Category: Thought Leadership
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Why Staying in Hostels While Traveling Solo Is Great
Earlier this year, while I was traveling through Beijing, China, I stayed in Leo Hostel. During my short stay there, I was interviewed by a Chinese school group producing a short segment about travel in China. In the segment, I speak a little about my travel experiences, and why I think it’s a great idea…
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I’m Going Back To Antarctica To Work At The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Field Camp
After a year of training, travel, expeditioning, and preparation, this Austral Summer I’m going back to Antarctica to work with the United States Antarctic Program on an science expedition at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Field Camp, one of the most remote permanent field stations in Antarctica. I’m very excited to be going back to the…
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How to plan, train and pack for your first summit above 14,000 feet
This month, I was featured in Boulder Lifestyle Magazine discussing some great Colorado 14ers to get you started on your first climb. Thanks to journalist Sandra Henderson for interviewing me for the article. Check out the article, starting on page 34!
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Interviewing With NY1 News About Mountaineering Off The Beaten Track in Serbia
While appearing recently at the NY Travel Festival, I was interviewed with Travel Expert Valarie D’Elia. Val reports on travel and tourism for NY1 News in New York City as well as her own site, Travel With Val. I spoke with Val about the allure of expedition-style travel to emerging destinations far off the beaten…
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Applying to the Ecologic Institute’s Arctic Summer College
This summer, transdisciplinary research organisation The Ecologic Institute will hold its 3rd annual Arctic Summer College, and I plan on attending. To apply, I wrote two essays speaking to my interests in the program, as well as issues facing the region. Here’s what I had to say: Arctic Summer College Application Essays – Summer, 2014…
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Interviewing for the Tour Leader Position with G Adventures
Recently I had the opportunity to meet with G Adventures Bruce Poon-Tip, as well as Global Purpose Specialist Eduardo Cartaya. After a number of inspiring converstaions, I submitted my application to work with them at a Chief Exploration Officer – a G Adventures guide. For your interest, here are my brief answers submitted online. I’d…
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Speaking About Antarctica at Percolate Inspire
Last October, I was invited to appear as the featured speaker at Percolate’s monthly Inspire speaker series. Here’s video of my talk: More on Percolate: Percolate helps brands create content at social scale. Some key features include: – Track events and plan content at the intersection of brand voice and cultural relevance – Employees never…
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On My Photo Editing Process….
Recently a blog reader wrote to me about my photos taken with the Sony RX-100, as well as my creative process. Here’s the exchange: Hi Jeffrey I have done quite a lot of looking at people’s photos using the RX100 and I can say without exaggeration that yours are the best I have seen by…
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I’ll Be Appearing At The New York Travel Festival, Speaking About Adventure Travel in Antarctica
[column type=”two-thirds”] This year, the New York Travel Festival is taking place April 26-27, 2014 in New York City. I’ve been selected by the organizers to act as the resident expert on Antarctica. Read my bio on the NY Travel Festival website. The New York Travel Festival aims to reinvent the consumer travel show for…
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Mentioned in Washington Post: “7 tips on surviving the Cold from people living in cold places”
This morning I got a brief mention in the Washington Post on how to survive in cold temperatures. They only published a few from my list – here’s the full list: Tips on how to survive the cold weather, from an Antarctic worker’s perspective: Layer Layer Layer. Instead of one big bulky jacket, plan your…
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5 Online Tools You Should Use To Plan Your Next Trip Around The World
I’ve recently returned from about a year of constant travel. During my travels, I planned most of it on my own using a few custom planning forms I’ve developed over the years, as well as a few basic tools. However, after researching the current offerings of travel planning tools on the internet, I now know…
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Living and Working at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica, Summer 2012-2013
During the Austral Summer of 2012-2013, I traveled to Antarctica to work as a Cook, EMT, Tour Guide, and Photojournalist at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. While I was living there, I took over 10,000 photos, hours of video footage, and published an article about life in Antarctica on my blog every single day. Here’s…
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A Tour of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica
After living and working at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station during the summer 2012-2013 season, I’ve had the chance to see most parts of the station. Additionally, I also worked as a tour guide for the various tourist groups who visited the station. Here’s a brief narrated video tour of both the elevated station as…
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Frequently Asked Questions about life at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica
Jeffrey Donenfeld details his experience during the Austral Summer of 2012-13 at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, having taken on the sudden decision to journey to Antarctica. It was a grueling four-year job quest culminating in an array of roles – from breakfast cook for over 160 people to emergency medical responder and tour guide.…
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Mentioned on the Universal Geek Podcast
My friend Jeff Couturier is a graphic designer, web developer, cartoonist, and geek. He’s a regular host on the Universal Geek podcast, and recently gave me and my Antarctica blog a great mention. Thanks Jeff for the shoutout! For the part where I’m mentioned, start listening at 1:07:00 https://www.universal-geek.com/podpress_trac/web/7114/0/UniversalGeek-091.mp3 (Download) Universal Geek Podcast – Episode…
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I Got My Dream Job! – Working in Antarctica
A few weeks ago, I published an article detailing my efforts over the last four years to land my dream job working in Antarctica. At the time I published it, I had just received bad news from what I thought was my last and final hope of getting this job for this year, Austral Summer…
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How To Prepare For The Gran Fondo NY 100 Mile Bike Race
This past year Chris and I did the 110 Mile Gran Fondo Bike Race – my full race report is here: Biking the 110 Mile Gran Fondo NY. Recently a reader asked me for some tips in preparing for the event, so hre are a few tips and thoughts on it… Overall, I didn’t do a…
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Introducing My New Font: Brawler
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been researching fonts to use on a personal business card for myself. I usually carry a few basic cards around in my wallet with just my name and email address on them – and recently I’ve run out of my excellent Moo.com Luxe Cards. Instead of re-ordering, I decided…
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Getting A Job In Antarctica: My Long Journey 2009-2012
I want to live and work in Antarctica. It’s been a dream of mine for years, and starting about 4 years ago, I finally decided to make my dream a reality. As you may expect, getting a job – a real job, and not just a tourist ticket down to the South Pole is tricky.…
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Barcode vs NFC Payments on iOS6 and iPhone5 – Why Barcodes Are Better
With Apple’s eminent announcement of iOS 6 today, mobile payments will get yet another major boost. Now my barcode-scan based payment scheme won’t be restricted to only the beloved Starbucks app, but will open up to lots of other applications too. A few thoughts on Barcode Scan Payments vs NFC Payments. Certainly not fully fleshed…
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Resources: Free Emergency Medical Technician Continuing Education Training Guide
At the end of my EMT-B training class through Unitek Education in Freemont, California, we went over various resources for obtaining free continuing education credits. Here are some of the resources we discussed: Lots of CE courses are run through state emergency offices California Emergency Management Agency https://www.calema.ca.gov/LandingPages/Pages/Training-and-Response.aspx Federal Training Partners – https://www.calema.ca.gov/TrainingandExercises/Pages/Federal-Training-Partners.aspx July California Training…
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How To Blog From Anywhere: Gmail via SMS launches in Africa
Continuing on my series How To Blog From Anywhere, add Gmail via SMS to the repertoire. Google Africa has just launched Gmail via SMS, allowing mobile phone users without access to a data network to still send and receive emails. Yet another way to get your message out, no matter what your connectivity situation. Still…
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Edward Safdi, Welcome To The World
Edward Safdi, Sean and Rhonda Safdi’s first son, welcome to the world! Looking forward to watching you grow up!
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Attending US Space Camp in 1992
Here’s another gem found in the course of my family VHS file digitization project. In grade school, I went to US Space Camp along with a bunch of my classmates. The triumphant beginning of my lifelong love for everything space and science. My parents paid for not only Space Camp, but also to have this…