Wild Ideas Worth Living

Cliff Kapono is a surfer and scientist from Hawaii. Cliff’s work is all about using science to relate to nature: what happens in our bodies when we spend time outside, and what is biologically happening when we get that feeling of being connected to nature. His current project, The Surfer Biome Project, looks at how surfers relate to each other and to the ocean. 

Willow Belden is the host of Out There, a podcast that discusses big life questions in an outdoor setting. Willow talks to ultra-marathoners, Everest climbers, hikers, cyclist, skiers, and all kinds of adventurers about their journeys, giving listeners a chance to hear about the transformative powers of nature. Before she started her podcast, Willow worked at Wyoming Public Radio. It was a great job, but she decided to quit to hike the Colorado Trail, a thru-hike of about 500 miles. 

Liz Clark is an adventurer, surfer, sailboat captain, and now an author, with her first book coming out next year with Patagonia Books. In 2005, Liz pursued her lifelong dream to live on her boat, and sail from Santa Barbara to French Polynesia. She’s sailed over 20,000 miles since, and along her journey, has learned a lot about herself, life, and the world. She discovered that exploration doesn’t just happen when you travel around the world - it happens within as you challenge and push yourself. 

Rob Greenfield is an adventurer and environmental activist who is making a difference for our planet. Rob cycled across the U.S. three times on a bamboo bike to raise awareness about sustainability. He dove into more than 2,000 dumpsters across the country to raise awareness about food waste. He lived like the average American and wore all the trash he created for a month in New York City to raise awareness about food waste. 

Chris McDougall is the author of the bestselling books, Born to Run and Natural Born Heroes. His first book spawned the barefoot running movement and altered the running shoe industry forever. Natural Born Heroes dives into the history of how every-day citizens and amazing athletes on the island of Crete withstood the German forces during World War II. Chris loves finding amazing stories about athletes achieving amazing feats, and learning about their strategies, training, diets, and more.

If you’ve heard of Kimi Werner, you’ve probably seen the photo of her gracefully swimming while holding onto the dorsal fin of a great white shark. Kimi is a fearless force of nature. Growing up off grid in Hawaii, Kimi’s father taught her to free dive. She gave it up for years, then rediscovered it later in life and went on to become the national spearfishing champion, environmental advocate, a chef, an award-winning artist, and sought-after speaker.

JP Sears is a spiritual comedian, author, emotional healing coach, and a curious student of life. You may know him from his hilarious YouTube videos that feature great underlying messages about relationships, spirituality and how self-righteous we can be. It took JP a while to find a way to use his humor for good, and he’s not afraid to make fun of his own lifestyle. His work is intended to empower people to be their best selves, and to live more meaningful lives.

Karen Rinaldi is a writer and the creator of Harper Wave, an imprint of Harper Collins that has published the work of Jaimal Yogis, Mark Lukach and Steph Jagger. Karen has also published books by authors like Dave Asprey of the Bulletproof Coffee movement, Dr. Gundry of The Plant Paradox, and Tony Horton of P90X, to name a few. In addition to her literary life, Karen is also a surfer. She started at age 40, and recently wrote an essay in the New York Times titled, “It’s Great to Suck at Something.”

Ari (pronounced Air-ee) DeLashmutt is a professional highliner, skier, paraglider and an enthusiastic adventurer, who also hosts the How To Adventure Podcast. He lives a dream life, eager to spend most of his time in the air or on the mountains. Ari has some incredible perspectives on life, fear, confidence, and failure. These are lessons he’s learned from spending so much time pushing the envelope, doing what he loves, and confronting fear.

Courtney Conlogue is a professional surfer on the World Surf League, currently ranked towards the top three on the women’s tour. Known for her powerful turns, positive attitude, work ethic, and incredible fitness capacity, she has an amazing ability to set goals and achieve them. Last year, she modeled naked for the Body issue in ESPN Magazine.

Chris Guillebeau is the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup, The Art of Non-Conformity, Born For This, and The Happiness of Pursuit. His latest book, Side Hustle, which debuts September 19th, shows how to take your side hustle from an idea to a profitable business. In addition to being an incredible writer, Chris visited all 193 countries by age 35. He is all about living the life you want, and not the life others expect you to have.

Caroline Gleich is a professional ski mountaineer, adventurer, trail runner and activist. Based in Salt Lake City, Caroline recently became the first woman and fourth person to ski all 90 lines featured in “The Chuting Gallery,” a steep skiing guidebook to the Wasatch Range. A nature lover since birth, Caroline has used her voice as an athlete and an ambassador for brands like KEEN, Clif Bar and Patagonia to speak up about social and environmental issues like climate change, clean air, and cyber harassm

Todd Glaser is one of the most sought-after surf photographers in the world. Today he takes photos on land and in the water with surfs stars like Kelly Slater, Jack Johnson, and Rob Machado. His work has appeared not only in sports publications like Surfer and Outside Magazine, but also in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Most recently, Todd just came out with a photography book around it that he self-published.

Zeppelin Zeerip is a pro snowboarder and activist, the author of Don’t Call Me a Gypsy, a producer and partner of WZRD Media, and co-founder of a grassroots snowboard competition called Occupy Pando. For his latest project, Zeppelin is traveling around the U.S. to film for his upcoming documentary about the public land debate. He is passionate about preserving this land that everyone has access to, but he also knows the importance of hearing perspectives from all sides.

Gale Straub is the voice and creator of the popular podcast and community, She-Explores. The podcast focuses on women in the great outdoors, and tells the stories of entrepreneurs, athletes, and “ordinary” women who are “curious, inquisitive and beyond.” It’s well-edited and inspires people to spend more time outside. Gale left behind the life of a CPA for a long stint on the road in the van with the boyfriend before starting the show.