Send us a text

In Robert Young Pelton’s latest project—a reimagining of The World’s Most Dangerous Places—he begins with the building blocks of survival: turning raw information into useful knowledge and calm decisions under pressure.

When Pelton first wrote his guide, there were almost no online sources. Today, there are too many—and everyone claims to be an expert. More data will be produced in the next three years than in all of human history, much of it generated by AI. It’s like being dropped into a forest with no map or compass.

Drawing on hard-won experience in war zones, Pelton shows why gathering, filtering, and prioritizing the right information is now a survival skill. With Reza, he asks: If information built civilization, what happens when we lose control of it?

Pelton takes the viewer back to basics: the five senses. For most of human history, information was physical and high-stakes—a sound meant danger, a smell meant food, a pattern meant shelter or threat. Start there, he advises. If something feels “off,” your senses are the first filter.

The brain can absorb millions of bits of data every second, but the conscious mind handles only a tiny fraction. Overload leads to stress, confusion, and apathy—exactly when you need clarity. Bad inputs create bias and overconfidence in what you only think you know.

Pelton then explores the “joy of nothing.” If overload harms the mind, can silence sharpen it? Wilderness, isolation, and stillness can reset awareness—but too much isolation tips into anxiety, hallucination, and paranoia. The lesson: manage the amount and quality of input.

In the real world, social media and news are built to hijack your attention. Algorithms reward outrage and emotional extremes. Pelton and Reza call this weaponized information: content that makes you reactive instead of reflective. With traditional editors gone, anyone with a phone or AI tools can publish fiction as truth.

You must become your own editor and seer. Cross-check sources. Prioritize depth over speed. Build and protect your own library of trusted knowledge before it disappears behind paywalls, outages, or link rot.

Pelton’s message is clear: the filters you use to process information matter more than the information itself. Investigate primary sources. Question narratives. Strengthen your self-editing. In a wo

Robert Young Pelton is a Canadian-American author, journalist, filmmaker, and adventurer known for his conflict reporting and for venturing alone into some of the world's most dangerous and remote areas to chronicle history-shaping events. His work often involves interviewing military and political figures in war zones and spending time embedded with various groups, including the Taliban, Northern Alliance, CIA operatives, al Qaeda, and Blackwater .

He has been present at numerous conflicts, from Ukraine to the the Battle of Grozny and from Qali Jangi in Afghanistan to the rebel siege of Monrovia in Liberia.

Pelton is the author of several books, most notably the New York Times bestselling guide, "The World's Most Dangerous Places," which provides information for navigating high-risk zones. He has also written "Come Back Alive," a survival guide, and his autobiography, "The Adventurist: My Life in Dangerous Places". His work includes feature stories for National Geographic, Men’s Journal, Foreign Policy and Vice. He has worked as a contributing editor for National Geographic Adventure and has worked for major media networks like Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, CBS's 60 Minutes, ABC Investigative Division, and CNN.

Pelton is also the founder of DPx Gear, a company that designs rugged survival tools and knives based on his field experiences.

Send us a text

The St. John’s Cathedral Boys’ School was founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the late 1950s as an experiment in turning boys into men through relentless hardship, wilderness training, and strict religious discipline. For four decades, the St. John’s system operated under a Muscular Christian belief: that suffering, hard work, and obedience would reform “undisciplined” youth and bring them closer to God.

Created by teacher Frank Weins and conservative journalist Ted Byfield—neither formally trained in education—the schools became notorious for their harsh methods. In June 1978, St. John’s was thrust into the spotlight when 12 boys and a teacher died of hypothermia on Lake Timiskaming, one of Canada’s worst boating tragedies.

In this episode, Robert Young Pelton—who wrote about his time at St. John’s in The Adventurist—speaks with fellow alumnus Pierre Bédard, editor of Stephen Riley’s new book God’s Paddlers: Canada’s Most Dangerous School. Bédard shares his research into the school’s hidden history: lawsuits, abuse allegations, and the culture of silence that kept many stories buried.

St. John’s began in a former Indian hospital in Selkirk, later expanding to Alberta and Ontario. The program blended intensive academics with labor and extreme outdoor challenges. Boys studied full days, tended farm animals, cleaned, did laundry, and sold goods door to door. They endured “swats,” strict religious instruction, and wilderness expeditions sending boys as young as ten on 1,000-mile canoe trips or 30–50 mile snowshoe runs. Many students were sent there because parents saw no alternative—an inexpensive way to offload troubled boys to strict disciplinarians, some later accused of abuse.

The 1978 disaster exposed the school’s long pattern of ignoring safety warnings. After years of controversy, the schools closed.

Pelton and Bédard examine the dangers of blind loyalty to ideology, questioning whether enforced suffering has any place in education or spirituality. Pelton suggests St. John’s often crushed confidence through repetitive trauma, a fate he narrowly escaped. Before his death at 93, Byfield continued promoting far-right ideology in Alberta.

Referenced Works: The Adventurist (Pelton), Deep Waters (Raffan), The Toughest School in North America (De Candole), God

Robert Young Pelton is a Canadian-American author, journalist, filmmaker, and adventurer known for his conflict reporting and for venturing alone into some of the world's most dangerous and remote areas to chronicle history-shaping events. His work often involves interviewing military and political figures in war zones and spending time embedded with various groups, including the Taliban, Northern Alliance, CIA operatives, al Qaeda, and Blackwater .

He has been present at numerous conflicts, from Ukraine to the the Battle of Grozny and from Qali Jangi in Afghanistan to the rebel siege of Monrovia in Liberia.

Pelton is the author of several books, most notably the New York Times bestselling guide, "The World's Most Dangerous Places," which provides information for navigating high-risk zones. He has also written "Come Back Alive," a survival guide, and his autobiography, "The Adventurist: My Life in Dangerous Places". His work includes feature stories for National Geographic, Men’s Journal, Foreign Policy and Vice. He has worked as a contributing editor for National Geographic Adventure and has worked for major media networks like Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, CBS's 60 Minutes, ABC Investigative Division, and CNN.

Pelton is also the founder of DPx Gear, a company that designs rugged survival tools and knives based on his field experiences.

Send us a text

In this interview, Reza sits down with journalist, author, and filmmaker Robert Young Pelton for an unfiltered conversation about writing, conflict, survival, and truth. Pelton shares what it means to write from war zones, how publishing has changed, and why books still matter in a world of algorithms and AI.

The Origin of a Writer

Pelton learned to write by reading. With no formal training, he devoured The Odyssey at age six and finished the Hardy Boys series in first grade. That early obsession taught him structure and narrative instinct. At 17 he became a copywriter, learning to “balance words like stones.”

From Marketing to Magazines to Books

Before fame, Pelton built an Inc. 500 marketing business based on story-driven product creation. He transformed publishing models and eventually wrote The World’s Most Dangerous Places, a 1,000-page mix of firsthand reporting, survival advice, and pitch-black humor—an adventure guide that made readers laugh and stay alive.

Writing from Conflict Zones

The hardest part of writing from war, he says, isn’t danger—it’s accuracy. Exaggeration destroys trust. His rule: capture emotion without adding drama. “The less I wrote, the more powerful it became.”

An Endangered Species

Pelton was one of the first solo journalists to shoot, write, and report for ABC News online in the 1990s. His work appeared in outlets from CNN to Foreign Policy. Today, he says much of that journalism is buried or deleted in the digital churn.

The Solitude of Writing

Writing demands access and trust, yet remains solitary. Pelton works between 4–6am, then rewrites ruthlessly. Solitude, he says, is surgical: “It’s like carving away everything that isn’t your book.”

Licensed to Kill

For Licensed to Kill, Pelton traveled from Southern training camps to remote African islands, documenting the rise of private military contractors and producing a definitive record of their origins.

Magazines, Books, AI, and the Future of Truth

Though fluent in tech and imaging, Pelton writes like old-world explorers. He reflects on the collapse of print and the rise of AI content. He experiments with language models but remains skeptical: “AI seduces you. It writes to please you. But real books

Robert Young Pelton is a Canadian-American author, journalist, filmmaker, and adventurer known for his conflict reporting and for venturing alone into some of the world's most dangerous and remote areas to chronicle history-shaping events. His work often involves interviewing military and political figures in war zones and spending time embedded with various groups, including the Taliban, Northern Alliance, CIA operatives, al Qaeda, and Blackwater .

He has been present at numerous conflicts, from Ukraine to the the Battle of Grozny and from Qali Jangi in Afghanistan to the rebel siege of Monrovia in Liberia.

Pelton is the author of several books, most notably the New York Times bestselling guide, "The World's Most Dangerous Places," which provides information for navigating high-risk zones. He has also written "Come Back Alive," a survival guide, and his autobiography, "The Adventurist: My Life in Dangerous Places". His work includes feature stories for National Geographic, Men’s Journal, Foreign Policy and Vice. He has worked as a contributing editor for National Geographic Adventure and has worked for major media networks like Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, CBS's 60 Minutes, ABC Investigative Division, and CNN.

Pelton is also the founder of DPx Gear, a company that designs rugged survival tools and knives based on his field experiences.