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What would it be like to go beyond the horizon? Where uncertainty and passion collide and bring you towards the edge, entering you into a new world of discovery?
Welcome to Lean In. A podcast that explores ordinary people’s extraordinary lives through honest storytelling. My guests share with me their journey of discovery, laughter, personal experiences and healing.
If you are going through a change or challenging period in life, Lean In is the space where we can surrender to the cycle together.
In this conversation, I take a step into the wildness with Caroline Van Hemert, the highly acclaimed Alaskan writer, Wildlife Biologist, prolific adventurer and mamma bear to two beautiful kids. Caroline and her husband Pat are best known for their 4,000-mile human-powered expedition from the Pacific rainforest to the Arctic coast.
This expedition was a feat that pushed the bounds of what the human body is truly capable of, both physically and emotionally. Caroline’s autobiographical masterpiece, ‘The Sun Is A Compass,’ chronicles their epic journey with such candour and vulnerability, that you almost feel like you’re walking each step alongside her, sharing in her eagerness to see what’s over the horizon.
Caroline regularly publishes articles in scientific journals documenting the habits of native birds and other wildlife in the north. The New York Times, MSNBC, National Geographic, and others have featured her extensive research and expeditions.
Although our conversation may have taken place from two completely different corners of the earth, I was blown away by how much we connected, not only as women, but as mothers too. Together, we explored her scientific mind and unwavering love for the wilderness. Caroline also opens up about the intuitive connection her and Pat share, while touching on contending with parenthood as a global explorer.
Also within this episode:
- How Caroline met Pat
- How Caroline contends with uncertainty, then and now
- Why there’s no better training for being a mother than an epic adventure
- The extraordinary Caribou navigation system
- How Caroline and Pat find solace in human kindness
- The husband-wife mind-meld out in the Arctic
- What the trials are in integrating back into the ‘real world’
- Parenthood on the wilderness trail
- The concept of resilience and what that looks like
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