"Finding Jim": Mourning Loss in the Mountains - Susan Oakey Baker

Climbers and mountaineers view risk-taking as a necessary part of pushing the boundaries of possibility; they often speak about managing risk and danger. But mountains are often unpredictable. Susan Oakey-Baker is the widow of Jim Haberl who died in an avalanche while on the mountain. Her book, Finding Jim, describes her emotional journey, that included her facing the mountain that claimed her husband.

The Adventure Life: Raising Children While Taking Risks - Mike Libecki

Mike Libecki was one of National Geographic's candidates for "Adventurer of the Year" in 2013, and it's easy to understand why: the experienced mountaineer led expeditions from places as disparate as Antarctica and the Philippines. Libecki is also a father. He tells Boyd what it's like to raise a child as a risk-taker, and how he handles his daughter wanting to follow in his footsteps, across frozen continents and through lush jungles.

Crash Reel: Overcoming Concussion Trauma - Kevin Pearce

When Kevin Pearce fell and knocked himself unconscious on the snowboard halfpipe while training to go to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, he never could know how much his life had changed in an instant. He spent 10 days in a coma, after which he had to re-learn to walk, talk and other basic functions. His family and friends were shocked when he started talking about getting back to snowboarding. His recovery is captured in the film The Crash Reel. Pearce now raises awareness of brain trauma as an injury comparable to a broken leg, rather than a simple bruise that can be overcome with grit or determination.

Don't Stab Yourself! Climbing Rocks With Ice Axes - Sam Elias

Climbing rock is difficult. Climbing ice is dangerous. But when the two sports are combined into one event, the results can be treacherous. Sam Elias placed third in the Mixed Climbing Competition at the recent Ouray Ice Festival, despite a fall that could have left him seriously injured. He tells Boyd that he feels lucky to escape with minor cuts and bruises.

Giant Sequioa: Photographing the World's Biggest Trees - Steve Sillett

Some of the United States' most unique flora are also its biggest. The giant sequoia, featured on the cover of December 2012's National Geographic magazine, are so big that their branches sustain an ecosystem of their own. Steve Sillett tells Boyd that The President, a 3,200 year old sequoia, isn't the tallest tree in the world, or the widest, but it's the second largest in terms of volume.

The Health Benefits of Religious Festivals & Large Crowds - Laura Spinney

Despite as many as 70 million people descending on the confluence of three polluted rivers for Allahabad, India's annual Kumbh Mela festival, people leave the crowds feeling restored and in better health than when they first arrived. Laura Spinney, author of "Karma of the Crowd," in the February, 2014 issue of National Geographic magazine, tells Boyd that western medicine tends to not value the restorative benefits of communal living in the same way that Indian and Asian societies do, but the benefits are real and does impact our health positively.

Searching For Wilderness: 2,400 Miles Solo in a Kayak - Bryan Brown

Bryan Brown is a man with impeccably high standards for himself. When he was working on his 2,400 mile kayaking descent of the Green and Colorado Rivers, his rule was that if he were to swim out of his kayak during one of the five stretches of Class III, IV or V whitewater rapids, he would have to unload its 62 pounds of survival gear, carry it back upstream and try the rapid again. While this routine may be exhausting, he feels it was the only way he could satisfy his urge to actually paddle the entire length of the rivers. In order to supply his 100-day unsupported journey, Brown tells Boyd that he would often hitchhike to the nearest town for a grocery store run, and hitch a ride back to where he left his kayak on the river.

Into Oman's "Empty Quarter" - Alistair Humphreys & Leon McCarron

Inspired by Wilfred Thesiger, long distance hikers Leon McCarron & Alistair Humphreys trek 1,000 miles through the Empty Quarter Desert in Oman. To record their journey, the pair created a film titled Into the Empty Quarter, which highlights their struggle through the desert, including dragging an unwieldy cart overflowing with supplies. Despite trials of extreme heat, cold nights and losing their sleeping pads on the first day, the most memorable part was the kindness of locals who brought them ice cream in the middle of the desert.

The Science Behind Sports Celebrations - David Matsumoto

Chest thumping and celebrating over the conquered rival has become so ubiquitous in sports that psychologist and judo coach, David Matsumoto began to wonder about the roots of these types of behaviors. He's now a professor of psychology at San Francisco State University and now has found that this impulse to display dominance is common among all humans, even blind athletes who have never witnessed the phenomenon visuall.

Congo Exploration: Looking for Elephants, But Finding Parasites - Wild Chronicles

In this week's Wild Chronicles segment, Boyd reflects that much exploration spent in the pursuit of one area yields results in another. For example, while he was in the Congo with explorer Mike Fay looking for elephants, he first found parasites burrowing into his legs. Then they also found elephants.

Voluntourism: Taking Time From Your Vacation for Others - Ken Budd

Most people think of a vacation as a time when they step out of their daily lives and devote some time to themselves. But Ken Budd takes his travel from a different point of view. Following the death of his father, Budd began to reflect on his own legacy and decided to take volunteer vacations in New Orleans, China, Costa Rica, Kenya, Ecuador and the West Bank. All of the proceeds from his book, The Voluntourist, will benefit the groups with which he worked abroad.

Wild Chronicles - Don't Break Your Own Rules

In this week’s Wild Chronicles segment, Boyd discusses risk and how excitement can cause people to change their minds about the rules they’ve set up for their own personal safety, whether it’s near a large ocean storm surge, on the edge of a Hawaiian volcano, or scuba diving.

Europe: Home (Again) to Bears and Wolves

Humans have lived in Europe for thousands of years, and, as a result, the continent is littered with ancient churches, castles and relics of successes and failures of our cultural history. But many North Americans might not realize that the continent also offers opportunity to witness wolves, bears and wildlife that generally evokes Alaska’s wide open landscapes. Photographer Staffan Widstrand explains that over the years, Europeans have become more tolerant of living near large wildlife and, because of this nature-friendly perspective, Europe is “having a major wildlife comeback.”

"The Human Factor" Behind Avalanches - David Page

Back country sports are dangerous by design – pursuing adventure in places that are remote often removes the athletes from the range of quick rescue. Back country skiers need to be frank in addressing risk, and trust their own decisions to ensure survival. But in Dan Page’s recent article for Powder magazine, he cites many examples of skiers unwittingly doing just the opposite. Page explains that in his research for “The Human Factor,” he learned that human mistakes are the cause of many avalanches. Page says that the best way to reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim of an avalanche is to take as many decisions as possible out of the back country and follow firm safety rules that are created in response to the constantly changing snow and weather conditions.

Exercise Your Brain, Improve Your IQ - Dan Hurley

Similar to spending months in a gym and improving our overall physical fitness, we can train our brains and improve our IQ, and not simply just prepare for tests by acquiring knowledge. Such is the claim explored by Dan Hurley in his new book, Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power. Hurley also explains that, like muscles that have been allowed to atrophy, if we don’t regularly exercise our brains, we’ll drop IQ points just as quickly as we gained them. “It’s known that if you want to lower someone’s IQ, put them in solitary confinement for 6 months. And those people come out traumatized, but they’re losing IQ because they’re not interacting… (The brain) is designed to engage closely with the world about it.”

Rap Guide to the Wilderness - Baba Brinkman

Rappers often boast about the number of homes, cars or girlfriends that they have, but few crack open Canterbury Tales to distil the words of Geoffrey Chaucer into rhyme. But Baba Brinkman isn’t a typical rapper. He has a Master’s degree in literature and had a residency at the University of Tennessee while he was composing his album about Darwin’s ideas on evolution. In his newest album, “The Rap Guide to Wilderness,” Brinkman gives a shout out to National Geographic, while promoting a message of protecting the wilderness. Brinkman explains that rap is a generally urban art form, but humans were created in nature and we can’ t survive without it: “It’s a relatively new concept that we’re separate from it, but we’re just another species, and all this glass and concrete is a fairly recent development.”

Travel For Experiences, Not Checklists - Robert Reid

National Geographic Digital Nomad Robert Reid doesn’t know how many countries he’s visited. He travels all the time, but he deliberately resists the urge to count the number of stamps his passport holds as backlash against those travelers who competitively list the locales they’ve “visited,” not taking the time to experience local culture. Reid encourages his readers to throw out their travel lists and chase experiences and earnest interactions with those different from us.

Resurrecting the Mammoth - George Church

Decoding the human genome for the first time cost three billion dollars. Now, exploring the secrets locked in DNA costs just $1,000. Harvard geneticist Dr. George Church explains that there are endless applications for this capability, from genetic counseling that has helped eliminate Tay-Sachs Disease to potentially reducing HIV and delaying early-onset Alzheimer’s by decades. But one of the visceral applications of genetics is the possibility of bringing back animals that have been extinct for thousands of years, like the woolly mammoth. Church explains that the mammoth should be possible to recreate, because we have decoded its DNA, and it has a close living relative – the Asian elephant. Of course, Church has seen Jurassic Park, and acknowledges that working with large furry pachyderms is much safer than trying to bring back the various denizens of Jurassic Park fame.

Understanding Human Sacrifice - John Verano

It might be hard to understand from our 21st Century perspectives, but Tulane anthropologist and National Geographic grantee Dr. John Verano says that in at least one time and place on Earth, becoming a human sacrifice to the gods would have been considered a high honor. Verano studies Peru’s Chimu culture from the 1400’s and explains that it’s hard to be sure what the Chimu intended when they sacrificed people and llamas, but he’s certain that whatever they hoped to gain from the offerings, it was a very serious business: “Of course, children are a great resource in a society, and that’s not something you part with voluntarily. And llamas, are valuable animals for meat and transportation. Killing in a sacrifice like this implies that it was very important.”

Enjoying the Pain On the Roof of the World - Conrad Anker

High altitude mountain climbers are a peculiar breed of human, and Conrad Anker definitely fits the description. His love of spending time in freezing temperatures at thinly oxygenated altitudes leaves Anker concluding that “deep down, there’s some part of me that has some satisfaction in suffering and hardship and maybe I’m not quite balanced,” but he tells Boyd that he would much rather spend 20 days on Everest than visit his local shopping mall in the days before Christmas. The famed mountaineer also explains how he doesn’t plan to stop climbing as he gets older, but his achievements may become less extreme: “If I can climb 5 or 6 (thousand meter peaks) into my 80’s and 90’s, I’ll be totally psyched.”

Bring Your Kids On a Search for Enlightenment - Bruce Kirkby

Some holiday travelers dread the crush of bodies and long lines at airports, and even more so when young travelers and babies are included. So when Bruce Kirkby and his wife Christine decided to live in a Buddhist monastery in India’s Himalayan foothills, they skipped airplanes altogether and canoed, train-ed, and cargo-shipped their family around the planet. Once they arrived at the monastery, the adults taught English in exchange for the privilege of praying and working alongside the monks. Kirkby explains that his seven and three year old boys took well to the austerity of the 8-by-8 foot room that the family shared for three months. Kirkby says that he thinks the experience left his sons “properly feral”.

Construction Workers Dug Up 45 (Fossilized) Bodies in Chile - Nick Pyenson

Ever see four construction workers standing around a hole supervising, while one worker with a shovel appears to be doing all the work, and wonder what they're doing? It's possible that they've dug up 45 skeletons and they're not sure what to do. In the case of a construction company in Chile's Atacama Desert, they called in National Geographic grantee and Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals at the Smithsonian Institute Nick Pyenson. He explains that what is now the world's driest desert was once seafloor and is home to a mass grave of extinct sea life, which he compares to a 2-to-7 million-year-old "murder mystery."

Dangerous Job: Testing How Hard Crocodiles Bite - Greg Erickson

Evolution felt the crocodile was complete 85 million years ago. The reptile's powerful jaws have kept it in business, unchanged. Crocs have a bite force that is the most powerful ever recorded: 3,700 pounds of pressure. Once its jaws clamp shut, National Geographic grantee Greg Erickson tells Boyd, there isn't an option to let go. He tells about how he tests the bites of these animals and why his was a study that he isn't eager to replicate.

Hockey in India on Glaciers - Amy Higgins

When most people think of India, tropical monsoons and humid jungles generally come to mind. But at the northern end of the country, there is an arid desert in the foothills of the Himalayas that struggle to get the water it needs – grantee Amy Higgins studies the effects of artificial glaciers that are being built to help sustain the area’s farms.

Wolves & Apes Working Together For Survival - Vivek Venktaraman

Many animals have symbiotic relationships with unlikely partners: rhinos live in harmony with oxpeckers, while baboons and elephants watch each other's backs. But Vivek Venkataraman tells Boyd that primates rarely engage in this type of symbiotic relationship with carnivores. But grass-eating geladas and Ethiopian wolves live without much conflict. He says that in the grasslands where the geladas graze, the wolves seem to have an easier time hunting rodents than when the geladas aren't around.

Bot Fly Makes a Photographer's Head Home - Charlie Hamilton James

National Geographic photographers have jobs that are perceived as glamorous, but Charlie Hamilton James' story might be considered cautionary for anybody who is pondering the profession: after going on several tropical shoots, including some to the Amazon River, he found that a bot fly had made James' head a home. He tried to allow the fly to mature, but the parasite's feeding on his head-tissue became too painful and he had to remove it. James was also infected with leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that is considered curable, but unprofitable for large drug companies to develop better medications for. James shares his "Disgusting Disease Diaries" with Boyd.

Hummingbirds Beef Up For the Canada to Mexico Migration - Ken Welch

Ken Welch says that he feels like Wile E. Coyote when he’s sitting with a box-trap, waiting for a hummingbird to fly in for a meal. Unlike the cartoon coyote, Welch is able to catch the birds and microchip them to monitor their calorie count as they double their weight to prepare for their long migrations from eastern Canada to Mexico.

Searching for Future Cures Deep in Caves - Nicholaus Vieira

Mountain climbers don't need to have an understanding of SCUBA gear; underwater divers don't need to understand how to climb over glaciers with ropes and ice axes. But Nicholaus Vieira, also known by his "Crazy Caver" persona explains that cavers need to be adept at all types of exploration. Vieira tells Boyd that subterranean geography doesn't always reflect what's happening above ground. Conditions can vary wildly, and the only way to find out what's happening deep below the Earth's surface is to find a cave and climb down. Vieira isn't just searching for thrills underground. He's hoping to find new types of microbial life that have been isolated from humans for long enough, that they could potentially treat bacterial infections that are resistant to our current antibiotics.

Fleas, Plague and Sharks: Doing Science in Madagascar - Alize Carrere

Alizé Carrère is a National Geographic Young Explorer studying Madagascar's "lavaka," a hole caused by erosion that could actually help create farming opportunities for locals. But part of doing research in a country, particularly one as impoverished as Madagascar, is surviving life in the country. She shares what daily life is like for an American doing research in the island nation, which includes dodging the bubonic plague, fleas, and the world's highest density of shark.

Norway to South Africa By Bike - Reza Pakravan & Steven Pawley

Persevering through malaria proved to be easier and less nerve-wracking than cycling down Russia's truck-filled roads for Reza Pakravan and Steven Pawley on their 11,000 mile expedition from Norway's North Cape to South Africa's Cape Town. The continuous close calls with speeding trucks left Pakravan wondering if they would survive to see Azerbaijan, while his 4-day malaria break in Kenya was demoralizing, but didn't daunt him for too long. Pawley explained that they met many people concerned for their well-being along the way, and even received an unofficial police escort through Egypt, during the country's civil unrest.

Snows of the Nile: Searching for Uganda's Glaciers - Nate Dappen & Neil Losin

Nate Dappen grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, when his mountaineer father took a trip in the late 1980's to Uganda's glacier-capped Rwenzori Mountains. His father's photos helped create a fascination with the mountains. Dappen and his friend Neil Losin recently went to the Rwenzori Mountains to recreate a series of photos taken in 1906, to gauge the glaciers' health. But Losin and Dappen found that they couldn't even find the locations of many of the photos: the lack of snow and ice changed the perspective so much that they would have been nearly unrecognizable. They made a film, titled "Snows of the Nile," showing their expedition and tell the story of the ice, and water, that sustains life in the area.

Change the Course of the Colorado River - Sandra Postel

As water becomes more scarce across America's western states, Mexico and the United States recently reached an agreement that will allow more of the Colorado River to flow into Mexico, restoring the river's recently arid delta. Sandra Postel tells Boyd about this agreement and encourages listeners to help "Change the Course" of the Colorado River by pledging money and water to the river's cause.

Reef Dredging & Shark Culling: Australia's Environmentalism - Bob Irwin

Australia is a country that so many people associate with the animals that make it their home, including kangaroos, koalas, sharks and crocodiles, not to mention the Great Barrier Reef that sustains so much sea life and ecotourism. But recently the government of Australia has been making decisions that leave many Australians puzzled. They recently decided to dredge a deep sea port that will endanger parts of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Abbot Point. And on the continent's west coast, they have started culling sharks and crocodiles. Conservationist Bob Irwin discusses the threats to Australia's ecosystems.

Endurance: Recreating Shackleton's Voyage - Tim Jarvis

Ernest Shackleton's 1914 "Endurance" voyage was a feat of survival against the elements and the odds, after his ship was destroyed by Antarctica sea ice and he made a mad dash to South Georgia Island, in an effort to be rescued. Shackleton endured this trip in a small boat across the Southern Ocean because his life depended on it. But Tim Jarvis' life didn't require that Shackleton's trip be recreated. But once Jarvis and his crew sailed into the Antarctic waters wearing only the cotton clothing of Shackleton's day, his life did depend on staying as dry as possible, and not falling into the water. Jarvis' expedition was captured in the book, Chasing Shackleton and in a PBS documentary.

Nature as Therapy - Tierney Thys

National Geographic Emerging Explorer Tierney Thys is a marine biologist because she derives inspiration and energy from studying the world's oceans. Thys has teamed up with two other Nat Geo Explorers - Tan Le and Nalini Nadkarni. Le developed a technology to study people's brainwaves while they're looking at images of different environments (urban, forests, and oceans, for example), while Nadkarni and Thys are working to apply the technology to see if immersion in nature could have therapeutic effects on our brains. Thys calls the project "some of the most exciting explorations we've done as a species."

Religion, Ethnicity and Government: The Forces Shaping Former Yugoslavia - Cara Eckholm

During the communist era, Yugoslavia's Sarajevo was portrayed to the world as a city in which Muslims, Christians and Jews all lived in relative harmony. But following the breakup of the country, the peace gave way to open conflict and led to the eventual breakup of the country. National Geographic Young Explorer Cara Eckholm went to Sarajevo to study the architecture, customs and general ethnic makeup of the citizens to try to understand how different the city looks in the 21st Century from its Yugoslavian times.

Saving America's Most Popular Wilderness Area - Dave and Amy Freeman

The most visited wilderness area in the United States is in trouble. That's the memo from Dave and Amy Freeman to Washington, D.C.'s lawmakers as mining companies look to exploit copper and other metals from the ground that compromises the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness' pristine nature in northern Minnesota. To bring attention to the threat posed to this gem of American conservation, the Freemans paddled 2,000 miles from Minnesota to D.C. to speak with lawmakers. Dave Freeman also speaks of his admiration for Teddy Roosevelt, who is regarded as one of the fathers of American environmentalism, and how he followed in Roosevelt's footsteps down Brazil's treacherous Rio Roosevelt, which was then known as the River of Doubt.

Teaching Kids to Be Environmental Activists - Maritza Morales Casanova

It's never too early to become a conservationist. That's the message from educator and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Maritza Morales Casanova, who is working with Mexico's school system to create a curriculum for the country's budding nature enthusiasts.

Dodging Los Malditos On the Colorado River - Pete McBride

In March 2014, an unlikely event happened. The United States and Mexican governments agreed to give water from the Colorado River - which is relied heavily upon for agriculture in the arid Sonoran Desert that straddles the southwestern United States and northern Mexico - back to nature. An eight week long test flow to see the natural benefits, as water touched parts of the river system for the first time in decades, flowing all the way to the bottom of the Colorado River Delta, where it meets the Gulf of California. Photographer and river enthsuaist, Pete McBride paddled the length of the river to witness how the river, animals and humans of the area connected with each other. He tells of scary moments on the river hiding from los malditos ("bad guys"), and the beauty of watching the ecosystem come back to life.

Wild Chronicles - Revisiting Yugoslavia's Communist Era

In this week's Wild Chronicles segment, Boyd shares the story of his time in Yugoslavia, covering the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, and a more recent spin in a car that played a prominent role in a famous bank robbery during Yugoslavia's communist era.

Unbroken: Olympic Records Left Behind, 47 Days at Sea, and Abused as a POW - Louis Zamperini

An angry juvenile delinquent. An Olympic long distance runner who doesn't get to run. An Air Force bombardier who gets shot down. A prisoner of war. All of these people might have somebody else to blame for the difficulties in their lives, but Louis Zamperini, who was all of these people at one point in his life, never blamed anybody else for his difficulties. Zamperini, who is depicted in this Christmas' Angelina Jolie-directed film "Unbroken," spoke with Boyd three years ago in an interview that previously ran on National Geographic Weekend. He told Boyd that meditation and memorization kept him sharp during his 47 days at sea in a life raft, but hate consumed him during and after his time in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Zamperini explained that his wife helped him turn his life around following World War II. Zamperini died in July 2014 at the age of 97, after decades spent as a motivational speaker, a skier, and an octogenarian skateboarder.

Urban Animals: The Boars of Berlin - Milena Stillfried

Many animals have made themselves comfortable in urban areas, like Los Angeles' cougars and Chicago's coyotes. But few animals seem to be as ill adapted as the wild boars who have moved in to occupy Berlin's green spaces. Milena Stillfried is a National Geographic Explorer who studies the city's porcine population, and explains that they've carved a comfortable niche out for themselves, despite being actively hunted in the heart of a major metropolis.

Heritage: Spilling the Secrets of Southern Cuisine - Sean Brock

Sean Brock grew up in rural southwestern Virginia, learning the secrets of that region's food culture. Since leaving his corner of that state, he has parlayed his love of southern cuisine into a career: the James Beard Award winning head chef also now has a cookbook out, Heritage. Part cookbook, part memoir, Brock explains the secrets of southern comfort food. He and Boyd discuss cornbread ("Cornbread is like a religion in the South. Everyone has their own way of worshipping it."); cast iron skillets ("Cast iron pans are things that are passed on from generation to generation in the South."); and the divisive properties of okra ("One thing that freaks people out about okra is the texture... I embrace the slime, I love it.").

Surviving: The Decisions Made to Get Off the Mountain Alive - Mark Jenkins

When some of the world's most experienced wall climbers, mountaineers and expedition leaders refer to a particular trip as a "death march," it's best not to dismiss the epithet as mere hyperbole. Those were the words Mark Jenkins chose to describe a recent summit attempt of the 19,140 foot Hkakabo Rasi on Myanmar's border with Tibet. Cory Richards, Hilaree O'Neill, Renan Ozturk and Emily Harrington marched with Jenkins for two weeks hiking through the jungle, "with leeches, spiders, and all sorts of bug bites," before they even reached base camp. Bad weather reduced the team size for the expedition push, but the threat of spending a night exposed on a wall in freezing temperatures without food, water, or shelter stopped even the smaller expedition team short of the target. Jenkins explains that ultimately, the decision to turn around was easy: "We were fairly convinced that if we even lived through the night, we would have frost bite in our feet so severe that... it would probably require amputations." More detailed expedition reports can be found on National Geographic's Adventure Blog.

Chasing Family Ghosts to Shangri La and Back - Scott Wallace

In China there is a town called Shangri La which is the Chinese equivalent of Disneyland. National Geographic Writer Scott Wallace forgoes the tourist town to follow his late grandfather’s quest for the real Shangri La – a “lost tribe” hidden in the Eastern Himalayas. Though he didn’t confirm whether his grandfather’s discovery of the mythical civilization was true or tall tale, the trip brought him closer to his grandfather’s past. Scott then recounts his trip to Brazil where he discovered a previously uncontacted tribe in the Amazon rainforest.

Understanding the History Behind California's Drought - Lynn Ingram

California is in the middle of the worst drought in 500 years. Paleo-climatologist Lynn Ingram at California UC Berkley studies tree rings and soil samples to investigate past drought conditions. The worst was back in 1580. Her findings show that the 20th century was wetter than average, and that the climate is now shifting back to drier conditions. Smaller communities could run dry as population and development continues to grow. Water awareness is needed to mitigate current and future problems.

Tracking Tips With African Park Ranger - Dierdre Opie

Trust is important when following a tracker through the African bush. Chief Ranger Dierdre Opie takes Boyd on an adventure following tracks and droppings to find rhinos. With their large size, rhinos should be easy to track in Kruger National Park, but following footprints in the thick brush won’t always lead you to them. Dierdre says it takes 5 or more years to become a master tracker, and shares that she has been charged by quite a few species you wouldn’t want to tangle with.

The Science Behind Successful Relationships - Ty Tashiro

When people are looking for a long term partner in life, sometimes their top criterion for suitable dates is based on physical attraction and material wealth. Ty Tashiro, author of the book – "The Science of Happily Ever After," tells Boyd the secrets to a lasting relationship and why 66% relationships fail. Often they fail because we choose the “wrong person from start.” Look for someone who is stable, selfless, and kind, and matching your interests and values is more important that matching your personality.

A Life Spent Swimming - Diana Nyad

Diana Nyad, famous for becoming the first person to swim without a shark cage from Cuba to Florida, has had two distinct swimming careers, separated by thirty years. In the first iteration, she sprinted in pools, and eventually set long distance records around Manhattan and from the Bahamas to Florida. She retired when she was thirty and says that she didn't swim another lap until she reached her 60's. When she resumed swimming, Nyad said the hardest parts weren't necessarily her long distance achievements, but having the discipline to get in the pool every day and train when nobody else was watching.

Expedition Amundsen: 62 Miles Across Norway's Mountains - Kari Varberg

Intense adventures require intense preparation. Polar explorer Roald Amundsen, famous for making the first expedition to the South Pole, nearly died while training for that expedition in his native Norway's Hardangervidda mountain plateau. Today, a race retracing Amundsen's 62 mile training route takes between 24 and 30 hours, unless racers get stuck in their tents due to gale-force winds and snow, like in 2013. Kari Varberg serves as Expedition Amundsen's founder and race director. She shares some of the hardships that racers expect to endure this weekend.

Expedition Yemen: Desert Travel & The Search for a "Good Camel" - Mikael Strandberg

A good camel is hard to find. This is Mikael Strandberg's message after venturing across Yemen throughout the past year. "Most are not trained, they're fat, and they're not used to hard work," he explains. But once he found a good camel, he ventured across Yemen, which is difficult to navigate, due to Bedouin tribal friction, the society's conservative nature, and the ever-present danger of an encounter with al Qaeda. He shares his adventures in his forthcoming documentary "Expedition Yemen."

Understanding Russia: Smiling, Touching and Jokes

Vladimir Zhelvis, Professor of Linguistics and author of "Xenophobes Guide to the Russians", explains the difference in Russian and American social interactions. While Americans smile during a friendly greeting, Russians only smile when there is a good reason to. Further, Russians do not have a personal space bubble like Americans. So huddle close to ask that personal question and then slap them on the back after telling that joke that will hopefully make them roar with laughter.

The Kindness of Strangers: Surviving Near Death Experience Abroad - Alison Wright

Photographer and National Geographic Traveler of the Year, Alison Wright “Tries to be aware of every breath” after a near death accident in Laos. A collision left her unconscious with half a severed arm, a heart and a broken back. Alison recounts her story of the heroic strangers who attended to her and the villagers who sowed up her arm in the book Learning to Breathe. She created the Faces of Hope Fund to support woman’s and children’s rights around the world. All inspired by the idea of the kindness of strangers.

North American Native Horses - Erika Larsen

Great Plains Native American tribes used to rely on dogs as their beasts of burden. So when European explorers introduced horses to North America's original inhabitants, they quickly bonded with the animals that helped them travel, hunt and wage war more effectively. Erika Larsen visited the tribes today to capture the enduring relationship between the Great Plains Indians and their horses. Her photos appear in the March 2014 issue of National Geographic magazine.

Wild Chronicles: The Swimming Lions of Botswana

In this week's Wild Chronicles segment, Boyd shares a story of the kitty video to end all internet cat videos: lions in Botswana's Okavango Delta have adapted to their water-filled environment and taken to the river so their prey can't escape.

Superfunds: The Toxic Waste Site Next Door - Paul Voosen

Superfunds are waste sites that often include chemical and industrial pollutants, often dangerous to those living adjacent to them. And, as Paul Voosen tells it in the December 2014 National Geographic magazine, as many as sixteen percent of Americans live within just a few miles of one of the dumps tagged by the EPA as a priority for cleanup. While many of the biggest disaster sites have since been cleaned up, such as New York state's Love Canal, others still require active attention from the fund that was created to clean the areas in 1980. Voosen says that the waste areas tend to be in areas heavy in industry and manufacturing in the early and middle 20th Century, but they might be where you least expect to find them.

Cheetahs: Used to Humans, But Wild Animals Aren't Pets

The world's fastest land animal has one major disadvantage on Africa's grasslands: it is much smaller than most of the other animals that surround it. Lions, leopards, hyenas, and small but persistent wild dogs can all chase cheetahs from their hard-earned meals. But Rebecca Klein, who runs Cheetah Conservation Botswana, can't negotiate a peace between the cats and their natural predators; but she does seek to ease their burden with humans. Klein also says that while the cheetahs are fairly easily adjust to humans living nearby, they shouldn't be kept as pets.

Nomadic Tribes in Staying Still in Settlements - Johan Reinhard

There are very few truly nomadic tribes left in the world. National Geographic Explorer in Residence Johan Reinhard lived with one such tribe 45 years ago when, as he explains, "I was lost and they found me." Reinhard explains that, as a species, humans have been nomadic for 99.9% of our existence, but today, because so many people have settled it's becoming increasingly difficult for those few nomad holdouts to remain that way. He went back to revisit the tribe 45 years after he first lived with them and noted that while the people have been forced into settlements, the landscape is thriving and is wilder than it was before.

The Solution to Poaching is in Creating Anti-Poaching Police - Alan Rabinowitz

Dr. Alan Rabinowitz was given the gift of stutter-free speech by big cats when he was a child; now, he wants to help them survive in the wild. The CEO of Panthera discusses the chance of ongoing survival for the world's big cats and he says that, of all of the world's top feline predators, tigers face the direst future. With just 3,000 of the wild cats remaining in fragmented parks, surrounded by some of the world's most peopled areas tigers are still hunted by poachers. Rabinowitz explains that as long as a dead tiger is worth more than the cost of the bullets it takes to shoot them, the cats will be poached. A safe future for tigers lies in ramping up law enforcement to deter and prosecute poachers.

Adventure With Children: Pursuing Difficult But Attainable Targets

Andy Kirkpatrick is an adventurer, but he also has a daughter who he cares very much about. So, he chooses his adventures wisely. He explains that pursuing Everest's summit and the South Pole are too expensive and unpredictable, but he is interested in pushing the boundaries of what he considers possible. He skied across Greenland with a paraplegic partner, as well as climbed El Capitan in Yosemite National Park with his 13-year old daughter and a blind climber. He responds to critics of his daughter climbing El Capitan with him by saying: "I'd be crazy not to climb El Capitan with my daughter," because of the confidence boost and focus it gives her in her everyday life. He did say that she cried while on the wall -- because she dropped her iPod.

Aussie Biologist's Roadkill Laboratory - Tim Flannery

Tim Flannery is not a biologist by university degree. He learned his science the old fashioned way -- by hopping on a motorbike and riding around Australia, decapitating marsupial roadkill and collecting specimen for study. But his English background makes him a wonderful communicator. The 2007 "Australian of the Year" spent years of study around the South Pacific, studying animals in Australia, New Guinea, and other smaller islands. A collection of his essays is recently published, titled An Explorer's Notebook: Essays on Life, History and Climate.

Unlocking Stonehenge's Secrets - Michael Parker Pearson

Five thousand years ago, stones weighing between two and thirty five tons were carved from quarries near Wales and transported 170 miles before they were settled into place to withstand the test of time. The monoliths, now known as Stonehenge, weren't carried by aliens, nor were they made by Druids. Nat Geo Explorer and archaeologist Michael Parker Pearson is working to understand the stone structures and the motivations of those who erected them. He also says that it's possible the stones were simply carried with the help of many hands.

Building Lion-Proof Fences - Laly Lichtenfeld

It has often been repeated that "Good fences make good neighbors." And this isn't more true anywhere than in Tanzania and neighboring countries. Lion conservatoinist Laly Lichtenfeld recently completed a ten-year study that found a 90% reduction in predation where locals keep their livestock at night. The living walls, called bomas, combine chain link fences with living foliage that conspire to keep top predators away from livestock, reducing conflict with local people who want to protect their farm animals.

Luring Bears With Sheep Steaks, "But Fresh, Like From The Butcher" - Cagan Sekercioglu

Most conservationists spend the largest portion of their budget on expensive cameras and GPS tags to track animals. But Cagan Sekercioglu, a National Geographic explorer, had to lure his animals in before he could collar them. He spent a large portion on his budget on dead sheep, "but fresh, like from the butcher," he explains to Boyd. Once he lures the bear with his sheep steaks, he's able to collar them and monitor their positions for two years before the collars fall off. He estimates that Turkey has as many as 3,000 bears living in remote sections of forest.

Re-Wilding Brazil's Stolen Animals - Juliana Machado Ferreira

Every year at least 38 million animals are pulled from Brazil's forests and sold into the wildlife trade. The macaws, songbirds, reptiles and small mammals are bought by people who, often, are well intentioned and think of themselves as "nature lovers". But National Geographic Emerging Explorer Juliana Machado Ferreira explains that their enthusiasm is simply robbing the environment of its value. She describes her fight to end the illegal wildlife trade in Brazil and explains the considerations that must be taken before returning a "kidnapped" animal back into the wild.

Tigers Kill People in Their Struggle For Turf in India - Ullas Karanth

Tigers have killed seventeen people in India dating back to late 2013, but biologist Ullas Karanth would call it a misnomer to say that the endangered cats are "man-eaters." Karanth tells Boyd that hundreds of thousands of India's 1.2 billion people have made their home in traditional tiger habitats and live in close proximity with them. When tigers emerge from the forest, people often harass and try to chase them away, often leading to human fatalities. But he does say that since tigers reproduce fairly rapidly, it's important not to value one tiger's life over the protection of the rest of the species, so if one animal insists on killing humans, it must be put down.