#213 - A hurricane on New Year’s Day, a shredded tent, and a sudden slide toward hypothermia at 1,600 meters—Belinda Coker’s Canary Islands traverse didn’t go to plan. That sharp turn, and her decision to bail out, reveals the heartbeat of this conversation: how true adventure balances awe with judgment, and how choosing safety can be the bravest move on the trail.

We walk back to Belinda’s roots in New Zealand, where tramping was part of school life, then through years of work and parenting that muted her spark. A pandemic mirror moment sent her back to dirt: sunrise hikes, then multi-day routes across Australia’s red centre, where Indigenous stories and women’s spaces shape how she moves through country. She takes us to Greenland’s Arctic Circle Trail, tracing Inuit hunting paths from ice to sea, learning to read cairns, and soaking in a silence so complete it resets your nervous system.

Threaded through every mile is a practical guide to hiking safety and self-reliance. Belinda breaks down wilderness first aid, recognizing the danger of core shivers, navigating when electronics fail, and why snakebite treatment differs between Australia and the U.S. She also shares a smart, sustainable way to fund long seasons on foot: house sitting. By caring for homes and pets, she and her partner remove lodging costs, cook real food, and settle into neighborhoods from Scotland to Spain. If tents aren’t your thing, we explore hut-to-hut and inn-to-inn options across Europe and New Zealand’s hut network, including Camino routes that keep packs light and spirits high.

Come for the storm story; stay for the blueprint of a second act that blends grit, gratitude, and slow, immersive travel. If this sparks your feet and your planning brain, tap follow, share the episode with a trail-curious friend, and leave a review so more people can find these human adventures.

To learn more about Belinda be sure and check out her website www.soultreader.com and also her Instagram @soultreader. If House Sitting sparks your interest check out housesittingcollective.com.

To see some clips from past, current, and upcoming shows check out my Instagram page @humanadventurepod.

Want to be a guest on The Human Adventure? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake

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#213 - Growth doesn’t arrive with a trophy. It often shows up as friction, confusion, and the stubborn urge to fix other people. With therapist Casey Stevens, we explore why discomfort is the doorway to becoming, how the subconscious scripts our choices, and what changes when you stop rescuing and start taking radical responsibility for your life. Casey shares her own turning points—early marriage, a crisis that led her to therapy, the heartbreak of loss, and the identity collapse that followed—and how those crucibles reshaped her work and worldview.

We dig into the mechanics of the subconscious and why so much of who we are is formed before age seven. Casey breaks down how to reverse inherited programming by elevating lowercase-c awareness into capital-C Consciousness: clarifying values, ranking them in a true hierarchy, and living in alignment so anxiety and indecision lose their grip. She also names a trap many of us fall into—the rescuer pattern on the drama triangle—and offers a better path built on consent, dignity, and self-governance rather than control.

What might sound like opposites—science and spirituality—become complementary tools in Casey’s practice. Neuroscience explains patterns and plasticity; spirituality restores meaning, faith, and intuition. We talk about rebuilding trust with yourself after early fractures, listening for the quiet signal beneath fear, and transforming post-traumatic stress into post-traumatic growth. Pain becomes a teacher, not a life sentence. Comfort maintains; discomfort transforms. If you’re craving practical, compassionate guidance to move from autopilot to agency, this conversation will meet you where you are and invite you forward.

If this resonates, connect with Casey at shrinkbigger.com and on Instagram @shrinkbigger. And if you found value here, subscribe, share this episode with a friend who’s ready to grow, and leave a quick review—your support helps more people find these conversations.

To connect with me send me a message on Instagram @humanadventurepod.

Want to be a guest on The Human Adventure? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake

#211 - Some histories whisper when they should thunder. We sit down with Jenny Chan, co‑founder of Pacific Atrocities Education, to listen—really listen—to the Pacific Front of World War II and the millions of lives bound up in it. From the euphemism of “comfort women” to the cold precision of Unit 731, from the Bataan Death March to the Rape of Nanking and Sook Ching in Singapore, we trace how violence moved through bodies, borders, and generations, and why so much of it slipped the Western gaze.

Jenny shares how a family box of military yen opened a door to declassified archives, survivor testimonies, and a mission to preserve stories before they disappear. We talk about what reconciliation means while shrines still honor war criminals, how immunity deals and postwar politics shaped public memory, and why the number thirty million needs human faces to be understood. Along the way, we explore fragile archives crumbling faster than they can be digitized, the ethics of telling trauma with care, and the small acts of resistance that kept hope alive in POW camps and occupied cities.

This conversation is honest and heavy, but it’s also full of light—students winning history competitions with documentaries on Unit 731, survivors finding their voice after decades of silence, and a growing community determined to remember. If you’ve ever sensed a gap in what you were taught about World War II, this is your invitation to fill it with facts, voices, and empathy.

Subscribe, share this episode with someone who loves history, and leave a review to help more listeners find these untold stories. Then tell us: which story surprised you most, and what will you remember tomorrow?

To learn more about Jenny Chan and Pacific Atrocities Education please visit www.pacificatrocities.org. You can also learn more on Youtube @pacificfrontuntold and on Instagram @pacificatrocitiesedu.

To learn more about The Human Adventure and see some clips from past, current, and future shows check out my Instagram account @humanadventurepod.

Want to be a guest on The Human Adventure? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake