The Daily – "The Interview": Kílian Jornet on What We Can Learn From Pushing Our Bodies to Extremes
Host: Lulu Garcia Navarro (The New York Times)
Guest: Kílian Jornet, Spanish ultramarathoner and mountaineer
Date: January 17, 2026
Duration: ~45 minutes
Episode Overview
In this thought-provoking episode, Lulu Garcia Navarro sits down with Kílian Jornet, one of the world’s greatest ultramarathoners and mountain athletes. Best known for his record-setting ascents—including Everest twice in one week without supplemental oxygen and his latest project, "States of Elevation," where he climbed 72 of the highest peaks in the western U.S. and cycled over 2,400 miles between them—Jornet reveals the mindset, philosophy, and hard truths learned from a life spent pushing the body's and mind’s limits. Through tales of harrowing survival, childhood curiosity, profound connection to nature, and reflections on risk, loss, and joy, Jornet shares the lessons and paradoxes of living at the edge.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
Nature as Home and Playground
[02:50]
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Jornet describes himself not as a competitor, but as someone who feels at home in the mountains:
"I just love to be in the mountains... it's where I feel home and it's where I feel connected with the landscape and the environment."
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He views running, climbing, and biking as ways to explore, echoing our evolutionary heritage:
"As humans, we are made to walk and to run and to do that for hours. We don't need to do it now, so we find the sport as the excuse to continue moving our body."
Early Lessons: Connection Over Competition
[04:51]
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Raised in the Pyrenees, Jornet’s parents instilled a sense of acceptance and comfort in wild environments:
"It was never about competing and winning, but always about exploring... what they probably teach us was to accept the environment... to feel comfortable."
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He recalls nighttime forays into the forest, learning to use all senses and find calm in darkness.
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Importance of seeing nature as integrated in life, not external.
Pushing Limits – Physical and Psychological
[06:27]
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Jornet’s drive was apparent from a young age, describing a "masochistic" love of suffering:
"I loved to suffer... my dream was like an uphill that never ended. I just wanted to be climbing on my bike or running... forever."
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Early self-experimentation (e.g., fasting for several days as a student):
"Probably my curiosity went there on trying to explore my body to understand it better..."
[09:12]
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Observing the mind-body connection, especially in extreme situations (e.g., surviving an avalanche on Everest):
"The limit is something we don’t want to reach because it's probably death after that. And it's a very fine line."
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The interplay of fear and euphoria in high-risk mountain experiences:
"To leave all the panic because that’s only like making me take bad decisions. And the same comes from euphoria... because then you are kind of blind."
The Philosophy of Movement & Meditation
[12:59 - 14:24]
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While not religious, Jornet finds a meditative quality in mountaineering, akin to Buddhist practice:
"You are focusing on the present, and it's moments where the past and the future don't exist... that sort of meditation."
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Describes hallucinations at high altitude and their paradoxical life-preserving role:
"I was hallucinating... I had a vision of a second person that was following me... I'm happy I had this hallucination because having the responsibility to save this person, I didn't give up."
The Body’s Adaptation & Limits
[17:10 - 19:26]
- On “States of Elevation”:
"Physically it was very challenging, mostly because it was so big... [at first] I was on my edge... then suddenly my body stopped to fight those things and started to adapt... at the end of the trip, I could continue for another month."
[19:29]
- Adaptation to low sleep:
"I average like sleeping four to five hours per night... Probably I don’t need much sleep to recover... if we try to protect our body at every cost... the body will not develop the capabilities to fight those things."
[20:41]
- Nutrition in extremes—yes, he drinks olive oil mixed with water to replenish calories, but:
"It doesn’t matter, after 20 hours running... your body feel that it needs calories."
Community, Place, and Sharing the Experience
[21:59]
- Some peaks climbed alone, some with locals, deepening connection:
"Doing it with people from there, you get a much deeper connection with those places and those landscapes... Everybody had this deep connection with those landscapes. The most beautiful mountains on earth are the ones I see from my house because I develop a relation with them."
Grappling With Risk and Loss
[23:58]
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Candid discussion of risk-taking and its dangers:
"I know that my risk tolerance is high... I try to be analytical... But sometimes it has been happening that I have been just continuing in situations where... I was rationally not comfortable."
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The death of close friend Stefan Brossa:
"We didn’t notice we were walking on a cornice... he fell like 600 meters... For me, it was kind of... the first time that it really happened close to me. I really understood that... that’s something real."
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After Brossa’s death, Jornet pushed himself even harder—to prove to himself who “should have” died.
"I was taking too much risks... just to try to see if it was a mistake that he was dying instead of me."
Fear, Fatherhood & Shifting Motivations
[28:59]
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How risk and fear change with family:
"I’m more afraid to die now with kids... It’s not just to want to see my kids growing up, but for them to have a father..."
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Raising his own children with a deep appreciation for nature:
“The six-year-old and the four-year-old... can name all the berries…they pick the berries and say, ‘No, this one we can eat, this one we cannot.’”
Purpose, Meaning & the Value of Endurance Sport
[39:54]
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After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, Jornet reframed the meaning of his pursuits:
"When you are helping others... it’s about giving and sport, mostly, it’s about taking."
"Does it feel selfish to you?"
"Yeah, it is selfish…most of the athletes, and for me too, [sport] is something that's secondary. We do that because it’s selfish. It’s because we want to perform, we want to win, we want to progress."
Aging, Acceptance, and Indulgence
[41:10]
- Reflects on growing older as an athlete:
"It’s probably hard when you see that your body’s not responding as it used before... but it’s not about performing; it’s about just doing what you can, what you have."
[43:08]
- Redefines indulgence in his own terms:
"I don’t go to restaurants…now I’m, I think, in a point of my life that I really do what I want to do and try to not fit onto what people expect me to do... I was going to ski in the powder and it’s like, that’s pleasure."
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
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On Adapting to Extremes:
"Physically it was very challenging…at first I was on my edge and then suddenly my body stopped to fight those things and started to adapt, and at the end of the trip I could continue for another month."
— Kílian Jornet ([18:13]) -
On Fear and Euphoria:
"To leave all the panic because that’s only like making me take bad decisions. And the same comes from euphoria."
— Kílian Jornet ([11:10]) -
On Meditation and Presence:
“Climbing mountains is a sort of meditation on that aspect that you are often very present on the moment…Nothing else exists.”
— Kílian Jornet ([13:12]) -
On Risk and Death:
“A big part of surviving is luck. But you cannot be relying on that all the time.”
— Kílian Jornet ([24:56]) -
On the Value of Endurance Sport:
“When you are helping others that are in need, it’s about giving and sport, mostly, it’s about taking.”
— Kílian Jornet ([32:01], [39:54]) -
On Indulgence and Joy:
“Today, I was going to ski in the powder and it’s like, that’s pleasure. Now I’m... I do what I want to do and try to not fit onto what people expect me to do.”
— Kílian Jornet ([43:08])
Timestamps for Key Segments
- [02:50] – Jornet’s relationship with mountains; nature and self-connection
- [04:51] – Childhood lessons; seeing nature as home
- [06:27] – Early competitiveness, joy in suffering
- [09:12] – How to know one’s limits; mind-body connection in extreme survival
- [10:53] – Fear and euphoria; the fine line between safety and disaster
- [12:59] – Meditation, Buddhism, and the role of presence
- [14:24] – Hallucinations, “miracles,” and unconscious survival responses
- [17:10] – States of Elevation: the body’s adaptation to huge physical effort
- [19:29] – Sleep, adaptation, and the value of discomfort
- [20:41] – Consuming olive oil for calories
- [21:59] – Climbing alone vs. with others; sense of place
- [23:58] – High risk tolerance; trying to “out-think” danger
- [25:14] – The death of Stefan Brossa; grappling with loss
- [28:59] – How fear changes with fatherhood and responsibility
- [39:54] – Aid in Nepal, the selfishness of sport, and existential meaning
- [41:10] – Aging as an athlete, accepting the body’s changes
- [43:08] – What indulgence and pleasure mean to Jornet
Tone & Language
Lulu Garcia Navarro strikes a tone of genuine curiosity and deep reflection, while Kílian Jornet responds with openness, humility, and introspection. The conversation is philosophical yet practical, often poetic when Jornet describes his connection to nature and experience of endurance. Both avoid bravado, instead focusing on lessons, doubts, and the paradoxes of a life spent at the edge.
For Listeners Who Haven’t Heard the Episode
This episode is as much a meditation as a chronicle of athletic achievement. Jornet’s stories draw the listener into the mental, physical, and emotional landscapes of the elite ultra-athlete: the rawness of surviving in the wild, the joy and beauty found in simplicity and routine, the wounds and wisdom found in risk, and the ongoing search for meaning outside achievement. If you are curious about what drives someone to pursue what seems impossible—and what they learn about themselves and life in the process—this episode is essential listening.