1KHO 884: Schedule in Time for Adventures | Alastair Humphreys, Unwilded

**Ginny Yurich** (0:00)
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My name is Ginny Yurich and I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside. And I'm honored and thrilled Alastair Humphreys is back. I think Alastair, you were like one of my very first like really big deal guests.

**Alastair Humphreys** (1:14)
Well Ginny, I think you were one of my first ever big deal podcasts.

**Ginny Yurich** (1:18)
Oh, no way. That cannot be true because you were already like, you already were winning all these awards. You were Adventure of the Year, National Geographic. You'd written all these incredible books. So we talked about micro adventures. We've talked about so many of your books. You have written so many different kinds of books. You've written books for kids. You've written books for adults. You've written books about adventures like specific adventures, but also an overview of like how to be more adventurous. And you have a brand new book out. It is called Unwilded Finding Our Way Back to Nature. What's your process for figuring out? Then you did the one, I like the book about the squares, you know, one square, local. I know that ended up being the name of it, but like it was like you went one square by one square. Like what's all around you? What's your process for figuring out the next book?

**Alastair Humphreys** (2:07)
Well, I think the next book usually just comes from something that interests me in my own life. And selfishly, I think that if I have a problem in my life and I try and solve it in my life, then hopefully that might also be relevant for somebody else. So for example, the one you just mentioned about exploring a local map, I realized that too often I felt frustrated about where I lived. I live in a fairly uninteresting corner of England near London and too often I was wishing that I was in somewhere adventurous, like the Amazon or far away. And I realized that I didn't really want to spend my life being bored until the time came when I could have an adventure. I thought it made a much more sense to try to make the most out of wherever I happen to be right now.
And also when I travel to other countries, I'm a really curious, interested person. I love any country in the world. I love going to the supermarket and just seeing how the things are laid out differently to at home, get in a taxi. And I love talking to the taxi guys. Everything's interesting and different. Whereas at home, you can be a bit more, a bit more, this is boring. I know all of this. This is familiar. You become like a grumpy teenager. So I decided to take my cheerful, enthusiastic approach to exploring the whole world and apply it to my neighborhood. So I got like the neighborhood map. It covers about 10 miles by 10 miles of where I live. And I scheduled into my diary, because we're so busy, we need to schedule in time to have adventures, just as we need to schedule in time to take the kids to the dentist. I scheduled into my diary that every week, I would go and explore one little grid square. They're mapped, they're on the map about one kilometer by one kilometer. And the rule was I had to go there and see everything and go everywhere. And I had to be curious and enthusiastic and positive about it. And when I first had the idea, I thought, maybe this is a bit boring being in boring suburban England, and the map is so small and claustrophobic.