Adventurers, Explorers & Survival

In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong. Of the 300 men who had embarked on the journey, only four survived....

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood....

We value individuality and self-reliance, yet are utterly dependent on community for our most basic needs. In this intricately crafted and thought-provoking book, Sebastian Junger examines the tension that lies at the heart of what it means to be human....

Meriwether Lewis and his partner, William Clark, endured incredible hardships and witnessed astounding sights on their 1803 cross-country trip to unexplored West....

Into Thin Air is the definitive, personal account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest...

In August 1897, the young Belgian commandant Adrien de Gerlache set sail for a three-year expedition aboard the good ship Belgica with dreams of glory. His destination was the uncharted end of the Earth: the icy continent of Antarctica....

The River of Doubt brings alive extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived....

Mercury Rising recreates the tension and excitement of a flight that shifted the momentum of the space race and put the United States on the path to the moon....

In Campfire Stories: Close Calls, Steven Rinella invites seasoned hunters, anglers, adventurers, and outdoor professionals to share their tales of perilous adventures in the natural world, from run-ins with black bears and grizzlies to bad falls and severe hypothermia....

438 Days is the miraculous account of the man who survived alone and adrift at sea longer than anyone in recorded history....

In 1864, Captain Thomas Musgrave and his crew of four aboard the schooner Grafton wreck on the southern end of Auckland Island....

In the predawn hours of July 10, 2014, 27-year-old Cody Roman Dial, the son of preeminent Alaskan scientist and National Geographic Explorer Roman Dial, walked alone into Corcovado National Park, an untracked rainforest along Costa Rica’s remote Pacific Coast....

Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads....

In 2017, world-class ultrarunner Hillary Allen was at the top of her sport - and it felt like she was running on top of the world as she competed in Norway's Tromsø Skyrace. Allen was nearly halfway through the 50-kilometer race when she fell 150 feet off an exposed ridge....

Only four men survived the plane crash. The pilot. A politician. A cop... and the criminal he was shackled to....

Robert Morgan's Gap Creek was an Oprah's Book Club selection and a phenomenal New York Times best-seller. Here he turns his talent to chronicling the life of Daniel Boone....

The epic memoir of an Alaskan pararescue jumper, Special Forces Operator, and decorated war hero....

As the most celebrated European to explore Asia, Marco Polo was the original global traveler and the earliest bridge between East and West....

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery....

In Survival Mentality: The Psychology of Staying Alive, you’ll not only explore survival skills and strategies, but you’ll also hear the stories of individuals who used those techniques to survive real-world situations....

Ross Edgley famously ran a marathon pulling a 1.4-tonne car and climbed a rope the height of Everest (8,848 m), after living with Yamabushi warrior monks in Japan and partaking in Shamanic pain rituals with fire ants in the Amazon jungle....

In the best-selling tradition of Hampton Sides’ In the Kingdom of Ice, a riveting and cinematic tale of Dutch polar explorer William Barents and his three harrowing Arctic expeditions - the last of which resulted in a relentlessly challenging yearlong fight for survival....

From prominent outdoorsman and nature writer Mark Kenyon comes an engrossing reflection on the past and future battles over our most revered landscapes - America’s public lands....

On January 14, 2015, Tommy Caldwell, along with his partner, Kevin Jorgeson, summited what is regarded as the hardest climb in history - Yosemite's nearly vertical 3,000-foot Dawn Wall....

"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"....

The Last Season examines the extraordinary life of legendary backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson and his mysterious disappearance....

Mike Massimino's childhood space dreams were born the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. Growing up in a working-class Long Island family, he catapulted himself to Columbia....

In this grand and thrilling narrative, the acclaimed biographer of Magellan, Columbus, and Marco Polo brings alive the singular life and adventures of Sir Francis Drake, the pirate/explorer/admiral whose mastery of the seas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I changed....

The companion audiobook to Ken Burns's PBS documentary film....

An intimate true account of Americans at war, Days of Steel Rain is an epic drama about an unlikely group of men forced to work together in the face of an increasingly desperate enemy during the final year of World War II....

It is Christmas Eve 2020. I find myself alone in the desert on a horse. Stopping for a moment to catch my breath, the moment takes my breath away again. In the distance, the three pyramids of Giza glow in the golden light of the setting sun. As the sky darkens, the Christmas star, formed by the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, begins to shine brighter as night falls.

Levison Wood's most personal story yet, as he shares his most valuable rules to live life by, learned from 15 years travelling through 100 countries. In The Art of Exploration, ex-soldier and explorer Levison Wood collates all the lessons he has learned from his journeys so far. Having written five books on his individual journeys, Levison recalls the most important learning points, on themes ranging from leadership and team-building to conceptual risk and spirituality, drawing on examples and anecdotes from across continents and cultures. 

Thirteen Lessons That Saved Thirteen Lives is diver John Volanthen’s nail-biting account of the incredible rescue of a Thai youth soccer team who had been trapped for over a week in a flooded cave.

They were out of their depth, out of breath and out of time. It was 1973. Two men were trapped in a crippled submarine 1,700 feet below sea. They only had enough air to survive for two days. On the ocean’s surface there was a hastily assembled flotilla of rescue ships from both sides of the Atlantic. The world held its breath to await word of a rescue. In a routine dive to fix the telecommunication cable that snakes along the Atlantic sea bed, their mission had gone badly wrong. 

Boyhood in the 1960s and ‘70s was a time for exploration and mischief. Author Michael Tougias found more than his share of misadventures in the woods and on the water: some life-threatening, but others innocently hilarious. Over time - and after reading a multitude of adventure books - these experiences took shape in his quest to be a mountain man, owning a cabin in the forest and living off the land. Part of that dream would come true, but only after a family tragedy that shook his world and forced changes in his life.

If you are thinking about a healthy, life-changing, totally immersive, climate-friendly, adventurous voyage, listen to our story: Tales of the oceans, sharing life with indigenous people in remote locations, alternating solitude with deep and joyous relationships, confronting danger, storms, and shipwreck. We survive to tell the story, in a gentle, easy-to-listen to, style. 

If the United States couldn’t catch up to the Soviets in space, how could it compete with them on Earth? That was the question facing John F. Kennedy at the height of the Cold War. On February 20, 1962, when John Glenn blasted into orbit aboard Friendship 7, his mission was not only to circle the planet; it was to calm the fears of the free world and renew America’s sense of self-belief. Mercury Rising recreates the tension and excitement of a flight that shifted the momentum of the space race and put the United States on the path to the moon. 

Born in the tough East End of Glasgow and married into one of the city's most notorious criminal families, Janey Godley's young life was far from ordinary. From the grim and far-from-swinging '60s, to the discos of the '70s, to the tidal wave of heroin addiction which engulfed Glasgow's East End during the '80s, Janey was witness to an extraordinary underworld - as well as religious sectarianism, abject poverty and a frightening family of in-laws. Throughout it all, her indomitable spirit - and her vivid sense of humour - kept her alive.

The year is 1735. Twelve unruly men board ships bound for South America. Their mission? To discover the true shape of the Earth. They will be exposed to a wilderness of dangers none can imagine. The survivors won't return for 10 years. An almost forgotten moment in history, a story for our times, this is the true story of the mission to discover the shape of the Earth. 

In 2018, writer Claire Nelson made international headlines when she fell over 25 feet after wandering off the trail in a deserted corner of Joshua Tree. The fall shattered her pelvis, rendering her completely immobile. There Claire lay for the next four days, surrounded by boulders that muffled her cries for help, but exposed her to the relentless California sun above. Her rescuers had not expected to find her alive. In Things I Learned from Falling, Claire tells not only her story of surviving, but also her story of falling.