The Four Corners Loop - Kevin Koski (Part I)

Kevin Koski looked at a topographical map of the United States, noticed a giant circle nobody had ever officially hiked, and decided the correct response was to spend three years building an 800-mile-diameter loop and then walk all 2,400 miles of it himself. This is either the most American thing we've ever heard or a cry for help, and honestly the line may not exist. In Part 1, the man they call The Animal explains how he got that name (it involves outrunning loose rock, not aggression), why he was still using 7.5-minute series paper maps and a VHS tape well into his hiking career, and why his two most essential pieces of gear are an eighth-inch ice maker tube from the hardware store and an item called an Azz Blaster that he refuses to Google twice. Also: a Hiking Poll score so good he's still bragging about it, and a professional reveal that earns him a first in podcast history — he is, as far as we know, the only nuclear engineer who has ever sat in this chair.

Part 2 drops in 10 minutes.