💾A BLOODY LONG RUN - EPISODE 2: Something was wrong. I was attempting to be the first person to run McMillans walking track- a route cut into the remote and rugged Australian mountains in 1864 by the men of infamous mass murderer Angus McMillan. 55km into the proposed three day run, contouring the steep flanks of the Crooked River, it occurred to me that I hadn’t leaked all day. Out of touch from the crew, slow and getting slower, daylight running out, it was the first time in a

💾A BLOODY LONG RUN - EPISODE 3: I find myself in good shape, in the mountains, about to start day two of running the 220km McMillans walking track. I'd failed on my first attempt 15 weeks earlier and was back, bearded, a little cagey, fresh off the back of some hard months of training in the hills. I was here for two reasons; to run the magnificent backcountry of my home state, and to think about my luck in life, and where this luck has come from. Watch Episode 1 here: https://youtu.

💾I first walked to work in the early summer of 2014. Door to door, my university job was 93 kilometres away, or 90 when I took missguided shortcuts. After a few years of talking about doing more adventuring in closer to home places, often called mundane, places that would never have a postcard printed in their honour, I decided to walk from my porch to my desk. A trip that takes 75 minutes in the old ute would take me at least 30 hours, and would either make my theory on backyard adven

💾THE NARCISSIST: I’m on the verge of YouTube burnout, caught in the wicked world of shoot, make, upload, repeat. It’s a good life, and this ain’t a grizzle, no, it’s more of a reflection of how I’ve been sucked into the belief that more is better and consistency is king. I’m sure this can be the case, but it sucks to live by it. And I haven’t fished in too long, and I like fishing. I’m patient when I fish. In fact it’s one of the on

💾Yeah, I run. I’ve always run, but not like this; with a plan, bags of Tailwind, a beeping watch, and the looming deadline of a race that’s happily called the hardest 100k race in Australia. That means proper training, taking it a bit more seriously than some of my antics in the past, and likely means I can’t just eat bananas. That, and I’ve lined up for this bloody race twice and not finished (yes, there’s films on the way about that). This holiday has ma

💾THE BOTTLE DEPOSIT: There's a double episode of Seinfeld where Kramer and Newman try to exploit the bottle redemption scheme in NY by driving to Michigan in Newman’s postal van (NY has a tax of 5c a bottle, Michigan 10c, so you make 5c a container when cashing in from another state…It’s also illegal). About a year ago, when the state I live in didn’t have a redemption scheme, and the neighbouring state (New South Wales) did, me and my mate Jimma (my version of

💾MY NEMESIS: Meet Pete. He and I were cross-country rivals at school. I reckon I won more races than Pete, but I’m likely wrong. Twenty five years later, and too many laps of a basketball court, Pete’s on the verge of getting both hips replaced. Over a bottle of wine one night, we cooked up the idea of one last hurrah, one last run to see out the old, bone-on-bone hips. Heck, why not make it the hardest 100km race in Australia?! The wine worked. We signed up to Hut to Hut.

💾JUNK CHICKEN COOP: There comes a time in every parenting life when you decide to buy an animal for your child. I was pushing for a goat but I was outvoted and we got chickens. Problem: no place to home them. Buggered if I was going to buy a chicken coop, or materials to build one, meaning I had another junk-made project on my hands. I had no bloody time to do it, but squeezed it in over two months (yep, i thought I’d get it done in a weekend…idiot!) This, my egg loving fr

💾THE DINER ROAD TRIP: I found myself in Seattle on tour, showing unfinished films up the west coast. Rather than fly to the remaining shows in San Fran and LA, I decided to drive. And as all great roadies need a great companion, I called Mike, a Bostonian friend of mine who dresses like and looks like the president of Ukraine. To make things interesting and efficient I made the rule that we’d only eat from diners. This was going to be an American road trip experience from the win

💾MY WORLDVIEW: As a 14 year old I went to a place called Wollangarra. There was a lot to like for a country kid who’d found himself living in the city, as if I’d returned to a world of trees and farming and big hats. We hiked for several days in the Victorian Alps, which as far as I remember was the first real hike I did. I remember thinking ‘this would be a great life’! Good parenting, then Wollangarra, was my crossroad. Having not been to Wollangarra for 29 ye

💾BAD RIVER - The Finke River: I decided to run the first 100km of the oldest river in the world to see what all the fuss is about. Having been to a sick urban river that’s been turned into a drain and a dead river based on the outfall of a mine, the Finke River in central Australia has a distinctly different, modern problem. Unlike rivers affected by local populations of people doing whatever nasty thing we do, the Finke is affected by those who don’t live there. Can a frec

💾A story about thinking you'll have time to go back. Adapted from: https://semi-rad.com/2025/04/maybe-next-time-maybe-not/ Music clearance through MusicBed Song: Aries (ft Gollden) by Sun Rain My newsletter about about adventure, creativity, running, and enthusiasm here: https://semi-rad.com/subscribe/ My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/semi_rad Buy my books, T-shirts, coffee mugs, merch: https://store.dftba.com/collections/semi-rad All of my writing and drawings: https://semi-rad

💾Mike Sowden and I had a lovely Substack Live chat about storytelling. Like I say in the video, I always point to Mike's Everything Is Amazing Substack as a shining example of how to have fun with writing and turn it into a career. What a wonderful human being (of course he would hate me saying that). Check out Mike's writing here: https://everythingisamazing.substack.com/ We also mention my online writing course, which is here: https://semi-rad.com/courses/

💾WHEELBARROW UBER: I decided to do something I’ve been meaning to do for years, create Ubarrow, the world’s first wheelbarrow delivery service. Max Fosh, world famous YouTuber and funny man, would be my first client. Max was in Melbourne (my local town) for a show, so I reached out and asked if he needed a hand with anything. ‘Funny you should ask’, Max had said, ‘I need a lift to the Grand Prix’. ‘No worries Max. I’ve never met you befor

💾

💾JUNK CABIN REVISITED: In March 2020 as the Covid pandemic swept the world and homelife took on a whole new meaning, I had an idea; build my wife a cabin in the paddock without her knowing. I used only what was on the farm- stuff I’d been collecting for years off the roadside, from demolition projects or handed down from family and mates. Making the building without Helen knowing was as hard as it sounds, but I had the cover of an Oak tree in the furthest corner of the property.

💾

💾THE YOUTUBE FOREST: I’ve planted plenty of trees before, but always a known quantity, in a known allotment of time. So I had an idea. Hand the project over to YouTube to see how much money a video can make, and turn that money into trees. I’d then have to figure out where to plant them, how I’d get them in the ground before summer, who’d help, and how I’d get a hold of that many trees in such a short space of time. I had one month to earn the money and 6

💾A recording from Brendan Leonard and Jason Chatfield's live video https://semirad.substack.com/p/dma21-with-special-guest-brendan?utm_source=youtube

💾This is a clip from https://semirad.substack.com/p/dma21-with-special-guest-brendan?utm_source=youtube_shorts See the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmd55-Dx-q0 #shorts #substack