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The Backcountry Manifesto: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Outdoor Visions Media
Welcome to The Backcountry Manifesto Podcast, the adventure podcast for everyone. Join your buddy out west, Hayden Sammak, as he talks to friends old and new about wild places, exploration, and backcountry adventure. From talking space exploration with astronaut Loral O’Hara, to bullshitting about rock climbing with Rick Accomazzo and John Long, TBM has something for everyone, no matter what you’re into. If it has anything to do with outdoor adventure in wild places, you’ll find us talking about it here. Welcome to the backcountry – welcome to The Backcountry Manifesto!
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- 2 weeks ago2h 7m
The Keys to Modern Survival | John Barklow, Special Ops Instructor, Sitka Gear Developer | Ep. 043
Joe Rogan may have said it best: If there was one human being I had to pick to help me survive a life-or-death emergency situation in the wilderness, without a shadow of a doubt, my choice would be John Barklow. That's the blurb on the cover of John Barklow's forthcoming survival book "Knowledge From Storms." John spent 20 years as a Navy diver, most of it around special operations -- after 9/11, he was one of twelve instructors sent to Kodiak Island to teach SEALs how to survive winter in the mountains, and he helped build the clothing system special ops still uses today. On this episode of the Backcountry Manifesto, John is swinging by the studio to talk backcountry survival and building the kit that will keep you safe, capable, and comfortable wherever your outdoor adventures take you. This is not a Sitka ad. It's a top-to-bottom walk through a brand-agnostic backcountry kit from the dude who actually wrote the manual. What's the one piece of gear a survival instructor won't leave the truck without? Why is your 30-degree sleeping bag not actually a 30-degree bag? What the hell is a "possibles pouch?" Barklow's got answers. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE John's website: https://knowledgefromstorms.com/ John's IG: https://www.instagram.com/jbarklow/ PRE-ORDER Knowledge from Storms: https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Storms-Surviving-Toughest-Environments/dp/1250461707 John's survival class: https://outdoorclass.com/instructors/john-barklow/ Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025 #podcast #survival #survivalgear #wilderness #gear #backpacking
- 3 weeks ago2h 29m
The Sailing Expedition Lost to the Arctic for Two Years | Hampton Sides, Bestselling Historian | Ep. 042
Is there land at the North Pole, or just ice? Is the water up there frozen solid, or open ocean? In 1879 nobody actually knew, and the best science of the day was hilariously wrong: punch through the ice rim, it said, and you'd find a warm, open sea at the top of the world. The USS Jeannette sailed north to prove it. Her crew deliberately let the Arctic pack freeze in around the ship, drifted for two years, and watched the ice crush her. This week on The Backcountry Manifesto, bestselling historian and Outside editor-at-large Hampton Sides is back for part two, this time on In the Kingdom of Ice. We talk about: The newspaper baron who bankrolled the whole expedition because Arctic disasters sold papers August Petermann, the armchair German mapmaker whose "open polar sea" theory sent them north, and who hanged himself before anyone could prove him wrong Emma De Long's "letters to nowhere," and the trunk Hampton found in a stranger's attic The canned tomatoes quietly poisoning the crew with lead The gale that scattered the boats and decided who lived If you're into polar survival, forgotten American history, or watching very confident experts get people killed, this episode is for you. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Hampton's Website In the Kingdom of Ice The Wide Wide Sea Orson Welles' radio dramatization The Fram Museum Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025 #podcast #polarexpedition #explorer #history #sailing
- Aug 20, 20262h 4m
Captain Cook: How the World's Greatest Explorer Went Mad | Hampton Sides | Ep. 041
In February 1779, the most famous explorer alive was hacked to death on a Hawaiian beach while his own men watched helplessly through field glasses from the ships. Weeks earlier, thousands of Hawaiians had greeted him as the god Lono — his arrival matched their prophecy down to the shape of his sails. So what happened? And why had the most rational, even-keeled commander in the Royal Navy spent his final voyage burning villages over a stolen goat? Hampton Sides — one of America's great narrative historians and author of The Wide Wide Sea — joins us to unravel Captain Cook's final voyage: the secret hunt for the Northwest Passage, a cannibalism cold case in New Zealand, and the leading medical theory for what actually went wrong inside Cook's head. This is Part 1 of two with Hampton — next week: In the Kingdom of Ice. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE The Wide Wide Sea: https://www.amazon.com/Wide-Sea-Imperial-Ambition-Contact/dp/0385544766 Hampton's Website: https://hamptonsides.com The Captain Cook Society: https://www.captaincooksociety.com Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025 #podcast #captaincook #explorer #history #sailing
- Aug 13, 20261h 51m
T. Rex, the Commercial Fossil Market, and Science | Dr. Thomas Carr, T. rex Paleontologist | Ep. 040| Dr. Thomas Carr, T. rex Paleontologist | Ep. 040
There are now more scientifically valuable T. rex fossils in private hands than in public museums. This is the finding of a peer-reviewed study published last year by this week's guest, Dr. Thomas Carr, a tyrannosaur paleontologist and Associate Professor of Biology at Carthage College. Carr designed one of the largest meat-eating-dinosaur exhibits in North America, has named several dinosaur and bird species in his career, and has become one of paleontology's most outspoken critics of the commercial fossil trade. He's the critic who gets called by journalists every time a T. rex goes up for auction. We get into how a dinosaur actually ends up at auction versus in a museum, why the "public trust" system exists, and the case of Stan the T. rex as a cautionary tale for why the public/private discussion matters. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Carthage College Paleontology: https://www.carthage.edu/biology/paleontology/ Society of Vertebrate Paleontology: https://vertpaleo.org/ Avisaurus Darwini: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/about/press/predatory-birds-from-the-same-fossil-formation-as-sue-the-t-rex Thomas Carr's Paper: https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025/5499-t-rex-endangered-species Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025 #podcast #dinosaur #trex #tyrannosaurus #paleontology #fossils
- Aug 6, 20261h 38m
The Tiger Attacks of 1997: A Poacher's Nightmare | John Vaillant, Author of The Tiger| Ep. 039
In 1997, a suspected poacher in the Russian wilderness shot a tiger and failed to kill it, instead wounding the animal -- and making it incredibly dangerous. Over the following days, the tiger terrorized the man it believed was responsible, doing so with an eerie sense of focus and cold calculation. After killing him, the tiger turned his attention to the residents of the nearby village of Sobolonye, many of whom depended upon the wilderness to make their livings, and so were forced to venture into the tiger's domain. But as villagers did their best to avoid the animal -- with varying levels of success -- a heavily armed, special government anti-poaching unit, known as Inspection Tiger, sought the animal out. Led by Yuri Trush, Inspection Tiger began prowling the wilderness bordering Sobolonye, searching for signs of the man-eater, and looking to put an end to its attacks. John Vaillant is the author of The Tiger, The Golden Spruce, and Fire Weather, a Pulitzer finalist, and a Baillie Gifford winner. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE The Tiger: https://www.amazon.com/Tiger-Vengeance-Survival-Vintage-Departures/dp/0307389049 Conflict Tiger (2006): https://www.sashasnow.com/conflict-tiger Our episode with John on Fire Weather: https://youtu.be/81kwnFFtqP8 John Vaillant's X: https://x.com/JohnVaillant John Vaillant's BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/johnvaillant.bsky.social Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025 #podcast #animalattack #tiger #siberiantiger #nature
- Jul 30, 20261h 40m
The Real Coyote Peterson | Coyote Peterson, Brave Wilderness | Ep. 038
Coyote Peterson runs the largest wildlife channel on YouTube: 21.8 million subscribers, five billion views, an Emmy, and a body of work he describes as a mix of Steve Irwin, Steven Spielberg, and Bear Grylls. But who is he really? This week, Coyote drops by the studio to talk about his life and adventures -- and the occasional misadventure -- as he works to educate his viewers on the wild world that surrounds them. We get the three worst things he's ever felt, a brush with an Australian plant that resulted in six months of nerve damage, a twelve-foot Komodo dragon (that he decided to leave alone), and the Bigfoot episode that got him briefly declared a fraud by the national media. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE https://www.bravewilderness.com/ Coyote's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ @BraveWilderness Coyote's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coyotepeterson/ Coyote's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@coyotepetersonofficial That Bear Kid: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36400177/ Komodo Dragon episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkwlxY1iLXo David Blaine Cobra-Kiss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0naO3xh07s8 Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025 #podcast #coyotepeterson #bravewilderness #komododragons #wildlife
- Jul 23, 20261h 49m
The Story of Canada's Most Notorious Wildfire | John Vaillant, Author of Fire Weather | Ep. 037
With the Canadian fires spreading wildfire smoke across the country, Pulitzer Prize finalist John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather, swings by the studio to tell the story of the Fort McMurray fire -- a catastrophe many consider to be the most notorious wildfire in Canadian history. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Fire Weather: https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Weather-Front-Lines-Burning/dp/0525434240 The Tiger: https://www.amazon.com/Tiger-Vengeance-Survival-Vintage-Departures/dp/0307389049 John's X: https://x.com/JohnVaillant John's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/johnvaillant.bsky.social Copyright Outdoor Visions Media LLC, 2025 #podcast #wildfire #forestfire #climatechange #firestorm
- Jul 16, 20262h 19m
Real Treasure Hunting: Pirates, Hurricanes & Spanish Gold | Captain Mike Perna | Ep. 036
Captain Mike Perna has spent 25 years doing something most people think only happens in movies: diving for sunken Spanish treasure. Off Florida's Treasure Coast lie the scattered remains of the 1715 Plate Fleet — eleven galleons loaded with New World gold and silver that a hurricane drove onto the reefs in a single night, killing over a thousand people and strewing their cargo across miles of ocean floor. This past summer, Mike's crew pulled 1,051 silver coins off the seabed and made national news. He flew from Florida to Montana to tell us how it actually works: the "breadcrumb trails" of coins scattered a mile from the wreck, the magnetometers and metal detectors, the short summer dive season, and the "you never really own the treasure, you just hold onto it for a while" philosophy that comes with a quarter-century of doing it. He brought real pieces of eight to pass across the table, walked us through the legendary Mel Fisher and the $400 million Atocha, and got into the thorny ethics of who really gets to keep history. Whether you're here for shipwrecks, colonial history, or just a great real-life treasure story, this one's got gold, pirates, hurricanes, and a lead box packed with 16,000 pearls. 1715 Fleet Society: https://1715fleetsociety.com
About The Backcountry Manifesto
Welcome to The Backcountry Manifesto Podcast, the adventure podcast for everyone. Join your buddy out west, Hayden Sammak, as he talks to friends old and new about wild places, exploration, and backcountry adventure. From talking space exploration with astronaut Loral O’Hara, to bullshitting about rock climbing with Rick Accomazzo and John Long, TBM has something for everyone, no matter what you’re into. If it has anything to do with outdoor adventure in wild places, you’ll find us talking about it here. Welcome to the backcountry – welcome to The Backcountry Manifesto!
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