Writing and books Bangs' articles and essays have appeared in many places, including in
The New York Times,
Slate and
The Huffington Post. Bangs has authored 19 books. His book
The Lost River: A Memoir of Life, Death and the Transformation of Wild Water won the
National Outdoor Book Award in the literature category, and the
Lowell Thomas Award for best book.
Adventures with Purpose won the 2007 best book award from NATJA. Recent books are
Quest for the Sublime (2008) and
Quest for the Kasbah (2009).
Internet Bangs was founder and editor-in-chief of Mungo Park, a pioneering Microsoft travel publishing effort. He also founded www.terra-quest.com. He was part of the founding executive team of
Expedia.com, and served as its
editor-at-large. He was creator and publisher of Expedia Travels Magazine (published in partnership with
Ziff-Davis), and executive producer of Expedia Radio, and founder and executive director of Expedia Cafes. He founded the Well Traveled feature (Dispatches From The Front Lines of Travel) for Slate, and was founding editor and executive producer of Great Escapes at MSNBC.com. He also ran and founded
First and Best for MSN, and in 2005 founded and headed up
Richard Bangs Adventures for Yahoo! News.
Movies In 1981 Bangs was hired as a stuntman for the film,
Killing at Hells Gate, where a whitewater rafting party is terrorised during a trip down the river. In 1991 Bangs executive produced
River of the Red Ape. In 1997 Bangs executive produced
The Last Wild River Ride, a Turner Original Production about a team exploring Ethiopia's Tekeze River. In 2005 he co-directed the IMAX Film,
Mystery of the Nile.
Mystery of the Nile tells the story of a team of explorers, led by Pasquale Scaturro and Gordon Brown, that spend 114 days making their way along all 3,260 miles of the river to become the first in history to complete a full descent of the Blue Nile from source to sea.
Television After the conclusion of the
Richard Bangs Adventures series on Yahoo! News in 2006, Bangs launched a public TV series of specials known as
Richard Bangs Adventures with Purpose all shot on location in Egypt, New Zealand, Switzerland, Morocco, Norway, India, Greece, Hong Kong, and Costa Rica. The goal of this series was to combine adventure with travel that makes a difference; travel that positively impacts the world. In 2012, Bangs launched "Richard Bangs Quests"; a White Nile Media, Inc. production. The pilot show, Richard Bangs South America: Quest for Wonder, was carried by
KQED and American Public Television. ==Awards and nominations==