Adventurers, Explorers & Survival

Steven Rinella (The MeatEater Podcast) brings to life the legendary wilderness exploits of men such as Jim Bridger, Jedidiah Smith, and Hugh Glass, who headed out to the Rocky Mountains to trap beavers in the decades following the Louisiana Purchase. Living off the land and dodging grizzly bears, these colorful characters carved out an existence defined by their relationships with Native people, their capacity to endure the most trying conditions, and their intimate knowledge of the western landscape.

The Canadian North is a vast and lonely land where bears roam free, fires rage unchecked, and storms blast every living thing on the tundra. When Stephan Kesting, already no stranger to pushing his own physical limits, was faced with a rare illness, he knew the only way for him to recover in both body and mind was to dig even deeper. Despite the dangers inherent in the sub-arctic, Kesting sets out on an unimaginably difficult journey.

Teenage Sammy has been in care from the age of nine. His mother has tragically spent much of his young life in and out of prison. Sammy has never found a safe haven and has been passed from pillar to post. When he arrives with Casey Watson, he is a closed book, but he slowly begins to open up. Casey realises that he has nobody in his life who he counts as family apart from a neighbour, ‘Uncle Kenny’. Sammy dotes on Kenny, even running away to be with him but having come across similar relationships before, alarm bells star to ring for Casey.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Victoria Amelina was busy writing a novel, taking part in the country’s literary scene, and parenting her son. Now she became someone new: a war crimes researcher and the chronicler of extraordinary women like herself who joined the resistance. These heroines include Evgenia, a prominent lawyer turned soldier, Oleksandra, who documented tens of thousands of war crimes and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, and Yulia, a librarian who helped uncover the abduction and murder of a children’s book author.

When German soldiers invaded Poland in September 1939, it began a six-year journey for then-ten-year-old Renee Salt and her mother Sala. Until their liberation in 1945, Renee and Sala were imprisoned in ghettos and concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen. The only light in the darkness and brutality for Renee was the unwavering grasp of her mother’s hand in hers–enduring, against all odds. It was this unbreakable bond, along with a few miracles, that kept Renee alive.

Gone Bush is about a lifetime of walking the backcountry. It tells stories of the eccentric characters he met along the way, some of the 1200 huts he's visited, and his most unforgettable journeys, including his 'long walk home' from deepest Fiordland to the top of Golden Bay. It's also a book about the powerful effects of being in the natural environment, doing what matters and living authentically.

In the summer of 1972, the open road beckoned best friends, nineteen-year-old Barry Johnson and twenty-year-old Bobby Young. Carrying backpacks with the essentials, staples of Kraft Mac and Cheese, dressed in jeans, Frye boots, with $100 each, they set off from their homes in Massachusetts. And so their cross-country adventure began during a time when the bond of trust between driver and hitchhiker was rarely questioned. Little did they know that this journey would shape their lives in ways they could never imagine.

This collection of letters from Henry M. Stanley published in 1898, present Henry's view of the then-current state of South Africa. It incorporates his views on the opportunities for the growing nation, highlights the bad management of its politicians, and the tension between the Dutch and English settlers.

Caroline's story is revealed in raw and incredible detail. Her connections to her American Indian ancestry and history of the Arkansas land are interwoven throughout, revealing the ancient curses and the stones of time that have seen everything.

They were part of the Baby Boomer vanguard, three boys thrown together in a 1950s Southern California subdivision looking like most other boys of that era. Under coonskin hats they ran free all summer long inventing their own games and endless challenges, fought imaginary Indians and pirates in a nearby orange grove, and on occasion battled a neighborhood bully or two. Their greatest enemy, however, was an infectious disease called polio – a paralyzing scourge that maimed and too-often killed little kids.

Befriending our inner mind with curiosity opens the way to secure attachments, empathy, and intimacy. Because relationships dominate our inner world, knowing what we feel, and what we think about how we feel, cultivates self-awareness and acceptance. We learn to respect that others have their minds; we stop blaming and seeking scapegoats. Self-reflection, a learnable skill, links raw emotion--the kind we feel in our hearts and guts--to past events and behavior patterns.

From the streets of Stockton in the 1970s to surviving an unimaginable nine gunshot wounds, Hynek "Big Herk" Washington shares his raw, unfiltered journey of survival, addiction, and redemption.

Set in a remote village in the wilds of the Kenyan bush, A Place Beyond Midnight chronicles the exciting and luminous stories from the journal of a young Peace Corps volunteer. Cody Hawks experiences the wonders, challenges, and personal injunctions in East Africa with friends bound together in noble purpose.

Just why exactly hadn't anyone attempted to motorcycle from India to Burma before, and how hard could it actually be? Against his better judgment, woefully unprepared, and desperately trying to impress his new aristocratic girlfriend, Andrew Benfield decides to find out.

Sometimes enough is enough. And after suicide claimed three people from different parts of Evan “Sweet” Hansen’s life, he decided to do something about it. Motivated by the losses surrounding him, Evan set out to pick a fight with suicide. But instead of throwing punches, he chose to take steps. An experienced backpacker and outdoorsman, Evan came up with a plan: He would carry a little, yellow canoe on his shoulders for 313 miles as part of a suicide prevention awareness campaign called, “Portage for a Purpose.”

Join the captivating world of Unraveled Chaos, a memoir that takes you on an exhilarating ride through Kersten's tumultuous life. In this audio experience, Kersten shares her story with raw honesty and infectious energy, recounting her adventurous childhood filled with fast cars, reckless escapades, and the complexities of family dynamics.

Based on diary entries, news articles, published sources, interviews, and personal memories from the author and other family members, Crossing the Yellowstone: The Saga of a Montana Ranch Family is a classic American drama of challenges met and legacies left. In 1894, Andy Mercer journeyed on horseback from Missouri to the Great Plains, with plans to homestead in the West.

On September 11th, 1974, a commercial airliner operated by Eastern Airlines crashed in the fields outside the Charlotte International Airport. 72 people perished in this crash which was attributed to pilot error on approach. 10 passengers survived the crash and went on to recount their stories of that day. This account is Richard's personal experiences leading up to, during and after that fateful crash.

If you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you know what happens when you first truly and clearly communicate. As Zora O’Neill recalls, you feel like a magician. If that foreign language is Arabic, you just might feel like a wizard. Join O’Neill for a grand tour through the Middle East, to laugh with her in Egypt, delight in the stories she passes on from the Gulf region, and find yourself transformed by her experiences in Lebanon and Morocco.

This is my story of survival during and after Hurricane Helene in Burnsville, North Carolina. It was a time when there was no power, water, cell phones, or outside communication at all. We were trapped in a seven-mile radius. All the roads to leave were destroyed.