The Careless Talk Climbing Podcast
by Sam Prior & Aidan Roberts
Aidan Roberts and Sam Prior host this climbing-themed podcast that kind of goes where it goes. Lots of tangents and rambles as well as hopefully thought provoking questions. Sometimes it's very focussed on climbing, sometimes climbing barely comes up. The guests tend to be elite level climbers, but we often willingly get lost in the weeds and end up wildly off-topic. If you're enjoying our podcast and would like to support it: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Episodes
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E223: Jenya Kazbekova - Dreamcatcher, Ukraine, breaking new ground after becoming a mum
You have to look pretty far before you find someone as impressive or as inspiring as Jenya. She's recently climbed Dreamcatcher, she competed at the olympics and she has returned to the World Cup circuit after becoming a mum. All this whilst advocating for her home country of Ukraine which is…
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E222: Tom Randall - Risk, suffering, inconvenient data and hanging out under bridges
It's always nice to complete a set isn't it? We've had Ollie a couple of times but now we can unlock the Lattice achievement because we've had Tom on as well. Tom is probably the more well known of the Lattice duo for his rock (and cement) exploits. He loves to suffer, and put himself through…
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E221: Ollie Torr - ARCing, coaching and making gains whilst watching Netflix
Ollie is back, he's done a lot of work coaching Aidan in the past and he's one of the most knowledgeable coaches we've ever spoken to. He asked to be pre-warned of some of the things we were going to ask him about, presumably so he could brush up and spend some time revising, then we hit him with…
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E220: The most influential boulderer knockout tournament *Exclusionary criteria apply*
If you only tune in every week to enjoy listening to our opening jingle then I must apologise as I am away at the moment and don't have a copy of it with me. I could download an old episode and rip it from there but I'm hungry and I want to go and make dinner. Once again, soz. This week we get a...
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E219: Noah Wheeler - Board styling in Squamish, ego and sacking it all off to go play tennis
If you go out and send a bunch of 9A boulders, we will probably ask you to come on our podcast where we will ask you about anything other than the 9A boulders you sent. There's an inherent contradiction here, I don't really know why we do it, but yet we do it so regularly. Today is no different,...
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E218: Michael Rosato - Tension, Board Lords, Bilbo vs Brad Pitt
Much requested, Michael from Tension joined us this week. I sort of hoped this episode would devolve into a mudslinging match as we fought to shift the tiller of board climbing towards our respective visions of board utopia. As it turned out, we actually agreed on most things when it comes to…
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E217: Jakob Schubert - Are the best climbers in the world lead climbers?
At Glastonbury there is a legends slot on Sunday, I felt like we were doing something similar this week. One of the contenders for the tag of 'GOAT', Jakob has climbed top grade boulders and lead climbs, has got two Olympic medals as well as medals almost every year since 2008 on the world cup...
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E216: Round Table - Benn's back! Catch up and rambling
I spend a a day editing a podcast and then can't remember almost anything that was in it to write the description. I quite often have to click through it again to remember whichever 'unforgettable' moments there were to try and sell you with. It probably doesn't help that I'm also currently...
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E215: James Pearson - Finnish Line, Exodia and trips with kids
James is back this week! I was tempted to release this split into two episodes because I think the discussion might appeal to different people. In the first half we talk about James going on adventurous trips with his kids and his ascent of the Finnish Line in Rocklands. In the second half we…
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E214: Louis Parkinson & Joel Robertson will help you Get a Grip
Description description description, Joel and Louis wrote a book, and that means there was immediately a potential for a symbiotic relationship with us on the pod. We like talking about the psychological element of climbing and they wanted to promote their new book. Synergy. Louis is a very…
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E213: Charlie Schreiber - New coaching program, goal adjudication and climbing when time-poor
Ah the episode description section. Every week I dread filling it out because it feels so superfluous to requirement but here we go again... Joining us this week is Charlie Schreiber (as you can see from the episode title), we talk about coaching, goals, becoming busier, the bouldering…
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E212: CTCP X Backseat Climbing - Hot takes and strong opinions well defended
Joining us this week are the cohosts of a rival British Podcast, Backseat Climbing. Originally they came to fame when they humorously slandered half of climbing on a subsequently deleted pod, but they meant well and a lot of water has disappeared under the bridge since then. Solly has been on the...
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E211: Ben Moon - The Moon Spray, the next step in the evolution of commercial boards
Ben is back! Ben is very close to launching his new innovation, the Moonboard Spray. He even paid me to set it, but then he crumpled up my offering and launched into the bin and did it again with a completely different team. Why? What is it? Can I have a crack at doing the app instead? Basically...
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E210: Jen Wood - Climbing 9a, running and mindless ARCing
Jen Wood comes to join us on the pod this week! Someone who used to compete on the World Cup boulder circuit with Aidan but they went in totally opposite directions at the end (not because of any personal beef I hasten to add) Jen has transformed herself via the most gruelling methods into one of...
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E209 : Billy Ridal's Grand Day Out
Billy is back to talk about another audacious challenge. This time Billy attempted to climb 100 7s on gritstone in 24 hours. It was quite the adventure with a some high highs and some devastating (and humorous) lows. Billy came on to tell us the story! If you're enjoying the podcast and would…
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E208: Red Pill vs Blue Pill game, controversy and summer training updates
Home team this week and Katie jumped in to join us for a friendly round of Red Pill vs Blue Pill, a chat about some storm in a teacup controversies that will probably be forgotten about in a week and a catch up about Aidan and Katie's summer training. We also rambled for quite some time about...
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E207: *NSFW* Lillian Frances - Fingerbanging for climber boys, communication, consent
If you normally listen to this podcast with young children, maybe tell them we didn't upload this week, or give them an old episode and test their memory! Okay we'll level with you, this episode has given us a bit of anxiety. Having a moderately successful podcast can sometimes lead to the...
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E206: Paul 'Huffy' Houghoughi - New digital training devices, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and other injuries
Wow it's been a while since Huffy was last on! Generally considered the foremost climbing physio in British circles, Huffy really knows his stuff and is also one of the nicest and easiest people you could hope to meet so it was a pleasure to have him back. Lots of good stuff, give it a listen! If...
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E205: Eric Bissell - Yosemite ranging and film making
I can't remember the last time I had a faster two hours than during this conversation. We had a long (mental) list of things to talk about and after asking a couple of questions I looked down and discovered we'd run out of time. We mostly talked about Eric's time as a Yosemite climbing ranger and...
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E204: Roundtable with Hamish McArthur and Ethan Salvo
Two return guests coming back for a new look round table. We chat about a range of topics from social media, awkward crag interactions, Hamish's new not for profit, what climbing means to us, Dean Potter and of course our new favourite Ebird comes up from time to time. It's a bit of a sprawling...
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E203: A 'big year' for climbing, commercial boards and how much could you suffer for gains?
A home team episode, just us chatting about some various bits and pieces. Most of the bits and pieces are in the title and in the episode description so I probably shouldn't write them out here again should I? Maybe I should, but that's starting to feel like hard work so I won't... It's just…
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E202: Tristan Chen - Recovery, pottery and the similarities between bouldering and birding
Long overdue, but we managed to get Tristan on the podcast. We've wanted him to come on for a long time. Tristan is a really strong climber from the south east who also has a witty and dry sense of humour which we really appreciate. Known for his hot takes and funny way of phrasing things he was...
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E201: Yannick Flohe - Big sends, big downgrades, let's sort this mess out
Yannick did it! I've been saying for a while we need to see some 9As get downgraded (and potentially some 8Cs/8C+s upgraded) and Yannick has helped to get the ball rolling. He's always fun to talk to, you never feel far away from a clipable comment or quote that would make us serious bank on...
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E200: 9A boulderer draft, Squamish and chat
It's our 200th episode! To celebrate we're doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary! Just Aidan and I this week, chatting about Squamish, media we've watched, some stats from the pod and we play a silly game where we have to draft 9A boulderers for some challenges. If you're enjoying the pod...
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E199: Natalia Grossman - Success, setbacks and prioritising mental health
This week we were joined by four time overall boulder world cup winner Natalia Grossman. Natalia is in the thick of an unfortunate set of injuries, having initially ruptured her ACL she now has picked up a nasty shoulder injury. Despite these debilitating setbacks she came back and won American...
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E198: Sam, Aidan & Katie - Pride, confidence, projects and hypotheticals
We had a great time doing 75% of a round table. Alas no Benn this time, but Katie has done a hard new boulder in Yosemite so that gave us something to talk about. We got to talking about confidence in the projecting process, comparison to others, how much pride we feel about our achievements and…
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E197: Connor Herson - Quick ascents of the hardest trad routes in the world, drifters escape and trad style/ethics
We had a great time chatting to Connor for this week's episode. I feel like you have to really make waves in the Trad world for us to know that much about you and Connor has done just that. After sending what was potentially the hardest ever trad pitch Connor went around the world to try the…
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E196: Jana Švecová - 8C first ascents, Terranova and injury comebacks
Jana Švecová joins us this week! We've been trying to get this sorted for a while so glad it finally came together. Jana is a super impressive climber, and has climbed multiple 8C boulders (she climbed another one since we recorded this episode). We chat to her about those projects, coming back...
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E195: Yosemite season round up, news and desert island boulders
This episode is just the home team having a bit of a round up. We talk about Aidan's yosemtie season and I push a little harder to get his thoughts behind how it all went than I normally do. Then we just have a little catch up about some of the goings on in the climbing world and finally return…
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E194: Bruce Zou - The first Chinese person to climb 8C talks barefoot sends, quick progression and grade chasing
This week we had a great time chatting to Bruce Zou. Bruce is a very charismatic chap who is incredibly passionate about his climbing. He has climbed up to 8C and has also developed an affinity for climbing barefoot. His opinions about what climbing means to him and how they have changed were...
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E193: Max Milne - Winning the PCL, campusing The Ace and injury comebacks
*Warning the sound quality in the first 5 minutes is pretty dodgy but improves after that :) We had one of our favourites back on the pod for this week's episode! Max Milne has recently won the new Pro Climbing League after qualifying as a wild card and he's been putting in great performances on...
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E192: Round Table - We've got to talk about Ondra and D&D alignment chart
A round table with Benn and Katie again this week. We had to talk about Ondra a bit because he's been busy! Then the main goal was to fill out a D&D style alignment chart we stole from Reddit. We had a laugh with it and I tried to herd the cats as best I could but it all got a bit messy! If…
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E191: Allison Vest - Climbing 'big boy' boulders and the work behind the success
Fan favourite Allison is back on the pod this week! Thankfully Allison had a phenomenal run of form recently, culminating in some big sends, namely The Mantra, a three move V14 on tiny crimps, and The Expanse, a V15 boulder that had previously only been climbed by some of the tallest men in the...
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E190: Keenan Takahashi - 10 seconds of fear a year, the pros and cons of large egos and getting distracted by trees
Keenan is back! A pod favourite for sure and someone Aidan has spent a lot of time with over the past few years. Keenan has been putting up more incredible first ascents, which we chat a bit about, namely Dreadnought but he also came equipped with a few of his own talking points! I've recently...
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E189: The Pro Climbing League, tactics and general chat
We got stood up! Some say we should send links and reminders to our guests but we've never bothered before, and now it's cost us! So Aidan and I just chatted happily amongst ourselves. Largely about the Pro Climbing League which is a new competition format that recently happened in London. Could...
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E188: Round Table - Anecdotes, talking points and ramble shambles
A bit of a messy round table for you this week. A few decent talking points hidden away amidst a mess of off-topic rambles and general merriment. I hope you get something out of it, they're definitely fun to record! Looking forward to seeing how AI segments the 'chapters'... If you're enjoying…
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E187: Zach Galla - An incredible run of form, discussions on mindset, physicality and confidence
Wow, what form Zach Galla is in! Recent sends of Hypnotised Minds, Devilution, Return of the Sleepwalker and Shaolin, could be the most impressive run of ascents ever recorded. We really wanted to try and discern what could have led to such form, is it a mentality thing or improvements in…
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E186: We're back! Life updates, outdoor comps and climbing à la Netflix
We're back! Just the reunited home team this week. Shockingly we hadn't spoken that much for a month so we had quite a lot to catch up on. Aidan is hard focussed on his 6 degrees project but has also had a couple of trips, and Sam continues his expansionary quest for global domination by having...
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E185: Talking with a climbing CEO, Ged from the Hangar offers his views from the other side of the aisle
So, I never intended to make this episode. When I did the episode with independent gym owners I felt like I should probably reach out to a CEO of a chain gym for comment. I should have, but I didn't. I was planning to leave that thread as it was, but Ged from the Hangar got in touch to say he'd...
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E184: Aidan does an 'ask me anything' hosted by Katie Lamb
It's the 'Sam can't record anything this week' special! Where one of the knights of our round tables Katie hosts an ask me anything with questions from our Patroons (Patreon members). If you want to be one of the people throwing questions out then you too can join our fantastic community of...
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E183: The independent climbing gym special featuring Blocfit, Gym Sen and Rise
Hello all, I come to you with a different offering this week. There's no Aidan this week, it's just me chatting to three different independent climbing gym owners in London. Sounds a bit niche but I was hoping to get a bit of a conversation going and I thought that there would be good parallels…
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E182: Jim Pope - Yosemite big walling and New Zealand bouldering
The ever popular Jim Pope is back on the pod for his third time this week. A chap said to me he only knows Jim as a board climbing aficionado, which is quite funny really when in reality he is the hardest climber to put in a box that we know of. It's impossible to tell what he'll do next but he...
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E181: Round Table - Does climbing need grades? Cancellations and group therapy
A round table episode with the A team, so Katie Lamb and Benn Wheeler joining Aidan and Sam to ramble about some climbing or vaguely climbing related topics. Does climbing need grades? Why are we so obsessed with maintaining the grading scale when other sports (that are similar but generally...
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E180: Will Bosi - Following inexhaustible psych, Silence, 9As and Scottish bouldering
Happy New Year! We're back with a bang with a return guest that we haven't had on since episode 6 of this podcast! Back then Will was a comp climber taking a break from competing and showing huge promise on rock. Since then... Well, he's done all the things and now his hat is in the ring when...
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E179: Aidan saves Christmas and meet the new year, same as the old year
Merry Christmas/seasons greetings (delete as appropriate) dear listeners! Every now and then I like to take a break from making a climbing podcast and just try and wind up my mate Aidan for a bit. The first half of this episode is just that. I will be playing the part of Father Christmas/Santa...
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E178: The future for indoor and outdoor climbing, coming off the fence about recent developments
Does anyone read these? Right, we've been having too much of a good time these past few episodes and lots of good rambles have fallen away into wails of (useless) mirth. Time for us to actually have a chat and remember that this is a job and we can stop pretending to like each other for five...
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E177: Niall Grimes - A general natter with a fixture of British (and presumably Irish) climbing
Niall Grimes, he's been around for a long while, he's part of the furniture here, but who is he? Where did he come from? What's he about? You may or may not find the answers to those questions somewhere within but he'll probably make you laugh at least once (no refunds). It was a great laugh…
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E176: Round Table - Climbing news, first 9A+, internet drama and hot takes
A classic round table episode with Katie Lamb and Benn Wheeler! We chat about some of the incredible climbing news that has happened in recent weeks, some of the internet storm in a teacup drama that has been born from it and we throw out a few hot takes. Keep listening to the end if you want to...
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E175: Dayan Akhtar - Achieving incredible world cup consistency through self-coaching and the physical and mental challenges on the comp circuit
We were psyched to have Dayan on the pod with us this week, the British climbing team are at something of a high water mark at the minute and Dayan is right in the thick of it. Lots of chats about the competition scene and the many challenges it presents the climbers that are fighting to keep up...
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E174: Aidan's experience with Mount Doom and various rambles
Just Aidan and me this week trying out a new format! Basically, it was recorded over two days so we could get Aidan's thoughts and opinions about trying a last day ascent of Mount Doom 9A, and then the second part was recorded a few days later to see how it went, and more importantly how his...
About this show
Aidan Roberts and Sam Prior host this climbing-themed podcast that kind of goes where it goes. Lots of tangents and rambles as well as hopefully thought provoking questions. Sometimes it's very focussed on climbing, sometimes climbing barely comes up. The guests tend to be elite level climbers, but we often willingly get lost in the weeds and end up wildly off-topic. If you're enjoying our podcast and would like to support it: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823
Hosted by
Sam Prior & Aidan Roberts
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