My Story - The Perimeter Trilogy
My literary interests and surviving and overcoming several serious health challenges consumed 15 years of my life.
As a lifelong athlete with an interest in human thriving, performance and contentment, I was well equipped to overcome several serious and often debilitating health challenges. Along the way I acquired an exhaustive knowledgebase of American healthcare and developed a unique methodology for navigating life's transitions that span self-knowledge, philsosopy, pscychology, sports science, and the wisdom of happiness and contentment - fourishing.
A 20,000-mile, multi-year circumnavigation of the United States I undertook as a former journalist as an attempt to understand a country I no longer recognized became Book 1: Perimeter, An Odyssey. I embedded in cities across the country and had what I describe as conversations with thousands of people. It provided a rare view of post-9/11 America and a front row seat to the birth of the country in which we live. The project was elongated by mostly treatable and manageable issues that were difficult to diagnose, painful and fatiguing.
I returned to Aspen prior to the pandemic. While in a hotel room contempolating how to manage a life that included quite a bit of pain, I wrote a manifesto about meaning, purpose, and a life worth living. I devoted the next two years to regaining my health and strength in the mountains surrounding my home, spending months in the backcountry hiking, skiing, and on horseback, hours in the pool and gym, and dedicated many evenings to marathon meditation sessions with and without psychedelics. Together with what I learned during a lifetime of interest in and study about human performance, longevity and contentment that became Book 2: My Magical Year: Healing, Rebirth and Redemption in Mountains, Oceans and Deserts.
A 20,000-mile, multi-year circumnavigation of the United States I undertook as a former journalist as an attempt to understand a country I no longer recognized became Book 1: Perimeter, An Odyssey. I embedded in cities across the country and had what I describe as conversations with thousands of people. It provided a rare view of post-9/11 America and a front row seat to the birth of the country in which we live. The project was elongated by mostly treatable and manageable issues that were difficult to diagnose, painful and fatiguing.
I returned to Aspen prior to the pandemic. While in a hotel room contempolating how to manage a life that included quite a bit of pain, I wrote a manifesto about meaning, purpose, and a life worth living. I devoted the next two years to regaining my health and strength in the mountains surrounding my home, spending months in the backcountry hiking, skiing, and on horseback, hours in the pool and gym, and dedicated many evenings to marathon meditation sessions with and without psychedelics. Together with what I learned during a lifetime of interest in and study about human performance, longevity and contentment that became Book 2: My Magical Year: Healing, Rebirth and Redemption in Mountains, Oceans and Deserts.
Health Journey and Magical Year Retreats
Much of my life has been shaped by two genetic disorders and emergency spinal surgery to repair damage from an early-life horseback riding accident. After those I had two disabling bouts of Long Covid, which that I self-triaged and recovered from in a small cottage in the British Virgin Islands.
Only a year later I was diagnosed with Smoldering Multiple Myeloma, a precancerous condition that thankfully has an excellent prognosis. Through these experiences, I acquired extensive knowledge about American healthcare, the intimate connection between zip code and longevity, and the deeper dynamics of strength, endurance, and the psychology of resilience, tenacity, and performance. In 2019 and 2020 my health returned and I had a very good pandemic. I thought about the many people I'd met during my travels in America and in the pandemic struggling to cope with challenges that had become routine for me.
I realized I had created a unique methodoly and wondered, "if I'd needed a magical year, how many others might benefit from a similar experience? I saw an opportunity to use the decades of wisdom and knowledge I'd acquired to help others facing life's challenges, navigating transitions, and pursuing opportunities. That was the birth of Magical Year Retreats, a global adventure travel and wellness company that designs, curates, and leads small-group healing and life-transition retreats in villas, on yachts and horseback, and along pilgrimage routes.
Only a year later I was diagnosed with Smoldering Multiple Myeloma, a precancerous condition that thankfully has an excellent prognosis. Through these experiences, I acquired extensive knowledge about American healthcare, the intimate connection between zip code and longevity, and the deeper dynamics of strength, endurance, and the psychology of resilience, tenacity, and performance. In 2019 and 2020 my health returned and I had a very good pandemic. I thought about the many people I'd met during my travels in America and in the pandemic struggling to cope with challenges that had become routine for me.
I realized I had created a unique methodoly and wondered, "if I'd needed a magical year, how many others might benefit from a similar experience? I saw an opportunity to use the decades of wisdom and knowledge I'd acquired to help others facing life's challenges, navigating transitions, and pursuing opportunities. That was the birth of Magical Year Retreats, a global adventure travel and wellness company that designs, curates, and leads small-group healing and life-transition retreats in villas, on yachts and horseback, and along pilgrimage routes.
Solo Winter Off Grid
In 2016, seeking solitude and clarity, Baron spent a winter alone in a remote cabin at 10,200 feet in the Colorado Rockies. Twelve miles from town and accessible only by snowmobile, this became a profound experiment in isolation, immersion in nature, and self-reliance.
More in Common Ventures
As an outgrowth of what he witnessed, Baron created More in Common Ventures, a foundation designed to provide low-friction loans to stabilize communities. To address the strained social fabric and division he tracked for a decade, he founded The More in Common Dinner Club, whose slogan is Healing the Divide, One Meal at a Time. His inspiration came from the coffee groups and dinners he hosted during his travels, where people focused not on politics, but on shared experiences—the things we have in common. Baron lives in Aspen and has two adult children.
