The Wildcast

Dr. Gideon Lasco: Pinoy Mountaineer, Access to Nature, and the Cost of the Outdoors In Episode 51 of The Wildcast , I sit down with Dr. Gideon Lasco — physician, medical anthropologist, award-winning writer, and the founder of Pinoy Mountaineer — to talk about how our relationship with the mountains has changed, and what we may be losing along the way. When Pinoy Mountaineer started in 2007, hikin...

Kilian Jornet Quite possibly the best mountain athlete we have seen in this generation with a versatility unrivaled by most in the field he has chosen to compete in. Kilian is in a class of his own winning some of the toughest mountain ultra races on earth from the UTMB to Western States and Hardrock his record is unparalleled but the amazing part of his performance is his versatility moving from...

Kris Van de Velde -The Asia Trailmaster Kris is a former competitive cyclist from Belgium who found a home in Asia among some of the most remote mountains and valleys in the region. Kris moved away from Europe to pursue a cycling career in China in the early 2010s then finding a career putting together cycling races in the burgeoning sports market in China. In 2014 he started the Asia Trailmaster...

Aldean Lim -Legal Adventurer There are a few Filipinos that have the adventure credentials as Aldean Lim has among his palmares are running the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc and the equally difficult TDS, a 170km and 140km footrace around the Alps with over 10,000 meters of elevation each or the Epic MTB Series in South Africa, New Zealand, and Switzerland some of the toughest mountain biking races on ea...

Ricky Carandang Ricky is a Filipino Journalist that has worked as a correspondent and anchor for ABS-CBN and ANC. He co-hosted the evening news show The Rundown, hosted the national affairs talk show The Big Picture, and was a field reporter for ABS-CBN's Filipino-language free-television news programs TV Patrol and Bandila. In 2010 he entered public service as Secretary of the Presidential Commun...

Aaron Palabyab: In a world of social media content creators, influencers, and a shifting media landscape is there still room for real professionals that have studied and honed their craft in the creative industry? That is one of the questions we set out to tackle with this episode of the Wildcast with Aaron Palabyab. Aaron is an award winning film maker that has cut his teeth in the commercial TVC...

Jilson Tiu Jilson Tiu is a Philippine based photographer whose work encompasses some of the most iconic scenes of Philippine life. If you have been on social media in the last 3 years in the Philippines there is a good chance you have come across some of Jilson's work shooting daily life of Filipinos on the streets of Manila or on other islands of the country. His work is a peek into life as it ha...

Pandemic Cyclists: The COVID19 pandemic changed a lot of the way our lives worked but for cycling the pandemic has been nothing short of transformational. Not just for cyclists but for the entire bike industry as well as the movement for sustainable mobility. Lester Babiera aka First Bike Ride, Marlowe Apeles aka BudolBuddy, and Marti Salva aka Higad Pating are at the center of the new bike cultur...

Aklay Can you imagine just leaving everything behind and just moving forward with whatever life throws at you? That is exactly what Aklay did more than 30 years ago as he set off from his home in France on his bicycle and headed east. Just east no solid plans just the flexibility to go anywhere the faiths would take him. Now settled finding a new home in Sagada in the Cordillera Mountains of the P...

Paco Guerrero and Kiddo Cosio: How we travel How do we travel? This is a question we often ask ourselves especially in this time when the pandemic has changed so much of how we experience the world. In this episode of the Wildcast myself, Photographer Paco Guerrero and Mom and Pop Entrepreneur Kiddo Cosio talk about traveling in this new age. What are we looking for? How should destinations be des...

Teddy Baguilat - A Life in Public Service Teddy Baguilat is one of those rare individuals that found his calling very early in life. He traces his first inkling of serving his community back to his elementary days in Kiangan, Ifugao watching his classmates who went to school barefoot or in slippers while he had the privilege of walking to school in shoes -from that point, at 13 years old, he decid...

Conrad Anker -Exploring the boundaries of human experience "the danger of climbing mountains is part of what makes it a powerful and enriching experience." He writes in an article for National Geographic. Throughout his life he has pushed the boundaries of enriching this human experience by doing some of the most arduous and often almost impossible expeditions to the big mountains of this planet....

Boboy Francisco Philippine Mountain Man If you have climbed pretty much any mountain in the Philippines you can be sure Boboy and the UP Mountaineers, the org he co-founded has had some hand in it. Whether it was a first ascent or training the first guides to these mountains or even simply putting these areas on the outdoor adventure map he and those who have followed his footsteps have had an eno...

EP38 Andro Umali -Two Wheeled Doctor When most Filipinos think about doctors one of the first expectations is that they drive a nice car. The fact that hospitals put a premium on parking spaces for doctors is testament to this expectation and quite often the dream for many children and parents of being a doctor is attached to the dream of driving that fancy SUV. Andro Umali is an emergency medicin...

EP37 Dong Abay -Rockstar of Freedom (Cover Image by Bolichie Suzara) Dong Abay is a Rockstar, a poet, an activist, a scholar but most of all he is a Filipino. I've known Dong as one of my frat brods from the Pi Sigma Fraternity sometime in 2004 although we met as activists during the time I worked on the campaign for reparations for the damages from the Marcopper Mining Spill in Marinduque many ye...

EP36 Alfonso Calero -Seeing the Beauty in the Ordinary Alfonso is a photographer that imparts his love of photography with his clients through his photo tours in Australia and around the world. I first met Alfonso when I brought him and his clients around the mountains of the Cordillera and found his inquisitiveness and constant love of finding beauty in the ordinary day to day a refreshing compan...

The Wildcast EP35 Tomas Leonor -Walking Across the Philippines Tomas Leonor is an Artist Activist and Outdoorsman in 2011 he was awarded as one of the Pitong Pinoy's by Yahoo Philippines an award that recognises Filipinos that have touched the lives of many, made and impact on society, and spread hope to the country. I've known Tomas since our days volunteering as member of the Greenpeace Boat Tea...

Solana Perez -The Pony Girl She grew up riding horses, now it is becoming her life's work. My very first in person interview during this pandemic is with Sol, someone who lives in the same city as i do and is as passionate about Baguio as a Baguio person can get. Sol is an artist, an advocate, but most importantly to her she is a Pony Girl. Her entire life has been spent around the Pony Boys of Ba...

Nella Lomotan -Eco Warrior Nella is a Philippine Parks Champion. She has developed a deep love and passion for the remaining wild spaces of the Philippines and has dedicated her life to preserving these remaining wild areas for all of humanity. I talked to her last year while she was holed up in paradise island El Nido in the middle of a forest. If you listen hard enough you will hear the backgrou...

The Wildcast EP 32: Ampy Corpus The BTS Shepherd Do not get on the bad side of the Army, no not that army the BTS Army. The recent Grammy awards and the KPOP fans trolling Donald Trump's campaign rally's are evidence of this community's power and cohesiveness but more than that this global phenomenon has brought a sense of togetherness and peace to millions worldwide. Ampy is a pop culture junkie....

Welcome to Season 2 of the Wildcast! EP31 Kiddo Cosio and the School of Unschooling I call him Captain Fantastic, a monicker from one of my favorite movies of all time of a father that defies convention and raises his kids in the wilderness giving them an education better that is better than what most of us will get going through traditional school. A self confessed drop out Kiddo's life has been...

And we have finally arrived at the final episode of the first season of the Wildcast and I am more than thrilled to be sharing this amazing conversation with Wyn Wiley(he)/ Pattie Gonia (she) with all of you. A fitting end to this season and truly a conversation that encapsulates many of the discussions, insights, and people I have shared conversations with over the last 7 months. The outdoors is...

EP29 We all have friends we can count on to join you for crazy ideas, those that will always say yes when you ask them without even knowing the details of the idea you have gotten them into. Redg is one of those friends for me. Since i've known him i've dragged him to cycle against mining on the streets of Manila, to a remote village buried in mud in the middle of the Cordillera to teach children...

There are a few people you meet and interact with who will have such profound impact on your life. Rebecca Martin was for me one of those people. In 2004 she, as the director of the National Geographic Expeditions council decided to give their youngest ever expeditions grant to me for the Cordillera Traverse and this opportunity that was given to me had such a huge impact on my trajectory in life....

Truly honored to have Arnel on my podcast this week. Arnel is one of those rare people you meet along the way who is a beacon of integrity, hard, work, and compassion. Coming from a poor family in Batangas he broke barriers and dared to dream in a community where finishing wasn't even considered as something that was a possibility of you doing. He was literally educated in the market finding his p...