One Step Beyond is back. Whether it’s to hike a local trail or climb a distant mountain, move to a new country or travel somewhere new, run a first 5k, go rock climbing, tackle sexism in soccer or undertake an ultra-marathon, write to relieve PTSD or take up wildlife photography, this is the show for people looking to step outside their comfort zone and enrich their life. Join author, runner, broadcaster, and traveler Tony Fletcher every month on the podcast all about positively engaging with the world outside our door. </p><br>Sign up for a free weekly newsletter from Tony; as well as news about this and his other show, The Fanzine Podcast, you'll get a weekly weekend long read. All in your Inbox for free from <a href="https://tonyfletcher.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tonyfletcher.substack.com</a></p><br>Whether it’s to hike a local trail or climb a distant mountain, move to a new country or just travel somewhere new, run a first 5k, go rock climbing, tackle sexism in soccer or undertake an ultra-marathon, write to relieve PTSD or this is the show for you: people looking to step outside their comfort zone and enrich their life. Over the course of 40+ episodes, our shows have featured guests from Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Colombia, as well as the USA and UK, talking about .</p><br>Those guests have included: the rock star who established the cancer foundation Love Hope Strength, and the former professional athlete behind the soccer-based initiative Equal Playing Field; an Afghan war veteran who became the first double above-knee amputee to climb Mt Kilimanjaro unaided; a Zen Buddhist teacher who authored a book on running; one American who moved to Bogota and set up an art colony; and another who gave up dreams of becoming a professional ventriloquist to instead find a new life as an award-winning wildlife photographer.</p><br>We have talked to the pioneering female founder of Africa's first running shoe company, to a family that traveled round the world together for over two years, and to a teacher who founded a travel company to support students of color, along with several of those students. We have also talked to amateur adventurers of all ages who have set themselves fierce goals - like walking the length of India, or running the Sparta course in Greece unaided - and achieved them. The show includes several episodes recorded on location, beginning with a 4-part documentary about climbing Kilimanjaro, but also including in-the-field tips on hiking without navigational tools and running on trails; how to master an ultra-marathon; and how to give up your possessions and start a new life. Shows generally stay under an hour, include additional commentary and information, and do not shy away from current affairs.</p><br><strong>Tony Fletcher</strong> is the British-born author of best-selling biographies of Keith Moon, Wilson Pickett, R.E.M. and The Smiths, as well as a memoir, a novel and many other books on or about music<em>.</em> In 2016, he backpacked around the world with his then-wife and 11-year old younger son. In 2019 he&nbsp;hosted and wrote&nbsp;“It's A Pixies Podcast." A keen runner, with dozens of road and trail marathons to his name, he lives in Kingston, New York.</p><br>Follow One Step Beyond:</p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/onestepbeyondpodcast/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram&nbsp;</a>is OneStepBeyondPodcast</p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/OneStepBeyondPod/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Facebook</a>&nbsp;is One Step Beyond with Tony Fletcher</p><br><br></p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
In an earlier life, Henk Rogers brought the computer game Tetris to the world, as you will know if you saw the movie Tetris. Following a near-fatal heart attack in 2005 just after selling a different company for over $100,000,000, he is now bringing his renowned determination, business acumen and innovative thinking to environmentalism. Mission #1: to eliminate our use of carbon-based fuels.
For this final episode of Season 2, Henk talks with Tony about why we have to do this, how his home state of Hawai'i is already doing this, how he moved to New York to ensure other states and countries follow suit, and why he won't rest until we succeed. He then talks about Mission #2: Making a back-up of human life. And yes, we also talk about Tetris.
Please visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/one-step-beyond-henk-rogers-vs-the for links to Hank's ventures, other interviews with him, and for an explanation for the end of this show's road. At least for now.
Thanks to Lance Gould at Brooklyn Story Lab for setting up the interviews for the last two episodes.
Thanks for listening.
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It's hard to find someone who doesn't appreciate the elephant, the largest land mammal on earth with the biggest brain, and the longest gestation period, an animal known for its sense of family, its empathy, its memory, and for being damn cuddly to boot. Yet we humans consistently sanction the murder of (primarily African) elephants for (primarily) their ivory, at a rate faster than new elephants are born, and we capture Asian elephants to use for hard labor or so-called "entertainment." Through deforestation and other destructions, we have also decreased their natural habitat in Asia by up to 95%. As a result, where there were 100,000 Asian elephants in Thailand alone only 50 years ago, there are now just 4,000, out of a population of only 40,000 Asian elephants across the entire continent. One out of every three of these Asian elephants is in captivity.
Patricia Sims has documented the plight of captive Asian elephants across two documentaries, Return To The Forest (2012) and When Elephants Were Young (2016). Both films were narrated by William Shatner, and the first led Sims to launch World Elephant Day, which takes place on August 12 every year. Speaking from her home in British Columbia, Canada, Sims talks to One Step Beyond host Tony Fletcher about why these beautiful animals are a "keystone species," about the complex historical reasons so many are kept in captivity, and about programs that seek to return captive elephants into their natural habitat, so that they can once again be free to roam, maintaining the ecosystems on which we all rely.
Links:
Tony and Noel Fletcher's Vlog on their "Government Elephant Ride" in Chitwan National Park, Nepal, 2016 is here
With the topic further addressed here:
More elephant info:
Ze Franks on "True Elephant Facts" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvOr1-P6XR8
https://unitedforwildlife.org/news/10-amazing-elephant-facts-need-know
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/elephant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant
https://www.britannica.com/animal/elephant-mammal
Music in this episode "Delaymania" by Noel Fletcher
Logo by Mark Lerner.
For more information on this and Tony's other podcasts, and to subscribe for weekly culture updates and a long-form weekend article, visit https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/
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Tony interviews Catskills resident Jamie Kennard about his recent undertaking of 500 5ks in 500 days – across multiple sporting disciplines, and all of them outdoors – as a means of coping with the loss of his wife Tracy to a particularly rare and brutal cancer at the age of 47. Jamie and Tracy had been together since they were 16, and married for the last 20+ of those 30 years.
Compared with her suffering and her fighting spirit, Jamie’s own determination to ski, hike, bike, run, canoe and even surf 5k a day minimum seemed… minimal. On One Step Beyond, he talks of how the undertaking nonetheless grounded him, guided him, led him to a surprising love of running, and about the so-serendipitous-it-is-almost-cosmic circumstances surrounding the conclusion of his 500th and final consecutive 5k-plus.
Jamie may have been new to running, but he’s certainly no stranger to the Great Outdoors. Back in 2014, he and his brother became the first and currently still the only people known to have ski’d all 35 of the Catskill 3500ft peaks, though as part of his foray into film-making and photography, he is following former OSB guest Julie MacGuire on her own quest to become the first woman to see through this incredible feat.
For full shownotes, with photos and videos, and to sign up for regular updates on this and host Tony's other shows and writings, please visit tonyfletcher.substack.com/
Theme song "A Word That Doesn't Rhyme" by The Dear Boys. Listen to the whole song here.
Sign up for free to the "Wordsmith" newsletter at tonyfletcher.substack.com/subscribe for further information about this episode, news of Tony's other podcast, a Midweek Update with recommendations for shows, reading, websites, videos, books and more, and a weekly long-form article.
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Why do we travel? Does travel make us happier? Smarter? Braver? Or, given the current climate crisis, why should we travel? What's the difference between a tourist and a traveler? And what's a Digital Nomad and why does that term make some people cringe?
These and many other key, core questions are answered by Nathan James Thomas, editor of the Intrepid Times, and author of Travel Your Way and Untethered, and Dr. Andrew Stevenson, a Professor of Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University and author of the new book The Psychology of Travel, alongside host Tony Fletcher.
Some of the subjects, people and places covered in this episode:
Nathan James Thomas' books Travel Your Way and Untethered are available through:
https://exislepublishing.com/product/travel-your-way/
https://exislepublishing.com/product/untethered/
The Intrepid Times is https://intrepidtimes.com and @IntrepidTimes across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Dr. Andrew Stevenson's book The Psychology of Travel is available through
https://www.routledge.com/The-Psychology-of-Travel/Stevenson/p/book/9781032104799
and he can be found through https://www.mmu.ac.uk/research/research-centres/hpac/staff/profile/index.php?id=829
Theme song "A Word That Doesn't Rhyme" by The Dear Boys. Listen to the whole song here.
Sign up for free to the "Wordsmith" newsletter at tonyfletcher.substack.com/subscribe for further information about this episode, news of Tony's other podcast, a Midweek Update with recommendations for shows, reading, websites, videos, books and more, and a weekly long-form article.
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Jason Freedman and Philip Vondra are outdoorsy New Yorkers with a book just published entitled Beer Hiking New York: The Tastiest Way to Discover the Empire State.
Colin Renton is an outdoorsy Scotsman with a book recently published entitled The Wine Runner: My Year of Hard Yards and Vineyards.
Host Tony Fletcher (an outdoorsy half-Scot and half-English Brit who also has USA citizenship) talks with Jason and Colin about the joys travel both near and far, about running and hiking and… you guessed it, about beer and wine.
Along the way, the three discuss:
Beer Hiking New York: The Tastiest Way to Discover the Empire State is published by Helvetiq
Jason Freedman can be found at Instagram.com/gunksrunner
The Pain Cave podcast he hosts with Philip Vondra is https://www.gunksrunner.com/paincave
The Wine Runner: My Year of Hard Yards and Vineyards is published by Polaris.
Colin can be found at https://twitter.com/ColinRenton1
Theme music this episode is ‘A Word That Doesn’t Rhyme’ by The Dear Boys.
One Step Beyond Instagram is: https://www.instagram.com/onestepbeyondpodcast/
Sign up at tonyfletcher.substack.com for a weekly newsletter with recommendations across all media and for updates on this and Tony Fletcher's other activities.
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Turtles! Volcanoes! Caiman! Monkeys! Museums! Fumaroles! Scuba Diving! Swimming Holes! And Sunsets!
Paula is back as co-host for the first time since the Season 1 finale as she and Tony discuss their recent travel to Costa Rica, not only from an environmental and cultural perspective, but also from their uniquely different personal perspectives. Paula had not traveled outside the USA in 35 years, whereas Tony spent almost a whole year backpacking round the globe only back in 2016. Similarly, Tony is something of an (ageing) adrenalin hound who went scuba diving and running the volcanos, while Paula had reasons to want to take it just a little less hectic.
Some of the topics discussed in this episode:
Music in this episode: "A Word That Doesn't Rhyme" by The Dear Boys
Subscribe to tonyfletcher.substack.com for updates on this and Tony's other podcast, plus news of events, new releases, recommendations and a weekly long-form article.
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In the late 1990s, Michael Dorame was a house music fanatic living in San Francisco, who became addicted to the drugs that kept him dancing all night long in the clubs. After OD'ing twice in three weekends, he found release, relief and redemption in the sport of rock climbing. Now, with producer Aaron Fong and celebrated outdoor sports cinematographer Chris Alstrin, Michael has made a film, Rock-A-Holic, about his story and that of two other former addicts, Ben Polanco and Maureen O'Reilly.
On this episode of One Step Beyond, Michael joins host Tony Fletcher to discuss his life story, those of Ben and Maureen, the allure of drugs and alcohol, the addictive personality and whether it's genetic, and their ultimately much safer addiction to rock climbing. He is joined by director Chris who talks more about the technical aspect of the sport, and the making of the movie. If you are like Tony - interested in rock climbing but never tried it - consider this a perfect primer.
Additionally, if you've ever been to the far side of drugs or alcohol in what you initially thought was pursuit of a good cause - especially something initially wholesome, like dancing in clubs - this will possibly strike a (musical) chord, and show that there can always be light at the end of the tunnel. And if you just enjoy a story with a happy(ish) ending, you'll get it from Michael (and Maureen and Ben).
Warning: Drugs are discussed during the conversation, in detail. But so is dancing. And climbing. And other outdoor pursuits.
Rock-A-Holic Official Trailer - Youtube - https://youtu.be/ce-bVulGvHc
Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/RockAHolicTheMovie
Michael Dorame Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rockaholic2023/
Chris Alstrin's Professional Reel - https://alstrincinema.com/home
Follow One Step Beyond:
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Tony's other podcast, the [Jamming!] Fanzine Podcast is available via https://wavve.link/JammingPodcast/episodes
Theme song is 'Yes Men'' by The Dear Boys: https://linktr.ee/thedearboys
Logo by Mark Lerner. Photo taken at Arte Sumapaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia.
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Sign up for a free weekly article, links to Tony's other podcasts, writings, music and more at tonyfletcher.substack.com
Is Travel Good For The Planet?
This question is tackled by our return guest, the environmentally-focused, award-winning travel writer Shafik Meghji. In a conversation that includes the subject of Shafik's recent book, Crossed Off The Map: Travels in Bolivia, and host Tony Fletcher's upcoming journey to Costa Rica, the pair discuss:
You can find Shafik at shafikmeghji.com/ and at instagram.com/shafikmeghji/
Read his article on the brownfield rainforest of Canvey Wick
and his piece on the Lost Rainforests of Britain
More info on his book is at
http://www.shafikmeghji.com/#/crossedoffthemap/
The newspaper articles Tony references in the outro are:
Follow One Step Beyond:
Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcast
Facebook is One Step Beyond with Tony Fletcher
Tony's other podcast, the [Jamming!] Fanzine Podcast is available via https://wavve.link/JammingPodcast/episodes
Theme song is 'Delaymania' by Noel Fletcher.
Logo by Mark Lerner. Photo taken at Arte Sumapaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia.
If you like the show, please subscribe, rate, review.
And please sign up for free weekly articles by Tony Fletcher, along with news of podcast bonuses, Tony's other writing, broadcasting, events, books and more: http://tonyfletcher.substack.com
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On this Episode, host Tony Fletcher is in conversation with his old London friend Richard Heard about the latter's recent Great American Road Trip from Chicago to New Orleans, setting out to trace the Story of the American Blues. Covering 1300 miles in 10 days, Richard and his American road partner also visited the Stax Museum of American Soul in Memphis, took in revered Country revue show the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, attended Jazz Fest in New Orleans, traveled through the Robert Johnson Crossroads in Clarksdale, and saw the destruction wrought by a recent tornado in Rolling Rock, Mississippi. As Richard says, "Once I lifted the bonnet [translation: the hood] on the road trip, I thought, 'This is not just about music, this is a really really interesting part of American culture and social history which I didn't really know a lot about.'"
Subjects include:
Short videos from Richard's trip can be seen at: https://www.instagram.com/rh64.2022/
Tony Fletcher's books on:
Music from the Streets of New York, 1927-77
One Step Beyond Socials:
Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcast
Facebook is One Step Beyond with Tony Fletcher
E-mail us at onestepbeyond@ijamming.net.
Tony's other podcast, the [Jamming!] Fanzine Podcast is available via https://wavve.link/JammingPodcast/episodes (Richard was a guest on the first episode)
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If you have ever traveled, and if you have ever been able to string a sentence or two together in writing, you have probably thought of becoming a travel writer. After all, who wouldn’t want to get paid to travel? On this episode of One Step Beyond, Shafik Meghji, co-author of 40 travel guidebooks, sole author of the acclaimed new book Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia, and a prolific freelance travel writer for many esteemed print and web publications, pulls the cover off the Guide Book business and tells us how he managed to make a career out of writing about travel. It took patience, persistence, rejection, circumstance, luck, serendipity, a lot of hard work and no shortage of talent.
We talk about Shafik’s background in sports journalism, the lingua franca that is football, and about getting robbed at the Macarana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro (Tony, not Shafik); we discuss Shafik’s belated gap year to South America and India that made him reevaluate his life choices, and we discuss how the well-worn paths that were his Guide Book work gradually transitioned into a road much less traveled, as Shafik’s reputation now allows him to choose more and more of his own subjects. We discuss the famed travel experiences everyone should enjoy – Macchu Picchu, Goa, Carnival in Rio, but also the one-of-a-kind experiences that can’t be put into words for a guide book, like finding a great place for yoghurt behind a table in Kathmandu (or a hole-in-the-wall breakfast joint in Mangalore). We visit Tierra del Fuego, the islands at the end of the earth, and we discuss how Shafik has increased turned his attention into writing about this intersection of globalization, travel, and the environment, focusing on the climate emergency and how travel can impact negatively and enlighten us positively regarding the fragile future of our planet
There was lots we did not get talk about, however, and so we will have Shafik back on One Step Beyond in the near future, to talk about Bolivia, Costa Rica, the rainforests of Wales, the biodiversity of the Essex Estuary, and the state of travel journalism in a world of social influencers and affiliate bloggers. At least I hope we will. In the meantime, please visit Shafik at his web site shafikmeghji.com and be sure to follow through to the Articles section to read some of his superb journalism. You can also find Shafik on IG at https://www.instagram.com/shafikmeghji/
E-mail us: onestepbeyond@tonyfletcher.net
Socials:
Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcast
Facebook is One Step Beyond with Tony Fletcher
Tony's other podcast, the [Jamming!] Fanzine Podcast is available via https://wavve.link/JammingPodcast/episodes
Theme songs are 'Yes Men' by the Dear Boys. (That’s the loud one.) https://linktr.ee/thedearboys And Delaysmania by Noel Fletcher. (The quiet one.)
Logo by Mark Lerner. Photo taken at Arte Sumapaz in Cundinimarca, Colombia.
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Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.
A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.
But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and
captivating her local community as well as followers all over the world.
Until one day investigative producer Nancy gets an anonymous tip telling her to look at Amanda’s
blog, setting Nancy on an unimaginable road to uncover Amanda’s secret.
Award winning journalist Charlie Webster explores this unbelievable and bizarre, but
all-too-real tale, of a woman from San Jose, California whose secret ripped a family apart and
left a community in shock.
Scamanda is the true story of a woman whose own words held the key to her secret.
New episodes every Monday.
Follow Scamanda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Amanda’s blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn.