Psychovertical

If you want to learn the nuts and bolts of all sorts of climbing and alpine activities, Andy Kirkpatrick is the man to listen to. Buy his books, and listen to this. From cold weather camping and skis for mountaineers, to big walling, to figuring out how to plan big routes, to the mindset to get after it, Andy covers it all.

Andy has tons of information. On my way to yosemite I listened to him talk about the differences between each type of aid hook for an hour. If you ever want to get into the nitty gritty of xyz climbing gear or technique, this is a fantastic podcast.

There is great, hard earned climbing information on this podcast, but you have to sift through a ton of tangential nonsense and unashamed problematic narration to get to it. The host has some very conservative opinions about the trans community as well as the dynamics (or very existence) of race issues in the outdoors. He doesn’t seem hateful towards anyone but himself (he’s comically self-deprecating), but he’s not going to be an easy listen for anyone who falls outside of the white-cis identity, or allies to the trans and BIPOC community. And no doubt he would agree with this statement - he seems not to care if he has listeners or not, he just enjoys talking. This is also evident in his patronizing answers to listener questions. Again, some absolute great climbing info here, but listen at the risk of being (at best) turned off with his need to pepper unpopular opinions about race and gender throughout. I’ve personally listened to about 5 episodes and had my fill.

Ostensibly about climbing, but only rarely. I listen to every episode when they come out, even though Andy rambles a lot and can be very unfocused. I think this is why I like it. It is raw and honest. My wife and daughter hate this podcast, but they are American. I’m English, so have better taste.