Richard Bangs

Richard Bangs has been called the father of modern adventure travel and a pioneer in travel with a purpose. He has spent 30 years as an explorer and communicator, and along the way led first descents of 35 rivers around the globe, including the Yangtze in China and the Zambezi in Southern Africa.

Richard has published hundreds of magazine articles, 18 books, a score of documentaries and several CD-ROMs; and has lectured at the Smithsonian, the National Geographic Society and the Explorers Club.

He writes semi-regular features for the Huffington Post. Bangs was founder and editor-in-chief of Mungo Park, a pioneering Microsoft travel publishing effort, and founded Terra Quest. He was part of the founding executive team of Expedia.com, and served as its Editor-at-Large. He was creator and publisher of Expedia Travels Magazine (a partnership with Ziff-Davis), and executive producer of Expedia Radio, and founder and executive director of Expedia Cafes. He also served as president of Outward Bound; founded Well-Traveled for Slate; and was founding editor and executive producer of Great Escapes, another Microsoft Travels initiative. He ran and founded First and Best for MSN, and founded Sobek Expeditions, which in the early 1990s merged with Mountain Travel to become Mountain Travel Sobek.

Richard's book, The Lost River: A Memoir of Life, Death and the Transformation of Wild Water, was honored with a National Outdoor Book Award in literature. He served as executive producer of Richard Bangs Adventures on Yahoo. More recently, he was host, co-executive producer and co-writer for the 12-episode American Public Television series, Richard Bangs’ Adventures with Purpose produced by Small World Productions of Seattle and co-produced by KCTS/Seattle.