# Charlie Walker, "On Thin Ice: An Explorer's Memoir of Siberia, Surveillance and Survival" (Duckworth, 2026)

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-network-529292/charlie-walker-on-thin-ice-an-explorer-s-memoir-of-siberia-surveillance-and-survival-duckworth-2026
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-network-529292/charlie-walker-on-thin-ice-an-explorer-s-memoir-of-siberia-surveillance-and-survival-duckworth-2026.md
Podcast: [New Books Network](https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-network-529292)
Published: 2026-09-10T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK1885679570.mp3
Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK1885679570.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-network-529292/episodes/charlie-walker-on-thin-ice-an-explorer-s-memoir-of-siberia-surveillance-and-survival-duckworth-2026
Duration seconds: 3126

## Resource

In February 2022, British explorer Charlie Walker flew to Siberia's Sakha Republic to walk a thousand miles up frozen rivers to the Arctic Ocean, through Earth's coldest inhabited region. Days later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Tamping down his concerns, he continued on his journey, meeting indigenous people and ice road truckers along the way.  Yet his trip ended in fear and confusion, with an arrest and a month in a Yakutsk jail, the story of his new book, On Thin Ice: An Explorer's Memoir of Siberia, Surveillance and Survival (Duckworth, 2026) Charlie is an award-winning explorer, author and international keynote speaker. He has travelled over 60,000 miles by foot, horse, raft, bicycle, ski and dugout canoe, in places as varied as the Tibetan plateau, the Mongolian steppe, the Congolese jungle, the Arctic tundra, the highlands of New Guinea and the Sahara desert. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Scientific Exploration Society Explorer Award winner, and the author of Through Sand & Snow (Nielsen UK: 2021) and On Roads That Echo (Nielsen UK: 2021) You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of On Thin Ice. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at @nickrigordon. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-network-529292/episodes/charlie-walker-on-thin-ice-an-explorer-s-memoir-of-siberia-surveillance-and-survival-duckworth-2026/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-network-529292/charlie-walker-on-thin-ice-an-explorer-s-memoir-of-siberia-surveillance-and-survival-duckworth-2026.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.