#214 - What if the lowest point isn’t a dead end but a doorway? That’s the charge at the heart of our conversation with ultrarunner and dance dad John Calabrese, who traded alcohol and anxiety for sunrise miles, grassroots races, and a community that made space for the mess and the miracle. John takes us from Navy service during 9/11 to the long, uneasy middle where divorce and two DUIs forced a reckoning—and how running became a daily anchor, not a quick fix.

We go deep on the mental game that defines ultrarunning: why DNFs can be teachers, how to crawl out of the pain cave when dark thoughts hit at mile 70, and the surprising ways anger can be channeled into forward motion. John opens up about balancing training with fatherhood, building a life around dance competitions and last‑minute race entries, and the unglamorous logistics that make or break 100‑milers—drop bags, headlamps, sleep deprivation, and the sacred joy of seeing another headlamp after hours alone in the woods. He shares strategies from the Wild Oak 100, lessons from finishing and failing there, and the rule of thumb that keeps him honest about cutoffs and recovery.

We also explore the state of the sport: the pull between UTMB-era spectacle and the magic of low-cost, community-built events where a car trunk doubles as an aid station. John admits he has a road runner’s engine and a trail runner’s soul, dreams out loud about Badwater, Western States, and maybe one day Barkley, and makes the case that purpose beats pace every time. If you’re feeling stuck—whether with alcohol, identity, or the grind of daily life—his message is simple and fierce: don’t quit the thing you love, take one step, and run your race on your terms.

Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review with your favorite takeaway—what mental trick gets you through your hardest miles?

Be sure and give John a follow on Instagram @breezytrailhead. You can also learn more about the Human Adventure by giving me a follow on Instagram @humanadventurepod.

Want to be a guest on The Human Adventure? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake 

Xploreum connects you with authentic wilderness expeditions led by trusted local experts. Browse real adventures, book directly with experienced guides, and get $200 off your first trip using code HumanAdventure2026 at xploreum.io/humanadventure. 

#213 - A hurricane on New Year’s Day, a shredded tent, and a sudden slide toward hypothermia at 1,600 meters—Belinda Coker’s Canary Islands traverse didn’t go to plan. That sharp turn, and her decision to bail out, reveals the heartbeat of this conversation: how true adventure balances awe with judgment, and how choosing safety can be the bravest move on the trail.

We walk back to Belinda’s roots in New Zealand, where tramping was part of school life, then through years of work and parenting that muted her spark. A pandemic mirror moment sent her back to dirt: sunrise hikes, then multi-day routes across Australia’s red centre, where Indigenous stories and women’s spaces shape how she moves through country. She takes us to Greenland’s Arctic Circle Trail, tracing Inuit hunting paths from ice to sea, learning to read cairns, and soaking in a silence so complete it resets your nervous system.

Threaded through every mile is a practical guide to hiking safety and self-reliance. Belinda breaks down wilderness first aid, recognizing the danger of core shivers, navigating when electronics fail, and why snakebite treatment differs between Australia and the U.S. She also shares a smart, sustainable way to fund long seasons on foot: house sitting. By caring for homes and pets, she and her partner remove lodging costs, cook real food, and settle into neighborhoods from Scotland to Spain. If tents aren’t your thing, we explore hut-to-hut and inn-to-inn options across Europe and New Zealand’s hut network, including Camino routes that keep packs light and spirits high.

Come for the storm story; stay for the blueprint of a second act that blends grit, gratitude, and slow, immersive travel. If this sparks your feet and your planning brain, tap follow, share the episode with a trail-curious friend, and leave a review so more people can find these human adventures.

To learn more about Belinda be sure and check out her website www.soultreader.com and also her Instagram @soultreader. If House Sitting sparks your interest check out housesittingcollective.com. 

To see some clips from past, current, and upcoming shows check out my Instagram page @humanadventurepod.

Want to be a guest on The Human Adventure? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake 

Xploreum connects you with authentic wilderness expeditions led by trusted local experts. Browse real adventures, book directly with experienced guides, and get $200 off your first trip using code HumanAdventure2026 at xploreum.io/humanadventure. 

#213 - Growth doesn’t arrive with a trophy. It often shows up as friction, confusion, and the stubborn urge to fix other people. With therapist Casey Stevens, we explore why discomfort is the doorway to becoming, how the subconscious scripts our choices, and what changes when you stop rescuing and start taking radical responsibility for your life. Casey shares her own turning points—early marriage, a crisis that led her to therapy, the heartbreak of loss, and the identity collapse that followed—and how those crucibles reshaped her work and worldview.

We dig into the mechanics of the subconscious and why so much of who we are is formed before age seven. Casey breaks down how to reverse inherited programming by elevating lowercase-c awareness into capital-C Consciousness: clarifying values, ranking them in a true hierarchy, and living in alignment so anxiety and indecision lose their grip. She also names a trap many of us fall into—the rescuer pattern on the drama triangle—and offers a better path built on consent, dignity, and self-governance rather than control.

What might sound like opposites—science and spirituality—become complementary tools in Casey’s practice. Neuroscience explains patterns and plasticity; spirituality restores meaning, faith, and intuition. We talk about rebuilding trust with yourself after early fractures, listening for the quiet signal beneath fear, and transforming post-traumatic stress into post-traumatic growth. Pain becomes a teacher, not a life sentence. Comfort maintains; discomfort transforms. If you’re craving practical, compassionate guidance to move from autopilot to agency, this conversation will meet you where you are and invite you forward.

If this resonates, connect with Casey at shrinkbigger.com and on Instagram @shrinkbigger. And if you found value here, subscribe, share this episode with a friend who’s ready to grow, and leave a quick review—your support helps more people find these conversations.

To connect with me send me a message on Instagram @humanadventurepod. 

Want to be a guest on The Human Adventure? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake 

#211 - Some histories whisper when they should thunder. We sit down with Jenny Chan, co‑founder of Pacific Atrocities Education, to listen—really listen—to the Pacific Front of World War II and the millions of lives bound up in it. From the euphemism of “comfort women” to the cold precision of Unit 731, from the Bataan Death March to the Rape of Nanking and Sook Ching in Singapore, we trace how violence moved through bodies, borders, and generations, and why so much of it slipped the Western gaze.

Jenny shares how a family box of military yen opened a door to declassified archives, survivor testimonies, and a mission to preserve stories before they disappear. We talk about what reconciliation means while shrines still honor war criminals, how immunity deals and postwar politics shaped public memory, and why the number thirty million needs human faces to be understood. Along the way, we explore fragile archives crumbling faster than they can be digitized, the ethics of telling trauma with care, and the small acts of resistance that kept hope alive in POW camps and occupied cities.

This conversation is honest and heavy, but it’s also full of light—students winning history competitions with documentaries on Unit 731, survivors finding their voice after decades of silence, and a growing community determined to remember. If you’ve ever sensed a gap in what you were taught about World War II, this is your invitation to fill it with facts, voices, and empathy.

Subscribe, share this episode with someone who loves history, and leave a review to help more listeners find these untold stories. Then tell us: which story surprised you most, and what will you remember tomorrow?

To learn more about Jenny Chan and Pacific Atrocities Education please visit www.pacificatrocities.org. You can also learn more on Youtube @pacificfrontuntold and on Instagram @pacificatrocitiesedu.

To learn more about The Human Adventure and see some clips from past, current, and future shows check out my Instagram account @humanadventurepod.

Want to be a guest on The Human Adventure? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake 

#210 - What if travel wasn’t a checklist but a classroom? I sat with Joy Owens—mother of two, CEO and co-owner of Butler Travel, and veteran of 60 countries—to explore how faith, service, and slow travel can shape a family and a life. From a grandmother who’s visited more than 80 countries to Joy’s first trip at three months old, her story moves through mission work in Zambia and Kenya, a scrappy road journey toward Argentina, and a solo $10-a-day push to Panama that turned from a rat-infested night into radical hospitality.

Joy walks us through teaching in Honduras and Taiwan, the culture shock of moving to Alaska, and why she and her husband bought Butler Travel to serve nonprofits and missionaries with complex ticketing and group logistics. She shares a gripping emergency reroute for a family in Tanzania that helped their daughter reach lifesaving care, and she opens up about surrendering control when December bills loomed, only to witness the agency’s busiest month on record. For Joy, faith isn’t an accessory; it’s how she navigates risk, money, parenting, and purpose.

We also dig into the messy magic of traveling with little kids: babies on planes during the quiet months of 2020, a six-week Europe adventure with bikes and tents, and the art of choosing your hard when tantrums and missed trains collide. Joy makes the case for slow travel—one hub, deeper days, fewer repacks—and tells unforgettable stories, from crossing open water in foldable kayaks to a budget misadventure on a Greek island complete with a kindly, very unbothered nude local offering fruit and cheese.

If you lead mission trips, plan family journeys, or crave meaningful travel that builds resilience and empathy, this conversation is your map. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves adventure, and leave a review to tell us: what trip changed you most?

To learn more about Joy check out www.butlertravel.com and use the code JAKE10 to get a 10% discount. You can also follow Joy and Butler Travel on Instagram @butlertravel1.

You can follow me and the podcast on Instagram @humanadventurepod and check out my website www.thehumanadventure.net.

#209 - Conversations feel brittle right now, and disagreements can feel like stepping onto a minefield. We sit down with artist, educator, and traveler David Deighton to explore a different path: using art, curiosity, and face-to-face dialogue to turn political tension into human connection. From a pop-up “museum” on the rim of the Grand Canyon to quiet miles in the backcountry, David shares how intentional design and slow travel can lower the temperature and raise the quality of our conversations.

David’s method is simple and powerful. He builds installations that reveal our invisible boxes—our limited worldviews—and then invites strangers to talk through three non-triggering questions. No debating. No dunks. Just listening for one shared emotion and letting that become the bridge. He even trains attention with a sensory twist: ask what a word like “hope” tastes like. It sounds strange, but it pulls the brain out of fight mode and back into presence.

We also lean into travel as recovery. After dozens of conversations, David hikes into wilderness to process and reset. Public lands become a civic commons where dialogue can breathe, and wilderness rules mirror good conversation: slow down, limit noise, pay attention. Along the way, we unpack why he starts with politics, how Triptych Dialogue took its name from a centuries-old art panel with missing scenes, and what it takes to move from activist anger to patient curiosity.

If you’ve felt exhausted by outrage, this conversation offers tools you can use today: ask better questions, listen for emotions, practice with a neighbor, and take a walk before you reply online. Subscribe for more human-centered stories, share this with someone who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find the show. Who will you try the three questions with first?

Be sure and give David a follow on YouTube @triptych-dialogue. To see some clips from past, present, and even future guests check out The Human Adventure on Instagram @humanadventurepod.

#208 - A helicopter door swung open over Vietnam, and years later a trail opened underfoot across the Appalachians. That arc—war to wilderness, adrenaline to stillness—frames Ron Timmerman’s rare story of brotherhood, love, loss, and the long work of healing. We invited Ron to unpack the moments that shaped him: flying Hueys as a teenage door gunner, returning with unspoken trauma, and building a life with Edie, a fierce and generous mother of seven whose faith defined their home.

Ron’s voice is steady as he talks about caregiving through Edie’s stroke, the quiet after she passed, and the decision to hike the Appalachian Trail with his brother Rand and stepson Rick. They disagreed, found a structure that respected different paces, and in the process became closer than they’d been in decades. Along the way, the trail offered proof that meaning can arrive unannounced—a brilliant doorway of light on a bleak Father’s Day, the sudden drift of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” from a stranger’s earbuds, and countless small moments of service that stitched the miles together.

What stands out is the ethic that carried Ron through: stay busy with purpose, help others when you can, and keep faith when the map goes dark. He shares practical wisdom for navigating grief, the value of simple kindness on and off the trail, and the way Rand turned his own recovery into daily service for people who needed a voice on the line. If you’re wrestling with loss, searching for direction, or simply craving a human story that rings true, this conversation offers both grit and grace in equal measure.

Subscribe for more stories of resilience and connection, share this episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help others find The Human Adventure. Your support helps these stories travel farther. 

To see clips and get updates from the show be sure to give me a follow on Instagram @humanadventurepod.

#207 - One phone call redirected a life. When Matt Harmody’s father entered emergent dialysis, Matt saw both the power and the limits of modern medicine—and it set him on a path from corporate engineer to emergency physician, living kidney donor, and advocate who ties purpose to action in unforgettable ways. We trace that journey from the earliest signs of kidney disease to a courageous decision to donate to a stranger, and then to the mountains where advocacy turns into motion: Kilimanjaro with a team of donors and a Guinness World Record campaign to reach the highest point in all 50 states in 41 days.

We dig into the realities few people see: why hypertension and diabetes quietly erode kidney function, how dialysis extends life but extracts a heavy toll, and why living donor kidneys typically last longer and require fewer medications. Matt explains today’s safeguards for donors—rigorous screening, prioritization if a donor ever needs a kidney, wage and travel protections, and even voucher programs to help family members in the future—so the decision rests on facts, not fear. He also shares the practical side of life post-donation: smarter hydration, avoiding NSAIDs, and the surprising truth that donors routinely return to high performance across endurance and strength sports.

Then comes the adventure. Starting with Denali’s brutal cold and thin air, the team navigated storms, snow-choked trailheads, RV logistics, and a thousand tiny delays that can sabotage a long project. Strategy shifts, reroutes, and relentless teamwork kept the mission alive, each summit doubling as a platform to raise awareness for living kidney donation. Along the way, trailhead reunions with donors and recipients, hot meals from strangers, and stories from dialysis patients stitched community into every mile.

If you’ve wondered what it really takes to donate, or how purpose can reshape a career and redefine adventure, this story will stay with you. Hear the science, the safeguards, and the soul of a movement that saves lives—then consider sharing this episode with someone who needs it. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what moment moved you most?

To learn more about Matt Harmody and to get a copy of his book, Ascending America, check out his website www.mattharmodymd.com and you can also see some posts regarding the record breaking feat of peaking in every state by following checking out Instagram @50k50ss.

To learn more about the Human Adventure and see some clips and stories from me check out my Instagram page @humanadventurepod.

Xploreum connects you with authentic wilderness expeditions led by trusted local experts. Browse real adventures, book directly with experienced guides, and get $200 off your first trip using code HumanAdventure2026 at xploreum.io/humanadventure. 

#206 - What if the voices you let in are steering your life more than your goals are? That question sparked a wide-ranging, grounded conversation with Sagar Soni—nuclear engineer, creator of Beyond the Speech podcast, and a traveler who learned the hard way that more content and more checklists don’t equal meaning. We trace his path from bingeing self-help at 1.5x to a simple, liberating switch: trade “I have to” for “I get to,” and watch momentum return without the pressure cooker of perfection.

We dig into overwhelm and how to spot it, the subtle difference between being burnt out and being avoidant, and why a little “productive negativity” can get you off the couch when motivational quotes won’t. Sagar shares a daily two-part question—“How am I feeling right now, and why?”—that turns vibes into data and helps you find what drains your energy and what gives it back. We also talk books that endure, from Ryan Holiday’s stoicism to Cameron Hanes’ Endure, and how to move from collecting ideas to actually living them.

Travel threads through the episode like a second heartbeat. Sagar reflects on early all-inclusives, photo-heavy Europe, and the trip that changed everything: hiking Hawaii’s lava fields and practicing presence. The takeaway is clear and human: it’s neither the journey nor the destination—it’s the company. That conviction grew stronger through real hardship as he and his wife navigated miscarriages, using travel to reset, and later building guardrails like always answering calls from family and friends after moving far from home.

We close by looking forward: Sagar’s “three relationships” framework—self, purpose, and people—now guides his podcast and his next leap into public speaking, including a confirmed TEDx talk. If you’ve ever felt behind, flooded by advice, or stuck between big dreams and real life, this conversation offers practical tools and honest encouragement. Listen, share with a friend who grounds you, and if it resonates, subscribe and leave a quick review so more people can find these stories.

To learn more about Sagar Soni check out his podcast Beyond the Speech wherever you listen to podcasts and be sure to give him a follow on Instagram @sagarsoni_1991.

I would love to have you follow along on my Instagram account as well @humanadventurepod. Want to be a guest on The Human Adventure? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake 

Xploreum connects you with authentic wilderness expeditions led by trusted local experts. Browse real adventures, book directly with experienced guides, and get $200 off your first trip using code HumanAdventure2026 at xploreum.io/humanadventure. 

#205 - Some stories don’t just move you—they recalibrate your sense of what’s possible. Adriene Caldwell grew up in the crosshairs of untreated schizophrenia, constant relocation, and a home life that spun from denial to violence. After losing the grandmother who shielded her, she entered a foster system that should have offered stability and instead delivered degradation: separate dishes, floor seating, and rules designed to remind her she didn’t belong. The stats she shares are brutal—one in five inmates are former foster youth, seven in ten foster girls have a child by 21, and fewer than three percent use free college benefits—but the real shock is how incentives often reward keeping kids “high need” rather than helping them heal.

What changed her trajectory was a lifeline she claimed for herself: a coveted congressional exchange to Germany. There, a host family modeled warmth, boundaries, and trust. Adriene learned German the hard way—by speaking it every day—aced tough classes at a college-track school, and felt the shift that happens when someone insists you sit in the front seat for the view. Returning stateside just shy of 18, she found no plan waiting and wrote letters up the chain until one emerged. Along the way, a third-grade math teacher delivered hotel toiletries to a housing project, and a fierce English teacher stocked her classroom with computers and left one to Adriene before she died. Those acts—practical, personal, and precisely timed—became stepping stones to scholarships and a future she couldn’t yet picture.

We also explore why Adriene wrote Unbroken, Life Outside the Lines, and how revisiting old case files forced a reckoning with both the parts of survival that became manipulation and the parts that deserve pride. Her message to teens at the edge is simple and urgent: your life won’t always look like this, and soon your choices will shape what comes next—numbing or healing, hiding or asking, repeating or rebuilding.

If this conversation resonates, share it with someone who needs proof that change is possible. Subscribe for more human-centered stories, rate the show to help new listeners find us, and tell us: what moment shifted your path?

To learn more about Adriene and her book check out www.unbronkencaldwell.com and check her out on Instagram @unbrokencaldwell.

You can also find more information about the show at www.thehumanadventure.net and check out my Instagram @humanadventurepod. 

Xploreum connects you with authentic wilderness expeditions led by trusted local experts. Browse real adventures, book directly with experienced guides, and get $200 off your first trip using code HumanAdventure2026 at xploreum.io/humanadventure.