The Paul Kirtley Podcast

In the Spring of 2017 Justin and his dog Saku set off on a a traverse of Newfoundland. Starting on snowshoes and hauling a sled, Justin switched to backpacking and pakrafting once the conditions allowed. 68 days and 700km later, Justin and Saku had crossed the island of Newfoundland from West to East, beginning on the Gulf of St Lawrence and ending up in Cape Broyle on the Atlantic Ocean. Justin j...

Dan Hume, bushcraft instructor and author of The Art Of Fire: The Joy Of Tinder, Spark And Ember guests on The Paul Kirtley Podcast to discuss his travels to remote places in search of traditional fire techniques being applied and relied upon to this day...

Mors Kochanski and Jon McArthur join The Paul Kirtley Podcast to discuss the motivations behind, and the aims of, the Global Bushcraft Symposium. Along the way, Mors shares a few anecdotes too...

Anna Lewington, ethnobotanist and author, joins me to talk about adventures in the Peruvian Amazon, writing the seminal book Plants For People, being an inspiration for the Eden Project, being part of the BBC’s Rough Science series, reviving traditional rush crafts, documenting food plant festivals and her latest work, Birch, a new book that is a celebration of the practical and cultural importanc...

In this episode I am joined by Louis Rudd, MBE. This interview with Lou was recorded in late October 2018, shortly before he departed for Chile and then onto Antarctica to attempt a solo, unsupported and unaided crossing of the Antarctic Continent via the South Pole. This means simply manhauling everything he needs for the trip, accepting no assistance and not using any aids such as kites to pull...

Kevin Brownlee, Curator of Archaeology at the renowned Manitoba Museum, joins me to discuss indigenous archaeology and working with indigenous communities to raise awareness of ancient heritage and archaeology of the boreal forest and sub-arctic...

Back in Sweden again. This podcast brings you interviews from the wonderful Bushcraftfestivalen, with Lars Fält, Julia Kalthoff, Juha Rankinen and Jonas Als. I also briefly catch up with Rupert Brown of Brown's Bushcraft to get his impressions of his first time at the event...

Will Lord grew up on the land that holds Grimes Graves, a prehistoric flint mine in Norfolk. Will's parents were custodians of the land, which is an English Heritage site. During his formative years, Will was surrounded by flint-knapping and experimental archaeology. Flint-knapping, bow-making, hide-tanning and other stone age skills have continued to fascinate Will to this day. In this podcast in...

Dr Cassandra Quave joins me to discuss her work as a medical ethnobotanist, teaching about medicinal plant use and researching botanical remedies used in the traditional treatment of infectious disease....

Leon McCarron FRGS is an adventurer and storyteller, who has used both the mediums of video and text to vividly convey aspects of his journeys and a tangible sense of the places and people he has encountered along the way. In this podcast interview Leon joins me to discuss the people, places and practicalities of walking 1,000 miles through the varied landscapes and cultures of the Middle East, fr...

Joe Robinet is known for making videos documenting his bushcraft and camping adventures, as well as having appeared on the first season of History Channel series Alone. I’ve been intrigued by the proliferation of outdoor video blogs and specifically bushcraft & camping videos on YouTube. Given Joe’s success on the platform, I figured he would be a good person to help discuss this area in more deta...

On 30th April 2017 Colin Skeath and his nephew Davis Gould-Duff set off from Loch Sunart on the West Coast of Scotland in an open canoe, aiming to circumnavigate Britain. 86 days later they completed this epic undertaking. Colin joins me to discuss the adventure, where the idea came from, the mindset required of them and what they learned from the experience…

Kevin Callan is well known as a paddler and author of many canoe-route guidebooks for his native province of Ontario, Canada. He's also known as the Happy Camper, and he certainly has always been happy when I've camped or chatted with him. Kevin has been a guest on my podcast before and today I'm delighted to welcome him back again to talk about another shared passion of ours - winter camping....

Professional deer stalker and firearms instructor Andy Chadderton returns to The Paul Kirtley Podcast. The conversation Andy and I have in this podcast is based on questions submitted by listeners. In the wide-ranging discussion, we talk deer stalking, land management, rewilding, hunting ethics, firearms law, riflescopes, advice to beginners and more...

Why does it matter how long it takes you to light fire by friction when practising? From the perspective of sports psychology there are solid reasons why measuring performance in bushcraft activities can be beneficial. My colleague Iain Gair, who has a Master's degree in Sports Psychology, joins me to discuss this in more depth...

Rupert Brown joins me to talk about water purification and the nifty solution he provided to the bushcraft world and wider community of outdoors people in manufacturing the Brown Filter Bag. In the course of the conversation Rupert also talks about his change of career from being a forester and teaching arboriculture to teaching bushcraft as well as moving to France, where he now resides.

Episode 22 is made up from some of my conversations at the 2017 Bushcraftfestivalen in Sweden. Guests include Lisa Fenton, Harry Sepp, Jonas Landolsi, Tobias Karlsson, Kevin Warrington, Jonas Als and Mikael Akerman...

Sarita Robinson, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at UCLAN joins me to talk about her recent work, researching and quantifying various benefits to our wellbeing of spending time outdoors, undertaking bushcraft and other activities. Along the way, our discussion takes in areas such as stress, anxiety, sleep deprivation, sleep hygiene, blue light from screens, melatonin, digital detoxes, camping, green...

James Raffan, scholar, outdoorsman and celebrated Canadian author joins me to discuss adventure, risk, failure, teaching, wilderness journeying, lifelong learning, personal development, human potential and journal keeping, along with characters such as Kirk Whipper, Bill Mason and Sir George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company...

Sitting down around a table in a wooden chalet in Scotland, Kevin Callan, Ray Goodwin, Justine Curgenven and I talk about the canoe trip down the river Spey we'd just finished the very same day. This is an enjoyable yet insightful reflection by four outdoors people on a fun week on the river...

Mark Hines, professional adventurer, endurance athlete, exercise physiologist and biomechanics researcher, author and lecturer joins me for a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion on adventure, endurance, diet and health...

Al Humphries is best known for the concept of microadventures and his book of the same name, following his Year of Microadventure. He's no stranger to big adventures either, though. Al joins me on this podcast to talk about adventures great and small, what motivates him, how he chooses his adventures, the challenges of making a living as an adventurer and what he does when things go wrong...

Lisa Fenton joins me to talk about her academic research in the realms of anthropology and ethnobotany, in particular her research into the relationship between bushcraft and indigenous knowledge, which formed the basis of her doctoral thesis...

I'm joined by John Rensten of Forage London to talk about urban foraging in the city and the advantages of learning about tree and plant identification in urban spaces. We meet in a London park and take a look at plants we find in just one small corner...

Mark Kalch has made it his mission to paddle the longest river on each of the seven continents - seven rivers on seven continents. He has already completed descents of the Amazon, Volga and the Missouri-Mississippi River. These journeys have taken Mark through a wide variety of environments, some of them very wild and remote...