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Corey Rich is a climber and photographer, a director, a gifted speaker and storyteller, which likely stems from being a teacher and educator at heart. He has shot some of the most iconic photographs in the field of climbing, many of these are the topic of his recent book titled, "Stories Behind the Images". He is part-owner of Novus Select, a production company with an enviable list of clients, and its feet firmly planted in the world of adventure. Prior to recording the podcast Mark and Corey reconnected at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival for the first time in 20 years or more — neither can recall the exact date of the last adventure — and seeing each other "all grown up" was profound enough to schedule a deeper conversation.

Nic Lazz is a bartender, hospitalitan, rock climber, tattoo aficionado, connoisseur of experience, and a world traveler who loves punk rock. He dropped by the NonProphet Event Center to visit, discuss, and share some spirits from small, craft distillers in Mexico and also Scotland. The wide-ranging conversation covers alcohol and the human relationship to it, food, hospitality, pornography, politics, 80s action stars becoming politicians vs. Michael's notion that a porn star as presidential candidate may well be a better choice. Some useful philosophical ideas come up in the conversation but it will require some wading and waiting to extract them.

Rebecca Ferri aka BEXX is an artist and adventurer who has called Canmore, Alberta home for almost a decade after moving, first, west (from Ontario) and then back east (from Squamish, BC). Out west she discovered the downhill mountain biking for which the Coast is well-known, which distracted her from climbing — but only for a while. Mark met her at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival where her exhibition titled "Strong Back, Soft Front" featured portraits of, "the strong and courageous women climbers in the Bow Valley". Check it out @strong_back.soft_front and her personal feed @this_is_bexx She is a badass.

Ep. 91 Part One WeMove Magazine’s Chris Baker and James Shaw join Mark and Michael to discuss the intersection of creativity, pain, and pleasure. Traveling the world to curate content for their magazine was the practical excuse for what their spirits desired—to both meet and learn from those that they respect, to share ideas with, and collaborate on the creation of something greater than themselves.

Michael and Mark discuss the Game Changers “documentary” — as several others have recently — digging into contradictions, omissions, the lack of truth seeking in favor of pushing an agenda, etc. This is a trivial and boring discussion about human nature, greed, false-altruism, so-called “health food”, Big Pharma and once again, they conclude that the most powerful influence an individual might have on climate change and the health and satisfaction of the world’s population is ZPG.

Michael and Mark discuss profit, value, and win-win trade relationships as well as the so-called prophets who inundate us with information that suffocates creativity and dissent. This opens the topic of politics, control, and eventually some learning and inspiration from an unlikely podcast. Along the way they wrestle the question of why people gather to hear stories told by folks who have gone to the edge, seen something — maybe too much — and returned to share their experience, as in, if you want to know, why not seek that edge yourself?

What is it to source your own food? What does it take? What does it give you? In this episode, Trevor, Michael, and Mark discuss Trevor’s recent trip to Canada where he claimed a very large moose by arrowhead. 

Two days after our most recent Symposium we sat down with Paul Becker and Kegan Dillon to review the events, address a listener request, and discuss the Friday night screening of “Pushing the Limits”, a 1994 French extreme sports movie. We got this particular Symposium right by asking more questions than we provided answers and by creating an environment within which attendees were comfortable asking questions that were relevant to them individually. The level of honesty and intimacy that prevailed was as emotionally overwhelming as anything any of us had experienced. But it wasn’t all heavy — plenty of laughter carried over from the gathering to the podcast — because who doesn’t appreciate the idea of Kegan, aka The Son of Distance, directing the Endurance lessons? After all, he is Endurance Jesus.

Mike Thurk and I returned from dinner to find Joe Holmes in the parking lot. He had been drinking wine on the flight down and reading some of my older writing, which set him alight and he wanted to burn more and longer. We took him into the podcast studio and released the brakes ...

Scott Backes — who appeared in ep. 44 — returns to the studio for a brief conversation around the topic of age, experience, and the ultimate demonstration of free will.

Pauly was an astrophysicist before joining the military, within which he worked his way up to the top of the food chain. During his career he was injured several times and used a variety of non-standard means to manage his pain, return to better-than-before physical condition, and continue to operate. This episode tours a few rabbit holes, concluding this about eating to produce a state of ketosis, "We are not arbitrarily assigning importance to something, we're looking for physiological markers when we eat in a certain way," and, "I'm ketogenic, I can't eat pan-psychism." Along the way some inherent skepticism appears, "I can't sell you the outcome ... but I can sell you the product that I assure you will produce the outcome," because it wouldn't be the worst fitness podcast in the world if we didn't mock some of the fitness industry's players.

Mark, Michael, Kegan and Trevor discuss their varied experiences at Rebecca's Private Idaho gravel bike event this year, which turned out quite different from 2018. Some came through better, others not so much.

Mark and Michael discuss taxes, politics, formal education as daycare, nuking hurricanes, assault sugar, Muddy Buddies, spiritual emptiness and the measures some take to fill or occupy it, social media as a sandbox, engaging with people whose ideas are different than our own, Beta vs. VHS, and finally settle on current environmental issues. They are, of course, cynical but also glass half-full optimistic, until the discussion turns to diet where the guys propose eating less as a solution to reduce human impact on the environment and offer up a religious organization based on the idea: The Church of Immaculate Consumption. Tune in for a good laugh and some provocative conversation.

West and Kami Taylor train wild horses, they have spent the last 10-years dedicated to the human-horse relationship and science-based horsemanship. After taking a few of us from the Nonprophet group out on a horse experience, they join Mark, Michael, and Josh Tyler in the Dissect studio to talk about what it means to be wild but teachable.

Jack Donovan authored several books on the topic of masculinity, The Way of Men, Becoming a Barbarian, and A Sky Without Eagles. While he speaks and writes eloquently, he also values physical capacity and appearance, and conducts rituals consistent with Germanic Paganism on a plot of land he purchased to create a sacred space. He has been described in the media as a threat to liberal agenda and progressive ideology because he contradicts what is to be an openly gay male living in America, and for associations with the AltRight, and other far right organizations. Jack is not everyone’s cup of tea, but he is a thinker and a doer. He and Josh Tyler join us in the studio for a wide-ranging conversation about rites pf passage, making one’s point through action, the value of asking more and better questions, and how most who have some power mismanage it. Jack has a quiet demeanor but his philosophy gets summed up nicely when he declares, “Rather than complaining about everything that’s wrong with the world, kind of the theme has been, why don’t you start what you want to the best of your ability?”

Kelly Halpin grew up in Jackson, Wyoming and graduated from the Art Center College of Design with a BFA in film. Her day job is that of an illustrator although in our circles she is better known as a mountain athlete, having recently completed the Wasatch Ultimate Ridge Link-up in 23hrs 44min, bettering her 2018 effort of 30 hours. Last December she ran from Shorty Wells in Death Valley (elevation -262') to the top of Telescope Peak (elevation 11,043') in 13hrs 27min. She has adventured on foot, a snowboard, and wearing rock climbing shoes all over the world. Being that NonProphet exists at the intersection of art and physical effort, it made sense that we would meet and have a conversation. Tune in — you will dig it.

Michael and Mark start by discussing the RAZE Anthology and how it has been means of addressing frustration but turn a bit dark to focus on the topic of frustration itself. There are no hacks. Observe it. Try to understand it because in understanding and acceptance (of the condition not the cause) is the way ahead.

Mark relates a story to Ben Staley and Trevor Thompson about a trip to Bolivia in 1996. Of course, there is climbing talk but the more interesting aspects of the journey had little to do with that — especially reviewed 23 years later. The trip started with some thievery and a high altitude night marathon, and concluded with a city-wide party in La Paz, psychedelics, meeting a local metal band, poverty and celebration, a fashion show at the hotel featuring Alpacas, fabric made from their wool, runway models and a too-quick return to North America. A companion article and gallery are posted on the NonProphet website.

“If you don’t feel it … can it work?” Professional mountain bike racer and host of The Adventure Stache podcast Payson McElveen dropped by to talk a little bit about cycling, his White Rim FKT, e-bikes, and a lot about performance, health, diet, the promise of hype-driven exercise tools, driving fast, and the occasional rabbit hole.

Michael and Mark discuss the difference between DNS and DNF and how a planned DNF might figure into a long-term training cycle. Mark’s concept of “Integrate Instead of Insulate” comes up and not simply in reference to the outside environment. Finally, the guys talk about the relationship between a lack of fitness and the lack of desire, and gain about how increased capability creates increased opportunity and allows the imagination to run toward wilder, greater experiences.