What does it take to go from hitchhiking through a revolution at 19, scaling the deadly North Wall of Denali at 20, and surviving violent conflict in Vietnam — to becoming one of the world’s leading voices for peace, purpose, and citizen action?
In this episode of the Teaching Journeys Podcast, host Dave Roberts sits down with John Graham — Foreign Service officer, global peacebuilder, and 42-year leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project — for a raw and inspiring conversation about adventure, transformation, and the search for meaning.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
John’s memoir, Quest: Risk, Adventure and the Search for Meaning, and his video series Badass Granddad (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube) bring these lessons to a global audience.
John’s Bio and Contact Information
John Graham shipped out on a freighter when he was 16, hitchhiked through the Algerian Revolution at 19 and was on the team that made the first ascent of Denali’s North Wall at 20, a climb so dangerous it’s never been repeated. He hitchhiked around the world at 22, working as a correspondent in every war he came across. A US Foreign Service Officer for 15 years, he was in the middle of the 1969 revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. To the young Graham, adventure was everything, and each brush with death only pushed him to up the ante—and to bury ever deeper the emotional life needed to make him whole.
Then it began to change. At the United Nations he risked his career, crossing his own government to support initiatives for peace and justice in Asia, Africa and Cuba, including engineering a UN plan that helped end apartheid in South Africa. As a global peace builder, post Foreign Service, he contributed to peace efforts in Israel/Palestine.
For the last 42 years he’s been a leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project, a global movement inspiring people to stick their necks out to solve public problems and giving them tools to succeed (giraffe.org). His speeches, blogs, podcasts and interviews have a global audience.
Connect with John Graham:
🌐 johngraham.org | giraffe.org
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🎙️ Teaching Journeys Podcast — where extraordinary lives teach extraordinary lessons.
To find out more about Dave , go to davidrobertsmsw.com
