Brad Orsted - Take It Outside

Brad Orsted takes you inside the launch of his first book, Through the Wilderness: My Journey of Redemption and Healing in the American Wild. He covers the packed opening night at Elk River Books in Livingston, Montana, and the book tour that followed. Doc, his rescue dog, came along and stole the show at every stop. Along the way, readers shared stories of trauma, recovery and healing. Those stories led Brad to a realization about how healing can be passed on, just as trauma can.

Six weeks after surgery, Doc is ready to run. The hard part is convincing him to wait — and then the Jardine house sells, giving Brad thirty days to find a new home in the middle of a Montana winter.

Leaving means more than packing boxes. It means walking away from the writing cabin where Brad got sober, started tracking mountain lions instead of reaching for the bottle, and first put words to everything he'd lost. They land in Big Timber — small, quiet, the kind of town where people wave at stop signs. And then Through the Wilderness launches.

In this episode: the place that held the worst and best of Brad, the town Brad didn't know he was looking for, and why Brad ignored the publishing industry's advice and bought an RV to take Doc out on the road.

Less than 15 minutes! Listen now!

Doc bolted after a herd of mule deer into the dark timber and came back not using his right front leg.

I made a vet appointment the next morning.

She ordered X-rays. When she came back in the room she told me Doc had severe bilateral dysplasia in both elbows and it was starting in both hips. One of the worst cases she'd seen in a dog his age.

I told her I'd noticed the limp but had never once heard him whimper.

She looked at me and said, "Brad. That's because pain is all Doc knows and has ever known."

We both started crying. Two people who'd met an hour ago, in tears over a German Shepherd neither one of us was willing to let down.

Episode Four of Take It Outside is out now. Born To Suffer. Six weeks on the floor. Chicken tenders through Paradise Valley. A five dollar GoFundMe donor who needed to do something good in the world that day. And a sleeping dog who showed me something I'd been missing for years.

December 2022. The temperature outside Jardine, Montana dropped to minus sixty. Brad and Doc sealed themselves in with Star Wars, chili, and cheese off the block and waited it out. When the cold broke and the snow settled waist-deep across the landscape, they finally got back outside — and Doc spotted a herd of mule deer heading toward the Yellowstone border, mountain lion country, wolf country, and took off after them while Brad's head was in his phone.

What happened next Brad has never talked about publicly. Until now.

Less than fifteen minutes — about as long as it takes to run to the store. Take It Outside, Season Five, Episode Three is LIVE!

Before Doc arrived, Brad had a dream. Doc and Brad were in the woods together, and Doc was limping on his right front leg. He filed it away and tried to forget it. Weeks later, he couldn't. This episode: the dream that wouldn't let go, Doc's first night and the lonesome howl that broke Brad's heart, and a hike to a sacred spot in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness where a German Shepherd laid down in a grizzly bear's daybed — and something long frozen inside Brad began to thaw. Healing, like love, needs a witness.

Brad's back. He's been at an animal shelter, writing a book, and figuring out what a German Shepherd named Doc has to teach him about healing. Turns out, quite a lot.

Season Five is about dogs, recovery, and what happens when two broken things find each other and just decide to keep going.

Welcome back to Take It Outside.

Welcome to season 4 episode 1 of Take It Outside! Please join us on this episode to find out about the Through the Wilderness book launch and tour. We've had an amazing journey and met some very kindred spirits along the way. Doc and I are excited to share what we've learned on the road from all of you, with all of you. Until soon,

Doc and Brad

To purchase Through the Wilderness, please visit: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/through-the-wilderness/ This episode wraps up season three with an exclusive reading from Through the Wilderness. Find out how a flock of cedar waxwings flew off with a painful memory, and how we perform emotional surgery after tragedy. Thank you! - Brad

To preorder Through the Wilderness, please click here: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/through-the-wilderness/

What do late nights, huckleberry scones, and orphaned grizzly bears have in common? My life! Join us on this episode titled, Orphaned in the Wild, where I talk about my time baking and watching grizzly bear cubs, and read from my upcoming memoir, 'Through the Wilderness: My Journey of Redemption and Healing in the American Wild' about my early days of grizzly bear conservation at the feet of the master, Doug Peacock. Heyduke Lives!!!

In this episode of Take It Outside, titled, Lean on Me, I'll talk about my time tracking a mountain lion family with my good friend, Casey Anderson, and how steep climbs and frozen snot were exactly what I needed to start to deal with my trauma. I'll read from my memoir, Through the Wilderness: My Journey of Redemption and Healing in the American Wild, an early segment covering some of my time with Casey and the mountain lion kittens that reminded me so much of Marley. To pre-order a copy of Through the Wilderness for you, or someone who may need it, please visit: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/through-the-wilderness/

Thank you and enjoy the show!

Brad and Doc