Tough Girl Podcast

Amy Bushatz is an Alaska-based journalist and host of the podcast Humans Outside.    Since September 1, 2017, she’s spent at least 20 minutes outside every day as part of an experiment to see how building and keeping a daily nature habit can change her life. What she found was benefits including making her happier, healthier and more creative while improving her relationships, making new friends and more.    Since starting her outdoor journey Amy has also become an ultra runner, skier, backpacker, camping enthusiast and tried ice climbing, glacier trekking, snowshoe running, ATVing, cliff jumping, forest bathing, rock climbing, high-ropes courses and more.    Amy and her family live in Palmer, Alaska with their two dogs.   *Content Warning - there is mention of disordered eating during this episode, we don’t go into specific details.   New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday at 7am UK time - Hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out.    The Tough Girl Podcast is being sponsored thro

Kelly in her own words:   “I’m passionate about the outdoors, it’s a love started from childhood adventure, grew into teenage curiosity, and now is a form of adult stress relief. Fitness for leisure, health, and well-being is more important to me than the competition or the ability to perform well at any one thing. To be, on the go is something I do for me.    My former self trying to be better for my future self. Me vs Me.    I swim in the pool, lakes, and sea, I cycle with TWR, hike with Black Girls Hike and have only started running with Black Trail runners this year.    I try for fun and I try to give my best at each event. I am a beacon of light to get more people into multi-sport events because of representation in the recreational sports and fitness sector.   At school I loved geography, physics, and mathematics. I started working in construction at 14, now having 10 years experience I left my last job as an assistant site manager. I have matured into an enthusiast for the built environment. An inquisi

Quinn in her own words:   “I live in Estes Park Colorado. For five years, I worked as a climbing ranger, doing technical Search and Rescue, in Rocky Mountain National Park. To compliment the rescue and medical component of this job, I taught Wilderness Medical Courses.    Rest days…. what are those? Climbing, mountain running, triathlons, mountain biking, summit handstand and mini golf—- were just a few sports I was into. I cherished pushing my body and my mind, finding comfort in the uncomfortable.    I have a few climbing first ascents, speed records and some mountain running records all over the western US and even across the globe  In October 2017, I fell over 100 feet while climbing on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park and sustained a spinal cord injury.    I am currently paralyzed from the waist down.    Movement and advocacy for public lands was a big part of life and vocation. That hasn’t changed, I still need to be active, adventure and break barriers.    This past summer, 2021, I become the firs

Preet recently became the first woman of colour to complete a solo expedition in Antarctica. She completed the 700 miles in 40 days pulling all of her kit and equipment and tackling temperatures of -50° with wind chill. When she reached the South Pole she said on her audio blog:   “This expedition was always about so much more than me. I want to encourage people to push their boundaries and to believe in themselves, and I want you to be able to do it without being labelled a rebel.    I have been told no on many occasions and told to “just do the normal thing”, but we create our own normal.    You are capable of anything you want. No-matter where you are from or where your start line is, everybody starts somewhere.    I don’t want to just break the glass ceiling, I want to smash it into a million pieces. Who’s with me?”   New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday and Thursday at 7am UK time - Hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out.    The Tough Girl Podcast is sponsorship and ad fre

Gail Muller is an adventurer, writer and educator. She was told at 14 she’d need to use a wheelchair by the age of 40, but at 41 embarked on one of the world’s toughest treks over 6 months in the USA – The Appalachian Trail.   For fifteen years she struggled with muscular-skeletal issues, chronic pain and the mental health issues that arise from them, but she never gave up hope of healing and resolution.   Her debut memoir 'Unlost' is an inspiring, uplifting and moving account of one woman’s incredible journey into the unknown. A love letter to the healing power of the wild outdoors and an incredible testament to the strength of the human spirit, Gail’s story is for anyone who has ever felt stuck in a rut, lost or scared.   She has recently returned from the Continental Divide Trail - a massive hike across the United States where she battled with unmarked trails, grizzly bears, wildfires, weeks at altitude and raging snowmelt-filled river fords. Gail will recount how through all of her journeys, she found has

Jessica’s ‘adventure activism’ is, by her own admission, a bit of an accident as she hates exercise and considers herself to be the most unlikely athlete.    However, over the last decade she has been taking on some of the world’s most iconic physical and mental endurance challenges to turn the sadness she’s been through into something positive and at the same time raise awareness of what it means to struggle to conceive and to encourage new ways of thinking about family.    She has run the London Marathon; swum the English Channel; and is still on her journey to climb Mount Everest and complete the iconic ‘Pond to Peak’ Challenge.    She is a member of the British Mountaineering Council; The Ramblers; The Long Distance Walkers Association; and the Serpentine, Hampstead Ponds and Dover Open Water Swimming Clubs; and has used her sporting challenges to raise thousands of pounds for charity including Fertility Network UK.   We first spoke to Jessica in Oct 2018 - you can listen to that episode here:    https:/

Namratha believes one should find ways to be more grounded and closer to nature. She has found that for herself through meditation and trekking.    Namratha would love to do her part in encouraging people to pursue a healthy lifestyle. She always thinks that one should be mentally and physically fit to be able to do what one wants irrespective of the age.    Listen to Namratha as she shares more about her childhood, how she got into trekking and why she decided on this challenges, she talks us through her planning and preparation, how she dealt with the tough days and where her mental resilience comes from.   New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday and Thursday at 7am UK time - Hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out.    The Tough Girl Podcast is sponsorship and ad free thanks to the monthly financial support of patrons.    Support the mission to increase the amount of female role models in the media. Visit www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast and subscribe - super quick and easy to do

Easkey on Freedom, Mindfulness and Connection:    Freedom - “I find freedom in movement, in nature, through new experiences. Freedom has the qualities of spontaneity, passion, flow, adventure, risk, independence and creativity. It’s about expressing myself creatively, doing what matters most, and the power of play.”   Mindfulness - “I’ve always believed surfing is an amazing tool for a mindfulness practice. It’s very much about mindfulness-in-movement. If I truly get into why I surf, it’s because we can enter this heightened state of awareness – a flow state where, if even just for a moment, there’s complete focus and immersion in the present.”   Connection - “Surfing helps me understand the meaning of connection. Surfing demands a letting go of expectations and requires our total presence in the moment so that we begin to take notice of our surroundings, to be a little awed and humbled through direct contact with nature.”   About Easkey:   Easkey is the first Irish woman to be nominated for the Global WSL B

Laura in her own words:   “I’m a 35 yo Veterinary Surgeon, ultra/long distance cyclist, hiker and runner who loves having adventures... and this year, 2022 I plan to break the tandem around the World Record with my husband Stevie.   I started out in life not at all sporty or fit but adventurous: white water kayaking, cycling, hiking and camping.     I realised mid-twenties I wanted to get fitter as well and this coincided with meeting Stevie and being introduced to long distance cycling where I completes a range of long distance events on solo and Tandem including the infamous Paris-Brest-Paris solo and Lejog on a tandem.     I then took up running and after a couple of false starts ran wainwright's coast to coast by myself in May with Stevie as support, 190miles in 5 days.  We have also completed some of the more epic long distance walks I the UK such as Offas Dyke and the Pennine Way, camping along the way with our dog Geoffrey (as well as West Highland way, Ridgeway and Hadrians wall)   2022 is the big one

Shilletha Curtis -  Trail name “Dragonsky” is 30 years old and is from New Jersey, USA.    She is an established writer and hiker and is inspiring to be the second Black woman to achieve the Triple Crown of hiking (The AT, PCT, CTD).    She recently completed the Appalachian Trail and is preparing for the Continental Divide Trail (CDT).    She graduated from Rutgers in 2014 and has worked in the social work and veterinary field for years.    She is currently working as a freelance writer and is working on her book.   Listen to Shilletha on the Tough Girl Podcast as she shares more about her life, her passion for hiking and spending time in the outdoors.   New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday and Thursday at 7am UK time - Hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out.    The Tough Girl Podcast is sponsorship and ad free thanks to the monthly financial support of patrons.    Support the mission to increase the amount of female role models in the media. Visit www.patreon.com/toughgirlpod

Helen in her own words:   “Full time global hobo cycling the world on AU$100/week creating vlogs, blogs, and photo’s as I go.   On the road in one form or another since 2004. I left the UK with a round-the-world ticket on what should have been my ‘year out’ but never properly returned.    Living out of a backpack ever since, I taught English in South Korea, travelling back overland along the Silk Road before emigrating to Australia in 2007 where a travel fundraising job meant I continued to move from place to place every week or two.   In Australia I took up bicycle touring and in 2016 set out on an ambitious first bike tour through the outback along the Gibb River Road, Tanami, and Oodnadata tracks.    In 2017 I returned to work for a year while training for and running the New York Marathon, before returning to full-time bicycle touring.   In spring 2018 I set out into The Beast From The East to ride a loop of the UK coast and down to Sicily and back.   In 2019 I rode up the Norwegian coast to the North Cap

Nocciola The Drawer (Hazel Oakes) is an artist and designer from the UK. She has lived in 8 different countries, visited almost 40 countries between 5 continents. She’s hiked the peaks of the Balkans, completed half marathons and the Athen’s marathon.    Hazel is military trained and has a joy for life, for sharing and inspiring other women to become more adventurous.    Hazel has a nomadic spirit and feels her sense of community with women anywhere in the world.   She specialises in bright, colourful, bold artwork that combines female characters with lively patterns. All with the aim to uplift, inspire, empower and celebrate women.   She is inspired by the seasons, women, childlike imagination, travel, making the most of the moment, street art and graffiti. She spends her time illustrating, creating large murals and drawing on anything (paper, canvas, plates, walls).    Nocciola The Drawer is spreading her joy of life one splash of colour at a time!      New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every T

Bio written by her friend:   “Sam, 47, has an interesting and diverse background, having Indian and English heritage and growing up between the UK, USA and Middle East.    Over the past few years she has set herself multiple challenges raising money for charity or just doing for fun.    In 2019, Sam set herself 12 challenges:  Cold Water Swimming Championships 10K Winter run Climbing one of the more challenging routes up Snowdon Swimathon (5k swim) Great Northern SwimRun (Lake Windermere) Selkie Henley Classic - night / dawn swim SwimRun Tooting Bec Running a half marathon Not drinking any alcohol for 28 days Marathon run North Downs 50k walk Trekking two marathons in two days through the desert   Unfortunately in late 2020, she was diagnosed with stage four cancer which was a huge blow to her, her family and friends. I certainly thought that would be the end of her adventuring and it felt immensely sad.    However Sam has a remarkable positive energy and outlook on life and has been determined to carry on

About Person Irresponsible in her own words:   "In 2020 the world went to hell in a handbag. This isn’t exactly headline news - although it was then. I went from perfectly locatable in the Cotswolds to utterly baffled in the American wilderness when I embarked on a quest to walk from Mexico to Canada for reasons that escape me. It was most probably nothing more dramatic than a mid-life crisis.   Perhaps I should have come ‘home’ but I lived in the deluded optimism the pandemic would all be over by the summer. Besides, I’d given up my home: shoving my belongings into storage, persuaded someone to look after my cat and someone else to look after my car.    I did think about returning but each time I popped into civilisation to top up my supplies, I discovered a new reason to run for the hills. So 'home' became a tent: a mere flimsy bit of fabric to protect me from every conceivable terror that exists in the wilderness - bears, rattlesnakes, deserts, avalanches and other human beings. Most dangerous of all was t

Leah was born in Canada, conceived in Israel, and raised in Vancouver, B.C. by new immigrant parents.   Growing up in Richmond, B.C., daughter of a boxer. Leah became involved in martial arts, Tae Kwon Do and Kickboxing. After being told she should never fight again because she had herniated disks in her back, Leah won the Bantamweight World Kickboxing Championship at age 17, against a 25 year old fighter a foot taller than she was!   Leah felt a deep desire to serve her time in the Israeli Army, (a mandatory 2 years for women and 3 years for men).    Leah knew that she wouldn’t be satisfied just being a soldier, she wanted to become the first woman ever to be an Elite Commando. She didn't just become an elite commando, she became a Krav Maga specialist, and became the first female Elite Commando Instructor.   After leaving the Army, Leah pursued a career as a professional cyclist in Europe and North America. After a serious accident in 2005, Leah spend 2.5 months in the hospital where she was informed by do

Kristen (she/her) is originally from Toronto and has been living in the Northwest Territories for nearly four years.    Kristen is a former journalist that enjoys writing about social issues and outdoor lifestyles.    When she's not cooking delicious meals, Kristen can be found exploring the Northwest Territories and promoting diversity in outdoor spaces with her organization Amplify Outdoors.   About Amplify Outdoors:   “Amplify Outdoors was established to elevate and encourage diversity in outdoor spaces. Recognizing a lack of representation of people of colour (POC) and marginalized groups in marketing campaigns geared towards outdoor lifestyle, Amplify Outdoors hopes to change existing narratives that perpetuate societal stereotypes about 'who' should enjoy nature and 'who' is considered outdoorsy.   Amplify Outdoors believes that representation is important, and we strive to provide products that empower and amplify diversity in outdoor landscapes and activities.    Ultimately, our goal is for outdoor sp

Eleanor Carey is the first Australian woman to row across the mid-Pacific Ocean. Rowing 2,400 miles from California to Hawaii. Spending 62 days at sea in a 7.5m ocean rowing boat with two other women, as she battled extreme seasickness, sleep deprivation, multiple hurricanes and forty foot waves to set two Guinness World Records as part of a trio.   A true adventurer at heart, Eleanor has also cycled solo across Europe, conquered a 100km ultra-marathon and completed many more multi-day human powered journeys worldwide.   Through these extreme journeys, Eleanor has learned the power of adventure therapy and nature’s ability to assist in healing, overcoming trauma and to fuel personal growth.   Eleanor is driven to help others experience the power of adventure for themselves, improve wellbeing and nurture the ability to step into the unknown.   New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday and Thursday at 7am UK time - Hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out.    The Tough Girl Podcast is s

Born the youngest of 6 children and raised in small town in Northern B.C. Canada, Julie never expected she would end up in Mongolia, feeding, caring for and educating hundreds of Mongolian children in need at her two Children of the Peak Sanctuary or Narnii Huuhduud charity kindergartens. She and her husband, Chelvan, a Mining Engineer and the President of Veloo Foundation, have lived and worked in Indonesia, Australia and The United States before settling in Mongolia.   During her 10 years here, Julie has taken up horse back riding and now, every year, with Saraa and Baagii of Horse Trek Mongolia hosts and rides the longest annual charity ride on the planet – The Gobi Gallop – along with a suite of other charity rides across Mongolia.    In 2022 she will ride the record breaking 3,600 km / 84 day Blue Wolf Totem Expedition to raise funds for her charity project projects.    All of the money the people pay for these rides stays in Mongolia and helps the children, local businesses, artists and artisans and lo

Gowri is a naturalist and environmental educator who loves finding an excuse to be outdoors in nature—and climbing is one of her favourite excuses.    Gowri grew up climbing trees and scrambling on rocks in India, she went on to become an outdoor guide in the Peruvian Amazon.    Gowri currently teaches nature connection to kids in Upstate NY and India and also teaches Indian women climbing.    A few years ago she received the Live your Dream Grant given by American Alpine Club and the North Face to climb her hardest project to date, called French Indian Masala (7b+/5.12c), in India.   In 2018 she initiated the first-ever Indian women's climbing meet up in India to mentor and teach women climbing, called CLAW or Climb Like A Woman. She hopes to keep teach climbing, inspire more women to climb, and teach nature connection to the larger outdoor community through her new initiative Wilderness Ways.    Listen to Gowri now!!!   New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday and Thursday at 7am UK time

Anna is an up and coming British trad climber based in the Lake District. She has multiple climbs in the E6-E8 range on her CV and favours bold and often unprotectable climbs   Anna started climbing at age 10.    Competitions didn't really suit her, and she quit the sport in her teens for a while before getting into outdoor bouldering age 17.    At 19, on a family holiday, she discovered she had a taste for hard trad and hasn't looked back.   Anna has lived in the Lake District all her life and works as a route-setter at Kendal Wall.     Anna's 2019 climbing spree* Lake District climbs   8 July, Disorderly Conduct E8 6c, lead, Reecastle Crag, Cumbria 26 June, Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow E5 6b, solo onsight, Hare Crags, Cumbria 27 May, Right Hare, Right Now E7 6c, lead, Hare Crags, Cumbria 22 May, Scrogbank Ravers E7 6c, lead, White Mines, Rusty Wall, Cumbria 20 May, No Nuts (Just Balls) E7 6b solo, Harrop Tarn Crag, Cumbria 4 May, Relentless Rage E7 6a, lead, Gouther Crags, Cumbria 29 April, Hang the Gallows H