The sixth and final episode of The Source Material, and the last word on The Barkley: A Love Story.

The documentary opened with 11 words: 'I gotta clarify one thing. I did not create the Barkley. I discovered it.' Everything since then - three documentary episodes, five bonus episodes, 30+ interviews, 40 years of history - has been an attempt to understand what those 11 words mean.

This is the conversation between Doc and Laz, uncut, in full. The man who found the gate in the woods and decided the world needed to know it was there. Nine weeks after the documentary began, the series ends where it had to end: with Gary Cantrell.

If you've listened to every episode of The Barkley: A Love Story and The Source Material, this conversation will land differently than it would have nine weeks ago. That's the point.

Show Notes

Guest Featured









Lazarus Lake (Gary Cantrell)Creator of the Barkley Marathons and the Backyard Ultra in direct conversation with Doc

Key Themes

  • Laz on the design philosophy of the Barkley with uncertainty as the core principle

  • The Name Game: Laz's one-sentence portraits of the finishers in his own words

  • What Laz sees when he watches the race each year and what he's still looking for

  • The race's future: what happens when the edge of the possible keeps moving

  • Laz on the fame: the BBC, the Netflix documentary, the viral photographs

  • The question Doc has been building toward for three years: why does everyone keep coming back?


Standout Moment

Laz on Jasmine Paris: 'From the very first, from when the cigarette was lit, she left with no margin for error. And she came back with no margin for error. If that performance isn't the best I've witnessed in my life, I'm not sure where the best lies.'


Series Context


Bonus Episode 06 of 06. The final episode of The Source Material and the conclusion of The Barkley: A Love Story - a nine-week audio documentary series from Hiker Trash Radio.


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