blade or die

Kai Carlson-Wee is a rollerblader originally from Minnesota and is the Jones Lecturer in Poetry at Stanford University. He’s most known for his skating in the Life Plus series, where he and his brother, Anders, skated the wilderness, including grinding and wallriding trees.

We talk about his short documentary, Riding the Highline, which took first place at the Napa Valley Film Festival last year, homemade skate parks, working as a writer in the 21st century, and why Fargo sucks.

You can download the episode directly here, or on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Don’t forget to follow Kai in Instagram and like the new Rock Town Podcast Facebook page.

RIDING THE HIGHLINE from Kai Carlson-Wee on Vimeo.

Riding the Highline is also being shown at the SF Doc Fest June 11th in San Francisco.

For a sample of Kai’s poetry, check out his essay on rollerblading in Seymour Magazine, or check out Mercy Songs, a chapbook of poetry from Kai and Anders.

Support for the Rock Town Podcast comes via Patreon, including Trudy, Dustin, Edward, Jose, Nate, Steve, Alexander, and Zach.

Blade or Die,

— Brian Krans