This week Esme speaks to Juliana Bühring, an ultra-endurance cyclist, best-selling author, and children's rights activist. Juliana's life story is one of triumphing over adversity. Raised in a cult known as the Children of God, Juliana developed the necessary survival skills of resilience and adaptability from a young age – qualities that would prove instrumental to her future achievements. After escaping the cult at the age of 23, Juliana wrote the book, Not Without My Sister, which contributed to the group's eventual demise in 2010. While building a new, radically different life for herself in the wake of all this, Juliana reconnected with an old flame – an explorer named Hendri – and the two developed a long-distance romance. In another tragic turn of events, Hendri was killed while on an expedition in the Congo after being pulled from his kayak by a crocodile. His body was never recovered. Reckless with grief and determined to make the most of her one precious life, Juliana embarked on her first ultra-endurance ride – an 18,000-mile journey through 19 countries which she completed in just 152 days, earning her a world record. In this episode, Juliana discusses using mental fortitude to push through physical pain and meet her goals, learning to put faith and trust in strangers, and being coerced into rum-filled evenings in Australia in exchange for free accommodation.

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