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 edition of Sally's Hotline, we hear from the unstoppable Gregory David, photographer, filmmaker, skydiver, skier, and a man who has had to start over in life more times than most of us can imagine. From breaking his back in a parachute accident, to immigrating to the United States from South Africa, to rebuilding after personal loss, Gregory knows firsthand what it means to fall, literally and figuratively, and choose to get back up anyway.

Rather than offering easy answers, Gregory speaks from deep experience about what actually gets you through the hardest seasons of life: discipline, belief, mental rehearsal, and the willingness to stay focused on your goal even when progress feels invisible.

This short but powerful tip episode is a reminder that the beginning is always the hardest part, and that if you can imagine something clearly enough, you are already closer to doing it than you think.

In This Episode, You'll Hear:

• Why the beginning of any hard thing is always the most difficult
• How progress becomes exponential once you push through the early resistance
• The difference between hope and belief
• How Gregory and his skydiving team learned to do things that had never been done before, one pattern at a time
• Why mental rehearsal is just as important as physical training

Key Takeaways:

• Don't give up just because it starts hard. Everything does.
• Believe you have the capacity to improve.
• Discipline and focus compound over time. Progress that feels slow is still progress.

If you want to hear Gregory's full story including skydiving championships, filming Hollywood movies in apartheid-era South Africa, refusing spinal surgery against doctor's orders, and his philosophy on consciousness and inner change, listen to Episode 43 of Unstoppable: Stories That Move.

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 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