The Joy Trip Project

If you’ve been watching television or checking your favorite web sites lately, you’ve noticed one number keeps popping up. On October 24rd in particular people around the world have been plastering the number 350 on billboards, marching with it on signs and performing physical stunts to share this number with as many people as possible. Groups numbering in the thousands have gathered across the U....

There’s a good chance that you’re one of those creative types. I’ll bet you’re the kind of person who derives a great deal of satisfaction from what you can make or do with your hands. You might play an instrument or you draw or maybe you like sing. And sometimes while you’re cooking I imagine you’ve been known to dance a little to the music on your CD player while you stir a pot of spaghetti sauc...

An interview with ultra-distance runner Diane Van Deren It’s been my pleasure to interview some of the best endurance athletes in world. I’ve spoken to high altitude climbers like Conrad Anker and Ed Viesturs, extreme skiers like Scott Schimdt and ultra marathon runners like Tim Twietmeyer and Dean Karnazes. These men are incredibly tough individuals.  And with humility and grace all have made the...

At the turn of 20th century more than 400 members of the 9th and 10th Divisions of the U.S. Cavalry, African-Americans know as the Buffalo Soldiers, actively patrolled the newly designated National Parks of Yellowstone, Yosemite and Sequoia. These men performed many of the same duties tasked today to the National Park Service. The Buffalo Soldiers were in effect among the world's first park ranger...

First in line to register for the 2010 Wisconsin Ironman José Aguilar It’s eight hours after the conclusion of the Wisconsin Ironman Triathlon. And on the streets of Madison all that remains is a litter of paper cups and discarded plastic water bottles. < > A city maintenance man sweeps up the clutter with a leaf blower in front of the State Capital building as the 2009 Triathlon season for many c...

Documentary Filmmaker Ken Burns at the Outdoor Industry Annual Breakfast in Salt Lake City Utah In his latest film, The National Parks: America’s Best which airs on PBS stations nationwide on September 27th Burns demonstrates that the preservation and protection of our wild and scenic places embody the most cherished ideals our American heritage and the legacy of our future. In this podcast editio...

A lot of businesses are starting to explore their creative side. Expressions of art have begun to creep into the culture of many companies. In boardrooms and at seminars across America the stage is set for performing artists    like corporate poet Gordon Boudreau. “I write poems for whatever organization will invite me to do that,” Boudreau said. “And I use their raw materials the specifics of the...

Soil scientist/agro ecologist Jerry Glover Out here on the Midwestern prairies of Wisconsin were surrounded by acres of farmland. This time of year as we ride road bikes along the creamy smooth highways of Dane County. From one township to the next it’s vast fields of tall green corn plants as far as the eye can see. Photo by Michael Leland photo by Jim Richardson National Geographic Averaging bet...

This item came aross the desk this morning from the folks at Wend Magazine. The creative minds of Tappening, an intiative to encourage the consuption of tap water over bottled water, is spreading rummors. Adman Eric Yaverbaum is prompting consumers to make up falsehoods about the industry that delivers municiple tap water in plastic bottles. Check it out at www. Startalie.com. You can also listen...

Chef Ming Tsai Ming Tsai is the chef and owner of Blue Ginger Restaurant in Wellesley Massachusetts. He’s also the national spokesman for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network and works with the Obesity Center at Harvard University. You might have seen him on his PBS cooking show Simply Ming. Tsai understands better than most that it’s harder than ever for working families and individuals to pr...

Slow Food USA President Josh Viertel If we slow down long enough to think about our food we just might come to realize there’s more to it than filling that nagging void in our bellies. We’re so pressed for time that we fail to think about the nutritional value of what we eat. Racing through the drive-thru window of fast food restaurants we pack faces with hamburgers and tacos loaded with fat, salt...

Quang-Tuan Luong In most films by Ken Burns like the Brooklyn Bridge, Jazz, The Civil War or Baseball he uses historical archive photographs that show us snap shots of time long past. And though there are plenty of old photos in his latest film “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” Burns also uses modern images taken by naturalist photographer Quang Toan Luong. Luong’s images feature prominen...

Click here to play audio: Pay It Forward David Overlin receives $10 to give away at Summit Credit Union in Fitchburg This story aired June 9, 2009 on Wisconsin Public Radio James_001>> Several weeks ago David Overlin was given a $10 bill. He was one of few thousand people in Southern Wisconsin asked by Summit Credit Union to pay the money forward. In other words, Overlin was tasked with giving the...

The new PBS film series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” enjoyed its world premiere at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride Colorado.  Festival attendees had the opportunity to see all 6 episodes of this 12-hour Ken Burns documentary on the big screen. Not at all once but over three days. As you can imagine the film lived up to expectations. The most beautiful landscapes of North Amer...

Greg Mortenson was eager to make a difference. It didn’t matter that he was just one guy working alone. He got it into his head that he was going to build a school for the children of a remote village in the high mountains of Pakistan. But what Mortenson didn’t realize was that even with the best of intentions his well meaning plans to selflessly help others would meet only with frustration and fa...

Shattered. The broken pieces of a world torn apart by war and a planet devastated by greed and corruption lie scattered at our feet. In her new book, “Finding Beauty in a Broken World” poet and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams brings together the tattered fragments of our times into a literary mosaic of peace and reconciliation. From the charred ruins of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on 9/11,...