Inclusion: What’s Possible When Everyone Belongs?| Emily Paulsen & Kyle & Brent Pease
When I spoke with Kyle and Brent Pease, I kept thinking about movement, the kind that happens between people when they trust each other enough to share the load. Their work, through the Kyle Pease Foundation, is built on that kind of rhythm. It began with one race, one question, and an idea that possibility expands when more people take part. But what stayed with me was how their story stretches far beyond the finish line. Each race is an expression of attention, teamwork, and care that reaches into communities, workplaces, and everyday life.
Moving Together
Kyle and Brent talked about what preparation looks like for something as demanding as the IRONMAN World Championship. The timing, the gear, the hours of training before daylight. Listening to them describe it, I started to hear how inclusion takes shape in those details. Every adjustment, every shared mile, every handoff builds a kind of trust that only comes from time spent moving in sync.
Their partnership has become a foundation in more ways than one. Over the years, they’ve built an organization that invites athletes of all abilities to participate in endurance sports, offering not just access but community. They’ve created a network where people can find their place, whether that means racing, volunteering, or cheering from the sidelines. What began as a personal goal evolved into a shared practice that continues to grow with every new connection.
The Texture of Inclusion
As they spoke, I kept returning to the quiet gestures that give inclusion its meaning. The volunteer learning a new skill. The ramp that wasn’t there the year before. The conversation that starts with a question rather than an assumption. These moments rarely make headlines, yet they’re the ones that shift what’s possible.
What stood out most in talking with Kyle and Brent was their attention to detail. They notice what makes participation possible, the planning, the coordination, the steady rhythm that keeps everything connected. Their approach to inclusion lives in motion, shaped by conversation, small adjustments, and the willingness to keep learning from experience. Listening to them, I could feel how care becomes structure, how trust builds through repetition, and how progress often begins with the simple act of paying attention.
When Effort Becomes Connection
Endurance looks different for everyone. Sometimes it’s physical, sometimes relational, sometimes it’s the patience to keep trying when plans fall apart. Listening to the Pease brothers reminded me how often connection grows in that space, through persistence, through trust, through the willingness to keep showing up together. The work may start on a racecourse, but it extends into every space where people are learning to move in rhythm with one another.
Curious About What’s Possible When Everyone Belongs? Start Here.
If this episode sparked something in you, here are a few ways to explore it further:
Look closer. Notice where collaboration already exists around you, and what allows it to thrive.
Ask early. Who might need an invitation or resource before an opportunity begins?
Adjust as you go. Flexibility creates inclusion; rigidity often closes it off.
Listen longer. Curiosity keeps connection alive when assumptions start to surface.
Keep participating. Inclusion grows through continued presence, not perfect planning.
Let’s Stay Curious Together
Talking with Kyle and Brent left me thinking about endurance as a shared experience, how we build trust, how we listen, and how we make room for one another in the process. It reminded me that belonging is something created in motion, not theory. You can listen to the full episode of Curious Life of a Childfree Woman wherever you get your podcasts.
I’d love to hear what this conversation opened for you. Share your reflections with me on Instagram @curiouslifeofachildfreewoman.
Let’s stay curious together.
