The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - The Royal Block Reading Series welcomes prolific author and globally renowned explorer Richard Bangs for a reading from his 20th book, "The Art of Living Dangerously," at the Royal Block in Waitsburg on November 22, 2023, at 6:30 PM. Admission is free and open to the public (21+).

In 1973, Richard Bangs co-founded Sobek Expeditions, now MT Sobek, the world's original and largest adventure travel company with over a million clients guided since its beginning. The Art of Living Dangerously is not just a story of an unusual company; it's the story of a passionate team of adventurers who profoundly transformed how we travel and experience the world.

It presents true stories-both perilous and awe-inspiring-from the full array of adventure travel: trekking, climbing, sailing, diving, rafting, kayaking, backcountry skiing, mountaineering, biking, cultural immersions, canyoneering, and more. MT Sobek pioneered scores of adventures, from trekking in the Himalayas to cruising the Galapagos and Antarctica to the first descents of some eighty rivers worldwide.

Bangs personally led thirty-five first river descents, capsizing on six continents (a unique, albeit dubious, distinction), and organized and led first adventures into North Korea, Libya, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, New Guinea, Iran, and even China back in 1978. MT Sobek's clients have included Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mick Jagger, Barry Diller, Martha Stewart, Richard Gere, Tony Robbins, and Caitlyn Jenner. It was the operating adventure company behind National Geographic Adventures, New York Times Active Journeys, and Smithsonian Expeditions. This book traces fifty years of adventure travel and how it has evolved through times of war and peace, terrorism, the rise of the internet, and the pandemic with the first virtual expeditions.

Richard Bangs has been called the father of modern adventure travel and was named one of the great explorers of the last 100 years by Explorersweb.com. He was on the founding executive team of Expedia and served as president of Outward Bound. Bangs was executive producer and host of the Emmy-winning PBS series Richard Bangs' Adventures with Purpose. He founded and led travel media products for MSNBC.com, MSN, Slate, and Yahoo. Richard is also a co-founder of Steller. co, the world's largest travel storytelling platform.