Tonight: Join your biking brethren at the live taping of a new podcast in Over-the-Rhine

"I actually explained it to a date, a first date, a couple weeks ago,” Amanda Batty said to her podcast audience. “He asked me why I like mountain biking so much. I related the tale of ‘Mohammed and the Mountain.’ ”

"Mohammed said, 'If the mountain won't come to me, Mohammed will go to the mountain.' "

"You don't change the mountain,” Batty explained to the hosts of a new podcast out of Cincinnati called The Gravel Lot.

Batty survived childhood sexual assault, the mental and physical challenges that followed, and found herself again on a bike and became a professional downhill racer.

“The mountain changes you,” Batty continued. “All that you can control is yourself and your response to the things in your world. How you adapt and how you become better or more capable or stronger or kinder or more compassionate.”

This.

This is why hosts of The Gravel Lot Doug McClintock and Jon Wolery say their podcast, launched in December, is more than a show for mountain bikers by mountain bikers.

And you can hear a live taping of the show 7 p.m. Friday at Woodward Theater on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine. The taping is part of a free special event called “Kids on Bikes: Successes and Strategies for what is next."

This podcast is about people. Shared experiences. Inspiration. Having a vision and making it a reality. It’s about building community and breaking down walls.

“We feel there is a lot of fracturing and lack of communication within the bike scene,” McClintock said.

Road bikers over here. Mountain bikers over there. Urban bike commuters in the mix, too.

Each is banging its own drum and wants access to places to ride, McClintock said. But the narrow focus on their own projects is “canceling each other out.”

The Gravel Lot is a platform where people can talk out problems in the bike community and find common ground, Wolery said.

But the show isn't all serious. It wouldn't be entertaining, right?

And The Gravel Lot is just that – entertaining.

The hour-long podcast is playful, funny. The guys drink local beer together and bring along their dogs. You can sometimes hear McClintock's three pit bulls gnawing on stuff or Wolery's snoring Labrador in the background.

"Real conversations have to keep happening on the show," Wolery said.

That sounds like a lot of it is whimsy, two buds and a guest talking about the life, bikes, politics – whatever.

McClintock and Wolery represent a mountain biking advocacy group called the Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance or CORA. McClintock is president of the volunteer nonprofit organization. He also works for Red Bike, Cincinnati's bike share program.

Wolery has been a member of CORA for a while and does its marketing and website.

Over the last decade, CORA (a chapter of the International Mountain Bike Association) has constructed 63 miles of mountain bike trails across the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region.

Their trails include some in Covington's Devou Park, Cleve's Mitchell Memorial Forest and East Fork Lake in Clermont County. They are maintained by volunteer CORA trail stewards.

CORA is currently working on a new mountain bike trail in Cincinnati’s Mount Airy Forest.

"If you want trails you first have to build them," Wolery said. "Once people start to pay attention, then you have to grow up and have a more measured approach."

This podcast is part of that evolution. Mount Airy will likely be the last big trail project the group offers to build – often times for free.

"We have volunteers, expertise and vision," McClintock said. "Let us give you the roadmap ... you own this project, we’ll help you figure out fundraising and do all those sorts of things."

Again, for free. They never see themselves becoming a service for hire.

The message is heard: Three communities have called after hearing The Gravel Lot.

The show is now in its 19th week.

Episode 12 – the interview with the professional downhiller Amanda Batty – stays with them.

"There’s some point where we are down this rabbit hole and she started crying," Wolery said.

"I’m getting choked up right now thinking about it, like, I probably cried three times after editing that episode," McClintock said. "Because it was so pure and it hits exactly where John and I are at with this. This isn’t about ego, it’s about giving something back and try to get other people to give something back. Self-worth, freedom, life lessons."

That's exactly what The Gravel Lot means, actually.

The gravel lot is where you meet your friends before heading out on a trail, they said.

"No matter where you start, it’s in a gravel lot," McClintock said. "It’s where the community meets, where conversations happen."

A new episode is available every Friday morning. Watch a live recording of the show May 11 at the Woodward Theater on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine. It will be part of a free special event called “Kids on Bikes: Successes and Strategies for what is next."