You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today was perhaps

destined from birth to undertake remarkable feats of exploration and adventure.

Bertrand Picard was born into a family which made a habit of performing remarkable feats.

His grandfather, August, a friend of Albert Einstein, was a physicist and a record-breaking balloonist

and explorer of the ocean depths.

He flew higher and dived deeper than any human being before him.

And then there was Bertrand's father, Jacques, who broke more diving records

and invented a whole new breed of submersible craft.

So Bertrand had plenty to live up to.

Having trained as a doctor and psychiatrist, he took up the challenge.

At the third attempt, he conquered one of aviation's greatest challenges,

circumnavigating the globe non-stop in a hot air balloon.

And then, three years ago, he piloted the world's first

solar-powered plane to fly around the world. Now, Bertram Picard is using his inspiring story and

his commitment to boundary-busting innovation to encourage others to come up with tech solutions to the climate change challenge.

But is this where human ingenuity finds obstacles that cannot be overcome? Well, Bertrand

Picard joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you for the invitation. Yours is a life of extraordinary exploration and adventure.

It's tempting to think of you as an individualist and yet you come from a family of explorers.

Was it in some ways do you think your destiny to follow the path you did? I think it was my education.

You know, my grandfather, my father, the astronauts I met when I was a kid, all the other

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