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What to Carry, What to Burn: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Blair Braverman
Edge-of-your-seat survival stories, as told by adventurer and dogsledder Blair Braverman.How did Ada Blackjack endure a brutal Arctic winter alone? Why did one shipwreck crew work together to survive, while another crew–on the same island–hunted each other for food? What can we learn from survivors about getting through the impossible–in the wilderness, and in our own lives?New stories every other week! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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- 5 days ago42 min
Ep 11: The Second Shipwreck
21-year-old Violet Jessup goes to sea to support her family--and ends up caught in two major maritime disasters.(Spoilers below, in the source list.)Sources for this episode include the book Titanic Survivor: The Newly Discovered Memoirs of Violet Jessup who Survived Both the Titanic and Brittanic Disasters, by Violet Jessup, introduced, edited, and annotated by John Maxtone Graham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 2 weeks ago44 min
Ep 10: Jan Baalsrud
In 1943, Jan Baalsrud and his friends sneak into northern Norway on a fishing boat to blow up a Nazi air base—but when the Nazis catch them first, Jan ends up barefoot in the snow on an arctic island, trapped and alone.Sources:We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance, by David HowarthDefiant Courage: Norway’s Longest WWII Escape, by Astrid Karlsen Scott and Dr. Tore HaugThe Fugitive, published in The New York Times, by Robert KolkerWelcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube by Blair BravermanIrene by Sofia Jannok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU-np8zS4HQ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Aug 18, 202631 min
Ep 9: Juliane Koepcke
Juliane Koepcke had an unusual childhood, helping her biologist parents with fieldwork in the Amazon. At seventeen, after surviving a two-mile free fall from a broken plane, she has to lean on everything she learned from her family to survive the jungle.Sources for this episode include the book When I Fell From the Sky by Juliane Koepcke, the film Wings of Hope by Werner Herzog, and the New York Times story “She Fell Nearly 2 Miles, and Walked Away,” by Franz Lidz. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Aug 4, 20261h 0m
Ep 8: Valerian Albanov
Navigator Valerian Albanov escapes an icebound ship--and ends up the reluctant leader of a desperate trek across the frozen sea. Sources for this book include the book In the Land of the White Death by Valerian Albanov, translated from Russian to English by Alison Anderson, and the book The Riddle of Navigator Albanov, by Mikhail Andreyevich Chvanov. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Jul 21, 202656 min
Ep 7: The Painted Ocean
When shark fisherman José Salvador Alvarenga gets caught in a storm at sea, he thinks he'll be able to ride it out. But the motor breaks in his little boat, and he starts to drift across the Pacific...Sources for this episode include the book 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin (highly recommended!), as well as the Guardian article "Pacific Castaway Recounts his 13 Month Odyssey" by Leila Haddou and the Time article "A Castaway who Survived 14 Months at Sea is Being Sued for Cannibalism" by Tiare Dunlap.Other works mentioned are the book A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst (also highly recommended!) and the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from which this episode gets its name. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Jul 7, 202659 min
Ep 6: Adam and Eve Crusoe
When Lucy Irvine stumbles on an ad in the back of a magazine—an eccentric writer is looking for a “wife” to join him on a tropical island—she thinks she’s found the adventure of a lifetime. But the survival you sign up for is not necessarily the survival you end up in…To learn more about this story, I recommend the book Castaway by Lucy Irvine. There are other sources, as listed in the episode, but I don’t recommend them! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Jun 23, 202640 min
Ep 5: Lauren Elder
It’s 1976, and a 20-something aspiring painter, Lauren Elder, is flying over California’s Sierra Mountains to pick up a cat named Ferocious. When the plane crashes, she’s faced with a decision: stay and wait for rescue, or cross a wilderness where—in her hallucinatory state—she can’t even tell what's real.Sources for this episode include the book And I Alone Survived by Lauren Elder and Shirley Streshinsky, articles in Artforum and the LA Times by Maria Borges and Cecilia Rasmussen, LaurenElder.com, and the Women Eco-Artists Dialogue (weadartists.org).https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-may-07-me-then7-story.htmlhttps://www.artforum.com/events/lauren-elder-216640/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Jun 9, 202654 min
Ep 4: Bob and the Invercauld
It's bad enough that 19th-century sailor Bob Holding gets stranded on an island after a shipwreck—but to make it worse, his companions are entitled, incompetent, and straight up murderous. Plus, they're not as alone on the island as they think...Sources for this episode include the books The Wake of the Invercauld: Shipwrecked in the Subantarctic by Madelene Ferguson Allen and Island of the Lost by Joan Druett. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
About What to Carry, What to Burn
Edge-of-your-seat survival stories, as told by adventurer and dogsledder Blair Braverman.How did Ada Blackjack endure a brutal Arctic winter alone? Why did one shipwreck crew work together to survive, while another crew–on the same island–hunted each other for food? What can we learn from survivors about getting through the impossible–in the wilderness, and in our own lives?New stories every other week! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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