“People can't believe how we live out here on the land, and under the stars. Maybe it's just the freedom of it. Once you get that red dirt in your blood and your socks, you can't get rid of either one of them. It just stays with you, and you’re going to find that out if you stick around very long.”

• Norris Church, Kanab

The Western is as finely layered as the red rock deserts and dusty towns that serve as their backdrop. Ever since they first appeared on the silver screen, Westerns have been rife with opposing viewpoints, contradictions and complexities as varied as the people who watched them. 

Gunslingers, shoot outs, declarations of love and revenge – the heroes and villains of Western movies have come to define the American psyche in ways that no other genre ever has.

This is the first of our insight episodes, audio documentaries that dive deep into the subjects that make places come alive: from anthropology and history to music, art and more. But today, we’re going to the movies.

Utah celebrates 100-years of movie magic this year. It has served as the backdrop for everything from alien planets to Jurassic worlds. But it’s most famous for the Westerns that were shot here. It’s easy to see why they were. Walk amongst the high buttes and slot canyons of Utah, and it’s hard not to feel like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid might jump out at you at any minute. 

This episode will take you to the places where some of the most iconic Westerns were shot, from Monument Valley to Kanab. We’re going to dive into the past and learn what it was really like making them and explore how the films made here have helped to shape a vision of the old west – good and bad – that has spread around the world.

Whether you’re a movie buff or you’ve never watched a Western before, we guarantee after listening to this you’ll be itching to hop on a horse and ride off into the sunset.

PLAN YOUR UTAH TRIP

To make this episode, we visited Monument Valley and Kanab, both beautiful places we highly recommend. If you want to learn more about experiencing the sights and attractions featured in this episode, go to VisitUtah.com or follow along on social media @VisitUtah. International listeners can also book this itinerary directly as a package, with lots of other bonus experiences too - just visit AmericanSky.co.uk/Utah-Holidays or learn more about all the incredible destinations around the state at VisitTheUSA.com or on social media @VisitTheUSA.

Thank you to the guests who featured in today’s episode:

• Norris Church with the Adventure Tour Company in Kanab adventure-tour-company.com
• Andrew Patrick Nelson, Film and Media Arts Chair at the University of Utah. Check out his podcast, How the West was Cast. 
• Dennis Judd, Kanab movie expert

CREDITS

This show was produced by Armchair Productions, the audio experts for the travel industry. Brian Thacker managed pre-production. Jenny Allison was the in-field producer and wrote the episode. Jason Paton did the recording, mix and sound design. Aaron Millar hosted and served as executive producer. www.armchair-productions.com

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“I'm dangling 250-feet above a canyon, and I'm about to get dropped. This is what AlUla is all about. It's got desert treasures, it's got 200,000 years of history, but it's also got adventure. And we're going to start ours by soaring through the air. Are you ready? Let's do this …”

• Aaron Millar, host 

In this series, we’re going to take you on a journey into the heart of one of the most ancient kingdoms on Earth. Located in the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia, Alula is an oasis in the desert layered in 200,000 years of human history. 

But, until recently, it was closed to outsiders, and to this day only a handful of visitors have ever been. In this immersive documentary, recorded on location, we’ll take you to the heart of one of the great wonders of Arabia and give you a glimpse of what it feels like to be there for real.

Each episode in the series explores the destination through the lens of a different element: the heritage of Earth, the community of Water … and today, the adventure of Air. 

Highlights include:

• Flying over the UNESCO world heritage site of Hegra in a hot air balloon – only a handful of people have ever visited this ancient city. Even less have seen it from the sky. 

• Climbing via ferrata to the top of a 250-foot canyon and then screaming all the way down.

• Off-roading on sand dunes through one of the most deserts in the world.

• Stargazing with Bedouins and hearing their legends of the stars, which they used as a map to guide them through one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.

FIND OUT MORE

Our on-location Immersion documentaries are designed so that you can experience everything we did in this episode. Find out more at ExperienceAlula.com. Check out @experiencealula on Instagram, Facebook and X for more inspiration and ideas.

CONNECT WITH US

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right now. Go on, do it. It means you get to choose what episodes you listen to, rather than the algorithm guess (wrongly) and kick us off your feed. 

Following the show on socials will definitely maybe bring you good travel karma!

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast 

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

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“There was one time when one of the young wolves was licking my face, and his canine went up my nose, and I was like, oh, okay, don't move. He wasn't trying to bite me; it was just

excitement. But it was an awesome, eerie, and strangely wonderful experience.”

- Jamie Dutcher

Before the arrival of European settlers, it is estimated as many as 500,000 wolves roamed freely across the continental United States. By the 1970s, after decades of systematic eradication, there were fewer than 1000 left.

And despite the fact that our best friends, the dog, are descended from them to this day they

are often thought of as nothing more than vicious, bloodthirsty killers and a danger to livestock

and people. Filmmakers Jim and Jamie Dutcher wanted to show another side to this iconic

predator, and in doing so perhaps change people’s minds and help protect wolves from

extinction.

But to do that they needed to get close. So, in 1991, beneath the towering peaks of Idaho’s spectacular Sawtooth Mountains, they set up a remote tented outpost where they could

bring together a pack of wolves in an enclosed territory, while accepting Jim and Jamie as just another part of their world. The Dutchers would spend the next six years Living with the Wolves. 

This is their story, and the story of the Sawtooth Pack.

FIND OUT MORE

Find out more about Jim and Jamie’s foundation, and how you can help, at

LivingWithWolves.org

CONNECT WITH US

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right

now. Go on, do it. It means you get to choose what episodes you listen to, rather than the

algorithm guess (wrongly) and kick us off your feed.

Following the show on socials will definitely maybe bring you good travel karma!

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Armchair Explorer is produced by Armchair Productions. Aaron Millar presented the show,

Charles Tyrie did the audio editing and sound design. Our theme music is by the artist Sweet

Chap.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the start of every month, host Aaron Millar and producer Jason Paton preview what’s coming up on Armchair Explorer, play their favorite clips, and reveal the stories they’re most excited to share.

A cross between a highlight reel, an interview, and two people telling travel tales down the pub, our Pathways episodes are your guide to choosing your adventures with us.

October episodes:

ADVENTURE: Wildlife film makers Jim and Jamie Dutcher spend six years living with a pack of wolves in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho.

IMMERSION: We go on location to the Arabian deserts of AlUla in search of adventure and find out what it feels like to crash land a hot air balloon.

IMMERSION: Discover the Golden Age of Hollywood in Palm Springs, California: shag houses, Mr. Tiki and Sinatra’s favorite haunt.

ADVENTURE:  We join best-selling author and activist Peter Heller on board an eco-pirate ship as they battle illegal Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.

BUCKET LIST: Host Aaron Millar takes us on a 100-mile pub crawl along the South Downs of England.

IMMERSION: Thanksgiving Special all about food: sacred corn, fish boils, and pizza farms.

***

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right now. Go on, do it. It means you get to choose what episodes you listen to, rather than the algorithm guess (wrongly) and kick us off your feed. 

Following the show on socials will definitely maybe bring you good travel karma!

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast 

Armchair Explorer is produced by Armchair Productions. Aaron Millar and Jason Paton presented the show, Charles Tyrie did the audio editing and sound design. Our theme music is by the artist Sweet Chap.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I was lying in a coffin in the catacombs beneath London Bridge while a clairvoyant called to the

spirits around me to make themselves known. To say this was not a normal Saturday night

would be to grossly understate the point.”

And so begins, the second of our Halloween specials – a bucket list ghost hunt in the London

Tombs.

When these ancient catacombs were being excavated in 2007, they were found to house the

remains of plague victims who had been buried there centuries before. The builders working at

the time reported numerous strange goings on and insisted on working in pairs for fear of being

alone in those dark recesses.

Today, it is purported to be one of the most haunted places in the city and home to many

trapped souls including one particular menace known only as ‘Shadow Man’.

Told by host Aaron Millar, this is the story of a paranormal investigation he took part in while

on a Halloween assignment for a UK newspaper. Everything that is told here is true, and not

exaggerated. And whether its ghosts, imagination or the power of the mind, things happened

down there which Aaron, a skeptic, still can’t fully explain.

CONNECT WITH US

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right

now. Go on, do it. It means you get to choose what episodes you listen to, rather than the

algorithm guess (wrongly) and kick us off your feed.

Following the show on socials will definitely maybe bring you good travel karma!

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Armchair Explorer is produced by Armchair Productions. Aaron Millar wrote and presented the

show, Charles Tyrie did the audio editing and sound design. Our theme music is by the artist

Sweet Chap.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They called it the ‘End of the Line’. For over a century, Brushy Mountain prison held some of the most violent murderers, rapists and serial killers in the country. If you wore out your welcome at another prison or your crime was among the most unspeakable committed, this was where you ended up. And once you walked through the doors, almost no one walked out. 

Located in the remote hills of Eastern Tennessee, the prison was closed in 2009. But the ghosts of the brutality that was committed there still remain. Today, the grounds hold the world’s first (legal) prison whisky distillery, and without a doubt the scariest and most ingeniously located. Because after touring the prison, there’s only one thing you need: a large shot of their specialty – ‘End of the Line Moonshine’. 

This immersive episode, recorded on location in the prison itself, will take you from the cell blocks, where conditions were said to be worse than a Siberian labor camp, to the mines where prisoners were literally worked to death, and finally into ‘The Hole’ where inmates were kept in solitary confinement, in complete darkness, in a cell 4-ft wide and 8-ft long. 

“You think you can handle it,” one former inmate said. “Think again, son. Everyone breaks.”

FIND OUT MORE:

This scene was taken from a trip we did following the Tennessee Whisky Trail. If you like music and whisky, we highly recommend it tnwhiskytrail.com. 

Visit the prison and drink some excellent whisky at Brushy Mountain Distillery. Brushymtndistillery.com

CONNECT WITH US

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right now. Go on, do it. It means you get to choose what episodes you listen to, rather than the algorithm guess (wrongly) and kick us off your feed. 

Following the show on socials will definitely maybe bring you good travel karma!

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast 

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Armchair Explorer is produced by Armchair Productions. Aaron Millar wrote and presented the episode, Jason Paton did the field recording and production. Our theme music is by the artist Sweet Chap.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“So, take down your box and bow, and play the strings. Whistle up your travellin’ tune. Listen to the sound the water makes, in the Diamond Stream.” 

• Ed Snodderly, The Diamond Stream

This episode is the first in our Performance series, where we showcase music from around the globe. Today, we’re joined by Tennessee Music Legend Ed Snodderly at his live music venue The Down Home, in Johnson City, Tennessee.   

Ed describes himself as a songwriter with a strong Appalachian sense of place. His songs ring in the old, the odd and in a non-sentimental way Ed calls it American Southern, “cause that sounds really cool.”

In 2020, he was awarded the lifetime achievement award from the Southern Region of Folk Alliance, and the third verse of his song “The Diamond Stream”, which he performs here, is permanently displayed at the Wall of Honor in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. 

But today’s not just a music performance. We sat on the stage with him, and as he played, we talked about life, music, and everything in between. It was one of those moments, when something amazing happens on the road that is completely unexpected but ends up being one of the highlights of the whole trip. 

FIND OUT MORE

Discover more of Ed’s music at edsnodderlymusic.com, or listen on soundcloud.com/edsnodderly

Ed is co-founder of The Down Home, a world-renowned music venue located in Johnson City, Tennessee. Stop by if you’re passing through downhome.com

CONNECT WITH US

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right now. Go on, do it. It means you get to choose what episodes you listen to, rather than the algorithm guess (wrongly) and kick us off your feed. 

Following the show on socials will definitely maybe bring you good travel karma!

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast 

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Armchair Explorer is produced by Armchair Productions. Aaron Millar presented the show, Jason Paton did the field recording and production. Our theme music is by the artist Sweet Chap.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rodeo in the United States is a reflection of the spirit of the American West, and a tradition

rooted in the folklore and culture of the country. But in South Dakota, it’s not only the official

sport - it’s a way of life. 

Join us as we go on a wild ride at the Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo where over 300,000

people from all over the world descend on Rapid City to watch more than 120 different events.

We join a father and son team at the ranch rodeo, cheer on Gill the border collie at the sheep

dog trials, take part in a bachelor cattle auction and watch seven-year-old Kreed hang on to a

sheep for dear life in mutton bustin’.

But we’re not just watching from the outside, we mic up the cowboy and cowgirl competitors to

take us inside the arena and show us what it feels like to ride in a rodeo for real.

Thank you to everyone who featured in this episode:

-  Sheepdog handler and dog lover Linda Loulias

-  Sheep shearer Mike Por and Loren Opstedahl.

-  Kreed, our fearless mutton buster

-  And the boys from Lakota Funds and the Corn Creek Bandits

PLAN YOUR SOUTH DAKOTA TRIP

Our On Location episodes are designed so that you can experience everything you hear. Check

out the links above, or find out more at www.travelsouthdakota.com

CONNECT WITH US

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right

now. Go on, do it. It means you get to choose what episodes you listen to, rather than the

algorithm guess (wrongly) and kick us off your feed.

Following the show on socials will definitely maybe bring you good travel karma!

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Armchair Explorer is produced by Armchair Productions. Brian Thacker wrote and presented

this episode, Jason Paton did the field recording and production, and Aaron Millar was the

executive producer. Our theme music is by the artist Sweet Chap.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“We’re fighting to make the world less boring. Our planet used to slap us about the face-cheeks with iron fists of adventure every day.  Maps had edges to walk off. Whole continents lay undiscovered. But now, the entire surface of the Earth has been scanned by satellites and shoveled into your mobile phone, tagged with twattery about which restaurant serves the best mocha-latte-frappeshite. 

We live to find ways to make the world a bit more difficult. To bring chaos into our over-sanitized lives.  To create adventures where you don’t know what will happen tomorrow or if you’ll even make it. Because we think there’s no greater moment than those seconds as you leap into an abyss of uncertainty and disaster.”

• Tom Morgan, The Adventurists 

This is how a group called The Adventurists describe themselves, and today we’re speaking with one of their founders about the trip that inspired it all. It’s called the Mongol Rally, and the premise is to drive from London to Mongolia, in a car that costs not much more than a cup of tea, with no plan and no back up. 

In this day and age, with the technology we have in our pocket, there’s a tendency to plan things out to the nth degree. The Adventurists offer an important counterpoint to that. Maybe adventure should have an element of risk?  Maybe embracing the unknown is an essential part of exploration? What if we’re denying ourselves something important in our over-sanitized lives? 

Today’s guests Jenny Hunter talks about this and lots more, as she takes us 10,000 miles from a bar in Shoreditch to Ulaanbaatar. 

SIGN UP FOR CHAOS

Believe it or not, you can actually do the Mongol Rally yourself, as well as a bunch of other mad cap adventures. Check out theadventurists.com to find out more.

CONNECT WITH US

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right now. Go on, do it. It means you get to choose what episodes you listen to, rather than the algorithm guess (wrongly) and kick us off your feed. 

Following the show on socials will definitely maybe bring you good travel karma!

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast 

Armchair Explorer is produced by Armchair Productions. Aaron Millar writes and presents the show, Charles Tyrie does the audio editing and sound design, and Jason Paton is lead producer. Our theme music is by the artist Sweet Chap. Episode cover photo by Tom Archer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“… it’s incredible to get that picture of watching the caravans arrive on the horizon, and you don't know what they're going hold. You don't know what mysteries. People with strange languages, different clothes, and different smells. And they set up around the fire at night and play music you've never heard before; tell stories you've never heard before …”

In this series, we’re going to take you on a journey into the heart of one of the most ancient kingdoms on Earth. Located in the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia, Alula is an oasis in the desert layered in 200,000 years of human history. 

But, until recently, it was closed to outsiders, and to this day only a handful of visitors have ever been. In this immersive documentary, recorded on location, we’ll take you to the heart of one of the great wonders of Arabia and give you a glimpse of what it feels like to be there for real.

Highlights include:

• Exploring the ancient city of Hegra. Built by the same people who built Petra in Jordan, Hegra is every bit as spectacular but only visited by a handful of intrepid travelers.

• Visiting Jebel Ikmah, a library of ancient inscriptions carved into stone that reveal life in the desert more than 2,000 years ago.

• Riding Arabian horses to petroglyphs in the desert (and nearly falling off).

• Meeting a herd of overly friendly camels, with a taste for microphones.

• Learning from rawis, local storytellers, about the history of the incense road, a vast trading route, which passed through Alula, and changed the face of Arabia forever.

FIND OUT MORE

Our on-location Immersion documentaries are designed so that you can experience everything we did in this episode. Find out more at ExperienceAlula.com. Check out @experiencealula on Instagram, Facebook and X for more inspiration and ideas.

CONNECT WITH US

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right now. Go on, do it. It means you get to choose what episodes you listen to, rather than the algorithm guess (wrongly) and kick us off your feed. 

Following the show on socials will definitely maybe bring you good travel karma!

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast 

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I look out the window towards K2 and it's this splitter blue day with this little wisp of white snow coming off the top of the second highest mountain in the world and I'm feeling this sense of terror and this realization of, oh shit: What have I agreed to?”

Cory Richards is one of the world’s most renowned mountaineers and adventure photographers. He has climbed Everest without oxygen, been on the front cover of National Geographic and is the first American to climb an 8000m peak in winter.

In this episode, he shares his favorite adventures from the Andes to the Himalayas. But he also shares what he calls his “journey to quiet the chaos within”. Cory was diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a child. He was put in psychiatric hospitals, suffered extreme depression, and even - in his darkest moments - thought about ending it all.

Climbing mountains for Cory became a way to escape the “madness that was haunting him”. But it was a race he was doomed to lose. 

This story is both an edge of your seat adventure, told by one of the world’s greats, but also an extremely honest and vulnerable account of what it means to fall apart and rewrite your story anew. 

CONNECT WITH CORY

Cory’s latest book is called The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within. It is exquisitely well written, and my personal favorite adventure travel book this year. 

Check out his award-winning photography on Instagram: @coryrichards

MENTAL HEALTH

This episode deals with issues of mental health, specifically bipolar disorder and depression. If you’re going through anything, and need some help, there’s some links below. These are not personal endorsements. Make sure you do your own research, there’s a lot of great assets out there and there’s no need to suffer alone.

• National Institute for Mental Illness (USA): https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help
• Mind (UK): https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/guides-to-support-and-services/seeking-help-for-a-mental-health-problem/where-to-start/ 

CONNECT WITH US

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right now. Go on, do it. It means you get to choose what episodes you listen to, rather than the algorithm guess (wrongly) and kick us off your feed. 

Following the show on socials will definitely maybe bring you good travel karma!

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast 

CREDITS 

Armchair Explorer is produced by Armchair Productions. Aaron Millar and Jason Paton presented the show, Charles Tyrie did the audio editing and sound design. Our theme music is by the artist Sweet Chap.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices