Alex Parker and Meredith Root’s Afternoon Snack Podcast invites you to join in on conversations where science, culture, and philosophy meet practical personal advice and experience that everyone needs to hear. They ask the big and small questions to get you thinking while injecting a hefty amount of personal experience and banter as partners in life, business, and sport. New episodes every Wednesday.
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Alex Parker and Meredith Root’s Afternoon Snack Podcast invites you to join in on conversations where science, culture, and philosophy meet practical personal advice and experience that everyone needs to hear. They ask the big and small questions to get you thinking while injecting a hefty amount of personal experience and banter as partners in life, business, and sport. New episodes every Wednesday.
How do you embrace progress without losing the soul that made a sport special in the first place? That's the question we toy with in this episode. We are experiencing a strange déjà vu as athletes in two niche sports going mainstream. CrossFit exploded during the 2014-2018 years, which were also our most competitive as athletes. And now gravel is following a similar arc.
In this episode, we look at the parallels we’ve experienced firsthand. Both CrossFit and Gravel Biking began as a countercultural resistance to the more serious and overproduced mainstream versions of their sport.
CrossFit grew from gritty garage gyms to a global spectacle with the rise of the CrossFit Games, title sponsors, and a flood of new unaffiliated athletes. Gravel was once a quiet, adventure-driven niche and is now full of pro teams, big-money races, aero arms races, and media attention.
It's a conversation about culture, values, commercialization, and nostalgia.
We unpack why these shifts feel emotional, even when growth brings better racing, safer events, and more opportunity for everyone.
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Afternoon Snack
Alex Parker and Meredith Root’s Afternoon Snack Podcast invites you to join in on conversations where science, culture, and philosophy meet practical personal advice and experience that everyone needs to hear. They ask the big and small questions to get you thinking while injecting a hefty amount of personal experience and banter as partners in life, business, and sport. New episodes every Wednesday.
