— “Travelling through life alone means that you have enough faith and trust in yourself, so you don’t need to follow the stories that others put in your head. Because those stories will almost certainly benefit the storytellers, but they probably won’t benefit you, or society, or the planet. We can know and trust ourselves well enough not to journey too far into imaginary worlds. We don’t need to listen to stories someone tells us or stories we tell ourselves. We don’t need to follow mass movements. There are too many pitfalls along that pathway. Presence in the NOW is sufficient. Presence in the Real World is sufficient.”
Valeria Teles interviews Jon Turk — the author of “Tracking Lions, Myth, and Wilderness in Samburu.”
Jon Turk earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1971 and was nominated by National Geographic as one of the Top Ten Adventurers of the Year in 2012. Between these bookends, Jon co-authored the first college level environmental science textbook in North America, followed by 30 additional texts in environmental, physical, and earth sciences. At the same time, he kayaked around Cape Horn and across the North Pacific from Japan to Alaska, mountain biked across the northern Gobi in Mongolia, and made numerous first ski descents and first rock climbing ascents around the globe. During extended travel in northeast Siberia, Jon’s worldview was altered by Moolynaut, a Siberian shaman, and his later books reflect these spiritual journeys. Jon has published four trade books: Cold Oceans (HarperCollins), In the Wake of the Jomon (McGraw Hill), The Raven’s Gift (St Martin’s Press) and Crocodiles and Ice (Oolichan Press). His newest project, Tracking Lions, Myth, and Wilderness in Samburu (To be published by Rocky Mountain Books in September 2021) delves more deeply into a “mind-body-spirit” theme, supported by adventure storytelling, integrated with an anthropological view of the role of art and mythology in human development.
To learn more about Jon Turk and his work, please visit: https://www.jonturk.net/
— This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life through the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.
