The Human Adventure

#228 - Rock bottom isn’t always a single catastrophic night. Sometimes it’s a slow drift: one more drink that becomes normal, one compromise that becomes routine, one secret that feels easier than the truth. Justin Kinney knows that drift firsthand, and he joins me to tell the full story of addiction, sobriety, and rebuilding a life from the ground up. Justin is a high school strength and conditio...

#227 - What do you do when the person you love is gone before morning and you’re in a country that doesn’t feel fully like home yet? Chanoa Inez lived that question on the coast of Montenegro after her partner died suddenly overnight. The days that followed were filled with shock, language barriers, unfamiliar systems, and an unexpected web of support, and they set her on a seven-year chapter acro...

#226 - You think you want to live abroad until you’re standing in a Shanghai apartment you barely recognize, sleeping on a mattress that feels like concrete, and realizing you can’t read a single sign outside your window. Jeff Lewis did exactly that, on a timeline so fast he had to get a same day passport and a same day visa just to make it happen. What started as a recession driven job scramble b...

#225 - A Baptist pastor walks away from a church he planted… and ends up kicking doors with SWAT as an FBI special agent. That’s the real-life career pivot Eric Robinson lived, and his story isn’t just a wild résumé line. It’s a clear look at how pressure, identity, and responsibility can build slowly until you finally admit the truth: you need a different path. We talk through Eric’s early years...

#224 - Business advice usually starts with scaling, margins, and “hustle.” This conversation starts somewhere more honest: what is business for, and who does it actually serve? We sit down with Edi Odura, an engineer turned entrepreneur and fractional COO who helps mission-driven founders build systems that don’t burn people out. Edi shares how growing up Ghanaian American shaped her relationship...

#223 - What does it take to stay teammates for 30 plus years while crossing borders, missing comforts, and choosing the hard route on purpose? I’m joined by John and Ann Craig Cinnamon, a travel power couple who’ve visited 120 plus countries on seven continents, and they’re honest about the part most people skip: real adventure travel can be exhausting, tense, and unpredictable, and that’s exactly...

#222 - When was the last time you let yourself dream without limits, not as a cute idea, but as a serious practice that could change your life? I sit down with Jason VanDevere, an entrepreneur, planner creator, and author of Dream Driven, to talk about what happens when you walk away from the “sure thing” and build a life that actually fits. Jason grew up in Akron, Ohio in a big family with a cow...

#221 - A one-way ticket sounds romantic until you’re standing in a foreign airport, exhausted, hungry, and convinced you’ve made a huge mistake. That’s where Tracy Smith’s story gets real and why it’s so relatable. After a divorce, years of nonstop parenting, and a career grind that left little room to breathe, she finally chooses herself and discovers that freedom can feel like fear at first.  We...

#220 - Behind every great joke is a real story and Danny Johnson’s story explains why his stand-up feels both clean and dangerously close to losing its cool. We talk about how he grew up in a loud Long Island family where roasting was basically a love language, and how that early chase for attention turned into a lifelong craft built on timing, authenticity, and connection. If you’ve ever wondered...

#219 - A million-dollar decision can look a lot like a random pop-up ad and a quick, messy “why not?” Alex Boylan went from being a preacher’s kid on the North Shore of Boston to winning Season 2 of The Amazing Race, and that victory didn’t just change his bank account, it rewired his definition of work, purpose, and adventure. We talk through the early travel experiences that shaped him, the real...

#218 - At 92, Jim Paulk doesn’t sound like someone looking back. He sounds like someone still chasing the next idea, the next project, the next person worth learning from. Our conversation starts with a dream delayed, how a kid from Brunswick, Georgia missed his Naval Academy appointment, kept pushing, then got the call that changed everything. From day one at Annapolis, Jim learns what many of us...

#217 - What does it take to leave one life, build another, and then wager it all on saving a species? We sit down with Nigel Mason, whose path runs from blitz-era London to the beaches of Bali, from music PR to pioneering “armchair rafting,” and finally to a 30-year fight to protect Sumatran elephants. His story blends grit, heartbreak, and stubborn hope as he turns a sanctuary into a living class...

#216 - What does it really take to walk away from a steady paycheck and bet on your art? We sit down with singer-songwriter Nora Suknaic to trace the messy, exhilarating path from a corporate tour marketing job to a life built around honest songs, late-night writing sessions, and the small victories that keep a dream alive. Nora opens up about the moment she knew routine was crowding out purpose,...

#215 - Some adventures test your legs; others test your soul. We sit down with D Paul Fleming—a Navy veteran, Native American healer, and self-described hollow bone—to explore a life spent between worlds: military discipline on one side, spiritual warfare on the other. What begins with a hard childhood and a near-death moment at sea unfolds into a candid look at gifts he didn’t want, a calling he...

#214 - What if the lowest point isn’t a dead end but a doorway? That’s the charge at the heart of our conversation with ultrarunner and dance dad John Calabrese, who traded alcohol and anxiety for sunrise miles, grassroots races, and a community that made space for the mess and the miracle. John takes us from Navy service during 9/11 to the long, uneasy middle where divorce and two DUIs forced a r...

#213 - A hurricane on New Year’s Day, a shredded tent, and a sudden slide toward hypothermia at 1,600 meters—Belinda Coker’s Canary Islands traverse didn’t go to plan. That sharp turn, and her decision to bail out, reveals the heartbeat of this conversation: how true adventure balances awe with judgment, and how choosing safety can be the bravest move on the trail. We walk back to Belinda’s roots...

#212 - Growth doesn’t arrive with a trophy. It often shows up as friction, confusion, and the stubborn urge to fix other people. With therapist Casey Stevens, we explore why discomfort is the doorway to becoming, how the subconscious scripts our choices, and what changes when you stop rescuing and start taking radical responsibility for your life. Casey shares her own turning points—early marriage...

#211 - Some histories whisper when they should thunder. We sit down with Jenny Chan, co‑founder of Pacific Atrocities Education, to listen—really listen—to the Pacific Front of World War II and the millions of lives bound up in it. From the euphemism of “comfort women” to the cold precision of Unit 731, from the Bataan Death March to the Rape of Nanking and Sook Ching in Singapore, we trace how vi...

#210 - What if travel wasn’t a checklist but a classroom? I sat with Joy Owens—mother of two, CEO and co-owner of Butler Travel, and veteran of 60 countries—to explore how faith, service, and slow travel can shape a family and a life. From a grandmother who’s visited more than 80 countries to Joy’s first trip at three months old, her story moves through mission work in Zambia and Kenya, a scrappy...

#209 - Conversations feel brittle right now, and disagreements can feel like stepping onto a minefield. We sit down with artist, educator, and traveler David Deighton to explore a different path: using art, curiosity, and face-to-face dialogue to turn political tension into human connection. From a pop-up “museum” on the rim of the Grand Canyon to quiet miles in the backcountry, David shares how i...

#208 - A helicopter door swung open over Vietnam, and years later a trail opened underfoot across the Appalachians. That arc—war to wilderness, adrenaline to stillness—frames Ron Timmerman’s rare story of brotherhood, love, loss, and the long work of healing. We invited Ron to unpack the moments that shaped him: flying Hueys as a teenage door gunner, returning with unspoken trauma, and building a...

#207 - One phone call redirected a life. When Matt Harmody’s father entered emergent dialysis, Matt saw both the power and the limits of modern medicine—and it set him on a path from corporate engineer to emergency physician, living kidney donor, and advocate who ties purpose to action in unforgettable ways. We trace that journey from the earliest signs of kidney disease to a courageous decision t...

#206 - What if the voices you let in are steering your life more than your goals are? That question sparked a wide-ranging, grounded conversation with Sagar Soni—nuclear engineer, creator of Beyond the Speech podcast, and a traveler who learned the hard way that more content and more checklists don’t equal meaning. We trace his path from bingeing self-help at 1.5x to a simple, liberating switch: t...

#205 - Some stories don’t just move you—they recalibrate your sense of what’s possible. Adriene Caldwell grew up in the crosshairs of untreated schizophrenia, constant relocation, and a home life that spun from denial to violence. After losing the grandmother who shielded her, she entered a foster system that should have offered stability and instead delivered degradation: separate dishes, floor s...

Travel gets interesting when you stop speeding past real life. I sat down with Miyuki Seguchi—licensed guide, former journalist, and host of the Japan Experts podcast—to unpack how small cultural details and mindful planning turn a Japan itinerary into a human adventure. From a monolingual childhood in central Japan to studying in the UK and a formative solo trip to Italy, Miyuki shares how early...