One Step Beyond

In an earlier life, Henk Rogers brought the computer game Tetris to the world, as you will know if you saw the movie Tetris. Following a near-fatal heart attack in 2005 just after selling a different company for over $100,000,000, he is now bringing his renowned determination, business acumen and innovative thinking to environmentalism. Mission #1: to eliminate our use of carbon-based fuels.For this final episode of Season 2, Henk talks with Tony about why we have to do this, how his home state of Hawai'i is already doing this, how he moved to New York to ensure other states and countries follow suit, and why he won't rest until we succeed. He then talks about Mission #2: Making a back-up of human life. And yes, we also talk about Tetris.Please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/one-step-beyond-henk-rogers-vs-the for links to Hank's ventures, other interviews with him, and for an explanation for the end of this show's road. At least for now.Thanks to Lance Gould at Brooklyn Story Lab for setting up the interviews for the last two episodes.Thanks for listening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's hard to find someone who doesn't appreciate the elephant, the largest land mammal on earth with the biggest brain, and the longest gestation period, an animal known for its sense of family, its empathy, its memory, and for being damn cuddly to boot. Yet we humans consistently sanction the murder of (primarily African) elephants for (primarily) their ivory, at a rate faster than new elephants are born, and we capture Asian elephants to use for hard labor or so-called "entertainment." Through deforestation and other destructions, we have also decreased their natural habitat in Asia by up to 95%. As a result, where there were 100,000 Asian elephants in Thailand alone only 50 years ago, there are now just 4,000, out of a population of only 40,000 Asian elephants across the entire continent. One out of every three of these Asian elephants is in captivity.Patricia Sims has documented the plight of captive Asian elephants across two documentaries, Return To The Forest (2012) and When Elephants Were Young (2016). Both films were narrated by William Shatner, and the first led Sims to launch World Elephant Day, which takes place on August 12 every year. Speaking from her home in British Columbia, Canada, Sims talks to One Step Beyond host Tony Fletcher about why these beautiful animals are a "keystone species," about the complex historical reasons so many are kept in captivity, and about programs that seek to return captive elephants into their natural habitat, so that they can once again be free to roam, maintaining the ecosystems on which we all rely.Links:World Elephant DayReturn to the ForestWhen Elephants Were YoungThe Elephant QueenTony and Noel Fletcher's Vlog on their "Government Elephant Ride" in Chitwan National Park, Nepal, 2016 is hereWith the topic further addressed here:More elephant info:Ze Franks on "True Elephant Facts" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvOr1-P6XR8https://unitedforwildlife.org/news/10-amazing-elephant-facts-need-knowhttps://www.worldwildlife.org/species/elephanthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephanthttps://www.britannica.com/animal/elephant-mammalMusic in this episode "Delaymania" by Noel FletcherLogo by Mark Lerner.For more information on this and Tony's other podcasts, and to subscribe for weekly culture updates and a long-form weekend article, visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony interviews Catskills resident Jamie Kennard about his recent undertaking of 500 5ks in 500 days – across multiple sporting disciplines, and all of them outdoors – as a means of coping with the loss of his wife Tracy to a particularly rare and brutal cancer at the age of 47. Jamie and Tracy had been together since they were 16, and married for the last 20+ of those 30 years.Compared with her suffering and her fighting spirit, Jamie's own determination to ski, hike, bike, run, canoe and even surf 5k a day minimum seemed… minimal. On One Step Beyond, he talks of how the undertaking nonetheless grounded him, guided him, led him to a surprising love of running, and about the so-serendipitous-it-is-almost-cosmic circumstances surrounding the conclusion of his 500th and final consecutive 5k-plus.Jamie may have been new to running, but he's certainly no stranger to the Great Outdoors. Back in 2014, he and his brother became the first and currently still the only people known to have ski'd all 35 of the Catskill 3500ft peaks, though as part of his foray into film-making and photography, he is following former OSB guest Julie MacGuire on her own quest to become the first woman to see through this incredible feat.For full shownotes, with photos and videos, and to sign up for regular updates on this and host Tony's other shows and writings, please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/midweek-update-20-love-life-lossTheme song "A Word That Doesn't Rhyme" by The Dear Boys. Listen to the whole song here.Sign up for free to the "Wordsmith" newsletter at tonyfletcher.substack.com/subscribe for further information about this episode, news of Tony's other podcast, a Midweek Update with recommendations for shows, reading, websites, videos, books and more, and a weekly long-form article. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why do we travel? Does travel make us happier? Smarter? Braver? Or, given the current climate crisis, why should we travel? What's the difference between a tourist and a traveler? And what's a Digital Nomad and why does that term make some people cringe?These and many other key, core questions are answered by Nathan James Thomas, editor of the Intrepid Times, and author of Travel Your Way and Untethered, and Dr. Andrew Stevenson, a Professor of Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University and author of the new book The Psychology of Travel, alongside host Tony Fletcher.Some of the subjects, people and places covered in this episode:"The Sheltering Sky" by Paul BowlesThe sugar ants of the Northern Territory in AustraliaThe joys of buying a brown paper bag in MexicoFlight shaming and why it's a red herringNathan's travels through China, South America, Central Asa and why he now lives in PolandAndrew's cycling tours through Malaysia, Corsica, France and EnglandResearching educational psychology in GuatemalaWhy countries like Iran are not the scary, evil, ominous places they are presented as.Running in Sandakan, Borneo and Yuksom, Sikkim, India.Why walking can be an act of rebellionHow to spell "eudemonic," what the heck it means, and why it won't give you a hangover.Do long-term travelers tend to come from unsettled family homes - or have they all just broken up with a partner and want to get the hell out of dodge?Why encountering people from different cultural groups is a proven way to reduce prejudice......But why we need to encounter them on equal terms.Why staying home can be as bad for the environment as getting on a plane and seeing the worldMonks in Myanmar, and Marmite in Malaysia.Nathan James Thomas' books Travel Your Way and Untethered are available through:https://exislepublishing.com/product/travel-your-way/https://exislepublishing.com/product/untethered/The Intrepid Times is https://intrepidtimes.com and @IntrepidTimes across Facebook, Twitter and InstagramDr. Andrew Stevenson's book The Psychology of Travel is available throughhttps://www.routledge.com/The-Psychology-of-Travel/Stevenson/p/book/9781032104799and he can be found through https://www.mmu.ac.uk/research/research-centres/hpac/staff/profile/index.php?id=829Theme song "A Word That Doesn't Rhyme" by The Dear Boys. Listen to the whole song here.Sign up for free to the "Wordsmith" newsletter at tonyfletcher.substack.com/subscribe for further information about this episode, news of Tony's other podcast, a Midweek Update with recommendations for shows, reading, websites, videos, books and more, and a weekly long-form article. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jason Freedman and Philip Vondra are outdoorsy New Yorkers with a book just published entitled Beer Hiking New York: The Tastiest Way to Discover the Empire State.Colin Renton is an outdoorsy Scotsman with a book recently published entitled The Wine Runner: My Year of Hard Yards and Vineyards. Host Tony Fletcher (an outdoorsy half-Scot and half-English Brit who also has USA citizenship) talks with Jason and Colin about the joys travel both near and far, about running and hiking and… you guessed it, about beer and wine.Along the way, the three discuss:The similarities between craft beer and craft wine, the stewardship of the land and how the taste of that land ends up in the can or the bottle… it's terroir, people.How Colin set about running 12 races in 12 countries in 12 months, visiting 12 wineries and bringing home 12 bottles of wine.How he set on this ambition with the goal of running his first marathon at age 60How Jay and Philip set about choosing just 33 great hikes and breweries in a State that has hundreds of each.Why the first hike in the book starts from Port Authority Bus Terminal in the middle of Manhattan.Why there is only one brewery in Manhattan but tons in Brooklyn.Why high-ABV IPAs are so popular in New York but why there is much to the State's beer-making culture than that.The different types of hikes that are available to everyone in New York.The multitude of running options across Europe that are either hosted by, or run through, vineyards.Why Colin chose to avoid the obvious regions within France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Portugal……And why he included runs and wineries from England, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Belgium.The greatest hike on Colin and Philip's doorstep that they never knew of.The best Belgium beer in New York.How climate change is affecting wine making (and running) all across Europe. And how Colin sought to minimize his carbon footprint with his travels.Why it's okay to choose not to drink alcohol – and why it's okay to enjoy alcohol. Beer Hiking New York: The Tastiest Way to Discover the Empire State is published by Helvetiq Jason Freedman can be found at Instagram.com/gunksrunnerThe Pain Cave podcast he hosts with Philip Vondra is https://www.gunksrunner.com/paincaveThe Wine Runner: My Year of Hard Yards and Vineyards is published by Polaris.Colin can be found at https://twitter.com/ColinRenton1 Theme music this episode is ‘A Word That Doesn't Rhyme' by The Dear Boys. One Step Beyond Instagram is: https://www.instagram.com/onestepbeyondpodcast/Sign up at tonyfletcher.substack.com for a weekly newsletter with recommendations across all media and for updates on this and Tony Fletcher's other activities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Turtles! Volcanoes! Caiman! Monkeys! Museums! Fumaroles! Scuba Diving! Swimming Holes! And Sunsets! Paula is back as co-host for the first time since the Season 1 finale as she and Tony discuss their recent travel to Costa Rica, not only from an environmental and cultural perspective, but also from their uniquely different personal perspectives. Paula had not traveled outside the USA in 35 years, whereas Tony spent almost a whole year backpacking round the globe only back in 2016. Similarly, Tony is something of an (ageing) adrenalin hound who went scuba diving and running the volcanos, while Paula had reasons to want to take it just a little less hectic.Some of the topics discussed in this episode:All the great reasons to visit Costa Rica in the first place: is just 0.04% of the earth's land surface but contains 5% of its species; 33% of it is protected land; Atlantic and Pacific Coasts both readily accessible; no standing Army.How much advance planning should go into a foreign trip and how much should be left to finalize "on the ground".Choosing to travel by public transport with occasional taxi/Uber/Didi rather than being like most North Americans and renting a car.Opting to stay primarily in Air BnBs.Advantages of traveling in the rainy seasonChoosing to avoid the main tourist destinations of Arenal Volcano and Manuel Antonio National Park, going instead for:San José: not the world's loveliest capital city but a veritable gold mine of museumsTraveling to Tortuguero on the northern Caribbean coast and what to do when you miss your connecting busThe 6am canoe trip into the waters of the Tortuguero National Park and the multiple fauna and flora seen on that tripThe turtles of Tortuguero: the cosmic experience of watching green sea turtles lay their eggs and return to the ocean, all while (Tony and Paula were) stumbling round the beach at night holding hands with strangers. (More on sea turtles here)Alajuela, Costa Rica's second biggest city, and its hero Juan Santamaria, who helped achieve victory over William Walker's pro-slavery Filibusteros in 1856, and for whom the local museum (a former army barracks) and nearby international airport is named.The cloud forest of Poás VolcanoThe beautiful "white city" of Liberia, the capital of Guanacaste in the north-west.The vast and vastly under-visited Rincón de la Vieja National Park outside of Liberia, with its active volcano and multiple hiking trails. These include Las Pailas which has close-ups of fumaroles and hot springs, and the steep exposed hike to the Hidden Waterfall, which Tony was the only one to take that day.How Costa Rica is using geothermal energy from its (six) active volcanos to supply 15% of the country's energy.The charming and peaceful Playa HermosaScuba diving from nearby Playa CocoFood and drinkThe national expression of "Pura Vida"ConclusionsMusic in this episode: "A Word That Doesn't Rhyme" by The Dear BoysSubscribe to tonyfletcher.substack.com for updates on this and Tony's other podcast, plus news of events, new releases, recommendations and a weekly long-form article. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the late 1990s, Michael Dorame was a house music fanatic living in San Francisco, who became addicted to the drugs that kept him dancing all night long in the clubs. After OD'ing twice in three weekends, he found release, relief and redemption in the sport of rock climbing. With producer Aaron Fong and celebrated outdoor sports cinematographer Chris Alstrin, Michael has now made a film, Rock-A-Holic, about his story and that of two other former addicts, Ben Polanco and Maureen O'Reilly.On this episode of One Step Beyond, Michael joins host Tony Fletcher to discuss his life story, those of Ben and Maureen, the allure of drugs and alcohol, the addictive personality and whether it's genetic, and their ultimately much safer addiction to rock climbing. He is joined by director Chris who talks more about the technical aspect of the sport, and the making of the movie. If you are like Tony - interested in rock climbing but never tried it - consider this a perfect primer.Additionally, if you've ever been to the far side of drugs or alcohol in what you initially thought was pursuit of a good cause - especially something initially wholesome, like dancing in clubs - this will possibly strike a (musical) chord, and show that there can always be light at the end of the tunnel. And if you just enjoy a story with a happy(ish) ending, you'll get it from Michael (and Maureen and Ben).Warning: Drugs are discussed during the conversation, in detail. But so is dancing. And climbing. And other outdoor pursuits.Rock-A-Holic Official Trailer - Youtube - https://youtu.be/ce-bVulGvHcFacebook page - https://www.facebook.com/RockAHolicTheMovieMichael Dorame Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rockaholic2023/Chris Alstrin's Professional Reel - https://alstrincinema.com/homeFollow One Step Beyond:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTony's other podcast, the [Jamming!] Fanzine Podcast is available via https://wavve.link/JammingPodcast/episodesTheme song is 'Yes Men'' by The Dear Boys: https://linktr.ee/thedearboysLogo by Mark Lerner. Photo taken at Arte Sumapaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia.If you like the show, please subscribe, rate, review.And please sign up for free weekly articles by Tony Fletcher, along with news of podcast bonuses, Tony's other writing, broadcasting, events, books and more: http://tonyfletcher.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sign up for a free weekly article, links to Tony's other podcasts, writings, music and more at tonyfletcher.substack.com Is Travel Good For The Planet?This question is tackled by our return guest, the environmentally-focused, award-winning travel writer Shafik Meghji. In a conversation that includes the subject of Shafik's recent book, Crossed Off The Map: Travels in Bolivia, and host Tony Fletcher's upcoming journey to Costa Rica, the pair discuss:The difference between travel and tourismThe "brownfield rainforest" at Canvey Wick outside London, and the "temperate rainforests" of WalesWhy Bolivia is "on the frontline of so many defining issues that will shape all of our lives wherever we are in the world in the years to come."How Lake Pupil, a lake the size of Luxembourg, dried up in barely two years.How the Amazon rainforest comprises 1/3 of Bolivia and traveling through it can help indigenous communitiesThe natural beauty of Bolivia's rural landscapes and its fascinating citiesHow the migrant indigenous city of El Alto overtook the population of neighboring La Paz in just two decades.Costa Rica's remarkable biodiversity, its eco-tourism, and its 'unparalleled' wildlife.Shafik's recommendation for the perfect travel spotYou can find Shafik at shafikmeghji.com/ and at instagram.com/shafikmeghji/Read his article on the brownfield rainforest of Canvey Wick and his piece on the Lost Rainforests of Britain More info on his book is athttp://www.shafikmeghji.com/#/crossedoffthemap/The newspaper articles Tony references in the outro are:On Lithium MiningOn Deep Sea MiningFollow One Step Beyond:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTony's other podcast, the [Jamming!] Fanzine Podcast is available via https://wavve.link/JammingPodcast/episodesTheme song is 'Delaymania' by Noel Fletcher.Logo by Mark Lerner. Photo taken at Arte Sumapaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia.If you like the show, please subscribe, rate, review.And please sign up for free weekly articles by Tony Fletcher, along with news of podcast bonuses, Tony's other writing, broadcasting, events, books and more: http://tonyfletcher.substack.comSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this Episode, host Tony Fletcher is in conversation with his old London friend Richard Heard about the latter's recent Great American Road Trip from Chicago to New Orleans, setting out to trace the Story of the American Blues. Covering 1300 miles in 10 days, Richard and his American road partner also visited the Stax Museum of American Soul in Memphis, took in revered Country revue show the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, attended Jazz Fest in New Orleans, traveled through the Robert Johnson Crossroads in Clarksdale, and saw the destruction wrought by a recent tornado in Rolling Rock, Mississippi. As Richard says, "Once I lifted the bonnet [translation: the hood] on the road trip, I thought, 'This is not just about music, this is a really really interesting part of American culture and social history which I didn't really know a lot about.'"Subjects include:Planning an American Road Trip around musicChoosing the right travel partnerFocusing on four cities: Chicago, Nashville, Memphis, New OrleansLearning about The Great MigrationThe Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, with Isaac Haye's gold-plated Cadillac, the Soul Train disco ball, the recreated sloping studio - and a history of Black American Music from Gospel on through.The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and the Stax songwriters wrote many of their hits.Seeing Buddy Guy jump on stage to jam at his Buddy Guy's Legends Club in Chicago - on the first night of their road trip.Why doing the Tourist Trail in these cities is no bad thingThe best live music of the whole journeyFrenchman Street in New Orleans, with a live music bar every 20 yardsThe Johnny Cash Museum in NashvilleThe magic of Sun Studio in MemphisDriving Highway 61 from Memphis to New Orleans, via the Blues capital of Clarksdale.Planning a return journey: Detroit, Cleveland and so much moreShort videos from Richard's trip can be seen at: https://www.instagram.com/rh64.2022/Tony Fletcher's books on:Wilson PickettEddie FloydMusic from the Streets of New York, 1927-77One Step Beyond Socials:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherE-mail us at onestepbeyond@ijamming.net.Tony's other podcast, the [Jamming!] Fanzine Podcast is available via https://wavve.link/JammingPodcast/episodes (Richard was a guest on the first episode)Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you have ever traveled, and if you have ever been able to string a sentence or two together in writing, you have probably thought of becoming a travel writer. After all, who wouldn't want to get paid to travel? On this episode of One Step Beyond, Shafik Meghji, co-author of 40 travel guidebooks, sole author of the acclaimed new book Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia, and a prolific freelance travel writer for many esteemed print and web publications, pulls the cover off the Guide Book business and tells us how he managed to make a career out of writing about travel. It took patience, persistence, rejection, circumstance, luck, serendipity, a lot of hard work and no shortage of talent.We talk about Shafik's background in sports journalism, the lingua franca that is football, and about getting robbed at the Macarana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro (Tony, not Shafik); we discuss Shafik's belated gap year to South America and India that made him reevaluate his life choices, and we discuss how the well-worn paths that were his Guide Book work gradually transitioned into a road much less traveled, as Shafik's reputation now allows him to choose more and more of his own subjects. We discuss the famed travel experiences everyone should enjoy – Macchu Picchu, Goa, Carnival in Rio, but also the one-of-a-kind experiences that can't be put into words for a guide book, like finding a great place for yoghurt behind a table in Kathmandu (or a hole-in-the-wall breakfast joint in Mangalore). We visit Tierra del Fuego, the islands at the end of the earth, and we discuss how Shafik has increased turned his attention into writing about this intersection of globalization, travel, and the environment, focusing on the climate emergency and how travel can impact negatively and enlighten us positively regarding the fragile future of our planetThere was lots we did not get talk about, however, and so we will have Shafik back on One Step Beyond in the near future, to talk about Bolivia, Costa Rica, the rainforests of Wales, the biodiversity of the Essex Estuary, and the state of travel journalism in a world of social influencers and affiliate bloggers. At least I hope we will. In the meantime, please visit Shafik at his web site shafikmeghji.com and be sure to follow through to the Articles section to read some of his superb journalism. You can also find Shafik on IG at https://www.instagram.com/shafikmeghji/E-mail us: onestepbeyond@tonyfletcher.netSocials:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTony's other podcast, the [Jamming!] Fanzine Podcast is available via https://wavve.link/JammingPodcast/episodes Theme songs are 'Yes Men' by the Dear Boys. (That's the loud one.) https://linktr.ee/thedearboys And Delaysmania by Noel Fletcher. (The quiet one.)Logo by Mark Lerner. Photo taken at Arte Sumapaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia.If you like the show, please subscribe, rate, review, and feel free to follow the acast.supporter link below to buy us a coffee! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Boff Whalley is an author and musician (you may remember his old band Chumbawamba and their global hit "Tubthumping"),who put "Fell Runner" as occupation on his daughter's birth certificate. Gary Devine is his mate from the Leeds punk scene of the 1980s, who is a former British champion fell runner. "Faster! Louder!" is Boff's new book, all about Gary, and fell running, and punk rock. It is a damn good book, because Boff is a damn good author.Beaming in from the Yorkshire Dales (Boff) and the Swiss Alps (where Gary now lives) to the base of the Catskill Mountains (where host Tony Fletcher resides), they answer the question on every non fell-runner's lips:What is Fell Running?They also answer the question:Why Is It Punk Rock?And over the course of a fun-filled conversation, they also discussWhy fell running does not follow designated trails.Why the shortest way to the bottom of a hill is not always the quickest.Why the shortest way to the top of a hill is not always the quickest.Why the best way to get to the pub early is to finish the race early.Why Brits join running clubs and whether that is truly punk.Whether to sniff glue or not sniff glue.Whether Gary Devine is a force of nature, was genetically predestined to be a champion, trained as hard as he partied, or whether it was a combination of all three that made him national champion.Why everyone should listen to the One Step Beyond episode with Damian Hall.The importance of women runners in fell running.The importance of protecting the environment.And the importance of getting out in nature so as to relate to that environment.Throughout, Tony resists asking Boff what a fell runner should do if he gets knocked down."Faster! Louder! How a punk rocker from Yorkshire became British Champion Fell Runner" is available through Great Northern Books.Boff Whalley can be found at https://www.facebook.com/boff.whalley if you ask nicelyGary Devine can be found running up the French Alps, if you can catch him.Tony Fletcher will be found running again, if he recovers from his fractured knee. His website is tonyfletcher.netFollow One Step Beyond:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTony's other podcast, the [Jamming!] Fanzine Podcast is available via https://wavve.link/JammingPodcast/episodesTheme song is 'Yes Men' by the Dear Boys. https://linktr.ee/thedearboysLogo by Mark Lerner. Photo taken at Arte Sumapaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia.If you like the show, please subscribe, rate, review, and feel free to follow the acast.supporter link below to buy us a coffee!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode, we reconnect with Ric Dragon, originally featured way back on Episode 7 of Season 1, in July 2020, shortly after he had opened Arte Sumapaz, a Centre for the Arts outside of Bogotá, Colombia. That episode focused on Ric's middle-aged reset, in which he migrated to a new country with a troubled history and had just started this ambitious project. Now that I have been to Arte Sumapaz for an incredible residency myself, it's time to check back and see how things are progressing.Specifically, what is going on ith the plan to create an Intentional Community amidst the 280 acres of land? In fact, what is an Intentional Community and can we all be part of one? How do we re-integrate our lives to better share communal values without living in a commune? How does Arte Sumapaz integrate itself into its own community of rural Colombians? What is sociocracy as a form of Government? How is the country faring under the new leftist Presidency? What are the plans for reforestation of the land – and how does that gel with plans to build more accommodations and open up trails? And, specifically, when can I personally go back for a longer stay?Ric Dragon describes himself as a painter, percussionist and writer. He has been an art teacher, and a reluctant entrepreneur who founded Dragon Search in the Catskills, a company that led him into the world of social media marketing and even to author a book on the subject. He is a relaxed and engaged commentator and an excellent interviewee. The points we hit on in our discussion are relevant to our lives far beyond the vast and varied land of Colombia and the visual arts.Arte Suamapaz is at www.artesumapaz.orgAnd on socials at https://www.facebook.com/artesumapaz and www.instagram.com/artesumapaz/Ric Dragon posts more personally, including his own art, at: www.instagram.com/Ricpdragon/The episode with artist Clare Yandell, who I met at Arte Sumapaz and who subsequently painted murals all around Colombia to help finance her constant travels, is here.One Step Beyond on socials:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1The [Jamming!] Fanzine Podcast is available on your preferred streaming platform from https://wavve.link/JammingPodcast/episodesTheme song is 'Delaymania' by Noel Fletcher. Logo by Mark Lerner. Logo photo taken at Arte Sumapaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia.If you like the show, please subscribe, rate, review, and always feel free to follow the acast.supporter link to show your appreciation and buy us a coffee! They make it good in Colombia! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Anthony is the 36-year-old author of the new graphic memoir JUST ANOTHER MEAT-EATING DIRTBAG, published by Street Noise with art by Chai Simone. While Michael describes his new book as essentially a ‘love story' between two seemingly distinct characters with different outlooks on life and death in the human and animal kingdoms, it draws in part – as did the entirety of his first two books, Mass Casualties and Civilianized – from his experiences serving in the US Army in Iraq in the 2000s and the PTSD he suffered upon release from duty. After penning his way out of his troubles, which included additional substance and drug abuse, Anthony became a writing mentor to other Army veterans so that they too, can learn to live with their experiences by putting them on paper. In this discussion with host/fellow author Tony Fletcher, the pair tackle all manner of subjects: the merits of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bloody field hospital operations that Anthony assisted in, the sense of failure knowing that Iraqi lives saved in surgery were likely lost once the Americans left, the cowardice and deception of certain military ‘leaders', the prevalence of PTSD and suicide among veterans, how writing can help, how writing directly from experience can help even more, how Anthony came to pen a graphic memoir, and the all-important role of the illustrator. Especially, he discusses the relationship, detailed in Just Another Meat-Eating Dirtbag, with the love of his life, ‘Coconut', a vegetarian and animal rights campaigner who Anthony describes as having a soul like ‘exposed nerve endings'. As their relationship develops, the memoir follows Anthony's attempts to go ‘under cover' by becoming a vegetarian in the hope of converting Coco, who had been fat-shamed by her mother as a child, back to meat. The conversation wraps up with a discussion about slaughterhouses in the food industry and on the battlefield, the surprising prevalence of vegetarianism among 'bad-ass army dudes', the movie The Game Changers, and the difficulties of giving up life-long habits, from meat to cigarettes. It is, believe it or not, an upbeat conversation!More info about Just Another Meat-Eating Dirtbag, including links for purchase: https://www.streetnoisebooks.com/just-another-meateating-dirtbagMichael Anthony is at https://masscasualties.com/ He can also be contacted directly through his website.Street Noise is at https://www.streetnoisebooks.com/Chai Simone is at https://www.instagram.com/limina_1999/One Step Beyond on socials:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1Theme song is 'Yes Men' by The Dear Boys. Listen in full here.Logo by Mark Lerner. Logo photo taken at Arte Sumapaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What it's like to climb Mount Kilimanjaro? Your host Tony Fletcher documented his own experiences climbing to the Roof of Africa, as narrated in real time, alongside interviews with fellow climbers and guides, and on-the-mountain 'field' recordings; these were then combined with detailed historical and contextual studio narrative to form a four-part documentary with which One Step Beyond was originally launched. On this special episode, those four parts are edited together for the first time, their repetitive introductions and credits eliminated, and presented as one lengthy but complete documentary that you will hopefully find educational, entertaining, informative and, who knows, maybe inspirational. Here's what I wrote back at the launch:In August 2019, I set off from Kingston, New York, with four friends and a Tanzanian-born guide, to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. At 19,341 ft, or 5895 meters above sea level, Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa, and the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. About 50,000 people a year attempt the summit; not all of them make it. The intense demands on the body in ever-thinning air cause many people to give up before they can reach the peak.I'm a writer and broadcaster by trade, so I brought my recording devices along with me for the journey up the mountain. Over the course of this mini-series, it's my hope that you'll be able to experience a little bit of what it's like to go on an adventure like this, and that by the time we are all done, you'll be ready to embark on one of your own.The starting time for each episode is given in the summary below. Feel free to pause and come back. And if you want to join us on a trip some time, make contact: details at the bottom of the show notes! EPISODE 1 (3:30): Meeting, planning, getting to know each other - Tony, Tim, Gwen, Steve and Marie, plus tour guide Protus - and heading out from Arusha to Mawenzi and the base of Kili itself.EPISODE 2 (33:30): Phallic trees, a first sighting of Kibo, an encounter with the Spice Girls, and a serious attack of altitude sickness.EPISODE 3 (1:01:30): Shrinking glaciers, blistering winds, sudden snow, and a two-hour nap at extreme elevation before an attempt on the Kilimanjaro summit.EPISODE 4 (1:30:10): Our team wrestles with a seemingly endless overnight slog up the side of a volcano, serious attacks of altitude sickness, and a long and desperate slog on the last stretch to the roof of Africa. Do we all make it to the summit? Let's put it this way: there are celebratory dinners and dances at the end of it all.E-mail the show with questions or comments.Subscribe to the newsletter.Find us on social media:InstagramFacebookTwitterUse of 'One Step Beyond' by Madness with permission. Logo by Mark Lerner of Rag & Bone Shop.And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Claire Yandell is a 27-yr old traveler and artist who has managed to take her art on her travels and even have it help pay for her travels. She and Tony met in October 2021 at Arte Sumapaz in Colombia (check Episode 7 of One Step Beyond for more about Arte Sumapaz), a country with which Claire fell in love and lived for eighteen months, until just recently. (She intends to return in the New Year of 2023.) In this ‘reunion' conversation, the American-born Claire tells Tony about her extensive travels since the age of 18, why she abandoned art school, how she fell in love with Colombia, the attractions of the country, its people, its geography and its culture, and how she has bartered art for accommodation and otherwise taken commissions on her way to painting approximately 20 murals across Colombia to date. Understanding that traveling means lowering one's financial expectations, Claire has volunteered as a cook, a yoga teacher, an artist and in the fields, and chosen to stay with local families rather than in hostels, all as a means to live economically and to better understand the culture. She and Tony also talk about their time at Arte Sumepaz, how to eat successfully in a country like Colombia as a non-meat-eater, visa problems, plus the recent Presidential Election and what it means for the future of this convoluted country. Claire Yandell can be found on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/claire_yandell/, where she shows and periodically sells her art in various forms and mediums.Episode 7 of One Step Beyond: From the Catskills to Colombia, can be found at: https://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond/episodes/ep-7-from-the-catskills-to-colombia-and-backColombia Calling podcast is at https://colombiacalling.co/Baggage Claim podcast is at https://www.instagram.com/baggageclaimpod/Washington Post article on the challenges facing the new President Gustavo Petro: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/29/petro-colombia-marquez-election-farc-peace-environment/Questions/comments/suggestions? Email Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net.Find One Step Beyond at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1Theme sons are 'Yes Men' and 'Action' by The Dear Boys. Listen in full here.Logo by Mark Lerner. Logo photo taken at Arte Sumapaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The O Positive Festival, held in Kingston, New York, in early October every year, presents a weekend full of music, art and wellness activities across all genres and disciplines, for all age groups, indoors and outdoors, and all for the price of a donation. But it's behind the scenes that O Positive has the biggest impact. The festival confronts the lack of affordable and free health care amongst the USA's artistic community by exchanging 'The Art of Medicine' for 'The Medicine of Art' by which "underinsured artists and musicians create and perform in exchange for a variety of services donated by doctors, dentists and complementary care providers."For this Episode of One Step Beyond, Tony Fletcher speaks with Art Director Lindsay Wolkowicz and Music Director Lara Hope about the specific health problems working artists face going about their manual labour, and how O Positive seeks to make a lasting change in the landscape of USA health care - or rather, the lack of it. Tony also takes his tape recorder around the various concerts, wellness activities, and interactive art displays, which range from tours of the Festival's celebrated Murals program, to a Mindfulness walk, an interactive book-gifting art display, and music by such varied acts as Mercury Rev, Roxiny, Sonny Singh, Amanda Palmer and the Mac & Cheeze Balkan Power Trio.More information about the O Positive festival can be found athttps://opositivefestival.orgThe O Positive 2022 Festival Music Preview playlist can be found athttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/3qNZ6CRBHwACM3T7tYw3JMThe IlluminatiO+n immersive art, music and wellness audio tour is available at:https://opositivefestival.org/illumination/Rebecca Kelly G is at https://www.rebeccakellyg.com/Three of this year's commissioned murals depicted below, depending on your streaming platform:Questions/comments/suggestions? Email Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net.Find One Step Beyond at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1Theme song is 'Yes Men' by The Dear Boys. Listen in full here.Logo by Mark Lerner. Logo photo taken at Arte Sumepaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Damian Hall is a British trail runner with several Fastest Known Times to his name, including a famed record-breaking 261-mile run on the UK's Pennine Way in 2020. A former journalist, he has become equally well known for his environmental activism, qualities that come together in his new book We Can't Run Away From This: Racing to Improve Running's Footprint In Our Climate Emergency. In this interview with Tony Fletcher, Damian discusses why our outdoor lifestyle choices - including but not limited to running - are frequently, if unintentionally, bad for the planet, what we can do about it, and why we should stay positive about having a positive impact in the long run. Tony then reports on his research into the clothing/shoe companies he purchases from, and reflects on his own dietary and travel imprints from running. The show ends with the new Dear Boys song ‘Action', written about the climate emergency and coincidentally released as a 7” single the same day as this show. Specific subjects discussed:The three main components of our athletic environmental footprint: Gear/Kit, Diet, Travel.Why shoe companies should make less shoes, and why we should buy less of them and repair/reuse/recycle more of them.Why Race Directors need to stop giving away unwanted shirts, medals, and other paraphernalia.The responsibility that ‘Sponbassadencers' (© Damian Hall) like himself have towards educating their followings – and also to the companies that give them free gear.Why he became a Full Annoying Vegan (© Damian Hall) and how switching from a carnivorous diet to a plant-based diet can reduce our carbon footprint from food by a staggering 70% - or approx. 18% of our overall carbon footprint.Why he stopped flying to races. But might still do so.Why it is better to embrace hypocrisy than do nothing.Why he picked up litter/trash on his Pennine Way FKT in 2020 (and on his failed attempt to reclaim that title in 2022).And how you can get three of his books for one British steak.Damian Hall can be found at ultradamo.com and his social media via https://linktr.ee/ultra_damo'We Can't Run Away From This' is published by Adventure Books https://www.adventurebooks.com/products/we-cant-run-away-from-this which also published his book 'In It For The Long Run' https://www.adventurebooks.com/products/in_it_for_the_long_runThe film Underdog about his 2020 Pennine Way FKT is at imdb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13968750/Company policies discussed by Tony:Patagonia: Worn Wear and 'Our Impact' https://wornwear.patagonia.com/ https://www.patagonia.com/our-footprint/Vibram 'Sustainable Way' https://us.vibram.com/sustainable-way-page.htmlInov-8 'Sustainability' https://www.inov-8.com/us/sustainabilityAltra Running 'Our Values' https://www.altrarunning.com/who-we-are/our-values.htmlEnda Sportswear 'Social Impact' https://www.endasportswear.com/pages/impactFeetures 'Giving Back' https://feetures.com/pages/giving-backOsprey 'Sustainability' https://www.osprey.com/us/en/sustainabilityClif Bar 'Who We' Are https://www.clifbar.com/who-we-areThe Game Changers movie on the protein myth: https://gamechangersmovie.com/food/protein/'Action' by the Dear Boys is available on all streaming platforms:https://linktr.ee/thedearboys and athttps://thedearboys.bandcamp.com/track/action50% of proceeds go to Friends of the EarthWritten by Tony Page. Used with permission. Copyright control.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ken Posner recently completed the 211-mile John Muir Trail in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains... barefoot from start to finish. On this episode, he takes host Tony Fletcher onto a trail in the more forgiving Shawangunk Mountains of the Hudson Valley to explain, and demonstrate, the benefits of hiking barefoot, on easy trails like this but also on the toughest parts of the John Muir Trail.Ken was previously the guest on Season 1, Episode 15 of One Step Beyond, when he took Tony on a 'bushwack' hike up one of the Catskills peaks, without navigation. Ken's list of achievements is impressive for a late starter and someone who still holds down a desk job. In 2013, he achieved what was then the Fastest Known Time (9 days) for Running The Long Path through New York, and wrote a book about the experience. The following year, he set a still-standing FKT for the Badwater Double, a 146-mile, near 15,000-ft climb from the lowest point in the Continental US to the highest point, at the top of Mount Whitney – and back again, covering the 292 miles in under 4 days. He has also gone barefoot in conducting the Grid - all 35 of the Catskills 3500ft peaks in all 12 months.Ken Posner's blog can be found at https://thelongbrownpath.com/He can be found on Twitter, Instagram and on YouTube.Also in this episode: Tony reports back on his Marathon March in aid of the Palace for Life foundation, taking on all 26.5 miles, all four 3500ft+ peaks, and all 6-7000ft elevation of the Cat's Tail Trail Marathon a week after the foundation's annual sponsored marathon walk around south London. Tony's aim was to complete it within the 10-hr cut-off time set for runners - without running. Did he succeed? Listen in to find out. You can support Tony's fundraising at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tonyfletcher64The Palace for Life foundation is at https://www.palaceforlife.org/Questions/comments/suggestions? Email Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net.Find One Step Beyond at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1Theme song is 'Yes Men' by The Dear Boys. Listen in full here.Logo by Mark Lerner. Photo taken at Arte Sumepaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To get us warmed up on this first episode of our long overdue new series/season, Tony talks to Matt Fitzgerald, an endurance coach, nutritionist and prolific author about physiology and running, the joys of exercise, the ABCs of fitness, and the 80/20 philosophy of training that puts the emphasis on keeping most workouts easy. Matt also explains the pitfall of Superhumanization in regard to East African running dominance, the reality of the Group Effect within sports, how what biologists call Convergent Evolution resulted in the proven 80/20 method, discusses his Coaches of Color program, and talks about his long battle with Long Covid. In part 2, around the 1-hour mark, Tony describes how an overdue new challenge was inspired in part by conversation with Matt about his book How Bad Do You Want It?. On October 1, Tony will be hiking rather than running, and hopefully within the 10-hour cut-off, the Cat's Tail Trail Marathon in support of the Palace for Life foundation's annual south London Marathon March. In the final section,Tony checks in with Jim Daly of the FYP Podcast in the midst of the main march on Sep 24, and plays an excerpt from his own appearance on the FYP Podcast discussing his personal challenge in detail. Please support Tony's efforts, if only to offer encouragement, at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tonyfletcher64 The Palace for Life foundation is at https://www.palaceforlife.org/The FYP Podcast is at https://fypfanzine.uk/podcast.htmlMatt can be found at: https://www.8020endurance.com/ and https://mattfitzgerald.org/Matt's podcast can be found at https://www.8020endurance.com/80-20-podcast/The Coaches of Color Initiative is at https://8020foundation.org/initiatives/The Running Public interviews with Matt Fitzgerald can be found here; on the most recent one he talks in greater depth about Long Covid and also about his new book, Race Pace.Questions/comments/suggestions? Email Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net.Find One Step Beyond at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1Theme song is 'Yes Men' by The Dear Boys. Listen in full here.Logo by Mark Lerner. Photo taken at Arte Sumepaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One Step Beyond, the podcast all about positively engaging with the world outside our door, is back. Yes, we've been away for a full year, but fear not, a new season will be returning to your podcast feed as of the last week of September 2022.What can you expect from the first few episodes? Well, there's an interview with sports author, endurance coach nutritionist and all-round good guy Matt Fitzgerald on why exercise is fun… We will be talking to record-breaking British fell-runner and accidental climate activist Damian Hall about his new book We Can't Run Away From This, on the environmental damage caused by the running industry and what we can do about it, and I will be taking off my shoes and socks alongside Ken Posner, who recently barefoot hiked the entire 211-mile, vertiginous John Muir Trail in California to find out why he so strongly believes that we should get out into the woods with the only padding on our feet being the soles we were born with. And for charity, I will be hiking rather than running– hopefully within the 10-hr cut-off – the annual Cats Tail Trail Marathon, in solidarity with the Palace for Life Marathon March that takes place across South London this time of year, raising funds for programs that support disadvantaged and disabled youth from the area in which I grew up. If you would like to support my fundraising hike, please follow the link below.https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tonyfletcher64There will be other episodes recorded in the field, there will be travel stories, interviews with people who have made significant life journeys metaphorical or physical, people who have campaigned for positive change or simply started an initiative themselves, essentially anything that gets us out and about, and enjoying the beautiful planet we inherited and the remarkable bodies we are equipped with, hopefully without doing further damage to either. Look and listen out for Season 2 of One Step Beyond wherever you get your podcasts.Questions/comments/suggestions/free beer? Use this e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter.Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1Theme song is 'Yes Men' by The Dear Boys. Listen in full here.Logo by Mark Lerner. Photo taken at Arte Sumepaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode, the last in Series 1 of One Step Beyond, we flip the script, and allow regular host Tony Fletcher to be interviewed by guest host Paula Lucas about his recent brain hemorrhage - and how lucky he feels to have fallen into the small percentage of people who get to walk away unscathed. Paula asks the questions surely pounding away in the back of your mind (ouch!), like:How did the hemorrhage come about?Is it true that a hemorrhage manifests as your 'worst headache ever'?Is it true that 'your worst headache ever' is like 'your biggest migraine on Motörhead'?Is every hemorrhage caused by an aneurysm, and if not, what's the differenceWhat is the difference between a subachnaroid hemorrhage and an intracerebral hemorrhage?Where does hyponatremia and hypertension fit into this?Does there have to be a triggering incident?How does it feel to go over 48 hours without caffeine?What is an angiogram? And how does it differ from a CT (or Cat) scan?And can anyone other than a neurosurgeon pronounce the words "Perimesencephalic non-aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage" without getting tongue-tied?Actually, a few of those questions were not asked during the interviews, which is why the answers are given above!Seriously - because this was serious - we ask and we attempt to answer this question: does a healthy and active, even athletic lifestyle invite a hemorrhage, or does it make it more likely we can survive one?At the end of this Episode, Tony says farewell to One Step Beyond - for now - as he launches The Jamming! Fanzine Podcast and you get to hear the trailer. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or via https://shows.acast.com/the-jamming-fanzine-podcastQuestions/comments/suggestions/free beer? Use this e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter.Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's not every 17-year old who gets the chance to interview Paul McCartney for three hours, especially at the point, back in early 1982, that Macca had barely been heard from publicly since the assassination of his former Beatles band mate John Lennon on that tragically book-marked day of December 8, 1980. That 17-year old was your One Step Beyond host, Tony Fletcher, and the story you will hear on this Episode, The Day I Met Macca, ties in to two of his ongoing book projects.One is The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-1986, and it comes out on September 23rd in the UK and November 25th in the USA. The Paul McCartney interview referred to in this short story was published at the time in Jamming!, which was started by Fletcher back at school in the late 1970s, and is reprinted verbatim in this new compendium. In fact, if you squint at the logo for this particular episode of One Step Beyond on your phone, you should be able to see Fletcher holding up a reprint of the McCartney interview from the a hot-off-the-presses copy of The Best of Jamming.The second project is the sequel to Fletcher's memoir Boy About Town, which detailed those formative years growing up in South London in the 1970s, as a kid transformed by punk and new wave. The Day I Met Macca is an edited extract of a full chapter from that sequel, publication date to be determined.The Best of Jamming! will be launched with its own podcast series, featuring conversations with former contributors and interviewees. Consider this short story a teaser for the upcoming books and the associated podcast.Oh, and if you were wondering why One Step Beyond failed to publish a new episode this August, it's not because we spent the month on the beach. Rather, your host found himself in Intensive Care - the subject, no doubt, of a future Episode, and another reason this current Episode may feel like a detour from the usual outdoors/travel/health/athletic subject matter.The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-1986 is available through all good bookshops or order online from outlets such as:UK:UK.Bookshop.orghive.co.ukWaterstones.comOmnibus PressUS:Bookshop.orgIndiebound.orgBarnesandnoble.comAnd yes, if you must, from Amazon.More information about Boy About Town and Tony's other books here. Questions/comments/suggestions/free beer? Use this e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter.The One Step Beyond website is here. Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1Incidental music is by Noel FletcherAnd your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Following on from Episode 31, Running An Ultra, which featured Mike Siudy, co-Race Director of the Manitou's Revenge ultramarathon in the Catskill Mountains, this episode features a round-table discussion with five people who have all themselves completed at least one Manitou's Revenge, and were all involved in this year's event either as competitors or volunteers. Joining host Tony Fletcher are Sheryl Wheeler, one of the great trail runners in the East but as unpretentious as they come, Max Gruner, Alanna Moss and Benno Rawlinson. The discussion attempts to answer such questions as: What the hell is the attraction of a 54-mile course that has about 16,000ft of elevation? Why do we come back for more? What attributes do you need to take on an ultra-trail events? Is it true good walkers do as well as good runners? How important are poles? Headlamps? What about footwear? What do you do for sustenance when you start at 5am and need to stay fueled for up to 24 hours? And most important of all, who was the Yeti on this year's Manitou's course?More seriously though - or perhaps not - the idea behind this discussion is to share some of the camaraderie found in what is perceived as a solitary sport, and hopefully attract others to compete in similar events - or just to find their own challenge, and see it through.Links for this episode:Manitou's Revenge websiteManitou's Revenge FacebookCat's Tail Trail Marathon websiteEscarpment Trail RunBenno Rawlinson web siteUltra Stories podcast with Sheryl WheelerRun To The Hills with Beth PascallI'll Have Another podcast with Lindsay HeinThe Running Public podcast on Big Mountain Races: some excellent advice on pre-race routines and nourishment.Questions/comments/suggestions/free beer? Use this e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter.Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1Incidental music is by Noel FletcherAnd your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Have you ever considered upping your outdoor game to take on an ultra marathon? Or do you consider those who willingly subject themselves to something like Manitou's Revenge - the 54 mile race through, or rather, up and down the Catskill Mountains, and which One Step Beyond's Tony Fletcher just completed for the second time – to be complete lunatics worthy only of an almost morbid fascination?Either way, this episode is for you. Rather than bore you with his own race account, Tony talks instead with Manitou's co-director Mike Siudy. They discuss what it takes to run an ultra marathon in terms of being on your feet for up to 24 hours, and what it takes to run an ultra marathon in terms of hosting an event where there are frequently hours between aid stations, weather is unpredictable, some racers will inevitably drop out, and the volunteers can be on the mountains for longer than the runners.Mike knows of what he hosts: he has competed in six of the eight Manitou's held since the inaugural event in 2013, and holds the fastest known time for tackling all 35 of the Catskill Mountains 3500ft peaks in one fell swoop, in 2018, 144 miles, in 57 hours and change. And this from a man who says he hates 100-miler events and prefers hiking to running.Which brings us to the main point: ultra marathons like this may be appear masochistic from the outside, but they are strategic, varied, beautiful, involve substantial amounts of hiking and above all they are – though not always in the moment – FUN! You will hear Mike and Tony exchange a few laughs about the course, and if you enjoy this episode, you will love the next one, in which five competitors from Manitou's sit around a Zoom call and reminisce about the highs and lows of a race that takes in over 15,000 ft of climbing – and an additional 1,000 feet of descent.Links for this episode:Manitou's Revenge websiteManitou's Revenge FacebookCat's Tail Trail Marathon websiteEscarpment Trail RunCharlie Gadol, Race co-director, on the Long Path in support of the NY/NJ Trail ConferenceUltra Sign-Up - for future ultra eventsYou can e-mail this show via e-mail at Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter.Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1Incidental music is by Noel FletcherAnd your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, host Tony Fletcher reads another short story from his Round The World, backpacking trip of 2016 with wife and 11-year old song: A Travel Day, set in Morocco. Doing so inspires him to discuss the definition and purpose of travel, to consider how the joy is to be found in the sum of its parts, not in largely mythical grand epiphanies or supposedly magical destinations. “Great travel experiences are often about the moments in between those destinations. They come from the days where you simply aspire to get from A to B, but as you will hear in this story, getting from A to B means going via C with additional detours, distractions, disappointments and, inevitably, delights en route.”Tony's recent journey back to the United Kingdom finds him unearthing his mother's own extensive travel diaries, from shared family camping adventures in the 1970s through to her own frequent journeys to the Middle East. This inspires Tony to discuss the merits of keeping and preserving such diaries, especially when they can unlock memories that may have been closed shut by the passing of time and the onset of dementia. And he offers a few more observations of his own travels this past month, finding previously unexplored beautiful destinations more or less on his birth town's doorstep.If you enjoy this episode, and especially if you'd care to hear more like it, please do let me know via e-mail at Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter. Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Original incidental music in this episode is 'Two Struggling Chicago Musicians' by Noel Fletcher.Music used in A Travel Day:Abdoulaye Alhassane Touré - Kurbu, Timala and Maru Kiray Imdukal'N' El Hussain Safir - LamanVA - gnawa on the streets of Rabat, and Djemma el Fna in lo fi splendorEric Carlson - Train tunnel, Scott County, VirginiaGiraffe - A Bus Out of HereCheckpoint 303 - Bus 21, Jerusalem to Bethlehem, Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this second half of our interview with Erin Blankenship, a former professional football player in leagues around the world and the co-founder of Equal Playing Field, we talk more about the initiative's all-female, full-size pitch, full length football match on top of Mount Kilimanjaro (the highest ever played). We then learn about the challenges and triumphs of its second record-breaking game, the lowest played on earth following a 100km hike down to Jordan's Dead Sea, 500m below sea level. Erin also talks about how Equal Playing Field supports specific grass roots initiatives for women's engagement in football all around the world, especially in underserved countries and communities, and concludes by considering the great strides the women's game has taken in recent years – and the many challenges it still faces. All discussed with considerable humor – Equal Playing Field believes in doing the crazy, after all.In addition, Tony talks about discovering new outdoors landscapes in his old stomping ground of Yorkshire, after returning from his first international journey since before the pandemic. The joys of new travel adventures can, he figures, be found surprisingly close to home.Links to stories mentioned in this episode:Photos from Equal Playing Field's record-breaking Dead Sead hike and match.The Guardian on the English FA paying women the same performance pay as men.The FA History on women's football in England, including the many years it was “banned”.The BBC on Lewes FC as the first club team in the UK to pay its female players the same as its males.KNVB on how Holland's success in the 2017 WEuros boosted the women's game in that country.KNVB on women's football internationally.The Guardian from Nov 2018 breaking the story of the sexual, physical and emotional abuse that plagued members of the Afghanistan women's team.The Guardian from July 2020 on the life ban subsequently meted out by FIFA on the Afghan football federation's male president.The New York Times on the U.S. Women's Team's Equal Pay Dispute with U.S. SoccerAnd:Equal Playing Field web siteBeInSports Equal Playing Field documentary about the Kili climbEqual Playing Field YouTube channel (many short clips about programmes/camps/World Records)Equal Playing Field InstagramEqual Playing Field FacebookEqual Playing Field TwitterErin Blankenship InstagramLaura Youngson InstagramIda Sports websiteIf you enjoy this episode, and especially if you'd care to hear more like it, please do let me know via e-mail at Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter. Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ever considered arranging an official 90-minute football/soccer match, on a full-size pitch, at 18,746ft/5714 meters above sea level, in the oxygen-starved atmosphere on top of Mt Kilimanjaro? Erin Blankenship did; in 2017, she helped co-ordinate a World Record for the highest altitude match ever played, one in which every participant, from 22 different countries, was female. Erin was born in the USA, grew up in Saudi Arabia, played college soccer in the States, professional football in the UK, in competitive leagues in Saudi Arabia, Scandinavia, the US, China, Afghanistan and Jordan, and trained with the US Olympic Team for Modern Pentathlon. For her day job, Erin works for the UN World Food Programme as the Regional Peace and Conflict advisor for the Middle East and North Africa. She is also the co-founder of Equal Playing Field, a “grassroots, non-profit initiative to challenge gender inequality in sport and to promote sports development for girls and women globally, especially in marginalised country contexts,” with an evident focus on football/soccer. Following its initial foray up Kilimanjaro, Equal Playing Field has gone on to set four more world records, including one for the lowest altitude game ever, in the Dead Sea of Jordan, to demonstrate the need for top-to-bottom change in sports gender equality.In the first half of a two-half conversation (45mins + stoppage time each) Erin discusses with me the challenges she experienced as a female player, the subsequent birth of Equal Playing Field, the logistical challenges of the team climb up Kilimanjaro and the game that followed, and some of the organization’s other achievements, both at World Record and Grass Roots levels. A second half will follow. The show will not go to penalties.Links for this show:Equal Playing Field web siteBeInSports Equal Playing Field documentary about the Kili climbEqual Playing Field YouTube channel (many short clips about programmes/camps/World Records)Equal Playing Field InstagramEqual Playing Field FacebookEqual Playing Field TwitterErin Blankenship InstagramLaura Youngson InstagramIda Sports websiteIf you enjoy this episode, and especially if you’d care to hear more like it, please do let me know via e-mail at Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter. Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mike Peters is the rare rock star to have an MBE after his name - awarded not for his musical successes with Welsh rock band The Alarm, considerable though they have been, but for his charity work with the Love Hope Strength foundation. That story starts In 1995 when, on the eve of an American tour, Peters was informed that he had Non Hodgkin's Lymphona, or cancer of the blood cells; deciding to push on through the tour, cloak himself in a fighting attitude, and turn down a bone marrow transplant, Peters' disease appeared to right itself, only to return in 2005 as leukemia. Rather than bemoan his bad luck, Peters instead recognized the enormous good fortune of having quality free cancer care on the National Health Service in a world where there is so much health inequality, and in 2007 he co-founded Love Hope Strength, with the belief that "all people deserve quality care, a marrow donor if needed, and most importantly, hope."Since then, Peters, with partner James Chippendale, another leukemia survivor, has hosted concerts on top of Mt Everest Base Camp, Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Fuji, established the 'Get On The List' drive at concerts to sign up potential bone marrow donors, and recorded the world's longest song, The Scriptures, to promote bone marrow donor initiatives between Israelis and Palestinians. Money raised has served to fund a mammography machine in Nepal, build a Children’s Cancer Unit in Tanzania, and to fund cancer projects within the UK.Mike Peters first met One Step Beyond host Tony Fletcher in 1981, after calling him to pitch a copy of the debut single by The Alarm, 'Unsafe Building'. The two built a close friendship in the early 1980s, and Fletcher's first trip to the USA, where he would later move, was as part of the press for The Alarm's April 1986 Spirit of 86 concert at UCLA broadcast live worldwide by MTV. Though they fell out of touch for 25 years, they recently had cause to renew contact, leading to this interview. Mike, a keen hiker, runner, climber and footballer, is supported in his daily mission by his wife of 30 years, Jules Peters, also a cancer survivor, and the subject of two recent BBC Wales documentaries on her own battles to overcome breast cancer surgery. Together, their positive outlook has enabled them to outrun cancer and raise a family. Mike released a new album as The Alarm, Raw, earlier this spring, and is about to set off on a sponsored walk of Offa's Dyke, which runs down the English-Welsh border. Listeners are invited to join in virtually.You can find Mike Peters' music at TheAlarm.comLove Hope Strength can be found at lovehopestrength.org or lovehopestrength.co.ukThe Mike Peters documentary Man In The Camo Jacket can be found at https://maninthecamojacket.com/Info on the documentary 'Mike and Jules: While We Still Have Time' and 'Jules Peters: My Cancer Journey' can be found at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08ryqrwThe Alarm YouTube channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUxf6WCerflAEhwtniLeaNgThe Alarm on Instagram can be found at https://www.instagram.com/thealarm/If you enjoy this story, and especially if you’d care to hear more like it, please do let me know via e-mail at Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter. Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For this episode, we revisit India in the form of another short story I wrote about our travels backpacking round the world, with then wife and then 11-year old son, in 2016, for almost the whole year. It’s set in the hills of Karnataka, and it's called You Do Not Need A Guide. This story has been on my mind to read for you for a while now, but I’ve been pushed to move it up the timeline because of the covid crisis convulsing India right now. In the intro to this episode, I talk a little about the India I came to know and love that year, however brief the experience, and how much I yearn to go back there. Referenced in this episode:Kolkata Calcutta by Finn Reilly with foreword by Tony FletcherArundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastropheNew York Times Daily podcast: Inside India's Coronavirus CrisisHoney Valley estateMusic used in this episodeDeep Karnataka by DubRaJahNight In India by Shamil EvenheimLittle India by Les Cartes PostalesDelaymania by Noel FletcherIf you enjoy this story, and especially if you’d care to hear more like it, please do let me know via e-mail at Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter. Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One Step Beyond is one year old, and to celebrate, we revisit some of our best episodes and catch up with the guests, each of whom was invited to answer four questions about how they coped with this past pandemic year and how they are staying optimistic and motivated moving forwards. A dozen of them responded, sending in their recorded replies from five different continents, and over the course of this episode, you’ll hear from authors, runners, painters, adventurers, film-makers, musicians, skiiers, medical volunteers, zen teachers, walkers, travelers, barefooters, minimalists, entrepreneurs, high school teachers, hikers, vegans and, above all, from people who have taken a step outside their comfort zones to enrich their lives. It's a feast of food for thought.Thank you to Tim Kelly, Paula Lucas, Ric Dragon, Navalayo Osembo, Bill Hoffman, Zuisei Goddard, Olie Hunter-Smart, Trevor Warman, Adam Fletcher, David Watts Barton and Julie McGuire for taking part in this special episode. Thanks to all the other guests from the past year, and to all of you, the listeners and supporters, for making this such a successful first 25 shows. This episode runs longer than usual, and it was later than usual in landing, but it’s hopefully worth the wait and should be worth its length, too.People, places and entities featured in this Episode:Arte Sumapaz Carla Rhodes article on the Greater Adjutant in the New York TimesEnda SportswearMountain Dog RunningVanessa Zuisei GoddardOlie Hunter SmartThe Nomadic BackpackerDavid Watts BartonJulie McGuire on FacebookFor questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Following on from Episode 15.5, and the short story "You Don't Believe In God?" I return to our round the world backpacking trip from 2016 and pick up where that last short story left off... In Morocco, disembarking an all-night bus in Merzouga, on the edge of the Sahara.If you enjoy this story, and especially if you’d care to hear more like it, please do let me know via e-mail at Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter. Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Incidental music for the short story "Saharan Sundown":"Amazigh" "Sidi Rabi" and "Live Improv" by Brahim Frigbane"Marhaba" by Lahcen Akil"Ismar Kkis" and "Tighoufiwin" by Imdukal'N' El Hussain SafirAll used under a Creative Commons License via the Free Music ArchiveNoel Fletcher's YouTube Vlog "Sahara Desert" from January 2016Noel Fletcher's Extended Placebo EP with artwork from Dar Tafouyte and the Sahara Desert of Erg ChebbiThe Dar Tafouyte guesthouse in Takoujte, Merzouga. Also mentioned in this Episode:Greetings from Somewhere podcastAleksander Doba obituarySupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Three years ago, Julie McGuire, a High School English teacher in the South Bronx, came home from work eager to set off on another weekend in the Catskills, only to find her wife waiting to declare the end of their marriage. The sudden announcement threw Julie into a deep depression fueled by days full of self-loathing and nights full of NyQuil; she admits that she lost the will to live.Julie slowly regained her mojo by throwing herself into her love of backcountry skiing - hiking uphill, away from the resorts of the Catskill Mountains, and skiing her own routes back down. To better plan her winter Catskills descents off the beaten paths, she took to hiking the mountains out of ski season, and after completing the region's 35 peaks above 3500ft, plus the four mandated additional hikes in winter, she recently became – by pure coincidence – the 3500th member of the Catskill 3500 Club. She now routinely wears a ‘Queen of the Catskills’ t-shirt and posts colorful pictorial essays about her almost daily adventures hiking and skiing the back country, usually accompanied by a Double IPA (or two).In this interview, Julie and I talk openly about divorce, the outcome for 39% of American marriages, and the healing process that takes longer than expected. Julie walks me, an avid if amateur 'on-piste' skiier, through the attractions and technical aspects of backcountry skiing, explains why she endures the challenges of the mountains, and why she is hosting back country clinics limited to women and people of color. To try and match the giddy heights of Julie’s daily achievements, I recorded all my voice overs while hiking Blackhead Mountain in deep snow and ice as I close in on my own 3500 Club badge.Find Julie McGuire on Instagramand on FacebookLook for the full Zoom interview on the One Step Beyond YouTube playlistExcerpts from Julie McGuire's essay on hiking the 3500s as a way out of divorce for The CanisterThe Catskill 3500 Club web siteSki Touring for Beginners in Ski magazineAn introduction to splitboards.Catskill Outpost, for your very own Queen of the Catskills t-shirt. (Correction to my intro: the t-shirt already existed; a friend made Julie a 'Queen of the Catskills' plaid facial mask.)For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 2009, in the first month of his first tour of Afghanistan with the British Army, James Rose had his legs blown off when he stepped on an IED. He barely survived with his life. Yet in 2019, he became the first double, above-the-knee amputee to climb Mount Kilimanjaro unaided. The decade in-between saw James struggle with PTSD, weight gain, alcohol and drug abuse… but also, the unending support of his now wife, who finally convinced him to try the sport of rowing. This inspired a turnaround in physical and mental health, which led in turn to winning medals for Team GB in the 2018 Sydney Invictus Games, in sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball, and then that unprecedented ascent of the tallest free-standing mountain in the world – a climb James completed in the same number of days as it took me, your host, only a month beforehand.In a frank and free-wheeling interview, James shares his life story, talks frankly of the problems he faced after losing his legs, and offers motivation for those encountering similar seemingly insurmountable hurdles. He also talks of his ultimate goal: becoming the first double, above-the-knee amputee to climb Mount Everest.Also in this episode: more about Episode 20’s subject matter, Black Travel, and Episode 21’s focus on winter hiking. James Rose on InstagramJames in the media:James featured on ITV newsJames in the Daily MirrorJames in Republic WorldOn video:James Rose ascending Kilimanjaro by Zara ToursJames Rose: A double amputee and his love of the mountains James Rose: No excuses Invictus GamesHelp for Heroes, the charity James supported on his climb up Kili.Been Around The Globe: Rooben Fils websiteTraveling While Black by Rooben FilsAuthentic Travelers on FacebookThe Hike Intel app on AppleFor questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I live at the gateway to New York’s Catskill Mountains, which I consider my playground. And I’m not the only one. In what seem to be record numbers right now, people run these mountains, they ski these mountains, they bike some of these mountains, they camp out in these mountains, they forage in these mountains, at times they are allowed to hunt in these mountains, but more than anything, they hike these mountains. And on a Sunday in late January, taking on Halcott Mountain for the first time as part of my very long-term plan to merit myself a badge, I did likewise.I didn’t achieve anything that nobody else has achieved, even that same day, I didn’t take anybody with me on the adventure for an interview, though I did meet a couple of nice Chris’s along the way. This is just a peaceful episode about a peaceful day out, a hopefully uplifting story to elevate your mood if you’re suffering from the northern hemisphere pandemic winter blues.Links from this episode:The route and elevation gain from my hike of Halcott Mountain, Jan 24 2021Catskills Trails Conditions on FacebookCatskill 3500 ClubWhen In Spain podcast: Seville and slow, sustainable travelFor questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ashley Scott is a teacher in Atlanta, GA, who grew up believing that travel was not for people like himself. In his mid-30s, having still never been outside the USA, he established an educational travel program at his school, and began taking female students of color to countries where they could immerse themselves in local culture while having a safe and non-prejudiced experience. Some 40 countries and 5-600 students later, Ashley now also has his own travel company, Abiri Tours, "a Georgia-based travel company striving to make international travel more accessible and affordable for people of color."In the first half of this episode, Ashley talks about how and why he embarked on his travels, what his students gain from the experience, his favorite countries to take his female students of color, and why, in a country where barely 40% of the population own passports, black travel matters so much. In the second half, he is joined by three incredibly well-traveled former and current students - Nia, Deja, and Joi - who share their own anecdotes and opinions. They all agree that Guatemala should be top of anyone's destination list.This show was edited the day of the US Presidential Inauguration and is dedicated to Amanda Gorman, the 22-year old black female poet whose 'The Hill We Climb' spoke to the struggles and aspirations of an imperfect country that has nonetheless been pulled back from the brink. She serves as an emblem of the USA's potentially bright future, as do the young women on this episode. They also serve as proof of why travel is so important in creating well-rounded individuals - especially when that travel is conducted with a social conscience and an educational purpose. Links from this episode:Ashley Scott's travel company Abiri Tours. AbiriTours.comAshley Scott's occasional podcast, Traveling Incognegro. Abiri Tours on Instagram. Info about the Henley Passport Index is here: Only 42% of Americans own passports hereInfo on San Pedro, GuatemalaFor questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this second of a two-parter about New Beginnings for the New Year, I talk to David Watts Barton, a writer, traveler, musician, Burner and all-round optimist who upped and left the USA for Berlin in the middle of the 2020 pandemic year. He talks about how and why he made the move, what makes Berlin so special, and about his ongoing writing projects: Music1967.com, and Japan From Anime to Zen.You can find David and his writings at his web site, DavidWattsBarton.comTony's writings about Burning Man are athttp://www.ijamming.net/category/burning-man/And the Crude Awakening can be seen athttp://www.ijamming.net/burning-man-welcome-home-part-2/For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One Step Beyond launches 2021 with a two parter about two people who refused to let the pandemic of 2020 prevent them making planned life changes. In part 1, Adam Fletcher - yes, he is a relation - talks about his volunteer work with asylum seekers on the Greek island of Samos, and why it has inspired him to hang up his career as a touring musician, including lucrative work in a touring Abba tribute band, and go back to college to become a doctor. In an interview conducted from the Island of Samos on New Year's Eve, Adam talks about the conditions faced by the refugees on the island, many of whom have been living in squalor for years now, the work of various charities and NGOs, and why he feels blessed and privileged to have the opportunity to spend time with them, and to embark on a fresh career.Some of the articles mentioned in this Episode:https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/world/europe/greece-samos-migrants.htmlhttps://www.rescue.org/video/finding-courage-continue-greeces-refugee-campshttps://www.rescue.org/country/greece#what-caused-the-crisis-in-greecehttps://www.instagram.com/p/CJHGmJwjj38/https://observers.france24.com/en/20200918-blocked-camp-samos-refugees-demand-legal-justice A list of NGOs and charities typically operating on the island of Samos, as supplied by Adam Fletcher: Action for EducationAvocats Sans Frontières France (ASF France)The Flying Seagulls ProjectGlocal RootsHelp Refugees / Choose LoveIndigo VolunteersMed’Equaliteam (this is the NGO Adam currently volunteers for)Movement on the GroundPrecious Plastic Samos Project Armonia Project TEN Refugee4RefugeesRefugee Law Clinic BerlinSamos VolunteersStill I RiseVerein FAIRThe One Step Beyond Supporter page (i.e. the tip jar):https://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyondFor questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/onestepbeyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In May 2016, halfway through my 3-person family's year-long backpacking trip around the world, we met the Norths - Phil, Amanda, Sophie and Nate - in Chiang Mai, Thailand. They had left their former Alaska hometown behind for good in the fall of 2013. and would not resettle in the States until 2017. On this episode of One Step Beyond, I catch up with the the Norths - in their new hometown of Bellingham, Washington - for the first time in four and a half years. Sophie is now 17, Nate 15, and along with their parents, they talk candidly about their experiences, what they learned about the world at large and about themselves as a family, why they believe in 'slow travel', how they kept costs down, and why they think everyone should have the opportunity to travel internationally. For any family thinking of embarking on a long-term travel project, this is an empowering and encouraging story. Unlike other interesting people featured on this show, the Norths have nothing to promote. There is no social media to link to! The other podcasts referenced on this episode are:All The Sh*t I've Learned Abroad, Episode 76: WorldTowningThe Runners World UK: When Joe Strummer Ran The London MarathonBaggage Claim: Travel Stories No One Tells. For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Long term international travel has proven impossible in 2020, and will be well into 2021 as well. But what if you live on the road, what if you are already somewhere else on the planet when lockdown happens. Does it all stop? And if it does stop, where do you find yourself and can you survive there? And if it doesn’t stop, what does that mean, and how is it to travel in the age of covid? What are the challenges, the pitfalls, and hopefully the rewards?I talk with Trevor Warman, the Nomadic Backpacker, who has has spent the bulk of the last 20 years on the road, living from country to country, bus journey to bus journey, hostel to hostel. This would be an interesting story in normal times, but it’s even more interesting in 2020, because Trevor has had to stay just one step ahead of potential national pandemics. From several months locked down in Kenya, to forced quarantine in North Macedonia, it has made for a year both extremely static and very very mobile, and difficult from start to finish. Over the course of two interviews, Trevor shared with me the perils and pitfalls of being a nomad during a global pandemic. And so, while One Step Beyond is here to tell and share positive stories, it’s also good to have a reality check. The world is not all unicorns and rainbows. You can find the Nomadic Backpacker atwww.nomadicbackper.com and at Twitter and YouTube as Nomadic Backpacker.The New York Times story about Istanbul is here:https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/travel/istanbul-tourists-curfew.htmPlus: I talk about my recent road marathon. Yes, a proper road race - in 2020! The debut Upstate Classic was organized by the Albany Running Exchange and you can hear CEO & Founder Josh Merlis talk about how they put on a major event in a pandemic on the Runpacers podcast, Episode 255.For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Regular listeners may know that in what I sometimes call the ‘default world’ – the one outside this podcast – I am a writer by trade, and my books have included one published memoir with another to come. And those same regular listeners have probably heard me talking, on a few episodes now, about the trip I took in 2016 with my then wife and our younger, then 11-year old son, whereby we went backpacking round the globe for ten and a half months. Not surprisingly, I wrote about those travels, gradually compiling a series of short stories from our experiences on the road, none of which seem to have dated especially fast and all of which hopefully reveal or present some universal truths and commonalities.And so, rather than commit to a full episode of One Step Beyond this Thanksgiving, where it might well get lost in the dinner table shuffle, I decided to make this a half episode, and present one such short story. It’s Not True is set in Morocco early on in our journey, back in January of 2016, a whole Presidency ago.If you enjoy this story, and especially if you’d care to hear more like it, please do let me know via e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter. Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this Episode, I go for a "bush wack'" hike up Rusk Mountain in the Catskills to disengage from the American elections. Guiding me on the climb through the snow is Ken Posner, whose minimalist approach to outdoor activities takes inspiration from the Greek vagabond-philosopher Diogenes. Ken frequently sets off on marathons, hikes, climbs and other adventures without food, water, navigational tools of any kind, and often – as on his 24-hour ‘Diogenes Challenge’ through nine Catskills peaks this last summer – without shoes. On our climb, Ken has me lead us up the trail-less, heavily wooded mountain to find the canister at its true summit, using only the knowledge I came with and my instincts. Along the way we discuss the drawbacks of relying on technology, the dangers of the modern athletic diet, the various ‘stressers’ we can healthily put ourselves under to improve our overall well-being, and such people as Wim Hof, John Muir, Henry Thoreau. And Ken enlightens me as to why Diogenes was the founder of both Cynicism and Stoicism. Ken has some major accomplishments to his own name. In 2013, he achieved what was then the Fastest Known Time (9 days) for Running The Long Path through New York, and wrote a book of that name about the experience. The following year, he set a still-standing FKT for the Badwater Double, a 146-mile, near 15,000-ft climb from the lowest point in the Continental US to the highest point, at the top of Mount Whitney – and back again, covering the 292 miles in under 4 days. This episode is intended to encourage all of us to leave not only our worries behind when we get outdoors, but to leave technology behind as far as possible, and return to our natural state - one that, as ever, is capable of much more than we typically credit. You can find Ken Posner at https://thelongbrownpath.com His blog post on Diogenes: https://thelongbrownpath.com/tag/diogenes-of-sinope/ His blog post on the Diogenes Challenge: https://thelongbrownpath.com/2020/06/21/the-diogenes-challenge/ His account of running the Badwater Double and lessons learned: https://marathonandbeyond.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/18.6_EditorsChoice.pdf One of his blog posts on barefoot running & hiking, with comments towards the end on "natural running" and the risks of overreliance on technology: https://thelongbrownpath.com/2020/01/25/5000-miles-barefoot/ His book Running The Long Path: https://www.amazon.com/Running-Long-Path-Discovery-Excelsior-ebook/dp/B01M01B96Y Ken also recommends: Best book for beginners on barefoot running - Barefoot Running Step by Step by Ken Bob Saxton: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00504TLYC/Waterlogged by Tim Noakes -- great research on the myths of dehydration and the risk of overhydration: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0081U6WWG/ For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcast Facebook is One Step Beyond with Tony Fletcher Twitter is OneStepBeyondP1 And your host can be found here: tonyfletcher.net See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"If you’re not interested in culture or community, then don’t walk through a country. And if you don’t want to fall in love with humanity, then don’t go to India." In 2017, the 70th Anniversary of India’s Independence from Great Britain, self-styled British expeditioner Olie Hunter Smart set off to walk, solo and unsupported, the entire length of India and to make a movie about his journey: The Road To Independence. During the course of his 2800 miles/4500km from the Himalaya Mountains of northern Ledakh to the southern sea tip of Kanyakamuri, Olie also re-traced the 240-mile journey of Mahatma Gandhi’s 1930 Salt March protest, and he ended his trip where Gandhi’s ashes were scattered in the ocean. Carrying his film equipment on his back, enduring physical and emotional hardships across the course of a seven and a half month expedition, Hunter Smart interviewed dozens of people along the way, from former Freedom Fighters who remember the battle for Independence, to Gandhi’s great grandson who reminds us that non-violence means to not violate.I talked with Olie about his amazing walk through incredible India, how he made a film without prior experience, and about how someone with a relatively normal background takes on expeditions like this – and his previous grand adventure, the Amazon River Run where he traced the Amazon 4500 miles from the Peruvian mountains to the Brazilian Atlantic Ocean.Includes clips from the movie, The Road To Independence.I also draw parallels between Olie’s journey south through India and Scott Jurek’s FKT running North on the Appalachian Trail.You can watch The Road To Independence on Vimeo, https://vimeo.com/r/2UWE/ejlhQXFwUV Enter promo code OSB50 at checkout for a 50% discount.Read more about Olie Hunter Smart’s expeditions at his web site, oliehuntersmart.comYou can follow Olie at Instagram, Facebook and Twitter also at oliehuntersmart.comPodcasts mentioned in this episode:The Pursuit Zone - Adventure Travel Ep 204Call To Adventure Episode 7Unraveling Traveling Episode 8Plant Strong Episode 12Without Compromise Oct 23Also,The Pain Cave Ep 70 with Tony Fletcher For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net All links can be found athttps://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond/episodes/ep-14-walking-india-top-to-bottom See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to Episode 13 of One Step Beyond. This time around, we discuss ‘Still Running: The Art of Meditation in Motion,’ a new book by Vanessa Zuisei Goddard. I first met Zuisei in 2006, at the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, in the Catskills, where I was taught how to sit zazen - the form of meditation practiced there - by Zuisei herself. But Zuisei is also a runner, and for all that she has spent much of her life sitting zazen, she has never stopped moving. I would often see her running on the local roads and knew that that she held ‘running retreats’ at ZMM - and yet we never talked in detail about our shared love of this physical exercise.In 2019, after two decades at ZMM, Zuisei resumed lay life, moving to New York City to become a writer and teacher. And when ‘Still Running’ was published this summer by Shambhala – with a front cover endorsement by ultra-marathon legend Scott Jurek - I knew instinctively that I had to read it and bring her on this show.Zuisei’s wonderful little book is extra helpful because while it discusses Buddhism, each chapter ends with a physical practice that applies to anyone and everyone, of any domination and for almost any physical endeavor. For One Step Beyond, we spoke by phone, discussing life in a Buddhist monastery and beyond, and more specifically, the practices she describes in her book. You will hear me undertake and report back on some of these practices.We also discuss the tradition of extreme running within Buddhism, as evidenced in the isolated Gompa Monks of Tibet, and the Marathon Monks of Japan. This gives me a reason to dig out an LP of Tibetan Ritual Music that I had owned for 30 years and somehow never opened; perhaps it was just waiting for the perfect moment.You can find Still Running at all good book shops or through the publisher, Shambhala. If you order online, please consider supporting your local independent store in the process; you can do so in the US by using Bookshop.org Zuisei can be found at VanessaZuiseiGoddard.com, and on Instagram and Facebook as zuiseigoddardThe Zen Mountain Monastery, which has been offering online programs in 2020 during the pandemic, is at mro.org.The incidental music in this episode is:‘Offering to the Savior Gompo’ and ‘Invocation of Gompo from the LP Tibetan Ritual Music by Lamas and Monks, recorded in Sikkim in 1961 for the Lyrichord label.The 'Easy, Light, Smooth, Fast' mantra I cite is from Barefoot Ted as referenced in Born To Run. Barefoot Ted went on to make the Luna Sandals that we featured in Episode 11: Take a Step Outside Your... Shoes?For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media at:Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcastFacebook is One Step Beyond with Tony FletcherTwitter is OneStepBeyondP1And your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.netAll links can be found athttps://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond/ep-13-silent-running See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey you… Welcome to Episode 12 of One Step Beyond, a fortnightly show about positively engaging with the world outside our door, with host Tony Fletcher.In 2016, Jess Gumkowski and her husband BJ – the ‘YogiTriathletes’ – sold or gave away almost everything they owned, and packed what was left (primarily their triathlon gear and their dog) into a Honda Fit with no fixed destination. 2016 was also the year that I hit the road, with my then wife and then 11-year old younger son, embarking on 10 and a half months of backpacking around the world, freed from the constraints of possessions and expectations, and living very much in the moment.In a wide-ranging interview, Jess and I talk about selling everything off, and then giving away what’s left – from photographs to jewelry to treasured race medals. We acknowledge the very real hurdles that may prevent others from feeling they have the power to make similarly transformative decisions with their lives, to which end Jess discusses the importance of meditation and a positive mindset. We both marvel at the kindness of strangers you meet on the road, and how some of the most minimal and uncomfortable moments are also some of the most rewarding. Jess also explains how she and ‘Beej’ are able to survive living, working and traveling together as both a personal and professional couple, and offers three take-aways for anyone who might be considering a similar adventure. You can find Jess and BJ at yogitriathlete.com, where you can follow links to their two podcasts, Awake Athlete and Yogitriathlete, their blog, their coaching activities, and Jess’s two vegan cookbooks: High Vibe Recipes for Athlete Appetite, and Pizza Night Done Right. The video in which Jess & BJ wave goodbye to their medals is here.Separately, I offer an update on the podcasts that keep me going through my mountain runs, and ponder at the news that my home area is currently the hottest real estate market in the country, the result of moneyed New Yorkers fleeing post-covid New York City.Other podcasts referenced in this episode:Barefoot Backpacker: Beer Around the WorldBig and White: How Covid Life Is Like Culture ShockAll The Shit I've Learned AbroadThe Traveler's Blueprint: Animals Using DrugsWashington Post article: Welcome to Woodstock 2020: Peace, love . . . and urban exiles fighting over real estateThe Cat's Tail Trail MarathonRadio KingstonA few corrections to my narration in this episode:Nepal did in fact open back up just as I was finishing this episode, with international flights resuming after six months. Also, the Cat's Tail Trail Marathon takes place on Saturday October 2, not Saturday October 3. And Still Running is published by Shambhala Books, not, as I pronounced it, Shabala. For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media:InstagramFacebookTwitterAnd your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to Episode 11 of One Step Beyond, a show that encourages you to take a step outside your comfort zone and enrich your life.Ten years ago, Bill Hoffman was just another busy, middle aged, married 40-something father carrying an extra 40lbs of weight around his midriff. He hadn’t run since high school, and had barely engaged in any other athletic activity during those 25 years either. Then he read Born To Run, the best-selling book by Christopher McDougall, and took more than a step outside of his comfort zone. He took a step outside his shoes as well. Inspired by the notion of minimalist footwear as practiced by the Tarahumara Indians of the Copper Canyons, the featured 'Hidden Tribe' of Born To Run, Bill bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers, and started running again, a mile or so at a time, alternating with his bare feet, and before he knew it, he had qualified for the Boston Marathon.Bill has now run over 40 marathons and ultra-marathons, including Boston five times, and the feared and revered Leadville 100 twice. Not once has he competed in "normal" shoes. He does all his running now in the open Luna Sandals, the Tarahumaras' huaraches as made by another star of Born To Run, Barefoot Ted. On the last Friday of August, I drove to meet Bill at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve and try the sandals myself. While we ran together, Bill explained why shoes are not good for you and how anyone can follow in his own footsteps to athletic success - unshod, that is. We also talked the importance and influence of Born To Run, the madness that is the Leadville 100... and Barefoot Ted himself.Resources for this episode:(All links can be found at https://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond/episodes/ep-11-take-a-step-outside-your-shoes)Bill Hoffman's TED Talk, From Couch to Ultra Marathon Bill's article on the Luna Sandals blog. Running the Leadville 100 in Lunas,Bill's article on Running (and swimming) the Lake George 12str in Adirondack Sports (Page 10.)Mountain Dog Running on FacebookLuis Escobar Road Dog podcast Episode 105: Finding the Flow with Barefoot Ted McDonald.For questions or comments about One Step Beyond, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media:InstagramFacebookTwitterAnd your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to Episode 10 of One Step Beyond, a show that encourages you to take a step outside your comfort zone and enrich your life.This episode: IF NOT NOW, WHEN?The title of a Primo Levi novel served as motivation for British sculptor Peter Naylor to attempt the 153-mile, 2-day run taken by Pheidippides from Athens to Sparta in the year 490BC. (Pheidippides was sent by the outnumbered Athenian army to recruit the Spartans in their impending battle against the invading Persians. He promptly ran back again!)The course has been commemorated in an annual Spartathlon run since 1983, but Naylor is no elite ultra runner. Rather, describing himself as someone who “doesn’t really like running,” he details how at the age of 66, propelled by little more than his love of Greek history and a belief that all things are possible, he wrote his will, jumped on a plane to Greece, and tackled the course unsupported. He promptly returned the next year to do it all over again – and vows to do so once more as a septuagenarian.In a conversation full of self-deprecation and humor, Naylor talks about going off course for over twenty miles, sleeping by the side of the road, and drinking from water bottles left in the gutter by Spartathlon runners. He also explains how the endeavor was a “life-changer,” and why we are all capable of so much more than we may think.Additionally, we discuss whether the legend that has Pheidippides then running the 25 miles from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of Athenian victory – for which the modern-day marathon race was named – rings true, or whether most of us long-distance road runners are celebrating a myth.Separately, I connect the dots to my own recent unsupported run of the Escarpment Trail in the Catskills and a recent visit to the outdoor playground that is the White Mountains of New Hampshire.Resources for this episode:(Links can additionally be found at https://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond/if-not-now-whenPeter Naylor can be found at https://www.peternaylor.co.uk/(Note: the Harriet Quimby statue referred to in this episode has not yet been commissioned.)More information on the Spartathlon is at https://www.spartathlon.grThere are multiple online history sites that detail the legend of Pheidippides' run to Sparta and back, and the potential myth of the original Marathon run. The Wikipedia page for Pheidippides credits many sources, allowing readers to conduct further research.For questions or comments about One Step Beyond, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media:InstagramFacebookTwitterAnd your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey you… Welcome to Episode 9 of One Step Beyond, a fortnightly show about positively engaging with the world outside our door, with host Tony Fletcher.At the age of 4, Manu Shrestha, along with her two siblings, was found abandoned on the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal, a not uncommon occurrence in a country of devastating poverty, where women generally have little by way of education, opportunity or rights. Manu was taken in by House With Heart, established in the Kathmandu neighborhood of Boudha in 2001 when the late Beverly Bronson took guardianship of two abandoned boys, and which has grown over 20 years to become "a home for abandoned children, an education center for impoverished women and children, and an outreach program for needy families."Now, at the age of 22, Manu is about to start her Junior year at an American college, studying for a nursing degree with the intent of become a nurse practioner, a role that does not exist for women in Nepal. Manu is not the first House With Heart alumni to receive a college education; she is, however, the first to come to the USA. On this episode of One Step Beyond, I talk with Manu about her incredible life journey so far, from the streets of Kathmandu to the mountains (alright, the hills) of Vermont, and her intent to give back to her community once she graduates. We are joined by House With Heart chairperson Colleen Boland.Also: I ruminate on the summer of staycations, and why I undertook a lengthy mountainous trail race after the race was canceled.Please take time to visitHouseWithHeart.org where you will find links to the charity's social media, and resource information that I quoted in this story. For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media:InstagramFacebookTwitterAnd your host can be found here:tonyfletcher.net See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey you… Welcome to Episode 8 of One Step Beyond, a fortnightly show about positively engaging with the world outside our door, with host Tony Fletcher.On this episode, we journey to Kenya, to talk with Nava Osembo, the co-founder and CEo of Enda Sportswear, Africa’s first performance running shoe company and a socially conscious, environmentally friendly, community-based company at that. Then for our local outdoor field recording, we're off to the races for the first time in several months, to find, not surprisingly, that things have changed significantly due to covid. The fun factor, however, has not, and I’ll offer tips for those of you looking to run your first race. Resources for this episode:(URL hyperlinks can always be found at https://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond/ep-8-kenya-enda-and-off-to-the-racesEnda websiteEnda on YouTubeEnda on InstagramReuters article on Kenyan renewable energyCleanTechnica article on Kenyan energyKingston X-Country Summer Series on FacebookAnd your host:tonyfletcher.net For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media:InstagramFacebookTwitter See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey you… Welcome to Episode 7 of One Step Beyond, a fortnightly show about positively engaging with the world outside our door, with host Tony Fletcher.On this episode, we go from the Catskill Mountains to the mountains of Colombia, in South America, with artist Ric Dragon, who gave up a successful business in the USA to pursue a dream of a rebirth abroad, founding an art center outside of Bogotá, Arte Sumapaz. Then we venture back onto the Catskill Mountains with legendary race director and coach Dick Vincent, to discuss trail running. Inevitably, in both stories, Coronavirus has had a significant impact, and we find ourselves discussing this, too.Resources for this episode:(URL hyperlinks can always be found at https://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond/ep-7-from-the-catskills-to-colombia-and-back.)Arte Sumapaz websiteArte Sumapaz InstagramArte Sumapaz FacebookRic Dragon artist pageCoach Dick Vincent Facebook Escarpment Trail Run websiteThe Ultimate Guide to Trail Running - a fantastic introduction to the sport, via Barnes & Noble.(But support your indie book store)!Tony's GoPro video running this section of the Escarpment Trail in 2017And your host:tonyfletcher.net For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media:InstagramFacebookTwitter See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey you… Welcome to Episode 6 of One Step Beyond, a fortnightly show about positively engaging with the world outside our door, with your host Tony Fletcher.On this episode, you’ll hear my interview with Carla Rhodes, who turned her own life around a few years ago when she quit drinking and picked up a camera, and is now receiving awards left right and center for her wildlife images while also seeking to make a difference with her photography. I then pick up from where our last episode left off on the running front, discussing how to fit speed work into your daily routines, in the process of my undertaking a virtual - though certainly physical - mile race. We discuss the long-overdue rise of female guides on the Inca Trail in Peru and how to help support them in this time of Coronavirus. And I’ll recommend some other podcasts that delve deep into subjects that this show cares about – which means that hopefully, you will too.Resources for this episode:(URL hyperlinks can always be found at https://shows.acast.com/onestepbeyond/ep-6-into-the-wildlife-and-beyond.)Carla Rhodes Photography websiteCarla Rhodes on InstagramHargila Army on FacebookGofundme.com/f/support-for-peruvian-mountain-guides/keeping-track.com/burnitalldownpod.com/episodes/162gunksrunner.com/paincave/2020/6/12/episode-61-eracism-with-yassine-dibounlipp.media/podcast/shit-abroadbarefoot-backpacker.com/category/podcast/And your host:tonyfletcher.net For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media:InstagramFacebookTwitter See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey you... Join author, journalist, broadcaster and music-lover Tony Fletcher, on this new podcast about positively engaging with the world outside our door.EPISODE 5:In December 2019, 52-year old high school teacher Paula Lucas could barely walk up her building’s stairs, due to breathlessness, heart palpitations and other health concerns from being severely overweight. Concerned that she might drop dead in front of her students, she turned vegan before the year was out, and in March, embarked on the From Couch to 5k Program, running for the first time since she was herself at high school. I talk to her about her journey.You can view Paula Lucas’s video diaries, Paula’s Plant Based Pilgrimage, on YouTube: Following up on the mini-series ‘From Kingston to Kilimanjaro,’ I also talk to Henry Stedman, author of ‘Kilimanjaro: The Trekking Guide to Africa’s Highest Mountain,’ and a tour operator in his own right. He discusses how the coronavirus has put an end to almost all mountain climbs, and what his company and others are doing to ensure the welfare of the mountain’s guides and porters. You can find Henry at ClimbMountKilimanjaro.com. The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project is at kiliporters.orgPlus, I find solace hiking in the Catskill Mountains, question what it means to “step outside your comfort zone” in the quest for racial justice and equity, and point listeners to other podcasts that delve deeper into some of these issues. It’s a magazine show, after all.For questions or comments, or to subscribe to the newsletter, e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net Join One Step Beyond on social media:InstagramFacebookTwitter See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.