Ben Saunders: Why bother leaving the house?

Rating: *** Ben Saunders' TED talk describes his previous experiences traveling the arctic circle, and his future plans to lead an expedition to the South Pole. During this TED talk, Saunders' contemplates what drives human beings to explore new locations and conquer mountains such as Everest. He also urges people to experience such things in person such as the true beauty of the outdoors instead of viewing these things inside on technology. Saunders is an explorer who has had a lot of experience with the outdoors, yet even he still contemplates what makes man want to conquer such amazing feats. In 2004, Saunders went on a solo expedition in which he would travel across the arctic ocean on foot and skis while pulling almost 400lbs of food and equipment. This trip took him 10 weeks, the entire time being spent with no other human contact. Saunders describes this feat as not being awfully fun or joyful as temperatures dropped to -50 degrees Celsius at some points, which leads to the questions, why even do it? Saunders explains that it's something special that drives humans to attempt these near impossible feats of exploration, something that he doesn't even completely understand himself. This TED talk's description of the need to explore and experience things first hand has made me think about how often people really do only experience things virtually instead of really traveling. I believe that having a better understanding of this will make me want to stay away from this sort of behavior and truly go experience new places outside of my house that I never have seen before. Saunders, Ben. 'Ben Saunders: Why Bother Leaving The House?'. YouTube. N.p., 2015. Web. 31 May 2015.