Rebroadcast: Woniya Thibeault survived extreme cold and isolation to become a winner

This rebroadcast originally aired on June 15, 2023.

Woniya Thibeault won a season of “Alone: Frozen,” the popular wilderness survival show that tests people to see how long they can last on their own with only their skills, and a few tools.

But she’s much more than just a gritty survivalist. Thibeault has devoted her life to learning skills our ancestors used to survive and thrive.

“Harvesting wild foods, harvesting plants for medicine and basketry materials and fibers, making bow and arrows from things I can harvest around me,” she says. “I feel like it’s the best way to be human.”

It’s changed how she sees modern life.

“We get upset when Starbucks has the wrong flavor creamer,” she adds. “As opposed to like, ‘Whoa, I get food today and I didn’t have to slave for it? And a warm place to sleep tonight and someone in my family doesn’t have to stay up to make sure that nothing’s coming to eat us?’”

Today, On Point: Woniya Thibeault on thriving in the wild.

Guest

Woniya Thibeault, ancestral skills and wilderness survival instructor. She won History Channel’s “Alone: Frozen,” when she spent 50 days in Labrador from October through December of 2021. Author of “Never Alone: A Solo Arctic Survival Journey.”

Information about the classes can be found through her website, Buckskin Revolution.

Book Excerpt

Excerpt from “Never Alone.” All rights reserved.

Transcript

Part I

MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI: No one can survive this. It’s a life-threatening winter storm in Labrador, Canada, just on the edge of the Arctic Circle. I’m not in Labrador. I’m at home, very far away from this storm. And I’m bundled in my warm down comforter, wanting to complain about something. But feeling the justification for any complaint rapidly draining away.

The days-long storm, horizontal snow and blistering winds are on my laptop screen. I’m watching the History Channel’s hit show “Alone,” where a group of wilderness experts are dropped into the toughest, most remote places in the world, and tasked with one thing:…