Pioneers of the Possible Season Finale & Newsletter
🚢 SEASON FINALE — JOIN US LIVE
Take one last virtual field trip this school year and join Sunniva Sørby, live from the deck of the Ocean Explorer in Svalbard, Norway. We're ending the 2025–2026 season of “Pioneers of the Possible” the way it should end — somewhere extraordinary.
Sunniva will be joined by a few surprise guests from the expedition team on board. Who will they be? You'll have to show up to find out. This is the Arctic. Expect the unexpected.
📅 Thursday, June 18th, 2026 · 2:00 PM EST
Watch live on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/live/REhD4y2pGy0
Photo Courtesy of Florian Ledoux
👥 THIS SEASON'S PIONEERS WHO HELPED US REDEFINE WHAT IS POSSIBLE— CATCH UP ON ALL EPISODES
Cady Coleman — NASA Astronaut & USAF Colonel
A veteran of two Space Shuttle missions and 159 days aboard the International Space Station, Cady explored what it means to lead, wonder, and make change beyond Earth's atmosphere.
Watch episode →https://www.youtube.com/live/pFKNbbNDBg8
Grandma Joy & Brad Ryan — Intergenerational adventurers
94-year-old Grandma Joy and her grandson Brad completed all 63 US National Parks together, proving that healing, adventure, and connection have no age limit.
Watch episode →https://www.youtube.com/live/vhXBY-mFh1c
Florian Ledoux — Arctic filmmaker & photographer
Florian has spent years living on the sea ice to document polar bears and Arctic wildlife for Disney Nature and BBC's Frozen Planet 2 - using his camera as both witness and advocate for the frozen world.
Watch episode →https://www.youtube.com/live/_6KSvvNossA
Dr. Gabor Maté — Physician & bestselling author
Order of Canada recipient and internationally renowned voice on trauma, addiction, and healing, Gabor explored what it means to be truly well in a world that keeps speeding up.
Watch episode →https://www.youtube.com/live/3NAS_9hQPXY
Angela Hawse — IFMGA mountain guide & conservationist
One of few female IFMGA guides in the world, with 30+ years leading expeditions from the Antarctic Peninsula to Arctic Svalbard, Angela brought her lifelong work on climate change and women in guiding to the conversation.
Watch episode →https://www.youtube.com/live/FeDBFP4rTfc
Jenna Pollard — Timber framer & trades educator
A 15-year veteran timber framer who leads women's and FLINTA-specific workshops, Jenna joined us for Women's History Month to celebrate the cohort - including Sunniva - who built trusses for a replica of Shackleton's Hut at the Will Steger Center.
Watch episode →https://www.youtube.com/live/xkLutPH0RJE
Michelle Valberg — Wildlife photographer & Order of Canada recipient
One of Canada's most celebrated nature photographers - Nikon Ambassador, Photographer-in-Residence for Canadian Geographic, and founder of Project North - Michelle explored how images become bridges between people and the wild places that need us most.
Watch episode →https://www.youtube.com/live/VzBdfGIypjc
Every drop in the bucket matters. Every step you take helps us build momentum.
🥾 WALK WITH US — JGI HIKE FOR HOPE, OCTOBER 3–4, 2026
“Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.” — Dr. Jane Goodall
This October, we're lacing up our boots. The Jane Goodall Institute of Canada is hosting its first-ever national Hike for Hope on October 3rd and 4th, 2026 - a weekend of walking, donating, and standing together for the natural world. The Embrace the Planet team is participating, and we want you with us, wherever you are.
You don't have to be anywhere special to join. Walk your neighbourhood. Wander a forest trail. Step outside at lunch. What matters is that you move, and that your movement means something.
Every donation goes directly to the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada's work amplifying community-led action for people, animals, and the environment.
👉 Donate and/or join our team here →https://janegoodall.crowdchange.ca/128058/team/77407
🗺️ A BIGGER JOURNEY BEGINS HERE
The Jane Goodall Hike for Hope is also the seed of something larger. In August 2027, the Embrace the Planet expedition team will walk the full length of Vancouver Island approximately 800 km from Cape Scott in the wild north to Victoria in the south in a citizen science journey called From Sea to Sky. We will traverse ancient rainforests, salmon rivers, coastal inlets, and mountain ridges, in partnership with First Nations communities and scientists across the island. And we will finish, in early October 2027, on the Jane Goodall Hike for Hope.
This year's walk is where that journey begins.
Image courtesy of Florian Ledoux
❄️ A PERSONAL NOTE FROM SUNNIVA
In a few days I’ll be in Svalbard - a place that has shaped me in so many ways. My first trip there was in 2008. I first overwintered there at Bamsebu in 2019, and what followed became Hearts in the Ice: a 19-month project co-founded with Hilde Fålun Strøm that asked what it means to bear witness to a changing Arctic, and to act from that place of knowing.
Hearts in the Ice officially wrapped up in 2025. It was an extraordinary chapter, and I am deeply proud of what we built and what it meant to so many people.
Understanding what is happening in the far north and the far south remains urgent -perhaps more urgent than ever. Hilde continues her vital work in the Arctic, and I am grateful for it. But I have come to believe that sometimes the most powerful response is to bring that knowing home, to act in our own backyards, with the same depth of care we have learned to feel for the remote regions of our planet.
Which is why I have launched the Embrace the Planet Project’s “From Sea to Sky Vancouver Island Trail Expedition 2027” - inspired by Dr. Jane Goodall's enduring message to all of us: “Keep walking. Keep showing up. Every step matters”.
And so we will walk - all 800 km of Vancouver Island, from Cape Scott to Victoria - carrying that belief forward.
More soon. But first: Svalbard.
— Sunniva x
p.s. You're receiving this because you're part of the Sunniva Sørby or Embrace the Planet community — we've recently merged our mailing lists to keep everything in one place. If you'd prefer not to receive future emails, you're warmly welcome to unsubscribe. No hard feelings — we're grateful you've been part of the journey.
