Baker Street With Thom Pollard

Today we welcome back our inspiring and intrepid Pacific Crest Trail Thru Hiker and filmmaker, CHRIS CARTER, who I caught up with on a LIVE Instagram session on July 9, 2021….where he was camping in Jackson, Montana….(population of about 111)….The first time I spoke with Chris was in Episode 67 to talk about his beautiful and moving documentary about his Pacific Crest Trail through hike called TO MEASURE A MILE…At that time Chris was in the nascent stages of planning a double thru hike of the Continental Divide Trail and the Appalachian Trail, a journey of six months, give or take….and that is what he is doing now.He is on the second half of the Continental Divide trail and today when I spoke with him he was getting ready to pack up and head back out for another 30+ mile day give or take….INSANE!TODAYS EPISODE IS a slightly edited version of an INSTAGRAM LIVE CONVERSATION CHRIS AND I HAD, You can find on my Instagram page here:https://www.instagram.com/thom.dharma.pollard/===Chris' magnificent film To Me

Episode #88 on The Happiness Quotient: America’s only full-time professor of art crime.  Erin Thompson studies a variety of relations between art and crime, including the looting of antiquities, museum theft, art made by detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and the legalities and ethics of digital reproductions of cultural heritage. Erin Thompson has discussed these topics for the New York Times, CNN, NPR, and the Freakonomics podcast, among many others...and coming up next on The Happiness QuotientSHE IS AN author, speaker, art crime professor at the john jay college at the City University of New York….If you enjoy this episode or any episode of The Happiness Quotient, please subscribe  wherever you may be listening, leave a rating and a review, which are so important to a podcast’s success. And, if you know someone who is interested in art, or art crime, be sure to personally share this episode with them….ERIN THOMPSON can be found at https://www.artcrimeprof.com/Her twitter handle is @artcrimeprof Erin's art

Today, a special guest, Peter Hillary, son of the first man to ever climb Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary,…..Peter himself has climbed Everest twice. In addition to being an accomplished mountaineer Peter is a speaker, and he raises funds for Himalayan Foundations around the world....  Together with his sister Sarah Hillary, they manage the intellectual property of the Ed Hillary estate. I can almost guarantee you know someone named after his dad...During a recent conversation, Peter and  I talked about the environment of Everest, the current state of Nepal and the Khumbu region, the garbage and growing human waste problem….how COVID has devastated Nepal, and what is being done about it. For more info on Peter, how to give to the Himalayan foundations, or to inquire about a speaking engagement by Peter, visithttps://www.peterhillary.com/And, on June 30th there will be a Facebook live event hosted by Musa Masala, to benefit the Wongchu Memorial Hospital….Links to the event are in the show notes or you can vi

Greetings to you all - this is a special edition of the HQ. In April I had the honor of doing an Instagram Live event with my old friend Renan Ozturk to talk about Everest, creativity, filmmaking and, yup, nutrition in the mountains. I mean, we’re talking to a guy who used to sustain on candy bars and Ramen and coffee at altitude.The event was hosted by one of our 2019 Sandy Irvine Search Expedition sponsors, Good To-Go foods, the ultimate in dehydrated backpacking food.THANK YOU TO THE WOOD BROTHERS FOR THE USE OF THEIR SONG HAPPINESS JONES FOR OUR THEME SONG HERE ON THE HQIf you like this episode or any of th e HQ please click subscribe on Apple Podcasts and give me a rating and a review….For more on Renan check out, his artwork is out of this world, as is his photography and filmmaking, modern day Renaissance manhttps://www.renanozturk.com/ More on Good To-Go https://goodto-go.com Real Food. Real Adventure. The most delicious meals, using clean ingredients, to be enjoyed wherever your adventures take you.

TODAY I HAVE A GUEST OF UNIMAGINABLE INSIGHT AND TALENT WITH US, THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNING JOURNALIST REPORTER, JOHN BRANCH OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TO TALK ABOUT HIS NEW BOOKSidecountry: Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of SportsIn 2017 I received a request  from today’s guest, whom I’d never met before, but as you’ll find out in the interview, I was well familiar with his work, John Branch, a NY Times sports reporter  -  not your traditional sports, but rock climbing, skiing, mountaineering….or alligator hunting and wingsuit flying...that kind of sports.As it turns out, sometimes his stories begin, for him, when someone is killed in pursuit of some lofty goal, whether climbing Everest, or skiing deep into the backcountry, or sidecountry, as it’s referred to….When John first contacted me he was heading to India to spend time with the families of four Indian climbers who were part of an Everest expedition in 2016 -- three men died and a woman survived. Of the three who died, one body was recovered in

This episode has a transcript for hearing impaired.COVID19 wasn’t all bad. A ton of musicians and recording artists invested themselves in projects that they wouldn’t normally have been able to do if they were on tour. On Tour is where the Wood Bros find themselves for much of the year, at least pre-covid.Back in September of 2020 I talked with Oliver where he was at his home in Nashville, The Wood Brothers tour had been effectively shut down and, I learned later, that in addition to trying out some new songs and jamming with friends, he was making standard breakfast and "dad spaggetti"  for the wife and kids.The things you remember to ask someone after the call is done...In this episode I play selections from the album and intersperse them throughout the conversation.Here’s my June 8, 2021 conversation with Oliver Wood from Charleston S C where he is on a tour stop with the Wood Bros….to talk about his newly released album ALWAYS SMILIN’Songs from Always Smilin' in this episode:Climbing High M

Episode #83 is an amazing story of Mount Everest with six time summiter and the climber leader of our 2019 expedition to search for the body of Sandy Irvine, New Zealand's Jamie McGuinness. The original intent of my interview with Jamie was to talk about the expedition of ours in 2019, which has since become a National Geographic film called Lost on Everest and is the subject of a book by NY times bestselling author Mark Synnott called THE THIRD POLE, MYSTERY OBSESSION AND DEATH ON MOUNT EVEREST….which we did talk about.However, in starting our interview I asked Jamie about what it was like working as a sherpa on expeditions back in the day. The Sherpa are incredibly strong, almost super human, adapted over centuries of living at high altitude to be stronger and faster at altitude...and Jamie joined their ranks….THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING. In explaining this, Jamie began telling me about the story of David Sharp, the English mountaineer who died near the summit of Mount Everest in 2006. His death caused co

The didgeridoo, the long wooden musical instrument dating back 10,000 years or more, are commonly and rightfully associated with the aboriginal culture.Today I’m going to introduce you to an ambassador of the Aboriginal culture, a fascinating man with a deep and learned understanding of his culture and also of the didgeridoo and the art and dance that goes with it.  I first met didgeridoo musician George Dow at Sydney Bay, Australia, at the Circular Quay. My Friend Rod McCurdy and I were about to board a ferry to see some features of the Sydney area, when from about 100 yards away I spotted my George seated with his back against a fence, the Sydney Opera House across a span of water behind him, in his traditional aboriginal garb, sparsely dressed with clay powder turning his skin almost white. In front of him sat a 4 foot long didgeridoo.To donate to George and his music and art his PayPal account is  bee.sailor84@gmail.com The link to the popular video of George can be found here:https://www.youtube.com/watc

Thirty years after he successfully summited Mount Everest from the north side, Port Townsend, WA resident Andy Politz is leaving Base Camp AT THE TIME OF THIS POSTING for his second ascent. Age 61, Politz' first expedition to Everest was on the West Ridge in 1985. During that season was the very first guided expedition in the history of Everest. Today, Andy reports seeing 1,000 or more tents. And, whereas perhaps one fixed wing aircraft flew by for a sightseeing tour, today alone Andy witnessed 30 helicopters in and out of Base Camp before mid-afternoon.This is a news-worthy and fascinating interview with my old friend, who discusses COVID, the icefall, changes on the mountain and his own new perspectives on climbing the mountain. =========For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:http://eyesopenproductions.com/For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotientOur theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.For more information about The

"The only disability is a bad mindset," says former NFL linebacker David Vobora, who went  from the TOP OF HIS GAME, to the agony of defeat and addiction, and in so doing, discovered his true calling. David was picked LAST in the NFL draft of 2008...which earns the dubious moniker of MR IRRELEVANT.This is anything but a football story, and how wrong the Mr. Irrelevant tag was...for a person who has gone on to help countless broken veterans who’ve returned from the war, emotionally broken, with one, two, three, even four less limbs. As you’ll see, David’s ‘Why’ is closing the gap between who a person think they are and who they are called to be….and that takes place through hard, work, challenge and sweat at the Adaptive Training Foundation n Carrolton Texas. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE ATF: https://www.adaptivetrainingfoundation.org/NFL 360 feature story on David Vobora:David Vobora: Career Ending Injury Shaped my Passion for Helping Othershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJL3wo4MGfU=========For more

ELISABETH SHARP MCKETTA is a storyteller and the author of eight books: INCLUDING Fear of the Deep (2016) and Fear of the Beast (2019), both collaborations with artist Troy Passey; the biography Energy: The Life of John J. McKetta, Jr. (2017), a true story of a coal miner–and my grandfather!–who set out to change how America uses energy; and a children’s book titled We Live in Boise (2019).  SHE DID A TEDX TALK CALLED “Edit your life like a poem.” projects in the works include the anthology What Doesn’t Kill Her: Women’s Resilience Stories; a manifesto/handbook called Edit Your Life;SHE HAS Literature degrees from Harvard, Georgetown, and the University of Texas at Austin. I wrote a Ph.D. dissertation on the intersections between memoir and myth, a concept that now informs my teaching and writing (and my entire way of looking at the world.) Maybe with all this and life with her husband and two children living in Yorkshire Englad during COVID she will ghost write the memoir I have been lying to the world about

The man with more boots-on-the-ground experience searching in the Death Zone for clues to the Mystery of Mallory & Irvine, Jake Norton, is our guest today. Jake was 25 when we first met on Mount Everest in 1999. He first climbed Mount Rainier with his dad at age 12. By age 18 he was guiding for Rainier Mountaineering and soon was leading international climbs around the world. Although we were living in two different worlds in 1999, I with a son and a house, he as a guide with a camera. We were natural friends, seeing eye to eye on topics of the day, spirituality, politics, having been brought together by a reverence for all things Everest. To date, Jake has been on Eight Everest expeditions, summiting three times….with the rare distinction of having made the top from the north and south.This interview is a rare look into the greatest mystery in all of adventure, Did Mallory & Irvine make it to the summit of Everest in 1924?   Jake himself has been on five search expeditions (four of them officially) f

This is an episode about grit, about life and death, about the extremes of human endeavor, how far a human being can possibly go when they put 100% of themselves into something….it’s about heart, friendship….This episode is set within the backdrop of the greatest mountain on the planet….Mount Everest, Chomolungma, goddess mother of the world…..Today’s episode welcomes back my ever talented friend and expedition partner Mark Synnott in anticipation of the release of his highly regarded book about our 2019 Everest expedition to find the body of long lost mountaineer Sandy Irvine. Some of you may recall my first interview with Mark for Episode #42 about The Day Everest Broke and the genesis of our expedition, which has since been chronicled in a 1-hour film by National Geographic and Disney called LOST ON EVEREST, produced by our expedition partner and uber talented filmmaker and climber Renan Ozturk.MARK’S BOOK IS CALLED THE THIRD POLE: MYSTERY OBSESSION AND DEATH ON MOUNT EVEREST. For more information about Ma

LITERALLY: THIS IS THE TALK THAT INSPIRED THE 2019 SANDY IRVINE SEARCH EXPEDITION, which led to the film LOST ON EVEREST by National Geographic and Mark Synnott's book THE THIRD POLE: MYSTERY, OBSESSION, AND DEATH ON MOUNT EVEREST.  This presentation is one of only two sold out events EVER at the Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center at Fryeburg Academy in Fryeburg, Maine. The presentation was captured on camera by a student at the back of the auditorium, using a microphone mounted to the top of the camera. It's presented here for informational and educational purposes. "Pollard’s dynamic presentations are geared to inspire a deeper understanding of self and elicit the motivations which drive us to tackle seemingly insurmountable goals. Motivation, performance, teamwork, goal setting and overcoming obstacles are all interwoven metaphorically into his talk." This event was in support of sports medicine programs and services at Memorial Hospital, North Conway, NH. PLEASE LEARN MORE ABOUT

This recap episode recounts the inspiration for this podcast coming into existence. While training for Mount Everest in April of 2019, my daily routine would include a strong hike up into Tuckerman or Huntington Ravine on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA. Many times I felt the presence of something, someone. Looking back, I believe that the essence of Sandy Irvine, who disappeared on Mount Everest on June 8 in 1924, was asking for assistance. As our expedition set out to locate Sandy, last seen at over 28,000 feet 'headed for the top', I have always believed that his soul had not yet been freed from the mountain. I introduce my mentor, Bradford Washburn, who inspired me so deeply in all of my endeavors, and share an interview that I conducted with him in 2001, he at the sprightly age of 91. This is my introduction to The Happiness Quotient (identical to Episode #3), re-vamped here as an introduction or as a refresher course to the ultimate inspiration for following one's dreams & pass

Music Soothes the Soul. MUSIC FOR THE SOUL - this is a good one. DAMN good. Highlighting the very best clips from my music interviews on The Happiness Quotient, consider this a Get Stoked for the Weekend or Week or Day or Life starter kit. Each short clip is accompanied by a cut from each of the musician's respective studio albums.Featuring these fine musicians and their tune following:Daniel Donato - Fire On The MountainOliver Wood - The Battle Is Over: But War Goes OnMickey Raphael - Hand To MouthThe Reverend Freakchild - Keep On Praying Seth Walker - We Got ThisDANIEL DONATO, the Cosmic Cowboy - his new album is called A Young Man's Country, and you can find it here on Daniel's website at http://danieldonato.com/ Daniel's podcast is Daniel Donato's Lost Highway: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daniel-donatos-lost-highway/id1452703574OLIVER WOOD of The Wood BrothersFor more about the coolest cat and greatest living American songwriter, Oliver Wood:https://www.oliverwoodmusic.c

Seth Walker literally dropped out of college to eek every ounce out of his guitar. He grew up in a small commune. Learned to play the cello, guided by his musician parents. When he first heard the sounds of T Bone Walker (no relation), he was hooked on the Blues. Seth has been a touring musician for decades. That is, until Covid shut things down. He said it was as if he was on a spinning, flaming hamster wheel. Covid helped him. Because of it, he found time to write his memoir. If you could call it that. It’s a memoir, with poems and artwork.“The Soul of Seth Walker” features my February 2021 interview with the one and only Seth Walker to talk about his book Your Van Is On Fire. Enjoy, this man is full of wisdom, and very beautiful music. For more on Seth and to find his book and music, visit:www.sethwalker.comSeth Walker music featured in this episode:Home AgainDreamerGotta Get BackThe Sound of Your VoiceAll I Need To KnowInsideFire In The BellyCall My NameFor more information about Thom Pollard:www.eyesopen

The Happiness Quotient #71The Legend of CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWNThis episode of the The Happiness Quotient can be found in audio only format at:https://www.buzzsprout.com/268133/8029682And on YouTube at this address: https://youtu.be/BDXmcezMIwQClarence Gatemouth Brown did not want to be known as a bluesman. He called his brand of music "American and World Music, Texas Drive and Swing"In a previous lifetime I was a television reporter for an NBC affiliate in western Massachusetts, WWLP, Channel 22. I was hired as a features reporter, wherein I’d produce, shoot, edit and report in a series that I called IN TOUCH WITH WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS. Today, I’m bringing you an inspiring, honest never-before-heard interview conducted by myself in 1988 with the amazing, Grammy winning, Blues Hall of Fame legend of the blues (for lack of a better word) CLARENCE GATEMOUTH BROWN. I first met Gatemouth to interview him at his hotel, the Red Roof Inn in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, the morning before a show at the

What was the fate of famed British mountaineers George Mallory and Sandy Irvine? And were they the first to climb Mount Everest?  Today's guest is noted historian and author Tom Holzel to talk about his fifty plus year fascination with solving the mystery of Mallory & Irvine. Mallory and Irvine’s disappearance on Everest on June 8th 1924 has captivated and intrigued  generations of mountaineers and would-be sleuths. Did they make it? What happened to them?Tom Holzel has studied this more than anyone alive. This interview will inspire you, intrigue and, it just might turn you into a modern day detective…. What happened on that fateful day, high upon the slopes of the world’s highest peak.For a free, downloadable copy of The Happiness Quotient's A Course In Happiness, please visit www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient, or find it at eyesopenproductions.com/happinessThree important interviews/videos with Tom Holzel:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLliwwVA2bFR4yw9K9XQV-eu42AUCIzsUKI'd like

Inspired by two back-to-back dreams in which I walked and learned from masters of ancient wisdom, I reflect about the teachings of Friedrich Nietzsche. Given the impeachment proceedings taking place in the United States, these dreams and Nietzsche's principles for becoming an exceptional individual are timely and prescient for our future. It's all about individual accountability and becoming greater than oneself. Revolution starts from within. BELOW, PLEASE SEE NIETZSCHE'S PRINCIPLES.I'd like to thank Oliver and Chris Wood, Jano Ricks and The Wood Brothers management, as well as their publicist Kevin Calabro for granting us the rights to use HAPPINESS JONES for our theme music. We are deeply honored. Find The Wood Brothers at: https://www.thewoodbros.com/The Wood Brothers on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvWKQovDZlLceuct1EEMMQHappiness Jones video can be seen here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKIoiVWwF5AFor more about Thom Dharma Pollard, about personal coaching or his inspi