The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

No one actually knows how many people are missing in America’s wilderness. In this gripping conversation, Ginny Yurich sits down with professor, journalist and The Cold Vanish author Jon Billman to explore what he calls the nation’s “silent mass disaster.” The silent mass disaster is about the people who vanish in national parks, forests, mountains, and other wild places. They talk about those who went missing and the families and searchers who refuse to stop looking. They discuss baffling disappearances, a father who gave up everything to search for his son, the astonishing abilities of search dogs, and what all parents should know before heading into the backcountry with their families. But this isn’t a conversation meant to make us afraid of wild places. It’s about respecting how vast they still are, being prepared when we enter them, and remembering the people who keep searching when everyone else has gone home. As Jon says, “It’s a good thing to find missing people.”'

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Popularity matters across our entire lifespan but it’s only a certain kind of popularity matters. Today, you get to learn what kind of popularity that is! Dr. Mitch Prinstein has spent decades studying what makes people liked, accepted, influential and connected, and his research also includes why popularity matters. Ginny talks with Mitch about the crucial difference between status and likability. You’ll learn why the “cool kids” of childhood don’t necessarily fare better later in life and why being more likable to can affect your health, relationships, and career. They also explore what happens in the adolescent brain that makes approval feel so important, raising likable kids, and the hundreds of small opportunities we have every day to become more likable.

Mitch is the author of Popular and Likeability and host of That Popular Podcast.

Learn more about Dr. Mitch Prinstein and all he has to offer here

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Let's talk about the energy you bring into a room! It changes more than you think and Jon Gordon is here to let us know that we can actually learn to change it. The bestselling author of The Energy Bus (and 31 other books!) has arrived to talk about optimism, dealing with adversity, and just how far out your energy permeates. Jon shares his own remarkable shift from a negative, stressed-out young dad whose marriage was falling apart to someone who has spent the last two decades teaching millions of people a different way to approach life. You're going to learn about raising resilient kids and becoming your own greatest encourager. Jon shares simple habits that can change the atmosphere of an entire family. Even when you can’t control what’s happening around you, you still have tremendous influence over what you bring to it.

Learn more about Jon, his books, and his free resources at JonGordon.com,.

Get your copy of The Energy Bus (over 12,000 reviews on Amazon), The Energy Bus for Kids (this one includes dealing with bullies), and The Power of Positive Habits.

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Some families produce not just one high-achieving child, but several and Susan Dominus spent years trying to understand why. In this episode, Susan joins Ginny Yurich for a deep dive on the families she studied for The Family Dynamic. They explore topics like the surprising influence siblings have on lifelong success, why letting kids struggle can actually help them thrive, the role of screens and environment, and the shadow side of extraordinary achievement. They discuss historical families like the Brontës to current families who have raised world-class athletes, musicians, and entrepreneurs. They even discuss Susan’s own family!

Grab a copy of The Family Dynamic here .

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Our kids are being handed powerful ideas about who they are, what will make them happy, and what it means to be free and most of those ideas arrive without anyone announcing themselves as a lesson. Michael Keller joins Ginny Yurich to unpack the cultural stories hiding inside everything from Disney movies and social media to the phrases “follow your heart” and “you do you,” and why some of our most well-intentioned messages can leave kids exhausted by the pressure to create and prove their own identity.

They talk about the surprising limits of freedom, why real love always costs us something, what AI companions can never give our children, and how parents can help kids recognize the messages they’re absorbing without becoming fearful of the culture around them.

Michael also shares the deeply personal story behind The Stories We Live By, the book he began with his late father, Timothy Keller, and the enduring alternative they offer to a life built on performance: an identity that is received rather than achieved.

Get your copy of The Stories We Live By here

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What happens when our desire to be responsible slowly turns into a need to control?

Ginny welcomes bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst back to the podcast to discuss her new book, Making Peace with What I Can’t Control. Drawing from years of heartbreak, uncertainty, loss, and healing, Lysa explores why highly responsible and caring people can become especially vulnerable to overthinking, fear, and trying to manage the people and circumstances around them.

Lysa shares practical wisdom for recognizing the thin line between helping and enabling, setting healthy boundaries, and separating what we can responsibly influence from outcomes we simply cannot control. She also unpacks the psychology of fear, how past experiences shape the stories we tell ourselves, and why those narratives can keep us trapped in anxiety.

Through deeply personal stories, including an extraordinary encounter that came full circle 24 years later, Lysa offers a powerful reminder that releasing control doesn't mean becoming passive. It means doing what is ours to do while learning to trust God with what isn't.

A hope-filled conversation about fear, boundaries, relationships, healing, and finding peace in an unpredictable world.

Get Lysa's book here!

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What does it take to become the first American woman to race a sailboat solo and nonstop around the world?

In this unforgettable conversation, Ginny sits down with record-breaking sailor Cole Brauer, author of First Light, to explore the grit, failure, wonder, and self-reliance behind her extraordinary 27,000-mile journey.

Cole shares how she broke into an elite sport without money, connections, or a sailing family—and why the countless setbacks along the way were essential to her success. She takes listeners inside the realities of solo sailing, from food poisoning and broken ribs to brutal Southern Ocean conditions, while describing the profound relationship she developed with her boat and the natural world around her.

The conversation goes far beyond sailing. Cole reflects on learning to embrace failure, tuning out other people's judgment, trusting your own capabilities, and rediscovering the sensory awareness we lose when life becomes dominated by screens. She also shares how a childhood spent kayaking, exploring marshes, and finding solace outdoors helped shape the resilience she would eventually need at sea.

An inspiring conversation about courage, nature, perseverance, and becoming the person who starts a new legacy.

Get Cole's book here!

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What happens when reaching the top isn’t really the point?

In this episode, Ginny sits down with legendary climber Emily Harrington, star of the Netflix documentary Girl Climber, to explore the years-long journey that made her the first woman to free-climb Yosemite’s Golden Gate route on El Capitan in under 24 hours.

Emily takes listeners inside the extraordinary physical and mental demands of climbing—from navigating massive falls and practicing individual pitches thousands of feet above the ground to learning when to push forward, when to reassess, and how to turn failure into information.

But this conversation is about much more than climbing. Emily opens up about the pressure to prove herself, finding belonging from within rather than through achievement, asking for help, embracing vulnerability, and discovering healthier reasons to pursue difficult things. She also reflects on motherhood, mentorship, risk, and how her relationship with climbing has evolved as her life has changed.

It’s a fascinating conversation about courage, commitment, failure, friendship, and what we discover about ourselves when we choose to keep trying.

Check out "Girl Climber" on Netflix! today!

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What if the biggest threat to childhood isn’t screens—but the loss of freedom, play, and independence?

Ginny welcomes back psychologist and Free to Learn author Dr. Peter Gray for a fascinating conversation about his new book, Restoring Childhood: How to Set Kids Free in the Age of Anxiety. Gray traces the dramatic transformation of childhood since the 1950s, as television, increased schooling, homework, organized sports, and greater adult supervision gradually displaced children’s independent outdoor play.

He also challenges one of today’s dominant narratives: that smartphones and social media are primarily responsible for the youth mental health crisis. Instead, Gray argues that children desperately need three things—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—and even explores how computers and video games temporarily restored some of those needs during the 1990s.

Ginny and Dr. Gray examine the growing pressures of modern schooling, the impact of Common Core, and why restoring meaningful independence and self-directed play may be essential for healthier kids—and happier parents. It’s a provocative conversation that asks us to reconsider what children actually need to thrive.

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What if the things we chase to feel worthy—success, achievement, appearance, approval—can’t actually give us the worth we’re looking for?

Ginny sits down with psychologist and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Marisa Franco to explore the ideas behind her new book, Worth: The New Science of Self-Esteem and Secure Attachment. Dr. Franco explains why true self-worth isn’t something we earn and why affirmations, compliments, and accomplishments can sometimes make people with low self-esteem feel even worse.

They dive into the fascinating science of memory reconsolidation and how painful “open memories” from childhood and adulthood can continue shaping our relationships, emotions, and sense of self long after the event has passed. Dr. Franco shares practical ways to process those memories, work with emotions stored in the body, and become not perfectly secure—but “secure-ish.”

They also explore parenting, attachment, trauma, friendship, and how technology can keep us from sitting with the very emotions that may be pointing us toward healing and deeper human connection.

Grab Marisa's book here!

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