Outside Podcast

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Long Read! In Search of Michelle Vanek: Part 1 Aug 29, 2026

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Today's Long Read with Outside Magazine Features Editor, Fred Drier, is Part 1 of one of the most read articles in Outside's history: the story of the only hiker ever to die while seeing the summit of central Colorado's most famous 14er. Ted Katauskas, a member of the search team that finally recovered her remains 19 years later, investigates who she was and what we can all learn from her death before our own adventures in the high alpine.

Don't miss Part 2, next Saturday.

Why You Should Take Your Grandma Camping, with Brad Ryan Aug 26, 2026

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Surely you know someone who has eaten the most nachos at apres. Maybe you have the fastest Strava segment on your local lunch loop bike ride. But if you’re aiming for a truly impressive outdoorsy goal, you’ll need more than quad strength to pull it off. Take Brad Ryan for example: Brad’s best known as one half of the viral duo “Grandma Joy’s Road Trip.” Brad and his grandmother, Joy Ryan, visited all 63 U.S. National Parks, making Joy the oldest person to complete the circuit. What began as a way to show his Grandmother her first mountain became a transformative adventure for Brad and Joy to grapple with long-buried familial secrets and harms. All of this is vividly told in Brad’s new book, “Grandma Joy and Me: a Journey of Healing, One National Park at a Time.” Octogenarian camping and road tripping for a record-setting adventure is outlandish. But our nation’s most beautiful outdoor spaces can create the space for reconciliation, empathy, and healing.

Long Read! Bears Keep Attacking People in Japan. We Traveled There to Find Out Why Aug 22, 2026

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Today's Long Read with Outside Magazine Features Editor Fred Drier, is about an issue you may have seen on social media or in the news: In Japan, bears have been attacking humans at an alarming rate. They attacked more than 100 people in 2025 alone, prompting the Japanese government to send the military to parts of the country to protect towns and villages.

We first saw news stories pop up about Japan’s bear attacks in 2022 and 2023, and the stories often honed in on the weirdest elements: How rural communities were building robotic wolves with glowing red eyeballs to scare bears away from crops. Or, how bears had entered a grocery store and mauled an elderly woman.
In late 2025 we sent Owen Clarke to the Akita prefecture, which is Ground Zero for Japan’s bear problem, to try and figure out what the heck was going on. How were these bear attacks impacting the community? What were these bears actually like? And what about these rural communities made them so susceptible to bears? Owen came back with answers, and a lot more than that.

Our Connection With the Ocean Goes Deeper Than You Think, with Kevin Dawson Aug 19, 2026

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It’s August, it’s hot, and everyone is dreaming of some beach time. But it’s not just the dog days of summer that pulls us to the ocean. It has a draw on all of us. Today, to celebrate that draw, we’re replaying one of our favorite episodes. Historian Kevin Dawon, a professor at UC Merced, has been surfing for most of his life and spent his career investigating the rich tradition of African aquatic culture. Dawson is credited with resurfacing the first account of surfing in Africa, from 1640—more than 100 years before Captain Cook’s famed account from Hawaii—and his research centers centuries of oceanic accomplishment by Black communities there and in North America that have been ignored or actively erased. Dawson’s experiences in the waters of Africa, the Caribbean, and his native California bear little resemblance to what many people think of when they hear “surfer,” but they’re drenched in a joy that’s recognizable to anyone who has ever played in the waves.

Long Read! Low Water, No Problem. We Took a Packraft Down One of the Most Remote Rivers in the West Aug 15, 2026

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This week's Long Read, with Outside Magazine Features Editor Fred Drier, follows Owen Clark's journey down the Lower Owyhee River in Eastern Oregon. The trip was notable because it occurred during the river's lowest point of the year. Rather than using traditional rafts, the group used pack rafts—inflatable crafts made to navigate even the lowest streams.

It turns out, that Clark's tour was a harbinger for what a lot of rafting operations faced in the spring and summer months of 2026, when a historically bad snow year led to challenging river conditions across the west.

When You Think About it, Why Does Anyone Run at All? With Abby Levene Aug 12, 2026

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If you’re listening to this podcast, you have likely jogged before. Maybe you’ve even run a Turkey Trot or local 5K. Suffice to say, you know that running is a time-consuming, physically exhausting sweaty mess. And yet, more people than ever are lacing up and taking to the trails right now. Which begs the question: Why?! Well, according to Abby Levene, the Managing Editor of the newly revamped Trail Runner, we are all born runners. It doesn’t matter your size, shape, age, lung capacity, or whether or not your quads feel like overinflated balloons any time you move past a walking pace. Trail running is having its own boomlet amidst the explosion of running generally, and Abby thinks she knows why. Listen to her moving depictions of how a run turns into a flow through the woods, and how a community turns exercise into mind meld with the natural world and the question is no longer, “Why does anyone run?” It’s “How quickly can I get out and find a trail?”

Long Read! Hot Pools, Waterslides, and Cocktails: Inside the New Supersized Spas Aug 08, 2026

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This week's Long Read feature story, with Outside Magazine's Features Editor Fred Drier, follows writer Bill Gifford as he explores a European company called Therme, which is turning wellness concepts like hot springs, saunas, and cold plunges into gigantic destinations that look like bewildering mashups of spas, cruise ships, and casinos. They're already popular throughout Europe, and, now, Therme has set it's sites on the U.S. Are we ready?

It’s True, Boating the Grand Canyon Will Change Your Life, with Steve Kenney Aug 05, 2026

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Steve Kenny has spent nearly three decades rowing boats and has the rippling shoulders and permanent tan to prove it. But under his ZZ Top-length beard, weather-battered Hawaiian shirt, and woman’s skirt he often sports, Steve is a lot more than an ace boatman. He’s a poet with a recently published collection of work—Scribblins: Poetry from Mountains, Deserts, and Rivers—and he had three careers before settling on this one: as a basketball coach, a college professor, and an investment banker. Steve thought he committed to life on the river for the thrill of the white water, but over the years he’s realized the real reason is the way time on the river inspires, invigorates, and even heals his guests. PaddyO talked to Steve in the midst of his own life-affirming trip through the Grand earlier this summer.

Long Read! 40 Years, Zero Kills. We Spent a Weekend with Colorado's Least-Successful Elk Hunter Aug 01, 2026

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It's Saturday, which means it's time for another Long Read, with Outside Magazine's Features Editor, Fred Drier.

This week's story is "40 Years, Zero Kills. We Spent a Weekend with Colorado's Least Successful Elk Hunter", by Devon O'Neill.

This story profiles a guy named Carl Cochiarella, a dedicated Colorado bow hunter who, despite his best efforts, hasn't ever killed an elk with a bow and arrow. Devin pitched us this idea to write about a regular guy who's wildly passionate about his outdoor sport, yet hasn't had any real success at it, and we immediately knew it was an Outside story. Carl's story is pretty relatable to anyone who's ever raced a bicycle, competed in a marathon, or tried to set a PR and ultimately has come up short.

If your favorite way to read is with your ears, we encourage you to join OutsidePlus. It gives you unlimited access to everything in the Outside Network, including more audio stories from Outside, Backpacker, Climbing, Ski, and more. Plus, you get mapping apps like Trailforks, Gaia GPS, and Map MyFitness.

LIVE! Proof That World-Feeding Chef José Andrés is an Actual Superhero Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

Today, we are taking you back to the Ideas Stage of this year’s Outside Days festival in Denver. Outside’s media GM, Mary-Frances Heck (a James Beard Award winner herself) interviews chef and humanitarian José Andrés. José is an award-winning chef. Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to eat at one of his 40 restaurants around the globe. José doesn’t just cook up tasty vittles in his restaurants though. He’s the founder of World Central Kitchen, a non-profit food relief organization that has served over 500 million meals worldwide. And his calling to serve people around the planet is real, as is his calling to be absolutely hilarious on stage. Did José pour wine into the crowd before tossing ham around the concert hall like a frisbee? Well, you’ll just have to listen to find out.

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