A 5x world record holder, Andrew, the son of a professor of music and an Episcopal priest, left his small town in North Dakota and went on to become part of the six-person crew that completed the first-ever human-powered row to Antarctica.

In addition to climbing the tallest mountain on every continent, working for the CIA, serving his country overseas, and obtaining degrees from Yale, Wharton and Penn Law, Andrew holds multiple Guinness World records, national championships in collegiate rowing and club running, and a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

On this episode of Phasing Out, we explore everything from Andrew’s childhood and numerous career pivots to his experience triaging victims of the 2015 Everest avalanche and the shocking limits of human resilience. We posed the question: what sets those who make it apart from those who don’t? Are any of us really that special?