From Wall Street to Wilderness: Ken Posner’s Journey Through the Grid

Papa Bear Hikes

Education, Health & Fitness, Leisure, #Hikes #Canoeing #Biking #Outdoors #Lifestyle #Backpacking #Nature #Diversity #Globalpodcast #Itunestop100 #Top100podcast #Access #Lifestylepodcast

5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Martin talks with Ken Posner about his shift from Wall Street life to mountain trails, where he took on the brutal and beautiful Catskill "Grid"—a challenge requiring over 400 ascents across every month of the year. What began as a pursuit of a record evolved into something far deeper. Ken shares how stripping away gear, comfort, and convention helped him reconnect with nature on its terms. Barefoot, minimalist, and often alone, he found purpose in the mud, snow, and silence....

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ever been out hiking and the Catskills or for a walk on the long path and somebody comes by
0:06.1	in their bare feet running along?
0:08.2	Who is that person?
0:09.7	We're about to find out.
0:24.6	Today I'd like to welcome, author of three books, running the long path, a 350-mile journey of discovery in the New York-Cudson Valley,
0:31.6	stalking the Black Swan, research, and decision-making, and a world of extreme volatility,
0:37.2	as well as the upcoming book,
0:38.7	Chasing the Grid.
0:40.4	I'd like to welcome our friend Ken Posner, also known as Barefoot Ken.
0:46.3	Ken, welcome to the podcast.
0:48.7	Thank you, Papa Bear.
0:50.1	Thank you so much for having me on your show.
0:53.0	Ken, this is interesting because a lot of what you write about and you've covered in areas
0:58.4	you've been in are I'm very familiar with.
1:01.7	I'm a Catskill 3,500.
1:03.8	I've done the winter at 3,500.
1:05.8	I've done a lot of the trails.
1:07.9	In fact, if I hadn't moved down to Florida, I was closing in on being all trails. I'm like maybe three peaks away from not 100. So when I'm reading about you and reading
1:16.1	what you've done, I'm like, wow. And the long path, I've hiked sections of that through Harriman
1:20.8	and various parts of New York. And I thought, wow, this is really interesting. But you have taken this a step further.
1:29.3	You've run a lot of these and you've done them barefoot.
1:31.9	Yeah, I haven't necessarily run everything barefoot.
	...

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