The Careless Talk Climbing Podcast

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

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20 episodes
Updated Wednesday

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Episodes20

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Wednesday · 1 hr 28 min
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 the UKs top sport climbers. All that hard work culminated in sending Climb for Life (9a) in Sicily. We chatted about that, how she got there and I also asked her a bunch of questions about running which a more professional podcast might have warned her was coming. If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us please consider checking out our Patreon! It probably won't help you climb your projects but it might help release a tiny amount of feel good hormones that for a brief moment could make you almost feel like you have. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
July 29 · 1 hr 56 min
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 like to support us, please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
July 22 · 1 hr 46 min
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 various sports, but that is on the Patreon so if you want even more rambling please consider checking out our Patreon page. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
July 15 · 1 hr 32 min
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 erroneous thought 'people like listening to us talk about climbing, so maybe people like listening to us talk about other stuff too'. That has often proven to be very wrong, however we have said many times that we think climbers are more interesting than climbing so we feel this episode is true to that. Lillian is a keen climber but not one that cares too much about progressing through the grades. She has written a book entitled 'Fingerbanging for climber boys' which is about exactly what it sounds like it's about, but it's also about the value of communication and the importance of consent. This stuff is important, and we do believe talking about it and breaking a few taboos is a worthwhile endeavour. That said, we do understand that some of you will feel this isn't the right place, or time, or that we're not the right people to be having this conversation, and we understand and respect that critique but on this occasion we elected to go with our gut (and the wise guidance of our Patroon community) and do it anyway. Love, Sam and Aidan If you would like to check out Lillian's book : https://www.fingerbangingforclimberboys.com/ If you still like this podcast and would like to support us please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
July 8 · 2 hr 15 min
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 you want to hear more from Huffy then check out his podcast 'The Climbing Injury Podcast'. If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to help us keep the lights on: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
July 1 · 1 hr 55 min
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 his film-making and I still can't quite believe we didn't get to anything else! If you like the podcast and would like to help us keep it going, please consider joining our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
June 24 · 2 hr 24 min
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 chat and we have to chase Ethan down a few rabbit holes but we got somewhere in the end, actually we didn't, but we chatted about some things along the way. If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us, please consider checking out our patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
June 17 · 1 hr 42 min
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 dawned on me that in the time it took me to write that I could have just written a proper description but ah well.. In too deep to turn back now. If you think I'm still writing just so it looks like a big enough word count for a podcast description you'd be very very very very wrong. Lots of general natterings, you know the drill by now I'm sure. If you're enjoying the pod and would like to support us please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
June 10 · 2 hr 10 min
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 great fun to have on and we enjoyed the chat immensely. Tristan recovered from Leukaemia a couple of years back and we talk about that at the start of the podcast if that's something that you wouldn't like to listen to then you can skip the first 40 minutes or so. If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
June 3 · 1 hr 53 min
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 instagram if I could be bothered to clip it and post it. He's honest and he says what he thinks and we need a lot more of that at the moment! If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
May 27 · 1 hr 45 min
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 and would like to support us: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
May 20 · 1 hr 53 min
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 nationals! On the face of it that sounds like an amazing comeback story but there's a lot more going on behind the scenes! If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us, please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
May 13 · 2 hr 8 min
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 I throw a bunch of hypotheticals at them at the end! If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us please consider checking out our patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
May 6 · 2 hr 8 min
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 other contenders for the title, and in so doing, discovered that yes, it's probably the hardest ever trad pitch. We chat about the incredible year he's had but also about trad climbing in general. Some of the ethics questions and also we chat about trad climbers and wonder why they are the way that they are (we love you really). If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us, please do consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
April 29 · 1 hr 32 min
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 from injuries, her long term battle with Terranova, Czech climbing and we also run through some desert island boulders. Hope you enjoy! If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us then please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/c/u70353823 Support the show
April 22 · 1 hr 32 min
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 to our desert island boulders, this time with more examples to plagiarise. If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
April 15 · 1 hr 56 min
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 really interesting and we also talked about the pros and cons of grade chasing. Really enjoyable chat, some of the best bits are towards the end so I would encourage a full listen... To be honest I always encourage a full listen, unless it's just me and Aidan... Then just listen for as long as you can bear it I guess. If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
April 8 · 1 hr 27 min
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 the World Cup circuit for a while now. He's also dabbled in rock climbing, flashing The Ace and Bewilderness as well as climbing Forgotten Gem and even returning to The Ace to campus it in a protective boot! If you're enjoying the pod and would like to support us, please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show
April 1 · 1 hr 50 min
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 you're enjoying the pod and would like to support us please consider checking out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/c/u70353823 Support the show
March 25 · 1 hr 52 min
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 sport! Climbing either of these boulders would be a good enough excuse to ask Allison to come back on the pod but to do both of them in just a few days is a feat that very few people could manage! We chat about that and her tactics, and why she's not fingerboarding (in the same way) anymore! If you're enjoying the podcast and would like to support us please consider checking out our Patreon page! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70353823 Support the show