Open Container: Outdoor culture as a free flowing conversation
Open Container: Outdoor culture as a free flowing conversation
Podcast Description
Open Container is a unique outdoor podcast that strives to go deeper than the headlines. We’ll uncover stories and ideas about creativity, adventure, conservation, politics, and the people who make the outdoor space so vibrant.
Hosted by renowned outdoor journalist Doug Schnitzspahn, Open Container is a conversation with the people who look to nature to find inspiration and solutions. How the outdoors teach us, change us, heal us, and how we might build a better world from simply going outside.
While the world may be full of anxiety right now — climate change, politics, cultural upheaval — there are answers in the outdoors. Because the outdoors is not a niche. It's way bigger than that.
So please join us as we open the container and find out what’s inside. Let’s get some.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast covers a diverse array of topics, focusing on creativity, conservation, outdoor politics, and the healing power of nature. Episodes include discussions on harnessing awe for therapeutic purposes with veterans, exploring the implications of public land privatization, changing narratives in conservation through environmental justice, and promoting inclusivity in outdoor storytelling. Each episode seeks to uncover deeper insights that the outdoor realm can provide to societal challenges.
Open Container is the outdoor podcast trekking deeper into outdoor culture than the headlines. We talk about creativity, adventure, conservation, politics, and the people who make the outdoor space so vibrant.
Renowned outdoor journalist Doug Schnitzspahn steers the Open Container conversations with people who look to nature to find inspiration and solutions.
Learn how the outdoors teaches us, changes us, heals us, and how we will build a better world from simply going outside. While indoor conversations are dominated by climate change, politics and cultural upheaval, outdoor conversations provide the answers.
Because the outdoors is not a niche. It’s way bigger than that.
So please join us each episode as we grab the open container and find out what outdoor conversations are inside.
Let’s get some.
When British explorer George Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Everest, he famously replied, “Because it’s there.” But what if the real answer is simpler and potentially more beautiful?
Today on Open Container, Doug explores the deeper meaning behind Kilian Jornet’s “States of Elevation” project, a 3,200-mile, human-powered journey linking all 72 fourteeners in the lower 48 states. Jornet ran, climbed, and biked his way across America’s highest peaks, not to set a record, but to experience the wild beauty of the mountains.
Joining Doug is Bryon Powell, ultrarunner, writer, and founder of iRunFar.com, who ran with Jornet on Colorado’s Handies Peak and witnessed the project firsthand.
Topics include:
- The philosophy behind Jornet’s project: why beauty, not conquest, drives true adventure.
- How the “States of Elevation” linked wilderness, athleticism, and mindfulness.
- The power of community and support in massive endurance undertakings.
- Indigenous and public land connections to the mountains we climb.
- Why projects like this remind us to protect and cherish wild places.
- How everyday runners and hikers can find their own “states of elevation” close to home.
Doug and Bryon also discuss how outdoor storytelling and recreation can spark stewardship and how being out there makes us care more deeply about what’s at stake for public lands.
Thanks for listening! Open Container is a production of Rock Fight, LLC. Let’s Get Some!
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