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An interview with author Jennifer Jordan

In 1939 Dudley Wolfe was on one of the earliest expeditions to reach the summit of K2. An adventurer and one of the wealthiest men in the world he was left for dead with a rescue team of Sherpa after a devastating avalanche. Some say he was the victim of his own foolishness, others say he was abandoned by the members of his climbing party as they fled the mountain to save their own lives. And even though his body has been found there remains a great deal of controversy around Wolfe’s death that continues to this day. In her book “The Last Man on the Mountain” Jennifer Jordan gives us a close look into life of an American adventurer and the first to die on K2.

Jennifer Jordan

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I know. It’s been a long time since the last audio edition of The Joy Trip Project. But if you’ve been following the blog and the Facebook page you’ll know that I’ve been traveling on an extend Joy Trip. I just got back. Over the past several weeks of summer I’ve been conducting interviews and collecting stories about people and institutions hard at work making the world a better place.

I know that sounds like hyperbole or so vague that it sounds almost meaningless. But there’s really no other way for me to describe the athletes, artist and activists who find their way on this show. Yeah I know we talk a lot about climbing mountains or making movies about people who climb mountains or base jumping or kayaking or whatever, the point is these people work at protecting the planet and improving the lives of others by being actively engaged in the world in which they live. Through their stories about their adventures they stand as an example of how each of us can make a difference in the course our own lives and perhaps do some good.

A few weeks ago I was at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride. And if you’ve ever been you’ll know this annual celebration of adventure culture through cinema is about a lot more than high altitude thrill rides and adrenaline induced mayhem. The collected speakers, authors, and filmmakers give us a look from their perspective into the many complex questions of life. One of the presenters and judge in the film competition was the actress Anna Deavere Smith. And while she’s not a climber or a skier or any type of outdoor professional through the power of storytelling she has the ability show us a glimpse into the lives others who ponder these same questions.

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An interview with director Louie Psihoyos

The truths discovered in documentary films often reveal far more than meet the eye. In his Oscar winning movie “the Cove” photojournalist Louie Psihoyos takes us on an adventure that perhaps shows us more than we want to see.

“I lead an elite team of activists to penetrate a secret cove in Japan to reveal a dark secret,” Psihoyos said.

The Cove, part action thriller, part nature film is the exciting story behind a covert operation to document one of the most horrific atrocities of the 21^st century, the systematic slaughter of dolphins.

“They kill more dolphins than anywhere on the planet right there at this cove, which incidentally is in a Japanese national park, a marine sanctuary,” Psihoyos said. That’s the irony of this whole thing. But it’s also the scene of the captive dolphin trade. Most of the captive dolphins in the world come from this little cove.” Read the rest of this entry »

Moving Mountains symposium on the extiction crisis

I’m sure it wasn’t just the altitude. Over Memorial Day weekend I nursed a raging headache at Mountain Film in Telluride. There was also a deep churning at the pit of my stomach that made me feel a bit uneasy. But at 9,000 above sea level I believe the symptoms I felt were less due to a lack of oxygen than it was the sudden and intense onslaught of complex ideas, passion stirring images and ire-raising conversations that are typically part of the Mountain Film experience. As passionate artists, athletes and activists come together to share their particular view of life on Earth, most who attend are roused to an emotional reaction they can feel in their hearts and minds as well as their bodies. Read the rest of this entry »

I should be horizontal. The Mountain Film Festival in Telluride came to a close just a few hours ago. And after five action-packed days taking photographs and conducting interviews I’m pretty wiped-out.  I aught to be in bed getting some much needed sleep. Soon I’ll begin work on a more lengthy blog post and you can look forward to several new podcasts. But for the moment I just had to take a few minutes to share with you the absolute best highlight of the event.

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Dust that settles on high mountain ice will have a profound affect on the rate at which snow melts and flows into steams below. New research shows that light absorbing particles speed the transmission of sunlight to melt snow much faster than previously thought. Read the rest of this entry »

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It says in the Talmud, the sacred text of Jewish law, “Save one life and you save world.” Dr. Rick Hodes has saved dozens of lives and his continuing work in service of the children has made the world a better place for us all.

A pediatric oncologist who specializes in the treatment of heart disease, spine disease and cancer, Dr. Hodes compassionately practices medicine at Mother Theresa’s Mission in Ethiopia. Caring for sick and destitute children in one of the most impoverished regions of the world he’s also the subject of a new book and a film for HBO called “Making the Crooked Straight.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride announced today its final selection of movies to appear in the next month’s Memorial Day weekend event. The annual celebration of mountain culture promises to deliver an eclectic mix of motion pictures that will not only thrill but inspire. Though centered around the active outdoor lifestyle the list of pics aims to challenge audiences to think critically about their actions in the world where they live and play.

“We are particularly excited about the festival this year,” said director David Holbrooke in a press release. “We have a very strong and varied lineup of films, speakers and artists. We have accomplished mountaineers like Ed Viesturs and Conrad Anker but we also have artists like Maya Lin and Chris Jordan. We have environmental activists like Dave Foreman and Tim DeChristopher but we also have civil rights activists with two Freedom Riders coming to town.”

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An interview with Time Magazine reporter and author Pico Iyer

From a very young age  Pico Iyer has had a close personal relationship with one of the worlds great spiritual and political leaders. In 1960 his father a professor of philosophy and a student of world religions was among first westerns to seek an audience with the Dalai Lama.  Traveling from his home in England Iyer’s father journeyed  back to his native India to meet the Dalai Lama then around the age of 24.  In their conversations the Tibetan Buddhist ruler in exile and Iyer’s father discussed ancient mystic wisdom that had been unavailable to the outside world for centuries. And with the exchange of a single simple gift, they also established a connection between the Dalai Lama and Iyer that now spans almost 50 years.

“At the end of his conversation with the Dalai Lama in 1960 he said ‘I have this little three year-old boy back in England and he was already quite interested in the story of your dramatic flight from Tibet into India’,” Iyer said.  “And so the Dalai Lama, with his great gift for the perfect gesture found a photo of himself when he was 5 years old and sent it to me. And so from the time I was three I had this photo of this little boy, 5 years old, already ruling 6 million people. I didn’t understand who or what the Dalai Lama was. But I could make a contact with this little boy sitting in this place. And I could see all the responsibility he had. So in that sense I grew up with the image of the Dalai Lama and stories of the Dalai Lama from the time I was a little boy.”

From the gift of that photograph to their first meeting years later Iyer and the Dalai Lama have been become good friends. And through the course of his career as a journalist Iyer has cultivated a deep insight to the philosophy that has guided the Dalai Lama toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict between China and Tibet. In his new book The Open Road: The Global Journey of the 14^th Dalai Lama Iyer shares his view of the spiritual and political path we all take to find peace in our lives and the world in which we live.

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An interview with adventure filmmaker Dominic Gill

I don’t know about you. But I’ve got a hard time getting motivated, especially when it comes to doing something hard, something that might take a lot of time, cost a bit of money or might even be a little scary. Life’s journey can be tough enough just trying to get by making it from day to the next. But every once in a while, someone comes along that prompts you to action. They get you psyched up and excited because you can see they’re going places and the next thing you know it you get swept up in the momentum and just like your own life’s journey heads in a whole new direction. You follow that person right a new road of adventure. Last fall I met a guy just like that.

Now before get the wrong idea, I didn’t get on the back of that bicycle. I can tell you that had I me this guy riding down the coast of California I would have climbed aboard in a second. Dominic Gill was one a one of a few dozen movie producers I met during the 2009 Banff Film Festival. His documentary called Take A Seat follows his two-year journey by tandem bicycle over 20,000 mile of open road. Asking total strangers to pedal behind him on what his calls the stoker seat his travels brought a fresh sense of adventure into hearts and minds of everyone he met or who tagged along for the ride. Read the rest of this entry »