In 2002, Richard Wiese became the youngest president in The Explorers Club’s hundred-year history. He has hosted many nationally seen television shows, most recently Exploration with Richard Wiese, which can be viewed in around the world. He just completed filming a special series with the BBC and Discovery called “Hell on Earth.”
As an explorer and respected field scientist , Richard has traveled to all seven continents. He has tagged jaguars in the Yucatan jungles, expedition leader to the Northern Territory of Australia to look for basis of the Aboriginal myth of the Rainbow Serpent, team member of the largest medical expedition ever conducted on Mt. Everest, achieved the first ascent of an unclimbed mountain in Alaska and discovered 29 new life forms on Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa and cross country skied to the North Pole.
Most recently Richard traveled to the hottest place on earth in Ethiopia to attempt to extract fragments of DNA from molten lava to look for evidence of microbial life in conditions never thought able to support life.Big Think had the opportunity to speak with Wiese about his travels and the technologies he uses to keep in touch, work and survive while he’s on the road.
This interview is part of a series on BigThink, sponsored by Dell and Digital Nomads.
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Nomad Contributors
by MrPanopticon / November 21, 2008
Nice to see someone who can get out there and explore! Technology will hopefully open up new worlds to explore - like the deep sea sometime soon.
by John L. / November 21, 2008
Wiese’s interview brings to mind a recent 60 Mins report on a recently discovered “Garden of Eden” in Indonesia. One of the takeaways of the piece was that technology, in the form of global positioning and mapping capabilities, made it possible to identify this previously undiscovered terrain. Now, it’s being explored to catalog the plant and animal life, some of which exist nowhere else on Earth. It will be interesting to see whether we’re able harness technology similarly to prevent the violation and destruction of these untouched areas of the planet.
by Pdh / November 21, 2008
He shows off an impressive array of technologies & explains how they’ve improved explorers’ lives. I think they will improve mine, too- I’m going to pick up a Steri-Pen for my next trip to India!
Great post.
by Jackson Dell'Abate / November 24, 2008
Wiese’s perspective and definitely his travels are really impressive. What I’d be interested to hear about is space exploration. Would digital nomads consider doing a whole series on exploration — hearing from some of today’s greatest travelers both on earth and those that have experience with space travel or are knowledgeable about it? I think it would be really fascinating
by Tom G. / November 24, 2008
I’d be pretty interested to see a series about that too. What would make it even better is if the interviewees also talked about necessities to bring on trips to different regions, like Wiese does. For instance, if you’re going to Brazil you must bring…x, if you’re going to the Andes, be sure to bring y, etc.
I’ve been impressed by the digital nomads site and the interviews on it in particular.
This was a really upbeat interview on a great topic. I hope to see more of these “not-famous” experts on Big Think in the future — they seem to be the most off-the-cuff, interesting and engaging. Not to mention, watchable. Keep it up.