
"Life without risk is impossible."
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Richard 'Harry' Harris believed all twelve boys would die if they attempted the rescue. He recommended they try anyway.
This is the story behind the 2018 Thai cave rescue and what it taught one man about risk, resilience, and the cost of a life lived too safely.
In this episode, Harry speaks with remarkable calm about what it actually felt like to be inside that cave - to meet the boys in person, to swim back out alone in the dark with a decision he wasn't sure he could make, and to sit in a room full of international experts waiting for his answer.
He told them he believed all twelve would die if they tried it.
Then he said they should try it anyway.
Book: The Art of Risk by Richard Harris
Recorded at Latitude Podcast Studio.
This is the story behind the 2018 Thai cave rescue and what it taught one man about risk, resilience, and the cost of a life lived too safely.
In this episode, Harry speaks with remarkable calm about what it actually felt like to be inside that cave - to meet the boys in person, to swim back out alone in the dark with a decision he wasn't sure he could make, and to sit in a room full of international experts waiting for his answer.
He told them he believed all twelve would die if they tried it.
Then he said they should try it anyway.
Book: The Art of Risk by Richard Harris
Recorded at Latitude Podcast Studio.
Chapters
- 00:00 Intro
- 01:34 Living is risky business
- 03:58 Anaesthesiology and being comfortable with the unthinkable
- 06:09 Age 15: stranded at sea off Adelaide
- 09:24 The call to Thailand
- 12:49 Meeting the boys in chamber nine
- 14:00 The impossible choice: option A or option B
- 20:32 The psychology of survival - who lives and who doesn't
- 24:29 What modern life is costing us and the case for risk





