Be Bold With Beth Whitman

Support the podcast through Patreon and get access to special audio and written content, be part of a private Facebook group and enjoy other benefits reserved for supporters of the podcast! ***** Today’s conversation is with Laura Musikanski. Laura is the executive director of the Happiness Alliance. She believes in the importance of data because when you can measure something, you can better manage it and in this case she’s interested in measuring happiness, well-being and the resilience of people and the planet. She has a background in sustainability so that all makes sense. Laura is all about happiness, at least the data behind happiness. She spends her time researching and trying to understand what it is that makes us happy (or not). And how we can make a cultural shift so that we are more focused on happiness not profit. In a time when it’s easy to feel hopeless, she is a self-described “pessimistic optimist.” In other words, she has an optimistic outlook on things but bases her viewpoint in reality—beca

Support the podcast through Patreon and get access to special audio and written content, be part of a private Facebook group and enjoy other benefits only for supporters of the podcast! ***** Today's conversation is with Julia Garling. Julia was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 24. And while that was an awakening for her, it took her some time to go from being a fund manager at a NYC financial institution to a marathoner who’s now completed well over 200 races to date. On the way to that amazing number of marathons, she went through this debilitating illness when the doctor’s suggested she might not ever walk again. Julia is now living a very happy life in Portland, OR where she’s a massage therapist, specializing in massage for runners. She’s also a pacer for races and she’s now on her third time around running marathons in all 50 states. To say that Julia is an inspiration is putting it lightly. Julia didn’t let the words of people in her life, especially her doctors, dissuade her from wanting to accomplish

Support the podcast through Patreon and get access to special audio and written content, be part of a private Facebook group and enjoy other benefits only for supporters of the podcast! ***** Today’s conversation is with Jerilyn Brusseau. Jerilyn is a cook, baker, restaurateur, business-woman, humanitarian and cultural diplomat. She has led (and continues to lead) two very different lives that have both allowed her to pursue passions that have supported her over the years. And I think it’s fair to say she loves them both equally. Some of you may know Jerilyn as the founder of Peacetrees Vietnam, an organization dedicated to clearing landmines (more than 110,000 to date) from a heavily bombed region of Vietnam. Others may know Jerilyn as the Cinnamom – the woman behind the irresistible recipe that we know as Cinnabon. In this conversation, we talk in-depth about her work in Vietnam, a country devastated by war. Her work started more than 20 years ago when she and her late husband, Danaan Perry, got this crazy

Support the podcast through Patreon and get access to special audio and written content, be part of a private Facebook group and enjoy other benefits only for supporters of the podcast! ***** Colleen Poling is a registered dietition and health coach living in Portland, Oregon. I found out about Colleen through the VegFest website. VegFest, for those of you who don’t know, is a vegetarian festival/trade show that takes place in several locations around the US. And Colleen was a speaker at one of their events. Colleen is plant-based, meaning she eats no animal products. And while this works for her, she coaches people no matter where they are with their health and needs. Colleen is all about living life on her town terms, although she fully admits to struggling with this herself that’s the beauty of what she’s trying to accomplish—that it’s not easy but she figures it out. She believes in the power of taking risks, otherwise, as she says, we’ll just be stuck in place. I really enjoyed this conversation with Col

Ladies! Join us on the Be Bold Facebook group! Big exciting news this week. The Be Bold Podcast is now She's Bold! ***** Have a burning question and want to be featured on a future episode! Call 877-280-5170 and leave a message or email me here. ***** Connect with me: Facebook Instagram WanderTours Be Bold Facebook Group (women-only) Twitter Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe then tell a friend! Be Bold, Beth

Limited time! Support the podcast through Patreon and receive a Be Bold bracelet or Be Bold baseball cap! ***** In this episode, I look back at 2018, forward to 2019 and consider what it means to be "unbold." Have a burning question and want to be featured on a future episode! Call 877-280-5170 and leave a message or email me here. ***** Connect with me: Facebook Instagram WanderTours Be Bold Facebook Group (women-only) Twitter Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe then tell a friend! Be Bold, Beth

Limited time! Support the podcast through Patreon and receive a Be Bold bracelet or Be Bold baseball cap! ***** Cassandra Overby is the author of a new book called Explore Europe on Foot. And it is, obviously, all about enjoying Europe through walking. I'm talking anything from day walks to multi-day hikes. This book is pretty awesome. It’s a guide that makes walking through Europe really accessible. When I first heard about the book, I thought it would be interesting to me because Jon and I have talked about doing a hut to hut trip, perhaps in the Alps. But as I dug into Explore Europe on Foot, I realized that Cass is really advocating for a different kind of travel, a different way of thinking about it. And it doesn’t have to include some big hut to hut experience or a multi-mile pilgrimage (although she includes those in the book as well), but it can just be a way to enjoy a slower pace of travel by exploring the countryside on foot wherever you are. She didn’t start out as this kind of traveler, and that’

Limited time! Support the podcast through Patreon and receive a Be Bold bracelet or Be Bold baseball cap! ***** Today’s guest is Tanya Streeter. Tanya is a world champion freediver. She holds the record, set in 2002, when she dove to a depth of 525 feet. She held that record for both men and women for more than two months but she still holds the women’s record and, again, that was over 16 years ago. The crazy thing is that she managed to secure that record on a day when things didn’t go quite right for her—which she does talk about in this episode—specifically she blacked out right before she was doing the dive. I mean seconds before. I’m not sure that I’ve spoken to anyone whose accomplishment sounds so absolutely petrifying to me. You wanna talk about being bold? As she says, you really need cojones to do something like she’s done. This accomplishment is really off the charts. What I’d love for you to do is listen to this episode, then watch the documentary video (it’s about 50 minutes long) called No Limit

Join our community of Patreon supporters. First 10 patrons receive a Be Bold gift! Today's conversation is with Pam LeBlanc. Pam spent nearly 21 years writing about fitness, adventure and travel for the Austin American-Statesman, Austin’s daily newspaper. It was there that she wrote a weekly column called Fit City. And it’s a befitting column for someone who considers herself to be an Outdoor Junkie. While she had done a number of things over the years that tested her confidence and really forced her to stretch herself, she declared 2017 as her Year of Adventure and she set out to purposely do things that she was uncomfortable with. In her article declaring her year of adventure, she ends with this, “Take a flying leap, splash hard, get your hair wet and smudge your makeup.” During her adventurous year, she jumped off a 10-meter diving board, she ran a naked 5K race and she rappelled down a 38 story high-rise in Austin (dressed in a Wonder Woman suit, of course!) – all of which she describes in this episode.

Ladies! Join us on the Be Bold Facebook group! In this episode, I take some time to talk about how you can make some bold decisions this holiday season with regards to gift giving. Break your habits, think out of the box and do something different this year! Mentioned in this episode:The Running Event Epic5 Ultra Run 4 Deserts A Plastic Ocean The True Cost Want, Need, Wear, Read Connect with me: Facebook Instagram WanderTours Be Bold Facebook Group (women-only) Twitter Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe then tell a friend! Be Bold, Beth

Ladies! Join us on the Be Bold Facebook group! I'm taking time out this week to cover a few housekeeping items including a soon-to-be-launched Patreon page, ways to get involved with the Be Bold community, a giveaway for a Black Rapid Camera Strap and Thanksgiving well wishes! ***** Have a burning question and want to be featured on a future episode! Call 877-280-5170 and leave a message or email me here. ***** Mentioned in this episode: Black Rapid Camera Strap giveaway Connect with me: Facebook Instagram WanderTours Be Bold Facebook Group (women-only) Twitter Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe then tell a friend! Be Bold, Beth  

Ladies! Join us on the Be Bold Facebook group! In this episode, I take some time to answer your questions! I cover some interesting topics including: * The time(s) I've been truly frightened while traveling * Why I get up at 5:18 in the morning * How to deal with long airport layovers If you haven't yet submitted a question and would like to, you can do so here. or you can call 877-280-5170 and leave a message. Mentioned in this episode: Stuck at the Airport Harriet Baskas (on the Be Bold Podcast) Connect with me: Facebook Instagram WanderTours Be Bold Facebook Group (women-only) Twitter Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe then tell a friend! Be Bold, Beth  

Ladies! Please join our Be Bold Facebook Group! My conversation today is with Kauai resident Vicki Punter. Vicki is a sailor, adventurer and entrepreneur. She grew up in the midwest, left for the Caribbean after some brief work on the mainland and then took off on a boat to find adventure after the then-president of El Salvador mentioned wanting to sail around the world. Since that idea was planted, she figures that she and her husband, Captain Jim, have spent about 20 years on the water. Vicki is really unassuming. And I think much of that is because she grew up and spent the bulk of her travels in pre-internet times. But she really has lived a life of true adventure. She wasn’t blogging about it, she wasn’t posting on facebook or Instagram about it. She was just doing it. So in this conversation we talk about those years on the boat, her meeting local indigenous groups throughout the South Pacific and gathering up incredibly unique art which is now on display and for sale at her shop, Havaiki, on the north

Ladies! Please join our Be Bold Facebook Group! Today’s conversation is with Alison Wright. Alison is a documentary photographer, the author of 10 books and an adventurer who’s been to 150 countries. In 2013 she was named National Geographic Traveler of the Year and recognized as someone who travels with a sense of passion and purpose – and really, that’s putting it mildly. She’s also the recipient of a Dorothea Lange Award in Documentary Photography and a two-time winner of the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award. I think I first met Alison when she was in Seattle many many years ago at a book signing. She was speaking at a small event at a bookstore where she told the story of nearly dying in a bus crash in Laos. She survived, of course, but I remember her amazing story and remember completely admiring her sense of adventure and her desire to continue traveling despite this horrendous event that, really, changed her life. You’re going to hear some great stories from her in this episode. But my big takeawa

Ladies! Please join our Be Bold Facebook Group! Natalia Koss Vallejo is an activist and feminist. And although she’s motivated by her anger, you wouldn’t know it from her demeanor. She’s a diminutive woman with a lion’s roar about the issues she cares about. And she isn’t shy at all about jumping right into sensitive topics. Topics that generally aren’t talked about publicly. In this episode, we talk about how Natalia got involved with politics at a very early age. That involvement, which you’ll hear about, rose out of her difficultly in obtaining an abortion in her late teens. It was at this time that she recognized an unjust and unfair system that affected not only her, but the many women out there in similar situations. This is what I find so amazing and so bold about her. That she was so mature at such a young age to not only recognize this but to also be so motivated to make changes to the system. Her frustration with this experience launched her into work at Planned Parenthood, NARAL and, ultimately, po

Ladies! Please join our Be Bold Facebook Group! Today's conversation is with Kim Steutermann Rogers. Kim is a journalist and photographer living on Kauai. And I gotta tell ya, she has carved out a beautiful life for herself on the island. Not only because she’s making a living doing something that’s very difficult these days to make a living at (that being a journalist and photographer), but she also calls herself a citizen scientist. How she describes it is that she’s managed to draw upon her early love for science and couple it with her journalistic talents. What she’s created is this life that has provided her with experiences and opportunities she could never have imagined. There really is so much subtle beauty in this conversation pertaining to this lifestyle that she’s chosen. It started when she left her family and friends behind on the mainland and just picked up and moved with her husband to this little slice of heaven. I don’t expect everyone to just pick up and move to an island after hearing this.

Ladies! Please join our Be Bold Facebook Group! This week’s conversation is with Tibetan singer, Yungchen Lhamo. Meeting Yungchen in person was what I imagine meeting the Dalai Lama must be like. She’s a quiet, soft-spoken person who gives you all of her focus and attention. She’s undistracted. She’s present. And she is so incredibly sweet. Everything she does is from the heart. And everything she does is for the benefit of others. That’s something you hear about quite frequently in Buddhism, doing things for the benefit of others, but you don’t come across many people who are actually putting this into practice. You know, in our culture, we so rarely see this that it’s almost difficult to get used to you. But hopefully you’ve come across someone in your life who’s similar to Yungchen in that, they are so at peace that you want to be more like them. You want that peacefulness for yourself. You see them as a happy person and you want that. I wasn’t expecting this when I connected with her online and requested

Ladies! Please join our Be Bold Facebook Group! Today's conversation is with Sherry Ott. Sherry is a long-term traveler, a blogger and a photographer. As she says, her one goal in life is to make you wish you were somewhere else. Over 11 years, she’s lived in Vietnam, hiked the Annapurna Circuit with her dad, drove 10,000 miles from London to Mongolia in the Mongol Rally, she’s walked across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, kayaked in Antarctica, and drove an auto rickshaw across India for charity. When we spoke last year, she was in Denver checking it out and considering making it her home base, which she subsequently did. She is still seeking epic adventures to intriguing places in order to challenge herself and inspire people to overcome their fears and reap the benefits of travel but she now does this from Colorado where she now explores the mountains and fosters kittens. She’s got a pretty big following so you might already know her but if not, she writes about her travel lifestyle and her around the wor

Ladies! Please join our Be Bold Facebook Group! Today’s conversation is with Radha Agrawal. Radha is…well, Radha is a pretty freaking amazing young woman. She’s probably best known for having founded Daybreaker, an early morning dance party that’s currently in 25 cities and has a half a million people in the community. Basically, about once a month Daybreaker takes place in each of these 25 cities. These consist of a one-hour yoga session, if you so choose, that’s followed by two hours of dance. All this takes place early enough in the morning that you can participate and then go to work. Think of it like a very scaled down, early morning version of Burning Man where 300 – 600 people get jiggy with it. Where there might be a theme, people might come in costume and basically they’re just completely letting loose before they head to their jobs. I suggest that while you’re listening to this episode, maybe you can just pop over to the Daybreaker website and see if the city nearest you is on their list. And if, no

Ladies! Please join our Be Bold Facebook Group! You are in for a real treat today. This is a long conversation with a woman whom you’ve likely never heard of before but I can guarantee you will want to meet and hang out with her after you listen to this episode. I’m not sure if it’s her accent, which is beyond charming, or it’s her self-deprecating way or it’s her keen observations about herself and others. It’s probably a combination of all of those. But whatever it is, you’re going to be pulled into a conversation that is just gonna make you feel good and, hopefully, it’s gonna make you think differently about what’s possible for yourself. So, this conversation is with Sue Hollis. Sue is an Australian but she currently splits her time between the land down under and Canada. It was my very good fortune that she happened to be in Canada this summer and was willing to take a ride down here to Seattle on her beloved motorcycle, Voodoo, as she calls it, to record. Anyway, Sue just released a book called Riding R