Erling Kagge: 50 Days Alone In The South Pole
02/25/22 • 51 min
1 Listener
As far as being 'alone' goes, my guest Erling Kagge has experienced the extreme end of the spectrum. The first man to ever complete the Three Poles challenge (that's Mount Everest, the North Pole and the South Pole) on foot, Erling once spent 50 days alone, without radio contact, during his solo South Pole expedition in 1992 – a feat which saw him featured on the cover of Time magazine the following year. While it's impossible not to be awed by Erling's achievements, this podcast has always – at its core – celebrated those more moderate, everyday form of aloneness accessible to us all. Which is why the next part of this famous Polar explorer's career is so fascinating: he went on to write books with beautifully-simple, inclusive titles, Walking: One Step At A Time and Silence: In The Age Of Noise, which offer a guide, based on Erling's unique vantage point, of how we can access the stillness and solitude inside our own minds through simple everyday practices. 'After having travelled to hundreds of countries,' he tells me, 'My interpretation is the universe in your own mind – your body, your soul – is just as mysterious and huge as the universe stretching out to the stars and the planets'.
We discuss, among other things:
- Why Erling found living in London lonelier than 50 days & nights alone in the South Pole
- How being a Polar explorer can affect your relationships
- The relationship between time alone and fulfilling your life's potential
- How being close to nature helps you to be present
You can order Erling Kagge's book, Silence In The Age Of Noise, now from Amazon and Waterstones.
You can also order my book, Alonement: How To Be Alone and Absolutely Own It, which is based on this very podcast, now from Amazon and Waterstones.
Thank you so much to Flash Pack for sponsoring this season of the podcast. Flash Pack is a travel company that offers boutique group adventures for solo travellers in their 30s and 40s. Visit flashpack.com/alonement to learn more and quote ALONEMENT at check-out for £100 off your first trip.
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Contact: [email protected]
With a one-off payment of £5, you can listen to the Alonement podcast ad-free. https://plus.acast.com/s/alonement.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
As far as being 'alone' goes, my guest Erling Kagge has experienced the extreme end of the spectrum. The first man to ever complete the Three Poles challenge (that's Mount Everest, the North Pole and the South Pole) on foot, Erling once spent 50 days alone, without radio contact, during his solo South Pole expedition in 1992 – a feat which saw him featured on the cover of Time magazine the following year. While it's impossible not to be awed by Erling's achievements, this podcast has always – at its core – celebrated those more moderate, everyday form of aloneness accessible to us all. Which is why the next part of this famous Polar explorer's career is so fascinating: he went on to write books with beautifully-simple, inclusive titles, Walking: One Step At A Time and Silence: In The Age Of Noise, which offer a guide, based on Erling's unique vantage point, of how we can access the stillness and solitude inside our own minds through simple everyday practices. 'After having travelled to hundreds of countries,' he tells me, 'My interpretation is the universe in your own mind – your body, your soul – is just as mysterious and huge as the universe stretching out to the stars and the planets'.
We discuss, among other things:
- Why Erling found living in London lonelier than 50 days & nights alone in the South Pole
- How being a Polar explorer can affect your relationships
- The relationship between time alone and fulfilling your life's potential
- How being close to nature helps you to be present
You can order Erling Kagge's book, Silence In The Age Of Noise, now from Amazon and Waterstones.
You can also order my book, Alonement: How To Be Alone and Absolutely Own It, which is based on this very podcast, now from Amazon and Waterstones.
Thank you so much to Flash Pack for sponsoring this season of the podcast. Flash Pack is a travel company that offers boutique group adventures for solo travellers in their 30s and 40s. Visit flashpack.com/alonement to learn more and quote ALONEMENT at check-out for £100 off your first trip.
Twitter:
*
*
Instagram:
*
*
Contact: [email protected]
With a one-off payment of £5, you can listen to the Alonement podcast ad-free. https://plus.acast.com/s/alonement.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Radhika Sanghani: How I Fell In Love With Myself
For Radhika Sanghani, author of the brilliant new novel 30 Things I Love About Myself, time alone holds an important significance as the space where she’s learnt the true meaning of self-love. Her book even includes an aspirational, alonement-loving heroine... and what could be better? Appearing as my first guest on this season of the podcast, Radhika brings an infectious, empowering energy and a whole smorgasbord of wise insights, from the relevance of her spirituality for her alone time to how she’s ‘proved herself’ to herself through solo travel: ‘I can tick that off my “being brave” list!’.
We also discuss:
- Why talking to yourself gets a bad rep (but is perfectly normal, we hope!)
- How to rewire your inner monologue
- Whether self love is fixed, or requires constant maintenance
- Dating yourself, and why it matters
Happy listening. With thanks to our sponsor, Flash Pack, a travel company that offers boutique group adventures for solo travellers in their 30s and 40s. Visit flashpack.com/alonement to learn more and quote ALONEMENT at check-out for £100 off your first trip.
You can order Radhika Sanghani’s book, 30 Things I Love About Myself, now from Amazon and Waterstones.
You can also order my book, Alonement: How To Be Alone and Absolutely Own It, which is based on this very podcast, now from Amazon and Waterstones.
Twitter:
*
*
*
Instagram:
*
*
Contact: [email protected]
With a one-off payment of £5, you can listen to the Alonement podcast ad-free. https://plus.acast.com/s/alonement.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Dr Julie Smith: The Power Of Self-Soothing (& How To Do It)
She’s famous for her 60-second videos, yet I was lucky enough to have a full 60 MINUTES interviewing this week’s guest, the wonderful Dr Julie Smith. She’s the clinical psychologist, online educator and ‘TikTok therapist’ who has been looking after the emotional health of her 3 and a half million (!) followers over the past three years through her light-hearted yet information-filled videos, which break down complex psychological concepts with the help of dance, handy props and lip-syncing. Yup, you can learn and have fun, kids! Once I'd stopped shamelessly gushing over Julie – oh you bet I cut that bit out – we had a fabulous discussion about everything from creating an actual IRL self-soothing box (which I will immediately be off to do after uploading this episode) to the emotional education that comes from watching Jim Carrey films.
You can order Dr Julie Smith's book, Why Has No One Told Me This Before?, now from Amazon and Waterstones.
You can also order my book, Alonement: How To Be Alone and Absolutely Own It, which is based on this very podcast, now from Amazon and Waterstones.
Thank you so much to Flash Pack for sponsoring this season of the podcast. Flash Pack is a travel company that offers boutique group adventures for solo travellers in their 30s and 40s. Visit flashpack.com/alonement to learn more and quote ALONEMENT at check-out for £100 off your first trip.
Twitter:
*
Instagram:
*
*
Contact: [email protected]
With a one-off payment of £5, you can listen to the Alonement podcast ad-free. https://plus.acast.com/s/alonement.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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