Life’s Tough, Explorers Are TOUGHER!
“Exploring is an innate part of being human.” Richard Wiese, spends 30 minutes every week with some of the world’s most compelling adventurers, explorers, and socio-environmental advocates, listening to their distinct adventures, unique discoveries, projects & goals, while discovering their multitude of challenges, surprises, triumphs and set-backs they encounter along the way. Join Richard as he pulls back the curtain on what it’s like to travel around the world and beyond; explore some of the most exotic and often dangerous places; and uncover what makes people, places and our planet so special.
Life’s Tough, Explorers Are TOUGHER!
Tomas Koeck: Environmental Storytelling through Patience, Ethics, and Community
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In this episode of Life’s Tough, Explorers are Tougher, environmental filmmaker and producer Tomas Koeck joins Richard Wiese to explore the realities of wildlife storytelling—where patience, ethics, and community matter more than spectacle. From the community-centered premiere of Way of Life to filming wolves in the Arctic and birds along migration corridors, Koeck shares how meaningful environmental stories are earned through time, restraint, and trust.
The conversation also dives into the growing presence of AI in nature media and why Koeck believes it poses a serious challenge to authenticity. After being personally fooled by AI-generated wildlife footage, he founded Silent Flight Studios to create films with zero generative AI use, giving audiences confidence that what they’re watching truly happened in the wild.
Koeck’s journey is shaped by family, mentorship, and a belief that storytelling can calm rather than inflame. His work aims to reconnect people with nature—and with each other—by slowing the pace, honoring reality, and letting the story unfold on its own terms.
Follow Tomas:
https://www.tomaskoeck.com/
@tomaskoeck on IG
This is Life's Tough, Explorers Are Tougher, with your host, Richard Weiss. Scratch the surface of an explorer and you'll find an adventure and a great story. This show is about their tales.
This podcast is a proud supporter of the Explorers Club and the EC50 Initiative. 50 people changing the world that the world needs to know about. For more information, go to explorers.org.