Armchair Explorer

Follow extreme bikepacker Cat Jaffee as she competes in the Silk Road Mountain Race - the toughest mountain bike race on the planet. 1,200-miles long, with over 115,000-feet elevation gain, athletes traverse the high mountain passes and remote valleys of Kyrgyzstan for 14 grueling days. Traveling completely unsupported, wild camping along the way, only a handful of riders attempt it and a fraction...

“These are the days in our lives that we remember. It's not all the days that went so well. It's the days when you're miserable, when you think you can't go one more step, and then you swear at somebody, and then you keep going. Those are the days that form our spines. They have formed my spine.” - Kris Tompkins Kris Tompkins has spent a lifetime fighting tooth and nail to protect wild lands. In 1...

Dinosaurs and dark skies have a lot more in common than you'd think...and Utah happens to be one of the best places in the world to experience both of them firsthand. In this episode, join host Aaron Millar as he explores Utah through both time and space. From coming face to face with a wall of dinosaur bones to stepping onto a top-secret active dinosaur dig site and behind the scenes at the fossi...

Conrad Anker is renowned throughout the world as one of the greatest living mountaineers. Follow him to the Himalayan peaks of northern India to climb the ‘Shark’s Fin’ of Mt. Meru, a sheer 1,500-foot wall of blank granite, one the hardest, most dangerous and beautiful routes on the planet.  For 30 years the best mountaineers in the world had attempted to climb Mt. Meru and for 30 years one-by-one...

Pub crawls, wine tasting, a distillery or two. The only thing better than summer travel, is summer travel with a drink in hand. That’s what this episode is all about. We’re calling it Liquid Tourism and it’s going to be a lot of fun. Today, we’re going to Yolo County, California. You may remember it from the documentary we made about the Slow Food movement up there. It’s a beautiful rural landscap...

Benedict Allen has made a name for himself, not necessarily for what he does, but for what he does not do...travel with modern technology. For the last several decades, Benedict has explored some of the most remote corners of the planet, from crossing the Amazon basin to the deserts of Namibia. And instead of navigating those highly complex journeys with modern technology, he's chosen instead to e...

If there's one word that defines Utah, it just might be adventure. From the adrenaline-pumping to the meditative, the outdoors in Utah is a veritable playground for exploration. In Part One of Uniquely Utah adventures, we spent the morning fly fishing on the teal waters of Flaming Gorge, followed by an afternoon of mountain biking, chasing sharp turns with a pro rider. In Part Two, follow along as...

Growing up in Kenya, Chris Carter fell in love with Africa's wilderness -- with forests and grasslands, mountains and waterfalls, lions and giraffes. But after spending several years backpacking the long-distance treks of the US, he returned to his home country only to realize that Kenya had no comparable established backpacking trails. So naturally, he decided to create one. Chris partnered with...

Welcome to Utah: Life Elevated, the documentary podcast that will take you all around Utah on an unforgettable road trip. Today, we're diving into some of Utah's unique adventures...because if there's one word that defines Utah, it just might be adventure!  From rappelling down canyon walls to churning up dirt on a mountain bike, there are so many ways to get a taste of the outdoors in this great...

Writer Tim Moore is no stranger to the unusual and unique. In his early days as a travel writer, he rode a container ship to Iceland, biked across Italy in a period costume, completed the Camino de Santiago with a donkey as his only companion, and more. So when Tim got a call out of the blue one day from his editor, asking if he'd consider biking the length of the newly established Iron Curtain Tr...

In Oregon, the natural world doesn't just inspire awe -- it gives a touch of the sublime. In the words of one guide, it's "timeless...important for the soul of humankind." And today, we're immersing ourselves in those sublime experiences along the Central Nature Trail in Oregon! Follow along as we snowshoe to the top of Watchman Peak, for the best view over Crater Lake in the park – “like a sapphi...

"Paradise: that elusive place where the anxieties, struggles, and burdens of life fall away. Most of us dream of it, but each of us has very different ideas about where it is to be found. For some it can be enjoyed only after death; for others, it’s in our midst—or just across the ocean—if only we can find eyes to see it." Thus begins the premise of Pico Iyer's journey in The Half Known Life: In S...

In the Florida Keys, the ocean isn't just part of the scenery. Because beneath those shimmering teal waters, there are adventures and discoveries just waiting to be found. And in today's episode, we'll explore two very different - yet equally captivating - gems of the Keys, with excerpts from two different episodes of the 30-part Florida Keys Traveler podcast. First, join host Elizabeth Harryman L...

“I'm sure bungee jumping is crazy and a real like adrenaline rush. But if you've never walked through Somalia with $15,000 in your backpack, you have never lived. You think you like adventure sports, but that is real, real pumping adrenaline.”  In this episode, American journalist Eric Czuleger takes us on a journey into the twilight zone of almost countries, the places in the world that are fight...

St. Patrick might be the most famous of the Irish saints...but he's far from the most interesting. In 2023, St. Brigid’s Day was decreed a National Holiday in Ireland to honor Brigid. Over the millennia, this legendary woman has evolved into a figure encompassing myth, holy legend, pagan icon, and now modern feminist symbol. But who was Brigid, really? To answer that question, travel writer Nicola...

The Van Gujjar tribes spend half of each year living deep in the forests of northern India and the other half high on the mountain plains of the Himalayas. Herding water buffalo, whose milk nourishes and sustains their livelihoods, every Van Gujjar family makes an annual migration from their winter home in the forests to their summer grazing fields in the Himalayas. That is -- until now. Faced wit...

This week we are going to Nashville, Tennessee The Country Music Capital of the World … but don’t worry you don’t have to love country to love Nashville. It is a music town. If you like listening to live music – who doesn’t? – then this is a musical odyssey you must take at least once in your life. We’re going to have some fun, we’re going backstage at 3 rd and Lyndsey, one of Nashville’s most ico...

"I will show you my Amazon - the Amazon that visitors never get to see." When Alex Robinson heard those words, he knew he was in for the adventure of a lifetime. His guide, Saru Mundurucu, had recently founded his own adventure and travel company, Aracá Expeditions. As the first and only Amazon adventure company owned and operated by an indigenous Amazonian, Saru promised Alex an experience unlike...

Today, we're embracing our weird in Oregon as we explore the Northern Culture Trail! We’re going to discover Portland’s favorite food carts, sample food from around the world and go on a secret bar crawl to hidden local spots. “Portland is the rebel base of the Star Wars universe, we’re sticking it to the forces of normal,” Dresden of Throw Snakes told us. We’re going to have some fun! From there...

Today we're journeying to Lake Baikal, the largest, oldest, deepest freshwater lake in the world...and to get there, we're crossing over a thousand miles in Mongolia and Russia by camel, horse, kayak, and rowboat. Like all lakes, Lake Baikal exists because of a river. And in 2018, fishing and river guide Peter Fong led the first-ever expedition from the headwaters of Mongolia’s Delgermörön (Seleng...

Today, we're returning to the mountains of Colorado to hear about the adventures of Isabella Bird, a British explorer who famously ascended Longs Peak in 1873 with her guide and companion Jim Nugent. The story of Bird and Jim illuminates the early history and character of Estes Park, as her writings helped establish the town as a tourist destination, and parallels with the broader historic myth of...

"There are eight species of bears on the planet. Six of them are threatened everywhere they live." Thus begins Beartrek, a documentary which took Chris Morgan nearly 8 years to make. In Beartrek, he follows the lives of several individual bears around the world, from a friendly spectacled bear in Peru's arid mountains to a shy sun bear cub in the muggy rainforests of Borneo. Chris, a British-born...

"It was here, on the banks of the Mississippi River, where music changed the world." In Memphis, music has always been more than a melody and lyrics - it's a movement. This is a city that launched some of the world's most beloved musicians, from Otis Redding to Isaac Hayes, Carla Thomas, Elvis Presley, and more. And in the midst of segregation and racial tension, the music of Memphis became a powe...

Today's episode is a little bit different - because our very own Aaron Millar is our guest! This re-released episode is one of the most memorable conversations he's ever had, and we're very excited to share it with you. In this interview, which originally aired with the Adventure Sports Podcast in 2020, Aaron shares stories from his years as a travel writer - from doing a ridiculous 100-mile pub c...

It's hard to imagine Christmas without reindeer. But long before the beloved antlered animals were pulling Santa's sleigh, they were providing a way of life for indigenous peoples around the world, including the Nenets of Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula. The Nenets of Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula are among the world’s oldest existing true nomads, making a living by herding reindeer in a place that literall...