Tracy Edwards

Copyright Chris Openshaw

Tracy Edwards gained international fame in 1990 as the skipper of the first all-female crew to sail around the world when they raced in the 1989/90 Whitbread Round the World Race. After years of struggle, Maiden was only made possible by the support of her friend HM King Hussein I of Jordan. Maiden won two legs and came second overall in her class, the best result for a British boat since 1977 and unbeaten to this day. Tracy was awarded an MBE and became the first woman in its 34 year history to be awarded the Yachtsman of the Year Trophy. She paved the way for other women to follow. Maiden was published in 1990 and was No.1 on the Times bestseller list for 19 weeks. Following her success with Maiden, Tracy set to consolidate her position as one of the world's top sailors by entering Trophy Jules Verne in 1998 again with an all-female crew. This yachting trophy is for the fastest circumnavigation around the world with no stopping and no outside assistance. She was comfortably on course to smash the record for more than half of their route, but was thwarted when her mast snapped in two in treacherous seas off coast of Chile. During their attempt Tracy and her team broke 7 world records.

In 2014 Maiden was found rotting in the Seychelles and Tracy began raising funds in order to rescue Maiden and bring her home to the UK. The Maiden Factor was consequently set up to promote and fundraise for the education of 130 million girls worldwide who are currently denied this basic right. Thanks to the generous support of HRH Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, Maiden has been restored to her former glory. Now this iconic piece of British maritime history has embarked on a three-year world tour to raise funds for her charity, The Maiden Factor Foundation. The Maiden Factor funds projects that empower girls through education.

3 words to describe Nature?

Everything. Us. Oceans

3 things Nature taught you?

Human beings are so arrogant to think we can control Nature

Nature holds the secrets that we refuse to see

Our souls and mental wellbeing are dependant upon the health of nature

3 most treasured Nature spots?

Rhossili Bay on the Gower Peninsula

The Darwen Channel in Chile

Cape Horn

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?

Freedom and love

When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?

Joy and peace

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?

Overawed and small

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?

Safety

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?

Wild and exhilarated

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?

Happy and excited

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?

The Ocean and the Desert make me feel the same. They are endless and wild. People cannot leave footprints and we cannot control them.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?

10 – nature is everything

Share with us a childhood nature memory?

Moving from Reading in the centre of the UK to Llangennith on the Gower Peninsula. The first time I stood on the sand dunes during a storm and understood for the first time how powerful nature is and how tiny I am and yet how fully connected I felt to everything around me. It was the first time I ever tasted salt water blown on my face little knowing that it would not be the last. It literally took my breath away. I fell in love.


Alisa Miller

Alisa Miller seeks to transform and invent media and technology that positively impacts people’s lives. Recently, she was the executive chairman of PRI-PRX, the broadcast network formed when Public Radio International (PRI) merged with Public Radio Exchange (PRX). She led this first-ever public media network merger and created an organization that reaches more than 28.5 million users each month and has more than 58 million monthly podcast downloads - within the top three podcast sources in the US.

She was named CEO of PRI in 2006, the first woman and youngest CEO to head a major public radio network. Before her time with PRI, Alisa headed new digital business development for Sesame Street.

Alisa speaks on how media and technology shapes our lives and on building purpose-driven companies and careers. Her TED Talk on media's power to shape knowledge and action has been viewed 2 million times and been translated into 48 languages. She was named by Fast Company as a Most Influential Woman in Technology, is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and in 2015 won the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

She’s a proud Cornhusker and holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Nebraska and a master’s degrees in business administration and public policy, both from the University of Chicago.

When Alisa isn't working or with her kids, she can be found singing or hiking on a mountain trail somewhere.

3 words to describe Nature?

Space. Time. Standstill (I find that the power of nature connects and touches me in these powerful moments — time literally standstill. Its about being awestruck by the scale, beauty and rawness of it.)

3 things Nature taught you?

We are temporary

We are small

Make it matter

3 most treasured Nature spots?

Bridal Veil Falls, Rocky Mountain National Park. My family has had a 3, now 4 generation affair with the Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park. Bridal Veil Falls is a hike I first walked as a child and each time I go back, it is not only beautiful but reminds me of family roots and connectedness.

Crescent Meadow, Sequoia National Park. This place literally shimmers and those trees, those ancient trees, are magical.

Sneffles Range, Colorado. The air, the sun, the exertion to get there and to the top. Worth it. 

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?

Calm, humble

When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?

Life, hushed 

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?

Awestruck and a touch of fear

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?

Reflective, grateful to breathe

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?

Like a little kid

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?

Alone

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?

Mountain

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?

10+

Share with us a childhood nature memory?

Floating.

Summer rays.

In a prairie freshwater lake.

Watching the bubbles come out of my nose. Diving and feeling the water cool ....

as it becomes darker and deeper. 

Down further. 

Holding my breath.

Watching fish watch me.

Currents pulsing through my fingers. Freedom

 

 


TOKiMONSTA

Jennifer Lee "TOKiMONSTA" is one of the top producers and DJs in the world. In 2010, she was invited to attend the Red Bull Music Academy in London. Making her mark on the music scene, Jennifer became the first woman to sign with Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label. Following the release of her first album Midnight Menu, Lee was rated the #1 Hottest Los Angeles Lady DJ by LA Weekly. In 2015, Jennifer was diagnosed with an extremely rare and potentially fatal brain disease known as Moyamoya (Read story here). After undergoing two brain surgeries, Lee was left unable to speak, create, or even listen to music. Through perseverance and faith, Lee’s memory returned and shortly after taking a break, she was finally able to regain her music making abilities. After regaining much of her memory and music-making talent in March of 2016, Jennifer made her triumphant return with jaw-dropping performances at SXSW and Coachella. In 2019, she was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Dance / Electronic Album. Lee was featured on Vox-Netflix series Explained. Check her latest album, Lune Rouge.

The name Tokimonsta originates from the Korean word for rabbit (tokki), which she took from a Korean's children's song "San Toki”

3 words to describe Nature?

Beautiful. Freedom. Enigmatic 

3 things Nature taught you?

Beauty

Patience

Mindfulness

3 most treasured Nature spots?

Big Sur

Joshua Tree

All the beaches of SE Asia

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?

At peace

When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?

Connected to all of nature 

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?

Chaos 

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?

Joyful to end or begin another day 

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?

Fear 

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?

A bit spooked 

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?

Ocean 

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?

10

Share with us a childhood nature memory?

I remember driving with my family to Palm Springs almost every weekend. I used to find the monotony of the landscape quite boring while sitting in the car, but grew to appreciate the landscape more.

 


Arita Baaijens

ARITA BAAIJENS is an explorer, biologist, photographer and writer. She is forever curious about the world and explores both physical landscapes and Mindscapes, those last remaining white spots on the world map that Google Earth is not able to find. Fellow Explorers Club, Royal Geographical Society and WINGS Worldquest, who selected her for the Wings Humanities Award 2014. She has completed over 25 desert expeditions on camel throughout Egypt and Sudan. She is the first woman to have crossed the Western Desert of Egypt solo on camel and the first Western woman to travel the Forty Days Road on camel twice. In Mauritania she photographed the last surviving female caravaneers. Currently Arita Baaijens travels and works in Siberia and Papua New Guinea, to research traditional cultures and sacred landscapes at risk. In 2013 she was the first to circumambulate the Altai Golden Mountains in the heart of Eurasia: 4 countries, 101 days, 1500 km on horseback. In March 2015 the Spanisch Geographical Society honored Arita Baaijens as Traveler of the year. She proudly carried the WINGS flag twice.

Baaijens is a pioneer, innovator and connector. She uses deep mapping and story telling to open people’s minds to different possibilities of explaining the world.

Arita Baaijens has produced radio documentaries, a virtual reality film (2016) and video dispatches about her travels. She has published numerous features about her journeys (see attachments) and to date has published seven books, including the award-winning Desert Songs: A Woman Explorer in Egypt and Sudan (AUC Press 2008). She is one of 50 explorers portrayed in “Modern Explorers” (2013, Thames and Hudson). Her book Looking for Paradise (Atlas Contact, 2016) was short listed for the prestigious Dutch Jan Wolkers Award. Baaijens' photographic work has been exhibited in museums and gallery's in England, Sudan, Egypt and the Netherlands. Her 2016 exhibit Search for Paradise in the Ketelfactory Gallery, Netherlands, drew many visitors and caught the attention of the media. It included photography, film, soundscape, a deep map and public lectures. Baaijens is in demand as a speaker both in the Netherlands and abroad, and has presented two TEDxtalks. She is a regular speaker on television and radio. 100+ interviews in magazines and newspapers.

3 words to describe Nature? 

Miraculous, Resilient, Omnipresent

3 things Nature taught you? 

Joy. The meaning of the word Sublime. Also: We need nature, but nature doesn't need us.

3 most treasured Nature spots? 

Treasured spots are always Nature spots! The first spot that comes to mind is a lonely and incredibly beautiful and also terrifying spot in the Western Desert of Egypt. It's an 'eagles nest', an outcrop on the edge of a steep and endless limestone cliff. At this spot the surface falls away on all sides but one, the view is incredible. Behind me empty desert, chalk hills, loneliness. And far below sanddunes wherever the eye turns. Incredible, the sand stretches further than the horizon, all the way into Libya. Spectacular, the spot is a strange and horrifying beauty. I have always felt that this is what our planet must have looked like in the days that man was not yet born. Untouched. Scary also, because my water was almost finished when I reached this sport and if I could not find a safe way down the steep cliff that would have been the end of me and my camels .

Second place that comes to mind is the Ukok plateau in south-west Siberia, the Altai Mountains. A very lonely and remote spot, an iconic and sacred glacier valley surrounded by high mountain peaks covered with ice and snow. It is right on the border with Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan. Rivers are being born there! Rivers that carry water for 7000 km north to the Arctic Sea. 9 months of the year it is impossible to be there, too cold, too windy, too dangerous. In the summer months the top layer of the frozen soil melts, which creates small streams and dangerous swamps. Many beautiful lakes. View of mountains, tundra and clouds is majestic. Genesis all over!

the Third spot is my garden and tiny hobbit house in the country side. I couldn't live in Amsterdam if it weren't for this tiny refuge in the country side. It is a strange place, a green oasis tucked away between a high way and the biggest petrochemical industry area in the Netherlands.  And yet, the green oasis which is part of very old agricultral land has survived and I feel extremely grateful whenever I go there.

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...? 

To be honest, Oceans don't attract me very much. I do like to scuba dive in the Red Sea, it always reminds me of my time in the mother womb. Safe, warm, nourishing, beautiful. If I meet the ocean standing on the beach then something funny happens.  'I' stop to exist, 'it' expands, I am the waves and all it contains. I guess the oceans are the alpha & omega of all that is. I wished scientitsts and researchers would leave the depths of the ocean alone. Allow the ocean to keep its secrets, give it privacy! As an explorer I much prefer to stay on land.

When you see a forest, it makes you feel...? 

The forest, strangely enough, is also not my favorite environment. Claustrofobic, I need empty spaces, views in 360 degrees. Which doesn't mean that I don't love forests, I do! Trees are my friends. They supply oxygen, literraly and figuratively speaking.

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...? 

Wow!! Here are forces at work that we humans don't control. Volcanos keep us in check and remind us of our hubris

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...? 

Since I became a desert explorer I learned about the power and the magic of a sunrise and a sunset. And I completely understood why the ancient Egyptians worshipped Ra, the sun god.  In the desert I would wake up 2 hours before sun rise, feed the camels, eat breakfast, load the camels and go. That first hour of walking with the camels, pure bliss. As soon as the sun announced its arrival and the first sliver appeared above the horizon I knew that within two hours she would make me suffer. But I always welcomed her with a song (it was no conscious decision to sing, it just happened): 'Here comes the sun,' na na na, etc The sun creates the day and brings life. Then, after a long and hard day walking in the heat, I again enjoyed the last hours of day light and would watch, with relief, shadows appear. Those wonderful shadows recreated the 3D world that had disappeared between 9 am till 3 pm. I never ever would miss the spectacle of the sun saying good bye, I would watch in silence how the world I knew would come to an end. After the last sliver of red had fallen of off the earth (that's how it felt) the sun would set the clouds on fire before it finally disappeared. She left me the moon, the stars and sometimes complete darkness. Nighttime. 10 hours of blissful sleep!

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...? 

Alive and in awe, the gods are speaking!

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...? 

Hard to describe, it is a mix of awe, joy, feeling extremely alive and alert, and yet infinitely small,  just the way I like to feel.

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person? 

Empty spaces: desert, steppe, tundra, you name it. As long as it is untouched and vast and dangerous for humans

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being? 

10

Share with us a childhood nature memory? 

I grew up near a huge forest. We would go there on Sundays, my parents on their bicycles, my brother and I on the back seat. We would bring snacks, lemonade, sweets. I would disappear in the forest. Trees were pillars of my castle. Moss was the softest carpet imaginable. Dew drops were jewels. It was so quiet! Of course the birds sang and the insects buzzed. But the play of light and shadow, those high trees... created a solemn atmosphere. I would choose a big stone that was covered with soft moss and grass: my throne. And I of course was Alice in Wonderland.