Explore: A Canadian Geographic podcast

"There's a humility in this kind of travel. You don't pretend to adapt the world to you. You adapt to the world." — Bruno Forest

In the summer of 2025, Bruno Forest and his team of five others pushed their canoes into the waters of the Saguenay Fjord, setting out on an extraordinary 1,200-kilometre journey, paddling from Tadoussac on the St. Lawrence River to Waskaganish on James Bay.

But this wasn't simply a wilderness expedition.

Travelling in hand-built cedar canvas canoes by Forest and veteran artisans, he and his crew retraced a route that stretches deep into North American history — following waterways used by Indigenous traders for centuries before becoming part of the European fur trade networks.

The journey demanded weeks of hauling canoes upstream through powerful rivers, reopening forgotten portages swallowed by the forest, and crossing some of Quebec's most remote landscapes. Along the way, the expedition connected with Innu and Cree communities whose histories remain deeply intertwined with these waterways.

In this episode, Forest shares stories of building the expedition's canoes alongside some of Quebec's last traditional canoe builders, encountering woodland caribou and wolves in the north, and discovering what happens when travel slows to the pace of a paddle.

More than an adventure story, this is a conversation about memory, place, and why the canoe remains one of Canada's most powerful symbols.

In This Episode

• A 1,200-kilometre canoe journey from Tadoussac to James Bay
• Building traditional cedar canvas canoes for the expedition
• Following ancient Indigenous trade routes and fur trade corridors
• Reopening long-forgotten portages in Quebec's interior
• Encounters with Cree and Innu communities along the route
• Wildlife, wilderness, and life on the water
• The philosophy of canoe travel and adapting to the land

About Bruno Forest

Bruno Forest is a Quebec-based canoe and kayak guide, filmmaker, author, and expedition leader. In 2025, he led the Royal Canadian Geographical Society's Expedition of the Year, retracing a historic route across Quebec from the St. Lawrence River to James Bay in traditional cedar canvas canoes. Based in Tadoussac, he is also documenting the expedition in an upcoming feature-length film. For updates on the documentary, follow Bruno on Facebook @alamerdunord.2025

“There’s something really profound in being in such a vast landscape with nobody else around… You feel like such a diminutive thing in the landscape, really insignificant. Putting you in your place in the world.” - Louise K. Blight

In this episode of Explore, host David McGuffin sits down with Louise K. Blight for a live conversation recorded at the Ottawa International Writers Festival about her new book, Where the Earth Meets the Sky.

Drawing on her time studying Adélie penguins in Antarctica in the early 2000s, Blight reflects on life at the edge of the world, where she lived among hundreds of thousands of penguins and endured brutal storms and isolation in this remote corner of the planet.

Working alongside legendary penguin researcher David Ainley at Cape Royds on Ross Island, Blight spent months immersed in one of the harshest and most surreal environments on Earth. The conversation explores the rhythms of penguin colonies, the eccentric culture of Antarctic research stations, the psychological realities of isolation, and the growing impacts of climate change on polar ecosystems.

Blight also shares stories of hurricane-force winds, skua attacks (predatory seabirds), the unforgettable smell of penguin colonies, and the profound sense of perspective that comes from living in a vast frozen landscape with almost no other humans around.

In this episode:

• What it’s like living and working in Antarctica for months at a time
• Studying Adélie penguins at the world’s southernmost colony
• The remarkable resilience and behaviour of penguins in extreme environments
• Life at McMurdo Station and the unique culture of Antarctic research communities
• Isolation, endurance, and the psychological challenges of remote fieldwork
• How climate change is threatening emperor penguins and Antarctic ecosystems
• The strange beauty of Antarctica’s landscapes, wildlife, and silence
• Why Antarctica continues to inspire scientists, explorers, and conservationists



Louise K. Blight is a conservation scientist, seabird researcher, and professor in the Environmental Studies Department at the University of Victoria. Her work focuses on seabirds, marine ecosystems, and conservation biology. She also serves as co-chair of the Bird Specialist Subcommittee on the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Her new book, Where the Earth Meets the Sky, chronicles her experiences studying Adélie penguins in Antarctica and explores the intersection of science, solitude, and environmental change.

“Even in the most peaceful village, you’re surrounded by fresh graves… and you know the war is still there.”

What does it mean to explore a country at war?

In this episode of Explore, host David McGuffin speaks with Laval St. Germain, a Canadian explorer who has just returned from a journey deep into the Carpathian Mountains of western Ukraine. Travelling overland into the country, St. Germain set out to ski the Chornohora Ridge and climb Ukraine’s six highest peaks — what he found was a place of striking contrasts. 

In the high mountains, wildlife is rebounding due to a wartime hunting ban, with wolves, bears and lynx returning in surprising numbers. But elsewhere, the war continues to devastate landscapes, with some calling it an “ecocide” as forests burn, infrastructure collapses, and ecosystems are destroyed.

The Carpathians themselves are among Europe’s last wild regions — home to ancient cultures like the Hutsul people and layered with history, from World War I trenches to long-forgotten border markers that once divided empires. But even in these remote and peaceful settings, the war is never far away. In village cemeteries, fresh graves of young soldiers serve as a stark reminder of the ongoing conflict.

From skiing windswept ridgelines to navigating military checkpoints, and from quiet conversations with locals to witnessing the surreal normalcy of life in Kyiv, St. Germain offers a rare, ground-level perspective on Ukraine today — one that goes beyond headlines to reveal resilience, complexity and humanity.

• Skiing across Ukraine’s highest peaks in the Carpathian Mountains
• A landscape shaped by shifting borders, empires and conflict
• Wildlife is rebounding in some regions while war devastates others
• Life in remote Ukrainian villages and the impact of war on communities
• Travelling through Ukraine during wartime — from trains to checkpoints
• Kyiv today: a vibrant city adapting to ongoing conflict
• How modern warfare, including drones, is changing life on the ground

Laval St. Germain is a Canadian explorer, commercial pilot in the Arctic and Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He is the only Canadian to have summited Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. His expeditions have taken him to some of the world’s most remote and politically complex regions, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. He has also rowed solo across the North Atlantic from mainland Canada to mainland Europe and skied to the South Pole.

• Explore podcast episode 95: Laval St. Germain's journey to Afghanistan's highest mountain
• Explore podcast episode 78: Laval St. Germain: Mountains, oceans and the Arctic
• Jan 19, 2019 — Meet the Canadian explorer who just completed the Seven Summits

What if life isn’t just “out there”, but closer than we think?

For the first time in more than 50 years, humans have left Earth's orbit, marking a significant point in history. And as NASA’s Artemis II mission makes its historic journey around the moon, we explore the thought-provoking question driving this return to space: are we alone?  

From pioneering techniques to study distant worlds to leading bold robot missions to Venus, Toronto-born Sara Seager is helping redefine how (and where) we look for life in the universe. Alongside podcast host David McGuffin, this episode featuring Seager is all about space: exoplanets, phosphine gas, future space missions and, of course, life beyond Earth.  

As a global leader in exoplanet science, Seager shares the story behind the controversial detection of phosphine gas in Venus’s clouds, a potential biosignature (a substance or phenomenon that provides evidence of past or present life) that sparked global debate, and why our neighbouring planet may hold surprising clues to alien life.

A Canadian astronomer and professor at MIT, Seager is widely recognized for her work on exoplanets and planetary atmospheres. She is a recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, is a Companion of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Her research has helped transform exoplanets into one of the most dynamic fields in astronomy. More recently, she has led innovative efforts to explore Venus’s clouds for possible signs of microbial life. Her award-winning memoir, published in 2020, is called The Smallest Lights in the Universe.

In this episode: 

• What exoplanets reveal about the potential for life beyond our solar system
• Why Venus, once overlooked, may be a key target in the search for life
• The mystery of phosphine gas and the scientific controversy that followed
• How future missions could directly sample Venus’s atmosphere
• How exploration, from Canadian wilderness to deep space, shapes discovery

Books on exploration recommended by Seager:

• Sleeping Island: The Story of One Man's Travels in the Great Barren Lands of the Canadian North
• Coppermine Journey: An Account of Great Adventure Selected from the Journals of Samuel Hearne 

"The thing about desert expeditions that really takes you by surprise is how quickly things can go off the rails. It goes from good to bad almost instantly. In those moments, I remind myself: I chose to do this."

We’re excited to be joined again by Ray Zahab, an ultra-endurance athlete, public speaker, author, and RCGS Explorer-in-Residence, among other things. 

In this thrilling episode of Explore, Zahab takes us through his latest expedition across the driest desert on the planet: Chile’s Atacama. Running a marathon a day over 200 kilometres in extreme heat, Zahab traversed over brutal terrain with constant risk. Carrying minimal gear and relying on cached water, he and his teammate, Stephano Gregoretti, pushed through deep sand, steep climbs, and temperatures that regularly topped 45°C. Along the way, their journey took an unexpected turn when they took part in a real-life rescue in the Andes.

This episode also touches on one of Zahab’s favourite endurance films, Running on the Sun, a cult-classic documentary from 2000 about the Badwater ultramarathon that captures the mindset behind pushing human limits.

This is a powerful conversation about resilience, decision-making under pressure, and the mindset required to endure when things go wrong. 

And a special thanks to long-time listener and friend of the podcast, Aran O'Carroll, who sent in a very thoughtful question for this episode. Zahab has a great answer towards the end.

If you enjoyed this, check out Episode 104 with Zahab and RCGS Fellow Kevin Vallely on their self-supported winter ski expedition across Ellesmere Island, Canada's most northerly Arctic island. 

About Ray: Ray Zahab (@rayzahab) is a Canadian explorer and ultra-endurance athlete known for completing some of the world’s toughest expeditions, including running across the Sahara desert and a record-setting expedition by ski to the South Pole. As an RCGS Explorer-in-Residence, he is dedicated to education and inspiring the next generation through global expeditions.

Raised on Newfoundland’s west coast, Jenn Thornhill Verma grew up immersed in the life and lore of fishing communities and the rhythms of the North Atlantic. She is the author of the bestselling book Cod Collapse: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland’s Saltwater Cowboys, a contributor to Canadian Geographic, and a fellow with the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network, where she recently reported a series for the Globe and Mail on the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

In this episode of Explore, Thornhill Verma and podcast host David McGuffin discuss the legacy of the cod fishery collapse in the early 1990's, the politics of fisheries management, and the urgent effort to protect one of the world’s most endangered whales: the North Atlantic right whale. With fewer than 400 individuals remaining, these whales face a variety of threats, including ship strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, and, of course, the climate crisis.

Want to learn more?

• Visit Thornhill Verma’s favourite place in Canada: Nain, Labrador 
• Watch the documentary, Angry Inuk (National Film Board of Canada)
• Discover more about whales in Explore episode 99 with Canadian sperm whale researcher Shane Gero – a fascinating conversation about the attempts to decode the sperm whale's click language using AI.

*North Atlantic Right Whale sounds in this episode are courtesy of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“You see these massive calving fronts breaking off icebergs… you hear it, you feel the vibrations… everything is just absolutely magical.”

In this episode of Explore, podcast host David McGuffin welcomes back legendary underwater explorer Jill Heinerth to talk about her powerful new documentary, The Berg, airing on CBC’s The Nature of Things and streaming on CBC Gem.

For years, Heinerth dreamed of following the full lifecycle of an iceberg — from the calving glaciers of Greenland and around the Davis Strait to Newfoundland’s Iceberg Alley. In The Berg, she traces that journey, revealing how ice seeds the ocean with nutrients, supports entire food chains and acts as a critical carbon sink for the planet.

But the making of this film carried a deeply personal dimension. Heinerth shot portions of The Berg just one week before undergoing cancer surgery. The documentary now bookends a transformative chapter in her life, framing both the vulnerability and resilience she experienced during treatment.

In our conversation, Heinerth shares how her “explorer mindset” helped her navigate cancer, just as she approaches diving beneath unstable ice: prepare, visualize, understand the risks, and lean on her team. As her great uncle once told her: “You alone can do it, but you cannot do it alone.” That philosophy of courage and community guided her through radiation therapy and recovery.

We also dive into what it’s like swimming beside and beneath an iceberg, the physics of mixing fresh and saltwater, the explosive (and dramatic) end of an iceberg’s life, microscopic extremophiles and what they might teach us about medicine, and the new, under-ice research happening across Canada’s waterways. 

Heinerth also reflects on working with filmmaker James Cameron, whose relentless drive to explore the oceans has deeply inspired her. And when asked about her favourite exploration film, she points to the book Touching the Void, the harrowing true story of climber Joe Simpson. For Heinerth, it captures the raw psychology of survival: determination, dark humour, impossible odds, and the thin line between life and death that explorers understand all too well.

Heinerth is once again taking part in the Canadian Geographic Polar Plunge, raising funds for Canadian Geographic education programs, expedition grants and storytelling initiatives.

Support Heinerth, or sign up and plunge yourself: https://rcgs.org/polarplunge2026

Heinerth is the inaugural Explorer-in-Residence of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and one of the world’s foremost underwater explorers. A pioneering cave diver, filmmaker and bestselling author of Into the Planet, she has led expeditions to some of the most extreme environments on Earth, including Antarctica’s icebergs to deep submerged cave systems. With more than 8,000 dives to her credit, Heinerth serves as the “hands and eyes” for scientists in remote underwater environments, translating complex research into powerful storytelling that connects global audiences to fragile ecosystems. Her work blends exploration, conservation, science communication and an unwavering belief in the power of community.

“Always travel with a fish-slapping dance in your bag.”

— Michael Palin

What value does a fish-slapping dance have when travelling in authoritarian countries? Quite a lot, as it turns out…

In this episode of Explore, founding member of Monty Python, acclaimed travel documentarian, author, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Michael Palin joins host David McGuffin to reflect on a lifetime of comedy, curiosity, and crossing borders.

From being detained by paramilitary guards in Venezuela (and saved by Monty Python YouTube clips), to plunging into frigid waters to retrace the doomed Franklin Expedition in the Canadian Arctic, to starring in films like Life of Brian and Brazil, Palin shares stories that are hilarious, thoughtful, and quietly profound.

Now 82, Palin shows no signs of slowing down. 

Alongside his work as an actor, author, and travel documentarian, Palin’s involvement in Monty Python has helped establish the comedy troupe as one of the world’s most influential. Beyond comedy, Palin has spent decades creating landmark travel documentary series, including Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Full Circle, Sahara, Himalaya, and, most recently, Venezuela. He is the author of multiple bestselling books, including Erebus, his acclaimed history of one of the ships from Sir John Franklin’s lost Arctic expedition. 



Palin is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and the recipient of RCGS medals, including the first Louie Kamookak Medal, which recognizes respect for Inuit knowledge and northern history.

In this episode

• Why the fish-slapping dance may be the perfect piece of Python humour
• Monty Python’s surprising Canadian connections, from CBC protests to the Lumberjack Song
• Palin’s journey through Venezuela, North Korea, Iraq, and other dodgy places
• Why The Life of Brian is his favourite Python film
• Talking about the weather with Robert DeNiro
• What the Franklin Expedition reveals about colonial blind spots and the importance of Inuit knowledge
• Visiting Franklin expedition graves on Beechey Island in Canada's High Arctic
• How Around the World in 80 Days changed the way Palin approached storytelling
• Why Palin avoids interviewing presidents — and prefers talking to everyday people
• The magic of truly disappearing while travelling
• Reflections on aging, curiosity, and why Palin never wants to retire

Did you know that Michael Palin has done a polar plunge — and loved it! Learn more about the Canadian Geographic Polar Plunge and support Canadian storytelling at rcgs.org/polarplunge2026

In this special episode of Explore, Canadian astronaut, engineer, and physician David Saint-Jacques shares a rare and personal perspective on what humanity’s return to the moon means for Canadians and the world.

On December 3, 2018, Saint-Jacques launched to the International Space Station, where he spent 203 days, 15 hours, and 16 minutes before returning to Earth on June 24, 2019. In this conversation, Saint-Jacques reflects on why NASA’s Artemis II mission matters, what the mission is designed to test, and how Canada’s role in lunar exploration signals a new era of international space cooperation. The episode also explores what Jeremy Hansen’s historic assignment means for Canada. 

As the first Canadian and the first non-American ever assigned to a crewed lunar mission, Hansen will circle the moon aboard the still-experimental Orion capsule, marking a major milestone in Canada’s space history. As members of the same 2009 Astronaut Class at the Canadian Space Agency, Hansen and Saint-Jacques were not only colleagues but friends.

Through this relationship, Saint-Jacques brings an intimate perspective to this moment in history, reflecting on years of shared training, deep trust, and what it takes to prepare someone, not just technically, but mentally and emotionally, for a mission of this magnitude.

Episode Highlights:

• Jeremy Hansen’s historic role on Artemis II
• What it means to be the first Canadian and first non-American on a Moon mission
• David Saint-Jacques on trust, teamwork, and astronaut life behind the scenes
• Why Artemis II is a critical step toward long-term lunar exploration