Inspiring Futures - Lessons from the Worlds of Marketing and Advertising
Inspiring Futures pulls back the curtain on the minds reshaping advertising and marketing today. Host Ed Cotton, former Chief Strategy Officer at Butler Shine and Stern & Partners, engages industry visionaries in raw, unfiltered conversations about their career pivots, creative breakthroughs, and strategic innovations. No canned responses. No PR filters. Just honest insights about navigating the complex world of brands, creativity, and agency life. Each episode delivers actionable wisdom from those who've mastered the craft and aren't afraid to share their failures alongside their successes.
Inspiring Futures - Lessons from the Worlds of Marketing and Advertising
The Hidden Architecture of Japanese Running- an interview with Jeremy Kuhles
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Japan has one of the world’s deepest running cultures and at the center of it sits Ekiden: the long-distance relay that becomes a national obsession every winter.
In this episode, I’m joined by Jeremy Kuhles, a translator, writer, and runner who’s made it his mission to share Japanese running culture with the world through creative storytelling. Jeremy has lived in Japan for two decades and is immersing himself from the inside, training alongside the Tamagawa University women’s Ekiden team and running with RETO Running Club under Hakone Ekiden legend Daichi Kamino.
We get into what Ekiden actually is, why it’s “beyond a race,” and why the outside world often collapses the entire culture into one event: Hakone Ekiden. Jeremy explains why that’s a problem, how it funnels talent geographically, and how it shapes the career path for runners across Japan.
We also go where the conversation usually doesn’t: women’s Ekiden. Jeremy shares what he’s hearing directly from athletes, and why greater parity and awareness matter when sponsorship, media attention, and money disproportionately flow to the men despite equal work and sacrifice.
About Jeremy Kuhles
Jeremy is a translator, writer, and runner focused on bridging the language and cultural gap between Japan’s distance-running world and a global audience through interviews, essays, and social storytelling.