Salt and Flickers

Megan Imbres has spent her career at the intersection of culture, storytelling, and consumer behavior. Now the Chief Marketing Officer of Peloton, she oversees one of the most recognizable brands in fitness, helping shape how millions of people connect with movement, motivation, and community. Before Peloton, she held leadership roles at Apple, Netflix, Amazon, and Quibi - building brands during m...

Jonah Peretti has spent the last two decades reshaping the way the internet thinks, feels, and spreads ideas. As the co-founder of HuffPost and the founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, he helped architect the modern viral ecosystem -- where emotion is currency, attention is the medium, and culture moves at the speed of a share. Born in California and trained at MIT, Peretti’s path into media didn’t begin...

Amanda Salazar is the Director of Programming at Vidiots, the beloved Los Angeles film nonprofit and revival cinema that has become a cultural anchor in Eagle Rock. Originally founded as a video store in 1985, Vidiots has evolved into a one-of-a-kind hub for film lovers, blending repertory screenings, new releases, and a 50,000-title physical media archive into a deeply community-driven space.  In...

We're back with a new season! Season Two of Salt and Flickers begins with a conversation about creation — not just the finished product, but the messy, collaborative process behind it. In this special three-way episode, Howie sits down with artist and designer Eric Junker and illustrator and storyteller Jason Shelowitz, the two creative partners who helped bring the Salt and Flickers book to life....

Emily Timmer is a filmmaker, writer, coach, and endurance athlete whose creative life is deeply shaped by movement. Raised in Washington State and now based in Los Angeles, Emily has spent her life toggling between running and storytelling — using the same principles of patience, repetition, and presence to guide both. In this episode, Emily opens up about her journey through competitive running,...

Phoebe Robinson is best known as a comedian, writer, actor, producer, and cultural powerhouse — co-host of Two Dope Queens, interviewer of Michelle Obama, bestselling author, and founder of Tiny Reparations Books. But in 2023, after a breakup and on the edge of turning 40, Phoebe decided to try something that had never clicked before: running. What began as a simple 5K training plan has evolved in...

Raziq Rauf is the voice behind Running Sucks, a fast-growing newsletter and Instagram account that explores modern run culture with honesty, humor, and curiosity. A former music journalist, Raziq’s storytelling captures what running really feels like for most of us — messy, meditative, and profoundly human. In this episode, he and Howie dig into the parallels between writing, recovery, and running...

Matt Wisner has lived the full arc of the sport — from the high-stakes oval of NCAA and professional track to the freer, wider world of creative expression and longer distances. A former Duke and University of Oregon runner turned Oregon Track Club pro, Matt has since pivoted into storytelling, producing Alexi Pappas’s Mentor Buffet podcast and writing about the culture and meaning of running with...

Filmmaker and podcaster Chris Winterbauer has spent his life chasing structure, discipline, and flow — first through competitive tennis, then corporate finance, and eventually through the uncharted waters of film school at USC. Along the way, running became both a release and a teacher: a way to process, to reset, and to understand that progress comes not from racing every mile but from learning t...

John Freeman’s story is one of movement in every sense of the word. Born in Australia and drawn to landscapes that shaped his identity, John’s journey took him through bike racing in New York, years of undocumented life in the U.S., and the hard-earned clarity of sobriety. Along the way, running became more than a sport, it became a practice of presence, self-love, and spiritual grounding. In this...

Charlie Dark has spent his life creating space. From the dance floors of London to the streets of Hackney, he’s always been in tune with rhythm — first through music, and now through miles. As the founder of Run Dem Crew, Charlie helped spark a global movement of running collectives rooted in creativity, inclusivity, and personal growth. In this episode, Howie joins Charlie in London to reflect on...

What if the runner’s high wasn’t a myth — and what if it could be bottled? In this episode, Howie sits down with Tony Fur and Todd Hunter, co-founders of OFFFIELD, a company that’s reshaping how we think about cannabis, creativity, and movement. After nearly two decades building brands and navigating the high-pressure world of sports marketing, they found themselves burned out, banged up, and disc...

Brian Aubert, frontman of the beloved alt-rock band Silversun Pickups, joins Howie for a conversation that spans the physical and the metaphysical. From crafting songs that come to him fully formed in his head to the disorientation of a poorly timed playlist mid-run, Brian shares how movement — whether on stage, in the studio, or on the streets of LA — plays a pivotal role in his creative life. We...

In this week's episode, Kam Casey opens up about the journey from steeplechase to studio life, from agency work to founding Capri Collective — a run club and creative hub born from a desire to make running beautiful again. With a groin injury behind him and a short film ahead, Kam reflects on his mom’s coaching, his own obsessive training habits, and how he’s learned to balance the grind with grac...

Writer and runner Gordon Clark joins Howie for a wide-ranging conversation on movement, mindset, and the art of making something real. From his early days with Nike Run Club to his short-lived boxing career in Downtown LA, Gordon shares how sport became his medium and how ritual became his map. We dive into his screenwriting process, the spiritual logic of unsanctioned races, and why The Speed Pro...

Lesley Suter is a longtime journalist and creative force in the food media world, currently serving as Special Projects Director at Eater. She’s used to working in the realm of pixels, packaging stories, and feeding the insatiable digital algorithm, but out on the run, something different happens. The noise quiets. The thoughts drop. And something deeper begins to speak. In this episode, Lesley op...

Darcy Budworth didn’t wait for permission — she made her own lane. As the founder of Take the Bridge, she’s spent the last 10 years building an underground race series rooted in grit, creativity, and community. What started as a scrappy summer experiment in New York has now grown into a cultural touchstone for runners who crave something more personal, more present, and more free. In this conversa...

Street artist and marathoner Jay Shells joins Salt and Flickers to explore how running became both his creative catalyst and spiritual reset. From his early Spartan races to chasing down his fifth World Major in London, Jay’s story is one of evolution — from metrics to meditation, from chaos to flow. We talk about the connection between movement and meaning, why laughter might be the ultimate race...

This week we have our first live episode with Olympic medalist, American record holder, and bestselling author Deena Kastor. With a career spanning decades at the highest level, Deena shares how she’s used positivity, curiosity, and gratitude as performance tools — and how those same qualities sustain her today. We dive into the mental shifts that helped her break barriers, the joys of masters run...

In this episode we're joined by painter, writer, and runner Scout Zabinski to talk about healing — physically, emotionally, and creatively. After coming back from a major injury and battling eating disorders and addiction, Scout shares how movement has evolved from punishment to a practice of presence. We explore how running fuels her art, why sobriety has made life more vivid, and what it means t...

On today's episode we're joined by writer, coach, and cultural instigator Knox Robinson for a wide-ranging conversation on movement, creativity, and community. From the founding of Black Roses NYC and Capri Collective to reflections on sustainability, authenticity, and the future of running culture, Knox shares his expansive view on what it means to build something lasting. We talk about the paral...

In this episode, Howie sits down with Anna Bulbrook, a brand strategist, music curator for TED, and half-Ironman racer, whose relationship with movement is anything but ordinary. From the fluidity of trail running to the discipline of violin practice (and playing with bands like The Airborne Toxic Event and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros), Anna shares how she found freedom in letting go of s...

Today's guest is Eric Junker — an artist and lifelong runner who has never competed in a race. He shares how movement serves as his meditation, connecting him to nature and fueling his creativity. From judo to flyfishing and painting murals, Eric discusses the cross-pollination of art and endurance, the potential dangers of casual mindfulness practice, and the rituals that keep us moving. Learn mo...

Randy Clement is the co-founder of Silver Lake Wine, Everson Royce, and Highland Park Wine — a hospitality visionary who helped shape Los Angeles’ modern food and beverage scene. For Randy, business has always been about more than wine: it’s about creating spaces where people feel welcome, connected, and part of something larger than themselves. In this conversation, Randy shares the story of movi...

Simon Freeman is the co-founder of Like the Wind, a print magazine that celebrates the culture, emotion, and deeper meaning behind running. What started as a simple blog has grown into a globally respected publication rooted in storytelling, community, and the shared experience of movement. In this episode, Simon joins Howie to talk about the origin of Like the Wind, the power of slow journalism,...