Chris Bashinelli
National Geographic Explorer | Executive Producer and Host, Bridge the Gap
Chris Bashinelli was 20 years old when he traveled to Tanzania to film his first documentary, asking the question: how can we change the world? When he returned, his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. It was this moment that he realized there was nothing he could do to change the world — we can’t control outside circumstances; we only ever have control over ourselves. This became the impetus for Bashinelli’s life mission, that when we change our mind, we change our world.
As the executive producer and host of Bridge the Gap on PBS and the National Geographic Channel, Bashinelli has taken millions of viewers on meaningful adventures around the world. He has harvested buffalo with Indigenous people in Pine Ridge, lived as a nomad in Mongolia, and sumo wrestled the heaviest Japanese human being in recorded history. Bashinelli uses his adventures to inspire viewers to step with courage in the direction of their fears.
Bashinelli is also moderator for the United Nations, an Eagle Scout, a National Geographic Explorer, and has interviewed some of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people on the planet.
As an internationally recognized speaker, Bashinelli has shared the stage with such prominent people as Stevie Wonder; to United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon; to his mentor, Dr. Jane Goodall. He lectures to thousands of people on a yearly basis, from Fortune 500 companies to prisons, offering the simple message that when we change internally, our world actually changes around us.