Out There

By Willow Belden

Personal Journals Society & Culture Social Sciences

What's Out There about?

Out There is a podcast about the outdoors -- from your window box and garden, to the fields on the edge of town, to the forests, prairies, seashores, and wilderness. On the show, we explore our relationship with nature, through stories, interviews, essays, and even some fiction. We travel around the U.S. and the world, with tales of love and heartbreak, passion and adversity, desperation and triumph.

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LAST EPISODE

Running Blind

05.06.2021

As more people get vaccinated and the world starts opening up again, many of us are reflecting on the unprecedented isolation we’ve experienced over the past year. Extreme isolation was new for many of us, and we’re looking forward to ...

Out There episodes:

05.06.2021 Running Blind As more people get vaccinated and the world starts opening up again, many of us are reflecting on the unprecedented isolation we’ve experienced over the past year. Extreme isolation was new for many of us, and we’re looking forward to ...
04.22.2021 Why Do We Stay? In the wake of natural disasters, those affected are faced with a tough decision: do you leave and go somewhere safer, or stay put and try to rebuild your life? How do you navigate that choice? And for those who ...
04.08.2021 The Right to Complain In 2015, Australian journalist James Bennett moved to India, to take up a long-coveted role as a foreign correspondent. James was an outdoorsy type: he liked to cycle, camp, and fish. So he knew moving to India's crowded capital city ...
03.29.2021 Introducing the Atlas Obscura Podcast On this bonus episode, we introduce you to a new podcast we think you'll love. It's called the Atlas Obscura Podcast, and it takes you on an audio journey to discover new, strange, and wondrous places from all over the ...
03.25.2021 When You Close Your Eyes Explorer Christopher Venter lost his eyesight very suddenly, at age 40. He was an avid traveler, and at first, he couldn’t imagine going on with life, if he couldn’t see. But eventually, he regained the will to live and the ...
03.18.2021 The Confidence to Thrive On this bonus episode, we take you behind the scenes at Out There and tell you about a challenge that we’re facing as a podcast. It’s a challenge endemic to the professional world, and we need your help in rising ...
03.11.2021 The Stories We Carry If there’s anything universal that most long-distance hikers dislike, it’s road walking. But roads can offer as many lessons as any alpine ridgeline. This is the story of something that happened on the side of a highway in Idaho, which ...
02.25.2021 Exiled from Ranch Country Growing up, Heather Kitching was enamored with rural life. She dreamed of living in the countryside, riding horses, wearing cowboy boots, and listening to country music. But when she got a little older, she learned something about herself that threw ...
02.11.2021 Common Ground How do we nurture relationships with loved ones, when their values contradict our own? On this episode, Stephanie Maltarich tells the story of a trip she took with her father in rural Ohio. The week they spent together outdoors highlighted ...
01.28.2021 The Three-Year-Old Thru-Hiker When Tara Karineh and her husband embarked on a thru-hike with their three-year-old daughter, Acacia, they weren’t sure she’d be able to finish the trail. Acacia regularly went hiking with her parents, but a multi-day backpacking trip took things to ...
01.14.2021 8 Miles in NYC When Kelsie Wilkins moved to New York City, she quickly became overwhelmed. She was surrounded by more people than she had ever been around in her life, yet she felt an acute sense of isolation. She had never felt so ...
12.31.2020 Nice Guys Can Finish First On this episode: A story about a cyclist in NYC, which explores how to get what you want — the friendly way. Plus, a vision for an outdoor utopia. In a perfect world, what would the outdoors look like? We ...
12.24.2020 Better Than Fun This year has been a time of profound isolation, and many of us are alone for the holidays. But, hard as it may feel, being alone is not always bad. This episode takes place in the desert in Utah back ...
12.17.2020 Back to the Real World Grand adventures often change us. They help us process complicated emotions and work through our problems. But what if the forward progress is temporary? What if all the good vibes end, when you return to the “real world”? On this ...
12.10.2020 After Getting Sober Fresh out of college, Brendan Leonard was an alcoholic. He got sober, but drinking had been his favorite thing. It was what defined him. After alcohol was taken away from him, he didn't know who he was anymore. On this ...
12.03.2020 Passing When we pass people on the trail, we often exchange quick greetings, recognizing our fellow hikers and showing that we are no threat. But sometimes — whether intentionally or not — the words we share with strangers in the wilderness ...
12.01.2020 Changemakers On this bonus episode, we talk with Mercy M'fon Shammah, founder of Wild Diversity, about her efforts to make the outdoors safe and welcoming for the BIPOC and LGBTQ communities. We discuss how Out There is working to shift the ...
11.26.2020 The Motherload Becky Jensen had a lot of things going for her: sweet kids, a caring fiancé, a promising career. But deep down, she wasn't happy. So a few years ago, she left everything (and everyone) behind to thru-hike the Colorado Trail. ...
11.19.2020 Conservation 2.0 Theodore Roosevelt has a remarkable environmental legacy: he preserved an unprecedented 230 million acres of American land. But many of his achievements came at the expense of indigenous communities; conservation was coupled with genocide. Our guest on this episode is ...
11.12.2020 An Unlikely Family We often assume that scientists shouldn't fall in love with their research subjects; they’re supposed to remain objective and keep feelings out of their work. Wildlife researcher Joe Hutto did the opposite, embedding himself with a herd of deer in ...
10.29.2020 Out of the Shadows Erin Parisi is changing the narrative about trans people, one mountaintop at a time. Growing up, she knew she was a girl. But her body didn't match. And she didn’t feel safe telling anyone her secret. It wasn’t until decades ...
10.15.2020 Mr. Fabulous Derick Lugo was not a typical thru-hiker. A suave, manicured New Yorker, he wasn’t into hiking and had never been camping. But he decided to challenge himself by doing the Appalachian Trail — and he wrote a memoir about it ...
10.01.2020 A Series of Unlikely Events In 2001, Donna Martino stuck a photo on her fridge. It was a picture from the newspaper of a handsome kayaker paddling through the surf. A few months later, Donna matched with the man on a dating website. The rest ...
09.17.2020 Under the Radar Chris Boskoff was a mountaineer who pushed boundaries and set records. She climbed mountains no North American woman had ever summited, and she was the only American woman to reach the top of six of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks. But ...
09.03.2020 Different Shades of Fear When David Klebosky was out in the desert earlier this year, he ended up being shot at. The gunfire wasn’t malicious, but there were bullets coming at him. Yet David didn’t freak out. This kind of response is typical for ...
08.20.2020 Resilience Through Diversity As a marine biologist, Colin Howe sees diversity as an indicator of health: the more diverse an ecosystem, the more likely it is to thrive. But while scientists work hard to preserve diversity in the wild, they often fail to ...
08.06.2020 The Tools to Thrive When KC Cheng decided to hike the Camino de Santiago, she imagined it as a kind of therapy. She wanted to feel young and adventurous again, in charge of her own life. Like so many other thru-hikers, she saw a ...
07.23.2020 Black and Outdoorsy On this episode, we talk with outdoor adventurer and educator Ron Griswell about his efforts to close the adventure gap and get more students of color outside. We share the story of how Ron became a leader in the outdoor ...
07.09.2020 The Sweetness of Suffering Everyone suffers. Sometimes it’s obvious; other times it’s less visible. But it’s inevitable that we’ll suffer at some point in our lives. And typically, we hate it. But what if hardships serve a purpose? What if the struggles we try ...
06.25.2020 Acceptance Growing up in an emotionally abusive household, Meg Atteberry yearned for her parents’ approval. But no matter how hard she tried, the message was always the same: you are not enough. The emotional scars from her upbringing lingered long into ...
06.18.2020 Alex Honnold's Mother Dierdre Wolownick is the oldest woman to have climbed El Capitan. She’s also a teacher, a musician, a marathon runner — and mother to renowned rock climber Alex Honnold. On this episode, we talk with Dierdre about what it was ...
06.11.2020 Becoming Better Allies Black Lives Matter. The events that have been unfolding over the past few weeks have made it very clear that all of us need to be doing much more to actively fight racism. One way that Out There can help ...
06.04.2020 Birding While Black The events that have been unfolding across the United States over the past weeks have driven home once again that simply existing carries risks if you have dark skin. Many of us like to think that nature is an equalizer ...
05.28.2020 Vanlife and COVID Amber McDaniel lives on the road full-time. She and her partner are both freelance writers, so working remotely isn’t a problem for them. And they love the freedom to spend their days in America’s most beautiful natural places. But what ...
05.21.2020 Beginners On this bonus episode, we bring you tales from Out There’s live storytelling night earlier this month. Each story touches on the theme of being a beginner in the outdoors. Ashley White shares the story of his son’s injury on ...
05.14.2020 Going It Alone Melanie Chambers loved traveling alone. So when she set off on a four-month solo bicycle trip through Japan and Korea, she wasn’t worried. But almost immediately, loneliness set in. On this episode, Melanie shares her story. It’s a story of ...
05.06.2020 BONUS: A Sneak Peak at our Live Show When Out There turned five earlier this year, we promised to throw a party. That party is happening tomorrow, in the form of a live storytelling night. The theme for the evening is “beginners,” and five storytellers from across the ...
04.30.2020 Coping with Cancelled Dreams Susan Conrad was supposed to begin a three-month expedition up the Inside Passage on May 16. But like so many plans that have been derailed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, her voyage has been cancelled. On this episode, we talk ...
04.23.2020 Lessons from the Trail On this episode, we share a story from the podcast Shelter in Place, about a backpacking trip on the John Muir Trail. The story takes us into the mountains of California and explores the parallels between hiking in the wilderness ...
04.16.2020 My Childhood Tribe For Ben Montoya, summer camp was more than just a place to play outside: it was his community, his tribe. As a teenager, he remained friends with fellow campers. And as a college student, he taught at the same camp ...
04.02.2020 For the Greater Good Is it ethical to do a thru-hike during a pandemic? The wilderness might seem like a good place to hide from COVID-19. But the organizations that care for many of the nation’s long-distance trails are asking thru-hikers to cancel their ...
03.19.2020 Geology of the Heart When we lose a loved one, we often experience competing emotions and urges. On the one hand, we cling desperately to memories and mementos; on the other hand, we strive to “move on.” Balancing the two can be tough. On ...
03.05.2020 Skiing Without Snow When Elizabeth Miller teaches kids to ski, her goal is to introduce them to the joy of winter. But lately, she’s been wondering whether it’s cruel to help children fall in love with something they’re about to lose. With climate ...
02.20.2020 The Freeze Response When Kristina Marcelli Sargent was nine years old, her father was struck by lightning. Immobilized by fear, she watched helplessly, wanting to help but unable to make herself move. As she grew older, Kristina found herself freezing up over and ...
02.06.2020 Brain on Nature In 2015, Sarah Allely was hit by a car while riding her bike. She suffered a mild traumatic brain injury, and in the ensuing weeks and months, she found it impossible to function normally. Only one thing seemed to help: ...
01.23.2020 Everest for a Sherpa Teen Stories about Mt. Everest usually focus on the people trying to summit the mountain. But what about life for those who live near the world’s highest peak? Journalist Adam Popescu first went to Everest to report for the BBC, but ...
01.09.2020 Critical Learning Period How do we learn to communicate with one another? On this episode, writer Chelsea Biondolillo shares an essay from her new book, The Skinned Bird. It’s about birds learning to sing, and humans learning to speak, and the complicated web ...
12.26.2019 Double or Nothing Growing up, Becky Jensen wanted to be a writer, and she wanted to live in a little cabin in the woods. But then, real life happened, and her childhood aspirations faded. On this episode, Becky takes us on an 18-year ...
12.12.2019 Panic on a Country Road Growing up, Lara McCaffrey loved going outside. But then one day, something happened that left her with a chilling fear of driving into the countryside. The open spaces she knew so well came to fill her with dread. On this ...
11.28.2019 Social Creatures Allison Fowle has always been an introvert. So the idea of spending an entire summer in the wilderness was highly appealing. But during her time in the mountains of Idaho, she began to rethink her appetite for solitude. On this ...

Older episodes

Out There

What's Out There about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Out There episodes:

Running Blind

Why Do We Stay?

The Right to Complain

Introducing the Atlas Obscura Podcast

When You Close Your Eyes

The Confidence to Thrive

The Stories We Carry

Exiled from Ranch Country

Common Ground

The Three-Year-Old Thru-Hiker

8 Miles in NYC

Nice Guys Can Finish First

Better Than Fun

Back to the Real World

After Getting Sober

Passing

Changemakers

The Motherload

Conservation 2.0

An Unlikely Family

Out of the Shadows

Mr. Fabulous

A Series of Unlikely Events

Under the Radar

Different Shades of Fear

Resilience Through Diversity

The Tools to Thrive

Black and Outdoorsy

The Sweetness of Suffering

Acceptance

Alex Honnold's Mother

Becoming Better Allies

Birding While Black

Vanlife and COVID

Beginners

Going It Alone

BONUS: A Sneak Peak at our Live Show

Coping with Cancelled Dreams

Lessons from the Trail

My Childhood Tribe

For the Greater Good

Geology of the Heart

Skiing Without Snow

The Freeze Response

Brain on Nature

Everest for a Sherpa Teen

Critical Learning Period

Double or Nothing

Panic on a Country Road

Social Creatures

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