Paths

Why do people sign up for group adventures with complete strangers? In this short segment, Sophie talks about the unexpected community that grows on Sidetracked trips — how shared effort, simplicity, and the Arctic cold can bring people closer than they expect. She explains why these connections form so quickly, what people are really searching for, and why returning to the outdoors often feels like returning to ourselves.

It’s a reflection on belonging, challenge, and the surprising ways people reconnect when the noise of everyday life falls away.

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Sophie Nolan built Sidetracked Adventures from a simple desire to share the wild places she loved. In this conversation, she reflects on how she shaped a life around the outdoors, curiosity, and community. We talk about her early pull toward nature, the years she spent searching for a different path, and how guiding people into remote landscapes has changed her understanding of connection, comfort, and ambition.

Sophie also shares what it’s really like to run an adventure company in a fast-paced world, how she learned to trust her own voice, and why people keep returning to wilderness experiences even as modern life becomes more digital and convenient. It’s a grounded, honest look at building a life that matches your values.

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In this short segment, Jonathan reflects on the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, which he and his family survived when he was just fourteen. He talks about how the experience reshaped his outlook on life, influenced the risks he was willing to take, and even guided the creative decisions he makes today as a filmmaker and photographer. It’s a brief but moving conversation about clarity, perspective, and the way certain moments stay with us long after they pass.

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Jonathan Strömberg (or Jonis Strom) grew up on the Swedish coast, where surfing is cold, rare, and hard to access, yet it shaped his entire life. In this episode, he shares how an unexpected surf community helped him discover filmmaking and photography, and how surviving the 2004 tsunami in Thailand reframed his sense of time, purpose, and risk.

We talk about his creative journey from music school in London to bluffing his way into a filmmaking career, traveling the world with his girlfriend Sara, and creating his award-winning short documentary Buoyancy. Jonathan reflects on creativity in 2025, navigating a crowded digital world, and trusting himself to figure things out along the way.

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In this short segment, Elspeth Beard talks about how the hardest moments on her motorcycle journey around the world shaped her character. Breaking down in the desert, falling off the bike, getting sick, fixing everything alone built a kind of “unshakable confidence.” The same strength later helped Elspeth take on new challenges, like buying and restoring the 130-foot water tower she now lives in.

This is a reminder that growth doesn’t always happen in the big moments, but when we quietly prove to ourselves that we can handle whatever comes next.

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