The Paul Kirtley Podcast

In this podcast, I speak with Joe Flowers, a knife designer, outdoor guide, zoologist and entomologist whose work combines natural history, wilderness travel and traditional outdoor skills. Joe shares how a childhood fascination with knives, wildlife and the outdoors developed into a career designing blades for major manufacturers and leading expeditions in the Amazon. We discuss bushcraft knife d...

In this episode of my podcast, I speak with Jon McArthur, a Canadian bushcraft instructor and search and rescue practitioner with over two decades of experience in both military and civilian contexts. John shares his journey into bushcraft, including his time learning directly from Mors Kochanski and the influence of Tom Roycraft’s teachings. We discuss key lessons from search and rescue, includin...

In Episode 61 of my podcast, I speak with James Steyn, one of only a handful of guides to hold the elite FGASA Scout qualification, combining Senior Tracker status with advanced dangerous game trails guiding. James shares his journey from growing up near Kruger to guiding wilderness trails, training future guides, and running Senalala Safari Lodge in the Klaserie. We discuss the art of walking saf...

How do you turn a passion for nature and outdoor skills into a meaningful livelihood? In this episode of The Paul Kirtley Podcast, I’m joined by UK-based bushcraft instructors Jamie Dakota and Adam Logan for a wide-ranging conversation about career paths in bushcraft, building experience, working with others, and the evolving landscape of outdoor education. Whether you’re an aspiring instructor or...

Stephan Kesting, author of Perseverance: Life and Death in the Subarctic, joins me to discuss a long-planned solo canoe journey through remote northern Canada, which took on extra significance following a life-threatening illness. In this episode, he shares the story behind the trip, the challenges he faced, and the motivations that led him to undertake such an ambitious expedition. We also discus...

Known to millions around the world as Survivorman, Les is a pioneer of survival television and an icon in the outdoor and survival communities. With his groundbreaking series Survivorman, Les redefined the genre by filming and surviving entirely on his own in remote locations and harsh environments. In 2014 Les began recording a 10-part series on Bigfoot. He says it took him places he did not expe...

Discover the fascinating journey of Mattias Norberg, a leading Swedish expert in fire-making and wilderness survival, as he shares insights from over 25 years of teaching experience. Author of Konsten att Elda ("The Art of Fire"), Mattias has taught survival and firecraft techniques throughout Sweden, from advanced courses in the far north to plant courses in the south. In this podcast episode, we...

Craig Caudill is Director and Lead Instructor of Nature Reliance School, based in Kentucky, USA. Craig has taught backcountry skills for many years. He's also a seasoned writer, to date being the author of eight books on backcountry skills and knowledge. It was great to finally record an episode of my podcast with Craig as guest, to learn more about his background and teachings. Craig and I actual...

This podcast is long overdue. My guest is John Rhyder, naturalist, writer and highly experienced bushcraft educator. Indeed he was the instructor on the first formal bushcraft course I took many, many years ago. John is an innovator in the field of bushcraft and nature education, and continues to push his own knowledge too. In particular, John is passionate about wildlife tracking; he is currently...

Dave Holder is a wilderness living skills instructor and wilderness guide based in Canada. He is also a TV survival consultant, being the lead survival and safety consultant on the Alone show on The History Channel. In this conversation we gain insights into long-term survival situations, psychological factors for success, skillsets required, equipment, nutrition and more.

Theresa Emmerich Kamper, PhD., Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and author of Determining Prehistoric Skin Processing Technologies, has over 25 years of experience in prehistoric skin tanning and clothing construction.

John Boe is a British military veteran with PTSD. In this podcast episode we have a candid discussion about John’s condition, how it manifested itself and how he came to realise he found solace in time spent in nature, especially in the woods. This ultimately led to a second career as a bushcraft instructor, delivering courses through Wildway Bushcraft, based in the South West of the UK. Having Jo...

Cliff Jacobson is one of North America’s most respected outdoors writers and wilderness canoe guides. He is an outdoor skills instructor and a professional outfitter and guide, a canoeing and camping consultant, and the author of more than a dozen top-selling books on canoeing and camping. In 2003 the American Canoe Association presented Cliff with the Legends of Paddling Award and inducted him in...

Les Hiddins became well known through his ABC TV series “The Bush Tucker Man”. In 1980 Les had received a Defence Fellowship to research survival in northern Australia and looked heavily into traditional bush foods, with the help and cooperation of Indigenous communities. His work was compiled and used by the Australian military in various forms, including the clever idea of “snack maps”. He was a...

In this podcast episode Gordon Dedman and I talk bushcraft and survival in Australia. Gordon is a survival instructor in NORFORCE, an Australian Army unit conducting patrols in remote wilderness areas of northern Australia. He provides civilian training via Bushcraft Survival Australia. Gordon also works as a guide in Kakadu National Park, which at 20,000 square kilometers is Australia's largest n...

Bruce Zawalsky is a professional wilderness survival instructor and author, with over 25 years of experience as an outdoor educator. He teaches survival courses, wildlife and bear awareness courses as well as wilderness navigation. Here in Podcast 48, Bruce talks with me about all these subjects and more, which have much wider application than just in his native Canada....

In 1995 Lars Fält organised a seminal survival instructors conference in northern Sweden. Tom Lutyens and Mors Kochanski were among the instructors. Johan Skullman was one of the students. Here they discuss the importance of that event....

Canadian outdoor educator and author Kevin Callan joins me to talk about nature connection, preserving wilderness, healing yourself with time outdoors as well as undertaking the Meanest Link…

Tristan Gooley, natural navigator and author, returns to the Paul Kirtley Podcast for a conversation centred on on becoming more attuned to the clues and signs surrounding you in nature, and finding the keys that help unlock these secrets...

John Hudson, Chief Instructor at the UK military’s Defence SERE Training Organisation, joins me in conversation on the Paul Kirtley Podcast. Originally an RAF helicopter pilot and now the survival instructor responsible for training all the survival instructors in the UK military, John is the real deal when it comes to survival training and advice. In the civilian world John’s expertise has been c...

David Wescott, Dave Holladay, André-François Bourbeau and Mors Kochanski come together in a panel discussion chaired by Les Stroud (a.k.a. Survivorman) at the 2019 Global Bushcraft Symposium, Alberta, Canada. Recorded June 11th 2019. Listen now...

Mors Kochanski joins me for a conversation about wilderness living skills, bushcraft and survival. Mors explains his background in these subjects, going right back to his school days, along with learning from his mentor Tom Roycraft, through Mors's own unique contributions and inventions , including the super-shelter. Along the way we cover a lot of fascinating ground....click to find out more and...

Dave Canterbury of the Pathfinder School joins me to talk about his perspective on bushcraft, particularly the contrasts he sees between bushcraft in the UK and USA. We use his popular concept of the 5C’s of survivability as well as applying the Six Sigma concept to bushcraft/survival as jumping-off points for a wide-ranging conversation, including building a YouTube channel, writing books, puttin...

Miles Irving, is one of the foremost professional foragers in the UK, author of The Forager Handbook, founder and director of Forager Ltd and host of the WorldWild podcast. Miles’s interest in foraging goes back to his childhood but a chance conversation led to him turning this growing passion into a career. Miles was able to start supplying restaurants with foraged plants and this quickly expande...

In this Paul Kirtley Podcast I return to Q&A, answering listener questions on a range of topics - Is there an issue with collecting water from streams or ponds containing poisonous plant species such as hemlock water dropwort, Oenanthe crocata? What are the benefits or disadvantages to a woodland if it is being used for bushcraft? How many knives is too many knives? Is a belt knife and a pocket kn...