{"id":202530,"date":"2026-09-08T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=202530"},"modified":"2026-09-04T16:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:45:09","slug":"expanding-access-to-the-outdoors-with-alison-mariella-desir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/podcasts\/expanding-access-to-the-outdoors-with-alison-mariella-desir","title":{"rendered":"Expanding Access to the Outdoors with Alison Mariella D\u00e9sir"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"cb-itemprop\" itemprop=\"reviewBody\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"200px\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https:\/\/player.simplecast.com\/2df39727-11cb-4cfa-81d3-9c62c689bd3f?dark=false\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wild-ideas-worth-living.simplecast.com\/episodes\/building-belonging-in-the-outdoors-with-alison-mariella-desir\/transcript\">Transcript<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alison Mariella D\u00e9sir is a runner, activist, author of&nbsp;<em>Running While Black<\/em>, and host of the award winning PBS series&nbsp;<em>Out &amp; Back<\/em>. In 2013, she started a community run club in Harlem with a simple goal: help more Black and Brown people experience the joy and connection of running. That grassroots effort helped launch a career dedicated to building community, expanding access to the outdoors, and empowering others to pursue their own adventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Connect with Alison:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/alisonmdesir.com\/\">Website<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alisonmdesir\/?hl=en\">Instagram<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/alisonmdesir.substack.com\/\">Substack<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cascadepbs.org\/show\/out-back-alison-mariella-desir\/?utm_source=ig&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=link_in_bio&amp;fbclid=PAcGRvZgJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAacbIAnYJ6VCcl7TbfF4AQY4lkEUSjIJjPmWlx2l93FHOiwiGQFnQe6sU7tzEw_aem_L3937nNini4KsjzZ3NE5-g\">Watch Out &amp; Back on PBS<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/675749\/running-while-black-by-alison-mariella-desir\/\">Purchase\u00a0<em>Running While Black<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thank you to our sponsors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Capital One and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/membership\/mastercard?trackingId=podcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the REI Co-op\u00ae Mastercard\u00ae<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/b\/smartwool\/c\/all\">Smartwool<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/b\/the-north-face\/c\/all\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The North Face<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Transcript Alison Mariella D\u00e9sir is a runner, activist, author of&nbsp;Running While Black, and host of the award winning PBS series&nbsp;Out &amp; Back. In 2013, she started a community run club in Harlem with a simple goal: help more Black and Brown people experience the joy and connection of running. That grassroots effort helped launch a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32542,"featured_media":202531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1726,1727],"tags":[800,773,541,2200,1376,1452],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-202530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcasts","category-wild-ideas-worth-living","tag-access","tag-community","tag-podcast","tag-run-clubs","tag-running","tag-wild-ideas-worth-living"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/podcasts\/expanding-access-to-the-outdoors-with-alison-mariella-desir","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Expanding 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