Episode Details

Every once in a while, you meet someone whose way of seeing the world makes you stop and look at your own world a little differently.

That was my experience with photographer Cade Martin.

I am honestly in awe of the way Cade sees people, places and the unexpected moments that most of us might walk right past. His photographs don't feel posed or manufactured. They feel alive. They pull you into a moment and make you wonder what happened just before and what happened after.

Cade has spent his life chasing characters and following his curiosity wherever it leads. His work has taken him from India to Berlin, Mexico and Thailand, into movie sets and unfamiliar communities, and into the lives of people whose stories stay with him long after the camera is put away.

In this conversation, we go far beyond photography.

We talk about his childhood surrounded by artists, writers and freethinkers and how that shaped the way he learned to look at people. We explore his fascination with faces, his “aversion to labels,” and what happens when curiosity becomes a way of moving through the world.

Then there is Thailand and the extraordinary story of the Wheelchair Mafia, where rescued dogs, resilience, movement and unexpected human connection came together in a journey that became something much bigger than a photography project.

There is also a quieter, deeply moving side to Cade's work. We talk about veterans, the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, and his changing understanding of heroism, memory and the stories people carry silently inside them.

What stayed with me most is Cade's belief in being fully present for whatever, or whoever, is in front of you.

Maybe that is why his photographs feel so different. He isn't simply taking pictures. He's paying attention. And in a world where we are constantly scrolling past one another, there is something powerful about someone who still takes the time to truly see.

This is a conversation about photography, travel and adventure. But at its heart, it's about curiosity and humanity. And the extraordinary stories that appear when we stop trying to control the frame.

Tune in for this special episode!

*photo by Cade Martin

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