Podcasts

I have been listening to a lot of podcasts lately; some good, some terrible. If you don't already know, podcasts are similar to radio shows and distributed through iTunes. They are sometimes very amateur programs and sometimes professionally produced - the latter usually having more interesting content. How is this relevant to Finding Kurtz? Nothing screams of adventure more than CIA operatives behind enemy lines during the Cold War, or the experience of soldiers fighting the elements on the Russian front of WWII. And in the case of adventure sports, with a podcast you can hear some of the stories straight from the athletes mouth. I will be posting the names of some here in the blog and hope you check some of them out. Hit me in the comments and let me know what you think.

1. SpyCast - from the International Spy Museum. This podcast is simply awesome. They cover topics such as MI6 - the super secret British version of the CIA - to the US involvement in the Revolution in Iran in '79. For a taste of this one, definately check out "On Assignment to Congo", (scroll to the bottom of the page) where the host speaks with Larry Devlin, the CIA's Chief of Station in the Congo during that country's revolution in the 60s.

2. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History - another great podcast with a historical bent. Dan Carlin talks about history like a storyteller who might have been there. It is obvious he puts tons of research into his narratives and it shows. Surely don't miss the three part series on the Eastern Front of WWII (Ghosts of the Ostfront).

That should hold you for a while. More to come.

A short film of Rab® sponsored climber Tom Randall

One Infinity 8b+ from Rab on Vimeo.

Teddy Roosevelt: Adventurer

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

--Theodore Roosevelt

Shackleton

Jim Morrison

Kurt Cobain

Hemingway Pulp Magazine Cover

Sean Flynn, War Correspondent for LIFE magazine during the Vietnam War

Sean Flynn

Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, war correspondents

Last picture taken of Sean Flynn and Dana Stone before they dissappeared on the Vietnam/Cambodia border. Sean Flynn was son of movie star Errol Flynn and war photographer/correspondant for Time magazine during the Vietnam War. Also check out the book Two of the Missing (Perry Deane Young), written by a fellow Vietnam correspondent about these two adventurers, and Dispatches (Michael Herr), about life as a war correspondent during the war.

Ned Smith

Ned Smith was a renowned wildlife illustrator who painted covers and illustrations for the Pennsylvania Game News.