Ari in the Air

Sara founded Authentic Revolution, an organization spreading authentic relating toolkits (games, structures, ideas), to individuals, companies and groups. They also teach authentic leadership, which is a huge topic that we cover amidst coronavirus. She starts by sharing an authentic relating game with me, that we play together, that cuts straight into what we're both feeling. It was a vulnerable moment for me for sure. We then immediately go deep into why authenticity is important and powerful, why we lack it and what this lack does to our relationships. She shares a study about how authentic relating and emotional intelligence training on a Shell oil rig dropped the incidence of workplace accidents precipitously, and another about coal miners trapped in a mine and the unlikey emmergence of leadership. Through the episode, she invites me to share some of my own frameworks of thinking and my own thoughts on how her work relates to paragliding and the sports that I know and love. This was such a rewarding conversation for me, I'm still buzzing from it. I've only known Sara for a day, but I already can tell that she is a powerhouse lovebeam badass woman who is radiantly hellbent on helping all of us connect to each other more authentically. So FUCK YEAH SARA!!! I learned a ton from our talk and we're def gonna do it again. Check out Sara's work at www.authrev.com Support this podcast by leaving a 5-star review, by sharing and by subscribing! Also consider donating at www.paypal.me/ariintheair "Sara Ness is the Founder and Chief Instigator of Authentic Revolution. She began teaching Authentic Relating in 2012, founding a thousands-strong learning community in Austin, Texas and going on to train over 350 leaders and help found 30+ other communities worldwide. Sara is passionate about exposing the joy of human connection and exploring our creative potential through relationship. She has facilitated at schools, companies, yoga studios, a funeral, Burning Man, and more, bringing playful social technology into the mainstream and the….non-mainstream? Sara is into suggesting ideas like pushup contests in fancy restaurants and convincing other people to do them too. Hence, community leadership. Sara works most of the time. When not doing that, she’s into acroyoga, Ecstatic Dance, cooking, and spending time with the many people she loves. She’s most lit up by creating things – projects, books, movements, systems, anything that her heart and brain can chew on at the same time." - Sara's profile on Authentic Revolution website

Carl is a pro mountain bike racer, rally racecar driver and a tinkerer. He is very smart, has a quick wit and a dry sense of humor. In this episode we talk about his career (and his hilarious self-assesment of his place in biking), he tells an awesome story of racing rally cars in the Xgames(replacing Travis Pastrana!), racing his bike against Ebikes at the Seaotter Classic, and other hilarious tid bits of his mind. Please support this show by sharing, subscribing and by leaving a review! It helps! Support by donating! 100% listener supported show. www.paypal.me/ariintheair Thanks to everyone who has listened, shared, donated and encouraged me on this podcast. It means a lot to me, I’m so grateful. So much good stuff coming up. Stay tuned! "I grew up racing mountain bikes with Team Decker (Dad and brother Chris) from the age of nine. Ran XC and track in high school, earning a scholarship at University of Portland, where I ran for four years (specializing in XC and Steeplechase) and earned a BS in Criminal Justice. Hung up the shoes in 1997 and began racing bikes in earnest that summer for the Mrazek/Deschutes Brewery team out of Bend. Shattered my back in 2000, healed for a year, made the Worlds team in 2002, and signed with Giant that fall. 2011 is my 9th year with Giant and my 10th year as a pro. I race everything from Super D to road stage races. I also enjoy the occasional rally car race. I still live in Bend Oregon, near my co-driver, Adam Craig, and more importantly, even closer to several burrito shops and brewpubs." -Carl's bio from REP Lab Sports page

Matt is a BASE jumper, Burning Man facilitator and stuntman. We talk about radical self reliance as it pertains to base jumping as well as emotional resilience and group dynamics. We also talk about mourning and death, we talk about considering all the possible outcomes, no matter how dark, as a means of preparation and protection. We also mention Sketchy Andy Lewis, GGBY, Turkey Boogie, Anson Fogel, Camp4Collective, When We Were Knights. This is a great episode, thanks for coming on Matt! You can find Matt on Instagram @mattblanket Please support this show by sharing, subscribing and by leaving a review! It helps! Support by donating! 100% listener supported show. www.paypal.me/ariintheair Thanks to everyone who has listened, shared, donated and encouraged me on this podcast. It means a lot to me, I’m so grateful. So much good stuff coming up. Stay tuned! "I grew up in Southern California skateboarding by day and racing BMX by night. Most mornings I spent at the beach surfing or bodyboarding before school, always with an eye on the weather in case I needed to skip out early to hit the coast. After high school I worked my way through the University of California Irvine as a rock climbing instructor and while I was finishing my degree in psychology and social behavior with a minor in film I worked technical rope and cave search and rescue for the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department. After college my attentions shifted to snowboarding, skydiving and B.A.S.E jumping. I instructed freestyle and all mountain snowboarding for Vail Corp. and still instruct skydiving from time to time at Perris Valley Skydiving Center. In the more recent years I've jumped from one extreme community to the next pursuing my ultimate goal of collaborating with other like minded extreme athletes to create projects that have the potential to change how people see the world. I make a living as a professional extreme sports athlete and commercial stuntman traveling the globe looking for the next adventure. " - Matts bio on www.blanketstunts.com

Charles Post is an ecologist, a scientist and a storyteller. He joins me to talk about the ecological impacts of the Coronavirus lockdown, the dynamics and challenges of the climate change conversation and so much more. Ecology to psychology, this episode has a lot in it, thanks Charles! Follow Charles on Instagram @Charles_Post and find him on the web at www.charlespost.com Please support this show by sharing, subscribing and by leaving a review! It helps! Support by donating! 100% listener supported show. www.paypal.me/ariintheair Thanks to everyone who has listened, shared, donated and encouraged me on this podcast. It means a lot to me, I’m so grateful. So much good stuff coming up. Stay tuned! "Charles Post is an ecologist, storyteller and filmmaker drawn to stories anchored to the confluence of society’s relationship with wild and rapidly changing natural environments. After spending nearly a decade studying at U.C. Berkeley, Charles earned a B.S. and Master’s degree in ecology under the mentorship of Dr. Mary Power, which set him on a course to combine science, conservation and storytelling. Drawn to wildlife and conservation stories of the American West, Charles has traveled from the heart of the Nevada desert to explore the ecological and political state of wild horses on public lands, to South Texas to tell a story about the ecological service hunting whitetail deer can provide a landscape devoid of apex predators, and the plains of Colorado to tell a story of the Ranchlands, a 4th generation ranching family shaping the future of range management in the West. In the coming year, Charles will focus his efforts around a film that explores the nexus of ranching, wolves and grizzly bears within the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Charles’ work has come to life in many forms ranging from stories that explore culture like Foothills: The Unlinked Heritage of Snowboarding for Patagonia, to films that investigate environmental injustice such as the celebrated documentary Island Earth directed by Cyrus Sutton, to art directing Filson’s Fall2017 (Ranchlands) marketing campaign, and conservation and wildlife stories for National Geographic and Outside Magazine. Charles calls Montana home."

We need a collective action on Covid, but we're also afraid that what happened in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia could happen here in America. We're afraid that the government will use this thing as a means to increase their power, to overreach into our lives and our liberties. We're afraid at the mere possibility that they created this entire fucking thing themselves. That they engineered the virus, released it in China, and didn't take early action deliberately. These are terrifying thoughts and I'm sympathetic of the people who have gone so far down this rabbit hole that they are disoriented, while still feeling certain that they know the truth of a massive cover up, a "plandemic". Some combination of legislative overreach, 5G cell phone towers, mandated vaccines and martial law make up their fears and their claims. I'm partial to these thoughts, honestly. The reality of tyranny and government propaganda goes back to the dawn of civilization, and we've seen it here in our own lives. We're at a critical time right now where its so hard to know what is actually going on behind all of this. This is a conversation with these thoughts. Please support this show by sharing, subscribing and by leaving a review! It helps! Support by donating! 100% listener supported show. www.paypal.me/ariintheair Thanks to everyone who has listened, shared, donated and encouraged me on this podcast. It means a lot to me, I’m so grateful. So much good stuff coming up. Stay tuned!

In this episode, Rich, the co-creator of Enspiral and Loomio(complex collaborative systems) and I talk about about why people have such a hard time working together, from how we were raised, our cultures, our biases, all the way to how we think of ourselves. We talk about how systems change, from the individual then outward. We talk about non-hierarchical organizations, non-violence, small groups and the importance of group size, the dunbar number, microsolidarity, sovereignty, networks of trust and love, courage-how we get it and how we give it. We talk about some problems in the United States, scalability of tight night groups, the obsession of scalability, about rhythms instead of scheduling, practicing partner relationships, accepting all the parts of ourselves, self love and shadow work and so much more. Please support this show by sharing, subscribing and by leaving a review! It helps! Support by donating! 100% listener supported show. www.paypal.me/ariintheair Thanks for listening, thanks for sharing, thanks for donating! Thanks so much for your time and insight Rich! Really fun interview and some really great things to think about. Here’s some of his articles that we talk about, you can find him on Medium. https://medium.com/@richdecibels https://medium.com/microsolidarity/how-to-weave-social-fabric-9385a841559f Rich is a bearded kiwi. He’s a self-described nerd. He has been living in Italy and has been in full lock-down mode for more than 3 weeks. He says he's going a bit crazy, but you can’t tell from this conversation. He has created a number of really cool companies/projects/systems, the line between these terms blurs around this guy in a really nice way, and he has written some very astute articles about creating more resilience and support in small groups. I’d say he’s championing for growing up, for emotional maturity and intelligence. He’s championing inclusion, efficiency, encouragement and equality at a level of thoughtfulness that is exceedingly rare. He’s championing a world where we all support each other to do more meaningful work.

In this podcast episode with Dr. Annie, we talk about mental health, meditation and why it works, how our brains make meaning, how our brains make resilience, the importance of having space for sadness right now, anticipatory grief, some germ theory about covid-19, how a big bike crash cracked her open, curiosity and how it creates resilience, the unique vulnerabilities of a schizophrenic population, and so much more. This is a really practical episode and I think it provides great insight into how our brains work and how they’re likely working right now. Also, her insights help us understand how to make meaning and why that is so important. I really appreciate Dr. Annie’s work, (which seems daunting) her perspective, and her time coming on the podcast to help us all understand ourselves a little more. I also appreciate, most viscerally, her friendship and that light spunkiness that she has on tap. Love you Annie! Please support this show by sharing, subscribing and by leaving a review! It helps! Support by donating! 100% listener supported podcast. www.paypal.me/ariintheair Annie is 5’3’’. She’s blonde. She’s fit. She’s cute. She’s got a big smile and a spunky attitude. She’s likely to have scabs on her shins from her pedals and some kind of facial tan lines related to radical sports eyewear. Her driveway holds a truck, a snowmobile, a dirtbike and enough bikes that even as one of her riding partners, I’m still not sure how many she actually has. She’s from Kentucky, and from a line of outgoing and industrious women. She’s very smart, very sarcastic and super fun. She’s also a clinical psychologist who runs an in treatment facility in bend. She’s in an interesting position, not in the ER, but trying to keep a very and uniquely vulnerable population healthy amidst the ensuing pandemic. Enjoy!

Matt is an experienced meditator and philanthropist. In this episode he gives some very unique perspectives from a decade of meditation and a life fully lived. Support the show by donating www.paypal.me/ariintheair Matt's NPO http://www.karmaflights.org "KarmaFlights is a Nepal-based non-profit organization. We strongly believe in each child’s immutable right to a safe and secure learning environment. In a land famous for its towering peaks and tumultuous rivers, the bright young minds of Nepal are the country’s greatest natural resource. Education is the key to unlocking that vast potential and solving the issue of poverty in Nepal. KarmaFlights was founded in 2011 by a small group of adventure athletes together with visionary local school teacher Prem Bahadur Kunwar. We initially came together with the shared objective of providing a safe home and educational support for a group of eight at-risk children. The scope of Karma Flights' activities has since expanded to encompass a range of activities including large-scale emergency disaster relief; long-term kinship and merit scholarships; school, library and computer-lab construction; hydro, solar and road infrastructure support; water, hygiene, livestock, and child-nutrition programs; waste management; earthquake preparedness training; and medical, mental, and dental health camps. These initiatives have saved lives, reduced suffering and extended professional and personal development opportunities to thousands of children. KarmaFlights strongly believes in developing long-term, trusted networks within each of the communities we partner with. By committing to long-term relationships, we can ensure that projects are tailored to the current needs of the community. This allows for a checks-and-balances system of fiscal and program oversight which is vital to the success of all humanitarian work. In keeping with this core sense of ethical entrepreneurship, our administrative and overhead costs are kept well below industry average. This is critical to ensuring the maximum impact of every donor dollar. Your contribution goes directly out into the field where it is needed most, and stays there working for the community. Our team prides itself in maintaining a grass-roots, organizationally-lean approach, to keep operational costs in-line with the highest standard for our industry."

Jeff Shapiro has been obsessed with birds and flight for his entire life. This obsession has manifested itself in many ways in his life. He started hanggliding in late adolescence, traveling the world competing and putting thousands of flight hours under his glider. But that was only the beginning, since then he’s become a falconer, training birds to hunt with him, a wingsuit base jumper, flying from tall cliffs high in the mountains with just his body, a mountaineer and ice climber, a paraglide pilot and now a proud owner and jockey of a bush plane. He’s also a husband and father. He’s been a lot of places, done a lot of things and has seen some shit. He’s a friend of mine, we were both sponsored by KEEN Footwear for a number of years. I was lucky enough to be with him during a base jump off the Monkey Face at Smith Rock years ago. He’s a mentor to me, he has a deep knowledge of the weather and free flight, risk and mitigation. He lives in Missoula Montana. In this episode we talk about bush planes and the road to piloting them, where they can take you and whats special about them. We talk about taking risks amidst a global pandemic, giving the best version of yourself to the world, we mention Will Gadd, the differences between free flight and powered aviation, the evolution of wingsuits, how they work and what flying them in the mountains is like. We talk about risk management and parenthood and a lot more. Please support this show by sharing, subscribing and by leaving a review! It helps! Support by donating! 100% listener supported show. www.paypal.me/ariintheair Thanks to everyone who has listened, shared, donated and encouraged me on this podcast. It means a lot to me, I’m so grateful. So much good stuff coming up. Stay tuned!

Welcome Daniel Staudigel to the podcast! Daniel is a physicist, computer programmer and adventure racer. He's also one of my closest friends. We talk about collective sense making, humanity's motivations and better ways to think of this whole coronavirus thing. Support the show by subscribing, sharing, reviewing and donating at www.paypal.me/ariintheair