I still remember the first specialty running store I ever visited. It was in suburban Washington, D.C., in the late 1970s. I was a kid, and my dad took me with him to buy new shoes. I don’t recall the store’s name, but I’m pretty sure it included “Attic” or “Roost.” I was smitten by posters of Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter on the wall, but intimidated by the guys (yes, they were all guys) in the store, all of whom looked a lot like, well, Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers. Lean and fast. Hardcore. They were probably doing 90-mile weeks, and seemed to possess some secret, hard-won wisdom that felt as unknowable to me as quantum physics. The store was disheveled, with shoeboxes stacked against a wall, and didn’t smell great. It was fantastic—a place just for runners. But because everyone there already was one, it made me feel like I didn’t belong. Not yet.

If that store still exists, I guarantee it has changed dramatically, just to stay in business. As T.J. Murphy explains in “Do You Have That in Joy?” (in the May issue), today’s specialty running stores are much bigger, more organized and diversified, and far more welcoming to beginners than the Attics and Roosts of yore. And just as independent bookstores continue to thrive in the face of online competition—indeed, even Amazon has opened brick-and-mortar book-stores!—shops focused on running and on serving their communities are doing better than ever. But to stay relevant, they had to evolve as running did.

That’s true for us, too. Runner’s World has existed as a magazine for 50 years and as a website for two decades. We have a mobile training app, thousands of digital videos, and robust social-media platforms. We publish books and host running events every year. We want to be wherever you are: in print, online, on your phone, and in person on the ground.

Now we also want to be in your ears. So in the coming weeks we’re launching two podcasts. I’ll be hosting the first, The Runner’s World Show, which debuts April 7. Each week, we’ll feature in-depth interviews with interesting or newsworthy runners; a buzzy roundup of the week’s running news; timely advice about training, nutrition, and gear; and other segments that bring RW to life in a new way. It’ll be about the kinds of things you talk about with friends when you’re out on a run—and we want it to sound and feel that way, too.

The first episode includes a chat with Ryan and Sara Hall, whose lives have radically changed, beginning with This American Running Life (ages 5 to 15) in October and Ryan’s surprising retirement from pro racing in January. The next episodes, to be posted around the Boston Marathon, feature conversations with Dave McGillivray (Boston’s inimitable race director), Amby Burfoot (who A Part of Hearst Digital Media), and Roberta Gibb (the Best Running Podcasts: March 13, in 1966).

New Podcasts for Weekend Runs, Human Race, hosted by Rachel Swaby and coming in May, focuses on long-form storytelling. Each episode will bring the depth and reporting you’ve come to expect from ambitious features in the magazine—but with the intimate and immersive aspects only audio can provide. Think of it as This American Running Life.

In the first episode, called “Tin Man,” we meet a most unlikely runner. Randy Shepherd, 42, never enjoyed running very much. He was more of a team-sports guy. But beyond that, he had a rock-solid excuse for staying on the couch. Back when he was in his 30s, Shepherd’s already compromised heart rapidly began to fail. There was no time to match him with a transplant donor. Certain that Shepherd could die at any moment, surgeons removed his heart and replaced it with a machine called a total artificial heart. Right out of the surgery, he faced difficult questions. What happens when you lose such an essential part of yourself? What can you physically do (and not do) when a machine powers your body? He walked a 4.2-mile race and grappled with these questions while waiting for a donor heart, determined to become a runner if he ever got the chance. That choice—to run—ultimately transformed his life.

You can find both The Runner’s World Show and Human Race on iTunes and wherever podcasts are distributed. For more on what we’re working on, go to runnersworld.com/audio first woman to run it Facebook and Twitter. We hope you’ll listen in the car, around the house, and even on the run. We’re excited to experiment in a new medium. Let us know what you think: [email protected]

* * *

David Willey is the editor-in-chief of Runner's World. Follow him on Twitter @dwilleyRW.