The Call to Adventure Podcast

Formerly the We Need More Heroes Podcast, the Call to Adventure pod brings you the best in adventure and activism. We sit down with adventurers who are doing something inspiring - skiing to the poles, summiting mountains, putting up new routes, exploring the unknown - whilst doing their bit to protect our wild places. Join the mission at CalltoAdventure.UK and 'CalltoAdventureOfficial' on social media.

CTA 029 - Ben Turner, Personal Trainer, Nutritionist and endurance athlete on becoming fit for life

Ben Turner is a real-life man of the mountains. Since starting his outdoor career as a Physical Training Instructor in the Army, Ben’s been passionate about physical fitness and exploring the world’s extreme mountain environments. As well as winning international military competitions, he has led mountaineering expeditions in remote and dangerous places including South Africa and the Himalayas. Ben has also completed a series of impressive endurance challenges including a 3373-kilometer solo ...

08-01
01:20:30

CTA 028 - Dan Yates – white-water kayaker, environmental campaigner and co-founder of Save Our Rivers

Dan Yates has been passionate about white-water kayaking for over 30 years. He’s travelled to some of the wildest and remotest landscapes on earth and has had some incredible adventures, including being lost on the Tibetan Plateau with no food or water! He has a boatload of first white-water descents under his belt and kayaking has taken him to some seriously epic places where no human has ever been before. During the last decade, he has become more focused on the environment and the need to ...

06-28
53:29

CTA 027 - Laura Owen Sanderson discusses combining her passions for wild swimming and environmental research

Laura describes herself as a wild swimmer, ‘waterlogger’, adventurer, environmentalist, company director, artist and a mum – sounds like an awesome job description to us! She wasn’t always a passionate advocate of wild swimming though. In her previous life, she worked in a senior position in teacher training in Llandudno. It was a very busy and stressful career that eventually led to burn-out and Laura becoming extremely unwell with fibromyalgia, even needing a full blood transfusion at one ...

05-27
48:18

CTA 026 - Instructor, author and Search and Rescue expert Moose Mutlow talks about a career in the outdoors and the emotional impact of being a First Aid Responder

From instructing, teaching, Search and Rescue to family liaison with a smattering of street entertaining along the way, Action Man Moose Mutlow has definitely been there and done that! Born in Birmingham, Moose spent some years living in Australia, South Africa and Europe before settling in the United States. Like many future adventurers most of his childhood was spent outdoors in nature exploring and building dens, but it was a trip to Scotland to take part in a survival course that changed ...

05-02
47:43

CTA 025 - Nick Hounsfield, founder of The Wave, stroke survivor and Blue Health advocate

Wavemaker’ Nick Hounsfield was introduced to surfing by his father in the 1970s and soon developed a passion for it. He started to see surfing as a tool for having conversations around wellbeing, which led to him founding The Wave – an inland surfing destination for people of all abilities and backgrounds. Nick’s idea was to create a space where people could connect with each other, themselves, and with nature. He champions ‘blue health’ – the physical and mental health benefits of being in a...

04-03
47:18

CTA 024 - Keen climbers Charlie and Dale from Nohma (prev. Climbingvan) talk about living and travelling full time in Ringo, their self-built van

Meet Charlie and Dale of Nohma, currently travelling Europe and living full time in their self-built camper van. Fed up with living for evenings and weekends, Charlie and Dale gave up their secure 9-5 office jobs for a life on the road – working remotely from wherever their fancy takes them and waking up to gorgeous mountain views. They started building Ringo, their bright yellow Sprinter van, in January 2019, fully intending to go exploring when they were done. Ringo was finished in March 20...

03-07
54:05

CTA 023 - Adventurer, Conservationist and Regenerative Farmer Ness Knight Digs Deep into the Lessons She's Learned from Years of Exploration

Long-term adventurer and explorer Ness Knight has not always called her West Yorkshire farm home. Ness has pioneered some of the world's toughest and most intriguing expeditions, such as her trip to the Essequibo River with the Wai Wai tribe and her adventure partners Pip Stewart and Laura Bingham. A quest which led them to discover much more than the previously unknown source of the river. Ness has also crossed the Namib Desert region solo, swum the length of the Thames and made a world-firs...

02-14
57:19

CTA 022 - Climate Explorers - The Trio Taking on Eco-Adventures for the UK’s National Parks

Join Isaac, Lukas and Alex as we discuss the biking adventure that took them from the Orkney Islands in Scotland down to the Isles of Scilly, fitting as many National Parks as they could in between and navigating the water crossings by water bikes. An adventure taken on by this bunch of eco-adventurers, and it must be said eco-optimists, who hoped to spend their trip shining a light on the issues currently facing the UK’s green spaces and what we can do to protect them for the sake of the pla...

01-23
50:22

CTA 021 - Pete McNeil on all things biking, racing and what it’s like to spend 2 years cycling to New Zealand for your honeymoon

Pete McNeil has been riding bikes for as long as he can remember. At the age of 12 he started really upping his game, racing and riding wherever he could and always setting the bar a bit higher. Since his childhood riding days Pete has become an accomplished bike guide, racer and adventure leader, whose endeavours have taken him on a 2 year ride to New Zealand with his wife Alice, the infamous Silk Road Mountain Race and most recently the Highland 550. We chat to Pete about ways to get starte...

12-09
01:04:43

CTA 020 - Empowering Kids to Change the World for Good with Libby Bowles

Libby Bowles had a pretty great life back in the early 2010’s, working as a conservationist and animal behaviour expert in coastal Mozambique, spending her days working on ground-breaking research and living in her beach shack, surfing the evenings away. Eventually, a resurfacing feeling that she had to do something more led her to walking away from paradise and back to rainy Britain to educate, inspire, empower people to do more to combat ocean pollution. Formerly a school teacher, Libby Bow...

12-02
53:41

CTA 019 - Crossing Oceans for Mental Health with Charlie Head

Charlie Head circumnavigated the country to get people talking about mental health Charlie Head is no stranger to adventure. His stand up paddle board has taken him across the Arctic, through the Nile and along the Amazon, meeting and living with tribespeople and locals along the way to discuss education, community and the environment. His most recent achievement was his circumnavigation of the UK, which he pursued as an opportunity to spread the word about mental health and encourage convers...

11-26
56:42

CTA 018 - Harrison Ward, AKA the ‘Fell Foodie’ on reaching rock bottom, taking one step at a time and the joy of a homecooked meal at 900m

Harrison Ward, or ’Fell Foodie’ on Instagram wasn’t always running up and down the Cumbrian fells with a stove and the ingredients for a hilltop curry in his rucksack. Though it’s how he spends most of his days now, it was a tough journey to get there. Harrison tells his story of overcoming years of depression and alcoholism and how eventually, it was the fells that saved him. Harrison talks about pulling himself out of the depths of darkness and making that first physical and metaphori...

11-18
53:12

CTA 017 - Elise Downing on running around the country, the joy of the UK and never giving up

Elise Downing was sat in her London grad job office, miserable with the corporate grind, when the idea of running around the UK first came to her. In 2015 the spent 10 months running a lap of the UK, gradually building up her mileage to running 30-40 miles a day and for the most part staying with friends or strangers. It was a trip that would teach her the power and presence of kindness in the UK, the joy of long distance adventures and that the hardest step is simply committing to it in the ...

11-11
56:16

CTA 016 - Summiting Mental and Physical Peaks: How the Natural Health Service Saved Alex Staniforth

Alex Staniforth has battled anxiety, disordered eating, depression, bullying and even avalanches to get to where he is, a trailblazer for achieving mental wellbeing through being outdoors. At just 26, he is already a record-breaking adventurer and ultra-endurance athlete, with a fair few achievements under his belt. Having endured both the 2014 avalanche in Nepal and the earthquake in 2015 whilst attempting an Everest summit, completed the National 3 Peaks by foot in just 9 days and taken on ...

11-05
48:10

CTA 015 - Resilience Through Pain and Disability - Being Extraordinary, with Alex Flynn

We are releasing this podcast a few days after Alex's passing on Mera Peak in Nepal, where he was training to become to first person with Parkinson's to summit Everest. His family commented that "he went out exactly how he would have wanted to, off the high of having completed another adventure on top of the world about to step into a helicopter ready to take on the next challenge." We hope this episode does such justice to such a trailblazer of a man, and that it goes on to inspire you to li...

10-27
35:27

CTA 014 - The power of listening to nature and how it can guide us to be ethical consumers with Jarvis Smith

Jarvis Smith is the co-founder of My Green Pod, the UK's leading ethical lifestyle store and media company, on a mission to help people live more sustainable lifestyles and purchase ethical alternatives to mainstream products. They hope to encourage businesses to change their models and practises, and for individuals to lead the charge. In this episode, Jarvis shares with us the moment he vowed to dedicate his life to inspiring people to live more conscious lifestyles, on camera in front of m...

10-27
01:12:36

CTA 013 - Wild Swimming Brother's - The Call to Coldwater: Why More and More People are Loving Wild Swimming

Wild swimming is like a secret society these days. With those 'on the inside' having access to a whole new type of outdoor euphoria, connection with nature and mind-body experience. The good news is, this is no exclusive club. Wild swimming is for everyone. And Wild Swimming Brothers Jack, Calum and Robbie are here to get your psyched and ready. For those that are curious, seeing people jump ecstatically into cold lakes and hammer through ice with nothing but a swimming costume on can...

07-01
58:21

CTA 012 - Rebecca Wrigley from Rewilding Britain: Why UK Wild Spaces Need to be Even Wilder

We all know that we need to take drastic action to avoid the imminent climate emergency. Rewilding will play a pivotal role in adapting to the unprecedented challenges to come. Everyone seems to be talking about rewilding, but what exactly is it, and how does it play into climate change? Rebecca Wrigley spills the beans. As one of the founders and now Chief Executive of Rewilding Britain, she really knows her stuff. Buckle up and take a listen.

03-21
37:35

CTA 011 - Bikepacking, Ultra Endurance, Running, & Tough Women with Jenny Tough

Jenny Tough embodies adventure through and through. She's competed in ultra bikepacking races around the world including the Atlas Mountain Race, Silk Road Mountain Race No1, the TransatlanticWayRace, and the TransScotland to name a few. Jenny’s also on a mission to run solo and unsupported across a mountain range on every continent, some of which were world firsts, like her run across the Andes. She's currently on 5 of 6 and raring to go once things open up after covid subsides. Jenny...

11-14
50:21

CTA 010 - Bike Travel, Cycle Touring, & Bikepacking Top Tips From 1000's Miles - Adam Hugill

This week we've gone for a completely different approach. Instead of delving into the life of an adventurer or activist I've teamed up with a co-host, Adam Hugill, to give you our best cycle touring and bikepacking tips. There's something for everyone in here from absolute beginners to more experienced bike rats. Our top tips range from the bigger overarching tidbits of advice, right down to specific bits of kit. Adam's bike toured in Europe, South East Asia, Japan, and North America...

10-09
01:02:23

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