Big Forest Trail Map Podcast
Big Forest Trail Map Podcast
Podcast Description
The Big Forest Trail Map is a podcast about people charting bold, unconventional paths through life. Hosted by Matt Gregory, each episode features a conversation with someone who’s forging their own way — from musicians and athletes to entrepreneurs, scientists, and chefs. Together, we explore the decisions, detours, and defining moments that shape meaningful work and personal growth. Inspiring, unpolished, and full of surprises, Trail Map is a guide for anyone navigating their own unmarked trail.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on themes of personal growth, resilience, and unconventional life choices. Episodes often explore topics like career transitions, overcoming adversity, and the pursuit of passion, with specific examples such as John's story of developing his gym and writing a transformational self-help book, as well as episodes featuring athletes discussing their unique training regimes and musicians sharing their creative processes.

Trail Map is a podcast about people charting bold, unconventional paths through life. Hosted by Matt Gregory and Patrick Dyer Wolf, each episode features a conversation with someone who’s forging their own way — from musicians and athletes to entrepreneurs, scientists, and chefs. Together, we explore the decisions, detours, and defining moments that shape meaningful work and personal growth. Inspiring, unpolished, and full of surprises, Trail Map is a guide for anyone navigating their own unmarked trail.
Mike Hanas spent 40 years in education—teaching Latin, Greek, and ancient history, and serving nearly 20 years as a head of school at Carolina Friends School and San Francisco Friends School. He’s the person schools called when things got hard: navigating conflict, addressing historical abuse, facilitating difficult conversations, and building communities grounded in truth-seeking and integrity.
Now, through his consultancy Furthering, Mike helps leaders, teams, and organizations “loosen knots”—creating the conditions for people to have the conversations that matter, even when they’re hard.
In this conversation, Mike shares how his mother taught him to create space for others, what he learned from Quaker values like truth-seeking and silent reflection, and why holding the tension between our values and our actions is essential. We also talk about why reflection is so rare (and so necessary), and what it takes to help people expect their minds to be changed.
Hosted by Matt Gregory and Patrick Dyer Wolf.

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