Bryan Schatz | Journalist

The Dealmaker

Bryan — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 22:55:58 +0000

Mark Ferrandino has had to overcome learning disabilities, harassment, and prejudice to become Colorado’s new House Speaker. But will leading the Legislature be his toughest challenge yet? Visit 5280 for the article. The images were taken by a great Denver-based photographer, Benjamin Rasmussen.

The Environment & Politics

Bryan — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 00:26:36 +0000

The Dealmaker | 5280 (March 2013): Mark Ferrandino has had to overcome learning disabilities, harassment, and prejudice to become Colorado’s new House Speaker. But will leading the Legislature be his toughest challenge yet?

For Blood & Oil | Switchback Magazine (November 2012): The Maah Daah Hey trail in the western North Dakota Badlands sits above a sea of oil. Will it survive the boom?

Saving Silence | Seattle Weekly (February 2012): Gordon “The Soundtracker” Hempton’s life’s work is to save the vanishing sounds of the natural world.

The Great Arctic Ice Melt | Wenger Blog (September 2012): Chunks of glaciers several times the size of Manhattan are ripping free from Greenland; what can change from a solid to a liquid in the Arctic is doing so; 2012 is on track to become the hottest ever recorded in the lower 48; Peter Wadhams, Cambridge University professor of ocean physics is convinced the summer Arctic ice sheet will be gone by 2016; and all this is just the beginning.

Soundtrackers | Wend (Winter 2012): Gordon Hempton’s quest to save silence, an abbreviated overview of the Seattle Weekly feature.

Adventure

Bryan — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 00:19:32 +0000

Odyssey of the Lone Ranger | Switchback Magazine (March 2013): For justin Simoni, life is performance art – even on the longest and toughest mountain bike race in the world. (The .pdf attached is Part I of the 8,000-word story. Check Switchback’s website for Part II.)

For Blood & Oil | Switchback Magazine (November 2012): The Maah Daah Hey trail in the western North Dakota Badlands sits above a sea of oil. Will it survive the boom?

Gearhead’s Paradise | Adventure Sports Journal (August 2012): Twice a year the outdoor industry gathers in Salt Lake City for Outdoor Retailer, the convention of all things adventure. It’s the perfect combination of work – which usually ends around 4 PM with a handful of beers – and time spent doing awesome shit, like slacklining, hiking, climbing, skiing, or whatever other trouble people find themselves in. Oh, right. Then we write about the next new ultra-light, super-strong, insanely innovative whatever…

Climber Alex Honnold | Adventure Sports Journal (July 2012): Alex Honnold climbs massive rock faces without ropes. Half of his fans are scared he’ll die. The other half wants everyone to shut up about that possibility. Honnold’s pretty sick of it, too. Climbing the way he does is remarkable, but what I like about him most is that it hasn’t gotten to his head. He’s blunt but friendly and always downplaying his accomplishments. He’s also a fiercely, hilariously outspoken atheist…

Loic Jean-Albert’s Life In Flight | Adventure Sports Journal (April 2012): Loic Jean-Albert straps himself into handmade suits equipped with wings and jumps off of mountains. He revolutionized proximity flying – the art of buzzing cliff edges while plummeting at 100-mph before pulling a parachute for what hopefully becomes a safe landing. His efforts gave birth to a generation of like-minded maniacs who take to the air like rockets and think nothing of terminal velocity…

Fringe: Interviews and explorations from the fringes of society

Bryan — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:55:37 +0000

For Blood & Oil | Switchback Magazine (November 2012): The Maah Daah Hey trail in the western North Dakota Badlands sits above a sea of oil. Will it survive the boom?

Hunting Poachers With Damien Mander: Between multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, Damien Mander spent eight years in the Middle East as a sniper in the Australian Special Forces. Now, from the raw wilderness setting of Zimbabwe, he runs an organization called the International Anti Poaching Foundation (IAPF) with hopes of saving the world’s remaining rhinos from systematic slaughter…

A Chat With the Oldest Man In Porn, Dave Cummings: Dave Cummings is turning 72 years old in a few weeks, and he’ll probably celebrate by banging a bunch of 20-year-old nymphos. They might be fellow porn stars, or they might be what Cummings calls his “groupie girls” – coeds from the nearby University of San Diego who call him up to “blow off some steam.”

For Blood And Oil: A Bakken Boom journey to the Maah Daah Hey

Bryan — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 21:37:22 +0000

Switchback Magazine: For Blood And Oil

Loic Jean-Albert’s Life In Flight

Bryan — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:05:07 +0000

Loic Jean-Albert straps himself into handmade suits equipped with wings and jumps off of mountains. He revolutionized proximity flying – the art of buzzing cliff edges while plummeting at 100-mph before pulling a parachute for what hopefully becomes a safe landing. His efforts gave birth to a generation of like-minded maniacs who take to the air like rockets and think nothing of terminal velocity.

Like Jeb Corliss, for example, who last year blasted into the side of a cliff while jumping from the summit of Table Mountain in South Africa. But without Jean-Albert, Corliss may never have had the pleasure of barely escaping a gory and crunchy death.

Adventure Sports Journal ran my story on Jean-Albert in Spring 2012.

The Blog

Bryan — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:26:37 +0000

Catch Me If You Can: Fighting Fit feature on UFC Champion Dominick Cruz

Bryan — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 21:53:42 +0000

Over the summer, Fighting Fit Magazine asked me to go to San Diego to hang out with the UFC Bantamweight Champion, Dominick Cruz, for last month’s cover story. The first attempt was a disaster. I drove from Huntington Beach and sat for three hours in traffic before getting to the gym, one of thousands in a daisy chain of idling cars and exhaust. The photographer arrived first and called with the news that Cruz and his coaches were all MIA, up in Los Angeles, fucking around with things I’d like to assume were less important than our meeting. For another week and after hours upon hours in the car, I tried to hold a grudge. But then I met them. Cruz and his coach, Eric DelFierro, are supremely easy-going, dedicated guys who were generous with their time. The result of our time together is below.

Fighting Fit Magazine: Dominick Cruz Profile – “Catch Me If You Can”

The Great Arctic Ice Melt of 2012

Bryan — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 00:51:22 +0000

Here’s what’s going on: chunks of glaciers several times the size of Manhattan are ripping free from Greenland; what can change from solid to liquid in the Arctic is rapidly doing so; 2012 is on track to become the hottest year ever in the lower 48. Peter Wadhams, Cambridge University professor of ocean physics, is convinced the summer Arctic ice sheet will be gone by 2016, and all of this is just the beginning. As the ice melts, it opens up the opportunity for cheaper oil, gas and mineral extraction. In anticipation, international companies and even nation-states are racing to get in on the action. Some say environmentalists shouldn’t be sounding the apocalypse alarms. Others argue that unless something changes quick, we’re doomed.

The rest at the source.

Fighters & Fight Science

Bryan — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 19:29:47 +0000

Fight Science

I’ll Be Watching You | Fighting Fit (January 2013): A look at how new video-based technology is revolutionizing sports analysis – and beating the competition.

Shortcut to Supremacy | Fighting Fit (September 2012) Dr. Michael Weisend of the Mind Research Network is in the habit of placing electrodes on the temples of willing subjects and sending mild electrical currents into their brains. It’s called Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), and Weisend found that in a sample of 500, subjects were able to double the rate at which they learned various tasks. It’s possible that what he’s doing is inducing the “flow” state. Fighting Fit Magazine had me investigate how it all applies to pugilism.

Code Breaker | Fighting Fit (May 2012): A company is using genetics testing in MMA athletes to better understand, and then train according to, their physical genetic makeup. Is it the next in cutting edge fight training or a pseudoscience letdown?

Fighters

Dominick Cruz | Fighting Fit (October 2012): UFC Bantamweight Champion

Michael Bisping | Fighting Fit (March 2012): UFC Middleweight Contender

Rashad Evans | Fighting Fit (January 2012): Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion

[Other profiles/interviews not linked include Nick Diaz, Cesar Gracie, Jake Shields, a technique series w/Grudge Training Center pro team (Justin Salas, Shane Carwin, Trevor Wittman, etc), and others.]