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 fiel

Paul Kirtley Podcast 54: Dave Holder, Wilderness Living Skills Instructor and TV Survival Consultant

Dec 22nd, 2022 2h 4m

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 g

Paul Kirtley Podcast 53: Dr Theresa Emmerich Kamper On Traditional Tanning

Jul 30th, 2021 2h 15m

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 jo

PK Podcast 52: John Boe On PTSD, Finding Solace In Nature And A New Career In Bushcraft Instruction

Apr 17th, 2021 1h 27m

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.

PK Podcast 51: Cliff Jacobson – Skills Are More Important Than Things

Feb 25th, 2020 2h 30m

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 d

PK Podcast 50: Les Hiddins, The Bush Tucker Man

Feb 14th, 2020 1h 47m

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 cooperati

PK Podcast 49: Gordon Dedman On Australian Bushcraft And Survival

Jan 15th, 2020 2h 3m

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 civilia

PK Podcast 48: Bruce Zawalsky On Canadian Wilderness Survival

Oct 22nd, 2019 2h 7m

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 Podc

PK Podcast 47: Tom Lutyens, Mors Kochanski, Lars Fält, Johan Skullman

Sep 22nd, 2019 53m 45s

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....

PK Podcast 46: Kevin Callan, The Nicest Man On The Meanest Journey

Aug 31st, 2019 1h 58m

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…

PK Podcast 45: Tristan Gooley On Unlocking Nature’s Clues & Signs

Aug 15th, 2019 1h 43m

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...

PK Podcast 044: John Hudson, UK Military’s Chief Survival Instructor

Jul 28th, 2019 1h 43m

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 sur

PK Podcast 043: North American Titans Of Bushcraft

Jul 10th, 2019 1h 37m

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

PK Podcast 042: Mors Kochanski, Northern Bushcraft Legend

Jun 29th, 2019 1h 39m

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 Mo

PK Podcast 041: Dave Canterbury On Re-enactment, Bushcraft And Survival

Jun 26th, 2019 1h 24m

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 t

PK Podcast 040: Miles Irving On Wild Foods, Foraging, Health And Connecting With Nature

May 15th, 2019 2h 25m

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 c

PK Podcast 039: How Many Knives? Alternatives To Birch Bark; Sharpening Spoon Knives; Plant Toxins In Water; Bushcraft Benefits To Woodland.

May 11th, 2019 1h 1m

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?

PK Podcast 038: Justin Barbour On Exploring The Wilderness Of Newfoundland And Labrador

Mar 11th, 2019 2h 5m

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 Sa

PK Podcast 037: Dan Hume On His Quest For Traditional Fire Skills

Feb 13th, 2019 1h 22m

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 t

PK Podcast 036: Mors Kochanski And Jon McArthur On The Global Bushcraft Symposium

Feb 3rd, 2019 40m 47s

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...

PK Podcast 035: Anna Lewington On Adventures In Ethnobotany And The Bounty Of Birches

Dec 1st, 2018 2h 25m

Anna Lewington, ethnobotanist and author, joins me to talk about adventures in the Peruvian Amazon, writing the seminal book Plants For People, being an inspiration for the Eden Project, being part of the BBC’s Rough Science series, reviving tr

PK Podcast 034: Lou Rudd On The Motivation To Traverse Antarctica Solo, Unsupported and Unaided

Nov 19th, 2018 1h 20m

In this episode I am joined by Louis Rudd, MBE. This interview with Lou was recorded in late October 2018, shortly before he departed for Chile and then onto Antarctica to attempt a solo, unsupported and unaided crossing of the Antarctic Cont

PK Podcast 033: Kevin Brownlee on Indigenous Archaeology and Highlighting Native Heritage

Nov 10th, 2018 1h 48m

Kevin Brownlee, Curator of Archaeology at the renowned Manitoba Museum, joins me to discuss indigenous archaeology and working with indigenous communities to raise awareness of ancient heritage and archaeology of the boreal forest and sub-arcti

PK Podcast 032: Lars Fält, Julia Kalthoff, Juha Rankinen and Jonas Als

Oct 10th, 2018 56m 51s

Back in Sweden again. This podcast brings you interviews from the wonderful Bushcraftfestivalen, with Lars Fält, Julia Kalthoff, Juha Rankinen and Jonas Als. I also briefly catch up with Rupert Brown of Brown's Bushcraft to get his impressions

PK Podcast 031: Will Lord On His Passion For The Prehistoric

Sep 21st, 2018 2h 8m

Will Lord grew up on the land that holds Grimes Graves, a prehistoric flint mine in Norfolk. Will's parents were custodians of the land, which is an English Heritage site. During his formative years, Will was surrounded by flint-knapping and ex