Chances are you have a storage space, garage, car trunk, and slash or cornucopia of plastic bins double stuffed with outdoor gear; anything and everything you need to get outside and get rad. But the most valuable piece of gear is something you can’t buy at your local shop: a sense of humor. Professional struggle runner Erin Azar knows this all too well.  Erin is a runner and social media personality better known by her online persona, “Mrs. Space Cadet.” She amassed nearly 2 million followers by posting hilarious, unfiltered videos documenting her triumphs and mostly sweaty, out of breath trials as a burgeoning runner. In 2019, a few months after giving birth to her third child. Erin made a funny video about trying to run to the end of the road and back. It…blew up and she’s been lacing up runners and turning the camera on ever since. But she’s no  formulaic, overly manicured, highly produced, and typical running influencer. Erin is just a regular ole person who likes to run and knows it’s a helluva lot more fun and a helluva lot easier to make it a few more miles when she's laughing at herself.

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Every now and then, the writers at Outside discover a story that is set in the outdoors, but is about something much, much larger—sometimes these stories are about universal truths or paradigm-shifting discoveries. And sometimes, they cross into areas that escape our comprehension altogether. Today’s tale is one of those, and, after listening, you’ll never look at a moving leaf in the woods the same way. 

Join Frank Bures as he retraces the journey of an anthropologist named Neal Whitehead through the forests and indigenous communities of Guyana. Whitehead begins looking for evidence of the societies that gave rise to the legend of El Dorado, but stumbles instead upon an ancient tradition of witchcraft known as “kanaima.” (kah-knee-muh)

What follows is a story of curiosity turned to obsession, and several brushes with apparently supernatural forces that are anything but benign—and that’s before Bures arrives in Guyana nearly twenty years after Whitehead, after which it just gets weirder. Please enjoy “I Traced an Anthropologist's Deadly Obsession with the Dark World of Kanaima” by Frank Bures … unless you don’t like ghost stories, in which case, maybe sit this one out?

Sandbagging is a right of passage in adventure. When a pal or significant other deliberately undersells the difficulty or intensity of an adventure in order to convince you to join, despite the fact that you’re either new to the sport in question or woefully under-trained slash unprepared for the outing, has a special way of pushing you out of your comfort zone and revealing that we are pretty tough after all.  Sandbagging always involves two people: the ass kicker and the ass kick-ee. Unless of course you’re stand up comedian Brooks Wheelan and you enjoy kicking the crap outta your own ass. Brooks is a devoted outdoorsman who has deployed an “all gas, no brakes” attitude when it comes to both adventure and his career. Never been rafting before? No problemo, Brooks will boat the Grand Canyon. Get hired on Saturday Night Live without ever being on TV? Pssh, piece of cake. Turns out there is immense value in getting pushed beyond your limits, even when—or maybe especially when—you’re the one doing the pushing.

Howdy pals. It’s Saturday, which means it’s time for another Long Read podcast from the Outside Archive. 

Tragic endings are all too common in the Himalaya, but the 2024 deaths of Anna Gutu and Gina Rzucidlo on the relatively obscure Tibetan mountain Shishapangma resonated beyond the cloistered world of 8,000-meter climbing. The two women died in separate avalanches on the same day, raising troubling questions about how accessible these peaks have become and how the business of guiding has evolved.

Outside always covers these incidents with empathy, authority, and exacting attention to detail, and journalist Gloria Liu’s comprehensive reconstruction of both women’s journeys to Shishapangma—as well as her breathless hour-by-hour account of the final day—is no different. 

She tells the story of two women who were accomplished and driven but not elite level climbers, who both set out to become the first American woman to climb all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks. Coincidence found them trying to claim that prize on the same mountain, on the same day; competition had them each making decisions that everyone on the mountain that day would come to regret. This is “Death on Shishapangma”, by Gloria Liu, read by a friendly robot. 

We will look for all sorts of things to fuel our adventures: the new electrolyte drink mix, the fancy sport goo, any and every type of futuristic gear. But mostly the best thing to get us outside is already inside of us in the form of a good old fashioned eff this attitude. Allie Bianchi grew up in the gritty Vermont outdoor community. A skier, hiker, mountain biker, no matter the weather or circumstance, Allie was always outside. So even after a life-altering mountain bike crash forced her to relearn everything from a wheelchair, Allie was determined to remain active in her pursuits. But doctors told her that she had to accept a sedentary wheelchair-bound life, needing round the clock assistance. Allie said, “F*ck that! I’m going outside.” She has set her sights on The Driving Range, the nation’s first fully adaptive mountain bike trail network in the US. Located in Bolton, Vermont. With the help of adaptive sports organizations like the Kelly Brush Foundation and Vermont Adaptive, as well as the devoted outdoor community she comes from, Allie is indeed still out there, getting after it.

Howdy pals. It’s Saturday, which means it’s time for another Long Read podcast from the Outside Archive. 

We assume, dear listener, that you find Mount Everest interesting. We assume that because, over the decades, many of our most popular articles and podcasts have been about the world’s tallest mountain, and the fascination it inspires in climbers and non-climbers alike. And today’s Long Read podcast is a story that connects the dots between both kinds of people. 

Over the last twenty years, climbing Everest has evolved from something only attempted by elite mountaineers to the apex of adventure tourism. And this evolution has had all kinds of interesting impacts on how these climbers train for their attempts. So our Long Reads editor, Fred Drier, went deep into training mode with two very different amateur Everest aspirants, to learn how you train to get to twenty nine thousand feet if you only live at five thousand feet. Or zero thousand feet. 

Depending on your personal disposition, this story will either convince you that you have what it takes to climb the world’s tallest mountain, or make you perfectly comfortable in the knowledge that you’re never going to try. Either way, you’re going to be entertained. Please enjoy “Want to Climb Mount Everest? The Training May Leave You Breathless” by Fred Drier, read by a friendly robot. 

f your favorite way to read is with your ears, I encourage you to join Outside Plus. It gives you unlimited access to everything in the Outside Network, including more audio stories from Outside, Backpacker, Climbing, SKI, and more. Plus mapping apps like Trailforks, Gaia GPS, and MapMyFitness. And for our podcast listeners, we have a special offer for 25% off. Head to outside.watch/listen to learn more.

Unless you grew up inside a tumbleweed, chances are you remember your outdoorsy firsts. The first time your dad took you hiking, the time your mom helped you reel in your first fish, the first big family camp out or ski trip or the road trip to your first National Park. But there are those special few  whose connection to the outdoors predates every single memory, folks like artist Cannupa Hanksa Luger. Cannupa is a  sculptor, painter, author, and performer, and his work   and worldview is rooted in an understanding he developed as a kid working, playing, and living on his family’s ranch on the Standing Rock Reservation. Cannupa’s art  defies genre, but he is always playing with a multidimensional concept of time and memory and uses the natural world to shape his pieces. If that sounds pretty out there, well, it is. But it’s because Cannupa and his art exist in a world where the past and future are always present, and there’s no such thing as “inside” at all.

It’s Saturday, which means it’s time for another Long Read podcast from the Outside Archive. 

Today’s story combines two things that you don’t expect to go well together but wind up really working, like peanut butter and cucumbers (try it, seriously). In this case, those two things are cool camp footwear and … international grand larceny? Writer Scott Yorko tells the unlikely story of how Bedrock Sandles—one of those great “if you know, you know” outdoor brands—was pushed to the brink of insolvency when its first shipment of a new clog was hijacked by thieves after arriving at a Los Angeles port. 

It’s one part underdog business profile and one part hardboiled detective tale. By the end, you’re both rooting for the scrappy team at Bedrock and feeling significantly less comfortable with how vulnerable our entire economy is to the growing threat posed by these crime rings. And, it’s a great reminder that, no matter how intricate and snarled global supply chains become, there’s always a human being at the other end of every purchase you make. Now, please enjoy “The Great Bedrock Clog Heist”, by Scott Yorko, read by a friendly robot.

And remember, if your favorite way to read is with your ears, I encourage you to join Outside Plus. It gives you unlimited access to everything in the Outside Network, including more audio stories, plus mapping apps like Trailforks, Gaia GPS, and MapMyFitness. And for our podcast listeners, we have a special offer for 25% off. Head to outside dot watch slash listen to learn more.

The Outside Days festival Denver is coming up fast, and you should come! If you need further convincing, check out one of our favorite episodes from the vault, which just so happens to feature the frontman for festival headliner Death Cab For Cutie: Ben Gibbard. The singer, songwriter, and guitarist applies the same approach to ultramarathons that he does to touring: just keep moving. Ben got into distance running almost by accident, randomly entering a trail race in Northern California without realizing the trail went uphill, then dowhill…and back uphill. Somehow, he instantly fell in love with the grind of long distance endurance running. Ben has since entered close to 50 races, training hard even when he’s on the road with Death Cab For Cutie. For Ben, running is a way to connect back to the playfulness of childhood and embrace the unknowns that come with pushing your body and soul to the limit. Enjoy the episode and check out Death Cab For Cutie and more at this year’s Outside Days.

Howdy folks. PaddyO here with a special treat: We’re going to be sharing some of our favorite feature stories from Outside Magazine and Outside Online every Saturday. We call these our “Long Reads,” and they’re the kind of eye-opening, sometimes heart-pounding, always inspiring-you-to-go-outside storytelling Outside has done for decades. Think of it as a weekend couch read type thing, but one you can do with your eyes closed. These stories are made possible, first and foremost, by the intrepid reporting and deft phrase-turning of our ace writers. And, second, by wild advances in text-to-audio technology—I bet you won’t even notice that you’re listening to a robot. 

If your favorite way to read is with your ears, I encourage you to join Outside Plus. It gives you unlimited access to everything in the Outside Network, including more audio stories from Outside, Backpacker, Climbing, SKI, and more. Plus mapping apps like Trailforks, Gaia GPS, and MapMyFitness. And for our podcast listeners, we have a special offer for 25% off. Head to outside.watch/listen to learn more.

We love our spur of the moment adventuring. Maybe a pal calls us up for a self-inflicted, day-long backcountry sufferfest, maybe we decide on a whim to see how many miles we can push it on a bike ride, maybe we sign up for a Turkey Trot 10k with no training. But there is one woman who has  taken that “maybe I’ll get off the couch and just try this hard thing” mindset to the ends of the Earth. Literally. This past January, Monet Izabeth became the first American woman to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole; 700 miles, 57 days, whiteouts, extreme wind, and minus 40 temps. Monet is no elite athlete. She’s a self proclaimed normal-ish woman who asked, “I wonder if I can do this?” And then went to the ice sheets of Antarctica to find out.