Meet the heroes leading our community of exploration.




















We are all about the people who venture to the frontiers of human knowledge. At Hidden Compass, scientists, explorers, artists, and journalists are celebrated. Start by reading and sharing our stories. Go behind the scenes and meet the storytellers. Get involved and directly support their work with a contribution.
Featured Storytellers

Maud Rowell
Maud Rowell is a blind writer and film photographer from London with a background in Japanese studies. Her mission is to educate and inform others about the realities of sight loss.
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Paul Fischer
Paul Fischer is an author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. Born in Saudi Arabia and raised in France, he now lives in the United Kingdom.
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Edmée van Rijn
Edmée van Rijn, born and raised in the Netherlands, is an experienced freelance camerawoman, editor, and producer working across the Middle East and beyond.
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Colin Daileda
Colin Daileda is a journalist in Bengaluru, whose work has appeared in Atlas Obscura, Longreads, and others. His latest for Hidden Compass is part of a series on humanity’s evolving and often confrontational relationship with water, and is supported by the Pulitzer Center.
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Lance Garland
Lance Garland fights fire in Seattle, climbs the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, and sails the Salish Sea. In the moments between the action, he writes.
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Sabine K. Bergmann
Sabine K. Bergmann is the co-founder and co-CEO of Hidden Compass. She’s also an award-winning journalist whose cinematic stories invite readers to explore places and characters who connect us to the grand tapestry of human wisdom, kinship, and purpose.
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Amanda Castleman
Despite her yoga and yogurt tendencies, author Amanda Castleman is a former wilderness guide who remains happiest when grubbing around in nature.
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Sivani Babu
Sivani Babu is the co-founder, co-CEO, and creative director of Hidden Compass. By merging journalism, art, and exploration, she tells stories that offer perspective, context, and an awe-inspiring sense of scale to the human experience.
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Organizations We Support
Committee to Protect Journalists
Our mission is to celebrate journalists. This means it is our responsibility to help make the world safer for them. The Committee to Protect Journalists is a nonprofit dedicated to protecting journalists globally, defending their rights, and fighting for freedom of the press. Their emergency response team provides life-saving support to journalists in peril.
Learn MoreStoryCorps
We believe stories have the power to bring people together. This can only happen when those stories are collected, shared, and preserved. To date, StoryCorps has gathered and recorded the stories of more than half a million people to remind us of our shared humanity, nurture compassion, and preserve a historical record for future generations.
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