Adventure Upgrade: Going Deep Into Risk, Fear & Awe

…two of the most adventurous people on the planet share what they’ve uncovered, faced and learned through exploration of the planet’s deepest waters. From discovering the Titanic to cave diving in places untouched by any other human, Bob Ballard and Jill Heinerth took risks, dove into fear, and came up for air with tremendous new knowledge. Combined, they’ve spent over nine decades searching the seas and documenting their findings.

Canadian Jill Heinerth explores the underwater world as one of the greatest cave divers on the planet. She’s considered this generation’s Jacques Cousteau. She’s completed more than 7,500 dives in her career so far and dived deeper into caves than any woman in history. She became the first person to dive the ice caves of Antarctica, going further into an underwater cave system than any woman ever. She’s gone into places in the world where no one had gone before.

Considered a legend in the diving community, she’s spent more than 30 years in submerged caves around the world partnering with National Geographic, NOAA, and various educational institutions and television networks worldwide. She’s also a writer and award-winning photographer and filmmaker who takes a keen interest in the health of the Earth’s oceans. She’s made TV series, consulted on movies, given TEDtalks and continues to educate kids and adults alike on underwater wonders.

Learn more about Jill’s lifetime of underwater cave diving in her memoir, “Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver.” “We are capable of so much more than we could possibly imagine,” she says.

Bob Ballard explores the vast depths of the oceans uncovering mysteries, proving theories, and revealing artifacts that tell a story about the history of humankind. An oceanographer and marine geologist, he’s led nearly 160 deep-sea expeditions and worked with the Navy on top-secret missions. His underwater career spanning over 60 years began simply enough as a child with a love of California’s Mission Bay tide pools.

He’s gone on to discover ships thought long lost (the RMS Titanic in 1985) and provide extraordinary new understandings and discoveries in marine geology, geophysics, biology, and chemistry. He’s discovered new life-forms, traced ancient trade routes, developed robots that roam the ocean floor, and opened the underwater world to kids through telepresence.

Bob’s recent memoir chronicles his underwater journeys “Into The Deep: A Memoir from the Man Who Found Titanic.” “Just lots of crazy things have happened, and I’m still at it and I’m not going to quit,” he says.

In July 2021, Bob began an expedition to map areas of the Pacific Ocean from the shoreline to the abyss supported by a 10-year $200 million federally funded study. Follow along at  Nautilus Live, Ocean Exploration Trust.