In this conversation we explore the role of "The Underworld" in one's growth and maturation, how we can use dreams and symbols to make sense of our path, and what soul maturation means in the context of these challenges.

You can find more of Zach at agoraacademy.org

Some books to go deeper on the thinkers Zach references:

1. Wild Mind - Bill Plotkin
2. The Wild Edge of Sorrow - Francis Weller
3. Of Water and the Spirit - Malidoma Somé
4. Long Life, Honey in the Heart - Martin Prechtel

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

We explore the initiation Duffy went through that led to this calling, as well as the trials and tribulations that followed it.

Through it we discuss mythopoetics, human development, and what it means to wake up, grow up and show up.

You can find more of Duffy at:

• Duffy's substack: Our Will to Live (OWL)
• Duffy's instagram @mycelial_mischief
• Duffy's interview on Life's a Festival Podcast

Links to dive deeper on the people/topics discussed:

• Stephen Jenkinson Interview: Elderhood: Coming Of Age In Troubled Times
• Joanna Macy interview: On the World as Love and Self

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

In this conversation we move between the wisdom of elephant seals and bears and the ecosystems we share with them, experiments in wilderness solitude and animal tracking as a path to remembering.

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Meghan's fundraiser to Help Kalahari Bushmen Keep Their Indigenous Wisdom Alive
• Meghan's website
• Article on The river that came back to life: a journey down the reborn Klamath

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

We dive into Terror Management Theory, peak states of consciousness, and the ways adventure, discomfort, and integration can help us live more fully in the face of mortality.

It’s a conversation about fear, freedom, and the quiet power of choosing presence over certainty.

You can contact Alex via email at sielaff@arizona.edu

Some of the references discussed in this conversation are:

• The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
• Rude Awakening: Perils, Pitfalls, and Hard Truths of the Spiritual Path by P.T. Mistlberger
• Robert Anton Wilson's idea of Maybe Logic for holding multiple worldviews at the same time

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

After retired from whitewater, Rob shifted to the exploration of inner realms, training as a psychotherapist as well as in the Celtic shamanic tradition. He now leads psychedelic retreats in Amsterdam and Costa Rica with his organization inwardbound.nl.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Rob's article on Risk in Whitewater Kayaking: In the Eye of the Storm
• The Irish Centre for Celtic Shamanic Studies

You can learn more about Rob's work at inwardbound.nl or robocobhthaigh.com

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

He has atleast 18 ski-mountaineering first descents to his name, including Wedge, Mount Currie, Atwell, Serratus, and Mount Waddington and has also directed or produced 19 ski, paragliding, or action sport movies since the 80's many of which are credited with bringing big mountain, extreme skiing to the level of popularity it is at today.

We chat about his life of adventure, how he deals with fear, what he's learned from having more brushes with death than one could imagine, and much more.

You can purchase Peter's book I Survived Myself on Amazon here.

Links mentioned:

• A clip from Peter's movie: The North Face: Seven Years on Mount Robson
• Recommended film: K2 The Impossible Descent

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

The current expression of this craft is Vivify, a transformative journey for adventurous professionals and leaders. It blends 4 months of online leadership coaching with a unique 8-day off-trail backpacking expedition in the High Sierra.

In our conversation we go deep on how one can create transformative spaces in the time they spend outdoors, and more importantly, how one can use these peak states to ultimately be of greater service to those around us.

You can find links to go deeper on some of the topics here:

• Dom's piece on Ritual vs Discipline
• Josh Schrei's The Emerald Podcast: Animism is Normative Consciousness
• Josh Schrei's The Emerald Podcast on Ecological Grief: I Wish It Could Have Been Another Way
• The Great Simplification | Film on Energy, Environment, and Our Future | FULL MOVIE
• Dom's piece on The “Spiritual Infrastructure” of Climate

Dom is offering $500 off this May's Vivify program for listeners of Mountain Whispers. To inquire, follow this link.

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

We explore what is actually means to foster deeper connection to the more than human world and how one can access these subtle states of consciousness.

We dive deep into how Lauren facilitates this experience in a group setting, as well as how confronting fear and opening yourself to synchronicity are key parts of moving in these spaces.

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Neuroscientist David Eagleman explaining "The Umwelt"
• Lauren's upcoming trips at The River's Path

You can find more of Lauren at The River's Path link above. You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

• Connecting to your local bio-region and seeing it like a "Kin-dom"
• Ancestor practices - paying homage to those who came before us by understanding how they interacted with flora and fauna
• The power of animal tracking and pilgrimage as a way to connect and transform

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• The Emerald Podcast episode: Animism is Normative Consciousness
• Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage route in Japan

You can learn more about Fletcher's upcoming programs here, or find some of his music here.

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

He's been named a Top Ten Adventurer of the Year by National Geographic for feats including kayaking around Cape Horn and across the North Pacific from Japan to Alaska, to mountain biking across the northern Gobi in Mongolia, as well as numerous first ski descents and first rock climbing ascents around the globe.

What's even more captivating is the depth of his introspection throughout out this. The four books he's written document the way that endurance, fear, risk, and awe has shaped his character, but also interwine the history, anthropology, and mythology of the places he's been lucky enough to adventure in.

In this conversation we tease out some of these learnings to explore what it means to push adventures to the edge, while staying grounded enough to live to tell the tale.

You can learn more about Jon at jonturk.net and can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

Together we explore the parallels between outdoor and psychedelic modes of adventure, and more importantly, how one can integrate extreme experience in a way that helps us navigate complexity, thrive under pressure, and better practice compassion and empathy. All of these are skills that are becoming more important in a world that isn't getting any simpler.

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences by Rick Strassman
• Evolve Move Play - an organization bring participatory knowledge and wisdom from movement
• Trish Blain's model of four forces that shape worldviews

You can find more of Alexander at @alexander_beiner on Instagram, or subscribe to his Substack at The Bigger Picture.

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

We chat about:

• Connecting to the seasons, what it looks like to use each season as a different method of introspection
• Tools for cultivating intimacy with the natural world as a means of discovery
• The role of Vision Fasts, ceremony, and ritual as modalities of transformation

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Dragonfly Healing the of Karina Stevenson
• School of Lost Borders Vision Fast program

You can find more of Tara at tarasouch.ca

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

We chat about:

• Pushing limits in the outdoors and how it often leads to us performing at our best
• Flow states and the similarities between flow states from adventure sports vs plant-medicine ceremonies
• The nuances of accessing certain states of consciousness, the role of ceremony to enable this

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Bone Games: Extreme Sports, Shamanism, Zen, and the Search for Transcendence by Rob Schultheis
• The Fit for Service Program by Aubrey Marcus, Erick Godsey, and others
• LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven by Christopher M. Bache
• Spirit Plant Medicine Conference where Chris Bache spoke
• What even is the Umwelt Effect?

You can find more of Kyle www.connectionintegration.com or on Instagram @kyle_dow

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, and connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

We chat about many things, including the lessons he's learned from adventure and how travel equips you for life better than formal education.

On his experience in the wilderness, we chat about:

• The transformation of consciousness that happens after a certain amount of time
• The way the narrative self quiets down to a deep state of presence
• The warping of time and blending of waking and dream states
• The richness of the heightened state of awareness and the intuition that takes over

Links mentioned in this episode include:

• Mike's book The World's Most Travelled Man: A Twenty-Three-Year Odyssey to and through Every Country on the Planet
• Mike's website https://mikespencerbown.com
• Mike's essay on the world's religions Jinn and Adam's Rib

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

In our conversation we explore what it means to cultivate connection with the more than human world, the practice of giving our attention as a gift, and the way that these practices connect us to a wellspring of meaning, a sensation that can can feel scarce as we navigate the modern world.

We also dig into the Evolve Move Play's method and how cultivating a state of play is intertwined with flow, the way that fear and risk is held in a container, and a bunch more.

You can find Kyle on Instagram @trottingsparrow.

Links from the show:

• John Vervaeke's Awakening From the Meaning Crisis Series
• Breaking the Jump: The Secret Story of Parkour's High-Flying Rebellion by Julie Angel

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

We chat about:

• Going Pro, going big, and getting hurt - what it means to be conscious of your competency
• Managing fear and risk in the backcountry - how one can be prepared for the worst without being psyched out + practices for regulating your nervous system
• The Art of the Send - what it means to cultivate an intention practice it sending it it past fear and doubt in all aspects of life
• The power of community retreats for facilitating transformation

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Our Breath Collective - online breath-work community
• James Nestor's book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
• Retreat that Taylor co-foundered: thedrawout.com

You can find more of Taylor at:

• Instagram: @taylorgodber
• Taylor's website: createtravelinspire.com

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

We chat about:

• What it means to listen to the whispers of nature, of the more than human world
• The way in which modernity has severed our connection to this world
• Practices to participate and cultivate intimacy with the more than human world like reciprocity, foraging, and creating ritual space
• How natural history is the best way to form this connection for those with a low "woo-woo threshold"
• The way poetry is "the liberating form of language" that allows us to best describe these spaces
• 
  

You can find more of Fletcher at Wildtender and Gnome Life Records

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• The Gary Snyder quote comes from The Etiquette of Freedom essay, found in The Practice of the Wild
• Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
• The Dharmanaut Circle community w Erik Davis

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

"At some point, everyone in this event will seriously regret their decision to race" - Lars Bukkehave 2018 ATR winner

Ari gives us a debrief on exactly what let a stuntman to test his hand at expedition racing, paints us an oil canvas of a picture on the level of suffering he inflicted on himself, and provides a glimmer of wisdom he was able to take back from the initiation.

You can find more of Ari at:

• ariintheair.com
• Ari in the Air Podcast
• @ariintheair on Instagram

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

We chat about:

• How she broke into the professional ultramarathon and adventure racing scene
• The challenges of adventure racing and team dynamics
• The art of chasing Fast Known Times
• Why Fastpacking beats backpacking
• Much, much more

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Jenn's website (contact info can be found there)
• Hardrock 100 race

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

While the circumstances surrounding Justin's disappearance grip you like a true crime story, Harley and I explore Justin's spiritual pursuit of adventure, and the forces that drove him to take increasing risks in pursuit of spiritual breakthrough and enlightenment. This includes:

• Justin's unique upbringing and how it shaped how he sought adventure and meaning
• The mysterious circumstances surrounding his disappearance
• How sharing adventures with the world on social media can warp intentions and risk-profile
• The magnetism of the spiritual mountain top and how it can draw you into taking increased risks

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Justin's Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube channels that are still live
• Harley's article on Justin in Outside Magazine that inspired the book
• Mike Spencer Bown, the world's most travelled man, who Justin consulted about long-term wilderness survival right before his final adventure
• The contemplative practice of Sit Spotting that is taught at Washington's Wilderness Awareness School

You can find more of Harley at his website, on twitter, or on Instragram

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

Ari recently gave a talk at The Stoa on Brinksmanship, the art of finding and learning from your edge. Here we discuss the idea and some of the experiences that formed it.

Along with Brinksmanship, we chat about:

• Flow states in the outdoors, the do's and don't's of building a practice around peak states
• Developing a sensitivity for where your passion lies, for the information that fear conveys
• How endurance sports can change the way we understand the mind-body connection
• A bunch of other stuff in between

You can find more of Ari at https://ariintheair.com/ or on Instagram @ariintheair

Links mentioned:

• The book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Stoa course Beyond Self Discipline. See here for a post with some more info
• Bonnitta Roy, who Ari references when describing the difference between the role self and the individuated self

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

I discovered Jeff through his Instagram @staywildmedia, where I was absolutely captivated by the shots he captures of some of the beautiful mammals living in the Pacific Northwest

We chat about:

• The lost art & science of animal tracking & all the clues these animals leave to let us know they were here
• Lessons Jeff has learned from his filmmaking & activism work, including filming on Greenpeace's Sea Sheppard
• Other nuggets of wisdom and awesome facts about grizzlies, cougars, lynx's and caribou

You can catch Jeff on instagram, @staywildmedia, or view Jeff's film work and buy awesome animal prints at https://staywildmedia.com

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• https://echoconservation.org/
• The trailer to the Sea Sheppard Doco Jeff worked on Chasing the Thunder

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz

Belinda's adventures include walking across Nicaragua, searching for camels in China's Desert of Death, discovering ancient rock paintings in Lesotho, pioneering inclusive expeditions for people with disabilities. She has led dozens of youth development expeditions around the world and gained a Guinness World Record for rowing unsupported around Britain.

Her book Adventure Revolution: The life-changing power of choosing challenge explores all the ways that adventure has the power to transform.

We chat about:

• Her experience leading adventures with youth, the mental health crisis, and the power of getting outdoors
• The chronic stressors of modern society and the science behind spending time outdoors to "reset" our nervous system
• Belinda's most epic adventures, her relationship with fear, and how that has changed with time
• much, much more

You can find more of Belinda at:

• https://www.belindakirk.com
• You can sign up for the Explorers Connect newsletter here

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

• Tucker's life as a filmmaker and the circumstances that led to his Wilderness Quest
• Tucker's experience during the quest and why these experiences are so transformative
• A bunch of other topics in dancing around soul, spirit, and transformation

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Tucker's article on the magic of the Pachamama community in Costa Rica
• Tucker's short film "Treatment box" which won an Emmy Award in the 2019 Outstanding Special Class
• Bill Plotkin's Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche
• Gary Lachman's Lost Knowledge of the Imagination
• Tucker's recommendation for using grief for transformation: The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief by Francis Weller

For more information on Tucker's coaching offering, travel guide for the soul, see his website www.tuckerlighthouse.com

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

we chat about:

• The birth of Ryders, the same year that Brent won the first Canadian Mountain Bike Championship in 1986
• Legendary figures in the early Vancouver/Whistler mountain bike scene
• The Shoe Dog-esk story of building Ryders
• The spark that started Xcamp + how Brent designs experiences to facilitate group flow and transformation
• modalities of transformation: how we can design experiences of inspiration, healing, and connection through the modalities of adventure sports, breath, stillness, engaging the senses, and more

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• The books Stealing Fire & Recapture the Rapture
• The Presence Process breathwork by Michael Brown - book here, Youtube clip of the practice here
• The neuroscientist mentioned is Dr. Ryan D'Arcy, and functional medicine practitioner is Dr. Jan Venter

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

• How she fell in love and out of love with snowboarding. The challenges of filming mountain films, the toxic side of competition, and how it relates to intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation.
• How Meghann accesses flow states, how the feel of these states differ when snowboarding versus weaving
• much, much more

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Article on Robert Lanza's theory of Biocentrism: Rethinking Time, Space & Consciencenss
• The book Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness by Itzhak Bentov

You can find more of Meghann at her website https://meghannobrien.com/

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

We chat about some of James' most transformative experiences outdoors, the challenge of reconciling it into a belief system, how adventure sports develop out of privelege, and how fear and suffering are so often instrumental to transformation outdoors

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• James' article in Climbing Magazine on the Samburu moran who are taking to climbing
• James' post he shares at the end on spirituality and adventure

You can find more of James at the link above, or at https://www.kileleproject.com.

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram (@timstewnz)

• Simon's relationship to the outdoors and how it has developed and been influenced by depth psychology
• The ritual of initiation, its history, transformative power, and how adventure sports and travel can be viewed as modern attempts at self-initiation
• Depth psychology vs the rational-materialism of the scientific method. How concepts like the self (and transformation of the self) require a "more than rational" lens to contemplate how interacting with nature can lead to transformation.

Links on some of the topics of this conversation:

• A great article written by Simon: What is Initiation
• Bill Plotkin, his work on soul-making & wilderness rite of passage ceremonies: Animus Valley Institute
• René Descartes and mind/body dualism: See this article on How the dualism of Descartes ruined our mental health

You can find more of Simon on Instagram @depth_medicine and https://initiationscounseling.com/

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

• Marie-France's journey to going Pro + Whistler mountain culture in the early 2000's that enabled it
• Making decisions in the backcountry, stories of risk and injury
• Taking a stand for the environment and letting go of the expectation that you have to be perfect to be an advocate

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• More on Marie-France's cob-house on the West Coast of Vancouver Island
• Marie-France's documentary The Little Things - On environmentally conscious riders who are inspirational through their riding, as well as their sustainable ways of living and thinking. 
• Protect Our Winters Canada
• Dispatch from Fairy Creek - the protests against the logging of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island

You can find more of Marie-France on Instagram @mariefranceroy.

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

In our conversation we chat about:

• How he fell in love with the mountains, his move to Whistler in the early 20's, and his entrance into filmmaking through the pursuit of stoke
• How The Radicals came to be and how the magic of outdoors calls us to take action for the environment
• His latest film project Resilience and how confronting tragedy and our own mortality can help us make the most of our limited time on this earth

You can find Brian on Instagram at @brianhockenstein and Tim at @timstewnz.

If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a 5 star review on your podcast player :)

Connect with James' work at: https://www.kileleproject.com/

Other references in this episode:

• NOLS Outdoor leadership School
• Soulcraft by Bill Plotkin
• Bone Games by Rob Schultheis

Links from the episode

• Meetup page for Vancouver Psychedelic Society
• The book Bone Games: Extreme Sports, Shamanism, Zen, and the Search for Transcendence, by Rob Schultheis
• Find more of Kristof at https://www.kristoflenart.com/

A lot of topics are covered in this episode including

• The vagus nerve and the effect it has on our physiology
• Taoist tradition around meditation and perineum squeezes
• Bill Plotkin and combining depth psychology with wilderness practice
• Brain wave frequencies & how they influence flow states

You can learn more about Tyson and his upcoming course on Instagram: @tysonadams_ , or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adams.tyson

Find Tim on Instagram: @timstewnz

• How mountain sports and British Columbia as a destination has evolved over the last 20 years
• The story of how Kootenay Mountain Culture first got off the ground
• Flow states and how connection with nature that comes from mountain sports, helps us better drop into flow
• Mitchell's Experience with taking risks, dealing with fear, and making gut decisions on when to take, or skip the gnarly line

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend, or hit me up directly. Find me on Instagram @timstewnz.

We chat about how he got into these sports, the nature of guiding, what's it's like to mix your passion with your day-job, as well as some of the spicy expeditions and adventures he's completed.

You can connect further with Jordan here: http://strikerguiding.com/

In this episode, I speak to Johnny Amberg. Johnny is a base jumper and entrepreneur based out of Lauterbrunnen Switzerland.

In this conversation gets into a bunch of the topics I'm most passionate about:

• How he got into the sport/discipline of BASE jumping
• What flow states mean to him, his rituals for getting into flow
• What risk looks like in BASE, how he managed fear, risk, and death
• A bunch of other lessons he's learned from his life of adventure

Johnny's hostel in Lauterbrunnen Switzerland: https://www.instagram.com/alpinebasehostel/?igshid=si1wpfmzqq3e

Johnny's Youtube (he's not super active on socials): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW6_2fLO7NGNA-mENtoH8yQ