Wild West

Big-mountain snowboarder Jeremy Jones talks about how naturalist John Muir inspired his new documentary, 'Ode to Muir,' and what's at stake if we let climate change go unchecked.

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Adrian Ballinger and Emily Harrington are one of the pre-eminent power couples in outdoor sports. He’s a mountain guide who has summited Mount Everest eight times, once without the aid of oxygen tanks; she’s a professional rock climber with five national sport climbing titles under her belt. Together, they live with their dog, named Cat, in Squaw Valley, where they spend their days backcountry skiing, climbing, trail-running, and planning their next international expeditions. In a wide-ranging discussion, they cover the cutting edge of mountain climbing, the environmental costs of global travel, rock climbing’s inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and their favorite places to play in California.

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Alex Honnold, Jimmy Chin, Chai Vasarhelyi and Sanni McCandless answer audience questions about the making of the new documentary film 'Free Solo.' The filmmakers, Chin and Vasarhelyi, and stars Honnold and McCandless attended a late-night screening of the film in San Francisco for a Q&A. 

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For this podcast, I met Alex in Yosemite Valley in the midst of his whirlwind media tour to hype his new film, 'Free Solo.' We took a walk through El Capitan Meadow to sit in the dirt under his favorite tree and talk while watching groups of climbers on El Cap inching their way up the wall in the distance. In addition to discussing how 'Free Solo' came together, we also cover the magic of #vanlife, the inherent danger of rockfall in Yosemite, and the future of free soloing.

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The US Supreme Court this week declined to take up the case of tech billionaire Vinod Khosla's attempt to privatize a popular beach near Half Moon Bay, California. Locals rejoiced with a gathering at the beach this week, but the fight isn't over and Khosla is sure to regroup. To explain what's going on at Martins Beach and what could happen next, I called up Chad Nelsen, CEO of the Surfrider Foundation, the group that sued Khosla over public access to Martins Beach and won, We cover the whole case and discuss similar examples across California of other private groups trying to keep the public from accessing the coast.

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Open water swimmer Kim Chambers has endured just about the most frightening things the ocean has to offer: great white sharks, jellyfish stings, hypothermia, brutal currents and fierce winds. She has conquered the Oceans Seven, a series of marathon swims in channels around the world, and is the only woman to complete the 32-mile swim between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Farallon Islands. The documentary film of that swim, "Kim Swims," comes out Oct. 2.

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With the highly anticipated release of "The Dawn Wall" documentary this month, we speak to climber Kevin Jorgeson about his drive to accomplish one of the hardest rock climbing feats in history. Jorgeson was one half of the duo that free climbed the Dawn Wall on El Capitan in Yosemite in 2015, an achievement that made national headlines and is enshrined in climbing lore for all time. We cover his concerns about the climb (5:27), his motivations (10:03), dealing with the huge media scrum (16:38), and his latest endeavor to bring climbing gyms to underserved communities around the U.S. (18:50). 

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