Incredible Feats artwork

Incredible Feats

297 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 532 ratings

They’ve broken records, made history, and turned the impossible into the incredible. Every weekday, join comedian Dan Cummins as he profiles amazing achievements made by people from all over the world. Incredible Feats is a Spotify Original from Parcast.

Society & Culture
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Episodes

Project Excelsior: The First Stratosphere Dive

June 25, 2021 07:01 - 8 minutes

Can humans survive over 100,000 feet above sea level? In 1960, U.S. Air Force captain Joseph Kittinger had to find that out for himself… and then skydive back to Earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Fittest Woman On Earth

June 24, 2021 07:01 - 8 minutes

Annie Thorisdottir was looking for a sport that was exciting and that she could dominate. When she found Crossfit, it was “game over” for other competitors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Teenager Invents Water-Skiing

June 23, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

A love of snow-skiing combined with a love of aquaplaning on the local lake led teenager Ralph Samuelson to invent a new sport. But it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First Woman In Space

June 22, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Becoming the first woman to fly into outer space was relatively easy for Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. The challenging part was making sure she would also be the first woman to return from outer space safely. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Extreme Shallow Diving

June 21, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Imagine diving off a platform almost 38 feet in the air and landing in water only 1 foot deep. Sound impossible? It is, unless you're Darren Taylor… aka Professor Splash. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“The Guy Who Cut His Arm Off”

June 18, 2021 07:01 - 8 minutes

When hiker Aron Ralston’s right arm got wedged between an 800 pound boulder and the canyon wall, he was forced to do the unthinkable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

World’s Fastest Sprinter

June 17, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

How does one become the fastest man in the world? Why, chicken nuggets, of course. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snowboarding In Antarctica

June 16, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

After snowboarding down all the highest peaks that helicopters could reach, Jeremy Jones had to find a new place to descend. Somewhere nobody had ever snowboarded before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Pilot Episode

June 15, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Goaded on by her brother’s taunts, Bessie Coleman crossed an ocean to learn how to fly. She broke boundaries as a pilot — then went on to perfect daring stunts, too.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hold Up. How Many Grammys?

June 14, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

Ever since she started with Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé has been piling up Grammys — more than any other singer in history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Bat Man”: The First to Soar with Wings

June 11, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

Because airplanes couldn’t fly any higher in the 1930s, Clem Sohn had to find a new way to keep his aerial stunts fresh. So he developed a “bat suit” that allowed him to stay in the air longer and perform even more death-defying tricks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lean Mean Fighting Machine

June 10, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Retired boxer and entrepreneur George Foreman wanted to become the oldest boxer to win the Heavyweight title. And at age 45, he did. But it wouldn’t be easy.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Race To The South Pole

June 09, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Roald Amundsen wanted to become the first explorer to reach the South Pole. The only problem: A different expedition was already under way, so he'd have to hurry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Back-To-Back Double Olympic Diving Gold

June 08, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

American Greg Louganis became the first man to win gold medals in both platform and springboard diving in back-to-back Olympics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Woman Travels Alone To Every Country In The World

June 07, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

How many countries have you been to? It’s probably not as many as Cassie De Pecol, who became the first woman to travel to all 196 countries in the world (yes, even North Korea!). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Great British Swim!

June 04, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

A leisurely thing to do may be to drive around Great Britain, but Ross Edgley wanted to enter the record books, so he SWAM around Great Britain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Home Run King

June 03, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s MLB home run record by hitting his 715th career home run. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Piano Dueling Prodigy

June 02, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

It’s not often that “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” can win a piano competition, but when it’s played by Mozart, anything can happen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grizzly Bear Attacks

June 01, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

The only thing luckier than a man who survives a grizzly bear attack is a man who survives two grizzly bear attacks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thai Cave Rescue

May 31, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

When 12 teenage soccer players and their coach become stranded in an underwater cave, two men are called on to do the impossible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Longest UTV Jump

May 28, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Even with his lower body paralyzed, Tanner Godfrey set out to set a record and jump more than 240 feet in his utility terrain vehicle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Kobe!” Scoring 81 Points In A Game

May 27, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

In 2006, Kobe Bryant scored an astounding 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second most points ever scored in an NBA game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Longest Running Daily Vlog

May 26, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Charles Trippy released a new vlog every day for ten years — including one documenting his brain surgery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Inventing Computer Code

May 25, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Ada Lovelace wrote the very first computer algorithm in 1843. It was so groundbreaking, her notes were used to crack the German Enigma Code over 100 years later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shark’s Fin: The Impossible Climb

May 24, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk became the first three climbers in history to summit a peak that experts said couldn’t be climbed.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Slacklining Over A Gorge

May 21, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Teenager Pablo Signoret is a different kind of slacker, setting a record for the world’s longest highline walk… while blindfolded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Outbiking The Lads

May 20, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Amateur cyclist Beryl Burton pedaled over 277 miles in twelve hours to set a world record that would last FIFTY years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Driving On The Moon

May 19, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

Normally, a 17.5 mile drive that takes 18 hours would be infuriating. But for astronauts David Scott and Jim Irwin, it was an opportunity to document about a quarter of the moon’s surface. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

World’s Longest Nonstop Flight

May 18, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Most people take non-stop flights because they’re meant to be shorter. But pilot Steve Fossett set the record for the world’s longest nonstop flight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Bionic Arm

May 17, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Amputee Robert Campbell Aird used a bionic prosthesis to become the first one-handed person to windsurf! And he did it across the English Channel! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

3 Hours. 1 Wave. Surf’s Up!

May 14, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Gary Saavedra wanted to put Panama in the record books, so he set out to do the impossible: surf the Panama Canal! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Perfect Day For A Perfect Game

May 13, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

Yankees pitcher Don Larsen achieves a feat so incredible nobody else has achieved it since. In game 5 of the 1956 World Series, he retired all 27 Brooklyn Dodgers batters he faced, throwing the first and only “perfect game” in World Series history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trapped In Earth’s Upper Atmosphere

May 12, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

In 1931 while studying radioactive waves, Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard and his assistant Paul Kipfer flew their custom hot air balloon closer to outer space than anyone before them… only to become trapped 50,000 feet above Earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Running On Empty

May 11, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

There was something about running that just didn’t sit well with ultramarathoner Mike McKnight. Every time he ran a marathon he’d eat to keep his energy up… and every time he ate, he puked. So McKnight decided to cut food from his routine, and as a result, ran 100 miles without stopping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Surgeon, Soldier, Captive, Spy

May 10, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

Mary Edwards Walker saved lives and made history as the first woman surgeon in the U.S. military. For her battlefield valor during the Civil War, she received a Medal of Honor — and when the government tried to revoke it? She defended it with a shotgun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Climbing Mt. Everest, Blind

May 07, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

In 2001, Erik Weihenmayer made climbing history as the first blind person to summit Mt. Everest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

World’s Fastest Marathon

May 06, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

In an effort to set the record for a sub two-hour marathon, Eliud Kipchoge designed the perfect course with all the elements and variables he would need to succeed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Saving Lives With Soap

May 05, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

In a field that was dominated by men, Florence Nightingale “cleaned up” the nursing profession and showed the industry a new way to save lives.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

World’s Highest Jump

May 04, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Known as one of the best athletes in Cuba’s history, Javier Sotomayor overcame a terrifying fear to set the world record in the high jump.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Creating The Polio Vaccine

May 03, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

Jonas Salk was tasked with making a vaccine for polio, but it wouldn’t be easy. A normal vaccine could risk paralyzing the very kids he was trying to protect — he would have to pioneer something entirely new.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shaun White’s Secret Snowboard Mission

April 30, 2021 07:01 - 8 minutes

Devising a secret weapon for competition, snowboarder Shaun White perfects a new trick and uses it to win gold in the X-games and then the Winter Olympics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

20th Time’s The Charm: Dale Earnhardt Wins Daytona 500

April 29, 2021 07:01 - 8 minutes

After various misfortunes prevented him from winning, the late, great NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt finally won his first Daytona 500 on his 20th attempt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Longest Tennis Match In History

April 28, 2021 07:01 - 8 minutes

It took place over three long days. It was over eleven hours of tennis. Twelve records were broken. It’s the story of the 2010 Wimbledon match between Nicholas Mahut and John Isner that became the longest in history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A C-Section And A Secret

April 27, 2021 07:01 - 8 minutes

For years, Caesarean Sections were mostly performed in hopes of saving either the mother or the baby. But in 1826, Dr. James Barry became the first British doctor to perform the procedure where both the mother and child lived.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First Woman To Circle The Globe By Car

April 26, 2021 07:01 - 8 minutes

In 1922, 16-year-old Aloha Wanderwell participated in the “Million Dollar Wager” — a race around the world in a Ford Model T. It ended in 1927 with her holding the Guinness World Record as the first woman to circle the globe by car. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Teen Pilot’s Daring Flight

April 23, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

In 1928, no one had ever successfully flown under New York’s East River bridges — though many had tried and failed. 17-year-old Elinor Smith became the first. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tony Hawk Lands The First Skateboard 900

April 22, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

The internet’s favorite skateboarding icon practiced, failed, and even broke a bone while attempting to land a trick he invented. For fourteen years. Then came the 1999 X Games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Goodall Fashioned Fun

April 21, 2021 07:01 - 6 minutes

As a young researcher, Jane Goodall shocked the scientific community with a revolutionary discovery about chimpanzees.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Acrobatic Salsa… In Her 80s!

April 20, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

Sarah “Paddy” Jones retired from professional dance in the 1950s to raise a family, but decades later, she returned to the stage — in a very big way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hollywood’s First Stunt Sequence

April 19, 2021 07:01 - 7 minutes

In 1922, former real estate agent and “Human Spider” Bill Strother pulled off a top-secret movie stunt so dangerous that onlookers passed out while watching it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices