Josh Bernstein (born February 24, 1971) is an American explorer, author, executive producer,

survival Survival or survivorship, the act of surviving, is the propensity of something to continue existing, particularly when this is done despite conditions that might kill or destroy it. The concept can be applied to humans and other living things ...

expert,

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

, and TV host best known as the host of '' Digging for the Truth''. He later appeared for one season as the host of the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

's ''Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein''.

Personal life

Josh Bernstein was born and raised in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, and attended the

Horace Mann School Horace Mann School (also known as Horace Mann or HM) is an American private, independent college-preparatory school in the Bronx, founded in 1887. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from the New Yo ...

. In 1989, he went to

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

where he double-majored in

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

and

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

, and double minored in Native American and Near Eastern Studies. He served two terms as president of the Beta Theta chapter of the

Pi Kappa Alpha Pi Kappa Alpha (), commonly known as Pike is a college fraternity founded at the University of Virginia in 1868. The fraternity has over 225 chapters and provisional chapters across the United States and abroad with over 15,500 undergraduate mem ...

fraternity. After graduating from college, he spent a year in a post-graduate program in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

studying, among other things,

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...

and ancient texts. He is Jewish. His father was born in

's Old City, and his paternal grandparents and great-grandparents are buried in Israel. Bernstein's father died of a heart attack six weeks before Bernstein's 15th birthday. A year later, his three-year-old sister was killed in an automobile accident. Bernstein has an identical twin brother, Andrew. Bernstein is a fellow of

The Explorers Club The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904 and has served as a meeting point for ex ...

and the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

. He is a passionate traveler, technical SCUBA diver, and professional photographer, with published credits in

Vogue magazine ''Vogue'' (stylized in all caps), also known as American ''Vogue'', is a monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine that covers style news, including haute couture fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway. It is part of the global collectio ...

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

Men's Health ''Men's Health'' (''MH''), published by Hearst Communications, Hearst, is the world's largest men's magazine brand, with 35 editions in 59 countries; it is the bestselling men's magazine on American newsstands. Started as a men's health magazin ...

, Self,

Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' (stylized in all lowercase; ) is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on women aro ...

, Men's Fitness,

Outside Outside or Outsides may refer to: * Wilderness Books and magazines * ''Outside'', a book by Marguerite Duras * ''Outside'' (magazine), an outdoors magazine Film, theatre and TV * Outside TV (formerly RSN Television), a television network * '' ...

, and Backpacker magazines. Bernstein was briefly married to Lily Snyder of Sotheby's, Manhattan. They were married in a ceremony in Jerusalem, Israel, in September 2011 but divorced in 2013.

Professional life

The History Channel: ''Digging for the Truth''

''Digging for the Truth'' was an adventure-archaeology series on The History Channel exploring ancient mysteries around the world. The series premiered with Bernstein as host in January 2005 and became the highest-rated series in the history of The History Channel. Season 3 premiered on January 22, 2007, again setting a record for the network with the highest-rated series/season premiere to date (over 2.1 million viewers). The April 16, 2007, episode marked Bernstein's final appearance as host of ''Digging for the Truth''. The series continued for a 4th season without Bernstein before it was removed from primetime and then cancelled. ''Digging for the Truth: One Man's Epic Adventure Exploring the World's Greatest Archaeological Mysteries'' is a print companion to the television series, authored by Bernstein, that reveals much more of the personal trials and challenges he faced making the series. It received critical acclaim and was released in hardcover in Winter 2006, and paperback in the Fall, 2007.

Boulder Outdoor Survival School

In addition to his former role as host of ''Digging for the Truth'', Bernstein was the president and CEO of BOSS, the Boulder Outdoor Survival School, the oldest and largest traditional living skills/survival school in the world. Bernstein first attended BOSS as a student in 1988, when he was 17. He returned in 1989 as an apprentice, then worked his way up to instructor, marketing director and finally CEO in 1997. Bernstein sold his ownership of BOSS in January 2014, to focus on a new educational initiative.

Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein

On February 20, 2007, Bernstein announced that he was leaving The History Channel and ''Digging for the Truth'' to join the Discovery Channel as an executive producer and host of specials as well as a new prime-time series called "Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein." The new series premiered during the 2008 Olympics in August 2008. The show was canceled after one season. While Bernstein has not commented publicly on the matter, some speculate there was a shift in the "vision" and programming slate of the network when Discovery Channel President

Jane Root Jane Marianna Root (born 18 May 1957) is an executive in the media industry. She was controller of BBC Two from 1999 to 2004, and the first woman to serve as a channel controller for the BBC. She became president of Discovery Networks in the Unite ...

was replaced by John Ford.

Media appearances

Bernstein has appeared on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, ABC, and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

News programs, including ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'' and ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

''. He appeared on ''

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' on January 15, 2007. Bernstein is known for wearing many hats, mostly

cowboy hat The cowboy hat is a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat best known as the defining piece of attire for the North American cowboy. Today it is worn by many people, and is particularly associated with ranch workers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, C ...

s, which has led to him being likened to

Indiana Jones ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise consisting of five films and a prequel television series, along with games, comics, and tie-in novels, that depicts the adventures of Indiana Jones (character), Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, ...

. Although the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

played up the comparison in its promotion of '' Digging for the Truth'', Bernstein frowns on this comparison, observing that he never wears a

fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...

(Indiana Jones' trademark hat), and his fashion sense has nothing to do with the fictional

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

. He has also been featured in the premiere issue of ''

Men's Vogue ''Men's Vogue'' was a monthly men's magazine that covered culture, fashion, design, art, sports, and technology. The premier issue was August 2005; the magazine was published on a quarterly schedule. It subsequently went bimonthly before stepping ...

'' magazine, the cover of the

Style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

section of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' and featured in ''

People The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...

'' magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernstein, Josh 1971 births Living people American anthropologists 21st-century American explorers Television personalities from New York City American entertainment industry businesspeople Cornell University alumni Discovery Channel people Horace Mann School alumni Jewish American male actors People from Manhattan American expatriates in Israel Fellows of the Explorers Club 21st-century American Jews