Explorer, educator, and storyteller Josh Bernstein (FR ’04, FRGS) has traveled more than 1,000,000 miles by train, plane, bus, bike, and camel to over 75 countries and all seven continents in the pursuit of knowledge and discovery. As the host of over 50 hours of prime-time, award-winning documentary content for History, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian Institution, and NASA, Josh has traced the Ark of the Covenant from the caverns of Jerusalem to the mountains of Ethiopia, communed with tribal chiefs in the most remote jungles of the Amazon Rainforest, and has hunted with alleged cannibals by moonlight in the forests of Papua New Guinea. He has ventured deep underground with NASA scientists to explore the origins of life on Earth and helped recover the Apollo F-1 engines off the floor of the Atlantic Ocean—all on a quest to shed light on some of the most fascinating mysteries on our planet.
Josh’s newest series—set to begin production in mid-2024—is called Explorer At Large (XAL). Produced by Josh’s production company First Light Studios, Explorer At Large seeks to build a bridge between three critical, inter-related topics: 1) Plant Medicines (e.g. the study of consciousness through psychedelics and plant medicine therapies) 2) Water (e.g. our management of and relationship with oceans, wetlands, lakes, rivers, etc.) and 3) Indigenous Wisdom (e.g. the sacred knowledge of native cultures). Think of it as an Indiana-Jones-meets-Jacques-Cousteau-meets-Aldous-Huxley approach to storytelling to help humanity discover and create a sustainable path on Earth.
Prior to his work in television, Josh spent 25 years as a wilderness guide with BOSS, the Boulder Outdoor Survival School, the oldest and largest survival school in the country. Josh first attended BOSS as a student and rose through the ranks from apprentice to instructor to marketing director to president & CEO, which he led for 17 years before selling the company (he remains a member of BOSS’s board of directors).
In addition to his work on television, Josh is a critically-acclaimed author, professional photographer, and public speaker. Josh was born and raised in New York City and studied at Cornell University, where he double-majored in Anthropology & Psychology and double-minored in Near Eastern Studies and Native American Studies. His passions include technical SCUBA diving (cave, wreck, rebreather), admiring/restoring vintage Land Cruisers, and enjoying the occasional Cuban cigar with friends. When not traveling for work, he splits his time between New York and Los Angeles.
More at
www.joshbernstein.com.
