Mountain Whispers

Jenn Segger is an adventure athlete, coach, and guide based in lower British Columbia.

We chat about:

• How she broke into the professional ultramarathon and adventure racing scene
• The challenges of adventure racing and team dynamics
• The art of chasing Fast Known Times
• Why Fastpacking beats backpacking
• Much, much more

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Jenn's website (contact info can be found there)
• Hardrock 100 race

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

Harley Rustad is the author of the new book Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas. It tells the story of Justin Alexander Shetler, American adventurer and influencer who disappeared in the foothills of the Himalayas in 2016.

While the circumstances surrounding Justin's disappearance grip you like a true crime story, Harley and I explore Justin's spiritual pursuit of adventure, and the forces that drove him to take increasing risks in pursuit of spiritual breakthrough and enlightenment. This includes:

• Justin's unique upbringing and how it shaped how he sought adventure and meaning
• The mysterious circumstances surrounding his disappearance
• How sharing adventures with the world on social media can warp intentions and risk-profile
• The magnetism of the spiritual mountain top and how it can draw you into taking increased risks

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Justin's Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube channels that are still live
• Harley's article on Justin in Outside Magazine that inspired the book
• Mike Spencer Bown, the world's most travelled man, who Justin consulted about long-term wilderness survival right before his final adventure
• The contemplative practice of Sit Spotting that is taught at Washington's Wilderness Awareness School

You can find more of Harley at his website, on twitter, or on Instragram

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

In this episode I chat to mountain athlete, podcaster, and filmmaker Ari in the Air.

Ari recently gave a talk at The Stoa on Brinksmanship, the art of finding and learning from your edge. Here we discuss the idea and some of the experiences that formed it.

Along with Brinksmanship, we chat about:

• Flow states in the outdoors, the do's and don't's of building a practice around peak states
• Developing a sensitivity for where your passion lies, for the information that fear conveys
• How endurance sports can change the way we understand the mind-body connection
• A bunch of other stuff in between

You can find more of Ari at https://ariintheair.com/ or on Instagram @ariintheair

Links mentioned:

• The book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Stoa course Beyond Self Discipline. See here for a post with some more info
• Bonnitta Roy, who Ari references when describing the difference between the role self and the individuated self

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

In this episode, I chat to Jeff Wirth the conservation filmmaker, photographer, and certified wildlife tracker.

I discovered Jeff through his Instagram @staywildmedia, where I was absolutely captivated by the shots he captures of some of the beautiful mammals living in the Pacific Northwest

We chat about:

• The lost art & science of animal tracking & all the clues these animals leave to let us know they were here
• Lessons Jeff has learned from his filmmaking & activism work, including filming on Greenpeace's Sea Sheppard
• Other nuggets of wisdom and awesome facts about grizzlies, cougars, lynx's and caribou

You can catch Jeff on instagram, @staywildmedia, or view Jeff's film work and buy awesome animal prints at https://staywildmedia.com

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• https://echoconservation.org/
• The trailer to the Sea Sheppard Doco Jeff worked on Chasing the Thunder

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz

In this episode, I chat with Belinda Kirk, the explorer, author & speaker.

Belinda's adventures include walking across Nicaragua, searching for camels in China's Desert of Death, discovering ancient rock paintings in Lesotho, pioneering inclusive expeditions for people with disabilities. She has led dozens of youth development expeditions around the world and gained a Guinness World Record for rowing unsupported around Britain.

Her book Adventure Revolution: The life-changing power of choosing challenge explores all the ways that adventure has the power to transform.

We chat about:

• Her experience leading adventures with youth, the mental health crisis, and the power of getting outdoors
• The chronic stressors of modern society and the science behind spending time outdoors to "reset" our nervous system
• Belinda's most epic adventures, her relationship with fear, and how that has changed with time
• much, much more

You can find more of Belinda at:

• https://www.belindakirk.com
• You can sign up for the Explorers Connect newsletter here

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

In this episode, I chat with Tucker Walsh. Tucker is an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker who has spent the last few years exploring transformation experiences and communities, including a Wilderness Quest with Animus Valley Institute, which is the focus of our discussion. We chat about:

• Tucker's life as a filmmaker and the circumstances that led to his Wilderness Quest
• Tucker's experience during the quest and why these experiences are so transformative
• A bunch of other topics in dancing around soul, spirit, and transformation

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Tucker's article on the magic of the Pachamama community in Costa Rica
• Tucker's short film "Treatment box" which won an Emmy Award in the 2019 Outstanding Special Class
• Bill Plotkin's Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche
• Gary Lachman's Lost Knowledge of the Imagination
• Tucker's recommendation for using grief for transformation: The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief by Francis Weller

For more information on Tucker's coaching offering, travel guide for the soul, see his website www.tuckerlighthouse.com

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

In this episode, I chat to Brent Martin, founder of Ryders Eyewear, one of the OG of mountain bike eyewear brands, as well as xcamp.ca which leads transformational backcountry camps designed to stoke souls and awaken spirits.

we chat about:

• The birth of Ryders, the same year that Brent won the first Canadian Mountain Bike Championship in 1986
• Legendary figures in the early Vancouver/Whistler mountain bike scene
• The Shoe Dog-esk story of building Ryders
• The spark that started Xcamp + how Brent designs experiences to facilitate group flow and transformation
• modalities of transformation: how we can design experiences of inspiration, healing, and connection through the modalities of adventure sports, breath, stillness, engaging the senses, and more

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• The books Stealing Fire & Recapture the Rapture
• The Presence Process breathwork by Michael Brown - book here, Youtube clip of the practice here
• The neuroscientist mentioned is Dr. Ryan D'Arcy, and functional medicine practitioner is Dr. Jan Venter

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

In this episode I chat to former pro snowboarder turned weaver and artist Meghann O'Brien. We chat about:

• How she fell in love and out of love with snowboarding. The challenges of filming mountain films, the toxic side of competition, and how it relates to intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation.
• How Meghann accesses flow states, how the feel of these states differ when snowboarding versus weaving
• much, much more

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Article on Robert Lanza's theory of Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space & Consciencenss
• The book Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness by Itzhak Bentov

You can find more of Meghann at her website https://meghannobrien.com/

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

In this episode, James Farr returns to the show to continue where we left off in episode 6 to explore transformation through adventure,

We chat about some of James' most transformative experiences outdoors, the challenge of reconciling it into a belief system, how adventure sports develop out of privelege, and how fear and suffering are so often instrumental to transformation outdoors

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• James' article in Climbing Magazine on the Samburu moran who are taking to climbing
• James' post he shares at the end on spirituality and adventure

You can find more of James at the link above, or at https://www.kileleproject.com.

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram (@timstewnz)

In this episode, I chat with Simon Yugler. Simon is depth psychotherapist and psychedelic integration coach. We chat about:

• Simon's relationship to the outdoors and how it has developed and been influenced by depth psychology
• The ritual of initiation, its history, transformative power, and how adventure sports and travel can be viewed as modern attempts at self-initiation
• Depth psychology vs the rational-materialism of the scientific method. How concepts like the self (and transformation of the self) require a "more than rational" lens to contemplate how interacting with nature can lead to transformation.

Links on some of the topics of this conversation:

• A great article written by Simon: What is Initiation
• Bill Plotkin, his work on soul-making & wilderness rite of passage ceremonies: Animus Valley Institute
• René Descartes and mind/body dualism: See this article on How the dualism of Descartes ruined our mental health

You can find more of Simon on Instagram @depth_medicine and https://initiationscounseling.com/

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.