This week, we ski down the tallest mountain on each continent, then we find which are the world's most pristine coral reefs, and finally, we solve a decades-old mystery of a millionaire lost in Papua New Guinea.

Nat Geo Weekend Radio - March 30

This week, we encounter blue whales, pirates and tropical storms while rowing across the Indian Ocean, then we meet some glow-in-the-dark sharks, and finally we jam to some music remixed from the sounds of Antarctica's glaciers melting.

National Geographic Radio - August 31, 2014

<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">What do Antarctica, quantum physics, climate change and hip hop have in common? The answer:&nbsp;<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">DJ Spooky<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">, aka&nbsp;<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Paul Miller<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">. The musician visited the frozen continent to create his&nbsp;most recent album, "Of Water and Ice<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">," using climate data and sound he collected from Antarctica to inform the patterns that he incorporates into his songs. His songs "Of Water and Ice" and "Check Your Math" speak to the themes that drove this album, with Miller discussing the fact that many people don't believe in human-caused climate change; however, "You can't debate with a storm that just smashed your house." Miller, who grew up in Washington, D.C. says the city's many museums were a perfect escape from the city's punishing heat, while feeding his curiosity.

Antarctica: Of Water and Ice - DJ Spooky

Jennifer Pharr Davis hiked the entire length of the 2,181 mile Appalachian Trail in 46 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes. The 2012 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year didn't run, she simply hiked very long days and slept short nights. But she tells Boyd that her next challenge won't be to break her own Appalachian Trail record, but to hike with her husband and daughter in every state while promoting her book that reflects on her love of hiking and her husband, called Called Again.

Speed Hiking the Appalachian Trail - Jennifer Pharr Davis

Trip Jennings sees adventure as a give-and-take negotiation with nature, rather than an attempt to claim victory over the earth’s raw natural power. When the National Geographic kayaker and filmmaker went to kayak Brazil’s Rio Roosevelt Class V rapids, the locals were praying that he would decide not to paddle the river. But Jennings trusted his eye for risk-assessment and his talent gleaned from years of trial-and-error on smaller rapids and he successfully “survived” the river. He also shares a few tips on how to tell whether or not it’s prudent to paddle over a particular waterfall.

Risk Assessment: When Is It OK to Kayak a Waterfall? - Trip Jennings

Rio de Janeiro's favelas are slums that are surrounded by some of the most breathtaking natural landscape found in a city. Penned in by beaches on one side and steep granite cliffs on the other, drug cartels ran the neighborhoods until just this year, when the government cracked down in anticipation of the World Cup soccer tournament. When Asa Firestone realized those granite cliffs might be open for climbing, he didn't hesitate to attempt to revive Rio's climbing culture that has been dormant since the 1970's. His company, Beyond Gear, makes climbing gear and helps teach favela youths to climb, in hopes that it could lead to a career as a guide on the city's cliffs.

Climbing in Rio's Favelas - Asa Firestone

"Extremophile" bacteria that live in and around some of the world's hottest places like volcanos and man-made fire pits in Turkmenistan are able to survive in environments with temperatures that top out above 1,000° Fahrenheit. We know this because George Kourounis is something of an extremophile himself. He and his thermal protection suit ventured to the bottom of Turkmenistan's "Door to Hell" crater, which was featured on the National Geographic Channel, as well as a more recent exploration of a volcano in Vanuatu. Kourounis explains his fascination with the world's most extreme places as volunteering to travel there so we can learn about it from the climate controlled comforts of home.

Climbing to the Bottom of a Volcano - George Kourounis

Great white sharks, one of the planet's most feared predators, have always been a source of curiosity for Carrie Miller. So to get closer to the object of her fascination, she got in the water to watch them in their natural habitat, off the coast of Australia's Neptune Islands. Miller tells Boyd that they aren't as mindlessly predatory as they're billed. She found them to be curious rather than malicious, sampling boat motors and pieces of wood they encountered on the surface for edibility. Despite the fact that Miller reports the Great whites to be "calm" at depth, she would never swim with them cage-free. Her article "<a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/down-under-neptune-islands/">Down Under: The Great White Way</a>," is in the September/October 2014 issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine.

Swimming With Great Whites Down Under - Carrie Miller

For the stylish adventurer, each expedition has the potential to yield a rash of anxiety over the proper clothing to bring, and how many of each type is the right number. National Geographic Adventurer of theYear Andrew Skurka joins Boyd to describe his packing methods that keeps him not too hot on the trail, not too cold at night and smelling as good as can be reasonably expected of an Appalachian Trail through-hiker.

Perfect Packing: How to Survive A Week in the Woods - Andrew Skurka

Called the world's greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes has crossed both poles, climbed Everest and raced deserts. As he has aged, his expeditions grew no less challenging. Currently, his team is attempting to make the first winter crossing of Antarctica in The Coldest Journey. Finnes explains why we need to go to the world's most extreme polar climates to see what's there before it changes forever from the pressures of climate change.

Exploring the South Pole in Winter - Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Mexico’s Baja California is a dry desert surrounded by water. It may seem ironic that, in the presence of so much water, National Geographic explorer Justin DeShields had to carry up to fifteen pounds of water in order to survive his 1,000 mile expedition. DeShields walked, paddleboarded and, occasionally, surfed his way down the remote Mexican coast in search of a connection to California’s American urban sprawl that he grew up with.

Desert Boots: Walking Through Baja California - Justin DeShields

Much can be learned from sitting back and just listening to the world. National Geographic Emerging Explorer Erin Pettit takes this attitude directly into her science, as she records glaciers and documents their retreat and sometimes dramatic collapses in Alaska. The glaciologist also explains what the sounds of ice melting can tell us about the past. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">

The Sounds of a Melting Glacier - Erin Pettit

Mistreatment of indigenous peoples were a hallmark of the European colonial populations around the world. Like in the United States, European Australians forced the Aboriginal populations into schools designed to strip them of their cultural heritage, language and traditions and assimilate into the greater Australian population. Country singer Roger Knox, a native Australian whose mother was taken from her home as an eight month old, has become a well-known voice of the disenfranchised Aboriginals. His newest album, "Stranger in My Land," is a classic protest album that laments the loss of a culture and identity for an entire population. (And the music is catchy.)

Aboriginal Elvis: Australian Protest Music - Roger Knox

As the United States starts to tear down many of the dams that have bogged its rivers for the better part of the last century, many energy-strapped countries look to dam their free-flowing rivers. Kayaker and river advocate Mariann Sæther recently paddled Uganda's White Nile River, partly for the adventure and partly to share the river's beauty with the broader world. Sæther explains that, although the river will provide needed power to Uganda, the dam could hurt the local economy.

Paddling to Protest a Super Dam on the White Nile - Mariann Sæther

The Yosemite Valley has long been a destination for Americans seeking rest and relaxation with nature. But following World War II, some young Americans found their way to the valley and set up camp for a long-term stay in the valley seeking an alternate postwar dream than the one that was being promoted in the nation's sleepy suburbs. What ensued was an arms race fit to rival the Cold War, but this one was made of flesh and rock: Royal Robbins and Warren Harding, both talented climbers with very different visions for the sport they were helping pioneer, each sought to become the first to ascend Yosemite's granite cliffs. Their clashes, and the evolution of American rock climbing that followed in the ensuing decades through to the present day, are told in the new film, Valley Uprising. Directors Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen created the film and discuss the culture of climbing in the Yosemite Valley.

Valley Uprising: The Pioneers of Yosemite's Climbing Culture - Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen

National Geographic Emerging Explorer, photographer and filmmaker Sandesh Kadur returns, bringing stories of what happens to animals in India's famous Kaziranga National Park during the seasonal monsoon floods. He tells Boyd that elephants swim across miles of water, braving exhaustion and villagers; tigers build nests in trees; and rhinos head for the hills and hope to avoid poachers while they are displaced by high water.

India's Monsoon Wildlife: Nesting Tiger, Swimming Elephant - Sandesh Kadur

This week, we fly under human power in the name of "living beautifully"; cross the world's 20 biggest glaciers; learn to appreciate stinky cheese; paddle the longest river on every continent; and scuba dive deep inside Iceland's fissures.

Fly Off Cliffs, Cross the Largest Glaciers, Eat Stinky Cheese, Paddle the Longest River on Every Continent, and Scuba Dive in Iceland

In our This Weekend in History segment, we celebrate the 1776 founding of the United States' first Greek fraternity, 1884's completion of the Washington Monument, 1941's Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor, and 1945's loss of five Navy airplanes in the Bermuda Triangle and 1877's first print of the Washington Post.

Birth of the Washington Post and the Bermuda Triangle - This Weekend in History

Bring Your Kids On a Search for Enlightenment - Bruce Kirkby

Rappers often boast about the number of homes, cars or girlfriends that they have, but few crack open Canterbury Tales to distil the words of Geoffrey Chaucer into rhyme. But Baba Brinkman isn’t a typical rapper. He has a Master’s degree in literature and had a residency at the University of Tennessee while he was composing his album about Darwin’s ideas on evolution. In his newest album, “The Rap Guide to Wilderness,” Brinkman gives a shout out to National Geographic, while promoting a message of protecting the wilderness. Brinkman explains that rap is a generally urban art form, but humans were created in nature and we can’ t survive without it: “It’s a relatively new concept that we’re separate from it, but we’re just another species.”

Rap Guide to the Wilderness - Baba Brinkman

The phrase "fish out of water" is often used to describe someone in a situation that they're poorly suited for. But National Geographic Young Explorer Andrew Thompson explains that not all fish are in trouble when they run out of water. He studies the killifish, which during droughts and dry seasons, are able to suspend their development when they're in the egg until more comfortable - and wet - circumstances are available.

Fish Out Of Water: Not Always a Problem - Andrew Thompson

Zoonotic viruses are those that pass from animals to humans. They've plagued us for as long as we've existed and they cross over with more regularity than we may realize. Most zoonotic diseases stop in a relatively short amount of time, because humans aren't an ideal host. SARS, West Nile, avian and swine flus are all familiar zoonotic diseases. But none of them have been as difficult for our medicine to manage as HIV. Most people think of the virus that causes AIDS as a relatively recent affliction, but, as David Quammen explains in his new book The Chimp and the River, HIV made the leap from chimps to humans in the southeastern corner of Cameroon over a century ago. Quammen's book explains how the virus likely spilled-over and turned into the global scourge that it is today.

The Chimp and the River: The Genesis of the AIDS Epidemic - David Quammen

This narration was recorded in accompaniment of the 360-degree photo tour of Saint Peter's Basilica found on National Geographic's website:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150720-Vatican-360-Degree-Tour-Saint-Peters-Basilica/

Audio Tour of Saint Peter's Basilica

City Sound

Bellowing

Chirping

In June 2016 staff and photographers from National Geographic Photo Camp traveled to Crow, Montana to teach Crow Native American youth to tell their own stories through photography. We asked them, "What does it mean to be Crow?" 

"Being Crow Native America means I have an important history. We might not all know each other, but I know we all have the same fight as our ancestors."

"It also means being true to yourself and who you are as a person, being strong on your own, but rely on your people."

"Never will we stray, nor will we lose ourselves." 

Listen to their voices and read the story of the Crow photo camp on Proof. 

Audio by Jenny Stratton 
Photograph by David Guttenfelder 

Photo Camp: What does it mean to be Crow?

Seto Anthem

Listen to this "dengbej", a Kurish tradition of storytelling by song, as a woman sings about love and loss.

A Kurdish Love Song

Listen to Chandler as "Paul Revere"

Folk Festival in Mountain View, Arkansas.WAV

Folk Center State Park in Mountain View, Arkansas.WAV

Excerpts from Rockabilly Legend Sonny Burgess

We believe in the power of science, exploration and storytelling to change the world.

National Geographic

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