Exploration

Storytelling at the edge of the world with award-winning filmmaker Trevor Wallace

Episode 118

How one explorer is using film to connect people with place, history, and culture — plus, one-of-a-kind insight into the world of underwater archaeology and more

  • Published Jan 13, 2026
  • Updated Jan 27
Trevor Wallace at the dive site of the Menorca Shipwreck Project that he leads in the Mediterranean. (Photo courtesy Trevor Wallace)
Expand Image

Listen & Subscribe

“I think that’s a common thread for explorers — the desire to feel small and insignificant in something much larger. There’s this serene, peaceful other-worldliness to the North. You go up there once, and it just gets under your skin. And you don’t really ever stop wanting to go back.”

“Exploration isn’t about conquering a place — it’s about listening to it." Trevor Wallace. (Photo: Tom Cochrane
Expand Image

Award-winning expedition filmmaker and RCGS Fellow Trevor Wallace joins Explore podcast host David McGuffin to talk about exploration, archaeology, and insights into his expeditions around the world. 

In this conversation, Wallace goes into detail about his decades-long career working in Greenland and the Arctic, reflecting on Inuit knowledge systems, sovereignty, and why the North is so often misunderstood — and impossible to forget. He also discusses his latest documentary, Among Thieves, an investigative film that exposes the global black market for looted antiquities, following an undercover trail from remote burial sites to international art markets.

The conversation also highlights Wallace’s underwater archaeology work in Menorca, where his team is excavating rare 13th-century medieval shipwrecks, and how hands-on field schools are bringing new generations into archaeological research.

A member of the Explorers Club and an RCGS Fellow, Wallace has led and documented expeditions across the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, Antarctica, Central Asia, Siberia, and the Mediterranean — using film to connect people with place, history, and culture.

Wallace poses on ice in Greenland. (Photo: Jacquie Matechuk)
Expand Image
Trevor Wallace (top left) holds the Explorers Club flag alongside the international archaeology team working to uncover ancient Scythian tombs in Siberia. (Photo courtesy Trevor Wallace)
Expand Image
Advertisement

Help us tell Canada’s story

You can support Canadian Geographic in 3 ways:

Related Content

People & Culture

Royal Canadian Geographical Society Awards 2020

Award recipients honoured in the first virtual Annual General Meeting and Fellows Show.

  • 2630 words
  • 11 minutes
Arctic Frontiers conference 2019

Environment

Five key takeaways from the Arctic Frontiers conference

The uncertainty and change that's currently disrupting the region dominated the annual meeting's agenda

  • 2651 words
  • 11 minutes
Viveka Melki

People & Culture

Q&A: Filmmaker Viveka Melki on war and the healing power of storytelling

"The point of all this is to make history intimate" 

  • 858 words
  • 4 minutes
rcgs awards ceremony

People & Culture

Presenting the 2019 RCGS award winners

In celebration of its 90th year, the RCGS handed out awards to a diverse and star-studded roster of honourees

  • 2464 words
  • 10 minutes