Episode 10: How to find peace in the challenge with Rob Angst
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
Release Date: 05/26/2023
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...
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Episode 69: No One Was Waiting at the Finish Line with Madison Blagden
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
ON ADVENTURE PODCAST | EPISODE 69 Episode 69: No One Was Waiting at the Finish Line with Madison Blagden Episode Description What would it take to walk 10,000 miles in a single calendar year? Not across a lifetime. Not spread over a decade. One year. Madison Blagden is a long-distance hiker and content creator from Massachusetts who went from a pre-med student with zero backpacking experience to one of the most prolific endurance hikers in the country. After completing the full PCT (2022), the Eastern Continental Trail from Key West to...
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Episode 68: Who You Become When There's No Way Out with Robbie Lenfestey
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
Season 4 kicks off with a return visit from Robbie Lenfestey, who you may remember from episode 21. Robbie lives on Mandala Springs, a 67-acre retreat center in the mountains outside Asheville, North Carolina, and he was right in the middle of Hurricane Helene. What followed was months of disaster relief, community leadership, and eventually a very long-overdue exhale. In this conversation we get into what it actually looks like to be the calm person in a room full of panic, how a lifetime of pushing physical and mental limits builds a...
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Episode 67: How to find God in Solitude, Silence and Wilderness with Bishop Mark Beckman
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
In this final installment of our series on spirituality and adventure, I sit down with Bishop Mark Beckman, the 4th Bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville, to explore what happens when faith is formed not just in quiet rooms, but in wild places. From hiking solo through old-growth forests to walking hundreds of miles on pilgrimage, Bishop Beckman shares how discomfort, silence, and physical effort can open us to something deeper than words. We talk about the moments that push us to the edge of our capacity—storms in the backcountry, long days of walking, fear at high elevations—and how those...
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Episode 66: The Adventure Within - Finding Strength, Meaning, and Hope through Adversity with Hilal Kanaan
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
In today’s episode, I sit down with Dr. Hilal Kanaan - neurosurgeon, son of Palestinian immigrants, and someone whose daily work places him in the quiet but profound landscapes of human suffering, endurance, and compassion. While he isn’t chasing adventure in the traditional sense, Hilal spends his days navigating a different kind of wilderness: the emotional and spiritual terrain of walking with people through their hardest moments. We explore the kind of toughness that’s forged not on trails or mountaintops, but in operating rooms, hospital corridors, and the inner worlds shaped by...
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Episode 65: Why Suffering Becomes a Spiritual Awakening with Scott Sauls
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
David Brooks describes life as a journey up two mountains. The first mountain is about achievement—building a career, proving yourself, chasing success. The second mountain begins when the first no longer satisfies, and you’re called into a deeper life of meaning, surrender, and service. This episode lives squarely on that second mountain. This conversation is the second installment in our series exploring where spirituality and adventure overlap, and it’s an honest look at what happens when ambition gives way to awakening. I sat down with Scott Sauls to talk about burnout, identity, and...
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Episode 64: Adventure, Spirituality, and the Search for Something Bigger with Reed Dunn
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
In today’s episode—the first in a brand-new series exploring the deeper meaning behind our outdoor experiences—I sit down with my longtime friend, pastor, everyday explorer, and deep thinker, Reed Dunn, for one of the most meaningful conversations I’ve had on this podcast. This first installment leans less on adrenaline and more on the why—why we’re drawn to the outdoors, why hardship shapes us, and why so many of us pursue experiences that push us into awe, wonder, and transcendence. Reed and I dig into the spiritual side of adventure—what it means to connect with something...
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.