Episode 10: How to find peace in the challenge with Rob Angst
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
Release Date: 05/26/2023
Episode 79: Why Altitude Humbles Even Experienced Climbers with Karl Frank
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
What do you find out about yourself when the mountain sends you back down? In this episode of On Adventure Podcast, Josh talks with Karl Frank, a Colorado native, mountaineer, and President of A&I Wealth Management in Denver. Karl grew up hiking out the back door of his family's home at 7,000 feet, and he is now working his way through the Seven Summits. They discuss two very different trips up Kilimanjaro, a December summit of Aconcagua that most of the group did not finish, and a winter ascent of Mount Whitney where a single misstep by a teammate...
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Episode 78: Adventure Has No Expiration Date with Beverly MacDowell
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
Adventure Has No Expiration Date with Beverly McDowell What if some of your greatest adventures are still ahead of you? In this episode of On Adventure, Josh sits down with Beverly MacDowell, a retired educator, hiking guide, trail maintainer, and lifelong learner based in Asheville, North Carolina. She’s also the sister of actress Andie MacDowell - but Beverly has carved out an adventurous story entirely her own, much of it after age 50. Beverly shares how hiking became a source of joy, confidence, community, and purpose, from introducing women over 60 to backpacking to maintaining...
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Episode 77: The John Muir Trail, Leadership, and Running Toward Adventure with Alex Potts
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
What happens when you stop running away from the pressures of life and start running toward the life you actually want? Alex Potts grew up in Sunnyvale, California, riding BMX bikes through the apricot orchards that would eventually become the heart of Silicon Valley. Raised by a single mom who taught elementary school and worked hard to keep their family afloat, Alex learned early lessons about money, service, resilience, and taking care of other people. Those lessons followed him into a remarkable career. Alex spent more than three decades helping build what became Loring Ward, a firm that...
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Episode 76: Summit Fever and Close Calls - Knowing When to Turn Back in the Mountains with Stefan Gruber
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
What happens when you build your work around the life you want to live? In this episode of On Adventure, Josh talks with Stefan Gruber, a climber, photographer, traveler, and customer success professional at Levitate. Stefan shares how remote work and his wife Sarah’s career as a travel nurse have helped them create a life centered on movement, creativity, and outdoor adventure. They discuss climbing, film photography, international travel, dangerous moments in the mountains, and the judgment required to turn around when conditions are not right. At the heart of the conversation is a...
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Episode 75: Hard Things Are Worth Doing with Justin Smith
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
Episode Description What happens in the dark hours before sunrise on day two, when your body starts asking what exactly you are doing out here? Justin Smith teaches high school in Santa Cruz, California, where his classroom is a working bike shop. By day he runs a Career Tech Ed program through Project Bike Tech, teaching teenagers to fix bikes, build resumes, and solve real problems with their own hands. On his own time, he is an ultra-endurance athlete who has finished the 2,700-mile Tour Divide from Banff, Canada to the Mexico border in 16 days straight, raced the Fiji...
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Episode 74: Carrying a Language Home with Gil Jackson
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
Episode 74: Carrying a Language Home with Gil Jackson Episode Description What does it mean to be so connected to a place that even your name carries it? Gil Jackson, known by the Cherokee name Dohi, meaning outside or outdoors, was born in Robbinsville, North Carolina in 1951 and today lives on 30 acres just 200 yards from the spot where he came into the world. He is a fluent Cherokee speaker, one of roughly 130 left, an elder of the Snowbird community, and an educator who has taught at Stanford, UNC Asheville, and Duke. In 2014, he thru-hiked all 2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail,...
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Episode 73: Running is Life with Aaron Saft
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
ON ADVENTURE PODCAST | EPISODE 73 Episode 73: Running is Life with Aaron Saft As a species, we only do things if there is truly a reward on the other side. So when the reward is pain, struggle, suffering, and danger, what exactly keeps driving us back out the door? Aaron Saft has spent his life chasing that answer. A five-time ACC champion at NC State whose teams finished third at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, he traded the track for the trail, ran his first 100-miler in 2016, and has since become one of the most experienced ultrarunners in the Southeast. Today he coaches...
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Episode 72: Risk in Every Form with Greg Winchester
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
ON ADVENTURE PODCAST | EPISODE 72 Episode 72: Risk in Every Form with Greg Winchester Episode Description What does it take to keep saying yes to risk, in the boardroom, on the trail, and across all seven continents, for forty years and counting? Greg Winchester calls himself an armchair explorer, but the title sells him short. Over a 40-plus-year career in commercial real estate, he has worked through the savings and loan crisis, the 2008 financial crisis, and COVID, first as a banker, then as a co-owner, and today as an investor through his family office, Summit...
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Episode 71: Solo Female Travel, Real Risk, and the Belonging We All Crave with Amanda Black
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
ON ADVENTURE PODCAST | EPISODE 71 Episode 71: Solo Female Travel, Real Risk, and the Belonging We All Crave with Amanda Black Episode Description What does it actually take to step on a plane alone, head somewhere most people would call risky, and come home a different woman? Amanda Black is the founder of the Solo Female Traveler Network, a community of more than half a million women that started as a small Facebook group during her expat years in Australia. Ten years and roughly thirty tours a year later, she leads women into places...
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Episode 70: Saying Yes to the Right Invitations with Colin Stroud
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
ON ADVENTURE PODCAST | EPISODE 70 Episode 70: Saying Yes to the Right Invitations with Colin Stroud Episode Description What if your next great adventure is not a destination at all, but a willingness to say yes to the breadcrumbs life keeps dropping in front of you? Colin Stroud is a 26-year-old credit card rewards consultant, founder of Go Somewhere, and one of the fastest growing voices on...
info_outlineWhat do you get when you pursue adventure in your life with abandon to push to the edge of growth? Rob Angst knows....peace. This is such a cool conversation. Rob has through hiked the Appalachian Trail (AT), the Pacific Coast Trail (PCT) and spent many other long days and weeks on adventure in other spaces around the world. His accomplishments are beyond impressive, but I think I learned more hearing about the one trail that he has not been able to conquer while pursuing the Triple Crown (AT, PCT, CDT), the Continental Divide Trail (CDT).
Rob has an ability to brutally assess what he wants and needs, both when he is ready to start a new adventure as well as when it is time to pull the plug. He has a high ability to constantly answer the question of 'Why'. He has chased different adventures by being present in whatever space he's in and experiencing life through all the senses. He has a constant pursuit to expand himself and stretch his preconceived limits.
This conversation challenged me in all the good ways. Rob is a bit more explicit with his words than my previous guests, so consider yourself warned, but I think it is completely fitting as he describes the rough edges of how life really works. It's never pretty and it's never clean but man, what a journey.