#201 - Stephan Kesting — Perseverance: Life and Death in the Subarctic 🚣♂️ 🏔️🥋
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3.5 Ideas from Stephan Kesting — Perseverance: Life and Death in the Subarctic 🚣♂️🏔️🥋
Stephan Kesting is the author of Perseverance: Life and Death in the Subarctic.
He is also a BJJ black belt, career firefighter, and founder of GrappleArts.com — one of the most respected jiu-jitsu instructional resources on the internet, with over 425 podcast episodes and hundreds of thousands of downloads.
After a diagnosis of polycystic kidney disease and a transplant from his brother, Stephan set off alone on a thousand-mile journey through the Canadian Arctic — the day before his own wedding.
In this conversation, we get into kidney failure, grief, solitude, and the mental frameworks that carry someone through the worst moments life can offer. Plan beats no plan. Always be thinking. Remember you're going to die — then decide what you're actually going to do about it.
Connect with Stephan Kesting:
- Website - GrappleArts.com
- Website - EssentialWilderness.com
- Book - Perseverance: Life and Death in the Subarctic
© Copyright - Joe Ciccarone 2026 - Built Not Born Podcast. All Rights Reserved.
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