Show #463 – July 27, 2019

Guests: Shane Niemeyer; Alex Meade

Five years ago, we spoke with Shane Niemeyer. Shane’s story, which up until five years ago was documented in his book The Hurt Artist, told of a young man who went from a troubled youth to jail. While in jail, he tried to hang himself and, when the rope broke and he fell, breaking both of his feet and fracturing some vertebrae, something else happened to him mentally and emotionally.

Now, Shane is married, has two kids, has completed dozens and dozens of both 1/2 and full Ironman competitions, and is launching his new project, The Helm – a fitness app with a very different approach.

We head for Cape Cod for a conversation with frame builder Alex Meade.

Discovering early that he didn’t want to make a living in either music or physics, Alex decided instead on a mechanical engineering degree. Then, he headed from NE Ohio out to California to Stanford for a masters in product design. He spent time with IBM and its subsidiary Lexmark and eventually found his way back east where, for the past 20 years, he’s established himself as a craftsman of fine bicycles, makes frame building tools, and teaches frame building. He still plays music in a local orchestra and apparently loves maple syrup!