Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson Nicholas Triolo – What the Circuitous Path Reveals
Nicholas Triolo is a writer, endurance athlete, and educator whose life and work sit at the crossroads of ecology, activism, and storytelling. For years, he’s been exploring what happens when we stop charging toward the summit and start paying attention to the circuitous paths that wind around it. His new book, "The Way Around: A Field Guide to Going Nowhere," is the culmination of that exploration — a lyrical, wide-ranging meditation on movement, place, and the art of staying present.
In the book, Nick traces a series of pilgrimages: circling a sacred mountain in Tibet, exploring a culturally significant northern California hiking tradition, and walking the rim of one of Montana’s most infamous superfund sites. Each journey reveals something deeper — about endurance and restraint, about intimacy with landscapes and with ourselves, and about the courage to face environmental and cultural shadows without turning away. The book weaves together memoir, travel writing, and ecological inquiry, and in doing so, it asks us to reconsider how we measure meaning: not by miles logged or summits bagged, but by the depth of our attention and the generosity of our presence.
In this conversation, Nick and I dig into the ideas behind the book — the practice of circumambulation, the pitfalls of “summit fever,” and the possibility of finding beauty even in places scarred by extraction. We also talk about the creative process: how to find your authentic voice in a world full of (good and bad) influences, how to write with both intimacy and respect, and how stories can become tools for resilience and re-enchantment.
If you’ve ever sensed that the most interesting part of a long run, a wilderness trip, or a creative endeavor is what happens beneath the surface, this is a conversation for you. Nick has a gift for showing us how going “nowhere” can sometimes bring us closer to where we most need to be.
Check out the episode notes for links to everything. Hope you enjoy!
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- Nicholas Triolo
- The Way Around: A Field Guide to Going Nowhere
- Full episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/nicholas-triolo/
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TOPICS DISCUSSED:
- 2:22 - Intro, when does curiosity become a book?
- 10:14 - Summits versus processes
- 12:31 - Western States
- 18:34 - Structure of Nick’s book
- 24:55 - In each round
- 28:32 - Butte, America
- 32:47 - Instruction manual for thinking clearly
- 35:09 - Nick reads from Widening Circles
- 38:01 - Putting so much personal out there
- 45:26 - Finding Nick’s voice (and Ed’s)
- 48:59 - Trusting curiosity
- 53:44 - Catering to the audience
- 56:04 - Finding the niche that needs you
- 59:44 - The Jasmine Dialogues
- 1:05:06 - Meeting your heroes
- 1:11:46 - Just do you
- 1:14:19 - Book recs
- 1:19:47 - Last thoughts
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