What to Carry, What to Burn Podcast By Blair Braverman cover art

What to Carry, What to Burn

What to Carry, What to Burn

By: Blair Braverman
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Edge-of-your-seat survival stories, as told by adventurer and dogsledder Blair Braverman.


How did Ada Blackjack endure a brutal Arctic winter alone? Why did one shipwreck crew work together to survive, while another crew–on the same island–hunted each other for food? What can we learn from survivors about getting through the impossible–in the wilderness, and in our own lives?


New stories every other week!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Episodes
  • Ep 8: Valerian Albanov
    Aug 4 2026

    Navigator Valerian Albanov escapes an icebound ship--and ends up the reluctant leader of a desperate trek across the frozen sea.


    Sources for this book include the book In the Land of the White Death by Valerian Albanov, translated from Russian to English by Alison Anderson, and the book The Riddle of Navigator Albanov, by Mikhail Andreyevich Chvanov.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Ep 7: The Painted Ocean
    Jul 21 2026

    When shark fisherman José Salvador Alvarenga gets caught in a storm at sea, he thinks he'll be able to ride it out. But the motor breaks in his little boat, and he starts to drift across the Pacific...


    Sources for this episode include the book 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin (highly recommended!), as well as the Guardian article "Pacific Castaway Recounts his 13 Month Odyssey" by Leila Haddou and the Time article "A Castaway who Survived 14 Months at Sea is Being Sued for Cannibalism" by Tiare Dunlap.

    Other works mentioned are the book A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst (also highly recommended!) and the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from which this episode gets its name.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    57 mins
  • Ep 6: Adam and Eve Crusoe
    Jul 7 2026

    When Lucy Irvine stumbles on an ad in the back of a magazine—an eccentric writer is looking for a “wife” to join him on a tropical island—she thinks she’s found the adventure of a lifetime. But the survival you sign up for is not necessarily the survival you end up in…

    To learn more about this story, I recommend the book Castaway by Lucy Irvine. There are other sources, as listed in the episode, but I don’t recommend them!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    59 mins
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Blair is a very talented storyteller! I love survival tales and she has so far introduced me to ones I've never heard before. I highly recommend this podcast to everyone I know in person but I hope those of you I don't know enjoy it too!

amazing storytelling!

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I always enjoy Blair episodes on You're Wrong About, looking forward to an all-Blair podcast!

Blair's the Best ;)

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