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.”

Louie Psihoyos

Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved dolphins. These smiling marine mammals are the very image of fun and freedom. Growing up in Southern California I used love to see the dolphin and killer whale shows at ocean theme parks like Marine Land and Sea World. But I never really gave any thought to where these animals came from. The captive dolphin industry was started more than 50 years ago by a man named Rick O’Barry.

“Rick O’Barry is the guy who captured and trained the four dolphins who collectively played the part of Flipper, the popular 1960s television series ‘Flipper’,” said Psihoyos. “And (he) spent about 10 years building that industry up and he’s sent the last 40 tearing it down. The turning point for him was when Cathy, the primary dolphin that played the part of Flipper committed suicide in his arms that he realized that they are more sentient, more intelligent than anyone realized including himself and really turned himself around after that, and he’s probably become the world’s best known dolphin advocate.”

One of the greatest ironies in nature is the dolphin’s smile. In captivity that characteristic grin masks a deep sorrow of intelligent creatures that are rounded up and put on display for our amusement. And in the Cove those less suited for the marine mammal sideshow are killed and butchered to be eaten.  But here’s the greatest irony. With high levels of mercury in the world’s oceans brought on by industrial pollution dolphin meat is toxic.

In this interview with Louie Psihoyos recorded at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride  the Joy Trip Project brings you this incredible story.

New music this week by Chad Farran from his album Another Ride. Find more of his work online at www.chadfarran.com.

This podcast is brought to you thank to generous support of our sponsor Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them.

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast help spread the word by posting a link to it on your Facebook page. Or send it as a tweet to your followers on Twitter. Social media is vibrant exchange of ideas join the conversation by becoming engage. Post your comments the Joy Trip Project blog or send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com.

Share your stories. share your passion for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends. Until next time take care.

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.

“With so much going on, the oils spill that just happened, climate change and the extinction crisis, I think we all felt it more intensely this year,” said Peter Kenworthy, executive director of Mountain Film. “Through all the films and speakers we cover a lot of issues that are very important to a lot of people who care deeply about the environment.”

Mountain Film is an event that really makes you think hard about the impact humankind imposes on the natural world. Sometimes it hurts. The very notion that the sixth mass extinction of species on the planet is the direct result of human activity is a tough idea to get your head around. Those like me with small underdeveloped brains can experience physical pain, a throbbing at the temples, just trying to process compelling and detailed information presented by some of the top minds in the world.

Joel Sartore

“We can’t take these complex issues any more,” said National Geographic Magazine photographer Joel Sartore. To put it simply he said during the Moving Mountains symposium on extinction. “We are the ‘Earth-eaters’ and we’re going to chew (everything) up with us.”

Our voracious appetite for energy and natural resources extracted from the Earth are making it difficult for many non-human species to survive. Increasing levels of carbon dioxide are warming the atmosphere melting the polar ice caps, causing seas to rise and making ocean water more acidic. Fish, amphibians and aquatic mammals suffer. Many die disrupting the food chain. Animal habitats and migration corridors are rapidly being destroyed as land around the world is developed for housing or stripped of its plant and mineral resources. More species die.

Dave Foreman

“The sixth great extinction has been going on for the last 50,000 years,” said Dave Foreman, co-founder of the environmental protection group Earth First. Referring to the ascendance of humans to the planet’s dominant creature he suggests that our history can be traced through the loss of species cut down in the wake of our progress toward civilization. As we continue to grow we’re pushing them out, depriving countless animal populations of the space, resources and time they need to survive.

“We can not stop the extinction crisis until we give the other Earthlings on this planet more room,” Foreman said.

It’s going to take action on the part of humankind to correct the problems our species as created. Programs like Freedom To Roam, lead by first American K2 climber and environmental activist Rick Ridgeway, work to acquire land and influence policy makers in order to preserve habitats and the pathways between them. Ridgeway’s goal is to encourage species diversity by maintaining the integrity of fragile ecosystems so often thrown out of balance by human industrial activity.

Rick Ridgeway

“I don’t want to leave this planet to my children only with species who have learned to adapt to us,” he once told me in an interview. “Weed species we see around cities like cockroaches, pigeons, rats, coyotes and sparrows will be all that we have left.”

Mountain Film offers both a prophetic vision of a future rife with doom as well as signs of hope for a bright future. Presented with artistically rendered films that illustrate the destruction of our planet, audience members are also shown stories of courageous men and women who work toward the protection and preservation animal species at risk around the world.

Louie Psihoyos

“We have to take action,” said Louie Psihoyos, director of the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove.” We’re loosing animal species faster than we can record them.”

In his film Psihoyos leads an “Ocean’s Eleven-style” team of activists to infiltrate a secret facility in a Japanese fishing village where 23,000 dolphins are slaughtered every year. Capturing the deaths of these creatures on film, “The Cove” has brought this horrible tragedy to light while inspiring those who see it become better educated and aware of man’s cruelty to other species. Perhaps Psihoyos could inspire a new generation of environmental activist to take up the cause.

“We’re not just making a movie,” he said. “We’re starting a movement.”

That’s the power of the Mountain Film experience. More than just series of action pics set in exotic locales, the festival makes you uncomfortable to point of despair, even illness. Our passions roused, we are compelled by the stories of those brave enough to take a stand and reverse our path toward destruction. Entertaining to be sure, but the filmmakers and other artists at Mountain Film are advocates that craft a narrative of our times to demonstrate to those who watch how they might help change the world.

“As a journalist I never felt comfortable putting myself in the story,” Psihoyos said. “But with this movie I want to influence the news. I want to make people feel uncomfortable. You have to be part of the solution and not just report it.”

Dr. Rick Hodes, subject of last year’s Moving Mountains prize winning film “Making The Crooked Straight,” was invited back to Mountain Film to be a judge in the competition. Along with his adopted son, Hodes brought along a young girl from Ethiopia named Mieraf Atanafu. Like many of the children in Hodes’ care Mieraf suffered from a severe from of scoliosis combined with spinal tuberculosis that horribly twisted her spine. Other children in her village cruelly teased and mistreated Mieraf from a very young age. They called her humpback.

Fortunately with the money he received from Mountain Film, $5,000, Dr. Hodes was able to get Mieraf a surgical procedure that straightened her crooked spine. She came to Telluride standing tall, proud and happy to thank the filmmakers, artists and donors for making this miracle possible. No kidding her story moved me to tears.

But that’s not the half of it. Mountain Film also welcomed this year the subject of the Oscar winning documentary “Music By Prudence.” Born in Zimbabwe with a terrible birth defect Prudence Mabhena was also subjected to extreme cruelty by not only her peers, but also her family. She was abandoned as a child and sent to an assisted living center for children with disabilities. But at the King George VI School she discovered her talent for music and is now the lead singer in a band of all disabled young people called Liyana.

Confined to a wheelchair with stumped legs and malformed arms Prudence preformed two exquisit concerts, singing for Mountain Film after screenings of her documentary. Thoroughly embraced by our community Prudence became acquainted with Dr. Rick Hodes who examined her and evaluated her condition. After a phone call to a colleague in Africa, Dr. Hodes announced during the closing ceremonies that he had arranged for a spine straightening procedure for Prudence.

“This never would have happened if it weren’t for Mountain Film,” Dr. Hodes said. “The generosity of this community is amazing and you’re making wonderful things happen.”

So once again I was brought to tears. Even though Mountain Film began more than 30 years ago as a celebration of adventure it has become so much more. By raising awareness for those who triumph over adversity in the most remote corners of the world Mountain Film has become an institution that explores the path of excellence from the depths of despair to the very heights of human achievement.

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.

“The effect of dust both in and on the snow pack, particularly when it’s on the snow surface is to radically alter the energy balance on the snow surface by directly absorbing solar energy,” said Chris Landry of the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies. “It really challenges the conventional wisdom that mountain snow melt is driven by air temperature. We’re able to show pretty definitively that the absorption of radiation by the snow pack can be the predominant driver of snowmelt.”

On the drive south to Telluride from Golden, Colorado I could see the brownish tent of dust on snowfields high in the Rockies. In town for the Mountain Film Festival I naturally thought about the impact of particle generating industries that were likely the cause of dust that collects along the range as high 12,000 feet.

Studies have shown that dust deposited by windstorms hundreds of miles away can increase the rate of sunlight adsorption by as much as 40 percent. In this addition of Assignment Earth we take a look at how these new findings will likely change to way water managers and farmers calculate the flow of snowmelt, the primary source of fresh water in many communities throughout the west.

MountainFilm makes you think about your life on Earth in a different way. This wonderful gathering at of artists, athletes and activists share their passion for the natural world and put into context the desperate decline of habitat on our planet. Writers, photographers and filmmakers present their particular view on the world and offer ordinary people the inspiration to prompt their action toward creating change that lasts.

Though there is very little I can personally do to reduce the amount of dust on snow in the Rockies, I can allow my awareness to be raised. Things such as this I must keep in mind while regulating my own consumption of precious resources like drinking water. As snow melts faster and becomes more scarce it becomes more important to exercise conservation and curb my personal use.

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.”

I met Dr. Hodes last year at the 2009 Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride Colorado. At an event packed with adventure movies and travel logs from around the world “Making the Crooked Straight” was a stand out favorite taking the top prize for best film and a cash award of $5,000.

Immediately after the closing ceremonies Dr. Hodes shared with me his story and few pictures of the children whose lives he saved.

Making the Crooked Straight – MF09 Trailer from Mountainfilm in Telluride on Vimeo.

Music this week by the Ahn Trio and new contributing artist John Common & Blinding Flashes of Light.

This podcast is brought to you thank to generous support of our sponsors Recreational Equipment Inc. REI and Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them.

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast help spread the word by posting a link to it on your Facebook page. Or send it as a tweet to your followers on Twitter. Social media is vibrant exchange of ideas join the conversation by becoming engage. Post your comments the Joy Trip Project blog or send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com.

Share your stories. share your passion for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends. Until next time take care.

“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.”

The films included “The Cove”, the 2010 Oscar winner for best documentary on the hunting of dolphins in Japan, “The Wildest Dream”, a adventure bio pic on the life of George Mallory who perished on Everest in 1924 and “Music By Prudence” an Oscar winning short that depicts the life of a disabled singer in Zimbabwe. The list goes on and on as roster of the best domestic and international films on the human condition in concert with the natural world.

But at Mountain Film the movies typical play a secondary role to the conversations that happen in between screenings. Though the films themselves follow a variety of different themes this year festival’s Moving Mountains Symposium will focus on the Extinction Crisis, the plight of animals around the world dying in record numbers, many beyond the point of recovery.

“At first we thought to call it the bio-diversity crisis. But not everyone knows what that means,” Holbrooke said in an interview. “But extinction? Everyone understands that. It’s a crisis. But it’s a crisis we can address.”

Due in many cases to human activity on the planet species are going extinct. Throughout the weekend guest speakers and attendees will discuss many of the key issues behind the destruction of habitat, presenting many of the causes as well as the solutions.

“There are a lot of smart people out there that don’t know the extinctions crisis exists,” Holbrooke said. “But Maya Lin the artist, she’s the one who really explained it to me. And unlikely people like Rick Ridgeway, he a climber, but Rick really understands the central focus of this.”

One movie in particular at Mountain Film addresses the issue of extinction. “Call of Life” is a documentary that illustrates the most significant loss of species on the planet in last 65 million years. “And we’re now starting another mass extinction,” said Stanford biologist Paul R. Ehrlich in the film. “Except this time it’s not an asteroid. It’s our own species homo sapiens that’s doing the job.”

Deep discussions, inspirational speakers and intelligent activists make Mountain Film an event not to be missed. Tickets and show schedules are available on line at www.mountainfilm.org. Hope to see you there!

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.

Music by Jake Shimabukru

This recording from season 1 of the Joy Trip Project was originally brought to you thank to a generous grant from KEEN Footwear. Also thanks to our current sponsors, Recreational Equipment Inc, REI and Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them. Find links to their web sites on ours at JoyTripProject.com

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast help spread the word by posting a link to it on your Facebook page. Or send it as a tweet to your followers on Twitter. Social media is vibrant exchange of ideas join the conversation by becoming engage. Post your comments the Joy Trip Project blog or send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com.

Share your stories. share your passion for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends. Until next time take care.

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.

Music this week by the band Trees On Fire

Special thanks to the New Belgium Brewing Company for underwriting travel expenses to Banff that made this podcast possible. Also thanks to our sponsors, Recreational Equipment Inc, REI and Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them.

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast help spread the word by posting a link to it on your Facebook page. Or send it as a tweet to your followers on Twitter. Social media is vibrant exchange of ideas join the conversation by becoming engage. Post your comments the Joy Trip Project blog or send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com.

Share your stories. share your passion for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends. Until next time take care.

It’s been more than a month since the last podcast. Thanks to everyone for all the emails and Facebook messages asking for the next edition. After an action packed first season of production, the realities of life came crashing down like a devastating wave. The recession of 2009 made times a bit tough. Simply put the project was placed indefinite hold while I scrambled together a few odd writing jobs through the end of December and all of January. I had to work to make enough cash to pay our property tax bill. I’m happy to say that I recently wrote a fat check to city of Madison and now the project is back on track.

Bryan Smith

I’ve learned a lot through that first season. With the collapse of traditional media, as newspapers and magazine continue to fold up under the weight of an antiquated model of communication, I’ve discovered that this form of storytelling, sharing music, art and adventure online is the wave of the future. With many creative souls out there building new high quality content for Internet there’s no shortage of great stories to tell. If you’ve been following along on the blog and on Facebook, you’ll know that I’ve been more than a little busy still traveling and finding new subjects to share with you. And in the process I’ve become thoroughly inspired by the work of many others who are pushing the boundaries of creative expression as they explore the heights and depths of the human spirit.

You’ve heard me mention my friend Fitz Cahall. He’s the creator of my favorite podcast The Dirtbag Diaries. Fitz has new project that recently posted the Internet, a series of short films that depict the lives of adventurers chasing their passion through course of a year, a season.

I connected with Fitz toward the end of last year during the Banff Mountain Film Festival. There I saw the premiere edition of the 22 part film series The Season. It’s an exciting yet, moderately paced thoughtful contemplation on what motivates ordinary people who do exceptional things in the outdoors. At the Banff Centre for mountain culture, in Alberta Canada, I also met Fitz’s partner co-producer and director of the Season Bryan Smith.

Produced exclusively for distribution online, the Season brings Internet adventure storytelling to a new level. Directed by Bryan Smith this new film series illustrates the narrative behind the lives of people like each of us who aspire to lead a rich live in adventure.

The Season Trailer from Fitz Cahall on Vimeo.

The Season produced by Bryan Smith and Fitz Cahall premieres online at www.theseasontv.com.

Music this week by Jake Shimabukuro.

Special thanks to the New Belgium Brewing Company for underwriting travel expenses to Banff that made this podcast possible. Also thanks to our sponsors, Recreational Equipment Inc, REI and Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them.

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast help spread the word by posting a link to it on your Facebook page. Or send it as a tweet to your followers on Twitter. Social media is vibrant exchange of ideas join the conversation by becoming engage. Post your comments the Joy Trip Project blog or send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com.

Share your stories. share your passion for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends. Until next time take care.

We’ve explored much of the modern world. Today very little is left to tempt the imagination. We’ve succeeded in climbing the highest mountains. We’ve traveled to the depths of the ocean. There’s not much of our planet that we haven’t seen. It would seem then now that what remains of adventure, at least on earth, isn’t to discover where human beings have yet to go but instead where we’ve been.

A new film by produced in cooperation PBS and National Geographic takes a look at the discovery and exploration of an ancient civilization. The new film The Secrets of Shangri-La: Quest for Secret Caves premiered at the 2009 Banff Mountain Film Festival.  In this edition of The Joy Trip Project producer and professional mountain guide Peter Athans takes us on an amazing journey to reveal the great mysteries of a long-ago culture once forgotten.

New music this week by Chad Farran from his album Another Ride. Find his online at www.chadfarran.com.

This podcast is brought to you thank to generous support of our sponsors Recreational Equipment Inc. REI and Patagonia. Special thanks to the New Belgium Brewing Company for underwriting in part travel expenses to Banff to make this edition possible. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them.