Gnar Couch Podcast 170: Luke and Alex Mallen, Racing, Tricks and Stuff

You just stumbled onto the Gnar Couch Podshow—yes, “podshow,” because “podcast” is for people with functioning attention spans and fewer deeply repressed issues about outdoor furniture. We're the audio equivalent of finding a slightly wet couch at a trailhead: deeply unsettling, weirdly comfy, and probably hiding at least two species of insect (metaphorically).

Our not-so-highly-trained panel dives straight into three pillars of modern mountain bike culture: (1) sending it big and eating it just as hard—broken bones, torn ACLs, and the never-ending pursuit of avoiding therapy bills by riding bikes off cliffs; (2) the sacred (and vaguely inappropriate) art of shuttling and cuddling, because real friendship is when you don't question how the couch got wet; and (3)the life of UCI racers Luke and Alex Mallen and the mainline reality check of working your ass off to chase down racing dreams while surviving on hand-me-down underwear and side-hustles aerating strangers’ lawns. All delivered with enough self-loathing to fill a foam pit and enough edge to tear your shins up worse than cheap flat pedals.

So while we’re never going to be the podshow your mom wants to hear, we are the one you can't mention at work without getting a visit from HR. Grab the least-suspicious seat in the trailer, ignore the scent (just like we ignore the rules), and brace for the greatest self-sabotaging, semi-inspirational, off-the-rails mountain bike podshow to grace your undeserving ears. Welcome to Gnar Couch, where we race, we crash, and occasionally, we actually learn something—but only by accident.