The Paul Kirtley Podcast

This podcast is long overdue. My guest is John Rhyder, naturalist, writer and highly experienced bushcraft educator. Indeed he was the instructor on the first formal bushcraft course I took many, many years ago. John is an innovator in the field of bushcraft and nature education, and continues to push his own knowledge too. In particular, John is passionate about wildlife tracking; he is currently the only person in northern Europe certified as Senior Tracker under the Cybertracker system. There is much to savour in this conversation....

Dave Holder is a wilderness living skills instructor and wilderness guide based in Canada. He is also a TV survival consultant, being the lead survival and safety consultant on the Alone show on The History Channel. In this podcast episode we get into a wide-ranging conversation which should provide you with insights into long-term survival situations, psychological factors for success, skillsets required, equipment, nutrition and more.

Theresa Emmerich Kamper, PhD, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and author of Determining Prehistoric Skin Processing Technologies, has over 25 years of experience in prehistoric skin tanning and clothing construction. She joins me on this podcast to talk in detail about traditional tanning, prehistoric skin processing, making clothing from skins and furs, and much more. I could probably have called this episode "Everything you wanted to know about tanning but were afraid to ask"....

John Boe is a British military veteran with PTSD. In this podcast episode we have a candid discussion about John’s condition, how it manifested itself and how he came to realise he found solace in time spent in nature, especially in the woods. This ultimately led to a second career as a bushcraft instructor, delivering courses through Wildway Bushcraft, based in the South West of the UK. Having John join me on this podcast was also a good opportunity to discuss aspects of John’s experience in establishing himself as a bushcraft instructor and starting his own bushcraft school, and to draw out some broader lessons for those looking for a pathway in bushcraft instruction.

Cliff Jacobson is one of North America’s most respected outdoors writers and wilderness canoe guides. He is an outdoor skills instructor and a professional outfitter and guide, a canoeing and camping consultant, and the author of more than a dozen top-selling books on canoeing and camping. In 2003 the American Canoe Association presented Cliff with the Legends of Paddling Award and inducted him into the ACA Hall of Fame. In 2009 Cliff was awarded the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award by the Boy Scouts of America. Canoeing, camping and sharing his experience has been a lifelong passion for Cliff. He seems to have paddled every river in North America, certainly in Canada. His wilderness experience is massive and the relevance of the conversation this podcast goes far beyond the context of canoe tripping....

Les Hiddins became well known through his ABC TV series “The Bush Tucker Man”. In 1980 Les had received a Defence Fellowship to research survival in northern Australia and looked heavily into traditional bush foods, with the help and cooperation of Indigenous communities. His work was compiled and used by the Australian military in various forms, including the clever idea of “snack maps”. He was also the principal author of the Australian Army’s military survival manual, published in 1987. Les retired from the Australian Regular Army in 1989 with the rank of Major. In addition to his TV work and writing, he continued to work with the Australian Army Reserve until 2001, working with Indigenous Australian communities in northern Australia. He is still actively researching and sharing his information and we get into this and a whole lot more in this podcast episode….

In this podcast episode Gordon Dedman and I talk bushcraft and survival in Australia. Gordon is a survival instructor in NORFORCE, an Australian Army unit conducting patrols in remote wilderness areas of northern Australia. He provides civilian training via Bushcraft Survival Australia. Gordon also works as a guide in Kakadu National Park, which at 20,000 square kilometers is Australia's largest national park....

Bruce Zawalsky is a professional wilderness survival instructor and author, with over 25 years of experience as an outdoor educator. He teaches survival courses, wildlife and bear awareness courses as well as wilderness navigation. Here in Podcast 48, Bruce talks with me about all these subjects and more, which have much wider application than just in his native Canada....

In 1995 Lars Fält organised a seminal survival instructors conference in northern Sweden. Tom Lutyens and Mors Kochanski were among the instructors. Johan Skullman was one of the students. Here they discuss the importance of that event....

Canadian outdoor educator and author Kevin Callan joins me to talk about nature connection, preserving wilderness, healing yourself with time outdoors as well as undertaking the Meanest Link…

Tristan Gooley, natural navigator and author, returns to the Paul Kirtley Podcast for a conversation centred on on becoming more attuned to the clues and signs surrounding you in nature, and finding the keys that help unlock these secrets...

John Hudson, Chief Instructor at the UK military’s Defence SERE Training Organisation, joins me in conversation on the Paul Kirtley Podcast. Originally an RAF helicopter pilot and now the survival instructor responsible for training all the survival instructors in the UK military, John is the real deal when it comes to survival training and advice. In the civilian world John’s expertise has been called on for Discovery Channel TV show Dude You’re Screwed as well as other projects. He has laid down some key principles we can all apply to our lives in his book How To Survive: Lessons For Everyday Life From The Extreme World. In this podcast we talk about all this and more, including which survival myths need killing once and for all...

David Wescott, Dave Holladay, André-François Bourbeau and Mors Kochanski come together in a panel discussion chaired by Les Stroud (a.k.a. Survivorman) at the 2019 Global Bushcraft Symposium, Alberta, Canada. Recorded June 11th 2019. Listen now...

Mors Kochanski joins me for a conversation about wilderness living skills, bushcraft and survival. Mors explains his background in these subjects, going right back to his school days, along with learning from his mentor Tom Roycraft, through Mors's own unique contributions and inventions , including the super-shelter. Along the way we cover a lot of fascinating ground....click to find out more and listen to this podcast...

Dave Canterbury of the Pathfinder School joins me to talk about his perspective on bushcraft, particularly the contrasts he sees between bushcraft in the UK and USA. We use his popular concept of the 5C’s of survivability as well as applying the Six Sigma concept to bushcraft/survival as jumping-off points for a wide-ranging conversation, including building a YouTube channel, writing books, putting your own spin on existing knowledge, re-invigorating old works, getting kids interested in the outdoors, prioritising what you learn, different ways of learning, immersion training, first aid kits and the differences between bushcraft and survival...

Miles Irving, is one of the foremost professional foragers in the UK, author of The Forager Handbook, founder and director of Forager Ltd and host of the WorldWild podcast. Miles’s interest in foraging goes back to his childhood but a chance conversation led to him turning this growing passion into a career. Miles was able to start supplying restaurants with foraged plants and this quickly expanded, ultimately leading to him to supplying well-known chefs and restaurants such as Jamie Oliver, Mark Hix, Heston Blumenthal and The Ivy. His company Forager Ltd has expanded to source nearly 500 wild ingredients and Miles has grown to be one of the most respected professional foragers. Miles continues to push the boundaries of wild food and advocates the reintroduction of foraged foods into regular diets. Miles joins me for a wide-ranging and in-depth conversation on wild foods, foraging, health and connecting with nature...

In this Paul Kirtley Podcast I return to Q&A, answering listener questions on a range of topics - Is there an issue with collecting water from streams or ponds containing poisonous plant species such as hemlock water dropwort, Oenanthe crocata? What are the benefits or disadvantages to a woodland if it is being used for bushcraft? How many knives is too many knives? Is a belt knife and a pocket knife enough for a wilderness trip? How to sharpen spoon knives? How to tell the difference between birch species? What are the alternatives to birch bark for lighting fires with sparks from a ferro rod?

In the Spring of 2017 Justin and his dog Saku set off on a a traverse of Newfoundland. Starting on snowshoes and hauling a sled, Justin switched to backpacking and pakrafting once the conditions allowed. 68 days and 700km later, Justin and Saku had crossed the island of Newfoundland from West to East, beginning on the Gulf of St Lawrence and ending up in Cape Broyle on the Atlantic Ocean. Justin joins me on Paul Kirtley Podcast episode 38 to talk about this and other adventures he's had in his native Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada...

Dan Hume, bushcraft instructor and author of The Art Of Fire: The Joy Of Tinder, Spark And Ember guests on The Paul Kirtley Podcast to discuss his travels to remote places in search of traditional fire techniques being applied and relied upon to this day...

Mors Kochanski and Jon McArthur join The Paul Kirtley Podcast to discuss the motivations behind, and the aims of, the Global Bushcraft Symposium. Along the way, Mors shares a few anecdotes too...