For this Weekly Fourcast, we tracked down Chamonix-based ski mountaineer and Jaybird Ambassador Joel Evans. Born in the rolling green hills of Wales, Joel wasn’t much of an athlete as a child. But when he moved to the Alps for “just a season” nine years ago, he realized the unlimited potential for mountain adventures, and he never returned home, immersing himself in ski mountaineering and sky running.

“I like to challenge myself in the mountains to see what my physical limits are, this enables me to aim for bigger objectives in the future. I love trying to see if I can go further or higher than I have before.”

In 2019, Joel set a goal to ascend 100,000 vertical meters on skis. By April, he had accomplished his goal, often waking up and putting in 1,000 meters on the skin track with his dog before work. By the end of the year, he had climbed more than 225,000 vertical meters.

“I really didn’t think I would be able to accomplish it,” he says. “Spending a lot of time going uphill and grinding, I love music’s ability to enable you to ‘switch off’, forget the world of pain you are in and just enjoy the mountains.”

Joel’s Recommended Podcasts:

Stuff You Should Know, Episode 999: The Simpsons Spectacular Part 1

If, like me, you grew up in the ‘90s, the Simpsons may have been a big part of your life. Josh and Charles have a great sense of humour and dig into the history and importance of The Simpsons and its effect on kids and adults the world over.

The Rich Roll Podcast, Kilian Jornet: Summiting the Mind of the World’s Greatest Mountain Runner

Rich Roll is a great endurance athlete and down to earth guy, and for this episode is joined by one of my idols and greatest mountain athlete of all time, Kilian Jornet. They talk about all things mountain and how Kilian trains towards his project, Summits of my Life.

Alastair Humphreys: Living Adventurously, #6, Adventure is Being Open to the Possibility of Something Changing Your Life in Ways You Can’t Predict

Alastair Humphreys is an English adventurer and motivational speaker, and in this episode he looks into what makes an adventure. Most people will think of the cliché of climbing a mountain or canoeing down a river but this podcast re-thinks the idea and shows that adventure is really just doing something outside of your comfort zone.

Freakonomics, The Future of Meat

Being a vegan, I am always interested in the new foods that are available to me. When it comes to meat substitutes, some people can think that it’s strange for vegans to want a ‘meat-like’ food, but for me it comes down to the nostalgia and that comforting feeling when you eat certain foods.

With brands such as Beyond and Impossible producing foods that are almost identical to the real thing, and with the environmental impact of animal agriculture a very hot topic, this is a great listen if you want to learn more about the way food will be produced in the years to come.

The Weekly Fourcast is a series of curated podcast recommendations from our athletes, ambassadors and employees. Every week, we’ll drop a new list of four shows and episodes that you need to hear, direct from the Jaybird crew—the perfect audio fuel for the week ahead.