The Life-Changing Magic of Living Strenuously, with Kate Kavanaugh

This episode is a little different– it’s me being interviewed by my friend and past Mountain & Prairie podcast guest Kate Kavanaugh. If you’ve been listening for a while, then I’m sure you remember Kate– she’s a farmer, butcher, and all-around interesting woman who co-founded Western Daughters Butcher Shop in Denver.

Kate recently started an excellent new podcast called Ground Work, which covers a variety of interesting topics, from soil to health to books to intentional living. Kate is unbelievably smart and insightful, and there’s a ton of overlap between what I’m doing with M&P and what she’s doing with Ground Work, so I’d encourage you to check out all of her episodes. There’s a link in the notes.

Even though I’m still confused as to why anybody would ever want to interview me, Kate did and we had a fun conversation about everything from conservation to ultra running, reading to starting a podcast. We also talk a lot about my obsession with living what Theodore Roosevelt called the Strenuous Life, and how adopting that approach to life has been life-changing for me.

And speaking of the Strenuous Life, I just launched a new section of the website devoted to The Strenuous Life and offering ways for the Mountain & Prairie community to connect and collaborate in the spirit of “Living Strenuously.” Rather than try to explain it all here, I’d encourage you to click over to learn more about all the details.  

Thanks for listening. Hope you enjoy this and all of Kate’s podcast episodes. And I hope you’ll be able to join some of the M&P community in our commitment to living the Strenuous Life.  Enjoy!


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“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”

Theodore Roosevelt