Outside Podcast

Cory Richards, a renowned photographer and mountaineer, opens up about stepping away from climbing after a mental health crisis during a Nepal expedition. He discusses the challenges of redefining his identity outside of outdoor adventure, exploring the fine line between solitude and isolation. Cory shares his nostalgic memories of climbing, the evolving nature of his storytelling focus, and the importance of community over achievement in outdoor pursuits. He ponders the duality of the outdoors, emphasizing both its healing qualities and darker influences on his mental well-being.

Rowan Jacobsen, a contributing editor and author specializing in food, nature, and science, dives into the intriguing world of truffle hunting. He shares tales from eerie Italian forests to the Appalachian hills where truffles, worth their weight in gold, are stealthily sought after. The conversation explores the underground economy likened to the drug trade, the thrill of the hunt, and the unique aromas that make truffles irresistible. Rowan also discusses the secretive 'truffle knights' in Hungary and predicts an exciting future for American truffle culture.

Kai Lightner, a celebrated youth climbing champion and founder of Climbing for Change, discusses the intricate balance between physical and emotional challenges in outdoor climbing. He shares how climbing helps him confront fear and anxiety, providing emotional catharsis. Kai reflects on the pressures of being a prodigy and the grounding influence of his mother. He highlights how techniques in climbing translate to life skills, advocating for the importance of resilience and adaptability in both realms. Plus, gear essentials and favorite snacks!

Ella Al-Shamahi, a paleoanthropologist and TV presenter, delves into our intrinsic love for adventure. She explores the evolutionary roots of exploration and reveals how early humans, including fascinating species she refers to as 'Hobbits' and 'Dragon Men,' shaped our DNA. Ella discusses our community-building instincts and how traits like imagination and long childhoods fueled human success. She believes that our urge for adventure helped Homo sapiens thrive while others faded away, linking our innate wanderlust to survival and colonization.

They say it’s not the fall that gets ya, it’s the landing. Fear of falling, or smacking one’s face onto the cold hard earth, is an innate human emotion. Even for athletes who’ve spent a lifetime climbing mountains, traversing sheer cliffs, balancing on knife-edge ridgelines, this fear never disappears. And that’s why folks who paraglide, speedfly, and skydive are both fascinating and confounding. What do they know that the rest of us don’t? Well, champion wingsuit pilot and quantum physicist, Alexey Galda knows a lot about it. Alexey spends his weekdays  in quantum computing at the pharmaceutical giant Moderna. And his weekends are spent jumping out of perfectly good airplanes donning a  “squirrel suit” that lets him move horizontally through the sky at speeds exceeding 200 miles an hour. Even if these worlds seem drastically different, they both impact the other and allow Alexey to, ahem, fly through fear.

Join John King, a kinetic artist and veteran backcountry skier, as he recounts his epic 1978 ski traverse across Colorado. His adventure, spanning 490 miles and 65,000 vertical feet, was a remarkable mix of endurance and artistry, inspiring the documentary *Moving Line*. John discusses how outdoor experiences fuel his creativity, and he shares poignant moments from the journey that shaped his belief: exploration is art. Discover the joy of uphill travel, the meditative power of wilderness, and how these insights translate into daily life.

Chitchatting is a natural part of any adventure you do with a pal—what else are you gonna do around a campfire or sitting on the tailgate at a trailhead or going for a long walk in the woods? But most of us don’t set out on a journey for the sole purpose of talking with strangers. That’s exactly what writer and standup paddleboarder Dan Rubinstein did. Over 11 weeks, he paddled 1,200 miles from his home in Ottawa to New York City and back, talking to whoever he came upon in the process. He was partially inspired by a fascination with the benefits of so-called “blue space,” which is the aquatic equivalent of green space. But he was also looking to revive a spirit that was flagging under some existential weight. Dan came away from his trip with a better understanding of how time spent on and in water improves your life; more importantly, he came away with a renewed appreciation for his fellow man and woman.

For most of us, mountain biking is a great way to get into the outdoors, get a workout, get an adrenaline rush, and hopefully avoid losing any skin or breaking a collarbone. For the mountain bikers of Red Bull’s annual Rampage contest, mountain biking is a means of defining the limits of human performance and fear tolerance. Every year, these men and women gather on a sprawling ridgeline near Zion National Park in Utah, and proceed to see who can ride the least rideable-looking line down a mountain bigger than your last 5 descents, combined. It is one of the most unbelievable spectacles in the world of action and outdoor sports, and since it’s about to go down this weekend, we asked our friends at the Pinkbike Podcast—who know more about mountain biking than just about anyone on Earth—to give us a little preview of the what, who, and why to watch.

Nick Offerman, actor and woodworking enthusiast known for his role as Ron Swanson, chats about the art of self-reliance and craftsmanship. He shares entertaining stories, like getting lost in Budapest and his Midwestern roots shaping his work ethic. Offerman dives into his love for woodworking and the satisfaction of outdoor challenges, comparing tough hikes to building rock walls. His new book, *Little Woodchucks*, promotes hands-on competence and a resistance to tech over-dependence. Plus, he reveals dream adventures and the bliss of using handmade creations.

Many outdoorsy folks will happily slog for hours toward outdoor fun, despite the fact that any number of adventure derailing smackdowns await us. Gear malfunctions, crummy weather, and bloodied limbs don’t stop us from heading into the unknown. No one puts this optimistic persistence to better use than lifelong surfer and CEO of the Surfrider Foundation, Chad Nelsen. Chad grew up in smog-choked Laguna Beach in the 1970s, when pipes spilled raw sewage into the ocean regularly. He was inspired to pursue environmental science and a PhD combining his love of surfing with sustainability, thus dedicating his life to protecting and preserving the world’s oceans, waves, and beaches. Despite bureaucracy, apathy, and disengagement, Chad pursues environmentalism like a surfer paddling into pounding beach break, confident that the wave of his life is just outside the shore pound.