Saving the planet isn’t just about science—it’s about storytelling, indigenous knowledge, and even art.

In this episode of Life’s Tough, Explorers Are Tougher, Dr. Natalie Schmitt shares why conservation needs more than just data and research. A geneticist, documentarian, and field explorer, Natalie has studied snow leopards in the Himalayas, worked with First Nations trackers to monitor caribou, and even helped advocate for scientists wrongly imprisoned in Iran.

She discusses how DNA tracking is revolutionizing conservation, why indigenous knowledge is crucial to protecting ecosystems, and how being a “holistic conservationist” means embracing multiple disciplines to make a real impact.

From her childhood in Australia’s wilderness to tracking some of the world’s most elusive species, Natalie’s journey proves that exploration isn’t just about where you go—but how you see the world.

🌍 Tune in for a fascinating discussion on conservation, exploration, and the future of protecting our planet.

This is Life's Tough, Explorers Are Tougher, with your host, Richard Weiss. Scratch the surface of an explorer and you'll find an adventure and a great story. This show is about their tales.

This podcast is a proud supporter of the Explorers Club and the EC50 Initiative. 50 people changing the world that the world needs to know about. For more information, go to explorers.org.

Exploration isn’t just about venturing into new landscapes—it’s also about uncovering the deeper stories behind cultures, traditions, and creativity. In this episode of Life’s Tough, Explorers Are Tougher, host Richard Wiese sits down with Rebecca Hui, an anthropologist, conservationist, and founder of Roots Studio (now Rurban Studio), whose work bridges indigenous art with global markets in a way that fosters equity and preservation.

Rebecca’s journey has taken her from rural villages in India to high-fashion runways, where she’s worked to transform cultural misappropriation into collaboration. By connecting indigenous artisans with the modern creative industry, she ensures that centuries-old traditions remain alive and respected. Along the way, she’s witnessed firsthand the tension between tradition and modernization, discovering how exploration can be a tool for both storytelling and protection.

Through her work, Rebecca challenges what it means to be an explorer today—not just discovering, but amplifying and safeguarding the voices of those who have long been overlooked.

🚀 Tune in for a fascinating conversation on cultural exploration, art as a language, and why tradition is the foundation for future creativity.

Follow Rebecca:

@babybackrebs

RootsStudio.co

This is Life's Tough, Explorers Are Tougher, with your host, Richard Weiss. Scratch the surface of an explorer and you'll find an adventure and a great story. This show is about their tales.

This podcast is a proud supporter of the Explorers Club and the EC50 Initiative. 50 people changing the world that the world needs to know about. For more information, go to explorers.org.

Exploration doesn’t stop at Earth’s borders—it reaches into the stars. In this episode of Life’s Tough, Explorers Are Tougher, Dr. Nina Lanza, a planetary scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, takes us on a journey to Mars.

As part of the Curiosity Rover’s ChemCam team, Nina has spent years studying the Martian surface, searching for signs that the Red Planet may have once hosted life. She discusses some of the biggest discoveries from Mars exploration, including evidence of a long-standing lake in Gale Crater—an environment that, on Earth, would have been habitable.

But her adventures don’t stop there. From studying Mars-like landscapes in the Arctic to preparing for the challenges of future human missions, Nina shares what it takes to be an explorer—not just in space, but in the extreme environments of Earth.

🚀 Join us as we uncover the mysteries of Mars, the search for alien life, and what exploration means in the 21st century.

This is Life's Tough, Explorers Are Tougher, with your host, Richard Weiss. Scratch the surface of an explorer and you'll find an adventure and a great story. This show is about their tales.

This podcast is a proud supporter of the Explorers Club and the EC50 Initiative. 50 people changing the world that the world needs to know about. For more information, go to explorers.org.