Text me. I’d love to hear from you! Can you relate to anything we said? What do want to hear more about?

What do skydiving championships, apartheid-era South Africa, film sets, a near-fatal parachute accident, and quantum consciousness have in common? They're all chapters in the extraordinary life of today's guest.

Sally Hed Dahlquist sits down with Gregory David, a 73 year-old South African-born filmmaker, skydiver, adventurer, and deep thinker who has rebuilt his life more times than most people dare to dream. From jumping out of planes clinging to cameras, to walking away from spinal surgery against doctor's orders and recovering anyway Gregory has lived by one rule: don't let anyone else decide what's possible for you.

Now a US citizen living in Minnesota, Greg brings a rare combination of lived history, hard-won wisdom, and philosophical depth to this conversation.

In this conversation, Gregory shares what has shaped him:

• A childhood in apartheid South Africa that taught him to question authority early
• A skydiving career that took him to world championships and nearly killed him
• A film career that spanned continents, eras, and technologies
• The courage to leave everything behind and start over in America with $6,000 and a family
• A philosophy of resilience, neutrality, and inner change that he's still working on every day

Listener Takeaways

• Resilience isn't a personality trait you're born with, it's a philosophy you build through experience and self-awareness.
• Refusing to accept someone else's verdict on what your body, your career, or your life can do is sometimes the bravest thing you can do.
• Between stimulus and reaction lies opportunity. Don't give that up.
• You can only change the world by changing yourself. That's harder than it sounds... and more powerful than it seems.

Mentioned in This Episode

• The Wild Geese (1978) with Gregory's aerial footage
• Harrington rod spinal surgery, and why Gregory declined it
• Apartheid South Africa
• Random-access editing and the laser disc editing era
• Walt Disney's film school (CalArts) in Los Angeles
• Transcendental meditation
• The concept of timeline jumping and non-linear time

Support the Mission

Unstoppable: Stories That Move is a podcast with a purpose to raise $1 million for medical research to help fund cures for cancer and other diseases. With NIH budgets being cut, your support matters more than ever.

Donate today at unstoppablestoriesthatmove.com or mail a check to: PO Box 12, Afton, MN 55001, USA

Text me. I’d love to hear from you! Can you relate to anything we said? What do want to hear more about?

What happens when four unstoppable runners who all crossed the finish line at the Tokyo Marathon get together to talk about it?

Sally Hed Dahlquist hosts a special roundtable with three of her favorite returning guests, Christelle Douillet, Rhea Deroian, and Tom Pedersen, to recap the Tokyo Marathon and share everything they loved (and learned) about traveling in Japan. Between them, they bring decades of running experience, dozens of world majors, and one very memorable hotel booking mistake.

Whether you're dreaming of running Tokyo, planning a trip to Japan, or just love hearing from people who live life to the fullest, this episode is pure joy from start to finish.

In this conversation, the group covers it all:

• What makes Tokyo unlike any other World Marathon Major
• Navigating Japan as a foreigner... and why it was easier than expected
• The culture of quiet respect that made every moment feel special
• Shrines, temples, ryokans, onsen, and tatami mats (post-marathon)
• And why all four of them want to go back as soon as possible

What You'll Hear in This Episode

• Christelle's recap: Tokyo marathon, then the Nagoya Women's Marathon one week later, then a 100-miler back home
• The out-and-back course: why runners who dreaded it ended up loving it
• Elites, shrines, a portable festival shrine being carried through the streets, and spotting the Tokyo Tower mid-race
• The bathroom situation: portapotties that were anywhere from 100 meters to 1.1K off course
• Sally's emergency depends-in-the-waistband strategy (and the park bathroom that saved the day)
• How Tokyo learned from last year's water shortage
• The finish line experience: bath salts, face wipes, and volunteers with encouraging messages taped to their gloves
• The Abbott six-star tent and what it felt like to finally collect that medal after years of chasing majors
• Christelle's onsen experience and why after two minutes, it felt completely natural
• Rhea and Sally both booking tatami mat rooms
• The World Friendship Center in Hiroshima
• Meeting atomic bomb survivors and the powerful reminder of why nuclear weapons must never be used again

Listener Takeaways

• Don't let the language barrier stop you. Google Translate and kind locals will get you everywhere.
• Tokyo Marathon is worth it: the organization, the volunteers, and the culture make it one of the best race experiences in the world.
• Travel changes you. Seeing history from another perspective makes you a more understanding human.
• The quiet respect of Japanese culture is contagious. Let it rub off on you.
• Book a bed the night after your marathon. Learn from Rhea.

Mentioned in This Episode

• Tokyo Marathon (2026)
• Nagoya Women's Marathon
• Abbott World Marathon Majors Six Star Program
• Marathon Tours & Travel
• London Marathon 2025
• Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto
• Miyajima Island and the floating torii gate, Hiroshima
• World Friendship Center, Hiroshima
• Ryokan traditional Japanese hotels and tatami mat rooms
• Onsen (Japanese hot spring baths)
• Pocari Sweat: the Japanese sports drink on course ("better than Gatorade")
• Episodes 5 & 16 — Christelle's full story
• Episodes 30 & 31 — Rhea's full story
• Episodes 36 & 37 — Tom's full story

Support the Mission

Unstoppable: Stories That Move is a podcast with a purpose to raise $1 million for medical research to help fund cures for cancer and other diseases. With NIH budgets being cut, your support matters more than ever.

Donate today

Text me. I’d love to hear from you! Can you relate to anything we said? What do want to hear more about?

In this installment of Sally's Hotline, we get a powerful tip from the Unstoppable Mike Ware, a Vietnam veteran, helicopter pilot, cancer survivor, and flight instructor, about the one choice that determines everything else: which door you open.

Mike shares his simple but profound framework for navigating life's hardest moments. We all have one key, he says, and two doors, one marked life, one marked death. Free will means we get to choose which one we put that key into. And his message is clear: choose life, every single time.

This episode is a quiet but powerful reminder that happiness isn't something that happens to you. It starts in your thinking and moves into your actions, and the decision to pursue it is always yours to make.

In This Episode, You'll Hear

• Why happiness is a decision, not a circumstance
• How your thinking directly produces your physical reactions, and why that matters
• Mike's one-key, two-doors framework for navigating free will
• Why choosing life isn't just about survival, it's about eternity
• What it looks like to have experienced both heaven on earth and something beyond it

Key Takeaways

• You determine your own happiness. It begins with what you put in your head.
• Free will is a gift, and it comes with real consequences depending on how you use it.
• When quitting, giving up, or giving in feels easiest, remember: you have one key. Use it on the right door.
• Belief matters. In yourself, in the future, and in something bigger than this moment.
• Choose wisely.

About Mike Ware Mike Ware is a Vietnam veteran who served as a helicopter pilot during the Tet Offensive, flew classified missions into Cambodia and Laos, and went on to a career in life flight operations before becoming a flight instructor. A survivor of war, cancer, and his own darkest moments, Mike is now writing his memoir, Blades of War, to share what he lived through, and why he's still here.

Resources Mentioned

• Blades of War by Mike Ware (forthcoming)
• Veterans Crisis Line: Call 988, then press 1

If This Episode Gave You a Boost:

• Share it with someone who needs a reminder that they still have a key
• Subscribe to Unstoppable: Stories That Move
• Leave a review to help more people find these stories

And If You Want to Make an Impact: This podcast exists to raise $1 million for medical research. Your donation helps fund real labs doing real work that saves lives.

Donate today at unstoppablestoriesthatmove.com