The Rich Roll Podcast

Imagine plunging headfirst hundreds of feet below the ocean surface — undulating ever further downward to a place where light cannot penetrate; and life hangs in the balance of a quickly diminishing singular breath. Competitive freediving—a sport built on diving as deep as possible on a single breath—tests the limits of human ability in the most hostile environment on earth. The unique and eclectic breed of individuals who freedive at the highest level regularly reach such depths that their organs compress; and one mistake could kill them. To freedive is to flirt with death, driven by an almost inexplicable spiritual quest to go further, deeper and beyond the imagined limits of human capability. But freediving is also an opportunity to be free. It's a search for the authentic. An opportunity to commune with the infinite. Today on the podcast I sit down with author and adventure journalist Adam Skolnick, who immersed himself in this extreme yet poetic subculture to tell the story of Nicholas Mevoli, America's