Episode 75: Hard Things Are Worth Doing with Justin Smith
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
Release Date: 07/10/2026
Episode 76: Summit Fever and Close Calls - Knowing When to Turn Back in the Mountains with Stefan Gruber
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
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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
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Episode 73: Running is Life with Aaron Saft
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
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Episode 72: Risk in Every Form with Greg Winchester
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
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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
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Episode 70: Saying Yes to the Right Invitations with Colin Stroud
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
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Episode 69: No One Was Waiting at the Finish Line with Madison Blagden
On Adventure Podcast with Josh Self
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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...
info_outlineWhat happens in the dark hours before sunrise on day two, when your body starts asking
what exactly you are doing out here?
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 Eco-Challenge with Team Curl,
competed at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, and returned three times to a 60-hour
swimrun across the Swedish archipelago.
racing: the dark hours before sunrise on day two, the difference between the front country and
the back country, and why the body only truly comes alive on the second night. He explains how
a psychology degree and Outward Bound canoe trips led to a life built around adventure, why he
and his wife once lived in a tiny house they built on television, and how putting himself in hard
situations makes him a better dad, husband, and teacher.
driver in Southern California, Justin keeps returning to the connections that outlast the miles.
Most of all, this is a story about a simple idea he repeats to his students and his daughter: a ship
is safe in its harbor, but that is not what ships were built for, and the more you do hard things,
the more you realize hard things are worth doing.
• 00:00 Meet Justin Smith: high school teacher by day, ultra-endurance adventurer on
his own time
• 02:00 The bike shop classroom and the Project Bike Tech program in Santa Cruz
• 08:00 Building a tiny house on the TV show Tiny House Nation
• 14:00 The permission slip to not conform, and choosing the hard path on purpose
• 16:00 Comfort is what gets sold to us, but hard things are what move the needle
• 19:00 Meeting Roy Malone at the 2019 Fiji Eco-Challenge with Team Curl
• 20:00 The One Water swimrun across the Swedish archipelago, attempted three times
• 26:00 The Stagecoach 400 and sleeping on McDonald’s cardboard with no sleeping bag
• 31:00 Courtney Dauwalter’s pain cave, and learning to redecorate it instead of fighting it
• 38:00 Finishing the 2,700-mile Tour Divide in 16 days, from Banff to the Mexico border
• 43:00 The Pacific Crest Trail, meeting his wife, and hiking through grief in 2009
• 55:00 Orienteering, gut instinct, and trusting intuition when the map runs out
• 01:04:00 A ship is safe in its harbor, but that is not what ships are built for
• 01:12:00 The mantra: if you can’t get out of it, get into it, and find a way
About Justin Smith
bike shop program through Project Bike Tech, and a lifelong endurance athlete and adventurer.
A former NCAA swimmer, he has finished the Tour Divide, raced the Fiji Eco-Challenge and
multiple expedition-style adventure races, competed at the Ironman World Championships in
Kona, and thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. He lives in Santa Cruz with his wife and daughter,
with whom he shares most of his adventures.
Connect with Justin Smith
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/smilingjustin
• Inspire Out: www.instagram.com/inspireout/
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Hosted by Josh Self, financial advisor and everyday explorer.
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