Explorer Memoirs

In October 1968 Donn Eisele flew with fellow astronauts Walt Cunningham and Wally Schirra into Earth orbit in Apollo 7. The first manned mission in the Apollo program and the first manned flight after a fire during a launch pad test killed three astronauts in early 1967, Apollo 7 helped restart NASA's manned-spaceflight program.

Jim and Elaine Larison spent years studying, exploring, and living in wild places, making more than 30 environmental films, most for the National Geographic Society. These films won more than 40 international awards from leading environmental and broadcast organizations. This memoir tells the story behind the adventure and describes the rather substantial personal costs of this career.

George Murray Levick was the physician on Robert Falcon Scott's tragic Antarctic expedition of 1910. Marooned for an Antarctic winter, Levick passed the time by becoming the first man to study penguins up close. His findings were so shocking to Victorian morals that they were quickly suppressed and seemingly lost to history.

Hangdog Days vividly chronicles the era when rock climbing exploded in popularity, attracting a new generation of talented climbers eager to reach new heights via harder routes and faster ascents. This contentious, often entertaining period gave rise to sport climbing, climbing gyms, and competitive climbing-indelibly transforming the sport. Jeff Smoot was one of those brash young climbers, and here he traces the development of traditional climbing "rules," enforced first through peer pressure, then later through intimidation and sabotage.

Peter Pond, a fur trader, explorer, and amateur mapmaker, spent his life ranging much farther than Milford, Connecticut, where he was born and died (1740-1807). He traded around the Great Lakes, on the Mississippi and the Minnesota Rivers, in the Canadian Northwest, and was a partner in Montreal’s North West Company. Knowing 18th-century North America on a scale that few others did, Pond drew some of the earliest maps of western Canada. David Chapin presents Pond’s life as part of a generation of traders who came of age between the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution.

In ihren drei fesselnden Afrikareisegeschichten schildert Patricia Dietrich ihren waghalsigen Versuch, den Kilimandscharo zu bezwingen, die geheimnisvollen Berggorillas in Ruanda aufzusuchen und sich allein durch die Weiten Tansanias zu wagen. Die Autorin erzählt von genau diesen aufregenden eigenen Abenteuern in Tansania, Uganda und Ruanda. Die Abenteurerin entführt Sie in eine Welt lebensbedrohlicher Erlebnisse, die sie so spannend schildert, dass man sich mitten in einem packenden Krimi wähnt.

This audiobook collection brings you the lives of the world's greatest explorers and adventurers – told in vivid, five-minute portraits. From fearless sea captains to daring desert wanderers, from polar pioneers to sky-breaking aviators – discover 27 extraordinary individuals who reshaped maps and minds alike. Each short biography offers a powerful glimpse into their achievements, risks, and legacies. Perfect for curious listeners, history lovers and fans of epic real-life stories.

In 2015, high on the side of Mount Everest, I experienced the darkest days of my life to date. Little did I realize that the darkest day was still to come four years later. But this also led to me discovering the truth about who I was, and what I wanted out of life. It took a life of Misadventure to discover the answers.

John C. Frémont was the most celebrated explorer of his era. In 1842, on the first of five expeditions he would lead to the Far West, Frémont and a small party of men journeyed up the Kansas and Platte Rivers to the Wind River Range in Wyoming. At the time, virtually this entire region was known as the Great Desert, and many Americans viewed it and the Rocky Mountains beyond as natural barriers to the United States.

Al Mennie, internationaler Big-Wave-Surfer und Mental Health Advocate, teilt seine Reise durch die Gewässer des Nordatlantiks, sein Wissen über die gesundheitlichen Vorteile nächtlichen Schwimmens und wie er seinen „Mond" fand – etwas, das hell in seinem Leben leuchtet. Al kombiniert motivierende Texte mit eindrucksvoller Erzählkunst und gibt den Leser:innen Werkzeuge an die Hand, um selbst durch die Dunkelheit zu navigieren – buchstäblich und metaphorisch.

Brendan Cullen manages Kars Station, a 10,000-head sheep property 65 kilometres outside Broken Hill, New South Wales. In 2022, despite his nearest beach being more than 600 kilometres away, he swam the English Channel. Taking up swimming was part of Brendan's recovery from severe depression, an illness that had seen him cope in highly unhealthy ways–drinking, overwork, being emotionally absent–for years. But then he found the strength to walk through the doors of Broken Hill Hospital and ask for help.

A wild adventure on horseback, beyond the Mississippi River into America's far west of 1832. Washington Irving, author of the “The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” joins a group of inexperienced rangers, hunters and an assortment of colorful characters on a trip into the unsettled prairies. Their goal: meeting Native Americans, hunting buffalo and getting in trouble.

A fearless and funny memoir about love, loss, adventure, and the photographs we take to remember who we are. The Love Offensive travels from a Massachusetts childhood to wanderlust-fueled trips across the world — and into the heart of what it means to lose and find yourself again. Through humor, grief, friendship, family, and art, Tara tells a story about the things that break us, the things that save us, and the extraordinary ways we learn to keep going.

A River Is Made is a true story of a life carried across borders, wars, and generations, told through the eyes of its author, Fazal Moneer Adil. From Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the UAE to the United States, it traces the journey of an Afghan refugee from war to belonging in America.

Grandpa's Adventures in the US Navy: Soul Searching on the Way to Mars by Jerry Werner is a captivating memoir that takes listeners on an extraordinary journey through the life of the author, Jerry Werner. This book, set against the backdrop of rural Wisconsin in the 1950s and 60s, chronicles Jerry's inspiring quest to become an astronaut, his determination to overcome daunting odds, and his unwavering pursuit of a dream that seemed out of reach.

Considered to be one of the most financially successful people in the world when he was alive, Howard Hughes attracts attention even 40 years after his death. From being a business tycoon to an aerospace engineer and inventor to being a maverick filmmaker, Hughes seemed to have tried it all.

In 1941, a young Harvard-educated classicist named Varian Fry arrived in occupied France on a daring mission to rescue more than 2,000 of Europe's leading writers, artists, and intellectuals from the Nazis. Hounded by the Gestapo, he smuggled Marchel Duchamp, Marc Chagall, Hannah Arendt and dozens of other 20th century cultural luminaries out of France and brought them to America. So why did even the people Fry saved want to forget him?

This audiobook is a deeply personal narrative recounting the author's survival of a catastrophic disaster, highlighting the trauma, survivor's guilt, and the vital role of the villagers in rescue efforts, while reflecting on the enduring impact of the event over decades and the importance of sharing such stories to honor those lost and the resilience of humanity.

Girl in Flight by Cat Buchanan is a gripping and poignant memoir that takes listeners on a whirlwind journey through the glitz and chaos of Manhattan and Hollywood in the 1960s and early 70s. George and Meyera Buchanan have everything—lavish holidays, private planes, classic cars, and luxury homes—except the one thing they truly desire: a baby. After adopting Cat, their marriage crumbles, igniting a fierce custody battle that spans coast to coast, from Malibu to the Hamptons.

Exploring My Limits is a W. F. Howes Audio Original, written and recorded by Dwayne Fields: adventurer, explorer, presenter and the first black British person to reach the magnetic north pole. As a young child in wild Jamaica, Dwayne Fields loved both nature and wildlife. Yet after moving to the UK at the age of six, his formative years were in the concrete jungle of inner-city London, where he became a victim of both knife and gun crime. In 2010, following a life-threatening incident, Dwayne made the decision to change his path, and his life, forever.