Outside Podcast
Episodes
The Many Ways Dogs Can Heal Us
18 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our furry friends are the best of adventure playmates. But they can also provide pure, unconditional love that gets us through the darkest times. A se...
What It Feels Like When You Eat a Deadly Mushroom
11 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a distinct pleasure to eating wild foods that you forage yourself—unless you pick the wrong thing. Imagine the horror you’d feel upon re...
The Sometimes Shady, Always Weird World of Truffle Hunters
04 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In forests across the planet, secretive hunters are searching for that rare and insanely expensive wild delicacy: the truffle. The organism, which gro...
One Woman’s Wholesome Mission to Get Naked Outside
27 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Outdoor athlete and Outside contributing editor Gloria Liu very much wanted to be one those people with the confidence and carefree spirit to occasion...
Learning to Listen to Wild Sounds
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When we open our ears to the marvels of natural soundscapes, we experience the energies of the world in a unique way—and begin to understand the mys...
Is TikTok Motivating People to Get Outdoors?
13 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Something surprising is happening on the video app best known for silly dance moves: users are finding inspiration for adventure. There are some funda...
Cheryl Strayed’s ‘Wild’ Decade
30 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the ten years since Cheryl Strayed published her memoir about grief, addiction, and hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, her life has changed dramatical...
An Agonizing Endurance Race Around a Single City Block
23 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What motivates someone to run more than 3,000 miles around a single city block? Transcendence. Just ask the entrants in the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcend...
How a Vigilante Botanist Became a Cult Icon
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An ex-punk and former train engineer who is self-taught in the sciences, Joey Santore does not fit the mold of the stereotypical botanist. He has lots...
A Professional Athlete’s Battle with Mental Illness
09 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On the outside, Drew Petersen seemed like a guy who was living the dream. He is extremely fit with a powder-snow-catching beard, and he’s prone to h...
Can Nature Heal Heartbreak?
02 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, research has demonstrated that spending time in nature can help with everything from anxiety to attention deficit disorder to high bl...
When Athletes Dare to Dream Like Artists
16 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Professional skier Markus Eder had a fantasy of an impossible descent that would take him across glaciers, through frozen tunnels, into a terrain park...
A Father’s Death in the Mountains—and What Came After
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1999, Alex Lowe was a star climber and father to three young boys when he died on Tibet’s 26,335-foot Shishapangma along with expedition camerama...
Olympics Special: The Doubts that Power Mikaela Shiffrin
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The most dominant ski racer on the planet is constantly questioning her talents—which may be the secret of her greatness. Mikaela Shiffrin has won t...
What Surviving an Avalanche Can Teach You About Risk
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Over two decades of ambitious adventures, elite skier and climber Zahan Billimoria has had some very close calls in the mountains. That doesn’t make...
To Save a Life on the North Shore
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For more than 60 years, the Hawaiian island of Oahu has beckoned surfers hoping to drop into some of the world’s biggest waves. The result has been ...
A Man, a Plan, a Steam Room
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Outside reviews editor Jeremy Rellosa needed something—anything—to cure his winter COVID blues. Then he remembered the rather dank steam room in ...
Who Killed the Ski Bum?
12 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been one of the most enduring archetypes in mountain sports: that great wintry countercultural hero, who will work any job and live in squalor ...
Forces of Good: So a Drag Queen Walks into a Mountain Town…
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What makes a queer person choose to live in an outdoorsy hot spot instead of an urban gayborhood? A spirited grassroots organization working to make i...
Forces of Good: Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament is on a Mission to Build Havens for Young Skateboarders
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, rock-star bassist Jeff Ament has dedicated himself to developing world-class skateboarding parks in the rural American West, particul...
Forces of Good: Hiking 48,000 Miles to Create Community
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lo Phong La Kiatoukaysy, a.k.a. Lil’ Buddha, started thru-hiking America’s trails after 9/11 in hopes of creating the same powerful human connecti...
Forces of Good: Running in the Name of Love
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After Lawlor Coe lost his brother Hunter to tragedy, he did everything he could to avoid his pain. Then he began to run. At first it was to retreat fr...
Forces of Good: Teaching the Psychology of Survival
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When we head into the wild, we prepare for emergencies involving broken limbs and lots of bleeding. Which makes sense, because injuries are serious wh...
Forces of Good: A Herculean Quest to Make a Difference
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mike McCastle has found a very unusual way to benefit others: by enduring agonizing physical challenges. A Navy veteran with a penchant for philosophy...
Forces of Good: The Gearhead Librarian Who Revived a Town
12 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When you think of heroes in American culture, you probably conjure images of astronauts and Olympians, scientists and social activists, soldiers and ....
Forces of Good: A Comedian Faces Her Fear of Nature
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ivy Le was an avid indoorswoman with severe allergies and a burning curiosity about wild places. She was obsessed with nature shows but had no relatio...
Forces of Good: Getting All Bodies Outdoors
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Raquel Vélez caught the skiing bug in her late twenties, she wanted to spend every waking moment on the slopes. But she couldn’t find snow pan...
It Happened Deep in a Cave in the Amazon
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
David Kushner always knew that his assignment to write about a mysterious cave in the rainforest of Ecuador would be challenging and a bit risky. Cuev...
Why We Love an Internet Dog
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When sled-dog musher Blair Braverman first started posting about her team on Twitter, it was just for fun—a distraction from her work as a journalis...
Forces of Good: W. Kamau Bell Seeks a United America
26 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 c...
Finding Freedom Through Climbing
22 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in the urban heart of Los Angeles, the only real connection Maricela Rosales had to wilderness were secondhand adventure magazines. She had...
Nick Offerman Gets Down to Earth
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For Hollywood stars, there might be nothing harder than staying grounded. Just ask Nick Offerman, who became famous for his portrayal of Ron Swanson o...
The Musicians Capturing the Power of Wild Places
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 diff...
A Scientist Finds Her Way in the Rainforest
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
What the Mountains Teach Us About Patience
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 philoso...
A Wild Ride into the Garden of Eden
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
When Wild Animals Misbehave
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ours...
Why Thinking About Death Makes Us Happier
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Dumbest, Greatest Road Trip Ever
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ro...
What It Takes to Be Alex Honnold’s Climbing Partner
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Desperate Road Trippers Saved by…Instagram?
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
A Soldier’s Long Road Back from Afghanistan
25 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
A Runner’s Terrifying Fall—and What Came After
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 suffer...
How to Date an Athlete
11 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Rattlesnake Bite That Changed Everything
04 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 extraord...
The Stinky Truths About Your Sweat
28 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Saved by Far-Flung Travel
21 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 mo...
The Many Upsides of Taking On Unreasonable Challenges
14 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 co...
The Most Painful Record in Sports
07 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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—p...
A Pro Climber’s Coming-Out Story
23 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In May, professional climber Jordan Cannon celebrated his birthday by publicly announcing that he was gay. Getting to this point wasn’t easy for Jo...
The Adventures That Made a Super Dad
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 en...
A Pro Climber and the Disorder that Brought Him Down to Earth
09 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 sponsorshi...
An Agonizingly Thirsty Crawl Through the Desert
02 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Casting out of Darkness
28 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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-fishi...
Alone and Injured in the Wild
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 w...
Running from the Truth
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Wild Trips That Transformed a Scientist
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Biologist M. Sanjayan has traveled to remarkable places around the world, crossing a vast desert in Namibia, tracking man-eating tigers in Bangladesh,...
The Story Behind the Forrest Fenn Treasure Hunt
14 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 poe...
A Quest to Expose the World’s Most Dangerous Frontier
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 las...
When the Tornado Chased the Storm Chaser
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jennifer Brindley Ubl had become obsessed with tracking down something that most of us hope never to see: tornados. Every spring, she would close up h...
A Journey to the Strange World Beyond Our Screens
30 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After more than a year of pandemic living, our lives have migrated online to a remarkable degree: we Zoom and tweet and Slack all day, then Netflix an...
An Elite Adventurer Reckons with Risk
27 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Professional outdoor athletes can seem invincible—like no matter what crazy thing they do next, they’ll come out the other side alive (and probabl...
An Appalachian Trail Horror Story
23 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When we venture into the wilderness, we accept that there are certain dangers, like bears and snakes and crazy weather. Truth be told, a bit of risk i...
Biking the Iditarod in Search of Pain
20 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Among people who spend a lot of time in the wilderness, there’s a notion that the trail is our teacher. And if you talk to serious outdoor adventure...
Life and Death Among the Polar Bears
13 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There are few places on earth where humans aren’t at the top of the food chain, but the Arctic sea ice is one of them. Photographer Kiliii Yuyan saw...
A Bold Plan to Make Pro Cycling Cool Again
09 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
American road racing has struggled in the past decade. Following the downfall of Lance Armstrong, road racing became almost synonymous with doping, s...
When an Athlete Refuses to Be Broken
06 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For survivors of harrowing events, the most challenging part of the saga often comes after they’ve lived through what seemed like an impossible scen...
Embracing a Fear of Falling
24 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re a climber, the risk of falling is always there—it's an essential fact about the sport. And for a lot of climbers, this is actually part ...
How the Ski Bum Was Made
17 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the ultimate mountain-town caricature: the shaggy semi-athlete who lives in a van (or truck or crowded apartment), works a number of crappy jo...
A Desperate Need for the Mountains
03 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
People are drawn to the mountains for all kinds of reasons—the desire to challenge themselves physically or emotionally, a hunger for risk or perhap...
“It Was a Way to Keep His Spirit Alive”
24 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2001, when Caroline Gleich was 15 years old, her half-brother Martin died in an avalanche while skiing in the Utah backcountry. That tragedy didn’...
Buried Alive—and Running Out of Time
17 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It was a glorious powder day in the Sierra Nevada when three friends set off into the backcountry at dawn. They had tons of experience and all the ess...
A Climbing Disaster Interrupted by a Love Story
10 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When a groups of friends in their twenties set out to climb Mount Rainier, they felt like they were ready for anything. But on the upper slopes of the...
The Pure Joy of Bionic Skiing
03 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It sounds like something out of a James Bond film: a robotic exoskeleton that helps you ski better. But the real thing exists. A San Francisco–based...
A Veteran Surfer’s Big-Wave Nightmare
27 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It began as every surfer’s dream: an empty point break, a rising swell, and a good friend to share the rides. But what happens when you’re out the...
How a Surfer Survived Being Stranded in the Open Sea
20 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Serious surfers train themselves to be ready for difficult moments: a brutal wipeout, being held down underwater by waves, losing a board and being fo...
Why Learning a New Skill Is So Good for You
13 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As it turns out, being a grown-up novice offers all kinds of surprising benefits. Just ask journalist Tom Vanderbilt, who spent a year attempting to p...
Inside Emily Harrington's Triumph on El Capitan
23 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Serious athletes are used to digging deep. But there’s pushing yourself, and then there’s what climber Emily Harrington did on November 4, when s...
Life Lessons from Elite Explorers
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ask a professional adventurer to share the most important lesson they’ve learned from their time in the wild, and you’re bound to get a good story...
Tim Cook on Health and Fitness
09 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With the latest version of its Watch and the imminent launch of its online training platform Fitness+, Apple is positioning itself as a leader in the ...
Two Wild Trips with Surprisingly Happy Endings
02 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When we embark on a big adventure outdoors, the truth is that we rarely know what we’re getting into. Usually, the reasons we give for taking a trip...
How BASE Jumping Saved Jeb Corliss's Life
18 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jeb Corliss is one of the original madmen of BASE jumping. For more than two decades, he flung himself from the top of massive waterfalls, bridges, an...
Latria Graham’s Love Letter to Black Adventurers
11 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the past couple of years, South Carolina–based writer Latria Graham has published a pair of essays in Outside magazine about the challenges ...
How a Fight over Trees Transformed American Politics
04 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It wasn’t all that long ago that protecting the environment was an issue considered to be above partisanship. In 1970, it was Richard Nixon who anno...
A Snowboarder's Quest to Get Out the Vote
28 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For many years, Jeremy Jones had a simple job: he was the king of freeride snowboarding, traveling the planet to carve lines down jagged peaks for act...
The Climbers Speaking Up About Eating Disorders
21 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
To become an elite climber, you need to get very good at defying gravity. This requires developing extraordinary control of your body while also maxim...
How the Pandemic Is Teaching Us to Listen to Nature
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One of the defining aspects of modern life is our inability to hear the sounds of nature due to noise pollution. But since the start of the COVID-19 p...
A First-Time Hunter Gets a Lesson from #WomenWhoHunt
07 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Of all the people who might end up on a deer hunt in Arizona, Rachel Levin has to be among the least likely candidates. Growing up, her closest connec...
Changing How You Breathe Could Change Your Life
30 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You’ve been breathing wrong your whole life. That’s the message journalist and outdoor athlete James Nestor delivers in his new bestseller Breath,...
A Harebrained Dream of Building a Cabin in the Woods
23 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It sounds like a fantasy: join forces with a good friend to build a sweet little cabin in the woods. And for Bryan Schatz and Patrick Hutchison, that’...
What We Really Know About Life in Outer Space
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, the search for extraterrestrials has been accelerated by a wave of new technologies that allow us to better probe distant reaches of ...
Why Big Wild’s Songs Feel Like Adventures
02 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You know how when you listen to certain songs, you feel you feel like you’re being transported to a totally different place? Most of the time, this ...
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Wants YOU to Save the Planet
19 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson has to be among the busiest scientists in the world. She runs a conservation consulting firm, Ocean Collectiv...
Trapped Underwater and Running Out of Air
05 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If you were to try to come up with the most outlandish survival story imaginable, you’d be hard pressed to do much better than the tale of Michael P...
The Dirty Awesome Truth About Summer Camp
15 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a misguided notion that the ultimate kid’s paradise would look something like a cross between Disneyland and Willie Wonka’s chocolate fa...
That Time the Camp Snake Tried to Eat a Counselor
08 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Amazing things happen when young people spend their days outside and their nights sleeping among new friends—and a week far, far away from their par...
A Close Encounter with the Real Moby Dick
24 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For a good number of travelers, the ultimate bucket-list experience is swimming with whales. There’s something about the idea of being in the water...
A Kayaker’s Brush with Death
17 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nouria Newman is one of the best whitewater kayakers in the world. She’s won numerous prestigious competitions and has completed historic first desc...
Running While Black in New York
10 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There’s been a running boom in the age of coronavirus, with veteran runners and newbies alike lacing up their shoes to get outside. But the experien...
A Love Story Interrupted by a Bison Attack
03 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It’s an established fact that outdoorsy people have the best stories about dating. Getting to know a potential partner while climbing, paddling, or ...