Carpe Diem: Live Your Dream

Four friends decide to try a new way to explore the Brooks Range above the Arctic Circle in Alaska. They stuff small whitewater rafts in their backpacks and spend a month pack-rafting hundreds of miles through seldom-seen wilderness. Listening to all four of them in this episode, it’s clear they had a great time!

My guest for this episode hiked, paddled, and skied the entire Trans-Canadian Trail connecting three oceans. She created a spectacular documentary film “500 Days in the Wild” from that adventure, naming the film before she realized her journey would actually require 6 years! Listen to this episode to hear why.

Here’s a dynamic, fascinating individual who picked up photography in his 30’s and has now had three National Geographic magazine cover stories. He’s roamed the Arctic and so many other far-flung places, capturing the essence of wildlife, scenery, and the indigenous cultures. If you think it just takes being a guru behind a camera lens to make it big with Nat Geo, listen in to this episode to hear...

I recently returned from my own Antarctic adventure – not of the “roughing it” type since I was aboard a National Geographic icebreaker ship rather than hauling a sled and pitching my tent in the snow. But the staff were an eclectic mix of polar explorers with a fascinating mix of backgrounds and polar experiences. I interview several in this episode. The scenery and wildlife in Antarctica were am...

Ann Bancroft has a lifetime of amazing firsts in the world of polar exploration: first woman to reach the North Pole, first woman to reach both the North and South Pole, first woman to ski across the Antarctic continent, and many other big adventures. She has also accomplished so many other achievements in her life through her curiosity and determination. Hear about them in this episode.

Here is a professional endurance athlete with adventures in 100 countries, including a 500-mile trek across the mountains of Bhutan. She is the author of Dirty Inspirations: Lessons from the Trenches of Extreme Endurance Sports among other books, and the sports psychologist who coached the 4 women in my podcast episode #39 who rowed across the Atlantic Ocean. In this episode, she shares her perspe...

Smoke jumping is an adventure disguised as a job. Afterall, who jumps out of airplanes to live a week or two in the wild fighting a forest fire with little more than a pulaski and the clothes on their back? It’s an occupation few of us know much about – until you listen to this episode where my guest explains the lingo, techniques, and experience of smoke jumping.

The Badwater 135 ultra-marathon is viewed as one of the toughest running races in the world, starting in Death Valley in 120 degree F temps and including 14,000+ feet of elevation gain. This 2-guest episode was so fun to record with both the youngest person and oldest person ever to finish the race. While they each describe the same race from very different perspectives, they are equally inspirati...

Rafting expeditions on white water rivers can be addictive – or so says my guest in this episode. His repertoire of rafting adventures was built over a decades-long habit of an expedition every year or two and includes dozens of rivers around the world, including Zambia, India, Bhutan, Peru, Chile, Siberia, China, and Ecuador to name a few. What a great way to see the wild places of the world whil...

This episode is a conversation with Scott Shawyer, the President and Skipper of the Canada Ocean Racing team, shortly after he and his team completed the 5,000+ mile Ocean Race Europe in their IMOCA 60 foiling ocean racer. That race was just a warm-up for Scott’s ultimate ambition of being the first Canadian to complete the Vendee Globe solo, non-stop, around-the-world race.

Do you ever have an itch for adventure? To explore? To try something new? My guest for this episode literally wrote the book on why that is (or isn’t, for some people). He also wrote the book on human endurance. What a fascinating combo of topics that helps explain what's behind the accomplishments of my various podcast guests.

This teenage woman is on-track to be the youngest person to complete the series of marathon ocean swims known as The Oceans Seven. These are 10-25 mile swims across 7 of the world’s major ocean channels, including the English Channel, Gibraltar Straights, Moloka’i Channel in Hawaii, and the Cook Straights in New Zealand among others. She battles strong currents, cold waters, jelly fish and hours o...

Tyler “Mac” Fox has spent over a decade hiking the most epic trails around the world. Hear how he went from a totally non-outdoorsy guy to the king of the trail, about a sampling of his best hiking adventures, and how he has turned his love of hiking into the most comprehensive website for thru-hikers. Check it out at "HalfwayAnywhere.com" for tons of information, including really impressive annua...

This is Part 2 of my episode with Jasmine Harrison, the young British woman with an amazing trifecta of ocean records. First she became the youngest female to row 3,000 miles solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She then swam 900 miles up the entire coast of the UK from the southern tip of England to the northern tip of Scotland. And now as I interview her, she is halfway through her 30,000+ mile solo...

What does a young woman do after rowing a boat solo across the Atlantic Ocean? She swims the entire west coast of England, of course. And after that? She sails solo around the world in a very tiny boat. In fact, this episode was recorded via StarLink with my guest sailing across the Coral Sea towards Australia. And it is so packed with adventure, I split it into two parts, so tune in next week for...

You don’t have to be a pro to experience the course and the thrill of the Tour de France stage race. My guest in this episode describes what it’s like to ride the mountain stages a few days before the pros come through. His times aren’t quite as fast, but the challenge is sure real. And he describes lots of other spectacular rides for us “regular” people to do with our families.

No female climbers had ever completed the Yosemite Triple Crown - until this amazing duo appeared on the scene and nailed it this summer. What is it? It's speed climbing 8,000 vertical feet up three iconic big walls in Yosemite (El Capitan, Half Dome, and Mt. Watkins) in under 24 hours. Listen in. The training is intense, the risk is high, but the outcome is spectacular. And check out the photos u...

Your host (me) was inspired to try his first 100-mile ultra marathon. It was my podcast episode #26 guest that suggested the Front Range Ultra Dayze event in Colorado as my "hundo" debut. What an experience!! It wasn't just the race - it was the people I met there. Such interesting and inspiring people. In this episode, I capture live from the scene of the race the perspectives of many of the part...

This is a great adventure story of four marine biologists who decided to row a boat across the Atlantic Ocean. 38 days at sea with a coffin-sized cabin and 12-hours daily at the oars doesn’t sound like fun, but the friendships and the learnings more than made up for the challenges. Find great photos of the journey at https://gocarpediemnow.com . 

How many calories do you think you could burn in a day? My guest, Ethan Hunger, picks a day every year to go to the max on everything physical: biking, running, swimming, HIIT… and logs 12,000+ calories in 24 hours. Why? For an awesome cause of raising money for a food bank. And he has built an amazing collection of such athletics-based fund raisers under the moniker “Hunger vs. Hunger”.

Here's a married couple that has woven their lives around endurance sports together in a unique and inspiring way. This episode is packed with so many cool adventures like riding the Race Across America (RAAM), the TransAm, a 15,000 km bicycle speed record around the circumference of Australia, and the Norseman Extreme triathlon in Norway. And the list goes on. 

Could you spend 16 days non-stop in a canoe with 4 people, paddling more than 12 hours each day? That’s what it took to break the Mississippi River speed record traveling the 2,340 miles from source to sea. Hear the story (and the next big dream adventure) from one of the paddlers and his pal who supports the logistics. 

Have you ever dreamed of what it would be like to compete in the Olympics, but feel like that door has closed in your life due to age? Well fear not. You can still go for it in the Senior Olympics, formally known as the National Senior Games. Here’s a guy who threw javelin and shot put in college and is back in the competition 30 years later.

Here’s someone who has walked the walk with 5 Ironman completions, but can also talk the talk on sports psychology. Rather than talking about her own athletic accomplishments, she puts a different twist on this episode. Listen in for her sports psychologist’s perspective on how best to motivate oneself, how to cultivate greater confidence, define your purpose, and improve your performance with you...

Ever try to hold a plank for more than a minute or two? Kinda tough. How about for 5 minutes? Or 10? Well tune into this episode to hear from a planking world record holder who describes what it’s like – and what it takes – to plank for more than 10 hours. It isn’t just about the physical training.