I don't know if you felt this, if you're having a really bad day and you're just like,

man, everybody on the planet sucks, I'm gonna go talk to the trees, you know, and the trees

hilariously are like, LOL, okay? Like, you can come, but we're not gonna be nice by the way.

That's my favorite part about nature is that she doesn't love you and accept you for who you are.

She just doesn't give a shit about you, so you're forced to give a shit about yourself.

That's Diana Helmuth. She's a backpacker and the hilarious author of the book,

How to Suffer Outside, a beginner's guide to hiking and backpacking.

I love this book because let's face it. There are some things about hiking and backpacking

that often go overlooked. When we're fantasizing about our next outdoor trip,

we conveniently forget about the less than glamorous parts, things like getting eaten alive by

mosquitoes, horrible blisters that tear up our feet, or the discomfort of chafing.

Diana's book talks about the realities of backpacking in a funny, refreshing way.

I was dying laughing when I read it. A note, this episode does have some explicit language,

including references to private parts, so you might want to save this one for when the kids

are not around. I'm Shelby Stanger and this is wild ideas worth living.

Diana Hales from the Bay Area where she spent her teenage years hiking and backpacking.

She's now a full-time writer and she's been featured in online publications like Long Reads

and the Bull Ditalic. She co-wrote the book, 50 Places to Practice Yoga Before You Die,

and contributed to the anthology, the end of the Golden Gate. Diana's latest work,

How to Suffer Outside, marks a milestone for her career as a writer. It's her first full-length book

and it was published with Mountain Years Press last year.

Diana Helmuth, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. Thank you for having me. You wrote this great book,

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