As any good romantic knows, reckoning with nature can be perilous. But oh, how it rewards. Whether it’s climbing a vast rock face or riding an ocean breeze, encounters with the wilderness are a dance of risk and reward. To face danger, and conquer it, makes the achievement all the more meaningful.

Here at Sway, we’ll be spending the next month immersed in adventure—from pioneering women entrepreneurs, to rituals of the great outdoors, to travel technology and beyond. Because adventure doesn’t just happen: it is sought and earned by the curious and the ambitious.

Ralph, for one, never stops exploring. Propelled by an endless drive to know and see the world, he’s quickly filling up the pages of his passport this summer on a voyage through Southeast Asia, a trip he booked the day he read about the discovery of vast, previously unknown cities near the Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat.

Dating between 900 and 1,400 years old, these metropolises—some nearly the size of the Photo: Anthony Coronado country’s capital, Phnom Penh—appear to have been densely populated, possibly constituting the world’s largest empire during its peak. Connected by networks of roads and water transportation systems, these cities were thriving urban centers both before and after the supposed collapse of Angkor in the fifteenth century.

Angkor Wat is a site of nearly unspeakable beauty. Aside from embodying the classical local architecture style, and indeed serving as a symbol of Cambodia itself, it is surrounded by dense jungle vegetation—which until now has hidden these centuries-old urban landscapes. By using lidar technology, or aerial laser testing, researchers were able, finally, to view what lay behind the foliage. For archaeologists, the discovery of these cities has the potential to dramatically change public understanding of Angkorian civilization, and pivot some studies of the region to focus on the daily lives of these medieval Khmer people.

It’s a reminder that sometimes, surfaces don’t reveal whole truths: that every day, we pass layers of history that have accumulated, unseen, beneath our feet. Ralph, as ever, is on the front lines, eager to reveal more of the story. Stay tuned this month as he shares what he’s listening to, reading, and learning along the way.

As any good romantic knows, reckoning with nature can be perilous. But oh, how it rewards. Whether it’s climbing a vast rock face or riding an ocean breeze, encounters with the wilderness are a dance of risk and reward. To face danger, and conquer it, makes the achievement all the more meaningful.

Here at Sway, we’ll be spending the next month immersed in adventure—from pioneering women entrepreneurs, to rituals of the great outdoors, to travel technology and beyond. Because adventure doesn’t just happen: it is sought and earned by the curious and the ambitious.

Ralph, for one, never stops exploring. Propelled by an endless drive to know and see the world, he’s quickly filling up the pages of his passport this summer on a voyage through Southeast Asia, a trip he booked the day he read about the discovery of vast, previously unknown cities near the Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat.

Dating between 900 and 1,400 years old, these metropolises—some nearly the size of the Photo: Anthony Coronado country’s capital, Phnom Penh—appear to have been densely populated, possibly constituting the world’s largest empire during its peak. Connected by networks of roads and water transportation systems, these cities were thriving urban centers both before and after the supposed collapse of Angkor in the fifteenth century.

Angkor Wat is a site of nearly unspeakable beauty. Aside from embodying the classical local architecture style, and indeed serving as a symbol of Cambodia itself, it is surrounded by dense jungle vegetation—which until now has hidden these centuries-old urban landscapes. By using lidar technology, or aerial laser testing, researchers were able, finally, to view what lay behind the foliage. For archaeologists, the discovery of these cities has the potential to dramatically change public understanding of Angkorian civilization, and pivot some studies of the region to focus on the daily lives of these medieval Khmer people.

It’s a reminder that sometimes, surfaces don’t reveal whole truths: that every day, we pass layers of history that have accumulated, unseen, beneath our feet. Ralph, as ever, is on the front lines, eager to reveal more of the story. Stay tuned this month as he shares what he’s listening to, reading, and learning along the way.