For the last 20 years, Ruffwear Inc. has been reinventing gear for dogs. They make booties, jackets, collars, toys, and pretty much anything else you could want for your pup. But how do you design something when the end-user can't give you feedback other than incessant tale wagging? And don't dogs get just as much enjoyment out of an old stick as the latest and greatest chew toy? In this second installment of our series exploring how gear gets made, producer Alex Ward reports on the unique process of crafting products for our best friends.

Dispatches: What Dogs Really Think about Dog Gear

There’s no cycling record more painful than the hour. It’s just you, by yourself, on a bike, going as far and as fast as you can in 60 minutes. Eddie Merckx, considered by many to be the greatest pro racer in history, called it the longest hour of his career and only attempted it once. Others describe it as death without dying. When her father passed away, Italian cyclist Vittoria Bussi decided she wanted this record for herself. For her father’s memory. For history. When she started training, other cyclists asked her, “Are you ready to die for the hour?” Soon she would discover that in order to succeed, she would have to completely change her relationship with pain.

Sweat Science: Learning to Love the Pain

Almost everyone who's used underarm crutches agrees: they are terribly designed. They're hard on your wrists, they cause falls, they cause nerve damage. This is why almost every country in the world has abandoned them. Except the U.S., where if you go to the hospital with a leg injury, you're most likely going to leave with adjustable aluminum crutches. In this third installment of our series exploring how gear gets made, we look at the fascinating history of why better designs for crutches haven't caught on, and whether or not they ever will.

Dispatches: Can We Please Kill Off Crutches?

There are a lot of really tough endurance races out there, but perhaps none are harder—both mentally and physically—than the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race in Queens, New York. The whole thing takes place on a single city block, and in order to finish before the cutoff, runners have to run the equivalent of about two marathons a day for 52 days in a row. In the race's first 22 years, only 43 people finished. This past summer producer Stephanie Joyce headed to Queens to talk with the competitors, including Israeli ultrarunner Kobi Oren,  who was determined to win the race on his first attempt.

Sweat Science: The 3100-Mile Run Around the Block

Former Navy SEAL David Goggins has spent the past two decades exploring the outer limits of human performance, both in the armed forces and as an endurance athlete with more than 60 ultras under his belt. But what makes Goggins truly unique are the hardships he faced long before he began his athletic career. A brutally abusive father. A learning disability. Depression. Even obesity—he once weighed nearly 300 pounds. Goggins found strength in putting himself through hell and relying on mental toughness to find his way through. Chris Keyes spoke with him about his remarkable journey and the tough-love lessons in his new memoir, Can’t Hurt Me.

Outside Interview: Using Pain to Reach Your Potential

Brought to you by the editors of Outside, this podcast applies the magazine’s long-standing literary storytelling methods to the audio realm. Each episode is either prompted by a feature from the archives or simply inspired by a theme Outside has explored. The podcast’s first series delves into the science of survival in some of nature’s most extreme environments. Presented by PRX and Outside magazine.

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