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My name is Alastair Humphreys. Back in my youth, my glory days, I spent 4 years cycling around the world. Ever since then. I’ve been interested in the idea of Living Adventurously.
But the definition of LA differs for everyone.
And it also changes over time, as our lives and circumstances change.
So I decided to get back on my bike, to go and ask different people what living adventurously means to them.
I spent a glorious summer month cycling around Yorkshire, the county where I grew up.
I wanted to feel how exploring locally compared to exploring distant continents.
And I was interested in the idea of ‘home’ - and whether it is possible to have a proper adventure — make a REAL journey — close to home.
It turned out to be such a fantastic experience - riding through mile after mile of beautiful landscapes, discovering so many places I had never seen in all my life, and sleeping out under the stars for weeks on end. It was genuinely one of the adventuring highlights of my life.
But the best part of this journey - by a long way, was the privileged opportunity of learning from so many ordinary people who have chosen to live extra-ordinary lives. This is not a podcast then about adventure or cycling or camping.
I met students and parents and pensioners. Poets, artists, athletes, teachers. An IT expert and someone who earns a living from making fancy sandcastles. A man who lived out of a van; another whose castle had been in the family for 800 years. I met a self-confessed lazy chef, and a woman midway through running 100 barefoot marathons. I interviewed a gold medal Paralympian cyclist, a couple who had cycled round the world together, and a retired lady who takes old, homebound, lonely folk out on a modified electric bicycle for a taste of freedom, adventure and feeling the wind in their hair once again.
In each episode you’ll hear an un-edited conversation about the guest’s slant on living a curious, adventurous, fulfilled life.
I also had a deck of blank playing cards on which I’d written some of the big questions from life — about finding a balance between work and play, the barriers that stop us doing what we dream of, overcoming fears, and where you sit on a scale of weirdness from 1 to 10. Asking very different people an assortment of similar questions created some fascinating answers.
The interviews will all be released in the order that I recorded them, mirroring my own journey on the bike and the lessons I learned from each guest along the way.
Every character I spoke to was good company and a thoughtful guest. But inevitably you’ll find one person more interesting than another. If someone doesn’t float your boat just skip on to the next episode: there are over 40 interviews in this series. Life’s too short to listen to a chat you’re not that keen on!
I had never recorded interviews like this, never done a podcast before. For Many of the people I chatted to it was their first time being interviewed. I liked that very much. Ordinary people pursuing their own version of out-of-the-ordinary. I really wanted to speak to normal people, not famous people. It made the experience fresh and surprising and honest. I hope that you agree.
The podcast world is a crowded one - there’s so much good stuff out there clamouring for your ears. So if you do like the sound of this Living Adventurously podcast, could I ask you to help me by subscribing to the podcast (it’s free of course) on the podcast provider of your choice.
If you can be bothered it would also be a great help if you left a review, or mentioned Living Adventurously on your own social media channels.
Thank you, and welcome to Living Adventurously - I really, really hope that these conversations give you some ideas of your own towards living more adventurously every day.
