets of Los Angeles on two wheels. His resounding ‘yes’ could hardly come with more authority. But this fascinating conversation reveals that focus and presence are only the beginning of what a great ride can do for the spirit. With insight and understand...

Do sport riders know something the rest of us don’t? It can be hard to tell behind all that leather and armour, but there are few motorcycle lifestyles riders pursue with more dedication. Meet Anna Rigby, an accomplished track addict who shares her journey to go faster with two hundred thousand followers on Instagram, glory and disaster alike. In a conversation that gives us a rider’s-eye view of...