Learning to Adapt by Throwing Yourself Into the Unknown | Erik Cooper

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It’s amazing how one adventure to an unfamiliar place can completely shift your perspective on the world. It can even change the trajectory of your entire life. It’s here that we witness our mental and physical ability to adapt. 

Welcome to The Darin Olien Show.

In this episode, I talk with the one and only Erik Cooper, adventurer extraordinaire.

And when I say adventurer, I don’t mean someone who likes to go hiking or try new foods. I mean someone who is willing to immerse themselves entirely in an unfamiliar country, adapt into a culture of nomadic people and go for broke competing in the toughest horse race in the world.

Erik grew up on a horse farm in a small town in Missouri. He always knew he wanted to explore, and his love of horses was just as strong as his sense of adventure. At 24 he heard about the Mongol Derby, a grueling 10-day horse race through the rough terrain of rural Mongolia. Known as “The Toughest Horse Race in the World”, the Mongol Derby changed Erik in ways he never expected it to.

I had such a fun conversation with Erik in this episode.  He told me some crazy stories of his first experience with the Mongol Derby, but we also got into the deep stuff on how it changed him. You get to hear some hilarious anecdotes about wild stubborn horses, getting lost in the mud, adapting to foreign environments and how incredibly tough and amazing the Mongolian nomads are. And we dabble in some other crazy adventures Erik has had and his love of Eagle Hunting, which isn’t what you think. This is definitely an episode you don’t want to miss.