Extreme Travel Odysseys

How do you survive in a desert town that has a record high temperature of 117F? You go into hiding, literally. The mining town of Coober Pedy, Australia uses the dirt for both their livelihood and their lives. CNET Senior Editor Claire Reilly visited recently as part of her web site's "Road Trip 2018" series. She joins the show to discuss her venture into one community's existence in the subterranean Outback!

Want to be part of something that only a few hundred people have done? Grab a map of the U.S. and get going, visiting the highest elevation of each state. It doesn't matter how you get there, but it's going to take a while for all 50. Today we meet Woody Connette, whose first job as a teenager was right at the summit of Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina. He gradually knocked off more and more states, but it wasn't until his 60s that he completed this grand quest! See how Woody did it, and hear his tips for specific states and for the overall challenge of a lifetime.

From the East Coast to the West Coast to the Rockies to Iceland, Will Wood knows a good trail. Now, he gets paid to hike. He began with the Appalachian Trail, sharing his videos along the way. That led to some gear recommendations, and fidelity to the ultralight products of the revolutionary Zpacks company. After also going northbound on the Pacific Crest Trail, Zpacks came calling and asked Will to join their team. See what it's now like for Will to get paid to follow his passion!

This episode chronicles the making of host Mike Klein's favorite travel documentary of all time, "180 Degrees South." Guest Jeff Johnson discusses how me met Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, and how finding some lost tapes of Yvon's early vagabonding led to the making of the film. Jeff learned how to sail, was briefly marooned on Easter Island, but eventually made his way to Southern Chile to reunite with Yvon and they attempted to recreate the climbing trip that inspired the making of the company of Patagonia.

What's bigger than the Olympics and the Super Bowl? The soccer (football) World Cup, which took place this summer in Russia. In this episode meet Manoj Viswanathan, who traveled to his first World Cup alongside podcast host Mike Klein and other friends. Manoj shares his thoughts on St. Petersburg, the Russian people, the experience in general, the rest of his travels in Estonian and Latvia. He also explains what life was like as a person of color in a mostly-white environment. Anyone planning to go to the next World Cup, or to Eastern Europe, will want to hear about his odyssey!

Just 12 men have walked on the moon, and only three more than that have completed the Barkley Marathons, a fantastically quirky and random endurance test in the rugged mountains of Tennessee. One of those men is John Fegyveresi, a man who didn't even take up competitive running until adulthood, but on that weekend ran for nearly 60 hours into immortality. Oh, and did we mention that he spends most winters in Antarctica studying glaciers and other effects of climate change? Yeah, he's also run a marathon at the South Pole, too. Who hasn't? Listen to how John took a down moment in his life to begin living fully!

What happens when you know you want to hit the road, but you don't have a place you need to be? Easy. Invite your friends to a bar, have them write down a place anywhere in the world, and see where you randomly end up. For Mike Legrand, he almost get sent to his mother's house, but fortunately, the last bingo ball remaining sent him somewhere far more exotic. If you like randomness and true adventure, Mike's story is for you.

What's your idea of a dream honeymoon? A few weeks on a white-sand beach? A trip to Europe? How about an 11-month trip around to the world to nearly two dozen countries? For Linsey and Jason Honaker, the trip was years in the planning, and was filled with adventures like shark diving, Africa safari, glacier trekking, and hot-air ballooning. For the ultimate "trip of a lifetime" listen to how the Honakers pulled it off, and how they each only carried one medium-sized backpack.

What happens when you leave your comfortable life to follow a bigger calling? Art doesn't just imitate life, in this case, he chases his best life. This episode chronicles Arthur Wei, who left his office job for an unknown road trip to follow his passion. Although only in his 20s, he already knew he wanted to experience life to its fullest. Listen to how he learned photography, videography, and social media skills on the road, and how he's built a company while traveling all over the world to places like Cambodia and Ukraine.

Two Canadian friends and accidental documentarians discuss a pair of quixotic adventures. Canadians Dustin Corkery and Adrian Traquair first rowed a boat 2500km down the Ganges, from India to Bangladesh. They didn't even bring food for the first night. That became the 12-part series "Around the Next Bend." Seven years later, they reunited for a 17,000km journey by rickshaw from Colombia to Southern Patagonia, which will be the upcoming series "Rickshaw South." If you hate travel guides and love unexpected adventure, you'll want to hear Dustin and Andrian talk about these twin odysseys!