An epic bike ride across the United States that almost turns to tragedy near the finish line.  A rowing journey along the East coast through storms and tidal surges that test physical and mental limits and force a reckoning with life’s priorities.  A five hundred mile pilgrimage across northern Spain that triggers personal and spiritual renewal.

What happens when an educator takes the progressive ideas that have defined his career-- real world problem solving, expeditionary learning, follow your passion-- and turns them on himself?  

In Everest and the Rest of Us:  Four Journeys in Search of Adventure, James Nehring tells a tale of cross-country cycling, coastal rowing, and trekking on the Camino de Santiago, by turns suspenseful and comic, painful and triumphant.  He also examines why we pursue adventure-- the thrill of taking risks and facing danger, pushing our limits, renewal that comes from stepping outside our daily routines, and personal empowerment from a challenge met. He explores the gendered and racialized history of adventure, and how the lure of adventure has been used to justify wars and colonialism.  

Most of us will never climb Mt. Everest, surf a fifty-foot monster wave off the coast of Hawaii, or row single-handed across the Atlantic Ocean.  But everyone loves a good adventure.  Everest and the Rest of us celebrates the adventurous spirit and admonishes that, like so much inherited from a culture of white domination, adventure must continue to evolve until everyone enjoys its rewards.