Richard Wiese

Richard Wiese
Born	Richard Wiese Long Island, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Explorer, Host, Producer, Author

Richard Wiese (born July 13, 1959) is a world-class explorer. He is the author of a detailed guidebook titled Born to Explore: How to Be a Backyard Adventurer. Wiese is an Emmy-winning host and producer and was also the youngest man to become president of the Explorers Club in 2002.

Wiese is the host and an executive producer of the television program Born to Explore with Richard Wiese™, which airs weekly on ABC and debuted September 3, 2011. Its second season premiered October 6, 2012. In a successful first season, Born To Explore’s™ positive cultural and environmental message reached viewers around the world, and resulted in several awards. The show was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Best Children’s Television Series, and garnered a SABRE award for "Product Placement" along with Travel Canada. Wiese has continued to receive acclaim alongside the show, and gained more accolades of his own.

As an extreme adventurer, his stated goal is to inspire young people and spark their interest for discovery and the love of outdoors. He says that Born To Explore™ is a way to encourage this growth and environmental activism, as well as educate his audience on exotic cultures and animals.

Personal life

Richard Wiese was born to Rick and Marie Wiese in Long Island, New York. His father, Richard Wiese, Sr., was the first man to pilot solo around the Pacific Ocean. Wiese grew up traveling and exploring with his father. The first substantial adventure Wiese was involved with was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania at the age of 11. Wiese has since then led many other explorations and projects. While attending St. Anthony's High School in Smithtown, New York, as a decathlete he broke the Long Island record for the javelin. He spent many of his college years modeling for Ford. Wiese attended Brown University and graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Geology and Biology. He also studied Applied Physiology at Columbia University and completed the USDA Graduate Program in Meteorology.

In 2007, Wiese married his wife, Nicci. The couple lives in Weston, Connecticut. They are the parents of three young children, a girl and twin boys.

Past Expeditions and Projects

Wiese has traveled to all seven continents and has participated in several expeditions and projects. In early 2002, he became the youngest president in The Explorers Club's hundred-year history. During his presidency, he has worked in the Yucatán jungle of Mexico putting satellite collars on jaguars. He also climbed and sampled the most geologically unique volcano in the world, Tanzania's Ol Doinyo Lengai (which means "mountain of god" in the language of the local Maasai tribe) and participated in two expeditions to Antarctica to core glaciers for the purpose of climatological studies.

He was also a member of the 2004 Yeronisos Island Expedition in Cyprus and led an expedition to bio-prospect for extremophiles and new life forms in Mount Kilimanjaro's Ngorongoro Crater, resulting in the discovery of 29 new life forms. The expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro also involved placing the first ever weather station on its slopes, crucial for tracking the effects of global warming. He was a team member of the largest medical expedition ever conducted on Mount Everest, and cross-country skied to the North Pole.

Show Highlights

As the host of Born To Explore™, Wiese has continued adventuring all over the world while still maintaining a presence in the United States. He was selected to be a featured contributor for Huffington Post, and often gives keynote speeches for organizations like Cynopsis and The Africa Foundation and makes regular appearances on Good Morning America.

In his own words, "the premise of the show is to use adventure as a backdrop and to take a holistic view of cultures and highlight what makes them special. To that end, we use the universal languages that every culture around the world shares, namely food, music and art, to communicate our message. We also apply the fundamental explorer’s view of curiosity and an open mind to all the people and animals we meet."

For Season 1, Wiese filmed in Botswana, Uganda, Iceland, England, Morocco, Hawaii, Australia, Canada, and North Carolina. For Season 2, he visited locations that include Chile, Cyprus, South Dakota, Namibia, British Columbia, South Africa, and India.

Firsts

Alaska

• First ascent of unclimbed remote Wrangell St. Elias Mountains

Australia

• Uluru Caves: home of stunning, ancient drawings and paintings
• Only a few outsiders have ever been inside to see the Uluru Caves. Wiese had to earn the trust of natives and cave guides before he was allowed in.

Canada

• Took part in excavation of biggest bone bed ever, with group of lead scientists and celebrities, in Alberta, Canada.
• Part of discovery of a new dinosaur, pachyrhinosaurus

Cyprus

• Member of archaeological team looking for birth temple of Cleopatra and Julius Ceasar’s love child.
• 2004 Yeronisos Island Expedition

Morocco

• Along with his crew, Richard Wiese was the first non-Moroccan to visit the rustic, isolated village of Taffarout Isserce, high in the Atlas Mountains.

New York

• Discovered over 200 known life forms in first microbial survey of Central Park, New York.
• “Bio Blitz.” A 24 hour cataloguing of all life forms including new species by over 500 world-class scientists and students.

In the Media

TV & Film

In 1982, Wiese appeared in a brief love scene with Brooke Shields in the film Endless Love. In 1986, Wiese played the role of ‘Chris’ in the film Club Paradise. Wiese has also made appearances on television. Some of the networks he has appeared on include: The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, WB, Fox, CBS Morning Show, ABC, MSNBC, and WB 11 Morning Show. Wiese has also hosted a TV show called Exploration with Richard Wiese that has been broadcast internationally. He also filmed a TV series called Hell on Earth.

Print Media

In 2003 People Magazine named Wiese one of the 25 hottest bachelors of the year. In July 2004 Esquire named Wiese one of their “10 Tough Bastards” in their special survival issue. In 2006 Men’s Journal called his Kilimanjaro expeditions one of their “Adventures of a Lifetime.” Also in 2006, Picture of the Week featured Wiese working in a high-altitude chamber while he was president of the Explorers Club. Wiese has also appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Life Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Wine Spectator, The New York Sun, BusinessWeek, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, and Newsday.

Keynote Appearances

An accomplished keynote speaker, Wiese has been honored to present at the United Nations, Royal Geographical Society, Bohemian Grove, University of Miami School of Engineering, Congress of Argentina, Icelandic Whitehouse, World Adventure Travel Summit, Africa Foundation, Abercrombie and Kent's Friends of Conservation, Common Wealth North Symposium, and to the Boy Scouts of America at their National Jamboree.

In 2006 the American Museum of Natural History Expeditions named Wiese an explorer in residence. He was honored at the 2005 Boy Scout National Jamboree, where he addressed 90,000 people and had a camp named after him. By invitation of King Mohammed VI, he was the U.S. representative to the Moussem de Tan Tan, a gathering of 45,000 nomadic Arabs in Morocco, and he received the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Science Museum of Long Island. As a journalist, he has received numerous honors, including an Emmy, a Genesis Award, an Associated Press Folio Award, and a Golden Halo Advertising Award for Best Environmental/Wildlife Campaign.

Awards and Recognition

• Special lifetime achievement award by the Science Museum of Long Island
• 2004 Golden Halo Advertising Award for Best Environmental/Wildlife Campaign
• A member of The Explorers Club, Royal Geographic Society, and the American Meteorological Society
• 2012 Cronkite Award for Excellence in Exploration and Journalism

External links

• richardwiese.com
• Richard Wiese at IMDB