Aug 11, 2026 · 23 min · 10 segments
Climbing is more than the routes we climb—it’s the stories, art, community, and experiences that shape its culture. In this episode of *Policy Rx*, The Rock Doc sits down with Luke Mehall, publisher…
Erik MurdockHost
I read the latest volume and it's big, it's extensive, it's got interesting poetry and images and stories.
One thing that's really interesting to me about climbing culture and the climbing community is we've always had this tension between art and science, right? Back in the 80s and 90s, we had John Backer, the scientist, and Peter Croft, the artist, doing their thing.
And nowadays, we've got Alex Honnold, the technician, and Chris Sharma, the artist, and the passionate visionary.
Are you the type of person that projects the route and writes down all of your ticks? Or are you someone who just goes out to the crag? and just experiences the moment as it comes.
I also see that dynamic in sort of organizations and publications like ASCA solves the problem with bolts and Access Fund solves problems with access.
And we sort of have that push and pull between art and science and it sort of makes up the fabric of climbing culture where do you see the zine and how do you see you know the climbing zines place as well as the podcast in you know this dynamic that's so critical to how we experience climbing and how climbing will evolve into the future
Before anything, I wrote poetry and I used to write too soon poetry to girls when I was 20.
There's I select things that I really like, you know, the DNA of the zine is things that I like, but I also want it to be this artistic expression where other climbing publications, especially as they kind of neared their dying days, they were just creating BS for kind of a PR marketing agenda.
And I always wanted to keep the zine as a pure expression for people to express their art.
Um, all of that said, there's a format to a good story because, you know, I was talking about the skate and punk rock zines before they're so abstract and I wasn't getting a story out of them.
Um, people, I don't refer to any sort of template, you know, people are like follow the hero's journey or whatever.
I read the latest volume and it's big, it's extensive, it's got interesting poetry and images and stories.
One thing that's really interesting to me about climbing culture and the climbing community is we've always had this tension between art and science, right? Back in the 80s and 90s, we had John Backer, the scientist, and Peter Croft, the artist, doing their thing.
And nowadays, we've got Alex Honnold, the technician, and Chris Sharma, the artist, and the passionate visionary.
Are you the type of person that projects the route and writes down all of your ticks? Or are you someone who just goes out to the crag? and just experiences the moment as it comes.
I also see that dynamic in sort of organizations and publications like ASCA solves the problem with bolts and Access Fund solves problems with access.
And we sort of have that push and pull between art and science and it sort of makes up the fabric of climbing culture where do you see the zine and how do you see you know the climbing zines place as well as the podcast in you know this dynamic that's so critical to how we experience climbing and how climbing will evolve into the future
Before anything, I wrote poetry and I used to write too soon poetry to girls when I was 20.
There's I select things that I really like, you know, the DNA of the zine is things that I like, but I also want it to be this artistic expression where other climbing publications, especially as they kind of neared their dying days, they were just creating BS for kind of a PR marketing agenda.
And I always wanted to keep the zine as a pure expression for people to express their art.
Um, all of that said, there's a format to a good story because, you know, I was talking about the skate and punk rock zines before they're so abstract and I wasn't getting a story out of them.
Um, people, I don't refer to any sort of template, you know, people are like follow the hero's journey or whatever.
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