Narrative is the vehicle that connects us to something greater.
🧊 About the episode
It’s a tale old as time: Narrative is the vehicle that connects us to something greater. And for Christian Beckwith, he’s built a career on that foundation.
You probably know of Christian, or have interacted with his work. He’s spent more than thirty years immersed in the world of alpinism, and in that time he was the editor of The American Alpine Journal, co-founded Alpinist — which Reinhold Messner once called “the greatest climbing magazine in the world” — and recently started a “hardcore history” podcast about the 10th Mountain Division called Ninety-Pound Rucksack.
If you haven’t heard of it, you might be living under a rock… but since this is a climbing podcast, that may very well be true. In any case, it’s great and I encourage you to give it a listen.
In this episode, we don’t talk much about the podcast, instead, we hone in on:
- How to complicate seemingly simple projects by going deep
- Clues to find the narrative in anything you do
- What can happen when you follow your curiosity
"The idea of how we affect people, and really how we affect change, is related to the bifurcation between the head and the heart.
We get hit with facts and figures all day long. And, you know, they're not going to change how we see the world. And I think the one way that we actually reach people is through their hearts and the best way to, to reach them in that space is with stories.”
🧊 Resources and links
To listen to Ninety-Pound Rucksack, head to your favorite podcast platform or learn more about it at christianbeckwith.com.
If you love what Christian is doing and want to support longform narrative projects like this, I highly encourage you to become a patron at patreon.com/NinetyPoundRucksack.
You can connect with Christian:
📸 @beckwithchristian | 🔗 christianbeckwith.com
🧊 Credits
Episode cover photo provided by Christian.
Intro music by Hannah Noelle Enomoto (thanks, sis!).
🧊 Sponsors:
Big thanks to Blue Ice for supporting this show!
Blue Ice: Blue Ice is the best kind of ice, and also my choice when it comes to fast and light ice climbing gear. Their Aero Lites go in like a hot knife through butter and their climbing packs hit the sweet spot between function and lightweight. Designed to get to the point in the alpine, their gear is tested by mountain professionals between the Alps and the Wasatch. If you’re looking to get to the point too — and with a little less weight on your kit, check out Blue Ice’s gear at blueice.com or your favorite local retailer.
🗣️ Leave a review!
If you enjoy the show, please consider leaving us a review on your podcast platform of choice.
Related posts
Written by
