(soft uplifting music) - Oh!

- [Skydiver] Yeah, buddy.

- Wow.

Up here, you feel the wind, the exhilaration of floating on currents of air.

What an amazing way to encounter Utah.

(soft uplifting music continues) Below me is one of the wildest, most majestic terrains on earth, and it's drawn more than its share of dreamers.

What did they come here looking for and what are they looking for today?

(uplifting music) My name is Baratunde Thurston.

I'm a writer, activist, sometimes comedian, and I'm all about telling a better story of us.

Wow.

This country is wild and its natural landscapes are as diverse as its people.

- [Both] Hey!

(uplifting music continues) - [Baratunde] How does our relationship with the outdoors define us?

(crowd cheering) As individuals and as a nation?

(lively music) For centuries, Utah has been a land of pilgrimage, attracting people in search of transformation, spiritual, mental, or physical.

Like the Mormons who crossed the country to settle here almost 200 years ago.

The Dine' who arrived centuries before, and the many adventurous souls who flock here today.

They were drawn by something special about this land.

I'm here to find out exactly what that is.

(lively music continues) (rhythmic clapping) (metal clanking and clicking) - [Skydiver] Does that feel good and secure?

- It does - Amazing.

Ready to walk forwards, all smooth and strong?

- Yes.

- Alright.

3, 2, 1.

Here we go.

(Baratunde grunting) You're good.

- (grunts) What?

(Baratunde yells) Oh my God.

(laughs) There's nothing quite like starting off a trip with an incredible bird's eye view and a major head rush.

Oh my goodness.

Hi America.

(skydiver laughs) I'm flying.

(laughs) This is so smooth.

I'm paragliding at Point of the Mountain in Utah.

What?

How is this possible?

This is the closest I've ever come to what it must feel like to be a bird quiet.

I practically flapped my arms and took flight.

This is amazing.

(laughs) This is like a hammock in the sky.

It looks like a desert down below, but only about 30,000 years ago it was part of a vast freshwater lake.

Lake Bonneville.

Oh, we just lifted.

- Yeah.

- (laughs) We just lifted!

More recently, I'm talking 15,000 years ago, a catastrophic flood emptied most of Lake Bonneville and left behind a smaller, shallower, saltier remnant.

The Great Salt Lake.

The view is gorgeous, but the reality is sobering.

The Great Salt Lake has been steadily shrinking for the last 40 years.

And while we humans can't be blamed for what happened 15,000 years ago.

The situation today, well, it's impossible to shrug off responsibility.

I'm hoping to investigate on terra firma.

I'm about to land.

Gently.

But coming down to earth may be a shock to my system.

- Nice one, buddy.

- Oh, nice!

(laughs) I love earth.

- Yeah, buddy.

- But I also love the sky.

That was something special.

(light music) (water sloshing) Back on the ground, where I prefer to experience gravity.

I'm getting a closer look at the Great Salt Lake with Ben Abbott, a professor of environmental science.

He studies the dangers facing the lake and he's determined to save it.

- The great Salt Lake is sometimes compared to the Dead Sea, but the lake is actually really vibrant and alive, and all these flies, they are called brine flies and they're super important to lake ecosystem.

They're a food source for many of the 12 million migratory birds that come through here.

- [Baratunde] Yeah.

Ben recently authored a report that rang some serious alarm bells.

The lake will disappear completely in just five years unless the local communities do a much better job of conserving water.

That's five years from right now.

I see a lot of people out here enjoying the water and the shore, but I imagine there's more at stake than the loss of an afternoon at the beach.

- [Ben] We should go over here.

There's this salt mound.

- [Baratunde] Okay.

Oh yeah, I see a big pile of, - [Ben] So we can- - [Baratunde] Looks like snow.

- [Ben] Yep.

We can go salt spelunking.

- Oh, there are like huge chunks in here.

- Yeah.

Yeah so these chunks of salt are mainly sodium chloride.

The same thing that you'd have in table salt, but it also has magnesium chloride and all kinds of other stuff.

- It's beautiful.

- Isn't that?

- It looks like a crystal.

It is.

- Yeah, you know, the technical term is a Halite crystal.

When you get these deposits.

- Are they edible?

- You can taste it if you want.

It tastes salty.

- Really?

That's salt.

(Ben chuckles) - It's got a distinct flavor.

- Yeah.

- And there's a lot of industry that depends on great Salt Lake.

And one of the industries takes this salt, they break off the magnesium, and that's the source of metal for aluminum alloys in our cell phones and computers.

- From here?

- It's coming from here.

It's the only source of magnesium in the US.

- I had no idea.

- And it's really important for, you know, our transition toward renewable energies.

They're starting to extract lithium and other critical minerals from Great Salt Lake.

- I live near-ish the Salton Sea in Southern California which they're calling Lithium Valley.

So there's a fair amount of that here as well?

- Mm-hm, there is, and that's a really similar ecosystem.

- Yeah.

- The Salton Sea.

- [Baratunde] Ben was born and raised in Utah and he's raising his family here.

His devotion to restoring the great Salt Lake isn't just about ecology, it's personal.

That's because he sees a powerful connection between his scientific work and his religious faith.

- I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

- So people who came here to Utah.

- Yeah.

One of the reasons why they picked this valley was because of Great Salt Lake.

They even saw symbolism in connection with Israel.

Right, this is the Dead Sea and the Jordan River.

We named our river after the Jordan River in Israel.

I feel a connection that goes beyond science.

It's a privilege and a responsibility to take care of these places and be a part of them.

- What have we done to put ourselves in this situation right here?

What happened with the Great Salt Lake?

- There are two main contributors.

The first one that accounts for, you know, 80 or 90% of the decline is overuse of water.

And it's mainly agricultural water use, but it's also in our cities when we have lawns and this lush outdoor vegetation that requires a lot of irrigation.

- What's the second contributor?

- The second contributor is climate change.

So the past 20, 25 years have been much drier than usual and that makes it harder to maintain this ecosystem.

We've lost 75% of the water in the lake.

- 75?

- 75%.

- That's an overwhelming majority.

- It's absolutely shocking.

- So most of the lake is gone already.

- Most of the lake is gone.

And so that has exposed, you know, 800 square miles of dry lake bed.

- [Baratunde] Wow.

- It's this huge source of air pollution.

- Yeah.

- And there are also, there are a lot of dead birds from this last fall when there wasn't enough food because the salinity was so high, we didn't get the brine flies.

- [Baratunde] It's eerie to be cycling on ground that used to be underwater.

But here's something eerier, if the lake recedes further, exposing a lake bed filled with toxins like mercury and arsenic, the air around us could become dangerous to breathe.

Earlier this year, the Utah state legislature agreed to allocate nearly $500 million for water conservation efforts.

But looking at the lake now, I wonder if it's too little too late.

Good thing Ben seems to have enough hope for the both of us.

- Thankfully, there's so many success stories.

- Yeah.

- You know, we've come together and solved problems before.

We were blasting a hole in the ozone layer and the entire global community came together and said, "let's not do that."

And we fixed it.

- Mm.

- You we were driving species to extinction and we've been able to slow that down.

The Endangered Species Act- - And make progress.

- And land conservation.

- Yeah.

- As far as we've come, there really is still a long road ahead of us.

- So what do you wanna see happen that isn't happening yet?

- In some ways, saying we have five years, or seven or 10 years is missing the mark.

- Yeah.

- We've got this year to make changes.

And if we're in a position where we're saying, "okay, I'm gonna wait "until we're really up against the wall," it's gonna be too late.

And that's why we gotta be looking ahead and coming together.

And I've gotta say, you know what?

I can conserve and there are people that came before us that traced the path.

And then there are people who will come after us.

And are we gonna be good ancestors or are we just going to think about the here and now?

- I vote good ancestors.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

When you look out over this lake, it's easy to see what motivates people like Ben to protect it.

The great Salt Lake is just beautiful, but its beauty may not last.

As Ben might say, the land needs healing.

Here in Utah, that's not a new idea.

It goes way, way back.

(light uplifting music) West of the Great Salt Lake is a 30,000 acre stretch of hard white salt encrusted Earth.

The Bonneville salt flats.

It's the ancient basin of Lake Bonneville.

This is what remains when a giant body of salt water dries up.

(light uplifting music continues) Waiting for me somewhere in this endless expanse is Eugene Tapahe, a Navajo photographer and creator of the Jingle Dress Project.

Hello.

- [Eugene] Hey, how are you doing?

- I'm good.

How are you?

- Doing well.

- It's bright out here.

- It is crazy bright.

(Baratunde laughs) - I don't know how you not having sunglasses?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Hello.

- Hi.

- Baratunde.

- Dionne.

- Nice to meet you.

Dionne.

- Erin.

- Erin.

- Nice to meet you.

- Wow.

I can honestly say I've never seen anything like this.

This is beautiful and amazing.

- Thank you.

- Eugene, where are we right now?

- We're in Bonneville Salt Flats.

This is the land of the Goshute people, Timpanogos people, but a lot of other tribes here in Arizona and Utah and Nevada have come to the land, so.

- What does it mean to you?

- To me, this is where our heels of Jingle Dress Project started in June 24th in 2020, right when Covid started.

(somber music) - [Baratunde] Like many other communities, the Navajo nation was ravaged during the Covid Pandemic.

When Eugene's aunt passed away from the virus, they weren't allowed to give her the traditional burial, which is meant to happen within four days of the time of death.

During this difficult time, Eugene had a dream.

- In my dream, I was at Yellowstone National Park and I was sitting in tall green grass.

The sun was setting and I was watching bison graze.

And I started hearing the jingles of the dresses start.

I could hear them resonating and as I started looking up in the grass, I could see jingle dress dancers dancing.

They came out onto the field, and when they started dancing, it seemed like in my dream, they were dancing with the bison.

And I felt hope and peace.

I felt like, you know, everything was gonna be okay.

- [Baratunde] Jingle dressed dance ceremonies originated with the Ojibwe during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 as a way to foster healing in native communities.

Today, there's still a tool for healing both ourselves and the land.

- And so when I woke up, I sat down with my daughters, Erin and Dionne and my wife Sharon.

And I told 'em about my dream.

I told 'em, you know, I feel like the dream is telling me that if we take the jingle dress dance to the land, the ancestors that lived there prior to us would come back and help us heal during Covid.

As in traditional Navajo, I felt like if we could get four girls who would represent the four worlds that we could, you know, make it complete.

- [Baratunde] Eugene's daughters, Erin and Dionne asked their friends, Sonny and Joani to take part in the dance.

And together they represent the four worlds of the Navajo creation story.

(somber music) - Everybody move like two feet that way.

Erin right there's good.

Yeah, there we go.

That looks good.

(camera clicking rapidly) Like I said, I'm a landscape photographer before I'm doing portraits.

And the one thing I love about this project, I understand that there's a different kind of feel and spirit besides just trying to shoot beautiful pictures.

- [Baratunde] Yeah.

- So, and that's what we try to, I try to capture with what we're doing.

- [Baratunde] So what did you see on your lens there?

- So you can see on the image here, you can see their hands are held and you can see the mountains on both sides of them.

So it kind of looks like a unified look in the sense that the girls are actually- - [Baratunde] They're bridging the mountains.

- Yes, they're bridging the mountains and also kind of looks like they're holding hands with the mountain also.

So, and I didn't even ask them to hold hands.

- Right.

- They just felt it and they were just working.

That's kind of how we do things.

Just kind of just keep moving with the flow and trying to get things right.

- Go with the flow.

Eugene's photos are art.

He shares them around the world as a way to capture the beauty of the dress ceremony, as well as the healing power of the ritual they represent.

The Jingle Dress Project has traveled around the world from Mount Rushmore to Alaska to Japan and South Korea.

It's like being inside of a composition as it's being created.

- 1, 2, 3, open eyes.

(camera clicking) (all laughing) - What do you see of them when you're seeing them through the lens?

- It's really cool to see the transformation of them.

When we started to now, this project has given them a great platform to gain confidence, to gain strength, to strengthen their identity as native people.

You know, there's a lot of hardship that they have to go through as native women.

I see their ancestors, you know, in them, and I see my lineage through them also.

My grandma always told me as native people, we come from the earth, we come from the land.

And I always use that within my teachings with my daughters, how to take care of the land and how to be grateful and how to preserve the land and to be able to interact with the land in a way that the land wants us to.

- This is a powerful way to interact with the land.

- Yeah.

(light upbeat music) (vocalist vocalizing) (dresses jingling) (light upbeat music continues) (dresses jingling) (light upbeat music continues) - Other than slightly sore feet, what else are you feeling when you're doing this?

- There's, I think, a beauty in suffering that doesn't really get talked about a lot in this day and age.

Like, if there's suffering in school and then at the end you get a degree or that diploma, there's suffering and giving childbirth and being able to bring life into the world.

There's suffering in this dance because it's not something that everyone can do.

And so it's a big blessing for me to be able to have the body to be able to physically do it.

(light upbeat music continues) - It could be a metaphor for life or something where it's like something that's painful, but in the end we're stronger for it.

Even though it wasn't fun maybe going through it in the end, you gained something.

(light upbeat music continues) (curious music) - Before us, bison and mammoths came here for water.

Then at least 13,000 years ago, the age of humans began.

Early desert people, waves of indigenous people, European settlers, Mormons, today, even Californians.

This land has always been a place for seekers, but what they're looking for has changed.

Food safety, supplies, riches.

What are they looking for now?

What are they looking for now?

Well, in such a magnificent place, just being outside has a powerful impact.

The folks I've met have talked about their spiritual connection to the land and they share a belief in the healing power of nature.

But if nature can heal, it can also hurt.

Journalist and photographer, Louis Arevalo knows that all too well after a skiing accident in 2020 left him paralyzed from the chest down.

And while it would be easy for Louis to seek his own mending in the comfort of the indoors, he still feels the pull of nature and spending time outside is what really makes him feel alive.

Riding with us today is his longtime friend, Iraq War veteran and fellow outdoor adventurer, Stacey Bare.

I met up with Louis and Stacey at Corner Canyon, a popular destination for mountain bikers.

This is something of a homecoming for both of them.

The last time they biked together was right here just weeks before Louis' accident.

- Hey, what's up, Baratunde?

- Hey, Stacey.

- How's it going man?

- Very good.

very good.

- Good.

- Sweet.

- Baratunde.

- Nice to meet you.

- Good to be here.

- Yeah man.

- That is a sweet bike.

- Well it's actually a trike.

- I'm so sorry.

(Louis laughs) No offense intended.

- Yeah, you just need to learn to count.

Yeah, wow.

So it's gonna be that kind of day.

Yeah, it's gonna be that kind.

- Okay.

- With Louis, it's always that kind.

- Okay, let's do this then.

(chuckles) - It's always that kind of day.

Well, Lou and I have been riding together, adventuring together.

Lou's one of the first people I met when I moved to Salt Lake.

Since we knew you were coming, we figured it'd be a good time to get back out on some of our favorite trails and what makes Salt Lake a special place.

- I'm excited to see that, yeah.

What can I look forward to?

- Long conversations.

(all laughing) - You're such a romantic.

- Hell yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Slow, we're gonna go really slow 'cause I'm not very fast.

It'll be kind of like beginner and we'll kind of see how it goes.

- I'm a fan of beginner.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Well thanks for inviting me out on one of your first rides on this thing and on a proper trail, thank you.

I think it's time to ride.

- It's time to ride.

- Yes.

(all laughing) Let's do it.

Bit.

- Pitter patter, let's get at 'er.

(lively music) - The way he's riding, it's hard to believe Louis's only been on his trike a few months.

He was a strong mountain cyclist before his accident.

But on an adaptive mountain bike, he has to rely fully on his upper body strength.

Of course, the trail is pretty rough and it could be dangerous for Louis to bike here alone.

Whoo!

But it's clear none of that is stopping Louis from doing what he loves.

(lively music continues) Louis, I wanna understand where your relationship with the outdoors started.

- It started not too far from here.

Actually, Corner Canyon was one of the undeveloped places that we would just go and spend days and nights and just this is kind of where it started.

- Yeah.

What did it mean for you, especially as a kid and as you're coming up into your early adulthood?

- If I think about my childhood, it wasn't that great, but I found beauty and peace when I came out here.

I just wanted to be outside in the wild and like get back to that feeling of being grounded.

- [Baratunde] Louis' love of the outdoors continued through adulthood and extended to his job.

As a journalist and photographer, he captures incredible moments of people at one with nature.

And that's how Louis met Stacey six years ago, photographing Stacey on a ski run for a magazine profile.

- We barely got the shot, but Louis was just so kind.

Like what you see is what you get and he was super encouraging.

- Yeah.

- Then we just kind of started hanging out every now and again.

- [Baratunde] Making a living at the intersection of the outdoors and photography brought Louis joy throughout his life.

But in February 2020, it also resulted in his skiing accident.

- So I remember just hopping in and kind of being in a rush, like, "okay, let's just get outta here."

And started skiing, and I did one turn and I felt like, oh, I don't think my heel actually, you know, engaged.

Then I just like sat down at hockey stopped.

But it was so shallow, I hit something either a rock or a tree trunk underneath the snow and it, because there was nothing there to absorb, I just got popped forward and then I impacted this tree.

So I was upside down, flipped into it, lost consciousness.

I got heli lifted.

I had a severe concussion, obviously a huge laceration.

A collapsed lung and a full spinal cord severing at the T4, T5 vertebrae.

- What pulled you through some of what must have been a very challenging set of realization?

- I found a community within the disabled community here.

And then just learning from them and understanding that it's possible, it's gonna take time and it's gonna take more effort than I initially thought.

And now having the freedom of just going like, "oh, I want to go for a ride."

Like, "lemme call up Stacey.

"Let call up Baratunde."

- Being able to choose your own path and being able to ride your bike or ski or hike in the way you want to do it.

It's dignity.

(light music) - Louis' story is one of trauma and healing, both related to the outdoors.

His bond with Stacey comes out of both that trauma and that healing.

(bike spokes clicking) Although overcoming trauma is also at the heart of Stacey's story, his challenge was not with a broken body, but a broken spirit.

Stacey served in the US Army for more than five years with tours in Bosnia and Iraq.

When he came home in 2007, he faced struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, the thing that saved him, the outdoors.

We've moved to a campsite not far from the bike trail at the edge of the Great Salt Lake.

People sit around campfires to tell stories.

So I'm building a big one in this beautiful spot where we can roast marshmallows, make s'mores and hear Stacey's story.

- Oh, oh, oh.

- Alright.

- I think he's doing a great job.

It's challenging conditions.

Windy.

And this guy, he might've been a boy scout at one time.

- Look at this go.

It's one of the great joys of being outside.

- Campfire therapy can take you pretty far.

It has its limits.

So 2007 I got home from Iraq and at the time, right, like I came back, I was 300 pounds of mostly muscle and anger and fear and shame and guilt and like what do you do with that?

- Guilt For what?

Fear of what?

Shame about what?

- Guilt of leaving behind friends and people I cared about.

- Okay.

- Fear that...

I should have died and others should have made it home.

Shame for leaving.

Shame for quitting the army.

Shame that I didn't do enough to protect the people I cared about.

- That's a lot to carry.

- Yeah.

So I was alone.

One of the guys that I served with in Iraq lived in Colorado Springs and we would talk, I told Chuck...

I was struggling, I want to end it.

- End what?

- I just want to disappear.

I wanna be done.

I didn't wanna be a burden, I didn't want to hurt anymore.

And he said, "well how about you wait "for a couple weeks to make a decision (all laughing) "and come climb with me?"

And he is like, how do I lighten the mood?

Like I like I love you and I want you to be- - That was his way of saying I love you.

- Yeah.

And so we went out rock climbing and that was the first time, like I hadn't thought about, you know, my fear of the future and my guilt or shame of the past.

- Wow.

- I had a massive somatic experience.

I started shaking, I was crying, I was snotty.

And it was just all that emotion like leaving my body.

From those last few years, you know.

Six months later I did about the dumbest thing you can do, which is start a non-profit.

(all laughing) And that that's been the last decade plus of my life.

(somber music) - What is the work that you do with people in the outdoors?

- People who want to get out, looking for a deeper connection, looking for something.

A lot of times people know something's not quite right.

So the work is working with folks to set an intention.

Why do you want to be here?

What's going on?

I bring 'em to the outdoors.

I create a safe space to explore what awe brings.

Gentle conversation around what that experience made 'em feel like.

You just need compassion.

- Yeah.

- And a few good questions and I think that's, I mean, you gotta have fun, right?

Like you gotta have fun.

- 'Cause it's when you're truly having fun where you kind of check out.

I almost consider like having fun, like a flow state when you're just like giggling.

Like you were giggling today, Baratunde.

- Yes, I was a lot.

- And like, you weren't worried about anything.

You weren't thinking about anything.

You were just like, Whoo-hoo.

It's just joy, right?

Pure joy without any strings attached.

It's so cool.

(somber music continues) - Pure joy, no strings attached.

For some, like Louis being outside just makes you feel better, especially if you laugh.

(Baratunde laughing) But does the outdoors truly heal us?

Can nature help repair your mind and body?

And if so, how does that work?

(light music) I've been wondering about this a lot since I got to Utah and that's how I came to find myself in a beautiful garden with electrodes pasted all over my head.

Okay, there's a good reason for me to look like this, and it all starts in a lab at the University of Utah.

(birds chirping) (light music continues) Amy McDonald is a post-doctoral researcher studying how the brain reacts to nature and the cognitive benefits you can get from being outside.

To give us some insight into her findings, she's taken us to a place we've never ventured to in the show before.

My brain.

My apologies in advance.

So you study the effect of nature on the brain and you do that from this super uninspiring, white box of an office and a lab.

- Yep, yep.

That is the irony of cognitive neuroscience.

We're gonna do the whole setup in here so that we can make sure we're getting a good signal and then send you out on your walk and have you come back and record brain activity again.

- Okay, this is my before scan?

- Yep.

- Yeah.

- Just that you have a nice controlled environment so that we get really clean brain recordings.

- I'm super uninspired, so it'll be great.

- Yeah but then you'll go on a walk.

- And then I'll go out there and I'll have a huge difference.

- Yeah so if you wanna take a seat, I'll first just measure your head so we can get a cap that fits you.

- It's big.

That's all you need to know.

- Doesn't correlate with brain size.

(both laughing) (somber music) - [Baratunde] She fits me for an EEG cap, which holds electrodes in place.

- As I pull it down- - [Baratunde] These electrodes will record activity in my brain revealing how well I'm able to pay attention to some challenges she has in store for me.

- Okay, I'd say that's as good as we're gonna get- - That's great.

- In terms of signals.

So I think we should take a look at your brainwaves now.

- Let's do that, yes.

- What do you say?

- Show the waves.

Show the waves.

- Here's where we hope they're not flat, okay?

- Okay.

What would it mean if they were flat?

- That you're dead.

(both laughing) - Okay, yeah.

Don't be flat.

- All right.

- Whew, I'm alive.

- So we're gonna get you started on a couple tasks now.

- Finally, we can begin the test.

And yet again, it's not what I'm expecting.

Please count backwards from a thousand to zero by sevens.

Okay, yeah, I don't like this.

For example, you would start by saying, 1000, followed by 993, 986, and so on.

- [Amy] Do you have any questions?

- I have a lot of questions.

(Amy laughs) Why are you making me do that?

(laughs) - It's for the sake of science.

- Oh, for science.

That's always a good excuse.

(Amy laughs) 657.

And so I continue with a mission you can only call mind-numbing.

Amy's making part of my brain work extra hard.

The part that has to pay attention to get through a challenging task, just like your brain has to do if you're driving in heavy traffic or dealing with too much screen time.

You know, modern life.

- All right, good job.

(laughs) You can stop now.

- Wow.

- How was it?

- That was horrible.

- (laughs) Are you ready to get outta this lab?

- I am so ready to get out of this lab.

- Awesome.

- Oh.

Are you sure you're not doing another experiment where you just wire people up and send them off into the park.

- And see how self-conscious they are?

- (laughs) Yes.

(light music) (water splashing) Now this is a new experience.

Walking around Red Butte Garden with a sci-fi swimming cap over my head and what looks like a child's backpack.

Thank God I have this sign on my back because I know whoever sees me is gonna have some questions.

But in the name of science I relax.

The pastoral settings take over.

The grass, the trees, the fields.

There's even a little babbling brook.

For a moment, I forget we're conducting an experiment.

(water burbling) (light music continues) (birds chirping) But before I know it, it's back to the beige lab to complete the after portion of this test.

Thankfully, this time I don't have to do any math.

And boom, I've contributed to the study of neuroscience and the outdoors.

- I'm just gonna peel this off your head.

It's a little gross feeling, but sweet relief underneath.

- Yeah.

- How's that feel?

- Oh, my brain can breathe again - [Amy] Right.

- It's nice.

But still, I've got a few questions about her work.

What was the point of having me count backwards from a thousand?

- Yeah.

- Was that just for fun for you or was there a scientific purpose to that - Yeah, just pure evil.

(Baratunde laughs) Constantly running from one thing to the next, answering emails, text messages.

It's thought that that's very depleting for your cognition.

- I can guarantee you it's depleting for my cognition.

- Yeah.

And so that was our way of in the lab depleting you so that you, you go into your walk depleted.

- Okay.

- So that we can see if you are restored being in nature, because there aren't as many attentional demands placed on you at any given moment that your attention networks are able to really rest and recuperate when you're in nature.

- So I know you don't have time to fully analyze my results, but you've done this with a number of other people.

What have you learned from your other study subjects?

- Yeah, so the protocol that you did.

- Here's what Amy and her colleagues have learned.

After having your brain stressed out and tired from all that math.

A walk in the garden returns your brain to a calmer state.

The important thing is that this restoration is greater after a walk in nature than a similar walk in an urban setting.

Yeah, I'm excited by the results of this validating what a lot of humans already feel.

And I hope it does go beyond that to policies.

Giving people access to trees, real green things is gonna help us all, you know, be healthier.

Amy, I want to thank you for bringing me into your lab, but most importantly for releasing me from your lab into this beautiful garden (Amy laughs) and showing me some of what you're learning formally, that a lot of us have felt and known informally about the effect of nature on our bodies and our brains.

Thank you.

- Yeah, yeah, of course.

Thanks for coming in.

I appreciate you letting me put brain cap on you and be my lab rat.

- (laugh) Yes.

(calming music) In other words, being out in nature has a profound effect on your brain, but it's not just your brain.

Research shows that being in nature can help your heart, your breathing and circulation.

And as every outdoor enthusiast knows, even your mental health.

Good thing there's so much nature in these parts.

(car rumbling) (calming music continues) (water burbling) I am less than 30 miles from Salt Lake City in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and I'm already enveloped in mountains and streams, but I don't really have time to enjoy the view just yet.

I'm here on some seriously risky business, rock climbing.

I'm not even at the meeting point, and already I'm worn out.

Waiting for me at the top is a Utah native who's right at home on these cliffs.

Photographer, writer, and rock climbing legend, Nikki Smith.

What's up, Nikki?

- [Nikki] Hey, how's it going?

- [Baratunde] Pretty good.

- Good.

Let me come on down.

- Please do.

(metal clanking softly) That's so much faster than I expected.

- I've had a little experience.

- (laughs) Yeah, you do.

- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

- Yeah.

- That's quite an entrance.

- Yeah.

- Nikki Smith, you're a legend.

- I don't know about that.

- No.

When I tell people that I'm gonna climb with you, everybody knows who I'm talking about.

- Yeah.

- But I feel like I'm in good hands.

- I hope so.

- Yeah.

For more than 30 years, she's been climbing rocks and ice in situations that often defy gravity.

- There's a little loop on the- - She's also literally written the book, five guidebooks to be exact, on climbing.

So I think I've chosen my partner wisely for my first time rock climbing.

- Right in there.

One of the big misconceptions that people have when it comes to climbing is that you have to have a lot of upper body strength and it's all about pulling with your arms.

More you can focus on moving with your legs, the better you're gonna do.

And so we're gonna yell up to your belayer uh, your belayer is River.

Hey River.

Can you take up some slack?

Before we go, what I like to do is take a look at the wall and I want to try to visualize where I'm gonna go.

- Yeah.

- So I like to break it down into sections, but it looks like right above there, maybe 15 feet up.

Looks like there's kind of a shelf.

- Yes, I see that.

- So that's my first and only section.

That's all I'm gonna worry about right now.

That's my main goal.

- Get to the shelf.

- I'm not worrying about the rest of the cliff.

Like I'm gonna get to there.

- It's like practicing the dance moves.

- It is.

- It's choreography.

- Yeah.

There's no doubt Nikki is a great teacher, but as prepared as I am, all I can think about is that it looks like a long way up and a long way down.

The hard part starts now.

River!

On belay?

- [River] Yeah!

- Okay.

Climbing.

- [River] Climb on.

- Climb on.

- Okay.

Look for little ledges.

There's a little shelf.

- This thing?

- Yeah, right there.

- Whoa.

- Yeah.

- Just a quick moment.

The things that Nikki is pointing out as little shelves are like slivers.

I would never be like, yeah, I'm gonna put my body on that.

So let's see how this goes.

(laughs) Okay, so we've got one there and there.

Ah, okay.

- [Amy] And reach up.

And if you can get your center of gravity, shift over onto this leg a little bit more.

- Okay.

- [Amy] And then you can bring up that other leg.

Nice.

- Okay.

- [Amy] That's great.

And now you can shift your weight onto that leg and stand up.

And again, remember, always try to have your upward momentum with your legs and your hands just keep you in place.

You're doing great.

So I'm gonna start up right behind you.

- [Amy] Okay and I'm finding a little resting spot.

- [Amy] Nice.

On belay, Sherry?

climbing.

- You are very graceful.

It's like you're gently feathering the mountain with your fingertips, but clearly your feet, your quads, your legs are doing all the work just propelling you up rather than pulling yourself.

So I heard you say it before, but it's really cool for me to see you do it.

- I think you might want to step it up a little, make it a little more difficult, if you go over left.

- The way Nikki teaches me is so calm and encouraging.

It makes me feel more confident than I expected to.

And once I relax, that sensation of being miles above civilization is incredible.

This is fun.

- [Amy] Nice job.

(Baratunde laughs) - You're doing amazing.

(relaxing music) Nice.

- [Baratunde] Whew.

- It's hard to beat that view.

- It is hard to beat that view.

(relaxing music continues) (Baratunde laughing) - What?

- Nice job.

- Yo!

- You did awesome.

- Now that I can finally stop and take in the view, I understand why climbing can be so addictive.

The view at the bottom was amazing, but from up here, I wonder if this ever gets old for a veteran Utah climber like Nikki.

I came here to explore scenes like this.

Tell me about your introduction to climbing.

- I was 16 years old and some kids I had worked out with a youth camp, wanted to go climbing.

As soon as I touched that rock and started moving up, like everything disappeared.

There's so much, as you've probably experienced, there's so much focus required.

And you just tune everything else out.

- What were you tuning out?

- I was out not knowing who and what I was.

I was tuning out my father dying at 14.

I was tuning out a lot of the issues that all teenage kids have.

The more I got into climbing, the more I felt at home in my body in some ways.

But I kept seeing that I didn't fully fit.

I didn't fully belong.

- Yeah.

What did you do with those feelings?

Did you have someone to talk to?

Did you just cry it out?

Did you bury them and not address them at all?

- I buried it.

I grew up Mormon here in Utah, and that was evil.

I would never be with my family again.

I would be cast out of the church.

I would not be welcome.

So didn't want to be that.

- [Baratunde] Nikki is transgender and has known she was female her whole life, but was afraid to come out until she was an adult.

- Over time...

I got more and more depressed.

I spent more time climbing and doing guidebooks and doing photography and working all this to where I could just avoid dealing with who I was.

But I was never happy with myself.

I never loved who I was.

- Oh.

The outdoors can be an escape from trauma or the pressures of real life.

And while everyone needs a break from reality sometimes, Nikki's focus on climbing became a way to shut out a world that didn't accept her, A world that prevented her from realizing who she really was.

- And I got to a point where I was gonna take my life in these mountains.

- Here?

- Yeah.

I wouldn't leave a note.

No one would have to know that I was trans and I could just disappear.

(somber music) - You're here.

- Yeah.

Thank you for being here with me.

- Yeah, thank you for being here with me.

Thankfully, something intervened and stopped Nikki from taking her own life.

That something was a quote she found from author Brene Brown.

- It speaks about how for most of your life you've put on this armor that you felt you had to wear in order to protect yourself when you were small.

But as you grew up, you no longer needed those and you needed to let go.

And the last line of the quote is, "it is time to show up and be seen."

It just spoke to me in a way that...

I just rethought everything that day.

It took me a long time to be able to accept who I was.

You know, in climbing, sitting with climbing partners around a campfire, going out there, I listened to horrible, homophobic, and transphobic things.

There was no way they would accept me.

I decided that I was gonna do it anyway.

I want to be the person I never had when I was a kid.

- Through your realization of who you really are, how has your relationship with climbing changed?

- But I used it negatively for so long, and now I've gotten to a point where I pick and choose what I really want to do, not what I feel like I have to do in order to avoid dealing with something in my life.

My relationships with the people I climb with is so much closer and I get to teach these amazing clinics to queer and trans folks.

- Why is it important for you to encourage other folks to engage in the outdoors?

- I don't think I would be alive if it wasn't for the outdoors, for being able to come to these spaces where I can be myself, where I can feel small, where I can feel connected.

And I want to make sure that other people have access to that and I'm constantly attacked online or when I speak or appear somewhere.

But then I get messages from someone (somber music) that tells me that they didn't kill themselves because they found my story.

It's one of the most amazing things I've ever been able to do.

- And that's your gift that you're sharing.

So just on behalf of people, we've had to let some things go.

Thank you.

- These are the type of conversations that I can never fully have before.

Because I had to hide who I was.

- I am so glad that you are here and with us and so alive.

I'm glad I got this truer version of you.

And it would be a shame if I came here and didn't get to meet you.

This was a blessing for me to learn how to rock climb from Nikki Smith.

You're part of the Utah outdoors and you make all of this much more vibrant and literally more alive.

(soft upbeat music) The Rockies and the Great Salt Lake are what you expect as an outdoor experience in Utah.

But some of the state's newest pilgrims have brought something a little less familiar in this part of the world, rugby.

And to them, it's not just a pastime, it's a way of life.

(upbeat music) Is this okay to do?

Is that like.

- [Person] Yeah, why not?

Okay, I just don't even, it's like I don't know what to do with this.

(all laughing) So y'all gonna show me later how to do some of this stuff.

- [Person] Show to throw a ball.

- Great, thank you.

Thank you.

I gotta look cool.

- He can still play.

- With the rugby ball.

This is the Tonga family.

There are many of them, they're super tight, and despite coming from an island paradise like Hawaii, they love Utah.

Snow and all.

- Kauai, Utah is a big culture shock.

- Oh, it was bad.

I wasn't allowed to be barefoot anymore.

Had to wear a shirt and shoes everywhere.

(al laughing) I hated it.

- Seriously?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- I didn't like it when we first moved here.

- [Baratunde] Yeah.

- Now I love it, I can admit that.

- [Baratunde] But that was a hard transition for you.

- Yeah.

- I think we've all come to love it and we've come to love just the whole game of rugby.

Like I think Rugby's just such a family sport.

Like even within the team, they're all family.

- Yeah.

(crowd chattering) Many on the Utah Warriors are off Pacific Island descent.

And many Pacific Islanders are Mormon.

Their religion brought them to Utah and their love of rugby has made the sport increasingly popular in the region.

The sport has a rich history in Polynesian culture.

Originally brought to the islands by British and commonwealth sailors in the late 1800s, it took hold in many parts of Polynesia.

Now rugby is way more than just a sport.

Papa, what does rugby mean to you?

- Oh, bigger, bigger than life.

- Why?

- The friendship you have, you have with the trust from another man.

You know, you never have that trust outside of the game, but when you on the field with there 15 guys, you know, it just, I'll die for you bro.

You know, are you gonna do that same for me or what?

You know?

- And when you look at me like that, yeah, I will.

And I've never even played.

(all laughing) I was like, "the answer is yes!"

(all laughing) Right?

That's the right answer, right?

So what are you gonna have me do?

- Yeah, so this is touch rugby.

Touch is kind of just more like a backyard kind of game.

And then all you're really trying to do is pass the ball backwards.

- Pass the ball backwards while moving the ball forward.

- Yeah, yeah.

(upbeat music) - Touch, touch.

Down the front.

- Dude, it's walking touch.

You can touch pass.

- I don't plan on dying for anyone today, but I am excited to play my first match.

As a newbie and playing in an elevation of nearly 5,000 feet, I hope they take it easy on me.

Ooh!

That's all right.

I got hit in the face with a rugby ball.

- How as it (indistinct)?

- What's up bro?

- (indistinct).

- I'm Baratunde.

- Baratunde?

- Yeah.

- Zay.

- Zay.

That's a fun way to meet somebody.

(all laughing) For my first time playing rugby, I think I did pretty well.

And these young guys have made me feel like family.

Almost like we're in a backyard tossing the ball around rather than in this gigantic stadium surrounded by beautiful mountains.

I mean, I'm just, it's, I'm trying to focus on y'all, but to be honest, like these mountains are upstaging you a bit and my attention (indistinct).

How do you play on this pitch and not just stare off into the mountains and get distracted?

- You'll catch boys at practice just standing there.

- It'd be like that sometimes.

- Hey, (claps) come on.

(all laughs) These three, Tomasi, Olive and Tione grew up playing rugby in the Pacific Islands.

And in their new home in Utah, their enthusiasm hasn't exactly faded.

Like in the Pacific Islands the attraction is simple.

This is something they do in the outdoors together.

- We pretty much almost sell out the stadium anyway when we have home games.

So like- - That's gotta feel amazing.

- It does.

It's awesome.

Like being able to hear the crowd.

- I mean, outside of America, rugby is a pretty big sport.

I think rugby is big in our culture just 'cause we come from like sort of a warrior culture type, um, people.

(laughs) And I think rugby is very primal.

- I know my grandpa played rugby for Samoa.

He's born in Tonga, raised in Apia, Samoa.

- So y'all are like rugby royalty up in here.

- I dunno about royalty.

I dunno about royalty, but.

(all laughing) - But it is, Rugby's deep in the roots.

- [Baratunde] Yeah.

- Very deep in the roots.

Very deep in the roots.

(light music) - The outdoors isn't always peaceful.

It's where we fight wars against others and sometimes even against ourselves.

The outdoors isn't free of pain, it's where we can break things like our bodies and our identities.

And in Utah, I've seen one of our greatest natural landmarks on the brink of literally drying up forever.

But when we enter these spaces with respect and intention, we can find an opportunity to repair the ruptures in our lives.

To heal our broken bodies and our broken stories.

To understand what we've done to the outdoors so we can find ways to protect it.

A climb can become a sanctuary.

A campfire can become a safe space for community.

A scientific study can remind us what we've always known.

The outdoors gives us a chance to choose our own path.

To discard fear and guilt and shame.

To continue to seek just as the people of Utah have for eons to remember who we need to be for ourselves and for each other.

To find our way home.

(light music) (birds chirping) (uplifting music)