As host of the Emmy Award–winning CNN show United Shades of America, W. Kamau Bell travels across the country to learn about the wide variety of challenges we face—and also to show us how we can begin to talk to one another. Which is why we asked him to be on the cover of Outside’s 2021 Best Towns issue: he helped us present a decidedly new take on dream destinations compared to past editions of this annual bestseller. Because Outsiders want more than just exceptional adventure playgrounds in th...
Oct 26, 2021•34 min
Growing up in the urban heart of Los Angeles, the only real connection Maricela Rosales had to wilderness were secondhand adventure magazines. She had boundless energy and loved to climb—as a little girl, she often scrambled on piles of old auto parts her dad used to fix cars—but at age seven was diagnosed with scoliosis, a sideways curvature of the spine that caused her chronic pain and frequently left her bedridden. So when her doctor recommended climbing as part of a treatment plan while she ...
Oct 22, 2021•25 min
For Hollywood stars, there might be nothing harder than staying grounded. Just ask Nick Offerman, who became famous for his portrayal of Ron Swanson on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. Ever since, Offerman, who was raised on a pig farm in rural Illinois, has strived to stay connected to his roots. He does this through woodworking (he crafts a mean canoe), seeking out discomfort (hiking in the cold, laboring on a sheep farm in England), and reading foundational environmental writers like Wend...
Oct 19, 2021•39 min
For many of us, there’s no quicker way to feel good than listening to a song we love. We press play, and the music instantly transports us to a different place. Not surprisingly, many songs that do this have their origins in experiences and emotions connected to wild places. In this third installment of our series exploring pathways to happiness, we talk with two very different artists, indie singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop and British rapper Testament, about the inspirations they’ve taken from nat...
Oct 12, 2021•34 min
Early in her career, wildlife ecologist Rae Wynn-Grant joined an expedition to Madagascar to track the elusive ring-tailed lemur. But the trip had an unexpected personal outcome: it convinced her that this was the work she was meant to do. That was a long time coming for Wynn-Grant, who’d grown up loving TV shows on nature but found herself initially hating her college ecology courses because she felt out of place as a Black woman who’d never been camping and surrounded by people with very diffe...
Oct 06, 2021•40 min
It sounds like a predictable journey for a brainy young person seeking happiness: a trek in the Swiss Alps to contemplate the works of a great philosopher who found purpose and meaning in the mountains. But as John Kaag discovered, following in the footsteps of a legend, especially in an Alpine environment, can get tricky fast. Kaag dodged a near disaster on his trek, but the adventure was the start of a relationship with the Alps that would bring both exhilaration and darkness into his life as ...
Oct 01, 2021•31 min
It was an especially bold (and perhaps questionable) idea for a road trip: America’s most fabulous advice columnist, E. Jean Carroll, would drive to towns named Eden throughout the East and South, where she would ask people: “Have you ever made love outside—in Eden?” Her car was painted with blue polka dots and green frogs, her snacks consisted of cakes and pies and pretzels, her copilot was a giant poodle. But out there roaming the byways she learned something. First, that all kinds of people r...
Sep 28, 2021•29 min
Every day, critters all around the planet break human laws. They steal food and destroy our stuff. They kill. And, naturally, humans take it upon ourselves to intervene—often with all kinds of unfortunate consequences. For this episode, fearless journalist Mary Roach shares wild tales from her new book, Fuzz, which had her traveling to animal crime scenes from Colorado to North India to investigate human-wildlife conflicts. As Roach tells it, thieving bears, murderous possums, and mugging monkey...
Sep 24, 2021•27 min
In the United States, we rarely think about death—especially our own death. And when we do, it tends to make us sad and uncomfortable. But there are powerful benefits to regularly contemplating the fact that our time in this world will eventually come to an end. The shift in perspective can be profound and lead to a kind of deeply felt and enduring appreciation for life. In this first episode of a new series exploring pathways to happiness, we hear from journalist Michael Easter, who makes the c...
Sep 21, 2021•34 min
Earlier this year, two men set out do something that seemed impossible. And also just dumb. They would squeeze together onto a minibike—a vehicle roughly the size of a children’s bicycle and powered by an engine that can barely run a lawn mower—and drive 400 miles from a cornfield in Nebraska to the mountain town of Aspen, Colorado. If that sounds familiar, it should: this is the iconic road trip that Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels took in the cult classic Farrelly Brothers film Dumb and Dumber. Ex...
Sep 17, 2021•30 min
Alex Honnold is the planet's most famous rock climber, known for scaling massive walls without ropes. He’s at the absolute peak of his abilities. So it would seem rather surprising that his go-to climbing partner is Cedar Wright, ten years his senior and often not in the best physical shape. Honnold calls him “the world’s weakest professional climber,” and he’s only half joking. Yet despite their differences, the two friends share a unique bond that has them calling on each other for support on ...
Sep 14, 2021•24 min
Here’s the often forgotten truth about road trips: the best moments are usually when everything goes sideways. We might dream of cruising open roads, rolling into authentic eateries, and blissing out to the perfect playlist, yet the magical experiences that really stick with us tend to involve blown head gaskets and getting very, very lost. More often than not, we depend on strangers to save our adventure from total disaster. But for the modern nomad, reaching out for help can be very different ...
Sep 01, 2021•34 min
When Army captain Luke Bushatz returned home from the war in Afghanistan, he was seemingly in one piece. Yet he was struggling far more than either he or his wife, Amy, realized. The first signs of a problem were lapses in his short-term memory. Soon, though, he found it impossible to connect with other humans, especially those closest to him. He tried to numb himself with alcohol and sex, and ended up struggling with addiction. Then, at his lowest point, he sought out the one place where he cou...
Aug 25, 2021•29 min
Elite runner Hillary Allen was at the top of her sport when she fell 150 feet down a mountain slope during a race. She was lucky to survive but suffered numerous serious injuries, and in the aftermath of the accident found herself struggling to get through the simple challenges of daily life. Even worse, she was now defined by a moment that she had almost no memory of experiencing. In this episode from our friends at the podcast DNF, from Trail Runner magazine, Allen recounts her long, winding j...
Aug 18, 2021•30 min
Learning how to love to someone who is constantly pushing the edge of their physical abilities can be one of the strangest challenges to overcome in a romantic relationship. What does it take to stick with a partner who runs or rides dozens of hours a week? Who forgets to close the bathroom door before applying full-body sports lubricant? Who always leaves you in the dust? This week, Paddy O’Connell takes us deep inside his relationship with an endurance runner, and talks to partners of other el...
Aug 11, 2021•34 min
When we head into wild places, we accept a certain amount of risk. Often, we don’t think much about it, because we’re excited to be in an extraordinary place. But then something happens, and we are forced to reckon with the potential costs of our quest for adventure. So it went for Kyle Dickman, whose life had been defined by a strong exploratory spirit until he was bitten by a rattlesnake in a remote section of Yosemite National Park during a trip with his wife and infant son. In this harrowing...
Aug 04, 2021•41 min
Sweating is evolution’s most efficient cooling strategy, allowing humans to stay on the move far longer than most fur-covered animals. But how much sweat is too much? Where should we be perspiring the most? (Our armpits? The backs of our knees?) And why does some sweat smell so much? These are among the questions that journalist, amateur athlete, and heavy sweater Tom Vanderbilt has pondered for years. In this episode, he finally gets them answered by Canadian chemist Sarah Everts, author of the...
Jul 28, 2021•34 min
Today, Melinda Spooner is the founder and CEO of the SheTravels Adventure Company, which designs trips and experiences for women of color. It's the most meaningful work she could imagine—but getting here was a long journey. After growing up in subsidized housing in Chicago, Spooner committed herself to earning as much money as possible as a management consultant. She was successful, but also miserable and at a crisis point with her physical health. It took a series of powerful outdoor experience...
Jul 21, 2021•30 min
Every so often, Outside magazine publishes a collection of stories that fit into what we call a “zero to hero” package. The idea is to send our contributors out into the world to try something new that pushes them far outside their comfort zone. They might be asked to learn a new skill, break a bad habit, or even confront a long-held fear. For our most recent version of the package, our hope was to inspire our readers to set some ambitious goals for themselves after the long months of COVID-19 s...
Jul 14, 2021•29 min
When we watch an elite endurance competition like the Tour de France, it’s easy to get caught up in the drama of moments that generate headlines—particularly the gnarly crashes that send riders slamming into the pavement. But while a crash is undeniably painful, the most agonizing part of professional biking is almost always the pedaling. If don’t believe that, talk to any racer who has dared to pursue the hour record—the longest distance cycled in an hour. In this favorite from our archives, we...
Jul 07, 2021•39 min
In May, professional climber Jordan Cannon celebrated his birthday by publicly announcing that he was gay. Getting to this point wasn’t easy for Jordan—he’d had a hard time coming out even to close friends. But something inside him began to change after he met legendary Yosemite climber Mark Hudon, who became his mentor as well as a father figure. The two men, who are separated by 38 years, soon agreed to work together on an ambitious climb of Yosemite’s El Capitan. But what began as an unlikely...
Jun 23, 2021•33 min
When our fathers tell us tales of their wild youth, we usually listen closely. This is partly because hearing about pop’s bolder, bearded past is entertaining. But more importantly, when your dad shares an experience from his younger days, you learn something about who he is—which gives you a glimpse into your own origins. This week, in the run-up to Father’s Day, we bring you the story of a family that wanted to better understand the meaning behind dad’s crazy stories. What they discovered is t...
Jun 16, 2021•29 min
When he was in his early twenties, Mason Earle was living the dream. After dropping out of college so he could climb full-time, he signed a sponsorship deal with a major outdoor brand and began taking climbing trips all around the world. But then, as he approached his 30th birthday, he was on a trip to Yosemite when he began experiencing flu-like symptoms that wouldn't go away. He would later be diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, commonly called chronic fatigue syndrome. In this powerful ...
Jun 09, 2021•54 min
Just how long can someone last in the desert without a drink of water? That’s something listeners asked us after last week’s episode about Claire Nelson (“Alone and Injured in the Wild”), a solo hiker who took a fall in Joshua Tree National Park and ended up spending days waiting on the ground for a rescue. In this episode, we provide the answer in the form of a remarkable story from our archives. In 1905, a gold prospector named Pablo Valencia reportedly wandered through 110-degree heat in Ariz...
Jun 02, 2021•31 min
After years of family trauma, Kayla Lockhart was desperate for relief from the panic that plagued her. At her lowest moment, she picked up a fly-fishing rod and headed out to a stream—and for the first time in her life, she was able to quiet all the alarm bells in her head. For the final episode in our spring Wild Files series, we tell the story of Lockhart’s brave journey from a painful childhood to the healing waters that she now wants to share with everyone. This episode of the Outside Podcas...
May 28, 2021•28 min
There’s a special kind of appeal to a solo adventure—being out on your own, away from everything and everyone. Unless, of course, something goes wrong and you find yourself in serious trouble. For the latest installment of our Wild Files series, we tell the story of Claire Nelson, who was seeking peace and solitude in the desert but ended up badly injured, all alone, and unable to call for help. To survive, she would have to hold on to the hope that eventually someone would find her. This episod...
May 25, 2021•45 min
Most tales of adventure follow a predictable arc: someone sets off on an epic trip, they encounter moments of great peril, and they come out the other side stronger. But every so often you hear about a different kind of transformational journey—one that takes place beyond the parameters of a wilderness expedition or a global quest, and one that allows you to truly understand the experiences of another human in a deeper way. For this episode of our Wild Files series, we bring you the story of Ale...
May 21, 2021•35 min
Biologist M. Sanjayan has traveled to remarkable places around the world, crossing a vast desert in Namibia, tracking man-eating tigers in Bangladesh, and studying a despised rodent in California. Along the way, he’s become a well-known television personality and an outspoken advocate for an approach to conservation that’s less about fencing off wilderness and more about safeguarding nature to benefit humanity. In this episode of our Wild Files series, Sanjayan, now the CEO of Conservation Inter...
May 18, 2021•31 min
A decade ago, Santa Fe art dealer Forrest Fenn filled a box with a box with treasure, placed it somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, then published a poem containing clues to its location. Thousands of searchers would go looking for the loot, and five of them would die in the process before it was discovered last year. Nobody has followed this saga more closely than journalist Daniel Barbarisi, who broke the news of how the treasure was found and is now coming out with a book about the hunt, Chasin...
May 14, 2021•43 min
Investigative journalist Ian Urbina had a bold plan: he would journey to the unpatrolled waters of the open ocean and bring back stories about the last regions on the planet where laws have almost no power. Over three years, he traveled some 12,000 nautical miles and reported on the traffickers, pirates, poachers, and other clandestine characters who operate outside the reach of authorities. His resulting chronicle became a bestselling book, The Outlaw Ocean, but that only spurred Urbina to go f...
May 11, 2021•35 min
