I Googled Myself and Found Four Old Interviews. Here's A Sharp End 2026 Update
This past month, I got curious and googled "The Sharp End Podcast" just to see what would come up. What followed was a deep dive that uncovered four older interviews I had participated in:
Re-reading them (especially the 2017 one!) inspired me to put together a 2026 refreshed Q&A: revisiting the questions that still resonate, updating the answers that have changed, and adding a few that nobody has thought to ask yet. I hope you enjoy!
In 2017, you were averaging 14,000 listens per month. Now the show averages over 33,000 listens per episode, with 8,000 of those coming in the first 24 hours. Did you ever imagine getting here?
Honestly, I had zero expectations when I started. I really just wanted to learn from other people's mistakes and create something that didn't exist yet. There was no listener goal or roadmap. I just started because I believed in the idea of creating a judgment-free community where individuals felt safe enough to be vulnerable and share their story.
Seeing the podcast grow into what it is now feels like a gift that I can share with the outdoor community every month. More stories. More lessons. More people who might make a different decision out there because of something they heard on this show. The Sharp End community is the main reason I keep producing it, and I feel genuinely honored that so many people have chosen to tune in.
One thing that really gets me is when someone discovers the show for the first time and goes back to listen from Episode 1 all the way through the back catalog. That means everything to me!
The Sharp End is over 11 years old. Has the mission changed at all?
The mission has always been, and still is, to minimize future outdoor accidents through storytelling. Real people sharing real stories. That's it. That's the whole thing!
What has changed is the show's independence. It started as a partnership with the American Alpine Club, where I basically cold-called them from a van on the way to the Tetons and pitched the idea. And it has since grown into something I run fully on my own. That shift brought a lot of responsibility, but it also gave me complete creative freedom to follow the show wherever it needed to go. I think that freedom is part of what has kept the mission so clear over the years.
In 2025, you went full-time on The Sharp End. How is that going?
I want to be honest here because I think it's important: I tried really hard to make it work full-time, but I simply cannot afford it yet. I'm back to having two part-time jobs to make ends meet while I keep producing the show.
It's just the reality of independent podcasting. The show is growing, the community is incredible, and I believe in what we're building. I'm figuring it out, and I'm not giving up on the dream of doing this full-time one day, but I do want to be real about where things are right now.
A listener in 2017 called The Sharp End "an interactive Accidents in North American Climbing." Is that still accurate?
I think that's still a pretty fair description, but the show has expanded significantly since then. What started as a climbing-focused podcast now covers avalanche incidents, backcountry skiing accidents, hiking emergencies, mental health, stress injuries, and more.
That expansion happened naturally. As more people became comfortable coming forward to share their stories, the range of what those stories covered grew with them. I followed the community's lead. The core idea — real people, real stories, real lessons — has stayed the same, though!
In the early days, most people you approached declined to share their story. Now you have 50+ submissions in your inbox. What shifted?
There is so much less shaming, blaming, and guilt than there was even five years ago. The culture has shifted toward learning from mistakes rather than judging the person who made them.
I think The Sharp End played some role in that shift! Creating a space where vulnerability is met with respect and curiosity rather than criticism, and doing that consistently, over eleven years, changes what people think is possible. Now people reach out because they want to share. That is everything.
There are also great organizations now that can help individuals who are struggling after a backcountry accident. If you or someone you know is struggling during their physical recovery, grief journey, or the psychological weight of a close call, Responder Alliance, Trek for Trevor, and the AAC Climbing Grief Fund are all organizations that are doing incredible work in this space.
You've said the most common thread across episodes is complacency. Is that still true?
Complacency is still the most common thread. People get comfortable:
With a route they've done before.
With a partner they trust completely
With conditions that feel familiar
And that comfort leads to honest mistakes. It happens to experienced people just as much as beginners.
But two other things come up over and over that I think deserve more attention: not wearing a helmet, and not tying a stopper knot at the end of the rope. Those two things alone have come up across so many episodes. They're simple. They're well-known best practices. And people still skip them. If you take nothing else from this show, take these three things.
You've started talking about the emotional weight of producing this show as a stress injury. When did you start calling it that?
It happened after I interviewed Laura McGladrey from the Responder Alliance. She explained what a stress injury actually is: the cumulative psychological impact of repeated exposure to trauma. And something just clicked. I realized that's exactly what I've been carrying. For over a decade, I've been sitting with people while they relive the worst moments of their lives. I listen to every story, I edit every story, I produce every story. That adds up.
It was honestly shocking to have a name for it. And since then, I've tried to be much more intentional about giving myself time to heal and process after each episode. The stories are emotionally heavy, and I've had to learn to take care of myself in the process, not just my guests.
Your own knee surgeries and recovery gave you a firsthand experience with injury, identity loss, and depression. Has going through that changed how you listen to guests who are still processing their own trauma?
Absolutely. Going through my own trauma included multiple knee surgeries, a long and brutal recovery, and losing my sense of who I was when I couldn't get outside the way I used to. This gave me common ground with many of my guests that I didn't have before. I understand in my body, not just intellectually, what it feels like to have your identity pulled out from under you by an injury.
That experience changed how I listen. When a guest is describing the psychological aftermath of an accident, I've been there. And I think they can feel that.
Is there an episode you've found genuinely difficult to carry after the recording ended?
The episode with Adam Campbell has stayed with me more than any other. Adam lost his wife, Laura, in an avalanche, and he watched it happen. He skied down to her and started digging her out of twelve feet of snow, and the first part of her body he uncovered was her left hand, with her wedding ring on it. Laura was an incredible person and a huge presence in the climbing community. It was such a tragic episode.
I think about that image a lot. I don't have a clean answer for how I decompress after something like that. I give myself time. I try not to rush into the next thing. Sometimes that's enough, and sometimes it isn't, but I've learned that sitting with the weight of a story is part of honoring it.
You still go into every interview without knowing the full story first. After 120+ episodes, why does that still matter?
Authenticity is everything on this show. If I already know how the story ends, I'm going to sound like I do, and listeners will feel it. I might gloss over a moment that deserves more space, or forget to ask a question because I already have the answer. The whole point is for the conversation to be real and alive, and that means I need to be genuinely discovering the story alongside the listener.
It keeps me honest. It keeps me curious. And I think it keeps my guests more engaged, too. There's something about talking to someone who is actually listening, actually surprised, actually moved, that allows people to go deeper than they might otherwise.
You've recorded from a van, a bus, a yacht, a mountain refuge in Peru, and the side of a road in Ouray, and never missed a first-of-month release in over eleven years. What does that consistency require?
There are a couple of key elements:
Discipline, first and foremost
A calendar I religiously update
A laptop and wifi wherever I am in the world
And guests who are gracious enough to be flexible when I'm on the road and can't always access a reliable connection as planned
There have been moments when making that release date required recording from genuinely ridiculous places, such as the side of a highway in Colorado and in the Peruvian mountains with questionable internet. But I made a commitment when I started this show, and I've kept it. Consistency is one of the things I'm most proud of. It tells my listeners that I take this seriously, and that they can count on me.
In 2017, your sponsors were Mammut and Colorado Outward Bound. Today it's Rocky Talkie, ZOLEO, onX Backcountry, MyMedic, and Desert Mountain Medicine. How do you decide who belongs?
My listeners have built eleven years of trust with me, and I take that seriously. I'm not going to hand that trust over to just anyone with a marketing budget. Every partner I work with has to meet a few criteria: they need to make a high-quality product relevant to my audience, and their mission has to resonate with me personally.
Desert Mountain Medicine is a good example of that. I've kept my Wilderness First Responder certification since I was 17, and I genuinely believe that WFR training is one of the most valuable things anyone who spends time in the backcountry can do. Partnering with DMM is an extension of something I already advocate for.
I've said no to sponsors who didn't fit, even when the money would have helped. That's not going to change.
Why won't you do mid-roll ads even though the financial pressure is real?
I'm not willing to interrupt someone in the middle of telling their story. My episodes are 30 to 60 minutes long, and the middle of each episode is typically where crucial moments are shared: the moment of the accident, a split-second decision, or other vulnerable moments. Dropping an ad in the middle of that feels like a betrayal of everyone involved.
Yes, I could make more money doing mid-rolls, but maintaining the integrity of the episode is important to me. My sponsors get placement at the top of the episode instead!
You resisted starting a Patreon for years. What finally changed your mind?
A couple of good friends talked me into it. I kept saying no, and they kept saying, just do it. I felt weird asking people for money because it felt pushy, or like I couldn't make the show work on my own.
What I've come to realize is that Patreon isn't asking for a handout. It's giving people who love the show a way to unlock extra content and help keep the show sustainable to produce. Knowing they care has been genuinely inspiring and helped me keep going through some hard stretches.
You now have a YouTube channel at @thesharpendpodcast. Has video changed anything about the show?
Not really, in terms of the conversations themselves. My guests show up the same way whether or not a camera is running. The channel has been really valuable for reaching people who don't use traditional podcast platforms. YouTube is another door into the show, and I think that matters for making this content as accessible as possible.
You hosted Route to Resilience in Boulder in 2025, a live event focused on psychological stress injuries. Is it a new chapter for The Sharp End?
I love live events. There's something about being in a room with people who all showed up because this subject matter means something to them. It's a completely different energy than producing alone in a studio. Route to Resilience was really special for that reason!
The honest answer is that live events are time-consuming and expensive, and right now I simply can't afford to do them as often as I'd like. But I haven't given up on them. One day, when the resources are there, I'd love to bring live Sharp End events to more communities.
What are your bigger goals for The Sharp End beyond 2026?
I really, really want this show to grow into something bigger. I don't always know exactly what that looks like or how to get there. What I do know is that I want to produce more. Right now, I release one episode a month, and I have a backlog of over 50 stories I'd love to share. Ideally, there would be a supporting team to help me record, edit, produce, and release 4 episodes a month. Being able to share every story that comes in would be a dream come true!
Between my other jobs and producing the show solo, there are only so many hours to go around. But one day, I imagine building something bigger than what one person can do alone. I'm not giving up on that vision.
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If you've been listening to The Sharp End for a while, thank you! This community is the reason I keep the podcast going. If you want to support the show, the best things you can do are share an episode with someone in your outdoor community, leave a review on your podcast platform of choice, or join me on Patreon. Every bit of it helps more than you know!
