What happens when a story grabs you and won't let go?
For writer and explorer Kim Frank, the answer meant years of return trips to the Eastern Himalayas, nights out in the field with wild elephants, and a close encounter with a male elephant in musth that she describes as life changing.
The result? A book, a documentary, and a cause she now says she is responsible for the rest of her life to tell.
Kim is the author of Elephants in the Hourglass — a sweeping, deeply personal account of the complex relationship between wild Asian elephants and the human communities they share land with along the India-Nepal border.
In this conversation, we explore the nature of curiosity, the power of obsession, and what it really means to surrender to a place and a story.
In this Episode, We Explore:
- How the story found her — Kim wasn't looking to write about elephants; she wanted an adventure she could inhabit herself. A conversation on a hike changed everything.
- The human-elephant conflict — Wild Asian elephants are destroying crops, raiding homes, and occasionally killing people along the India-Nepal border. Kim explains why it's not a story with heroes and villains; you end up rooting for everyone at once.
- An elephant who moved a child to safety — A first-hand account from a local ranger: an elephant gently carried a six-year-old girl out of the house he was raiding, set her down safely in the street, and went back in for the rice beer.
- The Dalai Lama's trail at 9,700 feet — Tracing a 2,300km ancient elephant migration route, Kim walked a Himalayan trail lined with Buddhist prayer scarves and discovered it was the same path the Dalai Lama used to escape Tibet.
Episode Timestamps:
- 02:05 - First Time Visiting India
- 06:16 - Surrender and Travel Lessons
- 08:52 - Elephant Conflict Spark
- 11:14 - Finding the Story Angle
- 15:19 - Empathy Over Headlines
- 17:28 - Unseen Himalaya Magic
- 22:51 - Returning and Building Trust
- 24:20 - Outsider Perspective Challenges
- 29:01 - Finishing Book and Film
- 33:11 - When Stories Choose You
- 40:24 - Advice for Creators
- 42:47 - Childhood Adventure Influences
Links Referenced in This Episode:
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Mentioned in this episode:
Join us on the trail of the Knight's Templar
www.lukerichardsonauthor.com/templartour
For the first time ever, we're inviting you to join us on one of our adventures. And what better place to start than one of my favourite destinations… Portugal. But we’re not just going for the beaches and the wine, we’re following in the footsteps of one of history's most enigmatic organisations... the Knights Templar.
We're going on the trail of the Templars in Portugal!
Over five days and four nights, we'll guide you from the winding streets of Lisbon to the hilltop castle of Almourol, the sacred halls of Tomar's Convent of Christ, and the enchanting esoteric grottoes of Quinta da Regaleira—the very place that inspired my book The Templar Enigma.
www.lukerichardsonauthor.com/templartour
