Choose the Hard Way

About Choose the Hard Way

Conversations about how hard things build stronger humans who have more fun. Guests from pro cycling, sports, politics, business, tech, journalism, the military and more. Resilience, grit, mental health, high performance, mindfulness. Host Andrew Vontz is an entrepreneur & founder of One Real Voice, the strategic & coaching consultancy for podcast guests & hosts. Previously, he was a Strava executive; a communications leader at the human performance company, TRX; and a journalist with hundreds of bylines in dozens of top outlets including The LA Times, Outside Magazine, Rolling Stone and more.

Publisher

Andrew Vontz

Category

health & fitness · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

9 Nov 2018

Latest episode

26 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

148 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 Aug 2026

   I have cancer. Andrew Vontz on chemo, DLBCL, CAR T, & what happens when The Hard Way chooses you with guest host Shannon Jones.

   Andrew Vontz has been an endurance athlete for 38 years. In March doctors found a tumor running from his the cavity between his lungs up across his neck that had displaced his carotid artery and was crushing his trachea. — This is the cancer episode. Andrew is five months into treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. He has been through six rounds of chemo, a cytokine release storm, multiple hospitalizations, and in September will go to Dana Farber Cancer Institute for three weeks to get CAR T genetic therapy. He talks about how he discovered he had cancer, living with uncertainty, going through chemo, what thirty-eight years of endurance sport did and did not prepare him for, and how listening to his body has guided his cancer experience. — Guiding the conversation is the titan of entrepreneurship, leadership development, and finance Shannon Jones, who teaches Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition at the University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business, writes the TranscendenCEO newsletter, and was a two-sport Division I athlete. Shannon joined Andrew on a previous episode to talk about building and winding down The Better Lab. — Thank you to everyone in this community who has reached out to provide positivity, prayers, encouragement, and support during this experience. — Recorded August 21, 2026, three days after Andrew's sixth round of chemo. — The media landscape has changed. Scripted is out. Real is in. Being a great podcast guest or host and being able to operate in dynamic unscripted contexts isn't optional. It's now a mandatory skill for senior leaders and doing it well isn't easy. That's why Andrew Vontz started __https://www.onerealvoice.com/__ to help industry leaders thrive on podcasts, panels and the internal and external high-stakes open-ended conversations where reputations are built and business is won. — When you're ready to be great, DM __https://www.instagram.com/hardwaypod__ or reach out to hello@onerealvoice.com. — To support this work, become a paid subscriber to the Choose the Hard Way Substack at __https://alwaysthehardway.substack.com__. — With over $1 trillion in transactions to date, Blockchain.com is your trusted partner on your crypto journey. Go to Blockchain.com to get started today no experience required. — Lauf is the Apple of bike design and they make elegant products that just work better than everything else. Check them out at __https://www.laufcycles.com__. — Thank you to Sunlighten infrared saunas for helping make it possible for my family to have an mPulse sauna. Being able to relax and recover in our mPulse sauna when possible between treatments is healing and feels like a luxury. I'm grateful for your support. Sunlighten: __https://www.sunlighten.com/__ — Thank you to Peloton of "come on Peloton, you got this" fame for following my cancer experience and surprising me with a Peloton Tread. Being able to go to the garage and move is huge for me, and Molly, especially on days when I'm too wiped to be able to take the dogs out. It's a next level treadmill and it takes me places. Peloton: __https://www.onepeloton.com/__ — Andrew Vontz's Choose the Hard Way newsletter: __https://alwaysthehardway.substack.com/__ — One Real Voice: __https://www.onerealvoice.com/__ — Instagram: __https://www.instagram.com/hardwaypod__ — LinkedIn: __https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewvontz/__ — Shannon Jones's TranscendenCEO newsletter: __https://transcendenceo.substack.com/__ — Follow Shannon Jones on LinkedIn: __https://www.linkedin.com/in/wshannonjones/__ -

2. 

   17 Jun 2026

   The PE Guy - Johnny Hilbrant Partridge on grief, bouncing back, & an overnight success 11 years in the making

   Choose the Hard Way is the show about how hard things build stronger humans who have more fun. — One of my favorite comedians is Johnny Hilbrant Partridge, aka The PE Guy. His comedy operates at the intersection of private equity, hyper-conspicuous consumption, and radical insecurity. He is hilarious, and if you don't know his work, you soon will. — If you want to laugh go to @johnnyhilbrant, if you want to know who Johnny is, you're in the right place. This conversation is about the decade-plus Johnny spent working to become a comedy pro that preceded him blowing up as The PE Guy. We talk about the way life events and the sudden death of his twin sister shaped who he is, what he makes, where he is headed, and more. — A quick personal update. After three rounds of chemo, my cancer treatment took an unexpected turn last week. A PET scan showed we were successfully killing cancer. But my doctors told me it wasn't killing cancer fast enough to cure me. I'm going back to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute for another biopsy later this week and when we get those results back, they'll figure out what my new course of treatment will be. — I'm confident we will cure it, and being in this limbo is scary, for me, and for my family.  Whatever the road ahead is, we will get to cured, and I thank you for all of your love and support. — Please hit five stars and subscribe to Choose the Hard Way everywhere you listen. — The media landscape has changed. Scripted is out. Real is in. Being a great podcast guest or host and being able to operate in dynamic unscripted contexts isn't optional. It's now a mandatory skill for senior leaders and doing it well isn't easy. — That's why Andrew Vontz started __https://www.onerealvoice.com/__ to help industry leaders thrive on podcasts, panels and the internal and external high-stakes open-ended conversations where reputations are built and business is won. — When you're ready to be great, DM __https://www.instagram.com/hardwaypod__ or reach out to hello@onerealvoice.com. — To support this work, become a paid subscriber to the Choose the Hard Way Substack at __https://alwaysthehardway.substack.com__. — With over $1 trillion in transactions to date, Blockchain.com is your trusted partner on your crypto journey. Go to Blockchain.com to get started today no experience required. — Lauf is the Apple of bike design and they make elegant products that just work better than everything else. Check them out at __https://www.laufcycles.com__. — Andrew Vontz's Choose the Hard Way newsletter: __https://alwaysthehardway.substack.com/__ — One Real Voice: __https://www.onerealvoice.com/__ — Instagram: __https://www.instagram.com/hardwaypod__ — LinkedIn: __https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewvontz/__ — Follow Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: __https://www.instagram.com/johnnyhilbrant__ — Johnny Hilbrant Partridge on TikTok: __https://www.tiktok.com/@johnnyhilbrant__ — Due to My Role: __https://www.duetomyrole.com__ —

3. 

   13 May 2026

   Dr. Stephen Seiler - You're not Pogacar, don't train like him. Breathing, Polarized Training, Joy, & High Performance

   Dr. Stephen Seiler coined the term polarized training and systematized the 80/20 method used by Tadej Pogacar, Kristian Blummenfelt, and the world's top endurance athletes. — From the New York Times to the podcasts of Andrew Huberman, Peter Attia, and Rhonda Patrick, Dr. Seiler's polarized training method and zone 2 and vo2 max protocols have become an often misinterpreted cultural obsession. — I'm on the Fast Talk Labs advisory board with Stephen and I thought it would be fun to hear directly from Stephen how he thinks about polarized training, its application for masters athletes versus World Tour riders Pog, to hear more about Stephen's emergent research into the relationship between breathing, training zones, and its application in real life. — This episode was recorded before I learned I had cancer. I just completed round two of chemo for b-cell lymphoma. Thanks to everyone for your support and positivity as I move towards being cured. I'm sharing about my experience @hardwaypod and on the Choose the Hard Way substack, and I'll be doing an episode about it soon as well. — A heads up, part 2 of this interview coming soon. I often have people who haven't been racing bikes and running their entire life reach out to me who have heard something Huberman said or read Attia's book Outlive asking for advice about how to do zone 2 and vo2 max workouts, aka polarized training. — For part 2, I invite Seiler and one of these athletes on the show to do a live case study and analysis. — Please hit five stars and subscribe to Choose the Hard Way everywhere you listen. — To support this work, become a paid subscriber to the Choose the Hard Way substack, link @hardwaypod on Instagram, in the show notes, and you can go direct at __https://alwaysthehardway.substack.com__. — That's where I share my thoughts about these episodes, my cancer journey, family, bike racing, zen, and life. — With over $1 trillion in transactions to date, Blockchain.com is your trusted partner on your crypto journey. Go to Blockchain.com to get started today no experience required. — Lauf is the Apple of bike design and they make elegant products that just work better than everything else. Check them out at __https://www.laufcycles.com__. — The media landscape has changed and senior leaders must excel in unscripted forums like podcasts, fireside chats, and town halls. I started my consultancy One Real Voice at __https://www.onerealvoice.com__ to help industry leaders thrive in these open-ended and dynamic formats where reputations are built and business is won. When you're ready to be great, DM __https://www.instagram.com/hardwaypod__ or reach out to hello@onerealvoice.com. — Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon. — Andrew Vontz on Instagram: __https://www.instagram.com/hardwaypod__ — Andrew Vontz on Substack: __https://alwaysthehardway.substack.com__ — Andrew Vontz on LinkedIn: __https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewvontz/__ — One Real Voice: __https://www.onerealvoice.com__ — Dr. Stephen Seiler on X: __https://x.com/StephenSeiler__ — Dr. Stephen Seiler on LinkedIn: __https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-seiler-668202a/__

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

88,169

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Podcast Authority Score: 74 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

87

Social presence

94

YouTube

76

Engagement

30

Contact Choose the Hard Way

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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