Ever since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest, there has been a long list of firsts: the first ascent without supplemental oxygen, the first in winter, and the first full ski descent, to name a few. The first Black climber reached the roof of the world in 2003. But until this year, no team of Black climbers had done it. Mee ... Show More
Jul 2023
Trapped in the icy waters of the Northwest Passage
For centuries, the Northwest Passage, the long-sought sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through northern Canada, was a holy grail of Arctic exploration. Even now, sailing through it isn’t guaranteed. Mark Synnott, a National Geographic Explorer, writer, and adv ... Show More
34m 16s
Jul 2023
Playback: Modern Lives, Ancient Caves
There’s a lost continent waiting to be explored, and it’s right below our feet. We’ll dig into the deep human relationship to the underground—and why we understand it from an instinctive point of view, but not so much from a physical one. (Hint: We’re afraid of the dark.) In an e ... Show More
28m 39s
Jun 2023
Playback: This Indigenous Practice Fights Fire with Fire
For decades, the U.S. government evangelized fire suppression, most famously through Smokey Bear’s wildfire prevention campaign. But as climate change continues to exacerbate wildfire seasons and a growing body of scientific research supports using fire to fight fire, Indigenous ... Show More
29m 8s
May 2021
K2: The Savage Mountain | Summit Fever | 1
In the summer of 2008, mountaineers from eight different countries gather at the foot of the world’s second tallest mountain, K2. All of them have a single goal: reach the summit. But to do that they will need to undertake one most difficult, and dangerous, climbs on earth. Sunny ... Show More
38m 24s
Jan 2019
Kílian Jornet: Summiting The Mind Of The World’s Greatest Mountain Runner
“Conquering mountains is an ironic phrase. We are not conquering them. We can never pretend to be fighting nature because we are part of it.”Kílian Jornet
Never meet your heroes, they say.Fortunately, this entire podcast is based on ignoring that advice. And today, that's a good ... Show More
1h 55m
Sep 2019
Mount Everest Pt. 1: The Blizzard of 1996
In 1996, two climbing groups set out to reach the peak of Mount Everest, the highest point on planet Earth. A sudden, unexpected blizzard would leave them stranded on the mountain's summit, where the freezing cold and lack of oxygen slowly killed them off, one by one. Learn more ... Show More
52m 8s
Jun 2023
Scaling Everest, the highest mountain in the world
Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes focusing on Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.
It's 70 years since Edmund Hillary with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first people to reach the summit of Everest in 1953.
We hear about som ... Show More
51m 47s
Jun 2021
K2: The Savage Mountain | Fredrik Sträng, Pt. 2: On Surviving K2 | 5
On August 1, 2008 Mountaineer Fredrik Sträng was on K2, the second highest mountain on Earth. He’d reached Camp 4 at 26,000 feet and was ready for the final push up to the summit. But Sträng and another member of his team decided to call off their summit bid when they saw climber ... Show More
43m 30s