Wild Ideas Worth Living

Jim Morrison is a ski mountaineer who has spent more than a decade climbing and skiing some of the most challenging mountains in the world. In 2018, he and his life partner, Hilaree Nelson, became the first people to climb and ski down Lhotse, the 28,000 foot Himalayan peak neighboring Mount Everest. In October 2025, after years of pursuing an even bigger objective, Jim became the first person to climb and ski down the treacherous north face of Mount Everest. The historic expedition came after years of personal tragedy, a global pandemic, knee surgery, and the immense logistical challenges of attempting one...

Explorer and professional climber Leo Houlding has spent more than 30 years pushing into some of the world’s most remote places. One of his most ambitious expeditions took him across Antarctica by kite ski to climb The Spectre. These days, Leo is taking on a different kind of adventure, bringing his wife and two kids along to climb, hike, camp, and explore the world together.

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Powderchaser Steve has spent decades studying weather patterns and geography in pursuit of the best powder. A snowboarder and self taught forecaster, he has built a reputation for predicting where the deepest snow will fall and chasing winter storms to find it. His passion for weather, snow and the pursuit of fresh tracks has made him a legend among skiers and snowboarders.

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Kimber Cross is an adaptive ice climber and mountaineer who has spent the last decade tackling some of the most demanding ice routes in North America. Born without one hand, she climbs with a custom prosthetic featuring an ice axe that extends from her right forearm. In 2026, Kimber made the first adaptive female ascent of Bridal Veil Falls in Telluride, Colorado, one of the country's most challenging ice climbs.

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Mohamed Lahna is a Paralympic medalist, endurance athlete, and one of the world's most accomplished para-triathletes. Born without a femur in his right leg, he didn't begin running or cycling until his twenties. On July 29, 2026, he completed a self-designed triathlon across America: a 28 mile swim around Manhattan, a 3,000 mile bike ride from New York to Las Vegas, and a 350 mile run to Venice Beach. He completed the journey in 47 days while raising more than $150,000 for Save the Children and the Challenged Athletes Foundation.

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Kelsey Pfendler made history on July 3, 2026, when she became the first American woman to row solo from California to Hawaii, completing the crossing in just 43 days and setting a new speed record. An open ocean rower and longtime Grand Canyon river guide, Kelsey spent two years preparing and funding the expedition herself. Her journey culminated in a record that shattered the previous men's mark by nearly nine days and established one of the fastest solo ocean rows ever completed across the Pacific.

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Sunny Stroeer spent years working as a business consultant before burnout pushed her to rethink what success looked like. She left the corporate world in search of adventure and went on to become one of the most accomplished endurance athletes in the outdoors, setting more than 20 Fastest Known Times across the globe. In 2024, she became the first woman to ski the full Iditarod Trail, a feat that cemented her reputation for taking on ambitious challenges in some of the world's harshest environments.

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Tyler Mitic is an endurance cyclist and mental health advocate who spent 27 days riding a tandem bike the length of California. Along the way, he convinced more than 40 strangers to hop on the back of his bike, creating opportunities for connection, conversation, and shared adventure. What began as a cycling challenge became an exploration of rejection, friendship, and the power of showing up for people. The project ultimately raised more than $20,000 for Bring Change to Mind, a nonprofit focused on mental health awareness and support.

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Kit DesLauriers is a ski mountaineer, two time Freeride World Champion, and the first person to climb and ski down the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on each continent. She completed the historic project in 2006, cementing her place as one of the most accomplished ski mountaineers in the world. A National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and member of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, Kit has spent her career pushing the limits of human powered adventure.

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Alison Mariella Désir is a runner, activist, author of Running While Black, and host of the award winning PBS series Out & Back. In 2013, she started a community run club in Harlem with a simple goal: help more Black and Brown people experience the joy and connection of running. That grassroots effort helped launch a career dedicated to building community, expanding access to the outdoors, and empowering others to pursue their own adventures.

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Rob Lea is an endurance athlete, mountaineer, and open water swimmer who became the first person to complete the Double Seven in June 2026. The project combines climbing the Seven Summits, the highest peaks on each continent, with the Oceans Seven, a collection of iconic open water crossings that includes the English Channel and the Strait of Gibraltar. By uniting two of the world's most demanding endurance challenges, Rob set a new benchmark for adventure, mountaineering, and marathon swimming.

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Jenn Dice is the CEO of PeopleForBikes, a national nonprofit dedicated to making biking safer, easier, and more accessible across the United States. As a lifelong cyclist, she has spent decades exploring the outdoors on two wheels and advocating for better places to ride. Her work is driven by the belief that bicycles can improve health, strengthen communities, and create more connected places to live.

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Anton Nootenboom is an endurance athlete, mental health advocate, and world record holder known as the Barefoot Dutchman. He has walked thousands of miles barefoot through some of the world's most challenging landscapes, including the Himalayas, the Australian coast, and across the United States. A former Dutch soldier, Anton uses his expeditions to raise awareness for men's mental health and inspire more open conversations around mental well-being.

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Rachel Entrekin is an ultrarunner and three time champion of the Cocodona 250, one of the most demanding ultramarathons in the United States. Known as the "Queen of Cocodona," she became the first woman to win the race outright in 2026, covering more than 250 miles across Arizona in 56 hours, 9 minutes, and 58 seconds while setting a new course record.

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Courtney Conley is a movement specialist, foot health expert, and author of the national bestselling book Walk. Through her work as founder of Gait Happens, she helps people build stronger feet and ankles to improve mobility, prevent injury, and stay active for life. Whether you love hiking, running, biking, or climbing, Courtney believes better movement starts from the ground up. 

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Samer Abouhamad is a long distance cyclist who biked 46,000 miles through 61 countries during a three year journey around the world. He began the ride just outside his family's home in Brookline, Massachusetts, and completed it in Beirut, Lebanon, in September 2025.

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Michael Koppy is a 75-year-old ultrarunner and retired engineering professor from northern Minnesota who is still breaking records in endurance sports. Over the past decade, he's completed two fastest known times (FKTs) and continues to compete in some of the country's most demanding ultramarathons. In 2026, he became the oldest person to finish the Arrowhead 135, one of the toughest winter ultramarathons in the United States.

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Breannah Yeh is a slackliner, highliner, and content creator who has spent the last six years dedicated to life on the line. Whether she's landing tricks on a slackline in Los Angeles or walking highlines suspended thousands of feet above the ground, Breannah brings a joyful and creative approach to a sport that demands intense focus and balance. Through her videos, she shares the challenges and rewards of slacklining with a community of more than 2.5 million followers.

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Lisa Jhung is a writer, trail runner, and ultramarathon pacer who first began pacing runners more than 25 years ago. Drawn to the challenge and camaraderie of endurance sports, she's helped athletes through some of the most demanding miles of their lives. What keeps her returning to the trail is the opportunity to support someone else's big goal and be part of their journey to the finish line.

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Lucy Barnard is an Australian adventurer walking the length of the Americas, a years long expedition from Argentina to Alaska she began in 2017. Along the way, she adopted a blue heeler named Wombat, and together they navigate deserts, mountains, jungles, and remote terrain on foot. By 2026, Lucy had reached northern British Columbia, steadily continuing north toward Alaska.

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On June 12, 2025, 15 year old Tasia Linwood set out to kayak 310 miles down the Klamath River, from southern Oregon to the coast of northern California. She went with several other young Indigenous kayakers, from different tribes who live along the river. Their journey marked the first descent of the Klamath after the removal of four dams, which her community had fought for for decades.

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Liam Garner is a long distance cyclist who set out at 17 to bike from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina, completing nearly 20,000 miles and becoming the youngest person to ride the length of the Americas. Now, Liam is continuing his global cycling journey, riding roughly 15,000 miles from Portugal through Europe, the Middle East, and Asia toward Singapore as part of his goal to bike across every continent.

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Lindsay Branham is an environmental psychologist exploring how we build deeper, more reciprocal relationships with nature. Her work invites us to go beyond simply spending time outside and consider what it might look like to truly listen and even communicate with trees.

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Yassine Diboun is a Portland-based ultrarunner and coach who found endurance sports during recovery from addiction. After signing up for his first triathlon in 2004 to bring structure to his life, he discovered a talent for running that quickly evolved into a career in ultramarathons. Since then, he has become one of the sport’s most respected athletes, with top 10 finishes at Western States 100, multiple course records, and a place on the U.S. trail running team.

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Joe Holder is a Nike Master Trainer and GQ fitness columnist with a track record of coaching elite athletes and high profile clients. Grounded in a background in health and wellness, he brings a practical approach to endurance training and overall fitness. His work spans marathon training, thru hike preparation, and strategies to support long term health and performance.

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In January 2026, Taryn Smith became the third American woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean, completing a 46 day Atlantic Ocean crossing in open water conditions. With no rowing experience beforehand, she leaned on a foundation built through world travel, the New York City Marathon, and summers exploring Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains.

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Shane Schieffer is an endurance swimmer who spent more than 15 years dreaming of a full length swim of Lake Powell, the desert reservoir stretching from Utah into Arizona. In September 2025, he became the first person to complete it, covering 140 miles in 11 days while towing 215 pounds of gear. The route carried him through a remote landscape of sand colored canyons, rock formations, and isolated shorelines.

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Nikki Bettis turned a simple hike on the Appalachian Trail into an audacious plan to thru hike the entire trail with her fifteen kids, ranging in age from 4 to 21. As a single mom in rural Virginia facing financial and emotional strain, Nikki hoped the physical challenge and months spent outdoors together could help her family reconnect and find a way forward.

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Adventurer Garrett Gee turned a four month family trip in 2015 into The Bucket List Family, documenting world travel with his wife, Jessica, and their kids. What began as videos shared on YouTube and Instagram became a global family travel brand with millions of followers, built on experiences from shark diving in South Africa to hot air balloons in Turkey and biking through shrines and gardens in Japan.

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In 2023, Dan Rubinstein completed a 1,200 mile stand up paddleboarding journey from Ottawa to New York City and back. His expedition followed rivers and waterways, turning a long distance paddle into a rare blue space adventure.

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Lauren Duke holds a master’s degree in psychology focused on physiology and body based behavior, and studies how movement helps us process emotion. In 2023, she tested that work on a 535 mile Camino de Santiago hike across Spain with her family. The month long trek surfaced unresolved family dynamics, leaving no real option but to keep walking and stay in relationship.

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Welcome back to Earth, Artemis II crew! In honor of Christina Koch becoming the first woman to travel around the moon, we're rereleasing her episode from 2024. 

What if you had an opportunity to travel around the moon? Christina Koch has worked at NASA for the last 10 years, and has been a part of groundbreaking missions in outer space. In 2019, Christina embarked on a 328-day stay on the International Space Station, setting a record for the longest single space flight by a woman. Now Christina has a new assignment on the horizon. She was selected to join a c...

John John Florence is one of the most accomplished surfers in the world. After a 15 year career on the World Surf League Championship Tour, three world titles, and two Olympic appearances, he stepped away from competition to pursue a new wild idea: sailing around the world with his family.

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Marathon legend Des Linden made history on April 16, 2018, becoming the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in 33 years. Over more than a decade at the top of the sport, she raced the biggest marathons in the world, represented the United States at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, and set a 50K world record. Last year, on the morning of her 13th Boston Marathon, she announced her retirement from professional road racing. Now she is applying the same discipline and curiosity to new challenges, reshaping what a running life can look like beyond the marathon.

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In 2022, Thomas Bukowski took a risk that felt personal and professional by applying to The North Face athlete development program and pitching himself as a climber worth betting on. As a queer athlete from Hong Kong who found climbing later than most, he has long carried the feeling of being an outsider, then watched that narrative shift when he earned a place on The North Face climbing team. Since then, he has chased fear into major climbs in Argentina, Alaska, and Pakistan, and in 2024 he pushed into trail running by running the 211 mile John Muir Trail in four days.<...

Jeff Garmire is a legend in the world of fastest known times with more than 20 FKTs on routes including the Appalachian Trail, Colorado Trail, Arizona Trail, and John Muir Trail. On September 21, 2025, he reached Mount Springer after setting a self supported FKT on the Appalachian Trail, completing the route in 45 days, 8 hours, and 37 minutes. 

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Kimi Werner is a world champion spearfisher, ocean advocate, and chef whose life centers on sustainable fishing, food, and a deep connection to nature. After winning the largest spearfishing competition in the world in 2008, she stepped away from competition to focus on feeding her community and cooking with fish she harvests. Her upcoming cookbook, Kimi’s Kitchen, blends recipes and memoir to explore living well through the ocean, the land, and family.

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Sofía Gómez Villafañe is a leading American gravel cyclist who broke through with a win at Unbound Gravel 2022 on her first attempt. The result cemented her place among the top gravel racers in the United States after a nontraditional start that began with a used bike her brother found on Craigslist. Sofía shares how her success is driven by clear goal setting, small process driven steps, and a systematic approach to long term performance.

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Kai Jones is one of the most talented young backcountry skiers in the U.S., turning professional at just 13 years old. In early 2023, he broke both of his legs in a backcountry skiing accident, spending months in a wheelchair and questioning whether he’d ever return to the sport. Last season marked a major comeback, as Kai became the youngest skier to descend the Otter Body route on Grand Teton and released multiple ski films that document his evolution as a big‑mountain skier.

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Rob Shaver has been living with stage four cancer for over 20 years. He's had multiple recurrences, been through multiple rounds of chemotherapy, and received more than 60 radiation treatments. In 2020, after he finished chemo to fight his third recurrence, Rob started running and ended up running for 1,175 days straight.

About the film: The Life We Have is a short film about REI San Antonio employee Rob Shaver, who after two decades living with stage 4 cancer, made a pact to run at least one mile every day until he passes away. This film, his journey, and everything we learn alon...