The Adventure Podcast

Episode 101 of The Adventure Podcast features athlete, adventurer, activist, and author, Ana Zirner. Ana grew up in the Bavarian foothills of the Alps and is a former theater director turned mountain guide.  Once a year, Ana takes on a big adventure in the outdoors. In 2017, she crossed the Alps on foot from east to west, followed in 2018 by the Pyrenees in the same direction. In 2019, she wa...

In episode 100 of The Adventure Podcast, host Matt Pycroft sits down with Vaughan Smith. Vaughan introduces himself, but in overview he’s a conflict journalist at heart. He’s also the founder of The Frontline Club, a charity he set up to support freelancers in honour of the many friends and colleagues he lost doing the job he has done. Please do listen this conversation with Vaughan, and if the st...

Episode 099 of The Adventure Podcast features ultra-endurance cyclist, Lael Wilcox. Her story is jaw dropping. She tells it brilliantly herself so we’ll leave her to it, but suffice to say Lael doesn’t seem to have anything in her head holding her back. She just seems to get up and get on with whatever she feels like doing next. We loved this conversation, mostly because it’s a rip roaring adventu...

Episode 098 of The Adventure Podcast features two world class rock climbers and alpinists, Renan Ozturk and Freddie Wilkinson. In terms of quick intros, both Freddie and Renan are world class rock climbers and alpinists. Freddie is also a historian and writer and Renan is a filmmaker, photographer and artist. They are currently on their PR tour for their latest film 'The Sanctity of Space’. "More...

Episode 097 of The Adventure Podcast features climber and alpinist, Thomas Bukowski. We first stumbled upon Thomas when we were on the hunt for stories to tell for Pertex, one of our outdoor brand clients. We worked really closely with photographer Ted Hesser to find and then shoot a story based in the US and Thomas was the subject of that story. You can read that article here: https://pertex.com/...

Episode 096 of The Adventure Podcast features whitewater kayaker, James Shimizu. This episode is a return to our rarely featured dispatches. The dispatches are our shorter form episodes that usually focus on one particular story, a moment or a theme.  In this episode, we chat to James about a recent experience getting knocked out in a kayak in tricky white water and the ensuing rescue that ch...

Episode 095 of The Adventure Podcast features Donna Carpenter. Donna was one of the founders of Burton Snowboards, alongside her husband, Jake Burton. It’s not overstating things to say that as a pair, Donna and Jake are responsible for launching the modern snowboard and turning a largely unknown hobby into a mainstream sport. Donna has spent her entire career building, shaping and growing the bus...

Episode 094 of The Adventure Podcast features freight train rider and author Ed Davis. Ed began his writing career over forty years ago, pausing in boxcars, under street lamps, and in hobo jungles to record the beats and rhythms of the road as he caught freight trains and vagabonded around the Pacific Northwest and Canada. If you’re a fan of the words of Kerouac or Steinbeck or ‘suffer’ from wande...

Episode 093 of The Adventure Podcast features the founder of TDA Global Cycling, Henry Gold. The son of a Holocaust survivor, Henry was born in Czechoslovakia and moved to Canada at 16 years old . After years spent managing an international NGO that delivered humanitarian assistance to disadvantaged communities in Ethiopia and Sudan, he set up Tour d’Afrique (a Cairo to Cape Town cycle expedition)...

Episode 092 of The Adventure Podcast features the founder of the London climbing community, Clmbxr, Rotimi Odukoya. Rotimi grew up in London, and spent the majority of his childhood outdoors, albeit within the confines of the city, as well as playing traditional sports to a high standard. Rotimi took up climbing a couple of years ago and almost accidentally created a club that has grown into a com...

Episode 091 of The Adventure Podcast features Dave MacLeod. It’s hard to summarise who and what Dave is, but if you had to condense it into three words, he’s a climber, a filmmaker and an author.    Dave was born in Glasgow but now lives in the Highlands where he spends as much of his time as he can climbing in one way or another. What separates Dave from most climbers is his ability as...

Episode 090 of The Adventure Podcast features Colin Prior. Colin is known as one of the world’s most respected landscape photographers. He was born in Glasgow, his ability to get out and into the Highlands is definitely what shaped his passion for the outdoors and fostered his interest in photography.  His photographs are sensational, and capture real sublime moments of light and the landscap...

Episode 089 of The Adventure Podcast features world-renowned British mountaineer, Victor Saunders. The 71-year old IFMGA guide has completed each of the Seven Summits, summited Everest six times and ticked off many first ascents including the North Pillar of Spantik. In this episode, Matt and Victor discuss climbing partners, the rules of mountaineering, and quitting your stable job as an architec...

Episiode 088 of The Adventure Podcast is features ex royal marine sniper, turned adventurer, explorer and TV rigger and safety specialist, Aldo Kane. This is Aldo’s third time on the podcast and there’s a reason we keep inviting him back. In this episode, we talk about his latest expeditions and experiences as well as adapting to fatherhood and the inevitable changes that being a parent brings. Su...

Episode 087 of The Adventure Podcast features author, illustrator and outdoor adventurer, Teddy Keen. Creator of the magical and intrepid children’s books, The Lost Book of Adventure and Journey to the Last River which follow the journey of the mysterious Unknown Adventurer. In this episode, host Matt Pycroft and Teddy chat about Teddy’s own adventures, growing up in a family of explorers, ex-mili...

Episode 086 of The Adventure Podcast features 19-year old Alishba, who grew up in inner city Manchester under difficult circumstances and was introduced to the outdoors and hill walking by a local youth group. She went on to lead others as part of the same group as well as excelling both academically and in various sports before eventually becoming head girl at her school. Her story is unbelievabl...

Episode 085 of The Adventure Podcast features the legendary British rock climber and mountaineer, Paul Pritchard. Paul dominated the climbing scene of Britain and beyond in the 80s and 90s, until Friday the 13th of February 1998 when everything changed. A fallen boulder on The Totem Pole in Tasmania left Paul facing the prospect of never walking or speaking again. This conversation between Matt an...

Episode 084 of The Adventure Podcast features big wave surfer Andrew Cotton. Back in August, Coldhouse teamed up with Sidetracked Magazine on a rather exciting project for Porsche featuring Andrew Cotton. At the end of the week, Matt Pycroft sat down with Andrew to dig a little deeper. What followed was quite a lot of introspection and rumination to discover what is the appeal and motivation to do...

Episode 83 of The Adventure Podcast features the Founder and Executive Director of Plastic Tides, Christian Shaw. An avid water man and professional kiteboarder with a mission to inspire and catalyse action toward a plastic-free future through adventure, education and youth empowerment. In this episode Matt and Christian discuss living life in a way that causes less harm, the ocean plastic polluti...

Episode 082 of The Adventure Podcast features Chris Dyer,  a Crofter/Archaeologist/Historian/Firefighter, who lives on a smallholding on the Shetland Isles off the coast of Northern Scotland.  We met Chris while working on a project in the Shetlands for Best Made Co. He moved there from England some time ago and has built a life for himself amongst the once derelict stone walls of Garths...

Episode 081 of The Adventure Podcast features one of the world’s elite alpinists, Conrad Anker. Some of Conrad’s achievements in the world of mountaineering include summiting Everest without the aid of supplemental oxygen, a first ascent of Meru’s “shark fin” route, numerous Antarctica expeditions, and multiple ascents of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. He’s much more than just a climber tho...

"In a humanitarian context, in war zones or on a ship rescuing refugees, I think it is very important to really show the people that amidst this great, great suffering that you are a fellow human and that you are with them." Episode 080 of The Adventure Podcast features Slovakian human-rights journalist Sara Cincurova. Sara’s work focuses on migration, human rights, humanitarian issues and women’s...

At a young age, Gail was diagnosed with muscular-skeletal issues; she was told she’d likely be in a wheelchair by the age of forty. Chronic illness dominated her life for fifteen years and almost destroyed her, yet she never lost hope. Since 2019, she has thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, the South West Coast Path, the Continental Divide Trail and the Tour Du Mont Blanc and she is just getting sta...

Sean Conway is an ultra endurance adventure athlete who is keen to champion the athletic side of adventure. Born in Zimbabwe, his childhood was spent in the bush and chasing elephants out of his garden. Sean has swam the length of Britain, cycled across Europe and came second in the famous cheese rolling competition - all this while breaking world records and pushing himself to the absolute limit....

Anna McNuff is an adventurer, speaker and self proclaimed ‘’mischief maker’’. Anna has run the length of Britain in bare feet, cycled the 50 states of the US and run the length of New Zealand (amongst many other achievements). Anna’s energy is infectious; raised by two Olympians she explores how this has shaped her outlook and forged her never-quit attitude.  In this episode Anna is honest ab...