Apparently nobody told Bear Grylls that reality TV stars never have long careers. A dozen years after the cheeky Briton exploded onto American television, the king of survival entertainment is charging harder than ever, guiding A-listers into the wild for his NBC show Running Wild with Bear Grylls and launching innovative new series for Facebook and Netflix. He’s also building an adventure theme park in England and hosting a new survival race this spring outside Los Angeles that’s open to anyone. Outside executive editor Michael Roberts, who’s been covering Grylls for over a decade, tracked down the enduring icon on location in the Sierra Nevada to ask him: What’s your secret for survival? And why are you so convinced that going through tough times is good for all of us?