Around 7.000 languages are spoken worldwide. But about every two weeks, one of them disappears along with the last person who speaks it.
Linguist Dr. Mary Walworth dedicates her work to languages that are often on the verge of disappearing.
Al Mennie is one of the best big-wave surfers of all time — but it wasn’t the giant waves that had the biggest impact on him. When the world shut down in 2020, the Northern Irish surfer began swimming alone at night in the freezing Atlantic, and discovered something profound: darkness can be a gift. In his book “Night Swimming” (German: “Schwimmen im Mondlicht”), he shares how the sea, the night, and the moon showed him the way through grief, fear, and inner turmoil. We met him at his home beach in Northern Ireland. A conversation about finding light in the darkest places.
What happens when you consciously leave behind the fast pace of life and devote ten years to wonder? Patrick Bringley once worked at The New Yorker, one of the world’s most prestigious magazines. But after his brother Tom died of cancer at a young age, he left his career behind and became a museum guard at the legendary Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Imagine standing on a mountain, right at the edge of a cliff. Below you, the ground drops steeply. Then you take a step forward— and let yourself fall. You spread your arms and – after a few seconds – begin to fly.
This feeling of flight is what many base jumpers and wingsuit flyers yearn for.
Environmental photographer and marine biologist Cristina Mittermeier has traveled the world for decades to capture the beauty and fragility of Earth’s biodiversity and the wisdom of those who honor and respect nature.
Steep rock faces, surrounded by vast glaciers and massive icebergs floating far below on the ocean – Greenland’s nature is truly unique. Not only in terms of the landscape but also because Greenland’s glaciers and ice caps play a crucial role in climate change. However, exploring their condition can be extremely difficult as they are almost inaccessible due to their remote location.
Elephants hold a great fascination for people worldwide. And yet they are threatened with extinction. Due to ivory trade and loss of habitat through humans, populations have been decreasing drastically in recent centuries. Kenyan conservationist Dr. Paula Kahumbu has made it her life’s work to prevent this.
From a childhood close to nature in Jamaica, to a youth marked by violent experiences in England, to an unforgettable walk to the North Pole that would change everything – that’s how you could describe the life of Dwayne Fields in a nutshell, the first Brit of color to reach the North Pole on foot.
This time at Unfolding Maps: Danny Trejo, Hollywood’s most famous and beloved villain!
What can we learn from the tribes in the rainforest of New Guinea? What are the greatest dangers facing humanity and the earth today, and how can they be overcome? These are some of the many questions we address in this conversation with Jared Diamond.
In this very special episode, we welcome a real survival icon: Bear Grylls has become known worldwide as one of the most recognized faces of survival and outdoor adventure.
Chris Burkard, born in 1986, is many things: he is an adventurer, photographer, creative director, speaker, author, father, husband, surfer, certified yoga instructor … and first and foremost, a storyteller.
An extraordinary journey: Felicity Aston MBE was the first person to cross Antarctica on skis, alone and under her own muscle power. In this episode she tells about this adventure.
Mike Horn is introduced again and again as one of the world’s most important explorers and adventurers of our time. In this episode, he talks about some of the lessons he’s learned from his expeditions, discussing, for example, where he finds the value in failure.
In this episode the tables are turned. Instead of asking them, Erik answers questions – such as: What can we learn from travel? How can storytelling change the world? How do we experience adventures and what does that do to us?
A childhood in the shadow of a Cold War border – this is how Kapka Kassabova grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria.
60 years of research on social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees. And decades of commitment to animal welfare and environmental protection. This episode’s guest is the world-famous British ethologist and environmental activist, Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE.
A winter walk in the woods with an icon of heavy metal: Eric Adams is world-famous as the singer of the American band Manowar. In this episode he talks about another passion that shapes his life besides music – his love of nature, wildlife and hunting.
Maureen (Mo) Beck was born without her left hand, but that didn’t stop her from starting to climb at the age of 12 – to prove everyone wrong, who thought this sport might not be for her.
Over a two-year period, storyteller and National Geographic photographer Erika Larsen travelled to many locations in the western United States to learn about the significance of the horse in Native American tribes – culturally, spiritually, and economically.
She was a successful CEO of the clothing manufacturer Patagonia and played a decisive role in building the company. And then left everything behind to move to the wilderness of the actual Patagonia in Chile. For nature conservation – and for love.
Our guest in this episode is Kristine Tompkins, an environmentalist and the president of Tompkins Conservation. She has been working tirelessly for three decades to protect the environment.
In her book “Fathoms”, Rebecca Giggs blends natural history, philosophy and science to reveal an unexpected world in a stranded whale – with more cross-connections to our “human world” than we might have ever thought about.
Sitting in a snow-covered tent, surrounded by a pretty harsh environment where no horizon can be seen, in the arctic circle. Cooking with reindeer blood and learning the fascinating Sami language.
Photographer Erika Larsen experienced all this when she lived with the Sami people in Scandinavia for a total of four years.
For many years Sierra Leone and Liberia have been too dangerous to travel through. They were places of terrible violence – associated with child soldiers, prisoner mutilation and blood diamonds. In this conversation, he talks about what kind of devil he chased and whether he has found the Fighting Spirit of Africa in these two […]
(Rerelease of previously published Weltwach episode.) Eric Adams is world famous as the singer of the legendary American heavy metal band Manowar. Besides music however, another passion shapes his life: his love for nature, wildlife and hunting. This is what this episode of Weltwach is about: Eric Adams tells how his father once showed him […]
An author that hiked the Appalachian Trail and then got obsessed with the history and creation of trails. This is how the book “On Trails” by Robert Moor could be summarized. Sounds a bit, boring, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t. Instead, “On Trails” is one of the most fascinating “outdoor books” of the past years. […]
Imagine you are sitting in a telephone booth-sized bubble hundreds of meters deep in the ocean surrounded by darkness, in an environment where nobody has ever been before. Many of the things you see here no one has ever seen before. Every now and then shining deep sea creatures appear. Most of them are completely […]
As a war correspondent for the Daily Telegraph Tim Butcher quickly became obsessed with one of the world’s most war-ravaged countries – the Congo. Its rich and multi-layered history triggered him to dig deeper in his attempt to better understand “the heart of Africa”. After discovering a personal and direct link to a famous historical […]
To musically capture the essence of a solo journey over around the world is a tremendous creative challenge. Musician, director and photographer Jim Kroft, our guest in this episode, has tackled it. His journey took him through the endless expanses of the Russian winter, but also into the loneliness of Chinese mega-cities. On the way, […]
Two friends, two motorcycles and epic adventures all around the world. In episode 4 of Unfolding Maps, Charley Boorman talked about some of his most memorable travel experiences, many of which he has made with his best friend, the actor Ewan McGregor, known from movies such as Star Wars. These trips resulted in two hugely […]
What is lost when a whole culture disappears? Award-winning journalist Doug Bock Clark has written an epic book about the Lamalerans, a tribe that lives on a remote, eastern Indonesian island. For half a millennium, they have fed themselves by hunting sperm whales, using small, handmade boats and handmade harpoons. And until this day, this […]
Being the daughter of one of the Afghanistan’s most influential and prosperous persons, Nahid Shahalimi grew up in the country’s high society. However, the life of her family took a dramatic turn when her father died and Nahid had to flee to Canada with her mother and sisters in the 1980s. Since then, she has […]
Known as ‘the flying photographer’, George Steinmetz is the natural world’s leading aerial artist, being famous for his trademark low altitude aerial photography, a special technique that he has invented and perfected. He has done much of his work with a foot-launched motorized paraglider, which he pilots while taking pictures, as well as using drones […]
Mount Everest in the Himalayas, Mt Vinson in Antarctica – only two of the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. The former VOGUE fashion editor and today’s extreme mountaineer Helga Hengge was the first German woman ever to successfully climb them all. She has experienced challenges that could not be more diverse, from […]
A passionate adventurer, author and film maker: Alastair Humphreys’ explorations of the earth are manifold. He has spent over four years cycling round the world, a journey of 46,000 miles through 60 countries and five continents. He walked across southern India, rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, run six marathons through the Sahara Desert, completed a […]
A fascinating journey into the power that the cold, deep breathing and commitment can unleash together: Wim Hof is known as the “Iceman”, the reason being that he is able to endure the cold to an extend that was believed to be physically impossible before. Wim Hof has climbed Mount Everest to an altitude of […]
Adventurer, motorbike enthusiast, travel writer and TV presenter: Charley Boorman has explored the world for the past few decades. It all started in 1997 on a film shoot, when Charley met Ewan McGregor, known from Star Wars, Moulin Rouge, Trainspotting, Doctor Sleep and other films. Resulting from their shared love for motorbikes, they became friends […]
Laura Dekker is the youngest person ever to sail around the world solo – an impressive success for which she had to overcome many obstacles, at sea and on land. She has accomplished that some years ago, at the age of 14 to 16. In this episode of Unfolding Maps, Laura looks back to her […]
In his first book, the now iconic “Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-term World Travel”, Rolf Potts promoted the ethics of independent travel. It was released in 2003 and – after more than 20 editions and many translations worldwide – had a huge impact on the global traveler scene.
Known for the National Geographic cover “the Afghan Girl”, legendary photographer Steve McCurry captures the human element hidden amidst military conflicts, humanitarian crisis, vanishing traditions, as well as contemporary cultures.
This new travel podcast travels the unbeaten path. Unfolding Maps talks to adventurers of all flavors about their expeditions and experiences that shaped them. Join the host, Erik Lorenz, in his conversations with globetrotters, who are best-selling writers, award-winning photographers, and critically-acclaimed filmmakers. Through the pens and lenses of these border crossers, Unfolding Maps tells […]
