When You Close Your Eyes
Out There
Willow Belden
4.6 • 608 Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2021
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Explorer Christopher Venter lost his eyesight very suddenly, at age 40.
He was an avid traveler, and at first, he couldn't imagine going on with life, if he couldn't see. But eventually, he regained the will to live and the courage to explore the world.
On this episode, he takes us on a journey from Sicily to Southern France and shows us the world as he experiences it — with his other four senses.
The story comes to us from the Armchair Explorer Podcast, a show on which the world's greatest adventurers tell their best stories from the road. At the end of the episode, we talk with Armchair Explorer host Aaron Millar about his show, and his desire to cure our "wonder deficit," one story at a time.
For Further Reading: You can find Christopher Venter's books here.
Support Out There: Patreon | Venmo | Credit Card
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Imagine for a moment that it's a Thursday evening. You've just finished a great workout, |
| 0:07.0 | you're feeling good, and you're in the mood for a beer. But maybe you still have some work to do, |
| 0:14.1 | or you need to drive somewhere, or maybe you've decided to cut alcohol out of your life. |
| 0:20.3 | Lucky for you, non-alcoholic beer is a thing, |
| 0:24.6 | and it can actually be really good. One of our sponsors for this episode is a company called |
| 0:30.4 | Athletic Brewing. They make non-alcoholic craft brews. I've tried a couple of their beers, and if I didn't know they were |
| 0:39.5 | alcohol-free, I would never have guessed. They are just as tasty and just as refreshing as any other |
| 0:46.1 | beer. For 20% off your order, go to athleticbrewing.com and enter the promo code Out There 20 at checkout. |
| 0:55.8 | That's Athleticbrewing.com promo code Out There 20. |
| 1:06.1 | Hi, I'm Willow Belden and you're listening to Out There, the podcast that explores big questions |
| 1:13.6 | through intimate stories outdoors. |
| 1:18.3 | When I think of traveling, when I imagine the places I want to visit, I see them. |
| 1:24.5 | I imagine what my eyes will show me. But what if your eyes showed you nothing? What if all you saw was blackness? |
| 1:33.3 | Would you still travel? Would you have the courage to explore? How would you experience the world with your other senses? |
| 1:42.3 | On this episode, we're going to hear from a man who lost his vision, but who didn't let that |
| 1:49.7 | stop him from exploring the world. |
| 1:52.5 | He's going to take us on a grand adventure and show us the world as he sees it, with his |
| 1:58.3 | other four senses. |
| 2:07.2 | Music he sees it with his other four senses. The story comes to us from the Armchair Explorer podcast. |
| 2:12.6 | Armchair Explorer is a podcast hosted by travel writer Aaron Miller. |
| 2:17.6 | On the show, the world's greatest adventurers tell their best stories from the road. |
| 2:23.8 | Today, we are sharing one of those stories with you. |
... |
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