Wild: An Elemental Journey through Earth, Ice, Fire and Air with Nature Writer Jay Griffiths
Explicit content warning
02/06/22 • 43 min
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“There is something in us,” legendary nature writer Jay Griffiths writes, “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’s wildest places. She would explore ice, earth, water, fire and air. It would take seven years and all her savings. She would sing with cannibals in the highlands of West Papua, drink ayahuasca with shamans in the amazon. She explored the frozen arctic with Innuits and the fire desert with the aboriginals of the Australia.
Through her travels jay learned the wisdom of the indigenous people that call these elements home. She discovered how they shaped their culture and beliefs, and in time how they shaped her too. She was seeking wildness. She was following her ‘feral angel’, listening to its call to take flight and reconnect with the wildness inside her.
This is an incredible adventure, but it’s also a fountain of near forgotten wisdom and a call to all us to listen to that ‘urgent demand in the blood’ that urges us to take flight too. It is up to us, she says, to find what it is in the in the world that matches that wildness in yourself and to become that.
This is a story for anyone that’s ever crawled up the walls, stared out the window and dreamed of escape. This is a call to the wild.
Highlights include:
· Take ayahuasca with shamans in the Amazon
· Walk naked and alone into the frozen wilderness of the Arctic
· Trek the highlands with the freedom fighters of West Papua, one of the most remote and least-visited places on earth
· Have dinner with cannibals
· Find out how to apply the wisdom of the wild in our own life
Jay’s book of this adventure is called ‘Wild: an Elemental Journey’. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of nature writing I have ever read and couldn’t recommend it highly enough. Her latest book ‘Why Rebel?’ is awesome too. Search them up wherever you get your books – you won’t be disappointed!
Join the Community
If you're enjoying the show please consider showing your support by buying me a pint! The show is free but each episode takes about 40hrs to produce. The sponsors cover my costs, but not my time. If you like what you hear and think that two episodes a month is worth the price of a frosty beverage then please go to www.patreon.com/armchairexplorerpodcast.
From just $5 per month you will get you ad free episodes and access to our explorers community with exclusive travel discount vouchers delivered right to your inbox each month. Buy me a pint! ... the next round will be on me.
Thank you Sponsors!
Today’s episode is sponsored by Wondrium. Wondrium is like Netflix for your brain, an enormous encyclopedia of mind-blowing audio and video content designed for curious people just like us. Go to www.wondrium.com/armchair to get a 22-day free trail with access to thousands of hours of audio and video content, all for free, no strings attached. Check it out!
Let's Hang out
Follow @armchairexplorerpodcast on Instagram and Facebook or head over to www.armchair-explorer.com to find more background information on this episode
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“There is something in us,” legendary nature writer Jay Griffiths writes, “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’s wildest places. She would explore ice, earth, water, fire and air. It would take seven years and all her savings. She would sing with cannibals in the highlands of West Papua, drink ayahuasca with shamans in the amazon. She explored the frozen arctic with Innuits and the fire desert with the aboriginals of the Australia.
Through her travels jay learned the wisdom of the indigenous people that call these elements home. She discovered how they shaped their culture and beliefs, and in time how they shaped her too. She was seeking wildness. She was following her ‘feral angel’, listening to its call to take flight and reconnect with the wildness inside her.
This is an incredible adventure, but it’s also a fountain of near forgotten wisdom and a call to all us to listen to that ‘urgent demand in the blood’ that urges us to take flight too. It is up to us, she says, to find what it is in the in the world that matches that wildness in yourself and to become that.
This is a story for anyone that’s ever crawled up the walls, stared out the window and dreamed of escape. This is a call to the wild.
Highlights include:
· Take ayahuasca with shamans in the Amazon
· Walk naked and alone into the frozen wilderness of the Arctic
· Trek the highlands with the freedom fighters of West Papua, one of the most remote and least-visited places on earth
· Have dinner with cannibals
· Find out how to apply the wisdom of the wild in our own life
Jay’s book of this adventure is called ‘Wild: an Elemental Journey’. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of nature writing I have ever read and couldn’t recommend it highly enough. Her latest book ‘Why Rebel?’ is awesome too. Search them up wherever you get your books – you won’t be disappointed!
Join the Community
If you're enjoying the show please consider showing your support by buying me a pint! The show is free but each episode takes about 40hrs to produce. The sponsors cover my costs, but not my time. If you like what you hear and think that two episodes a month is worth the price of a frosty beverage then please go to www.patreon.com/armchairexplorerpodcast.
From just $5 per month you will get you ad free episodes and access to our explorers community with exclusive travel discount vouchers delivered right to your inbox each month. Buy me a pint! ... the next round will be on me.
Thank you Sponsors!
Today’s episode is sponsored by Wondrium. Wondrium is like Netflix for your brain, an enormous encyclopedia of mind-blowing audio and video content designed for curious people just like us. Go to www.wondrium.com/armchair to get a 22-day free trail with access to thousands of hours of audio and video content, all for free, no strings attached. Check it out!
Let's Hang out
Follow @armchairexplorerpodcast on Instagram and Facebook or head over to www.armchair-explorer.com to find more background information on this episode
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Previous Episode
Hitchhiking to Pamplona with Comedian Andy Smart
Between 1977 and 1982 comedian Andy Smart hitchhiked 72,000 miles across Europe – the equivalent of crossing America coast-to-coast 24 times. This is the story of his greatest ride ever.
At 20-years of age Andy sold everything he owned and left his home in Liverpool to move to London and pursue his dream of becoming a comedian. But before he did, he had one hitch, one last great adventure, left. It was the World Cup and England were playing France in Bilbao, Spain on his birthday. He planned to hitchhike through UK, down the length of France and into Spain to watch the game.
It wouldn’t be easy. He carried a hammock, a piece of tarpaulin and some string to sleep by the side of the road. He had a small backpack, hardly any money and barely more than a change of clothes. But as he stood on the East Lancs Road on the edge of Liverpool, thumb out waiting for his first lift he knew, somehow, that this was a pivotal moment, that his life would never be the same again. He was right, but he never could have anticipated what a wild ride it would be.
Highlights include:
· Hear about one of the greatest hitchhiking adventures of all time
· Catch a ride to the Council of the Universe (well, sort of ...)
· Take part in an insanely violent game of medieval soccer
· Run for your life in the festival of San Fermino
Join the Community
If you're enjoying the show please consider showing your support by buying me a pint! The show is free but each episode takes about 40hrs to produce. The sponsors cover my costs, but not my time. If you like what you hear and think that two episodes a month is worth the price of a frosty beverage then please go to www.patreon.com/armchairexplorerpodcast.
From just $5 per month you will get you ad free episodes and access to our explorers community with exclusive travel discount vouchers delivered right to your inbox each month. Buy me a pint! ... the next round will be on me.
Thank you Sponsors!
Today’s episode is sponsored by Wondrium. Wondrium is like Netflix for your brain, an enormous encyclopedia of mind-blowing audio and video content designed for curious people just like us. I love it and i think you will too. Go to www.wondrium.com/armchair to get a 22-day free trail with access to thousands of hours of audio and video content, from travel guides and documentaries to courses taught by the world’s greatest professors. All for free, no strings attached. Check it out!
Let's Hang out
Follow @armchairexplorerpodcast on Instagram and Facebook or head over to www.armchair-explorer.com to find more background information on this episode
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Next Episode
Bicycling with Butterflies: a 10,000-mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration with Travel Author Sara Dykman
Join travel author and naturalist Sara Dykman on a 10,000 mile journey following on the wings of one of the most remarkable migrations in the animal kingdom.
Every spring tens of millions of monarch butterflies travel from their winter hibernation grounds in the Transvolcanic Mountains of Mexico north across the United States and into Canada. It’s a journey of between 2,000 and 3,000 miles. For a creature that weighs half a gram, and measures about four inches, that’s a preposterous distance. The comparative length trip for a 150lb human being would be more than 300 million miles – or roughly 700 round trips to the moon.
But even more baffling is the fact that the butterfly that departs from Mexico will die before returning home. And so will its offspring. It will be left to the fourth generation, the great granddaughter of that original butterfly, to begin the journey anew next spring. How millions of monarchs find their way across a continent to the same specific 12 mountains every year, having never been there before, and with no guide, is still one of the great mysteries of the natural world.
But the journey of the monarchs is getting harder and harder every year. Agriculture and human domestication of the land is reducing their habitat and food sources along the way to barely enough to survive. In undertaking this epic bike ride Sara will also be raising awareness of their plight as she unravels the mystery of this incredible journey.
But this is also a story about us. Through her journey Sara discovered the wonder of the microsopic world all around us, an entire universe in the dirt and fluttering above our heads. Her adventure also reminds us to stop, slow down and notice these small wonders because the more we do so the more amazing our world becomes.
Buy the Book
Sara’s book is called bicycling with butterflies. It’s a fascinating read and well worth a look. You can also connect with her at www.beyondabook.org or @beyondabook on facebook. To find out more about the monarch butterfly migration, why it’s under threat and what you can do to help head to www.monarchwatch.org and www.monarchjointventure.org
Support the Show
If you enjoy this show, then please consider showing your support by becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/armchairexplorerpodcast ... the sponsorship covers the cost of production, but not my time. If you love the outdoors and the pure joy of exploring this amazing planet, then please consider helping to spread that message to as many people as possible. Thank you for whatever you can do it means the world to me.
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