Armchair Explorer

Wayfinding is an ancient Polynesian way of navigating by reading the ocean, stars and wind. No compass, no map, just deep observation, and experience passed down through generations. But because of that, wayfinding is more art than science. It's about trusting your instinct and using all your senses - and it's exactly the kind of travel Daniel Scheffler believes in, and exactly what this conversation is all about.

Daniel Scheffler i...

There is a state in New England where ancient mountains rise above the treeline into bare Arctic tundra, where sheer granite summits look out over oceans of forests, and where one of the fastest wind speeds ever recorded was once clocked here at 231 miles per hour.

But New Hampshire is also the place where Thoreau came to reflect, Thornton Wilder was inspired to write his seminal play Our Town, and the oldest summer stock company i...

There is a place at the top of the world where the land runs out, a sheer thousand-foot cliff rising straight from the Arctic Ocean, and nothing beyond it but open sea all the way to the North Pole. This is the North Cape - the northernmost point of continental Europe and getting there means sailing one of the most spectacular coastlines on Earth.

From Oslo, we travel north through towering fjords and fishing villages so remote the...

“You stand at the edge of the boat - and you take a giant stride into the unknown.”

Today we’re chatting with Pier Nirandara, a bestselling author, film producer, SCUBA diver and underwater photographer. She's dedicated her life to sharing the beauty and importance of this marine world about which we still know so little. With her work in photography, writing, and more, she's also helping to shape a new generation ...

Follow travel author Oscar Scafidi on his world-record paddle down the Kwanza River in

Angola. Stretching 600-miles from its source in the Angolan Highlands, in the center of the

country, to the Atlantic Ocean on the country’s west coast, Oscar and his partner Alfie

Weston kayaked the entire length and hiked an additional two hundred miles to circumvent

rapids, waterfalls and dams.

The going was tough and they were unprepared for ...

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is the biggest two-wheeled party in the world drawing hundreds of thousands of riders each year to the Black HIlls of South Dakota.

Join presenter Brian Thacker on location as he gets right in amongst it - riding Main Street on a Fat Boy Harley-Davidson, taking in the stunts, burnouts and live rock at the legendary Buffalo Chip, meeting a Hall of Famer, a Sturgis veteran and a 100-year-old rider who st...

In today’s Discover Destination guide, we’re taking a road trip across the Northern Territory of Australia, from crocodile close-encounters and aboriginal rock art to a wonder of the world that’s been drawing people to it for more than 30,000-years.

The Top End, as it’s known, is ancient, vast, deeply spiritual, and unlike anywhere else on Earth. This is a journey into its heart to discover one of the wildest...

Today host Aaron Millar is sharing a bucket list bit of madness — literal adventure insanity he got up to about 15 years ago in the Scottish Highlands. It's called the Glen Nevis River Race, and it involves hurling yourself down two miles of white-water rapids with nothing but a novelty inflatable for company.

Picture part extreme white-water adventure, part Monty Python's Navy — competitors arrive bearing giant inflatab...

Levison Wood is one of the world’s most well-known explorers, TV presenters and authors. Join him for a 5,000-mile journey through the heart of the Middle East, from the front lines of Iraq and Syria through the Empty Quarter desert to Yemen, the West Bank and beyond. 13 countries in five months, his most complicated and dangerous expedition yet.

Following in the footsteps of great explorers such as Lawrence of Arabia and Wil...

Witnessing the Northern Lights is one of the most awe-inspiring experiences on the planet, and in today’s interview episode we’re going to hear what it feels like to stand beneath them - a cascade of color raining down from the sky all around you.

In Norse mythology the Aurora were the armour of the Valkyries. The Inuit saw spirits playing in the sky. The Sami hid indoors in fear. And science has its own story too, beca...

Today we are going to travel across all seven continents, through steaming craters and frozen summits, into the heart of the world's most active volcanoes. This is a story about chasing fire.

Ricardo Kaljouw is one of only a handful of people on Earth to have completed the Volcanic Seven Summits — climbing the highest volcano on every continent. From his first glimpse of Kilimanjaro rising above the Tanzanian savannah, to stan...

The Black Hills are home to more than 100 known caves - including the world's third-longest cave system at Jewel Cave National Monument with it's miles of unmapped passageways, and the complex caves systems at Wind Cave National Park, which are not merely a geological wonder they also make up a sacred site for the Lakota people.

We join pioneer explorer Chris Pelczarski for some hands-on spelunking in seriously narrow caves (that ar...

Sometimes the wrong path is the best path. I was stumbling down the side of a steep mountain slope, pushing through thorny bushes, scratched, thirsty and utterly confused. But I was smiling. While on a week-long hike across the Ligurian hills in northwest Italy – I had become hopelessly lost.

But then something magical happened: I rounded a corner into a mountain meadow filled with dozens of wild horses - muscled stallions wi...

"Humans are meant to excel. And when you start pushing that and seeing how capable we are, it's phenomenal what you can actually go and do."

-Justin Packshaw

When Justin Packshaw was trekking in Antarctica several years ago, he noticed something disturbing: The ice shelf had visibly melted since his previous visit, just a few decades prior. "In the grand scheme of how old our world is, and its present state, that's a really quite fri...

Every Pathways, host Aaron Millar and producer Jason Paton crack open a few stories, play their favorite clips, and take you on a whirlwind preview of what’s coming up on Armchair Explorer.

In this episode, we’ll be traveling from the craziest white water race in the world to the highest volcanoes on the planet, from ancient trade routes in Italy to the sacred storytelling landscapes of Australia and beyond.

If you like t...

There’s a moment before every journey begins — that flicker of anticipation when the map is still folded, the road still unknown, and the world feels impossibly wide.

That’s where this new season of Armchair Explorer begins.

In the coming episodes we’ll travel from the highest volcanoes in the world to the Arctic Circle, from ancient trade routes in Italy to the sacred storytelling landscapes of Australia.

The...

There are many beautiful countries in Africa, but none are like Namibia.

Today we will travel from the highest sand dunes in the world to the wildest coast on the planet. We will track the last free-roaming herd of rhinos on the continent, and watch desert elephants as we float above them in a hot air balloon.

But more than anything we will discover a sense of vastness and awe that is unmatched by almost anywhere else on Earth.

Taki...

The Black Hills Powwow is the biggest powwow in the U.S., where dancers, singers, artists, and spectators come from across North America to honor the spirit and beauty of the Great Plains Indigenous culture. The powwow comes alive through handcrafted regalia and the spirited dancers who embody history.

Join us as we take in the sounds and stories from this enduring celebration that bridges generations and cultures. We meet Ruben Lit...

“There is something in us,” nature writer Jay Griffiths says, “that detests the tepid world of net curtains … the chloroform world where human nature is well schooled, tamed from childhood on, where the radiators are permanently on mild and the windows are permanently closed.”

Lost with her life and desperate to escape the confines of the modern world, Jay set out on a journey to explore the world&rsqu...