The Discomfort Zone
Do you feel called toward something bigger — a dream, adventure, or purpose — but fear keeps holding you back? Welcome to The Discomfort Zone — the outdoor, mindset, and leadership podcast where courage meets the edge. Every Tuesday, host Anna Levesque — world-class whitewater kayaker, World Championship medalist, author, and mental agility coach — dives into raw, real conversations with paddlers, athletes, leaders, adventurers, and purpose-driven humans who choose growth over comfort. From powerful stories on wild rivers and mountain trails to navigating major life transitions, these conversations explore what it truly takes to face fear, build confidence, and find your flow — on and off the water. You'll hear: Stories from whitewater kayakers + outdoor athletes pushing their edge Insights from guides, coaches, and leaders creating impact in their fields Practical mental-agility + leadership tools you can use right away Lessons from expeditions, competition, and personal transformation How to navigate the discomfort that fuels growth, courage, and purpose Whether you're a paddler, outdoor enthusiast, emerging leader, or someone seeking more courage in everyday life, you'll walk away with practical tools to strengthen resilience, show up with confidence, and embrace the adventure of being alive. If you're ready to stop playing small and start living boldly, you're in the right zone.
Episodes
What does it take to stay calm above a big rapid when you're also wondering whether the people in the eddy have your back?
In this episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Anna Levesque, former professional whitewater kayaker and founder of Mind Body Paddle, talks with two instructors who are breaking barriers in whitewater kayaking. Rolando Arrieta is an ACA-certified whitewater kayak instructor and storyt...
A year ago, a low back injury meant Anna Levesque couldn't sit in a kayak, or even a chair. She wondered if she would ever paddle whitewater again. This season she's back surfing, stern squirting, paddling Class IV whitewater, and coaching.
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Anna Levesque, former professional whitewater kayaker and founder of Mind Body Paddle, tells the full story of how ...
How do you learn to trust yourself enough to know your limits, and still take the big risk when it counts?
In this episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Anna Levesque, former professional whitewater kayaker and founder of Mind Body Paddle, talks with Nadia Burton, founder of WhatVest and Big Hollow Designs. Nadia spent more than 25 years in the ski industry, competing out of Jackson Hole, cat ski guiding...
Have you ever wondered how the legendary Brown Claw got started?
Dave Fusilli runs West Coast sales and marketing for Pyranha Kayaks, is a longtime IR athlete, and is one of the founders of Demshitz and the Brown Claw. In this replay of one of the most downloaded episodes of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Anna Levesque, former professional whitewater kayaker and founder of Mind Body Paddle, gets the real ori...
On her birthday, Amy Bowers Cordalis was handed a detonator wired to a dam on the Klamath River and told to stomp on it as hard as she could.
In this episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Anna Levesque, former professional whitewater kayaker and founder of Mind Body Paddle, talks with Amy Bowers Cordalis: Yurok attorney, executive director of Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group, UN Champions ...
Sommerville Johnston brought a rubber band to this recording. Stretched, it is the discomfort zone. Pulled further, it snaps. How much stress resilience do you have before you snap?
Sommerville Johnston is a licensed professional counselor, somatic experiencing practitioner, wilderness guide, and founder of Aspen Roots Collective. She joins Anna Levesque, former professional whitewater kayaker and founder ...
She told everyone in the eddy she was only going to ferry. When she peeled out, she was shocked by what happened next.
The whitewater decision making strategy that Anna Levesque, former professional whitewater kayaker and founder of Mind Body Paddle, got from Clay Wright years ago sounded strange. In this solo episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast she works out why it became the perfect strategy to come b...
What does ego have to do with confidence in kayaking?
Benny Marr, one of the best big wave and expedition paddlers in the world, has a surprising answer that will help you discern whether to run a challenging rapid or walk away. In this conversation from 2024 on The Discomfort Zone Podcast with Anna Levesque, Benny goes into how he has used his ego for both 'good' and 'evil' in kayaking, and what tha...
What do you do when you are the only thing between you and the line you know you can run?
Abby Holcombe, world champion freestyle kayaker, four-time USA national champion, and three-time USA team member, joins Anna Levesque on The Discomfort Zone Podcast to talk about the fear she knows is irrational, but still gets in the way.
This conversation is a replay, and since it first aired, Abb...
How do you break through the resistance to doing the things you know will build your confidence, but you're afraid of doing them?
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Anna Levesque, former professional whitewater kayaker and founder of Mind Body Paddle, takes on the hard truth that more confidence, more skill, and more joy all live on the other side of the stuff you're avoiding. The roll is...
How do you settle your nerves when the pressure is on and everyone is watching?
In this episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Bryan Kirk, a former member US Freestyle Kayak Team member and Worlds medalist who has taken social media by storm with his old school boats and tricks, claims that once a paddler has the skill set, performance is 95 percent about keeping the mind under control.
He walks us through the visualization ...
What does it actually take to lead a team, run an international guiding business, and still choose the hard line when it would be easier to stay comfortable?
Juliet Jacobsen Kastorff is co-founder of Endless River Adventures, owner of Rio Quijos Ecolodge in Ecuador, and founder of the nonprofit Need More Outdoors. She's been teaching and guiding whitewater kayaking in Western North Carolina and internation...
What do you do when fear shows up and your instinct is to either force your way through or quit altogether?
In this episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Anna talks with Sara Hunter, a licensed clinical mental health counselor, certified emotionally focused couples therapist, and PMBIA Level 1 mountain bike instructor based in Asheville, NC. Sara takes clients out of the office and onto the trail, using ...
What does it mean to paddle a river your family fought six generations to free?
This week marks the one-year anniversary of the historic first descent of the undammed Klamath River by Indigenous youth in the Paddle Tribal Waters program. To honor it, Anna is replaying her conversation on The Discomfort Zone Podcast with Keeya Wiki, a Yurok kayaker who completed that first descent at 17. Keeya also belongs ...
What does it actually take to train your brain for courage, and can you do it while running a 13-mile hike-in class V expedition and going back to school full-time?
In this replay episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Anna Levesque revisits her conversation with Anna Wagner: whitewater paddler, explorer, and Dr of Occupational Therapy, whose approach to courage is equal parts science and grit. Anna Wagner has run the Middle Kings...
Sage Donnelly just became the Queen of the North Fork, and it's the perfect time to revisit our 2024 conversation on The Discomfort Zone Podcast, recorded when she was the reigning Women's Freestyle World Champion.
Sage is a multi-discipline competitor across slalom, freestyle, and extreme racing. In this conversation, she breaks down how she trained her mind to find calm and flow at the start line and in the biggest rapids she run...
Ever feel like you need the perfect plan before you can start anything? This conversation might change that.
In this episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Anna sits down with Chris Baer, a raft guide and whitewater kayaker who lives half the year out of a converted school bus and spends his winters chasing first descents in remote corners of the world, often with little more than two weeks' notice.
This conversation is for anyone...
What if the language you've been using to help people is actually underselling them?
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Anna Levesque shares a perspective shift that stopped her in her tracks: after 25 years of building a brand around "empowering women," she's retiring the phrase. Sparked by Emma Grede's book Start With Yourself, Anna explores why the word "empowerment" may inadvertently ...
What does it take to help someone do something they're afraid to do?
In this episode of The Discomfort Zone Podcast, Anna sits down with Casey Bryant Jones, Director of the Ottawa Kayak School, for a conversation that gets into the real inner game of learning whitewater kayaking. Casey has spent years teaching paddlers of all levels on one of the world's premier big-water rivers, and he gets specific about...
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