Bree Pear has played basketball since they were five. They never played in college — but they never stopped playing either. Now at 36, they’re still figuring out how to get back to the game after a three-year depression pulled them away from the one thing that always kept them grounded.

In this conversation, Bree and Erin talk about what it means to hold onto a sport when it's no longer a requirement, the darkness that followed a cross-country move, and the complicated grief of watching friends build teammate bonds Bree never got to have.

Honest, unresolved, and deeply human. This is No Former Athlete.

Most athletes don't grieve the end of their sport. They just move on — or try to.

In this episode, Erin talks with Max Guenther, a former D3 quarterback, about the seven years it took to figure out life after competitive sport. They cover the identity loss nobody prepares you for, the injuries that close doors you thought would stay open, and why the feelings sport gave you aren't coming back the same way — and what that actually means for how you live now.

Use code MAXPOD to get a special discount to get lifetime access on the NFA Breathe Here Now Virtual Breathwork session. https://www.noformerathlete.com/bhn

Honest, specific, and deeply relatable for anyone who has ever built their life around being an athlete.

This is not a sports podcast. It's about what lives inside your body long after the game ends.

Dom played basketball at Grinnell College. Then it ended. No fanfare. No plan. Just a routine that disappeared overnight.

Now he's run 16 marathons, founded Sunday Run Day LA, and still isn't sure he'd call himself an athlete.

In this episode, we get into the honest, unfiltered conversation about what happens to the competitor inside you when the sport is gone — and why that part of you never actually leaves.

We cover:

• Why Dom didn't try as hard as he could — and what that cost him
• The "pilot light" theory of athlete identity and why competition always seeps back in
• How losing in card games still ruins his mood (and what that really means)
• Why he built a run club around the community he lost when basketball ended
• The real reason athletes stop placing value on things they know they can't win
• What Merriam-Webster's definition of "athlete" actually proves about your identity

The truth is — the athlete mindset doesn't retire. You just stop giving it a place to show up.

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No Former Athlete is a media company and podcast documenting the evolution of athlete identity beyond structured sport. This is not a sports podcast. This is what lives inside your body long after the final game.

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