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This Burmese Python wants to know what is inside the diary of a seat.

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Oh my god.

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Oh my god.

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Beautiful.

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Now what are you feeling right now?

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I'm wondering why the idea is for dating.

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Have you ever done a podcast with a 10 foot snake across the table before?

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No, this is my first.

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Awesome.

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You know, we'll bring out the next friend.

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Then they bring it over here.

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Now just don't move.

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Cool.

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What if you spent the last 20 years of your life doing?

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Living out of a backpack and having Amazon rainforests barefoot with a machete to help the

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indigenous people save the Amazon.

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Whatever it takes.

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Which means talking out by some snake glass.

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Very rare diseases hunted by the Narva traffickers like the picture of that guy.

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That scar is because he was shot in the head by a 7 foot arrow while he was trying to make

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peaceful contact with the uncontacted tribes.

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And this is actually a very important story.

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I think I have a video of this.

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Yeah.

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This is world first footage.

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So tribe, isolated so deep in the jungle that they've never heard of a spoon or the

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wheel or Jesus was coming out to make contact.

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So we do a two-day boat journey in one night through the worst thunderstorm I've ever seen.

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They were scared.

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We were scared.

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Because these traps kill people all the time.

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And they had one question.

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How do we tell the bad guys from the good guys?

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You see, these people are being hunted by traffickers and gold miners and loggers and boxed

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in by deforestation.

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But if our oceans are rainforests or vanishing, life on earth is not possible.

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Now it's not too late, but we're the last generation that can save.

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Cool.

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Young kids are growing up attached to screens and loneliness as an all-time high.

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Is there anything that you learn in those 15 years that a Westerner like me would find

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useful?

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A hundred percent.

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So let's start with purpose.

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Listen, my team gave me a script that they asked me to read, but I'm just going to ask

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you in the nicest way possibly can.

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Thank you first and foremost for choosing to subscribe to this channel.

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It's been one of the most incredible crazy years of my life.

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I never could have imagined.

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I had so many dreams in my life, but this was not one of them.

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And the very fact that these conversations have resonated with you and you've given me

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so much feedback is something I will always be approached above.

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And I almost carry away a sort of burden of responsibility to pay you back.

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And the favor I would like to ask for me today is to subscribe to the channel.

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If you would be so obliged, it's completely free to do that.

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Roughly about 47% of you that listen to this channel frequently currently don't subscribe

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to this channel.

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So if you're one of those people, please come and join us, hit the subscribe button.

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It's the single free thing you can do to make this channel better.

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Every subscriber sort of pays into this show and allows us to do things bigger and better

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and to push ourselves even more.

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And I will not let you down if you hit the subscribe button.

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I promise you.

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And if I do, please do.

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I'm subscribed.

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But I promise I won't.

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Thank you.

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Oh, you live an extraordinary life, a very atypical extraordinary life.

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What have you spent the last 20 years of your life doing?

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Trying to find a way to explore the wildest parts of the Amazon and figure out a way to

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save them.

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The Amazon.

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For a lot of people that don't know anything about this part of the world, they'll think

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of it as a bunch of trees where lots of wild animals live.

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What is the sort of central misunderstanding of the true nature of the Amazon?

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I think it's a problem of scale.

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People don't understand the importance of the Amazon.

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This is one of the most crucial things on our planet.

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It's one of the most physically defining features of our planet.

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If you look at Earth from space, you see this giant green belt over most of South America.

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That's the Amazon rainforest.

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And that's where one fifth of our freshwater is contained and another fifth of our oxygen

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is produced.

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This system is irreplaceably valuable to all life on Earth.

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And you live in the Amazon?

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For the last 20 years, I've lived mostly in the Amazon.

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I've slept more nights outdoors than I have in my adult life because I befriended the

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indigenous people of the upper Amazon rainforest.

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And that's what the book is about.

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I went down there 18 years old because I needed adventure.

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And then the quest for adventure led for this call to meaning.

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And then that led to the discovery that we were the only ones who could do anything to

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stop the bulldozers and the chainsaws from destroying the thing that we loved.

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A lot of people have clicked on this conversation for whatever reason.

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What are we going to talk about today that you think might be interesting to them in

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their lives?

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What is the wide variety of things from the conversations you have every single day that

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compels people?

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Because I want to give them a bit of a tailed AR before we get into the detail.

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I think that what people are going to find, and this is what I tried to write about, is

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that I didn't know where I was going at first.

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I just knew what I loved.

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And so over the last 20 years, it's been following a dream in a direction.

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And that dream was finding a way to relieve the incredible stress that I felt over the

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state of the environment.

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We live in these times where people feel like the world is ending.

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There's nothing we can do.

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Our oceans are collapsing.

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The rainforests are vanishing.

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Elephants are being hunted to extinction.

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And I wanted to know, are there solutions to these problems?

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Is there a way to change the narrative of conservation and come up with an alternative

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reality where everything's okay?

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And do you think your message is more timely now than ever with everything that's going

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on with technology and AI and this sort of great transition we're in?

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I think that this message is timely now because whether we like it or not, we're alive

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at the most important moment in history.

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And the reason that that's true is because never before as a global society have we been

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all faced with the same problem.

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If our ecosystems collapse, life on Earth is not possible.

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And we are the last generation in history that's going to have a chance to restore those

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ecosystems and those sacred cycles before it's too late.

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And as it relates to mental health, young kids are growing up attached to physical

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to screens and to technology and all these things.

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You've lived almost the opposite life, it appears for the last 20 years.

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I'm wondering if there's anything, you know, because you said today on your way here

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that you like didn't know how to get out of the Uber.

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Yeah, no, it was a, it was a mess getting here.

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I almost got run over by a guy who recognized me and said, and said, get out of the road

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and a kind of guy.

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And then I'd never opened, I guess I'd never opened a door with a button before, but

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I couldn't figure out how to get out of the Uber.

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And then I had a whole adventure in the bathroom that should have been filmed.

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But no, I mean, I have lived, we used to, we could call it the barefoot machete days.

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You know, a lot of my early learning in the Amazon took place under the tutelage of

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indigenous experts.

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And these are people that like JJ, who I meet when I first go down to the Amazon, he

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didn't have shoes until he was 13 years old.

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So he lived a life where if you wanted fish, you have to go to the river.

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And if you want to eat, you have to go out into the forest, not to the supermarket.

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And so when you see kids today that are only using their thumbs, it's not too surprising

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when people are disconnected and disoriented and sort of don't know what's real and what's

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not real anymore because you go to the mountains and the rain and the sky and the rocks, we'll

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teach you what's real real quick.

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And you all have to agree on it or else you'll die.

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And the jungle is the same thing.

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It's sort of when you find yourself with these chemical, physical boundaries, life makes

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a lot more sense.

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Have you been able to make sense of the life that someone like me lives more because you've

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spent time in the Amazon?

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Do you look at us differently?

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I know that sounds like a crazy thing to say, but in the same way that people might look

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at the way you choose to live your life and say this is very, very strange.

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Do you look at people that, you know, like me that works seven days a week behind a screen

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and think that's a very strange life?

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I just know that I couldn't do it.

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I depend almost, I'm so reliant on nature.

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I have to be around trees.

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I fall asleep to frogs.

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I mean, even being in a city, I go seek out a place where there's a lot of trees.

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I am like a forest creature.

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If you take me out of my environment, I start to stress and die.

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Don't.

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There's a part of me that, yes, that starts to die.

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If you keep me locked in concrete or if you were to, if you were to relegate me to a,

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I was just in a hotel last week on the book tour and I realized nothing in the room with

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me was natural.

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The carpet, the table, the windows, the television, everything that was in this room with me was

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composite materials.

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I couldn't even open the window to get to the outside air and it did occur to me.

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I said, I wonder if other people feel this type of societal claustrophobia where to

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me, I have to have my feet in a river at some point.

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I have to every night before I fall asleep.

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I have to look up.

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It's a ritual.

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I have to look up and look at the stars.

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How else can you pray?

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And so for me, being in a city has become a very different reality to what I'm used to.

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I mean, just taking a shower.

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I mean, trust me, it's not as much fun standing in a cold tile box and spraying water on

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yourself as it is, running through the jungle, diving into the river and swimming in the

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whole river rushing around you.

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It's a whole different experience.

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And so when I come back, I get a little bit, you know, I miss my, I miss the frogs and

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the birds and sort of my neighbors of the jungle.

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Do you think there's like a collective delusion in terms of the way we live our lives?

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Do you think we're, we've gone a bit crazy?

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I can like the frog in the frying pan.

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It's happened so gradually, this sort of technological creep of our lives that, you know, we're

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looking at young kids that are more anxious and depressed than ever before loneliness and

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time high, more people are taking antidepressant medications than ever before.

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I think that, yes, is the simple answer to your question, that that sort of, we're a species

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per pet, we're fish perpetually out of water, that is humans, because we've taken ourselves

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away from forests and away from deserts and away from mountains and the ocean.

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I mean, we used to be fishermen and we used to be farmers and now the life that we live

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is so incredibly different than that.

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If you ask kids where does their meat come from, there are kids that will say the grocery

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store.

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You know, they don't know that chickens exist before it's in the package and, and so, you

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know, for, for, there was that generation, which I think that you and I are both a part

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of where it was like, we were the bicycle generation.

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We might be the last one, where it was like, you went out in the morning and you were on

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your bicycle or you were running around with your friends and you would come home for dinner.

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And I was incredibly lucky to have, you know, on the weekends, I would go to the woods.

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I would take a steak and I would take one match and I would take my golden retriever and

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we would go get lost up the side of a mountain and we would just go camping.

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My rule was no shelter, one match, one steak dog, so you couldn't mess up the match.

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At what age?

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I would say 12 or 14 I was doing this, I had a little, you know, a little hunting knife

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on my side.

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Not typical for a 12 year old.

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But I needed it.

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Why?

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I don't know.

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I think because being stuck in a desk and being told, you can't get up and you can't

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even go to the bathroom and you look down, do what we say, just being controlled was so

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counterintuitive to my essence.

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And so I grew up with this need for adventure and then somewhere along the way the fact

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that I couldn't drink the streams that I was exploring or the fact that even when I

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was deep, deep, deep in the forest, I knew that if I really hike for another four hours,

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I'll come out the other side.

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I wanted to experience wilderness.

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I wanted to experience wilderness where it never ended.

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I wanted to see the really wild places on the planet.

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And for some reason that was inside me since I was very young.

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So how'd you go from there, from being that 13 year old to setting off at what 17 years

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old with your Amazon research in Peru?

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You didn't go to university.

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You were actually really, really smart, are you here?

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I was smart enough that they had me both suspended and in detention and in American Mensa.

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I was really all over the place.

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And the thing is they make you feel stupid when you can't do the assignments.

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So I'd say, why are you failing math and why can't you read this book and you didn't

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do your homework?

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But I was like, I know I'm smart.

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And in the forest I was good at tracking and I could survive and I could make it through

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a weekend and I could build shelter.

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And so I always just gravitated towards that.

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And so I spoke to my parents.

239
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I dropped out of high school.

240
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You can take your GED and get out two years early with a one day test.

241
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And I did that.

242
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The rule was, I did have to go to university.

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So I had to start taking semesters, but in between semesters, I was free to go to the Amazon

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rainforest.

245
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And so I booked the most remote position that I could at a place where it took two days

246
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by boat from the nearest city to get to this tiny little research station.

247
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And it was run by this Peruvian guy and his partner and his name was JJ.

248
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And that's the guy that opened the Amazon for me.

249
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He opened the Amazon for you.

250
00:12:37.880 --> 00:12:41.320
Well, JJ grew up in the Amazon as an indigenous person.

251
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So what he was learning, the first chapter in this book is called The Rareest of Species

252
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because he's the only unicorn in the Amazon rainforest.

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He's an indigenous person.

254
00:12:51.880 --> 00:12:55.720
So he's been learning from his grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's

255
00:12:55.720 --> 00:12:56.720
all the way back.

256
00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:01.440
And indigenous means, indigenous means his family is from the jungle.

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They're heritage.

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They're lineage going back.

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They are jungle people.

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They're from the SAH tribe.

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And so his father don't Santiago there.

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They knew the medicinal plants.

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They knew how to fish for piranha.

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Then he can cut a piece of callus off of his foot and put it on a hook, using himself

265
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as bait to catch a bait fish.

266
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He can mash up a barbaco root and put it in a stream and then all the fish float to

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the surface.

268
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He can track a deer.

269
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He could track a jaguar.

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He could track a person.

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So these people know everything about the forest.

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And they're the people that I came in with.

273
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And because I knew about snakes, he knew everything

274
00:13:37.040 --> 00:13:38.040
about the forest.

275
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The medicines, the habits of the animals, the systems.

276
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The only thing I knew was I said, I know how to handle snakes and he said, I'm scared

277
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of snakes.

278
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And I said, I could teach you snakes.

279
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I said, you teach me everything else.

280
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And he goes, you like snakes?

281
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He goes, come with us.

282
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He said, we go on a family hunting trip once a year where we go on this expedition 10

283
00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:59.800
days into the jungle where no one's allowed to go, only people with indigenous status.

284
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He said, you're our guest.

285
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You come with us.

286
00:14:01.920 --> 00:14:06.600
And so there I was going up the river into parts of the world that have yet to be named.

287
00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:13.280
Into the wildest places in the Amazon rainforest and learning from these guys through experience.

288
00:14:13.280 --> 00:14:15.040
How to catch fish out of the river.

289
00:14:15.040 --> 00:14:19.760
How to navigate through difficult parts of the stream when the storms are coming, how

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00:14:19.760 --> 00:14:20.880
to survive them.

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00:14:20.880 --> 00:14:22.040
And then we found out in a condus.

292
00:14:22.040 --> 00:14:26.720
And so it was like this, I had this very, very unorthodox training and introduction

293
00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:28.200
into the jungle.

294
00:14:28.200 --> 00:14:34.600
How big is the Amazon rainforest trying to get my head around the scale of it?

295
00:14:34.600 --> 00:14:35.800
I'm bad with numbers.

296
00:14:35.800 --> 00:14:40.400
What I do know is that it's larger than the lower 48 states.

297
00:14:40.400 --> 00:14:41.400
It's absolutely tremendous.

298
00:14:41.400 --> 00:14:44.240
It's the largest, contiguous rainforest on earth.

299
00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:46.480
And are there parts of it that people have never been to?

300
00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:47.480
100%.

301
00:14:47.480 --> 00:14:50.280
There are still parts of the Amazon rainforest that are unexplored.

302
00:14:50.280 --> 00:14:53.160
There's parts of the Amazon rainforest that no one's ever been to.

303
00:14:53.160 --> 00:14:57.680
And if you really want to blow your own mind, the canopy of the Amazon rainforest is about

304
00:14:57.680 --> 00:15:02.600
150, 160 feet up above our heads, which is far.

305
00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:06.480
And half of the life in a rainforest exists in the canopy.

306
00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:11.040
So you're talking about the most mega biodiverse biome that has ever existed.

307
00:15:11.040 --> 00:15:16.520
There's never been more terrestrial wildlife anywhere on earth than in the Amazon rainforest

308
00:15:16.520 --> 00:15:17.520
and right now.

309
00:15:17.520 --> 00:15:22.240
In the entire fossil record, we were at the apex, the climax community of the Amazon rainforest.

310
00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:29.040
It's that brilliant where the Andes rainforest, Cloud Forest, meet the lowland tropical Amazon.

311
00:15:29.040 --> 00:15:30.040
There it is.

312
00:15:30.040 --> 00:15:34.120
The most life we know of in the entire universe.

313
00:15:34.120 --> 00:15:41.640
And in terms of human life, I hear there's lots of human life there that we've never contacted.

314
00:15:41.640 --> 00:15:46.400
There are various tribes living through the Western Amazon and you have the S.A.

315
00:15:46.400 --> 00:15:52.000
Ha and the Mucha Ganga and you have the Yine and then further out beyond all of these,

316
00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:57.960
there were always rumors that there were uncontacted tribes.

317
00:15:57.960 --> 00:16:03.360
And for the first many years that I was there, it was always someone's uncle, someone's

318
00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:08.040
brother, someone's cousin would come back with these crazy stories that someone had seen

319
00:16:08.040 --> 00:16:12.920
the tribes and that they were that they were tall and naked and they still hunted with

320
00:16:12.920 --> 00:16:15.920
bows and arrows and they would and then every now and then somebody would come back with

321
00:16:15.920 --> 00:16:23.680
a seven foot arrow, a spear, tipped with bamboo, a huge bamboo tip, this big razor sharp

322
00:16:23.680 --> 00:16:25.680
like a machete.

323
00:16:25.680 --> 00:16:35.400
And that was the only proof we had that they existed until the day we met them.

324
00:16:35.400 --> 00:16:39.560
When did you meet them for the first time?

325
00:16:39.560 --> 00:16:41.160
So I don't want to explain how we met them.

326
00:16:41.160 --> 00:16:48.840
We should probably explain why, where we got to in how the 18-year-old researcher became

327
00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:51.520
the director of a major organization.

328
00:16:51.520 --> 00:16:52.520
Please.

329
00:16:53.240 --> 00:17:00.280
Okay, well, somewhere along the way as we did these expeditions through the Amazon and

330
00:17:00.280 --> 00:17:06.080
I became closer and closer with the indigenous people, JJ as a teacher kept telling me,

331
00:17:06.080 --> 00:17:10.840
and that's what the first chapter of the book is about is him just teaching me the incredible

332
00:17:10.840 --> 00:17:11.840
interconnectedness.

333
00:17:11.840 --> 00:17:16.680
There's this moment that I write about where he's going, look at this beach and tell me

334
00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:17.680
the news.

335
00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:18.680
And I said, what?

336
00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:22.760
Yeah, he said, every day the ground is like last night's newspaper, it tells you what happened.

337
00:17:22.760 --> 00:17:27.120
So I look at the beach and there's Jaguar tracks and there's like a mess of Jaguar tracks

338
00:17:27.120 --> 00:17:30.080
and some Jaguar scat and I made no sense of it.

339
00:17:30.080 --> 00:17:34.480
And he was like, this is where she came yesterday to drink.

340
00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:35.720
That's where she pooped.

341
00:17:35.720 --> 00:17:37.400
This is where she came today to drink.

342
00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:39.040
You can see the newer tracks.

343
00:17:39.040 --> 00:17:42.840
And then he's like, and what you didn't notice, you didn't see the vultures above us.

344
00:17:42.840 --> 00:17:47.240
I look up and these vultures above us and he goes, notice they're not looking at us.

345
00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:48.440
They're looking at the Jaguar.

346
00:17:48.520 --> 00:17:50.120
So they're looking that way.

347
00:17:50.120 --> 00:17:54.400
Jaguar had a fresh deer kill and had continued to live and eating and then coming to the

348
00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:55.400
river to drink.

349
00:17:55.400 --> 00:17:58.240
And so he can decipher all of these incredible things.

350
00:17:58.240 --> 00:18:02.360
And so as he's taking me through these worlds of butterflies and interconnected species

351
00:18:02.360 --> 00:18:08.800
where there's a mist river flowing over the rainforest, this this avatar on earth.

352
00:18:08.800 --> 00:18:14.240
And then we then they burned it down here, the loggers.

353
00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:19.760
And so the first time I saw ancient forest, a place that I love with trees significantly

354
00:18:19.760 --> 00:18:24.000
bigger than this room, vanished.

355
00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:29.040
There's this cacophony of life, this orchestra, this symphonic roar of life that you get

356
00:18:29.040 --> 00:18:32.760
in the morning, especially in the morning in the Amazon.

357
00:18:32.760 --> 00:18:35.160
And then at night, there's the night chorus.

358
00:18:35.160 --> 00:18:39.880
And when you hear that silenced, it's one of the most horrific things that you can experience

359
00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:44.640
because places that we loved, trees that have been standing for a thousand years, species

360
00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:49.320
that had never been described by science were all incinerated.

361
00:18:49.320 --> 00:18:56.000
And I said to JJ, I said, how do we, this can't be allowed, this can't possibly be something

362
00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:57.000
that's permitted.

363
00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:00.320
And I said, isn't there somebody that we can call, we're standing on the side of the river

364
00:19:00.320 --> 00:19:04.200
and he leaned forward to look this way and he looked that way and he goes, do you see

365
00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:05.200
anybody?

366
00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:07.200
He goes, because I don't see anybody.

367
00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:08.960
He goes, you have to do something.

368
00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:09.960
I said, I have to do something.

369
00:19:09.960 --> 00:19:11.920
I said, I'm 19, 20 years old.

370
00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:12.920
So what am I going to do?

371
00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:13.920
I said, I don't have a PhD.

372
00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:14.920
I don't have a trust fund.

373
00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:15.920
I don't have a media presence.

374
00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:16.920
I don't have anything.

375
00:19:16.920 --> 00:19:19.120
I had a machete and I had bare feet.

376
00:19:19.120 --> 00:19:21.240
We both had machetes and bare feet.

377
00:19:21.240 --> 00:19:24.560
And so that was the start of the journey where we said the thing we love is being destroyed.

378
00:19:24.560 --> 00:19:30.200
We could see the smoke on the horizon, the trees that we had explored and become to love

379
00:19:30.200 --> 00:19:32.400
were laying, smoldering on the ground in front of us.

380
00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:35.480
And we said, okay, now we have to figure out a way to change the narrative.

381
00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:40.040
The wildest place on earth is about to be destroyed, bulldozed and burned.

382
00:19:40.040 --> 00:19:41.560
How do we save it?

383
00:19:41.560 --> 00:19:46.240
And so that's where, when you ask the question of, how does life and the jungle sort of translate

384
00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:48.320
to what your listeners are going to find interesting.

385
00:19:48.320 --> 00:19:53.680
It's taking on a task that's so gigantic that at the start of it, we couldn't even come

386
00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:54.680
up with it.

387
00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:58.720
We couldn't even conceptualize how it could be possible, even with the right tools.

388
00:19:58.720 --> 00:19:59.720
To save the Amazon.

389
00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:02.280
To save the Amazon rainforest.

390
00:20:02.280 --> 00:20:06.600
Get a loan for two guys within zero qualifications, bare feet and machetes.

391
00:20:06.600 --> 00:20:09.600
And so we started behind zero.

392
00:20:09.600 --> 00:20:14.360
And today we're at the point where we've turned loggers and gold miners into conservation

393
00:20:14.360 --> 00:20:15.360
rangers.

394
00:20:15.360 --> 00:20:18.520
We're protecting 130,000 acres of the river.

395
00:20:18.520 --> 00:20:22.800
We're on the cusp of creating a national park, me and Jager are the directors of jungle

396
00:20:22.800 --> 00:20:23.800
keepers.

397
00:20:23.800 --> 00:20:27.360
And we're about to make history because we're going to save the entire watershed and

398
00:20:27.360 --> 00:20:30.680
all the trees and animals and heartbeats that are left.

399
00:20:30.680 --> 00:20:32.280
And that's the story that I'm trying to tell.

400
00:20:32.280 --> 00:20:34.080
That's the whole reason for my existence.

401
00:20:34.080 --> 00:20:37.920
That's why I wake up and do every day.

402
00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:41.640
And you've really taken on that responsibility in a very personal way I can tell.

403
00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:42.640
Yeah.

404
00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:43.640
Yeah.

405
00:20:43.640 --> 00:20:49.480
There's a point where I remember, because you grow up, I was born in Brooklyn and then

406
00:20:49.480 --> 00:20:52.680
we grew up in Jersey for a while and then we moved to the Hudson Valley.

407
00:20:52.680 --> 00:20:58.560
But when you start going to the Amazon for months and months and months out of the year and

408
00:20:58.560 --> 00:21:03.420
you come back with scars and stories where Jaguars breathing on your neck and you go out

409
00:21:03.420 --> 00:21:09.500
on a solo and you come back and then suddenly standing and making conversation at a barbecue

410
00:21:09.500 --> 00:21:11.960
feels different.

411
00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:17.320
It's almost like I imagine I have a lot of veteran friends and sort of you almost get addicted

412
00:21:17.320 --> 00:21:18.880
to the action.

413
00:21:18.880 --> 00:21:24.520
And then you also get addicted to the team, you know, Sebastian younger rights about this,

414
00:21:24.520 --> 00:21:30.960
about the need for community, the tribe and sort of the mission.

415
00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:34.720
And I think that that's one thing that people are missing today where they don't know, you

416
00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:40.240
know, we've been disassociated from religion and community and immediate sort of connection

417
00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:41.600
with other humans.

418
00:21:41.600 --> 00:21:43.640
And so then what else is there?

419
00:21:43.640 --> 00:21:50.000
How do you, where do you, what do you, what do you, what's your, what's your purpose?

420
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:51.800
What do you wake up and do every day?

421
00:21:51.800 --> 00:21:54.240
And so I think, you know, in the old days, it was like, you know, we have to, we have

422
00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:58.880
to defend ourselves from the outside world, from warring communities, you know, or even

423
00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:02.080
just providing for your family, we have to bring water every day.

424
00:22:02.080 --> 00:22:04.320
We have to chop wood every day.

425
00:22:04.320 --> 00:22:05.920
We have to figure out how to survive in the today.

426
00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:11.280
I mean, when I'm here, I wake up and I go, well, there's water in the fridge, so I don't

427
00:22:11.280 --> 00:22:12.280
have to do that.

428
00:22:12.280 --> 00:22:19.640
And I'm like, the air conditioner is on and I'm like, I guess I'll check my phone.

429
00:22:19.640 --> 00:22:24.720
And so I, you know, I think we have, like you said, become somehow, we've got really

430
00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:28.640
far away from what we are built for.

431
00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:31.680
And one of the beautiful things that happens when you go into the wild, and this can be

432
00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:34.160
any wild, is that it starts to change you.

433
00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:37.040
And so you go into the wild and you start picking up logs and throwing them.

434
00:22:37.040 --> 00:22:38.560
You start splitting firewood.

435
00:22:38.560 --> 00:22:41.800
The first day you're going to have calluses on your hands, but then after a few weeks,

436
00:22:41.800 --> 00:22:43.560
you're going to have tough hands.

437
00:22:43.560 --> 00:22:45.720
You start walking barefoot, same thing.

438
00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:49.840
The sun starts to make your skin thicker and tanner and more resilient, and then the

439
00:22:49.840 --> 00:22:53.160
rain will hammer that home and you start to get your eyes start to get sharper and you

440
00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:55.800
start to pay more attention to what you're hearing.

441
00:22:55.800 --> 00:22:58.720
And so you start going through this whole transformation where you start to be almost

442
00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:00.600
become a different animal.

443
00:23:00.600 --> 00:23:03.680
You become the jungle version of yourself, you become the mountain version of yourself,

444
00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:06.440
your legs start to get strong again.

445
00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:12.240
And so the wild puts you through this gauntlet of transformation and you become connected

446
00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:13.760
to your environment.

447
00:23:13.760 --> 00:23:19.040
And then that feeling of disassociation tends to alleviate a little bit.

448
00:23:19.040 --> 00:23:23.200
I heard about this particular part of the brain that's changes as well.

449
00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:26.320
You talked about transformation.

450
00:23:26.320 --> 00:23:32.040
They discovered something not so many years ago called the anterior mid-singulate cortex.

451
00:23:32.040 --> 00:23:36.440
Andrew Huberman, I heard him say that he thinks it was one of the most important discoveries

452
00:23:36.440 --> 00:23:39.560
in neuroscience of the last century.

453
00:23:39.560 --> 00:23:43.480
The anterior mid-singulate cortex is a part of the brain sitting between your emotional

454
00:23:43.480 --> 00:23:48.720
brain and your executive control center that essentially grows when you do hard things.

455
00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:54.160
Not when you do things that specifically when you do things that you don't want to do,

456
00:23:54.160 --> 00:23:55.160
but you do them anyway.

457
00:23:55.160 --> 00:23:59.000
So not running a marathon because you enjoy it, things you don't want to do and you do

458
00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:00.000
it anyway.

459
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:02.840
It went through some of the studies I saw said that younger people that have been brought

460
00:24:02.840 --> 00:24:06.320
into this sort of doom scrolling generation have smaller ones.

461
00:24:06.320 --> 00:24:10.480
If you are obese, it's smaller.

462
00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:15.400
Athletes have bigger ones and people who live longer have even bigger ones and they kind

463
00:24:15.400 --> 00:24:18.040
of call it the muscle of the brain of doing hard things and so when you were talking about

464
00:24:18.040 --> 00:24:23.280
that physical transformation, I weirdly thought about, I think it's Roosevelt who after losing

465
00:24:23.280 --> 00:24:28.000
his mum and his wife on the same day, after his baby girl was born, he went out to the

466
00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:33.160
badlands and spent two years doing pretty much what you said, putting himself in intentional

467
00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:34.160
discomfort.

468
00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:37.680
And he came back and all of his friends described him as being transformed.

469
00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:40.480
He went on to become the youngest president in American history.

470
00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:42.560
He got shot and carried on doing the speech.

471
00:24:42.560 --> 00:24:47.840
He led the charge, I think it was the Spanish crusades or something like the Spanish war.

472
00:24:47.840 --> 00:24:48.840
And the rough riders.

473
00:24:48.840 --> 00:24:49.840
Yeah, the rough riders.

474
00:24:49.840 --> 00:24:52.680
And they all pointed at the moment when he went out to the badlands, they said it shaped

475
00:24:52.680 --> 00:24:56.840
him into becoming a completely different man, that discomfort.

476
00:24:56.840 --> 00:24:57.840
Yeah.

477
00:24:57.840 --> 00:25:03.760
100% and that's why Native American cultures for the initiation of the young men would

478
00:25:03.760 --> 00:25:06.520
have vision quests or they would send them out into their wilderness.

479
00:25:06.520 --> 00:25:08.680
And there's still different, there's all different types.

480
00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:12.680
Aboriginal cultures have similar things and I wanted to put myself through that.

481
00:25:12.680 --> 00:25:15.840
And so I went out on, that's what I described in my first book is going out on, that's

482
00:25:15.840 --> 00:25:20.480
where JJ taught me enough to survive in the jungle and then I started going out on 10

483
00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:21.880
days solos into place.

484
00:25:21.880 --> 00:25:27.680
I'd have people bring me to the last place that had a name, like I'm talking about poachers

485
00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:32.040
and then I would start hiking and I would go so deep in the Amazon rainforest that I

486
00:25:32.040 --> 00:25:35.200
was just off the map and I would try and survive out there.

487
00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:39.160
And so I had a lot of adventures that I should not have survived, but it was very important

488
00:25:39.160 --> 00:25:43.120
to me to put myself through that because I grew up with that discomfort.

489
00:25:43.120 --> 00:25:48.920
I grew up with the overwhelming, crushing stress of being told that we're at the end

490
00:25:48.920 --> 00:25:50.640
of days.

491
00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:54.920
We are losing, I mean, I saw it at the Bronx Zoo, they said, you know, we're losing

492
00:25:54.920 --> 00:25:58.800
our rainforests and they had the sound of the chain saws and you see the trees going

493
00:25:58.800 --> 00:26:00.360
over and they said, we're losing elephants.

494
00:26:00.360 --> 00:26:04.080
You'd see somebody shoot and the elephant goes over and they just said, everything that

495
00:26:04.080 --> 00:26:08.560
you, for me, everything you love is being destroyed and pretty soon we're not going to be

496
00:26:08.560 --> 00:26:12.120
able to drink and everything's going to be polluted and our fisheries are being destroyed

497
00:26:12.120 --> 00:26:16.760
and I said, wait a second, I said, I have to know if it's really that bad.

498
00:26:16.760 --> 00:26:20.720
So when I got old enough, it's not just that I was inspired to go out on a mission, it

499
00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:25.880
was that I wanted to find out for myself because I don't like finding out through a screen.

500
00:26:25.880 --> 00:26:30.040
I don't, I don't want other people filtering my information, I want to find out for myself.

501
00:26:30.040 --> 00:26:31.880
Is it really that bad?

502
00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:36.880
And so I was going out on a quest to understand what the reality was.

503
00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:42.760
If I sat 18 year old here at this table, he sat there and you know, this version of

504
00:26:42.760 --> 00:26:47.160
you at what, 37, 38, 38, you will sat there, so 20 years difference.

505
00:26:47.160 --> 00:26:50.320
What would the notable differences be between these two men?

506
00:26:50.320 --> 00:26:58.760
Well, he didn't know how to fish with his feet, that's for sure, his machete skills would

507
00:26:58.760 --> 00:27:03.480
be terrible, but the noticeable difference would be that that 18 year old, his greatest

508
00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:10.280
dream was to alleviate the environmental stress that he grew up with, escape the world

509
00:27:10.280 --> 00:27:16.720
of rules, find purpose in life, and to just have adventures.

510
00:27:16.720 --> 00:27:20.800
My greatest dream was to see the Amazon rainforest.

511
00:27:20.800 --> 00:27:24.800
I looked at people like Teddy Roosevelt and Jane Goodall and I said, man, they had such

512
00:27:24.800 --> 00:27:30.080
incredibly extraordinary lives and I said, how come my life can't be like that?

513
00:27:30.080 --> 00:27:32.200
I'm over here in detention.

514
00:27:32.200 --> 00:27:36.320
You know, I'm over here being told I didn't do my homework and I'm like, I want a chop

515
00:27:36.320 --> 00:27:37.320
wood and carry water.

516
00:27:37.320 --> 00:27:38.840
I want to go to war.

517
00:27:38.840 --> 00:27:41.480
I want to be scared.

518
00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:43.080
I want to be challenged.

519
00:27:43.080 --> 00:27:47.360
And so for me, it was, I was, that would be the difference is that I would be hungry for

520
00:27:47.360 --> 00:27:48.360
all of that.

521
00:27:48.360 --> 00:27:53.560
Whereas the person sitting across me today, my body is a Jackson Pollock painting of

522
00:27:53.560 --> 00:27:59.800
scars, crocodile bites, tiger bites, infections, times that I've been almost crushed to death

523
00:27:59.800 --> 00:28:03.800
by elephants, I've been hunted by the narco terrorists.

524
00:28:03.800 --> 00:28:09.480
And at this point, the responsibility at that kid got to see all the things he wanted

525
00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:10.480
to see.

526
00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:15.600
We found the biggest anaconda as I lived through the amazing adventures and that's great.

527
00:28:15.600 --> 00:28:21.880
The person sitting across me today is responsible for protecting millions of animal lives.

528
00:28:21.880 --> 00:28:27.920
And my job is to explain to people that we, that everyone reading this message or listening

529
00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:32.720
to this message has the chance to help the indigenous people save the Amazon before we

530
00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:34.120
lose it forever.

531
00:28:34.120 --> 00:28:38.200
And so that's the main difference is that at that age, I was just, I just wanted some

532
00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:40.440
swashbuckling adventure.

533
00:28:40.440 --> 00:28:46.160
And now I found that adventure became meaning I found it along the way.

534
00:28:46.160 --> 00:28:47.960
And then now I'm on a whole other journey.

535
00:28:47.960 --> 00:28:50.320
Now it's, now it's, can we bring it home?

536
00:28:50.320 --> 00:28:53.920
Now it's, can we achieve something that we thought was impossible and change the narrative

537
00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:56.520
of how it's done?

538
00:28:56.520 --> 00:29:01.520
And I guess this kind of brings us back to this question about the uncontacted tribes.

539
00:29:01.520 --> 00:29:08.000
You said you and JJ were talking about how you might go about saving the Amazon.

540
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:13.600
Was highlighting the uncontacted tribes in the Amazon part of the mission there?

541
00:29:13.600 --> 00:29:15.360
No, very much no.

542
00:29:15.360 --> 00:29:18.600
That's a great question because what we started doing was we looked at this river basin

543
00:29:18.600 --> 00:29:22.960
and we said, okay, we love this one really wild river.

544
00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:26.720
And now I said, why has this river been so wild?

545
00:29:26.720 --> 00:29:31.520
You know, so you think of the Amazon as a tree of rivers, you have the main Amazon channel

546
00:29:31.520 --> 00:29:34.040
and then all these millions of branches.

547
00:29:34.040 --> 00:29:38.200
And so the upper Amazon, the uppermost branches of the Amazon rainforests, those tip-tip

548
00:29:38.200 --> 00:29:41.640
tops, people are only just getting to them now.

549
00:29:41.640 --> 00:29:45.600
The main Amazon channel is a shipping port and then you have these huge tributaries going

550
00:29:45.600 --> 00:29:49.040
off of it and you can get in as far as a ketos with a steamship.

551
00:29:49.040 --> 00:29:53.840
Like you can go all the way through Brazil, thousands of miles and get all the way to a ketos

552
00:29:53.840 --> 00:29:57.040
Peru to the almost the back end of the Amazon.

553
00:29:57.040 --> 00:29:58.040
I've been there.

554
00:29:58.040 --> 00:30:00.000
And it's beautiful.

555
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:03.880
We are at the southern edge in the tributaries down there and there's one tributary.

556
00:30:03.880 --> 00:30:05.360
What's a tributary?

557
00:30:05.360 --> 00:30:08.440
A tributary is an offshoot from a larger river.

558
00:30:08.440 --> 00:30:12.760
So a stream is a tributary of a larger stream which goes into, you know, then eventually

559
00:30:12.760 --> 00:30:14.760
you reach the Hudson River.

560
00:30:14.760 --> 00:30:17.360
So this is a tiny little tributary.

561
00:30:17.360 --> 00:30:24.360
And we discovered that the reason people hadn't developed this tributary, the reason other

562
00:30:24.360 --> 00:30:29.840
indigenous communities hadn't formed was that for hundreds and hundreds of years, this

563
00:30:29.840 --> 00:30:37.960
particular river had been protected by the violent, mysterious, machcopiro nomadic,

564
00:30:37.960 --> 00:30:39.920
uncontacted tribes.

565
00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:41.160
And that had kept it wild.

566
00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:43.520
They were the original jungle keepers.

567
00:30:43.520 --> 00:30:46.640
But by the time I got there, they were sort of just a myth.

568
00:30:46.640 --> 00:30:50.640
And so they were something that they said they lived really far up river past the last

569
00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:51.640
indigenous community.

570
00:30:51.640 --> 00:30:55.200
And when I say indigenous community, I mean, people that we can talk to, people that

571
00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:58.160
we can interface with that I can speak a little Spanish to and they'll understand

572
00:30:58.160 --> 00:30:59.160
me.

573
00:30:59.160 --> 00:31:00.160
I think that's an important distinction.

574
00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:01.160
Yes.

575
00:31:01.160 --> 00:31:05.080
Because can you make that distinction between indigenous and these tribes?

576
00:31:05.080 --> 00:31:06.080
Yes.

577
00:31:06.080 --> 00:31:12.560
So within Peru, you have Lima and, you know, Michelin star restaurants and all this amazing

578
00:31:12.560 --> 00:31:13.560
food.

579
00:31:13.560 --> 00:31:16.760
And then you travel down to Cusco, you have Machu Picchu and you have the Andes and all

580
00:31:16.760 --> 00:31:17.760
of that incredible culture.

581
00:31:17.760 --> 00:31:21.640
And then you go down to the jungle and that's a little bit like going to the back end of

582
00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:22.640
Alaska.

583
00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:26.440
It's where it's like you are very far away from LA or New York like, but it's the same

584
00:31:26.440 --> 00:31:27.960
country.

585
00:31:27.960 --> 00:31:31.760
And out there you'll reach these communities where they are indigenous.

586
00:31:31.760 --> 00:31:37.040
And so in the reserve that we currently protect as jungle keepers, there's two indigenous

587
00:31:37.040 --> 00:31:38.520
communities there.

588
00:31:38.520 --> 00:31:43.440
And we work with them to sort of support them because as these loggers and narco traffickers

589
00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:47.440
and gold miners come in, they see them as, as a mark.

590
00:31:47.440 --> 00:31:49.840
They'll go in and say, oh, there's these helpless indigenous people.

591
00:31:49.840 --> 00:31:51.640
How can we exploit them?

592
00:31:51.640 --> 00:31:54.440
How can we get their trees, their fish?

593
00:31:54.440 --> 00:31:58.200
They'll go and take those things from them or they'll, or they'll sell them something

594
00:31:58.200 --> 00:32:00.720
that's not worth what they think it is.

595
00:32:00.720 --> 00:32:03.680
And so we've been working with these indigenous communities to say, do you want the loggers

596
00:32:03.680 --> 00:32:06.920
to come in and cut down all of your trees and they go, no.

597
00:32:06.920 --> 00:32:10.000
And they go, but at the same time we need a little bit of gasoline because what if we're

598
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:13.400
having a baby move to get our daughter to a hospital in town.

599
00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:18.680
And so we've been working with them to provide sustainable jobs as rangers protecting their

600
00:32:18.680 --> 00:32:19.680
own land.

601
00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:23.880
It's such a simple solution, whereas otherwise they would go and be loggers to get that

602
00:32:23.880 --> 00:32:24.880
cash.

603
00:32:24.880 --> 00:32:27.840
And so we're working with these communities.

604
00:32:27.840 --> 00:32:32.880
And now they're rangers and boat drivers and guides and handymen.

605
00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:37.960
And they called us about a year ago and they said something incredible is happening.

606
00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:41.440
And it's going to be dangerous, but you are the directors and you're part of this family

607
00:32:41.440 --> 00:32:44.240
and you're part of this story and we need you here for this.

608
00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:48.240
But the tribes are about to come out of the forest.

609
00:32:48.240 --> 00:32:52.760
And we were in town and where what we do now is, and we can explain this later, but we

610
00:32:52.760 --> 00:32:57.000
raise money and we bring it to the Amazon where the local people have the opportunity to

611
00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:00.720
set aside huge acreage of the Amazon to protect it.

612
00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:04.200
We're changing the narrative of destruction where we just protect it before they get

613
00:33:04.200 --> 00:33:05.200
to it.

614
00:33:05.200 --> 00:33:09.080
And so we were in town with JJ, who's now the director of this major organization and

615
00:33:09.080 --> 00:33:12.360
we're talking to our lawyers and we're in the office and we get this call that the tribe

616
00:33:12.360 --> 00:33:13.520
is out.

617
00:33:13.520 --> 00:33:14.600
The tribe is out.

618
00:33:14.600 --> 00:33:16.000
The tribe is out.

619
00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:17.000
What does that mean?

620
00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:21.400
It means the mythical, uncontacted tribe that when I arrived in Peru, the president

621
00:33:21.400 --> 00:33:23.640
Peru had been saying, these are a myth.

622
00:33:23.640 --> 00:33:24.800
They don't exist.

623
00:33:24.800 --> 00:33:26.120
And it's just, it's the boogeyman.

624
00:33:26.120 --> 00:33:29.960
It's been made up as a story to scare the loggers.

625
00:33:29.960 --> 00:33:32.160
So their existence was contested.

626
00:33:32.160 --> 00:33:35.480
They were almost on the fringes of imagination.

627
00:33:35.480 --> 00:33:39.360
Could we not have flown a plane over there or something?

628
00:33:39.360 --> 00:33:43.600
This sounds like a dumb question, but presumably we have satellites and we can zoom in.

629
00:33:43.600 --> 00:33:49.080
The BBC did do a piece where they were flying a plane and they were looking at an uncontacted

630
00:33:49.080 --> 00:33:50.880
tribe from miles away.

631
00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:54.920
And they said, we're being very careful not to disturb them, but there is a tribe in

632
00:33:54.920 --> 00:33:58.120
the rainforest that has no contact with the outside world.

633
00:33:58.120 --> 00:34:01.280
And you can see these people bending and they're looking at the plane, but the plane's

634
00:34:01.280 --> 00:34:05.200
not close enough to really scare them or to cause them any distress.

635
00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:07.160
And so we have done that.

636
00:34:07.160 --> 00:34:13.240
But then on our river out in the middle of nowhere where no one's heard of the BBC, you

637
00:34:13.240 --> 00:34:16.880
just hear stories from loggers who've come down river from three weeks up river.

638
00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:20.680
You can go for three weeks up the river and hit nothing.

639
00:34:20.680 --> 00:34:21.680
There's nothing human.

640
00:34:21.680 --> 00:34:23.760
It's like the last endless forest.

641
00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:28.560
And so when the community called and they said, there's arrows on the beach, the tribe

642
00:34:28.560 --> 00:34:29.560
is coming out.

643
00:34:29.560 --> 00:34:33.200
It's the first time in 10 years that the tribe seems to be coming out of the jungle to

644
00:34:33.200 --> 00:34:34.600
make contact.

645
00:34:34.600 --> 00:34:37.360
And so they got the directors of jungle keepers up there.

646
00:34:37.360 --> 00:34:39.360
We had to rush to be there.

647
00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:43.560
They begged us to be there so that we could see it because they were worried that we wouldn't

648
00:34:43.560 --> 00:34:46.400
believe them.

649
00:34:46.400 --> 00:34:48.560
And so we got there and we went all night.

650
00:34:48.560 --> 00:34:54.360
And when you go up a river at night, we'd do a two day boat journey in one night.

651
00:34:54.360 --> 00:34:58.800
And so the guy right there, the picture with the guy who has the scar in his forehead,

652
00:34:58.800 --> 00:34:59.800
that's Ignacio.

653
00:34:59.800 --> 00:35:03.720
That scar is because he was shot in the head by a seven foot arrow while he was trying

654
00:35:03.720 --> 00:35:06.560
to make peaceful contact with the uncontacted tribes.

655
00:35:06.560 --> 00:35:11.040
He was trying to give them a gift and they got spooked and they scared and they shot him

656
00:35:11.040 --> 00:35:12.040
in the head.

657
00:35:12.040 --> 00:35:13.600
And he almost died from that.

658
00:35:13.600 --> 00:35:17.040
When we heard that this was happening and he's now one of our best jungle keepers

659
00:35:17.040 --> 00:35:20.960
rangers, we said, can you do a two day boat journey in one night and he went, yes,

660
00:35:20.960 --> 00:35:21.960
sir.

661
00:35:21.960 --> 00:35:24.400
And he put on a headlamp and he got in the back of the boat.

662
00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:29.680
We took an open top canoe and we drove from 6 p.m. until 9 a.m. the next day through

663
00:35:29.680 --> 00:35:31.880
the worst thunderstorm I've ever seen.

664
00:35:31.880 --> 00:35:36.520
I was on the front of the boat with a flashlight using the crocodile eyes, the camon eyes on

665
00:35:36.520 --> 00:35:38.720
the side of the river to navigate because they shine.

666
00:35:38.720 --> 00:35:40.760
The eye shine comes back.

667
00:35:40.760 --> 00:35:43.560
The storm was so bad that we couldn't see anything.

668
00:35:43.560 --> 00:35:47.560
We couldn't see the side of the river and because of the light igniting the raindrops,

669
00:35:47.560 --> 00:35:49.440
you can't even see what's in front of you.

670
00:35:49.440 --> 00:35:53.240
So we were using the crock eyes to navigate where the edges of the river was.

671
00:35:53.240 --> 00:35:57.680
So I was spotting and telling him which way to go and he drove and we did that all night

672
00:35:57.680 --> 00:35:58.680
long.

673
00:35:58.680 --> 00:36:01.240
Got to the indigenous community and said, okay, so what's going on?

674
00:36:01.240 --> 00:36:04.640
And they said, oh, yeah, they left.

675
00:36:04.640 --> 00:36:07.160
Tribes gone.

676
00:36:07.160 --> 00:36:12.920
The only thing that they had was that one guy the previous day had been shot by an arrow.

677
00:36:12.920 --> 00:36:16.280
And he had been fishing and he had seen the tribes.

678
00:36:16.280 --> 00:36:18.880
So he said, and they had shot an arrow at him.

679
00:36:18.880 --> 00:36:22.880
The first thing they had done was shot one of these seven foot arrows at him.

680
00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:28.040
And the way it had hit the boat ricocheted and then hit his thick leather belt and blunted

681
00:36:28.040 --> 00:36:30.960
the tip of the arrow and he had the arrow.

682
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:35.560
And so he said, so there are people here.

683
00:36:35.560 --> 00:36:39.280
And then a native anthropologist from another region showed up and he said, they know me

684
00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:40.280
as the grandfather.

685
00:36:40.280 --> 00:36:41.280
I can speak to these people.

686
00:36:41.280 --> 00:36:43.480
I speak a little bit of their language.

687
00:36:43.480 --> 00:36:48.280
And so we stayed another night, two days deep in the jungle.

688
00:36:48.280 --> 00:36:51.600
And the following morning we said, okay, we're getting out of here.

689
00:36:51.600 --> 00:36:55.960
There's obviously nothing here, but stories and footprints and arrows and we have important

690
00:36:55.960 --> 00:36:57.360
work to do back in town.

691
00:36:57.360 --> 00:36:59.240
And did you believe them?

692
00:36:59.240 --> 00:37:04.960
I've learned one thing working in the Amazon always believe the locals, always.

693
00:37:04.960 --> 00:37:09.480
If they say it's there, they're not wrong.

694
00:37:09.480 --> 00:37:11.760
And that's part of the reason that I've gotten to go on these adventures.

695
00:37:11.760 --> 00:37:16.280
You know, when JJ Tell told me, there's places you can go that are so wild that it's like

696
00:37:16.280 --> 00:37:17.280
the Galapagos.

697
00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:19.040
The animals don't know a human.

698
00:37:19.040 --> 00:37:23.600
But you have to go for days on foot to the top most reaches of the rivers to find this.

699
00:37:23.600 --> 00:37:25.880
Well, that's why I went on these solos.

700
00:37:25.880 --> 00:37:29.120
And so I ride that's what I'm, that's as a writer, that's what I do is try and take people

701
00:37:29.120 --> 00:37:32.040
on these adventures through the Amazon.

702
00:37:32.040 --> 00:37:35.840
And so when they said the tribe is coming, Ignacio, the guy who'd been shot in the head,

703
00:37:35.840 --> 00:37:36.840
he said, listen to me.

704
00:37:36.840 --> 00:37:38.760
He said, you're, he said, you're my boss, right?

705
00:37:38.760 --> 00:37:41.560
I said, yeah, he goes, I need to speak to you like a friend.

706
00:37:41.560 --> 00:37:42.560
I said, speak, speak, speak.

707
00:37:42.560 --> 00:37:44.800
And he said, they're coming.

708
00:37:44.800 --> 00:37:46.480
You'd be an idiot till leave.

709
00:37:46.480 --> 00:37:50.000
And so we posted up, we waited how he knew.

710
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:52.320
Yeah, I'm wondering how he knew.

711
00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:55.680
He just knew, man, they just know it's like they can, they can tell.

712
00:37:55.680 --> 00:37:59.960
And then, you know, I mean, these are guys who know when there's a Jaguar close by by the

713
00:37:59.960 --> 00:38:01.920
sound of the birds.

714
00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:05.760
They know when a storm's coming before the storm is audible, you know, they, they have

715
00:38:05.760 --> 00:38:08.760
higher tune senses than we do.

716
00:38:08.760 --> 00:38:11.080
And, and so he said, look, the tribe is coming.

717
00:38:11.080 --> 00:38:12.400
There's the arrow there in the region.

718
00:38:12.400 --> 00:38:15.640
He goes, and when they come this close, they generally, they want to talk.

719
00:38:15.640 --> 00:38:21.520
And I said, but this is, and sure enough, you hear mosh go and everyone starts screaming.

720
00:38:21.520 --> 00:38:25.360
And it was just this moment of absolute panic where women were lifting babies and chickens

721
00:38:25.360 --> 00:38:29.160
are flying around in dogs and when there's tiny little indigenous community on the side

722
00:38:29.160 --> 00:38:32.040
of a river with hundreds and hundreds of miles of jungle around.

723
00:38:32.040 --> 00:38:36.400
And we run to the edge of this, you know, the edge of the river where this cliff is.

724
00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:39.280
And across the river, we see them coming towards us.

725
00:38:39.280 --> 00:38:42.080
And they're walking out of the jungle and they're naked from head to toe.

726
00:38:42.080 --> 00:38:45.000
They just have some string tied around their wastes.

727
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:46.760
Penis is tied up to their bellies.

728
00:38:46.760 --> 00:38:50.080
They all have seven foot long bows and arrows and they're crouched over and they're looking

729
00:38:50.080 --> 00:38:51.080
at us.

730
00:38:51.080 --> 00:38:57.360
And we're standing there and you go, you sort of like you go, I just, I wanted, I wanted

731
00:38:57.360 --> 00:39:01.760
to see this and now I'm not so sure I want to be here because there are warriors coming

732
00:39:01.760 --> 00:39:07.080
out of the jungle and they're from a thousand years ago.

733
00:39:07.080 --> 00:39:11.320
So I asked the anthropologist, I said, they're like stone age people and he goes, they don't

734
00:39:11.320 --> 00:39:12.480
have stones.

735
00:39:12.480 --> 00:39:14.200
He said, they're still in the bamboo age.

736
00:39:14.200 --> 00:39:17.440
He said, these people are living such a primitive lifestyle.

737
00:39:17.440 --> 00:39:19.840
They're hunter gatherers.

738
00:39:19.840 --> 00:39:23.360
And they've been isolated so deep in the jungle for so many centuries that it's like

739
00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:24.840
a time capsule.

740
00:39:24.840 --> 00:39:27.120
So there was a thousand years between us.

741
00:39:27.120 --> 00:39:30.520
We're standing on either side of the river with a thousand years between us and this

742
00:39:30.520 --> 00:39:35.800
aperture into the history of what humankind used to look like and these people came out

743
00:39:35.800 --> 00:39:40.760
holding their bows and arrows that they had made out of the jungle and they held up their

744
00:39:40.760 --> 00:39:45.920
hands and they were talking to us across a river and it was sort of shirts versus skins.

745
00:39:45.920 --> 00:39:52.360
We were just just two tribes separated by a little bit of water and they wanted to communicate.

746
00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:54.320
We know what language.

747
00:39:54.320 --> 00:39:56.640
With their language.

748
00:39:56.640 --> 00:39:59.360
We don't even know really what to call them.

749
00:39:59.360 --> 00:40:03.480
For a while they were calling them the Moshko Piro, which means the wild Piro people.

750
00:40:03.480 --> 00:40:09.680
And then more recently and partly because of our encounter, they held up their hands

751
00:40:09.680 --> 00:40:12.640
and the first thing they said was, no more.

752
00:40:12.640 --> 00:40:14.520
We are the brothers.

753
00:40:14.520 --> 00:40:15.520
Brothers.

754
00:40:15.520 --> 00:40:20.040
And so then our side said the same thing the anthropologist said, no more brothers.

755
00:40:20.040 --> 00:40:26.640
And then this exchange began and it's like as a Spanish speaker when I've been in Italy

756
00:40:26.640 --> 00:40:31.800
I can use my Spanish to kind of get through in Italian and I feel like it's like that.

757
00:40:31.800 --> 00:40:37.960
The Yine people can speak to the Moshko Piro and there's an approximate translation.

758
00:40:37.960 --> 00:40:41.440
And the first thing that they said after coming out of the jungle a thousand years late

759
00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:45.880
the civilization was send us bananas.

760
00:40:45.880 --> 00:40:51.280
This had sent us food and they demanded that we send them plantains as an offering.

761
00:40:51.280 --> 00:40:54.560
And our side said, you put down your weapons.

762
00:40:54.560 --> 00:40:57.640
We will talk to you but we do not want this to end violently.

763
00:40:57.640 --> 00:40:58.840
We want this to be peaceful.

764
00:40:58.840 --> 00:41:04.200
If you want to talk to us put down your bow and arrows because a shotgun a shotgun only

765
00:41:04.200 --> 00:41:08.760
goes how many meters you know it's not even going to go 100 meters, 50 meters maybe

766
00:41:08.760 --> 00:41:11.000
bookshot.

767
00:41:11.000 --> 00:41:16.320
An Alonbo arrow is going to go 300 meters it's going to go far.

768
00:41:16.320 --> 00:41:19.120
And the needless to say they're very good with those arrows.

769
00:41:19.120 --> 00:41:22.520
They are very good with those arrows these things will fly.

770
00:41:22.520 --> 00:41:26.840
And so even standing on the other side of the river we were not safe.

771
00:41:26.840 --> 00:41:30.920
And so we were all standing behind trees we were watching Ignacio who'd been shot before

772
00:41:30.920 --> 00:41:35.520
was watching with the binoculars and he's going whenever you see them walking he said

773
00:41:35.600 --> 00:41:39.280
they let you see them and then they clever girl you in the forest where there's one watching

774
00:41:39.280 --> 00:41:42.680
you from the shadows and he would grab me by the shoulder and go look there's one and

775
00:41:42.680 --> 00:41:47.200
you would see this you know red face paint in the shadows of the forest and he'd have

776
00:41:47.200 --> 00:41:48.960
the boat trained on us.

777
00:41:48.960 --> 00:41:51.840
And so while some of them in the front were putting the bows down there was others of

778
00:41:51.840 --> 00:41:56.520
them in the shadows that were making sure that they still had support.

779
00:41:56.520 --> 00:41:59.600
But we asked the guys in the front to put down their arrows.

780
00:41:59.600 --> 00:42:04.520
The anthropologist got in the river and gave them an offering of bananas.

781
00:42:04.520 --> 00:42:06.520
I think I have a video here of this.

782
00:42:06.520 --> 00:42:07.520
Yeah.

783
00:42:07.520 --> 00:42:09.520
This is world first footage.

784
00:42:09.520 --> 00:42:19.600
I'll let you you know how to use my pet right there we go yeah.

785
00:42:19.600 --> 00:42:23.880
So this is this was this is just a random moment from the earlier days but this is that moment

786
00:42:23.880 --> 00:42:28.200
where everyone starts screaming Mosh go and we're all running and this is what I was talking

787
00:42:28.200 --> 00:42:32.640
about where they are moving across the beach and you can see the sort of the posture they're

788
00:42:32.640 --> 00:42:33.640
using there.

789
00:42:33.640 --> 00:42:35.400
I mean he's got.

790
00:42:35.400 --> 00:42:39.800
They have their bows and arrows in hand and then they showed up and see they're pointing.

791
00:42:39.800 --> 00:42:44.520
They were worried that our cameras were guns and so they're asking to put down the cameras.

792
00:42:44.520 --> 00:42:49.200
They were curious about various members of our tribe and they were all talking at the

793
00:42:49.200 --> 00:42:51.000
same time.

794
00:42:51.000 --> 00:42:53.560
So it was very difficult to understand what they wanted.

795
00:42:53.560 --> 00:42:58.640
What's he doing with his finger though he's doing this yeah I don't know this is the moment

796
00:42:58.640 --> 00:43:03.840
that we gave them the bananas and what's haunting about this is the desperation that you see

797
00:43:03.840 --> 00:43:07.840
on them where they're all rushing to get the bananas and they're not necessarily taking

798
00:43:07.840 --> 00:43:12.400
them like they're going to share later they're taking them like I get my bananas you get

799
00:43:12.400 --> 00:43:18.800
your bananas you see this they're all rushing to get this little boat load and these are

800
00:43:18.800 --> 00:43:22.720
people that don't have boats and as they're doing this they're all talking at the same

801
00:43:22.720 --> 00:43:29.240
time it was like a flock of parrots it was just a coffin of sound and they're all fighting

802
00:43:29.240 --> 00:43:34.000
over these plantains and and then once they get them each person held their own they

803
00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:39.800
have rope and plantains and this interaction went on for several hours and we negotiated

804
00:43:39.800 --> 00:43:43.760
with them and this is this the footage this is the footage that we're allowed to release

805
00:43:43.760 --> 00:43:49.360
right now and this is them moving back off into the jungle there's a lot more that happened

806
00:43:49.360 --> 00:43:52.800
and again that's where that's why that's why we're releasing this now I should say that

807
00:43:52.800 --> 00:43:57.680
that's why we waited a while to release this footage because footage like this is incredibly

808
00:43:57.680 --> 00:44:04.320
sensitive for a number of reasons a you don't want people to think that we went out and contacted

809
00:44:04.320 --> 00:44:09.520
these people that want to be left alone you also don't want to encourage other people to

810
00:44:09.520 --> 00:44:15.200
indulge their misconceptions people oh these are the last free people on earth they live perfectly

811
00:44:15.200 --> 00:44:21.840
in balance with nature no people will go looking for them whereas for hundreds of years these people

812
00:44:21.840 --> 00:44:26.960
have asked for one thing and one thing only to be left alone and they've enforced that kind of like

813
00:44:26.960 --> 00:44:33.520
the command cheese with arrows and on this day they said please give us food please give us rope

814
00:44:33.520 --> 00:44:40.240
and they had one other question they said how do we tell the bad guys from the good guys and we

815
00:44:40.240 --> 00:44:45.760
said what do you mean who are the bad guys and they said some of you shoot at us with the chichiksu

816
00:44:45.760 --> 00:44:52.400
with the fire sticks the guns and we're going who who does that we said we are not the bad guys and

817
00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:56.560
they said no you also they said we know you cut down our trees they're speaking to all of us there's

818
00:44:56.560 --> 00:45:01.040
nothing there's no like you know white guy brown guy Peruvian foreigners none of that it was just

819
00:45:01.040 --> 00:45:07.760
all of you outsiders stop cutting down our trees our trees are our gods it was sort of like you

820
00:45:07.760 --> 00:45:14.800
don't do that and then when they left just a few weeks ago we learned that the narco traffickers

821
00:45:14.800 --> 00:45:21.040
view them as a threat and there was actually a mass grave found of a similar clan and so these

822
00:45:21.040 --> 00:45:27.040
people are being boxed in by deforestation and hunted by narco traffickers and gold miners and

823
00:45:27.040 --> 00:45:31.760
loggers and so I think that them coming out of the forest was their way of saying hey we're trying

824
00:45:31.760 --> 00:45:36.640
to get a read on what's going on in the outside world who is it who are the good guys who are the

825
00:45:36.640 --> 00:45:41.120
bad guys they don't know that jungle keepers is protecting the land that they live on

826
00:45:41.920 --> 00:45:49.200
they've never heard of a spoon or the wheel or Jesus or World War Two or the country of Peru

827
00:45:50.240 --> 00:45:55.760
and so so they're coming out with so many questions and the only way to care for these people and

828
00:45:55.760 --> 00:46:00.080
to give them the the the rights that they deserve is to protect the forest they live in

829
00:46:00.480 --> 00:46:07.760
do you know why some of them seem to be touching their nose it's funny I didn't notice that

830
00:46:07.760 --> 00:46:12.320
do I think this is this is this is going to be your discovery to anthropology I did not notice that

831
00:46:12.320 --> 00:46:20.960
but it does you see this a lot of them are doing this yeah and the outfit yeah what is this outfit

832
00:46:20.960 --> 00:46:24.720
this it looks like there's kind of rope tied around their midriffed with their penises out

833
00:46:25.680 --> 00:46:30.640
yeah the the the head of the penis is covered by rope oh they've got the penis up into the right

834
00:46:30.640 --> 00:46:35.840
no the head of the penis is up and protected and and that makes sense given the jungle where there's

835
00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:42.240
mosquitoes and botflies and sandflies that that's a smart move and then rope seems to be I mean what

836
00:46:42.240 --> 00:46:47.840
is it goes like fire rope ladders like I think it's like man's second invention they are obsessed

837
00:46:47.840 --> 00:46:51.920
with rope that's how they make their bowstrings that's how they make their arrows that's how they

838
00:46:52.800 --> 00:46:57.120
lash things together to make the the limited structures that they make and some of what we know

839
00:46:57.120 --> 00:47:02.400
about them is you know we find their camps after they leave so we know what they they primarily

840
00:47:02.400 --> 00:47:08.080
turtles and monkeys they don't fish they don't have fish hooks they they don't eat humans today

841
00:47:08.080 --> 00:47:12.800
they do not eat humans they're not cannibal tribes that's a rumor people have talked about before

842
00:47:12.800 --> 00:47:17.680
people have said yeah there's even a couple versions of my voice in AI saying that on the internet

843
00:47:17.680 --> 00:47:23.520
but it is not true and their haircuts they all seem to be have this sort of mullet

844
00:47:24.480 --> 00:47:28.880
still haircut from this it seems like they all grab the front and just find a way to cut it there

845
00:47:28.880 --> 00:47:33.520
might be like one guy with a machete who just does the haircuts and for a lot of them this is the

846
00:47:33.520 --> 00:47:39.920
first time they've seen a human so actually this was first contact the anthropologists who came to

847
00:47:39.920 --> 00:47:47.360
the scene who managed this interaction he said he had met an uncontacted tribe before in the

848
00:47:47.360 --> 00:47:53.200
region he said none of these were men that he'd met and the other thing noticed they're all men

849
00:47:53.200 --> 00:47:57.760
yeah the women were hidden hidden in the forest and while the men were making a distraction in

850
00:47:57.760 --> 00:48:04.160
front of us the women were raiding the farm behind us raiding raiding the farm your farm the

851
00:48:04.160 --> 00:48:08.880
indigenous peoples farm our communities farm so the women went to steal while they were distracting

852
00:48:08.880 --> 00:48:15.040
you that's right and did you catch the women on tape no no no no no everyone was we were all

853
00:48:15.040 --> 00:48:20.720
huddled up very very close I mean this was an incredible encounter but let me explain the prevailing

854
00:48:21.360 --> 00:48:28.640
emotion during this entire thing was fear on both sides they were scared we were scared the

855
00:48:28.640 --> 00:48:33.840
indigenous people naturally have shotguns anyway everyone had their shotguns out they all had

856
00:48:34.640 --> 00:48:38.640
some of them had put their bows on the beach but they had other they had archers waiting

857
00:48:39.440 --> 00:48:43.200
and so everyone was sort of you know it was like put down your guns and we can talk but nobody

858
00:48:43.200 --> 00:48:48.800
really wanted to put down their guns and how do you know the women were stealing from your farm

859
00:48:49.920 --> 00:48:56.240
because after this was all over and we went to the farm everything had been pulled up all the Yuka

860
00:48:56.240 --> 00:49:02.560
all the plantains all the sugar cane the entire farm was ruined how do you know it was the women

861
00:49:03.120 --> 00:49:07.120
the women in the village told me it was the women they were that was the women also you see the

862
00:49:07.120 --> 00:49:13.680
smaller footprints these men have wide big men they're from walking barefoot their whole lives their

863
00:49:13.680 --> 00:49:19.440
feet get on Joe they get really thick and so and I have jungle feet like that now but these guys

864
00:49:19.440 --> 00:49:25.440
have almost duck feet at this point like big fat calloused feet that get wider you ever see a

865
00:49:25.440 --> 00:49:31.600
farmer's hands yeah yeah but they just they just grow yeah like that they're all young as well

866
00:49:32.560 --> 00:49:38.240
where's where are the older people we'd love to know we don't know there's some tribes in the

867
00:49:38.240 --> 00:49:45.440
Amazon where the elderly people have more permanent settlements there's been rumors of some extreme

868
00:49:45.440 --> 00:49:51.920
tribes where the elderly people if they can't keep up or just left to perish but we saw people

869
00:49:51.920 --> 00:49:57.280
between the ages of probably 12 and 45 I don't think anybody looks like they're in their 50s

870
00:49:57.440 --> 00:50:04.880
so we left with more questions and answers they on that day they did get a pot that they they stole

871
00:50:04.880 --> 00:50:09.440
from it from you know the community you know they have their their farm and so there was also a

872
00:50:09.440 --> 00:50:14.880
machete at the farm somebody just whacked it into a log and so as they were leaving one of the best

873
00:50:14.880 --> 00:50:19.120
things that we caught on video that we have we're not able to share yet is that one of these guys

874
00:50:19.120 --> 00:50:24.160
and this is at the end after while everybody was going home the anthropologist held up his hands

875
00:50:24.240 --> 00:50:28.480
and he said you know no more like brothers going peace and these guys actually asked about me I was

876
00:50:28.480 --> 00:50:33.840
the only person there with a big beard and they said there's that one they said show us that one

877
00:50:34.400 --> 00:50:38.960
and so I came forward as to the edge of the river which my heart was pounding and the anthropologist

878
00:50:38.960 --> 00:50:43.440
said he said hold up your hands show them that you don't mean any harm I held up my hands like this

879
00:50:43.440 --> 00:50:49.280
and they held up their hands and they sang there's a no more they knew that I wasn't from the

880
00:50:49.280 --> 00:50:55.520
indigenous community and that was an incredible moment of we couldn't communicate but it was

881
00:50:55.520 --> 00:51:00.720
just sort of that basic I acknowledge you and they said I acknowledge you and we just had this

882
00:51:00.720 --> 00:51:05.600
thing across the river in about a thousand years and just and that was it and as they left

883
00:51:06.160 --> 00:51:10.720
you know one of the guys had a machete and he was he showed it to us over his shoulder like this

884
00:51:10.720 --> 00:51:14.640
and one of my friends was going oh you know in the local language he was saying put down the machete

885
00:51:14.720 --> 00:51:19.440
leave the machete and the guy just smiled and looked at us like they come and get it come and get

886
00:51:19.440 --> 00:51:24.560
it and then at just as they left one of the warriors walked out to the beach put an hour on the string

887
00:51:25.440 --> 00:51:32.640
smile that us and just shot it was like ha up into the air just at us didn't general just to

888
00:51:32.640 --> 00:51:37.280
spook us and then they all turned on the left and left you know so they have a sense of humor we saw

889
00:51:37.360 --> 00:51:43.200
them smile you know we exchanged a little bit of that with them as well they look cold

890
00:51:44.400 --> 00:51:50.320
they are cold I mean it's it's it's 95 degrees on that day the other thing is it was cool as

891
00:51:50.320 --> 00:51:54.400
they're coming if you go to the part where they're coming across the beach there was millions of

892
00:51:54.400 --> 00:52:00.000
butterflies that beach was covered in just millions of butterflies and so as these people are

893
00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.800
walking out the butterflies are just swarming around them go back to the beginning to that right

894
00:52:04.800 --> 00:52:08.960
there if you just notice you don't notice it at first but as they're moving look at that the

895
00:52:08.960 --> 00:52:15.280
world is swirling with leopard leopard doctrine colors just just absolute insanity how how

896
00:52:15.280 --> 00:52:20.880
beautiful this scene was and I mean when you see this you know if a tyrannosaurus rex walked out

897
00:52:20.880 --> 00:52:26.080
behind them I wouldn't have been surprised it was such a strange literally unbelievable thing to

898
00:52:26.080 --> 00:52:31.600
see because you know these these literally are the last people on earth that are still living in

899
00:52:31.600 --> 00:52:35.920
this way where a society we have planes trains automobiles iPhones all of this technology we're

900
00:52:35.920 --> 00:52:45.920
talking about going to other planets they don't have metal even a knife unless they get it from

901
00:52:45.920 --> 00:52:51.040
someone else and so it's just it's just an incredible you know the other thing is they do have medicinal

902
00:52:51.040 --> 00:52:57.840
technologies they're able to stay infection free living in the tropical wet jungle that's pretty

903
00:52:57.840 --> 00:53:03.920
incredible because that that actually naked I mean essentially naked I think that's that's how

904
00:53:03.920 --> 00:53:08.720
they carry their rope I don't think that's so much of clothing as we need rope and that's how we

905
00:53:08.720 --> 00:53:16.720
carry it it's very it's very very complicated because the loggers shoot at them the narcos shoot at

906
00:53:16.720 --> 00:53:25.200
them people shouldn't be getting into the places that they live and if you think about in the last few

907
00:53:25.200 --> 00:53:29.600
centuries how many indigenous cultures have been annihilated by the outside world coming in

908
00:53:30.720 --> 00:53:36.400
these there's no shortage of these stories and in this particular case in 2026 when we have

909
00:53:36.400 --> 00:53:41.920
the communication and people are able to hear this story this is why we're releasing this footage

910
00:53:41.920 --> 00:53:48.400
because the only hope these people have is if we protect them they can't come on a podcast they can

911
00:53:48.400 --> 00:53:54.160
address the United Nations they can't write a petition the only hope they have is if we are able

912
00:53:54.160 --> 00:53:59.600
to protect the forest that they live in that's it and that's why we've released this footage now

913
00:53:59.600 --> 00:54:06.080
because for a long time we said we can't release it we said what if what if crazy hippie people go

914
00:54:06.080 --> 00:54:10.000
down they're thinking that these are the last free people and they want to go live with them that

915
00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:15.120
will kill them the outside pathogens that you and I carry on us every day the common cold that we

916
00:54:15.120 --> 00:54:21.120
have immunity to could wipe out an entire tribe and how many tribes like this do we believe are in

917
00:54:21.120 --> 00:54:26.800
the Amazon rainforest several thousand little tribes little clans that move nomatically through

918
00:54:26.800 --> 00:54:35.120
the Amazon were they tool they looked like they were at least you know five nine five ten they

919
00:54:35.120 --> 00:54:39.760
were pretty tall especially because the the the Peruvians and the indigenous communities that we

920
00:54:39.760 --> 00:54:46.160
work with tend to be on the smaller side they they they are taller than the average some of the

921
00:54:46.160 --> 00:54:50.880
other tribes there's another tribe that we ran into down there called the Nawa and those people

922
00:54:51.200 --> 00:54:59.200
were absolutely tiny they were like below five feet all of them these guys were tall yeah

923
00:55:00.560 --> 00:55:05.680
and is there a Lida here is someone in charge another great question it seems to be that there's two

924
00:55:05.680 --> 00:55:10.400
they look like brothers there seems to be two guys who do most of the talking one in particular

925
00:55:10.400 --> 00:55:16.480
who seems to be doing the most gesticulating and he was communicating more forcefully he had a

926
00:55:16.480 --> 00:55:20.640
smite that guy hit a smile on his face at certain times this one yeah I think so

927
00:55:21.920 --> 00:55:28.640
and and he was the one that would walk the furthest out into the river yeah and he seems well

928
00:55:28.640 --> 00:55:33.840
muscled healthy he's the biggest as well be a science by the looks of it yeah okay

929
00:55:36.080 --> 00:55:40.560
these tribes have been known to kill people these tribes kill people all the time

930
00:55:41.200 --> 00:55:47.440
um the the day after this happened we went down river and one of the people who had been

931
00:55:48.640 --> 00:55:53.760
maintaining the peace during this negotiation across the river was my friend George

932
00:55:53.760 --> 00:55:59.360
and George kept saying don't worry it's going to be okay don't worry no more there and he

933
00:55:59.360 --> 00:56:03.120
said let's get the more bananas and he said you stay behind the tree say hey please put down

934
00:56:03.120 --> 00:56:07.920
your camera they don't understand that it's not a gun he was making sure that everyone was calm

935
00:56:08.000 --> 00:56:16.640
well George was driving the day after this in the river as he does every day and he rounded one river

936
00:56:16.640 --> 00:56:21.200
bend and the tribe was out again they were further up river and usually when they leave they go deep

937
00:56:21.200 --> 00:56:25.840
into the jungle but on this day they had been walking up the river which nobody expected and so when

938
00:56:25.840 --> 00:56:32.720
his boat came around the river they hadn't expected it and they opened fire everybody else on the

939
00:56:32.720 --> 00:56:38.800
boat was able to get down under the the benches which is made out of heavy thick wood as he was

940
00:56:38.800 --> 00:56:46.240
driving he caught an arrow over the scapula came out by his belly button so it collapsed his right

941
00:56:46.240 --> 00:56:53.280
lung and cut through his whole body and he had to be helicopter evacuated out of the indigenous

942
00:56:53.280 --> 00:57:00.880
community and somehow he lived but he's never going to be the same and there's there's a hundred

943
00:57:00.880 --> 00:57:06.640
stories I could tell you of people that have been killed by them but now and more and more the

944
00:57:06.640 --> 00:57:11.520
stories of that they are also being exterminated so their violence is in response to the fact that

945
00:57:11.520 --> 00:57:16.160
the outside world has been cruel to them and the only way that they can ensure that they survive

946
00:57:16.160 --> 00:57:22.240
is by keeping the outside world out this is a might be a bit of a dumb question but there's no

947
00:57:22.240 --> 00:57:26.400
consequence to that is there from the Peruvian government or anything the Peruvian government

948
00:57:26.640 --> 00:57:32.880
trying to you know if they if this uncontacted tribe killed somebody they're not necessarily going

949
00:57:32.880 --> 00:57:40.160
to go there and try and enforce any kind of like law that's actually a great question because it

950
00:57:40.160 --> 00:57:44.400
illustrates something that I think a lot of people fundamentally don't understand about this is

951
00:57:44.400 --> 00:57:54.640
that you know if this banana is the last town and then you imagine just our river is the size of a

952
00:57:54.640 --> 00:58:01.840
football field right how are you going to get to the other side of it and the jungle it takes you

953
00:58:01.840 --> 00:58:08.800
about about an hour to cover half a mile through through dense jungle if me and you were going

954
00:58:08.800 --> 00:58:14.560
with machetes right now through dense dense jungle about an hour for every half mile that's with

955
00:58:14.560 --> 00:58:18.960
no trail with trail you can go a little faster with the boat you can go a little faster but the police

956
00:58:18.960 --> 00:58:24.400
have no jurisdiction outside of the city the only reason the police have powers because everyone

957
00:58:24.400 --> 00:58:29.520
has agreed that there's a government and that they have power and that there's a this but it's all

958
00:58:29.520 --> 00:58:34.160
made up and when you go out in the jungle you realize that there is no law in the wild it's just

959
00:58:34.160 --> 00:58:40.400
whatever happens to has a bigger stick and so they're still playing by that game they've never heard

960
00:58:40.400 --> 00:58:46.320
of a law and so they they've been known to find something interesting just the way and you know

961
00:58:46.880 --> 00:58:50.720
today if we're interested in the bird we take a picture of it and then we study it or we can

962
00:58:50.720 --> 00:58:55.520
capture it and we can study it you know sometimes people will criticize Teddy Roosevelt for being

963
00:58:55.520 --> 00:59:01.360
a hunter but a lot of the species if he saw a new species he would shoot it so that he could study it

964
00:59:01.360 --> 00:59:06.640
that was what they did back then but they do this with humans they'll be like that's an interesting

965
00:59:06.640 --> 00:59:15.520
pair of pants they seem to think about life and death very differently and I was watching

966
00:59:15.600 --> 00:59:21.280
something a podcast that you did where you said that they also speak the same language some of

967
00:59:21.280 --> 00:59:26.800
these uncontacted tribes as the monkeys yes so what they do is they will emulate

968
00:59:27.600 --> 00:59:31.200
cappuccine calls bird calls the undulated tinium tinium goes

969
00:59:33.920 --> 00:59:38.560
the cappuccines I can't do they're called but these guys have it down perfectly cappuccines being

970
00:59:38.640 --> 00:59:46.320
cappuccine monkeys and they'll use those sounds and J.J.'s father don't sent the

971
00:59:46.320 --> 00:59:50.240
aggo had told us ears and he said we thought he was just trying to scare us he said if you're

972
00:59:50.240 --> 00:59:57.680
ever in the forest and you hear the animals sound a little off if you ever just feel like

973
00:59:57.680 --> 01:00:01.760
something's not right about the way the animal he said they've surrounded you and they're all

974
01:00:01.760 --> 01:00:05.040
watching with their bows and arrows the tribes have yeah and so they'll go

975
01:00:06.800 --> 01:00:12.560
and you'll go and he'll go and he'll go and he'll go way away I said you don't hear three

976
01:00:12.560 --> 01:00:17.440
tinnamus in a row that's not how it works that one tinnamu talked to the other tinnamu and all of a sudden

977
01:00:17.440 --> 01:00:22.160
I got five tinnamus around me and then you know that you got the tribe around you and so this is

978
01:00:22.160 --> 01:00:25.840
where the local people know how this stuff works and to anyone from the outside they go there's

979
01:00:25.840 --> 01:00:31.280
no such thing as uncontacted tribes and they don't communicate with you they do and one of my friends

980
01:00:31.280 --> 01:00:36.720
was in that exact situation where they were communicating with animal calls in a circle while he

981
01:00:36.720 --> 01:00:43.040
was in a stream with his father and unfortunately they shot his father in the stomach and his father

982
01:00:43.040 --> 01:00:51.120
died and then he ran for it and he lived to tell the tale and the next day the his community our friends

983
01:00:51.120 --> 01:00:57.280
came back and they found this guy who had just bled out through his stomach and why they killed him

984
01:00:57.920 --> 01:01:06.880
we do not know so they pretend their animals but well they they use animal sounds to communicate

985
01:01:06.880 --> 01:01:12.080
with each other yes because then the prey which in this case might be a human yeah

986
01:01:13.280 --> 01:01:18.640
won't know that it's exactly okay so if I'm going if we go okay let's split up and surround

987
01:01:18.640 --> 01:01:23.440
we're we're uncontacted tribes now and we go okay there's loggers over there let's split up

988
01:01:23.440 --> 01:01:27.440
surround them we'll see how many of them there are and use the monkey language so we use the

989
01:01:27.440 --> 01:01:30.880
monkey language they don't think anything of it they'll just keep doing what they're doing

990
01:01:30.880 --> 01:01:35.280
and then when we give the go-ahead everybody we just slice them with seven foot arrows and they're all

991
01:01:35.280 --> 01:01:43.200
going down I was I was gonna ask about happiness but I don't even know the context in which to

992
01:01:43.200 --> 01:01:49.360
ask the question about that happiness no I think I think that there's some some Cormick McCarthy

993
01:01:50.320 --> 01:01:55.760
quotes that would probably do better justice to their reality than the idea of happiness I

994
01:01:55.760 --> 01:02:01.200
think that they are living in a world where they're more concerned with calories they're more concerned

995
01:02:01.200 --> 01:02:07.440
with how much blood does it cost to walk a mile they're more concerned with stealing the women

996
01:02:07.440 --> 01:02:13.680
from other tribes they're not concerned with happiness it's more apocalyptic than uh down to

997
01:02:13.680 --> 01:02:20.400
Naby you know it's it's they're they're they're they're in a state of desperation you could see it in

998
01:02:20.400 --> 01:02:26.640
their face and that's where there's a further anthropological question of what happens in the

999
01:02:26.640 --> 01:02:32.880
future for these people but one thing that we know for certain is that rapid contact destroys them

1000
01:02:32.880 --> 01:02:37.440
it's happened before all of this has happened before you know when the outside world reaches an

1001
01:02:37.440 --> 01:02:43.600
uncontacted tribe the pathogens kill them when the outside world reaches even an indigenous community

1002
01:02:44.240 --> 01:02:50.880
alcohol outside pathogens money can destroy an indigenous culture and take away their language

1003
01:02:50.880 --> 01:02:59.680
in a single generation so so these types of severely isolated cultures if they want to come out and

1004
01:02:59.680 --> 01:03:05.920
make contact with the indigenous communities that are their neighbors that has to happen over time

1005
01:03:05.920 --> 01:03:11.760
and and they have to have the agency to do it which means their forest needs to be protected

1006
01:03:13.680 --> 01:03:18.160
and so that's that's and that's all we know you know we don't know what their birth rates are

1007
01:03:18.160 --> 01:03:22.720
what their infant mortality rates are where their old people are what what what what are their creation

1008
01:03:22.720 --> 01:03:27.680
myths what are their beliefs we have no idea do we even know where they live in terms of do they live

1009
01:03:27.680 --> 01:03:33.280
in huts houses do we know that no they don't in fact at this very moment right now i would imagine

1010
01:03:33.280 --> 01:03:39.520
that there's several of them hunched around a campfire in the darkness beneath 160 feet of canopy

1011
01:03:39.600 --> 01:03:42.960
you know because when you're in the jungle this there's these these pillars going up

1012
01:03:42.960 --> 01:03:47.680
but then it's a it's a 4d environment because it's just you're walking it's like you're walking

1013
01:03:47.680 --> 01:03:52.400
along the bottom of the ocean you're this tiny thing and above you is all of this slithering

1014
01:03:52.400 --> 01:03:56.320
life and frogs and things moving through the branches and so they're they're huddled down

1015
01:03:56.320 --> 01:04:01.520
there in the below the Amazon rainforest and somehow they figured out how to make fire

1016
01:04:01.600 --> 01:04:10.080
which if i handed you a lighter and a full cup of gasoline and said have all the sticks you want

1017
01:04:10.080 --> 01:04:14.160
in the jungle you still couldn't make me a fire right now how do you know they can make fire

1018
01:04:14.880 --> 01:04:17.120
because we see them cook stuff we find their camps

1019
01:04:19.600 --> 01:04:27.120
but it's also conceivable because they don't have pots it's conceivable that they some of these

1020
01:04:27.120 --> 01:04:33.760
people haven't seen water boil right they just drink water and it falls on them from the sky

1021
01:04:34.480 --> 01:04:39.920
they certainly don't know that water freezes on this point of happiness you said you saw

1022
01:04:39.920 --> 01:04:45.520
desperation in their faces but does that mean that you think they're not happy or do you just think

1023
01:04:45.520 --> 01:04:52.480
that that isn't even a sort of a paradigm that they even consider it's all about survival

1024
01:04:52.480 --> 01:04:57.120
i think that we have we're inbuilt to enjoy moments of joy i think that humans enjoy moments

1025
01:04:57.120 --> 01:05:01.600
of interaction moments of play and not just humans i think that animals in general you look at

1026
01:05:01.600 --> 01:05:07.040
you know two puppies chasing each other they're having fun you know even on even on this day with

1027
01:05:07.040 --> 01:05:12.240
shotguns loaded and bows caught and we still found the time to smile a little bit at each other

1028
01:05:12.240 --> 01:05:16.080
saying give me that machete yeah come and get it and we kind of like you know it's kind of like

1029
01:05:16.080 --> 01:05:20.480
you're just as scared of us as we are as you and as it was it it was we were on the same level for

1030
01:05:20.480 --> 01:05:28.000
that smile you know and i was like oh okay yeah none of us want to do that um so there's there is

1031
01:05:28.000 --> 01:05:34.560
happiness there but i'm saying you know knowledge comes with benefits you know there's a lot of

1032
01:05:34.560 --> 01:05:39.600
things that they may believe that i remember when i was in college reading about an anthropologist

1033
01:05:39.600 --> 01:05:45.360
group that got to somewhere in New Guinea and all the people were hiding in trees because they'd

1034
01:05:45.360 --> 01:05:48.880
they'd gotten to a point in their civilization where they where they believe that everything

1035
01:05:48.880 --> 01:05:53.200
what that bad that was bad came from magical spells you know if i fall and break my leg it's

1036
01:05:53.200 --> 01:05:56.720
because you said a magical spell on me and if i get sick it's because of a magical spell and

1037
01:05:56.720 --> 01:06:00.320
everybody was so scared of upsetting each other that they'd all just started living in the trees

1038
01:06:00.320 --> 01:06:06.160
and hunting and they were living in this constant fear state and so you know at times like that

1039
01:06:06.160 --> 01:06:11.760
you need someone to go okay guys look here's what you know here's what's happening let's get let's get

1040
01:06:11.760 --> 01:06:16.480
let's get on the same page and they made maybe they would be helped by having a small plantation

1041
01:06:16.480 --> 01:06:22.240
of plantains and so if they have a bad week of hunting they can just come in and they can they

1042
01:06:22.240 --> 01:06:26.080
can take some of their own make get some of their own food they don't need to start being

1043
01:06:26.720 --> 01:06:31.920
agricultural they can still be nomadic hunter gatherers but maybe having some supplemental food

1044
01:06:31.920 --> 01:06:36.560
out there in locations that they know about would help but these are things for the local people

1045
01:06:36.560 --> 01:06:41.760
and for anthropologists to figure out over time i had you say that children from the tribe who

1046
01:06:41.920 --> 01:06:45.440
raised by outside communities claimed to remember nothing about their time in the tribe

1047
01:06:46.960 --> 01:06:55.520
it's haunting what what do you mean by that i mean that a child washed down river on a log

1048
01:06:55.520 --> 01:07:01.120
to one of the rare very remote communities in the amazon rainforest and was adopted by an

1049
01:07:01.120 --> 01:07:07.040
indigenous community people that speak an indigenous language as well as Spanish and

1050
01:07:08.000 --> 01:07:12.800
when he was old enough to be asked questions someone said hey by the way when you were living with

1051
01:07:12.800 --> 01:07:18.800
los calatos with the with the naked people that's what they call them um what was it like

1052
01:07:19.680 --> 01:07:24.240
and he just went i don't remember i walked away but i mean when he came down he was eight years old

1053
01:07:25.680 --> 01:07:30.320
you can't tell me you don't remember anything and but it was a it was a it was a it was a guarded

1054
01:07:30.320 --> 01:07:38.960
i don't remember it was a i don't remember no access denied it doesn't send me you got it you

1055
01:07:38.960 --> 01:07:43.200
know and that's what people get wrong where they go all these people still live you know in

1056
01:07:43.200 --> 01:07:47.520
communion with nature and it's like yeah and there's a lot of rape and murder and warfare and

1057
01:07:48.480 --> 01:07:54.240
probably needless death from infections and disease and and and they're living a very different

1058
01:07:54.240 --> 01:07:59.680
lifestyle but it certainly is fascinating that they're out there and i think that

1059
01:07:59.680 --> 01:08:05.360
it only goes to illustrate that we what we're protecting here is truly that wild because a lot of

1060
01:08:05.360 --> 01:08:09.840
people will say to me well how come you guys are so focused on protecting this river this thousands

1061
01:08:09.840 --> 01:08:14.560
of tributaries in the amazon why protect this three hundred thousand acres right there

1062
01:08:15.440 --> 01:08:20.160
that's like well this is the wildest part john murer took Teddy Roosevelt on a camping trip when

1063
01:08:20.160 --> 01:08:25.600
he wanted him to protect the osemite valley and the Sequoia trip trees and he said you have to see

1064
01:08:25.680 --> 01:08:31.440
this and so he took Roosevelt and showed him how amazing it was i mean sequoia trees like that

1065
01:08:31.440 --> 01:08:37.200
exists nowhere else on earth there's the biggest trees on the planet if he if they hadn't protected

1066
01:08:37.200 --> 01:08:43.280
them they'd be gone and so the them having the foresight to protect those trees then we still

1067
01:08:43.280 --> 01:08:47.360
have sequoia trees and so that's what we're doing on this river it's like by protecting

1068
01:08:48.080 --> 01:08:55.440
three hundred thousand acres of forest we ensure that those millennium trees the skyscrapers of life

1069
01:08:55.440 --> 01:09:00.880
continue to have monkeys reptiles amphibians birds mammals that these tribes continue to live out in

1070
01:09:00.880 --> 01:09:06.960
the far reaches and then again to use the football field analogy in this vast expanse of wilderness

1071
01:09:06.960 --> 01:09:12.800
we've found a way to use just like a little pin prick to actually bring people and let them see

1072
01:09:13.680 --> 01:09:18.480
this amazing place and so we you know the whole 99.99 percent of the thing is wild

1073
01:09:18.480 --> 01:09:22.480
and we that's why we built that treehouse to let you know some of our donors some of our people

1074
01:09:22.480 --> 01:09:27.440
because now people from all over the world are helping us save this river and the treehouse that

1075
01:09:27.440 --> 01:09:33.360
was a dream you know there's a there's a mist river that flows above the Amazon that's invisible

1076
01:09:33.360 --> 01:09:39.600
and it's larger than the Amazon river itself there's an invisible mist river above the Amazon that's

1077
01:09:39.600 --> 01:09:47.760
larger than the river mist mist okay and so the first time I saw it I had climbed the tallest tree

1078
01:09:47.760 --> 01:09:53.120
in the jungle which took hours and I was standing on a branch at dawn and I saw the sun illuminate

1079
01:09:53.120 --> 01:10:00.160
the mist river going across the canopy and I went I have to share this with people and so we built

1080
01:10:00.160 --> 01:10:04.560
that treehouse on a promontory at the edge of the terra firmer looking out over the jungle

1081
01:10:05.680 --> 01:10:10.800
so that people can see the reserve see all the forest that they're protecting because at this point

1082
01:10:10.800 --> 01:10:15.440
the way we've see this and see that picture below it that's the wasteland that's what happens when

1083
01:10:15.440 --> 01:10:24.080
you don't protect the Amazon are you at all on some level jealous of how these

1084
01:10:25.120 --> 01:10:30.880
uncontacted tribes live is there any part of you that wants to go and experience their world

1085
01:10:30.880 --> 01:10:40.320
for a day or wishes you could spend some time living how they live no no no I really enjoyed hanging

1086
01:10:40.320 --> 01:10:45.920
out with my native friends like when spending a day piranha fishing but I also really love my

1087
01:10:45.920 --> 01:10:50.640
camera roll and doing photography and having modern medicine and being able to FaceTime my mom when

1088
01:10:50.640 --> 01:10:56.080
I'm in the jungle like you know I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't know romanticism about their

1089
01:10:56.080 --> 01:11:01.280
state that that seems like stress and destiny I don't I don't need to I don't want I certainly don't

1090
01:11:01.280 --> 01:11:06.960
want to do that now is there anything that you learned or gleaned from them that I know a

1091
01:11:06.960 --> 01:11:12.000
Westerner like me who's spending a lot of time on nice screens and stuff and the way we live

1092
01:11:12.000 --> 01:11:17.280
our lives might find useful I don't think that we're at the point where they're imparting lessons I

1093
01:11:17.280 --> 01:11:22.000
think we're at the point where we're learning which questions we want to ask that was first contact

1094
01:11:23.200 --> 01:11:28.720
and so at this point our job is to figure out how do we how do we move forward what do we what do

1095
01:11:28.720 --> 01:11:37.600
they need how do we ethically proceed in protecting this forest I don't know any founder who started

1096
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their business because they like doing admin but whether you like it or not it's a huge part of

1097
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running a business successfully and it's something that can quickly become all consuming,

1098
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confusing and honestly a real tax because you know it's taking your attention away from the

1099
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weeds out of admin just search for Intuit QuickBooks now there's a phase a lot of companies here

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down with admin and it's often something that creeps up slowly you don't really notice until it's

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happened slowly momentum starts to leak out this happened to us and our sponsor pipe drive was a fix

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1120
01:13:35.200 --> 01:13:42.320
can get a 30 day free trial no credit card or payment required I've got so many photos here

1121
01:13:42.800 --> 01:13:50.400
you got I mean in so many of these photos you're holding massive snakes and why I say massive snakes

1122
01:13:50.400 --> 01:13:56.800
I don't mean the snakes you guys listening are thinking about I mean anaconda size snakes like

1123
01:13:57.680 --> 01:14:04.160
oh yeah this was this was me and JJ's first first big anaconda that we big anaconda because

1124
01:14:04.160 --> 01:14:12.000
only about 12 feet and yeah that one that one this was a great snake because I'd never caught a big

1125
01:14:12.000 --> 01:14:15.920
snake before I'd always been you know you catch a small snake and I'd learn from steaver when you

1126
01:14:15.920 --> 01:14:20.640
know you catch a catch a snake by the tail and it might try to bite you if you don't get it by the

1127
01:14:20.640 --> 01:14:26.240
tail snakes gonna run away every time snakes are not never going to attack you period so I learned

1128
01:14:26.240 --> 01:14:29.520
you catch a snake by the tail and then it's once you get it by the tail it's gonna come back at you

1129
01:14:29.520 --> 01:14:34.400
and try and stop you from grabbing its tail great and if you need to you can get it by the head

1130
01:14:34.400 --> 01:14:38.640
and you got control the snake but if you have the head you have the snake and so that first snake

1131
01:14:38.640 --> 01:14:43.040
I mean I'm talking about a 12 foot snake that's you know that's at least as thick as my leg

1132
01:14:43.840 --> 01:14:47.440
and I ran in there and I said JJ you come from that side I'm gonna come from this side we get

1133
01:14:47.440 --> 01:14:52.320
the snake we're gonna measure just because we thought it was so fascinating I ran in and I dove

1134
01:14:52.320 --> 01:14:58.240
and I grabbed the snake by the head big mistake wraps around my arms and the first thing that I

1135
01:14:58.240 --> 01:15:04.240
realized that I had an anaconda handcuffs now I couldn't I couldn't release the snake if I wanted to

1136
01:15:04.240 --> 01:15:10.400
because it was around my wrists and then the second coil came around my shoulders and now I'm feeling

1137
01:15:10.400 --> 01:15:16.960
that I can actually hear my collarbone start to flex the way a stick sounds right before it snaps

1138
01:15:16.960 --> 01:15:21.200
and JJ grabbed the snake by the tail and pulled the tail off and then his other brother they got

1139
01:15:21.200 --> 01:15:25.040
to me right as I was about to me literally the eyes are gonna come out of my head it was gonna

1140
01:15:25.040 --> 01:15:30.080
crush you that's what happens so he pulled that right off at the last second so that was about

1141
01:15:30.080 --> 01:15:36.560
as close as I came to knowing what it feels like I mean that's not even a big one I think you came

1142
01:15:36.560 --> 01:15:44.560
a little bit closer yeah nah that's that that's uh explain this to me so if anyone that can't

1143
01:15:44.560 --> 01:15:49.280
what you can't see I would highly recommend you look at the screen now yeah please look away look

1144
01:15:49.280 --> 01:15:54.560
away don't listen to him this is a absolutely crazy story what what's going on in this photo and

1145
01:15:54.560 --> 01:16:02.720
why did you do that sure this is actually a very important story you know you hear these people

1146
01:16:02.720 --> 01:16:08.640
talk about how you if you're gonna succeed at anything you have to become very familiar with losing

1147
01:16:09.360 --> 01:16:15.280
you almost got to learn to love it and and so as we set out on this journey to explore the

1148
01:16:15.280 --> 01:16:21.600
Amazon and to build relationships with the indigenous people and to study anacondas and to find a

1149
01:16:21.600 --> 01:16:28.160
way to protect this place at around 24 years old I got approached by Discovery Channel and they

1150
01:16:28.160 --> 01:16:34.640
said kid we've never seen one like you let's do a show where we take people into the Amazon rainforest

1151
01:16:34.640 --> 01:16:39.360
and show them anacondas and I said that'd be amazing I said I would love to do that I could teach

1152
01:16:39.360 --> 01:16:43.760
people about the forest let's let's go they said great don't the only thing is they said you know it's

1153
01:16:43.760 --> 01:16:47.920
not a good enough show if we just show them the science that you're gonna do because we want to use

1154
01:16:48.000 --> 01:16:53.360
as the apex predators of the ecosystem they're you know if there's mercury in the system they're

1155
01:16:53.360 --> 01:16:57.680
bio-accumulating there any toxins that are in the Amazon they're going to absorb it's gonna get

1156
01:16:57.680 --> 01:17:01.680
into the fish and then into the Cayman into the birds into the anacondas they're the apex predator

1157
01:17:02.240 --> 01:17:07.280
we were doing groundbreaking research on anacondas they said that wasn't good enough they said imagine

1158
01:17:08.000 --> 01:17:11.840
if they said no one's you know reticulated pythons of eating people they said no one's ever had

1159
01:17:11.920 --> 01:17:17.120
on record anaconda eating a human and I said it happens it happens I know a few people whose

1160
01:17:17.120 --> 01:17:21.200
grandmother or uncle was eaten by an anaconda it happens but it doesn't happen where people no one's

1161
01:17:21.200 --> 01:17:26.160
taking a picture of it and so they said well if we make you a really expensive suit will you get

1162
01:17:26.160 --> 01:17:30.320
eaten by an anaconda I said I'll try I said it's not gonna eat snakes or sweethearts it's not

1163
01:17:30.320 --> 01:17:37.200
gonna try to eat me and they said but look we'll call the show expedition Amazon send you out there

1164
01:17:37.280 --> 01:17:42.000
with a team of scientists will film the whole thing long story short I agreed to it because what

1165
01:17:42.000 --> 01:17:47.840
I thought at the time was I keep seeing forest getting burned I keep seeing my millennium trees go

1166
01:17:47.840 --> 01:17:52.400
down all of those monkeys and birds and snakes and beautiful animals that are getting incinerated

1167
01:17:52.400 --> 01:17:57.280
and they're telling me all I got to do to get a TV show that'll reach millions of people and let

1168
01:17:57.280 --> 01:18:01.520
me get that message out there all I got to do is at the end do the silly stunt to show people

1169
01:18:01.520 --> 01:18:08.240
the snakes aren't that bad and so we filmed this show for six weeks you agreed to what I

1170
01:18:08.240 --> 01:18:18.960
agreed to potentially be eaten by an anaconda okay I mean if it wanted if it wanted to I had a

1171
01:18:18.960 --> 01:18:24.080
breathing tube and I had a it theoretically could have eaten me but I knew it wouldn't because I

1172
01:18:24.080 --> 01:18:29.120
know snakes but the producers were very you know these are people that have never left the

1173
01:18:29.680 --> 01:18:35.600
the office building and have watched too many movies and they wanted to see a guy get eaten by a snake

1174
01:18:35.600 --> 01:18:40.160
and you volunteered of course I volunteer I would have cut off my foot to save the forest I'll

1175
01:18:40.160 --> 01:18:44.320
do anything to save the forest and so when somebody gives you a chance like this and it's funny I

1176
01:18:44.320 --> 01:18:49.280
actually spoke to Jane good all about this I said there's this chance I have and I think I could

1177
01:18:49.280 --> 01:18:54.000
use I think I can navigate this in such a way that at the you know we take people on an expedition

1178
01:18:54.000 --> 01:18:59.040
through the Amazon and at the end I'll go I'll get in the pit in a special suit and I'll

1179
01:18:59.040 --> 01:19:02.560
let the snake wrap around me and I'll show people that anaconda is a really you know the sweet

1180
01:19:02.560 --> 01:19:06.480
arts and she said I don't think it's going to go well for anyone that doesn't know who Jane good all

1181
01:19:06.480 --> 01:19:14.080
is Jane good all the famous primatologist the earth shattering scientists who redefined humans from

1182
01:19:14.080 --> 01:19:21.360
men the toolmaker to what we are now the one who did more for conservation wildlife women science

1183
01:19:21.360 --> 01:19:27.280
than just about anybody else and she's also the person that quoted on the front of your book saying

1184
01:19:27.280 --> 01:19:33.360
on behalf of the forests that I love thank you Paul for writing this book Killy from reading through

1185
01:19:33.360 --> 01:19:38.960
history she's she's quite a hero of yours and has been for a long long time yeah I mean and going

1186
01:19:38.960 --> 01:19:43.600
from when my parents were reading us me and my sister they'd be reading us stories at night

1187
01:19:44.320 --> 01:19:49.600
you know Jane good all in Gombe with the chimps and how she she didn't listen to the rules she named

1188
01:19:49.600 --> 01:19:54.320
them even though her her colleagues said you never name your study subjects and she said they have

1189
01:19:54.320 --> 01:19:59.840
names they have personalities they have names she broke all the rules and and so I grew up with

1190
01:19:59.840 --> 01:20:06.000
Jane as sort of this historical figure but she was still like a living historical figure and so then

1191
01:20:06.000 --> 01:20:14.000
when I when I when I actually met her it was so incredible because I I met her to talk that she

1192
01:20:14.000 --> 01:20:19.360
had given and this this informed the rest of my life the the grace and wisdom that she showed

1193
01:20:19.360 --> 01:20:24.400
changed me as a person because I met her to talk that she was giving a New York City and I had

1194
01:20:24.400 --> 01:20:29.280
printed out a couple of chapters I'd printed out one of the chapters that became my first book

1195
01:20:29.280 --> 01:20:35.520
where I'm taking care of a baby giant anteater and I printed out a chapter where me and JJ were

1196
01:20:35.520 --> 01:20:40.160
looking for our first anaconda this story and I put those together with a little covered letter

1197
01:20:40.240 --> 01:20:45.360
that's just said hey I love wildlife I've been working on the Amazon for like five years and you've

1198
01:20:45.360 --> 01:20:52.800
always been an inspiration to me if I write a book would you endorse it and so I gave this to her

1199
01:20:52.800 --> 01:20:57.200
in the Manila envelope while there was a line of 500 people and you know we take the picture and she

1200
01:20:57.200 --> 01:21:03.760
said thank you very much she puts it aside and I said I you know I tried my best and 48 hours later her

1201
01:21:03.760 --> 01:21:08.720
her team reached out and said Jane read the materials she read the chapters and she thinks that

1202
01:21:08.720 --> 01:21:13.920
they're wonderful and if you find a publisher let them know that Jane will endorse your book

1203
01:21:14.480 --> 01:21:18.000
and so then I went to the publishers and I said I have the endorsement of Jane Goodall and they

1204
01:21:18.000 --> 01:21:23.200
said well that's basically Mother Earth herself and they said so you so that's what got me in the

1205
01:21:23.200 --> 01:21:28.480
door to become an author with my first book was Jane you know she's she was this titan of

1206
01:21:28.480 --> 01:21:33.840
conservation this legendary figure and her just first of all for someone that was on the road 300

1207
01:21:33.840 --> 01:21:42.080
days a year that's an icon of science and conservation and hope for her to have the presence of mind and

1208
01:21:42.080 --> 01:21:47.360
the patience and the sense of responsibility to actually read something that some kid handed her

1209
01:21:48.080 --> 01:21:53.600
that's incredible that's magic to me even to this day and it and it matters to me and it informs how

1210
01:21:53.600 --> 01:22:00.880
I react even to this day but without Jane sort of waving her wand in my direction I would have no

1211
01:22:00.880 --> 01:22:05.840
career there'd be no Paul no jungle keepers no book we wouldn't be sitting at this desk today

1212
01:22:06.800 --> 01:22:13.840
Jane Goodall saved my life she's an iconic scientist as you say and for a groundbreaking research

1213
01:22:13.840 --> 01:22:20.640
on chimpanzees and her work generally and globally on on conservation um so you you decide that

1214
01:22:20.640 --> 01:22:28.000
you're going to be eaten by an anaconda oh yeah that was a tangent yes so is this a wild anaconda

1215
01:22:28.000 --> 01:22:34.640
is this an anaconda holding captivity how did you get the anaconda to eat you so let me see

1216
01:22:34.640 --> 01:22:40.000
that next one on the picture this one yeah this is a snake called Eleanor we named her this after

1217
01:22:40.000 --> 01:22:47.520
my dear grandmother who was an incredible woman and and the matriarch of our family now Eleanor is

1218
01:22:47.520 --> 01:22:53.680
the largest snake ever measured at the time verifiably scientifically measured she's 18 feet

1219
01:22:53.680 --> 01:22:58.800
six inches and over over 100 kilos and she was skinny she hadn't eaten in a while but imagine

1220
01:22:58.800 --> 01:23:04.240
if she'd eaten a capy bar she would have been you know 200 kilos but um my team caught her while

1221
01:23:04.240 --> 01:23:08.720
we were filming this show and again we were told the show would be called expedition Amazon the

1222
01:23:08.720 --> 01:23:14.880
call sheet said expedition EA then when we were done doing our research in the Amazon they said

1223
01:23:14.880 --> 01:23:20.240
look fly to I forget if it was like Kentucky or Louisiana they said fly to some state there's a

1224
01:23:20.240 --> 01:23:24.800
guy with a snake no one will know the difference we'll blur it out and they said do this little

1225
01:23:24.800 --> 01:23:30.080
stunt as I'll put it the last five minutes of the show just to show people and then we'll you know

1226
01:23:30.080 --> 01:23:34.720
wipe it up in the news they're like we got you a lot of handshakes right the day before I was supposed

1227
01:23:34.720 --> 01:23:43.040
to go on the good morning America show with uh Mr. Matt Lauer who got mad at me for doing push-ups

1228
01:23:43.040 --> 01:23:48.080
on the set um the the day before I was supposed to go on the stomach again I'm a kid and I'm going

1229
01:23:48.320 --> 01:23:52.720
I think I think we got it I think we did it we caught the biggest snake ever the footage of us

1230
01:23:52.720 --> 01:23:57.360
catching that snake is insane we're all jumping in the river and wrestling this crack in and we

1231
01:23:57.360 --> 01:24:01.920
catch this snake and we learned from her we did we were it sounds crazy but we were developing

1232
01:24:01.920 --> 01:24:07.200
field methodology for studying the species and we learned all kinds of things about anacondas

1233
01:24:07.200 --> 01:24:11.520
because we fed her a transmitter we learned how she moves through the environment this is research

1234
01:24:11.520 --> 01:24:16.800
that had never been done before for context feeding her transmitter is putting a trans an electrical

1235
01:24:16.800 --> 01:24:20.880
device yeah basically in her throat that she eats she consumes and it stays with her till she

1236
01:24:20.880 --> 01:24:25.200
dies so you can see what she's doing it stays with her until she defecates it which for snakes

1237
01:24:25.200 --> 01:24:30.320
that law thankfully is months okay and so we're doing this groundbreaking research we caught this

1238
01:24:30.320 --> 01:24:34.800
tremendous snake we'd survived a six-week expedition in the Amazon we had all this incredible footage

1239
01:24:36.480 --> 01:24:43.840
and the night before I'm supposed to go out on the morning shows they showed me the film it had

1240
01:24:43.840 --> 01:24:50.320
none of the science it had none of the conservation message that I was promised would be in the show

1241
01:24:51.600 --> 01:24:56.560
and instead they focused on the stunt at the end and they changed the name of the show to

1242
01:24:56.560 --> 01:25:04.160
eaten alive and then they sent me out the door to do the shows and the public was mad because I

1243
01:25:04.160 --> 01:25:08.160
didn't actually get eaten and they felt like they were lied to pito is mad because they felt like I

1244
01:25:08.160 --> 01:25:14.560
had put a snake's life in danger somehow somehow somehow the animal rights people were furious

1245
01:25:14.560 --> 01:25:20.400
and then the scientists were mad because I said okay you're just a you know a shock person you

1246
01:25:20.400 --> 01:25:25.120
just in this for the thrill and you're not really a conservationist so put me out of work for years

1247
01:25:25.120 --> 01:25:31.360
really yes it set me back about 10 years really I tried I took a big swing because I thought it

1248
01:25:31.360 --> 01:25:37.920
would help my forest and I hit my side on the ceiling and fell down hard the next day the news

1249
01:25:37.920 --> 01:25:42.960
I mean you know all of the late night shows are making fun of it Jimmy Kimmel was like you

1250
01:25:42.960 --> 01:25:46.880
should for your next stunt you should try having sex with a hippo I mean people the comments were

1251
01:25:46.880 --> 01:25:51.440
just I went to India and lived with the herd of elephants for a while I had to get out I couldn't

1252
01:25:51.440 --> 01:25:56.240
I literally couldn't I said my dream of being a conservationist is over I was told by one prominent

1253
01:25:56.240 --> 01:26:03.360
conservationist not even to come to South America and and again the thing you have to remember

1254
01:26:03.360 --> 01:26:06.640
through all of this is through the barefoot machete days through going to the Amazon

1255
01:26:08.000 --> 01:26:15.360
the first 15 years of my 20 year journey I had no support so I was living out of a backpack

1256
01:26:15.360 --> 01:26:23.120
living out of a boat in the Amazon barefoot with no paycheck no health insurance no security no pathway

1257
01:26:23.120 --> 01:26:30.720
forward so it was it was very uncertain times you know that you actually I think it may have been

1258
01:26:30.720 --> 01:26:34.960
on your show there's this great quote where I think it was Alex Hormozzi was saying that confidence

1259
01:26:34.960 --> 01:26:41.200
comes from giving people irrefutable proof that you are who you say you are and when I heard

1260
01:26:41.200 --> 01:26:45.840
that quote I thought that's great and then the next thing I thought was well but you have to start

1261
01:26:45.840 --> 01:26:50.240
building that proof in a direction and for a lot of people I think they find themselves

1262
01:26:51.120 --> 01:26:56.560
standing on a high hill looking at a set of mountains and you have to choose which direction

1263
01:26:56.560 --> 01:27:03.920
you're going in and for me I was a high school dropout who was never going to be a conservation

1264
01:27:03.920 --> 01:27:11.520
biologist and I was trained by the local people and sort of adopted by their tribe and so I knew

1265
01:27:11.520 --> 01:27:16.880
how to survive in the jungle and work with snakes and do all these crazy things and I tried

1266
01:27:17.840 --> 01:27:25.280
I tried to to take that message to television and I got Hollywood at heart I got lied to and I got

1267
01:27:25.920 --> 01:27:30.720
taken for a ride but that failure ended up being the best thing that ever happened because what it

1268
01:27:30.720 --> 01:27:35.280
did was it sent me right back to the drawing board said you're not ready yet and so sometimes the

1269
01:27:35.280 --> 01:27:40.400
things that you want are not the things that you need and it's this beautiful thing where life sort

1270
01:27:40.400 --> 01:27:45.600
of moves aside I know you want that but I'm going to give you what you need not what you want

1271
01:27:46.240 --> 01:27:50.800
so this was a case where I really I took it hard I mean at the time it was a devastating loss

1272
01:27:52.240 --> 01:27:56.240
and it was the best thing that ever happened because it was the slap on the head that sent me

1273
01:27:56.240 --> 01:28:01.520
back out into the jungle for years and years and years and years of more experience doubled down

1274
01:28:01.520 --> 01:28:05.120
what do you really care about saving the forest well if you care about saving the forest how the hell

1275
01:28:05.120 --> 01:28:11.760
you're going to do that and we had to develop a system to do that we had to develop a new technology

1276
01:28:11.760 --> 01:28:17.760
as a way to save the forest what actually happened here so we didn't I know you don't want to

1277
01:28:17.760 --> 01:28:21.360
it sounds like you don't want you don't want to talk about it it's just wasted airtime to talk about

1278
01:28:21.440 --> 01:28:27.280
because we rolled around on in the mud with a 16 foot anaconda and nothing happened a lot of

1279
01:28:27.280 --> 01:28:31.600
people will probably want to know why nothing happened and I think part of that is because of what

1280
01:28:31.600 --> 01:28:37.280
you're wearing no the reason nothing happened is because they had snake handlers wrapping the snake

1281
01:28:37.280 --> 01:28:43.440
around me while I was in this ridiculous suit I mean the things I will do the things I will do to

1282
01:28:43.440 --> 01:28:49.280
protect this forest that snake if it was left on its own would crawl off any snake would would

1283
01:28:49.360 --> 01:28:53.600
if there was a if I had a black mamba in my hands right now and I put it on this table it would

1284
01:28:53.600 --> 01:28:58.800
slide off the table and find the darkest spot in the room and it would go hide if I had a spitting

1285
01:28:58.800 --> 01:29:04.480
cobra same thing no snake wants to deal with you they just want to go hide they want to go back to

1286
01:29:04.480 --> 01:29:08.880
sleep most people have terrified of snakes most people are terrified of snakes and that's why I think

1287
01:29:08.880 --> 01:29:14.800
you're going to like what I have for you would you mean I brought a friend today you brought a friend

1288
01:29:14.800 --> 01:29:26.560
I did bring a friend and I want you to meet him now this is a very very small ball python

1289
01:29:27.520 --> 01:29:33.120
this is a baby and one of the first things I try to impress upon people when they meet a baby snake

1290
01:29:33.120 --> 01:29:39.520
is remembering that even if you're scared of snakes you're the large apex predator and this is

1291
01:29:39.520 --> 01:29:46.320
just a tiny little reptile that is all alone the world they're born and they have to fend for

1292
01:29:46.320 --> 01:29:52.240
themselves and for some reason ever since I was a little kid I was fascinated with snakes I thought

1293
01:29:52.240 --> 01:29:56.400
they were beautiful I love the way they moved I thought the way they can hold up their bodies and

1294
01:29:56.400 --> 01:30:03.920
flick their tongues I find snakes calming and beautiful and fascinating is that snake dangerous

1295
01:30:04.880 --> 01:30:10.720
you could hand this snake to a baby this snake is so harmless I mean the worst thing that

1296
01:30:10.720 --> 01:30:18.240
this snake could do if I was to let's just say pinch her and hurt her she could bite me but even

1297
01:30:18.240 --> 01:30:24.720
that would barely break my skin this is a snake that's going to look for a baby mice little birds maybe

1298
01:30:24.720 --> 01:30:31.200
a frog and try and grow to a larger size now have you ever held a snake before no you've never

1299
01:30:31.200 --> 01:30:36.640
held a snake I don't think so oh wow that's wonderful well this is such an easy one to start with

1300
01:30:36.640 --> 01:30:44.720
and I'll give you a few pointers yeah so a few things is that even a baby baby snake is going to

1301
01:30:45.440 --> 01:30:52.080
interpret your interstate a little bit if you're very nervous and jittery and the snake is

1302
01:30:52.080 --> 01:30:55.680
going to pick up on that but you see how she's sort of just fitting to my hand yeah she's done a

1303
01:30:55.680 --> 01:31:00.160
few things here she's got her anchor she's got her tail around these two fingers and the next

1304
01:31:00.160 --> 01:31:04.960
thing is she's flicking her tongue to scent what's going on she's she's looking around but she's

1305
01:31:04.960 --> 01:31:11.200
also she's not excited she doesn't mine sweat she doesn't mine sweat my hand sweat quite a bit as well

1306
01:31:12.080 --> 01:31:17.600
and so I'm just gonna place her in your hand nice and easy and what you want to do is let her sort of

1307
01:31:18.880 --> 01:31:24.240
grab on now now what are you feeling right now let's just see what you feel a little bit tense

1308
01:31:24.800 --> 01:31:29.680
that's okay you can feel tense now if you feel tense the thing is she's probably going to return to

1309
01:31:29.680 --> 01:31:36.480
me because she probably knows I love her and she's right yeah and that's okay why don't we just

1310
01:31:36.480 --> 01:31:40.800
let her do that and then you can get a sense for how she moves and I'm gonna give her a little hole

1311
01:31:40.800 --> 01:31:45.120
to crawl through like that and so what they do is they have all these muscles running along their

1312
01:31:45.120 --> 01:31:50.240
body and you can feel that right it's such a beautiful animal I do have to say yeah they're called

1313
01:31:50.240 --> 01:31:56.560
ball pythons they also call them royal pythons for that beautiful black and gold it's

1314
01:31:57.520 --> 01:32:02.560
can I can I touch her with my thumb you can they don't love being pet it's one thing about snakes

1315
01:32:02.560 --> 01:32:07.920
they don't a lot of people when they come around to suddenly loving snakes they go well I want to

1316
01:32:07.920 --> 01:32:13.120
pet it the way I want to pet a dog and snakes will retract from that so if you do it touch her

1317
01:32:13.120 --> 01:32:18.560
with your with your thumb she actually moves away she moves away she doesn't like that so usually

1318
01:32:18.560 --> 01:32:27.520
with snakes my my rule is you you sort of have to be the tree okay and is she a baby absolutely

1319
01:32:27.520 --> 01:32:33.280
these are these are these this is quite small and so in the jungle on cold days I'll find snakes

1320
01:32:33.280 --> 01:32:38.240
like this and literally warm them up in my hands I'll put them in here and just if you can just

1321
01:32:38.240 --> 01:32:42.480
look at that just look at how sweet she is she'll just stay like that she likes that she likes that

1322
01:32:42.480 --> 01:32:47.440
she likes the warmth there we are endotherms they are ectotherms like all reptiles they depend on

1323
01:32:47.440 --> 01:32:53.280
their environment for their body temperature and so on the cold days see that see that move my

1324
01:32:53.280 --> 01:32:59.280
hand closer she got a little spook she went back into the again this is just a tiny baby there's

1325
01:32:59.280 --> 01:33:11.920
another one that is a similarly awesome example this is her larger relative same species right so

1326
01:33:11.920 --> 01:33:18.160
this is a small ball python and this is a larger ball python and notice that both of these there's

1327
01:33:18.160 --> 01:33:22.960
no risk right there's no there's no danger here it's not like I can't put these near my face again

1328
01:33:22.960 --> 01:33:27.840
both of these are sort of the golden retrievers of snakes these are these are snakes that have been

1329
01:33:27.840 --> 01:33:34.400
handled by responsible snake owners so well that small one grow into the big one are you saying

1330
01:33:34.400 --> 01:33:40.160
they're the same as with cousins yeah this is a larger ball python this is a smaller ball python

1331
01:33:40.240 --> 01:33:44.560
so this one would eventually be the size absolutely and this one could could grow to be double that

1332
01:33:44.560 --> 01:33:52.000
size really I've seen ball pythons be double that size now this one slightly different game for holding

1333
01:33:54.880 --> 01:34:02.960
but see like that look who's scared here me well and and him and so look at these beautiful so

1334
01:34:02.960 --> 01:34:10.080
look I'll just give you a sense of look at the power in a python you think pull ups are hard

1335
01:34:10.720 --> 01:34:18.400
holding on with no no legs no claws just strength and just going to climb back up on onto my arm

1336
01:34:18.480 --> 01:34:31.520
so what I'd like you to do is hold that your wrist yeah you got this

1337
01:34:32.880 --> 01:34:38.400
just straight across the table hold that right like that no remember if he does bite

1338
01:34:39.200 --> 01:34:43.040
and you mean if he doesn't get him kidding just hold him a pie enough that he's not touching the

1339
01:34:43.040 --> 01:34:47.360
table yeah and then I'm just going to coax on top of he's okay you're okay you're okay you're

1340
01:34:50.320 --> 01:34:56.560
so he's just gonna just just feel that power as he moves what she will eventually

1341
01:35:00.720 --> 01:35:05.200
but see you can feel the power on this snake it's a little bit more of a little bit more musculature

1342
01:35:05.840 --> 01:35:15.840
they are stunning you see that that's it he's like okay cool you're holding me here

1343
01:35:17.600 --> 01:35:24.400
they're pretty relaxed animals so he'll go and eat a small prey item go back into his burrow

1344
01:35:24.400 --> 01:35:31.040
and then digest for a week before going back out and now you which few now if you want you can take

1345
01:35:31.040 --> 01:35:35.360
your other hand and put it under him to support him and then he'll start to move over both of your

1346
01:35:35.360 --> 01:35:42.000
hands once try that put your other hand very gently right under his coil right there he got scared of

1347
01:35:42.000 --> 01:35:48.640
that that's okay or you could put a thumb through the through the loop could do good night yeah you

1348
01:35:48.640 --> 01:35:54.320
could do that you're loving all these suggestions all right now watch let's see what happens we

1349
01:35:54.320 --> 01:35:59.280
put him on the table because I bet you anything he doesn't enjoy you feel that power you feel that

1350
01:35:59.280 --> 01:36:03.840
little bit of power there yeah now that's a snake this big weights we see like with an anaconda or

1351
01:36:03.840 --> 01:36:11.120
something now a table sort of unfair there's nothing for him to see this he's gonna he's gonna flop

1352
01:36:11.120 --> 01:36:14.720
a little bit there's they're not supposed to be on a table so this is what I'll do I'll be the

1353
01:36:16.880 --> 01:36:23.120
I'll be the ground because then see look now he's pushing with all those little belly scales see how

1354
01:36:23.120 --> 01:36:30.960
you can cruise that incredible snake locomotion now watch if I take away his lucky he's holds on they

1355
01:36:30.960 --> 01:36:35.280
don't want to he's got nothing to push off so he's gonna he's gonna do the inchworm thing

1356
01:36:36.880 --> 01:36:41.200
but you get a sense of how snakes move they need that they need the ground they need pebbles they need

1357
01:36:41.760 --> 01:36:48.640
rocks now you now catch him oh come on my catch him now no seriously not by the head

1358
01:36:48.720 --> 01:36:53.680
start by the tail just right here just pick him up and then once you pick him up you can give him to

1359
01:36:53.680 --> 01:36:58.640
me and then we can be done but but Stephen you have to catch the snake pick pick him up here just pick

1360
01:36:58.640 --> 01:37:02.160
him up he's not gonna do anything now nice and slowly too because he's a friendly snake you don't

1361
01:37:02.160 --> 01:37:06.720
want to offend him he seems to be intense I mean he is side eyeing you right now that's what I mean

1362
01:37:06.720 --> 01:37:12.480
he's like I'm side eyeing him he's side eyeing me but I'm telling you that this snake all you got to

1363
01:37:12.480 --> 01:37:18.000
do is just pick him up and then when I pick him up just pick him up and hand him to me that's all

1364
01:37:18.000 --> 01:37:22.080
you got to do and then this is all over oh my god I can't believe this

1365
01:37:24.880 --> 01:37:31.920
oh my god beautiful right up up up up up up amazing wonderful now I'm gonna take him

1366
01:37:35.760 --> 01:37:42.640
all right and then I have one more snake that I really need you to meet come here this

1367
01:37:43.200 --> 01:37:48.480
this is a different story and this is sort of the closest thing that we're going to get

1368
01:37:50.000 --> 01:37:56.080
to an anaconda I think the easiest thing I could do here is just let her get around

1369
01:37:59.120 --> 01:38:03.760
what you don't want snakes to do is to close that gap right you don't want them

1370
01:38:04.720 --> 01:38:09.920
to wrap around your neck could she kill you she could then they bring it over here why I thought

1371
01:38:09.920 --> 01:38:15.360
I thought she wanted to meet her too but what if she does something to me no no so this is a

1372
01:38:15.360 --> 01:38:21.440
different type of snake this is a Burmese python and when you talk about large constrictors those

1373
01:38:21.440 --> 01:38:28.000
are small constrictors the the ball pythons this is a larger constrictor constrictor and Burmese

1374
01:38:28.000 --> 01:38:34.400
pythons get to be big these can go up to 18 feet long and now what I think you're gonna really

1375
01:38:34.400 --> 01:38:40.880
appreciate is the power that these things have when you feel that power and now just don't move

1376
01:38:41.840 --> 01:38:50.400
yeah now give her your hand take her take her her with your hand good very good now hold this

1377
01:38:50.400 --> 01:38:58.720
hand out good just like that now be the tree just be the tree that's great you want to come

1378
01:38:58.800 --> 01:39:09.360
this way okay her tail is hot yeah what why is the tip hot maybe she likes you okay now she's

1379
01:39:09.360 --> 01:39:16.000
just gonna move behind your head and I just want you to feel the muscles of that snake oh yeah that's

1380
01:39:16.000 --> 01:39:20.320
great she is sing she's breathing that's just her breathing because she's holding on she's a

1381
01:39:20.320 --> 01:39:25.920
ground snake it's not really a tree snake now Burmese pythons they grow to be 18 feet long they can

1382
01:39:25.920 --> 01:39:34.640
take down deer and so what you have right now is this beautiful granite Burmese python crawling on

1383
01:39:34.640 --> 01:39:37.680
in shoulders and you're doing great by the way you look very calm breathe don't forget to breathe

1384
01:39:37.680 --> 01:39:43.040
and she can kill a deer no no she'll grow she's still a baby she's still small she'll eventually be

1385
01:39:43.040 --> 01:39:49.120
able to kill a deer now I just I don't want her to now here's the thing I think she likes you

1386
01:39:49.680 --> 01:39:58.000
so when I try to take strength strength yeah she could like break my pinky finger off yeah so let's

1387
01:39:58.000 --> 01:40:03.120
just see what we do so we know a few things we know that she's not gonna hurt us we know she's not

1388
01:40:03.120 --> 01:40:10.480
gonna eat that banana and know what she'd like to probably come on you wanna come up yeah see I

1389
01:40:10.480 --> 01:40:22.400
think they come to me I think they know have you ever done a podcast with a with a 10 foot snake

1390
01:40:22.400 --> 01:40:28.480
across the table before no this is my first this is amazing I'd such a it's such a joy to be here

1391
01:40:28.480 --> 01:40:33.280
with a Burmese python there and so I really this is the closest I can get you to an anaconda I

1392
01:40:33.280 --> 01:40:37.760
wouldn't bring an anaconda here their personalities a little different that personality is different

1393
01:40:37.760 --> 01:40:44.320
oh yeah different snake species just like you'd be a little bit more careful around certain dog species

1394
01:40:44.320 --> 01:40:49.840
than you would others certain snakes now notice look now I'm I'm pulling a good deal here and she's

1395
01:40:49.840 --> 01:40:56.000
not budging so now what you're gonna do is just just massage the tail what you mean massage I would

1396
01:40:56.000 --> 01:41:01.360
like you to massage the tail just just maybe rub back and forth on her tail and it's gonna be an

1397
01:41:01.360 --> 01:41:06.960
instant reaction yep just keep doing that she's not gonna love that whoop she's hissing

1398
01:41:09.360 --> 01:41:13.040
because there might be something back here she can't see exactly she doesn't want something

1399
01:41:13.040 --> 01:41:20.320
interacting with her tail she seems to be stuck to my the the diary the diary itself

1400
01:41:22.960 --> 01:41:30.160
okay okay okay girl she's like that well actually why don't you just lift her lift that coil

1401
01:41:30.160 --> 01:41:34.400
over up onto the tail you got this just like you lifted the other snake you're gonna have to do

1402
01:41:34.400 --> 01:41:38.720
this to get through this just lift now to see the part that's hanging over just lift it up onto the

1403
01:41:38.720 --> 01:41:48.320
table oh my gosh yeah oh my gosh it's so how would you describe it it's like really soft but then

1404
01:41:48.320 --> 01:41:53.520
like he feels like pure muscle pure muscle yes she's very she's she's there's a very very strong

1405
01:41:53.520 --> 01:41:59.120
snake it's so heavy I can't even pull it up I need you to try yeah I think she's resisting

1406
01:42:00.480 --> 01:42:04.240
come on you're not gonna hurt her just right around the edge of the table just up onto the table

1407
01:42:04.240 --> 01:42:09.440
I can't it's too like I'm gonna go on you got this you got the believe in yourself pretend

1408
01:42:09.440 --> 01:42:13.920
we're in the Amazon and this snake is strangling me to death the only way to save my life is to take

1409
01:42:13.920 --> 01:42:20.400
that snake's tail up but David she's gritting to just take my eyes you're popping out of my

1410
01:42:20.400 --> 01:42:25.360
I'm being serious she's like she I can't I can't move her off she's like yes you can come on pull

1411
01:42:25.360 --> 01:42:30.400
her out bring her around you got this look at your arms I know I don't scare you got this you got

1412
01:42:30.400 --> 01:42:38.480
this believe in yourself come on get her up just just do it there there's no try she really doesn't

1413
01:42:39.280 --> 01:42:44.560
then I'm gonna make that make me come over to your side of that snake and get her come on you

1414
01:42:44.560 --> 01:42:51.200
gots yeah there we go there we go that wasn't so bad she's wrapped around the diary she's gonna

1415
01:42:51.200 --> 01:42:59.760
inside the diary listen the diary has to remain intact girl so yeah this is this is a beautiful

1416
01:42:59.760 --> 01:43:04.640
beautiful snake but you sort of see how people have a misconception about snakes now what she's

1417
01:43:04.640 --> 01:43:09.760
trying to do right now even this snake that knows what what humans are she's just trying to say

1418
01:43:09.760 --> 01:43:14.960
all right get me out of here you know she's going where can I go rest and what what does she eat

1419
01:43:14.960 --> 01:43:20.880
when she grows up what do these well Burmese pythons big at big so she's gonna start with rats and

1420
01:43:20.880 --> 01:43:26.080
birds and frogs and they start small they start just like the ball python but when she gets big

1421
01:43:26.080 --> 01:43:32.720
you're talking about I mean Burmese pythons deer dogs humans Burmese pythons I don't think

1422
01:43:32.720 --> 01:43:38.400
are confirmed eating humans reticulated pythons which is actually the longest interesting fact

1423
01:43:38.400 --> 01:43:44.000
anacondas are the biggest snake on earth reticulated pythons are the longest and they're the only

1424
01:43:44.000 --> 01:43:51.680
ones that are on YouTube having eaten humans they're confirmed manators but these berms they're

1425
01:43:51.680 --> 01:43:58.480
just big powerful snakes and they're they're pretty placid it's such a beautiful animal even though

1426
01:43:58.480 --> 01:44:03.600
it is a little bit scary yeah for some reason yeah I think maybe because we all grown up watching

1427
01:44:03.600 --> 01:44:08.160
films like anaconda yeah that we think of snakes as being terrifying but it's such a beautiful

1428
01:44:08.240 --> 01:44:13.120
image of me with a table yeah it's actually really lunch don't yeah all right maybe you were

1429
01:44:13.120 --> 01:44:17.600
right as this is interesting anacondas have bigger yeah they don't like being touched on the head

1430
01:44:17.600 --> 01:44:22.800
and they don't like um do you don't like their the end of the day the base of their tail

1431
01:44:23.680 --> 01:44:29.440
their vent should people be scared of snakes do you think people should be respectful of snakes the

1432
01:44:29.440 --> 01:44:37.840
same way respectful of heights go get Steven good girl good girl go get him go get the diary

1433
01:44:37.840 --> 01:44:44.000
which eat the banana yeah no they are what we call obligate carnivores they can only eat

1434
01:44:45.760 --> 01:44:51.360
other animals but I mean whatever they can fit unfortunately Burmese pythons have been introduced

1435
01:44:51.360 --> 01:44:57.200
to Florida and there's no predators in Florida they can handle the Burmese pythons so they're

1436
01:44:57.200 --> 01:45:03.120
eating the alligators the birds the native wildlife they become a terrible invasive species

1437
01:45:03.120 --> 01:45:08.240
which is sort of bad PR for Burmese pythons but when they're in their native habitat of

1438
01:45:08.240 --> 01:45:16.560
Southeast Asia they're just wonderful big apex predators snakes can she bite oh 100% they have

1439
01:45:16.560 --> 01:45:19.680
big teeth if she was to bite one of us right now would draw quite a bit of blood

1440
01:45:22.320 --> 01:45:27.200
I mean she has to be able to latch on to her prey right so all the more credit goes to her for

1441
01:45:27.280 --> 01:45:36.080
not doing that go get Steven good girl good girl I think I think see now what I'm doing is I'm

1442
01:45:36.080 --> 01:45:43.840
massaging the tail because I know that she's gonna go for you good girl yeah right at him right at

1443
01:45:45.360 --> 01:45:56.560
now come on come on let her go yes good girl oh so great this Burmese python is wants to know

1444
01:45:56.560 --> 01:46:03.040
what is inside the diary of a CEO she's trying to hide yeah she is trying to hide and so you know

1445
01:46:03.040 --> 01:46:11.280
what we're gonna let her do that she's been a very good sport I'm gonna take her that's fantastic

1446
01:46:11.280 --> 01:46:20.480
it is it's such a majestic animal like I it's slightly scary but also this message is brought

1447
01:46:20.480 --> 01:46:25.280
to you by apple card it's a great time to apply for an apple card you'll love earning unlimited

1448
01:46:25.280 --> 01:46:30.800
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01:46:30.800 --> 01:46:35.520
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01:46:35.520 --> 01:46:44.000
card you can earn bonus daily cash to qualify you must apply at apple dot c o slash get daily cash

1451
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apple card issued by Goldman Sachs banks USA Salt Lake City branch offer may not be available elsewhere

1452
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terms and limitations apply make sure you keep what I'm about to say to yourself I'm inviting

1453
01:46:54.400 --> 01:47:00.240
10,000 of you to come even deeper into the diary of a CEO welcome to my inner circle this is

1454
01:47:00.240 --> 01:47:04.800
a brand new private community that I'm launching to the world we have so many incredible things that

1455
01:47:04.800 --> 01:47:09.600
happen that you are never shown we have the briefs that are on my pad when I'm recording the

1456
01:47:09.600 --> 01:47:14.080
conversation we have clips we've never released we have behind the scenes conversations with the

1457
01:47:14.080 --> 01:47:20.800
guests and also the episodes that we've never ever released and so much more in the circle you'll

1458
01:47:20.800 --> 01:47:25.360
have direct access to me you can tell us what you want this show to be who you want us to interview

1459
01:47:25.360 --> 01:47:30.560
and the types of conversations you would love us to have but remember for now we're only inviting

1460
01:47:30.560 --> 01:47:35.040
the first 10,000 people that joined before it closes so if you want to join our private close

1461
01:47:35.040 --> 01:47:41.280
community head to the link in the description below or go to d o a c circle dot com I will speak to

1462
01:47:41.280 --> 01:47:45.280
you then what would you say to a young person who's probably in the pursuit of a completely

1463
01:47:45.280 --> 01:47:49.280
different dream are there anything that you consider to be transferable for anyone in the pursuit

1464
01:47:49.280 --> 01:47:52.400
of their dreams that you learn in those 15 years in your bathroom machete days

1465
01:47:53.680 --> 01:48:01.360
yeah I think that you have to log your time as a beginner in order to earn your time as a master

1466
01:48:03.040 --> 01:48:06.880
and this is beautiful saying that I start the book with which is that the

1467
01:48:07.760 --> 01:48:11.440
master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried

1468
01:48:12.880 --> 01:48:17.200
and that to me is beautiful and so it's like when I went down there and began

1469
01:48:17.680 --> 01:48:23.920
and even trying to catch a fish you know I didn't know how to do anything and I would look at

1470
01:48:23.920 --> 01:48:29.360
these conservation biologists and just think my god I'm never going to be one of them because I'm

1471
01:48:29.360 --> 01:48:34.640
never going to have the grades to be a conservation biologist now at the point we're at now where we

1472
01:48:34.640 --> 01:48:38.880
are we have this global movement around conservation we have this huge conservation organization

1473
01:48:38.880 --> 01:48:44.080
that's fighting to do something historic I do get messages from kids all over the world

1474
01:48:44.160 --> 01:48:51.200
let's say I really want your job or I want to get out there and I want to do I want to follow my dream

1475
01:48:51.200 --> 01:48:55.120
what would you say to them well I had a kid recently that he message me and he said I really

1476
01:48:55.120 --> 01:48:59.920
want to study great whites and he said but marine biology is so competitive and none of the

1477
01:48:59.920 --> 01:49:05.280
professors will give me and I said listen forget all that I said do your school get it down I said

1478
01:49:05.280 --> 01:49:11.600
but go to the doc find out where the preeminent marine biologists are going to go do their great

1479
01:49:11.600 --> 01:49:17.920
white research go to that doc help them with their bags get off your phone get off the internet

1480
01:49:17.920 --> 01:49:25.440
stop asking permission get on your feet and go there to the waves and sooner or later they're

1481
01:49:25.440 --> 01:49:29.920
going to need help with their bags sooner or later they might invite invite you on the boat

1482
01:49:29.920 --> 01:49:33.680
and after you've been helping with their bags and invited on the boat maybe you take some pictures

1483
01:49:33.680 --> 01:49:39.120
of a pivotal moment that they use to communicate their work to the world at some point you can find

1484
01:49:39.120 --> 01:49:44.880
a way to make yourself useful to them and if you do that for long enough you might just end up

1485
01:49:44.880 --> 01:49:49.760
being somebody that's a core member of their team people at those family barbecues must have asked

1486
01:49:49.760 --> 01:49:55.200
you if you had a plan B are you a fan of plan b's I think I actually think that I'm not the

1487
01:49:55.200 --> 01:50:02.720
example to follow because I went so my I had I burns the boats I had no plan B and and and now as

1488
01:50:02.720 --> 01:50:06.960
I'm sitting across the table from you it's very easy I remember being younger and hearing these

1489
01:50:06.960 --> 01:50:11.440
people and you listen to a successful business person go you know if I could do it then anyone

1490
01:50:11.440 --> 01:50:17.120
could do if it happened to me then shut up you already made it like and it's like if you if you

1491
01:50:17.760 --> 01:50:23.520
read the pages of that book and how many times I almost died had infections almost fell off a cliff

1492
01:50:23.520 --> 01:50:30.960
got bitten by animals also the the internal struggle of then being 32 you know 18 they said go

1493
01:50:30.960 --> 01:50:36.720
follow your dreams 25 they're like yeah that's cool and then something happened when I was around

1494
01:50:36.720 --> 01:50:43.680
32 33 that was sort of the the lower point for me right but my dad was dropping me off somewhere

1495
01:50:43.680 --> 01:50:48.080
one day and and my dad was always always supporting me bringing me to the jungle taking me to the

1496
01:50:48.080 --> 01:50:53.040
airport bringing me home I didn't have the money to get myself there with taxis and ubers and stuff

1497
01:50:53.040 --> 01:51:00.400
and but there came this moment where you know I'd written my first book Harper college I got

1498
01:51:00.400 --> 01:51:07.760
in a real publisher the book came out and it went nowhere so even that I tried to be you know on

1499
01:51:07.760 --> 01:51:12.960
discovery channel I tried to write a book I wrote a good book I knew people liked it I had a high

1500
01:51:12.960 --> 01:51:18.160
rating didn't do anything that didn't change anything I'd start an organization I started jungle

1501
01:51:18.160 --> 01:51:24.240
keepers I'd turn loggers into and gold miners into conservation rangers we protected like 50,000

1502
01:51:24.240 --> 01:51:28.720
acres of rainforest but still there was some feeling like like it just wasn't you know you strike

1503
01:51:28.720 --> 01:51:32.640
and flint and unlike it's just not the fire is not catching there's something missing it wasn't

1504
01:51:32.640 --> 01:51:43.680
happened he my dad went you know we love you no matter what I went don't do this he said no no

1505
01:51:43.680 --> 01:51:48.080
you know you know if you eventually he goes if you need to jump ship and start over he's like you

1506
01:51:48.080 --> 01:51:52.320
know we'll help you with whatever you need and I said what do you mean start over and he was like

1507
01:51:52.320 --> 01:51:58.640
well you know I mean what are you gonna do this jungle guy thing forever and I went oh god oh god

1508
01:51:59.040 --> 01:52:04.880
like no and you know and then he said no and if you do need to do that forever it's okay and it's

1509
01:52:04.880 --> 01:52:10.240
like but they didn't they couldn't conceptualize it and it was very soon after that that that

1510
01:52:10.240 --> 01:52:14.400
on that graph it was very very soon after that it was actually right at the point that I quit

1511
01:52:15.200 --> 01:52:19.520
right before covid and this is this is sort of the lowest point that I was supposed to never

1512
01:52:19.520 --> 01:52:24.720
tell anybody and I wrote about it in the book where before covid when covid hit I couldn't get

1513
01:52:24.720 --> 01:52:30.480
to the jungle our whole team had covid peru was the hardest hit country in the world I mean all

1514
01:52:30.480 --> 01:52:34.880
of my staff my friends my family and Peru they were all on oxygen tanks whose mother whose sister

1515
01:52:34.880 --> 01:52:40.480
whose daughter was dying we bankrupted ourselves sending money we the whole we took the whole

1516
01:52:40.480 --> 01:52:44.960
equal tourism businesses sent all the money to Peru to get our friends oxygen tanks and to keep

1517
01:52:44.960 --> 01:52:52.800
our family alive and it was also during the time that I realized I've nowhere to go like in this

1518
01:52:52.800 --> 01:52:59.360
world as like I don't make sense in this world anymore and I called my best friend I called

1519
01:52:59.360 --> 01:53:03.440
most of my best friend I said and I said don't tell anybody what I'm about to say but I said I'm

1520
01:53:03.440 --> 01:53:10.080
gonna go get a job I said I've been doing this for so long I tried really hard I tried for 15

1521
01:53:10.080 --> 01:53:16.720
years I said I'm out of gas I'm out of I'm out of ideas I have I have been burning so bright I've

1522
01:53:16.720 --> 01:53:24.480
been making making the fire myself I said I got nothing I got no more ideas and of course he said

1523
01:53:24.480 --> 01:53:29.520
you shut up he said you inspired me you started jungle keepers you know I don't want to ever hear

1524
01:53:29.520 --> 01:53:34.080
this from you getting hung up on me but I said but I told him I said I quit I said I'm out I'm done

1525
01:53:34.080 --> 01:53:41.120
I'm done I don't have no hope left and exactly a week after I made that phone call where I quit

1526
01:53:41.920 --> 01:53:47.680
our first big funder reached out a billionaire named Axis Silva had seen my video

1527
01:53:47.680 --> 01:53:52.560
of saying the Amazon is destroying we have the people we have the plan we have the infrastructure

1528
01:53:52.560 --> 01:53:58.400
all we need is the funding and we can save this river and the week after I quit in the in the

1529
01:53:58.400 --> 01:54:05.360
alchemy of the universe that's when he called me and said you know what green line let's do it how

1530
01:54:05.360 --> 01:54:10.720
about a five-year commitment where I fund jungle keepers and we turn the local ranger the local

1531
01:54:10.720 --> 01:54:15.440
loggers and gold miners into conservation rangers we get you and some of your guys a salary

1532
01:54:15.440 --> 01:54:19.440
and we make this whole thing viable and by the way let's protect another hundred thousand acres of

1533
01:54:19.440 --> 01:54:28.640
forest and if we hadn't spent years and years and years chipping at the same piece of granite

1534
01:54:28.640 --> 01:54:34.000
just just whether or not you can hammer through granite depends whether or not you continue to whack

1535
01:54:34.000 --> 01:54:40.400
the hammer and so for me and JJ for most in who was sort of the first iteration the first person

1536
01:54:40.400 --> 01:54:45.440
that came and and took the photos that allowed us to communicate all of those photos of burning

1537
01:54:45.440 --> 01:54:50.320
forest in the wreckage he was the first he came in the barefoot machete days and he said I mean

1538
01:54:50.320 --> 01:54:54.160
that was at a time I didn't even know anything was ever going to happen and he said you know

1539
01:54:54.160 --> 01:54:59.280
what you guys are doing here is special we have to show it to the world and so on that graph nothing

1540
01:54:59.280 --> 01:55:03.200
nothing nothing nothing nothing and then a little blit all of a sudden we had a funder

1541
01:55:04.000 --> 01:55:08.080
and then once you once you get a funder when when you're when you're doing it all by yourself nobody's

1542
01:55:08.080 --> 01:55:12.320
rooting for you and then once you once you start once you start to get a little momentum a little

1543
01:55:12.320 --> 01:55:17.360
notoriety all of a sudden then everybody comes so then then I quit and that was the lowest point

1544
01:55:17.360 --> 01:55:21.600
and then all of a sudden he rescued us when we started going up and then we started sharing it

1545
01:55:21.600 --> 01:55:25.280
and then we got to the United Nations and then we got to and all of a sudden we started gaining

1546
01:55:25.280 --> 01:55:31.760
this momentum and that that that that that magic that Jane had given us with her words also served

1547
01:55:32.560 --> 01:55:37.200
as as sort of a blessing that carried us forward because people said well if Jane good all

1548
01:55:37.200 --> 01:55:43.200
gave you this is Excalibur sort of her blessing then then go forth and save the Amazon

1549
01:55:44.480 --> 01:55:50.880
and everything changed how do people know in the pursuit of their dreams whether they should

1550
01:55:50.880 --> 01:55:56.000
throw in the towel or not like how based on your experience there if someone came to you and said

1551
01:55:56.000 --> 01:56:00.720
look I've been doing something for a long time and I don't know whether to keep going or not

1552
01:56:00.720 --> 01:56:11.360
is there a framework or an idea that you might offer them I think that in my case

1553
01:56:12.640 --> 01:56:20.400
if I follow the rational advice I would fail if I was giving myself advice as a rational person

1554
01:56:21.200 --> 01:56:27.200
I would say after the first 10 years cut your losses and style like what are you doing it doesn't

1555
01:56:27.200 --> 01:56:32.800
make any sense because then even after 15 years what am I going to do go go then enter the workforce

1556
01:56:32.800 --> 01:56:37.360
with no skills and no resume and no nothing it just it was getting more and more extreme and I was

1557
01:56:37.360 --> 01:56:41.280
like okay well I'm just going to be this jack sparrow jungle character I don't know

1558
01:56:42.720 --> 01:56:47.840
for for for everyone it's going to be different but I can tell you this much if you're not willing

1559
01:56:47.840 --> 01:56:55.200
to go all in you're not going to win like you have to take that risk to get that reward and so you

1560
01:56:55.200 --> 01:57:00.960
go okay I've been I've been I've been doing this thing for 10 years and I just well you're 100%

1561
01:57:00.960 --> 01:57:06.880
not going to get it if you stop but at the same time there's this haunting quote in the in the

1562
01:57:06.880 --> 01:57:12.800
razor's edge this book where they say many are called and fewer chosen and I think that goes for

1563
01:57:12.800 --> 01:57:18.320
whether you're starting a business or a band or trying to be a writer or whatever it is it's you

1564
01:57:18.320 --> 01:57:24.720
have to know when it's when it ceases to be chasing your dreams and become sort of a sad suicide

1565
01:57:24.720 --> 01:57:30.160
and then and then you know at what point I was very worried that it was going to become my identity

1566
01:57:30.160 --> 01:57:34.400
that I was the jungle guy so it's just keep being the jungle guy and then there's no getting out

1567
01:57:34.400 --> 01:57:38.880
of it and I have to do it because I said I would and so I think for people maybe having an option

1568
01:57:38.880 --> 01:57:44.000
be is a good idea that might be one of the things that I learned is that having some sort of

1569
01:57:44.000 --> 01:57:49.600
an option be might be good this is as you've highlighted the great risk of giving people advice

1570
01:57:49.600 --> 01:57:56.320
when you yeah I like that but it's easy from the top of the mountain to recite how you managed to

1571
01:57:56.320 --> 01:58:00.720
climb but you you like even when I think about myself as a podcast like if someone came and asked

1572
01:58:00.720 --> 01:58:05.680
me yeah how do you build a podcast where how do you build a business whatever I probably won't

1573
01:58:06.400 --> 01:58:11.440
point at the luck and the timing and the fortune as much I'll point at the things that I did

1574
01:58:11.440 --> 01:58:15.360
intentionally and I'm completely unaware of the fact that actually you know even with the

1575
01:58:15.360 --> 01:58:21.360
podcast starting a podcast in 2020 when we first came to YouTube was like the perfect timing yeah

1576
01:58:21.360 --> 01:58:24.800
and at the time we didn't know as the perfect timing yeah we were just out there on the wave and

1577
01:58:24.800 --> 01:58:31.200
that as it came into sure and so you but you look at the statistics and go like there's a lot of

1578
01:58:31.200 --> 01:58:34.720
people that want to be conservationists and there's lots of people that want to be podcasts

1579
01:58:34.720 --> 01:58:41.200
or entrepreneurs but most of them don't make it yes so they're not sat here talking

1580
01:58:42.000 --> 01:58:46.000
they're not they're not here now yes because they you know something happened they gave up they

1581
01:58:46.000 --> 01:58:50.080
couldn't make it the business went bust and there's a really interesting I'm probably going to

1582
01:58:50.080 --> 01:58:54.080
butcher this but it's an interesting story right about these fighter jets I think it was in

1583
01:58:54.080 --> 01:59:00.080
World War One and you might have heard the story these fighter jets come back with holes in them

1584
01:59:00.080 --> 01:59:03.920
so everybody sat there all these engineers said well if we want to figure out how to make better

1585
01:59:03.920 --> 01:59:09.040
fighter jets let's study where the bullet holes are because then we know where people are shooting

1586
01:59:09.040 --> 01:59:12.320
yeah so they took the jets down they looked at where the bullet holes were and they said we'll

1587
01:59:12.320 --> 01:59:16.320
reinforce those sections and engineer at the back and I've forgotten his name but I'll put him up

1588
01:59:16.320 --> 01:59:23.200
on the screen shout it out shouldn't we look at where there isn't holes because where there isn't

1589
01:59:23.200 --> 01:59:29.680
holes yeah those ones didn't come back and this is the whole problem with survivorship bias yes

1590
01:59:29.680 --> 01:59:33.280
is actually maybe you should be getting advice from the people in the graveyard not the people that

1591
01:59:33.280 --> 01:59:38.720
came back maybe you should be looking at where the whole the bullets didn't hit because that's the

1592
01:59:38.720 --> 01:59:42.320
fatal area if that makes sense and I think this a lot it's really in the last couple of years I've

1593
01:59:42.320 --> 01:59:46.640
got more cautious about giving people advice for the same reasons you said yeah I mean you got to

1594
01:59:46.640 --> 01:59:52.560
remember every one of the frozen bodies on Everest were once a highly motivated rich person that

1595
01:59:52.560 --> 02:00:00.000
thought they could succeed and now they're an icicle and so I mean it's surreal to be sitting here

1596
02:00:00.000 --> 02:00:05.120
especially today on the day that I got the news that this book is a New York Times best seller

1597
02:00:06.240 --> 02:00:10.880
and again now I'm immediately I'm I'm having that reaction to myself where I'm going don't give

1598
02:00:10.880 --> 02:00:17.520
advice because they they should not do that that I did very dangerous things there very very dangerous

1599
02:00:17.520 --> 02:00:22.880
things including risking my life not I don't mean risking my life with anacondas and risking my

1600
02:00:22.880 --> 02:00:28.800
life with being hunted by narcotics traffickers I mean risking spending my life doing something that

1601
02:00:28.800 --> 02:00:35.360
would have no benefit risking spending my life simply just being an adventurer great okay well how

1602
02:00:35.360 --> 02:00:39.680
am I contributing the whole thing was that I wanted to have purpose I wanted to have a meaning and

1603
02:00:39.680 --> 02:00:46.960
then change things and so I this is not a blueprint for people to do what I did it's a blueprint of

1604
02:00:46.960 --> 02:00:52.240
oh look what this person did but people have I mean that's the whole game right that's the other

1605
02:00:52.240 --> 02:00:57.600
thing we've become very precious about you know curating our lives and making sure but you know what

1606
02:00:58.160 --> 02:01:03.920
one thing that the uncontacted tribes or reading about the command cheese or watching an animal hunt

1607
02:01:03.920 --> 02:01:08.480
you know you watch a tiger hunt and in every single hunt that the tiger goes on they are they're

1608
02:01:08.480 --> 02:01:14.080
betting all the chips like a large deer can kick and split their skull or knock their front teeth

1609
02:01:14.080 --> 02:01:18.640
out with a hoof and that might be the last hunt that tiger ever goes on but sort of betting the

1610
02:01:18.640 --> 02:01:24.880
house is part of the game and so that's part of where I got to where where I was so many years in

1611
02:01:24.880 --> 02:01:29.920
and once once we got to a certain point once we you know there was that there was that that dip

1612
02:01:29.920 --> 02:01:35.120
where I said maybe I'm not this guy and you have to choose who you are right it's like you know the

1613
02:01:35.120 --> 02:01:41.600
Oracle told it says a neo she goes you know you're not the one okay you know and I did that to

1614
02:01:41.600 --> 02:01:47.440
myself I went well I'm not this isn't gun going to work but then once then then a few years later

1615
02:01:47.440 --> 02:01:51.840
if you talk to even if you talk to me two years ago I would have said I don't care what happens

1616
02:01:51.920 --> 02:01:57.680
I'm just gonna keep riding boats through the Amazon it'll be fine I didn't know that it was going

1617
02:01:57.680 --> 02:02:03.360
to go like this and that now we're all of a sudden now we are the ones responsible for carrying

1618
02:02:03.360 --> 02:02:10.560
on Jane's message of hope of reminding people that you can turn around a seemingly terminal

1619
02:02:11.280 --> 02:02:18.400
situation where the entropy of global modernization is destroying one of the largest ecosystems

1620
02:02:18.400 --> 02:02:25.440
on earth what could one person possibly do we found a way there is something poetic in the idea

1621
02:02:25.440 --> 02:02:32.480
that you were pushed to your edge of being able to survive and at the moment when you got

1622
02:02:32.480 --> 02:02:37.520
right to the edge of your own survival yeah the torch of helping the Amazon to survive was then

1623
02:02:37.520 --> 02:02:41.360
passed to you when I was a kid you learn these stories you hear the old stories where

1624
02:02:42.320 --> 02:02:46.400
you know the young man goes on an expedition and along the way he meets a a beggar and he helps

1625
02:02:46.400 --> 02:02:49.520
the beggar cross the bridge and then you know he's going through this way and he meets some bird that's

1626
02:02:49.520 --> 02:02:54.080
stuck in a net and he helps the bird and then you know then later on when he finds the princess and

1627
02:02:54.080 --> 02:02:57.440
he's trying to fight the dragon and then all of a sudden the beggar helps and then the bird gets

1628
02:02:57.440 --> 02:03:00.800
him out of the thing and it's like oh these people come in and they help though that was the

1629
02:03:00.800 --> 02:03:05.840
archetypal story that I got and I think that that's also the archetypal story that then I ended up

1630
02:03:05.840 --> 02:03:11.120
living where it's like you know JJ said we should I'm local and we should protect this forest

1631
02:03:11.120 --> 02:03:16.240
this place we should protect I was like that's amazing and I watched and he and he had the keys

1632
02:03:16.240 --> 02:03:20.240
to the Amazon we got to go in adventures and then it was like most showed up and he's like I got

1633
02:03:20.240 --> 02:03:24.640
the cameraman I could show the world what you do and then we have this guy Stefan showed up and

1634
02:03:24.640 --> 02:03:29.040
other people showed up and all of a sudden you know you you start to amass this team of Avengers

1635
02:03:29.040 --> 02:03:33.200
where you go wait wait hold on these people really talent people that have and we didn't realize you

1636
02:03:33.200 --> 02:03:38.080
know JJ is the jungle man most of the photographer Stefan came in he was running teams at Apple

1637
02:03:38.720 --> 02:03:42.800
James James the mentor James James the wizard James the Gandalf

1638
02:03:43.600 --> 02:03:46.960
Jane was the one saying this is what you got to do you got to get the ring to mount doom

1639
02:03:48.000 --> 02:03:54.800
and uh and then suddenly it happens but but you can't you can't tell people that they're going to

1640
02:03:54.800 --> 02:03:58.640
you know that that whole thing of in the movies where it's like you know there's 10 guys with guns

1641
02:03:58.640 --> 02:04:02.960
and you go how they getting out of this one you know and it's like well I've been in that situation

1642
02:04:02.960 --> 02:04:09.440
so many times and I think in order to have the luck of getting bailed out you either better be a mega

1643
02:04:09.440 --> 02:04:14.800
black belt and have some real good friends and they better show up when it counts and so it's like

1644
02:04:15.520 --> 02:04:19.760
you don't want to give people advice to do that because it's because then you're telling them to

1645
02:04:19.760 --> 02:04:25.440
take risks they shouldn't be taking but coming from someone who took all the risks who bet my entire

1646
02:04:25.440 --> 02:04:32.320
life on becoming a jungle keeper and saving a river and who bet my entire life on going on these

1647
02:04:32.320 --> 02:04:35.840
expeditions and jumping on anachanas and running from elephants when I was in Africa and India

1648
02:04:37.200 --> 02:04:43.840
I happened to have made it. In my job as a podcaster I meet lots of people who have climbed to the

1649
02:04:43.840 --> 02:04:48.960
top of their proverbial mountains whether it's in comedy or sports or business or as a conservation

1650
02:04:48.960 --> 02:04:55.280
list and I think one of the things they do will have in common is at some point in their hero's journey

1651
02:04:55.280 --> 02:05:03.520
they took a unusual set of actions for an unusual period of time. Yes and so I think about that as

1652
02:05:03.520 --> 02:05:09.200
a principle maybe that can be transferable is if you do want an unusual outcome whatever that means

1653
02:05:10.480 --> 02:05:14.880
unusual behavior of some sort is the precursor and actually at moments in my life where I hear

1654
02:05:15.760 --> 02:05:22.960
fatigue or things are more challenging I always remind myself of that these days I always say

1655
02:05:23.840 --> 02:05:29.040
this is probably like why most people don't get an unusual outcome because this was

1656
02:05:29.040 --> 02:05:36.000
it's the logical moment to like like throw it in pack up the bags and go and when I look at some

1657
02:05:36.000 --> 02:05:39.600
of my great mentors in the different fields that I'm in that's exactly what they did they just

1658
02:05:39.600 --> 02:05:44.560
persisted for like an unusual amount of time and I think persistence in your story is such a

1659
02:05:45.440 --> 02:05:54.160
through line yes I would say relentlessness is the most powerful element if you're trying to achieve

1660
02:05:54.160 --> 02:06:00.720
your dreams because you're going to get knocked down again and again and you find yourself in the

1661
02:06:00.720 --> 02:06:06.480
rain lost in the forest and you can't even see the trail I always say that you know we didn't even

1662
02:06:06.480 --> 02:06:12.960
know where we wanted to go you know and it's like we just kept doing it's like the painter who

1663
02:06:12.960 --> 02:06:16.160
just goes I don't even know what I'm painting but I'm just going to keep learning how these

1664
02:06:16.160 --> 02:06:21.840
colors work you know just just keep going because it's an obsession and you can't really you can't

1665
02:06:21.840 --> 02:06:29.440
really fake an obsession right if you're if you're going to spend 10,000 hours throwing a basketball

1666
02:06:29.440 --> 02:06:34.080
through a hoop you're doing that because you love it and there's work and there's discipline and

1667
02:06:34.080 --> 02:06:38.400
there's times where you're you're going to feel that dip and that rise but if you really doing it

1668
02:06:38.400 --> 02:06:43.840
if you're even in the game it's because you love it so if you can find something that you love

1669
02:06:44.560 --> 02:06:49.200
then you can start building that irrefutable proof of who you are because you can go okay well I've

1670
02:06:49.200 --> 02:06:55.040
logged a certain amount of time doing this thing I love what is meaning to to you in your life

1671
02:06:55.680 --> 02:07:02.160
what is that is it responsibility is it something else well there's that thing of that you the

1672
02:07:02.160 --> 02:07:06.800
more mean you your your meaning is directly correlated to how much responsibility responsibility

1673
02:07:06.960 --> 02:07:13.920
you take on that that we've all heard a hundred times but to me it's it's I've I've lived in a world

1674
02:07:13.920 --> 02:07:21.280
where things are reduced to such an incredibly basic level it's like I've lived in the mud

1675
02:07:21.280 --> 02:07:27.040
with a machete and if I want to eat I get a fish and so like the truth of the rain and rocks has

1676
02:07:27.040 --> 02:07:34.160
become my sort of religion and the way that I connect with God through the very simple chemical

1677
02:07:34.160 --> 02:07:41.120
physical elements of the universe you believe in God absolutely absolutely absolutely have you

1678
02:07:41.120 --> 02:07:47.200
always believed in God I think you know everybody goes through that period in their teens and 20s

1679
02:07:47.200 --> 02:07:51.280
where you sort of go I can believe in whatever I want or I could not believe in whatever I want

1680
02:07:52.080 --> 02:07:58.960
and then I think as you as you mature I think a lot of people come back it's also societally

1681
02:07:59.040 --> 02:08:04.720
it became very very uncool for a while to say that you almost couldn't say it you almost had to

1682
02:08:04.720 --> 02:08:13.200
sneak your ass to church you know the if the people that wake up and go all this is very

1683
02:08:13.200 --> 02:08:19.280
unimpressive to me I'm a walking miracle and I think there's no God and I'm unimpressed it's like

1684
02:08:19.280 --> 02:08:24.800
you you have a lot of delusions my friend we are floating on a rock through space right now

1685
02:08:24.800 --> 02:08:29.280
not a single person has an explanation of what we're doing here all these incredible chemical

1686
02:08:29.280 --> 02:08:35.120
processes are happening in the rivers in our veins and in the Amazon when I dip my hands into the

1687
02:08:35.120 --> 02:08:40.560
river I drink from the river and you hold your arm up in the sun and you watch the vapor come out

1688
02:08:40.560 --> 02:08:46.480
of your skin the same moisture that you just drank and it joins the clouds rains back on the jungle

1689
02:08:46.480 --> 02:08:53.760
and becomes the river again and you are part of the cycle you just tend to believe in God

1690
02:08:55.280 --> 02:09:01.840
because you feel like it's flowing the river and the sky are flowing through you

1691
02:09:01.840 --> 02:09:05.200
and that's the nature version I mean it can also just be hugging your grandma

1692
02:09:06.480 --> 02:09:13.040
I wondered if your deep understanding of science and evolution and all these things might have

1693
02:09:13.040 --> 02:09:19.360
made you more atheist or agnostic no I think science is the language of God I don't think that

1694
02:09:19.360 --> 02:09:26.320
they're opposing forces do you believe in evolution and natural and we just not a matter of

1695
02:09:26.320 --> 02:09:31.360
believing in evolution we have we have we have animals in transitional forms it's very clear

1696
02:09:31.360 --> 02:09:36.160
through the fossil record that absolutely evolution is happening I just think that everyone I'm

1697
02:09:36.160 --> 02:09:39.840
not sure where this black and white argument even came from I don't think it makes sense to me

1698
02:09:39.840 --> 02:09:46.800
then the wild is the church and so when I see trees cut down I feel it I feel like people people are

1699
02:09:47.200 --> 02:09:53.200
if we have a role as humans and you said what's meaning if we have a role as humans on this planet

1700
02:09:53.200 --> 02:09:57.840
it is to care for each other and the other things seems like that's the game right there's drugs

1701
02:09:57.840 --> 02:10:02.480
and addiction and and and cheating and stealing and lying there's all these there's all these pitfalls

1702
02:10:02.480 --> 02:10:08.640
that you can fall into so easily the game is rigged so that all these things feel really good

1703
02:10:09.440 --> 02:10:15.680
right real good while you're doing them but you can literally lose the game permanently

1704
02:10:17.120 --> 02:10:21.120
you know you do a little bit of math because it felt good all of a sudden you're a method and all of a sudden

1705
02:10:21.120 --> 02:10:27.360
you're dead it's like you can very quickly get you know couple of drinks a day over the course

1706
02:10:27.360 --> 02:10:31.360
of a couple of decades and you miss a couple of birthday parties and all of a sudden you know it's like

1707
02:10:31.360 --> 02:10:39.040
you can you can very quickly in the wild it teaches you the that festitiveness you know if you don't

1708
02:10:39.040 --> 02:10:44.160
check your boat every day before it rains after it rains make sure it didn't fill with water it's

1709
02:10:44.160 --> 02:10:51.360
like the line between survival and death is so small and so I think that the meaning I found is

1710
02:10:51.360 --> 02:10:58.880
that we are floating on a rock in space and there's only so many animals and people here and life

1711
02:10:58.880 --> 02:11:03.600
is the antithesis to all of the frigid blackness that is the universe and this is the only place that

1712
02:11:03.600 --> 02:11:10.320
we know for certain that life exists right and we live at this moment in history when we're losing

1713
02:11:10.320 --> 02:11:16.080
animals like elephants and polar bears and tigers and the rainforests and the ocean fisheries the

1714
02:11:16.080 --> 02:11:23.760
whales and we saw the chance to save them and if we save them then our children have clean air

1715
02:11:23.760 --> 02:11:30.080
fresh water beautiful places the world continues to work as it always has and so the relationship

1716
02:11:30.080 --> 02:11:34.960
that we have to the people around us and to the creatures around us and to the environment around us

1717
02:11:34.960 --> 02:11:40.800
is incredibly meaningful there's a little meme I saw where it said if you were being if you're

1718
02:11:40.800 --> 02:11:46.320
overwhelmed by the events of the world go outside and look at the birds you are as meaningless as a

1719
02:11:46.320 --> 02:11:52.880
sparrow and I want man as an ecologist each animal plays a crucial role in the ecosystem you know

1720
02:11:52.880 --> 02:11:58.000
hummingbirds are transporting pollen and the snakes reading the rats and the the the predators

1721
02:11:58.000 --> 02:12:02.240
are regulating all of the prey animals and the trees are providing shade and the animals are

1722
02:12:02.240 --> 02:12:07.600
engineering the the forest and the forest is engineering the animals you are not the birds are not

1723
02:12:07.600 --> 02:12:14.400
pointless so ever wrote that was stupid and the people reading it are pointless either is the point

1724
02:12:17.120 --> 02:12:22.400
many humans think that we are a dominant more important species than the snake that you just

1725
02:12:22.400 --> 02:12:29.280
wrapped around my neck or the sparrow in the trees do you believe that's the case do you believe

1726
02:12:29.280 --> 02:12:36.960
that humans are more important than if you were to remove humans from planet earth everything would

1727
02:12:36.960 --> 02:12:42.080
get better in like days just like in covid like the national parks the bears are frallicking on the

1728
02:12:42.080 --> 02:12:48.880
trails and everything if you were to remove ants from planet earth nature would collapse right so if

1729
02:12:48.880 --> 02:12:53.200
you want to talk about ecological importance we're not that important that you have to think more

1730
02:12:53.200 --> 02:12:58.880
holistically we're just one of many different species but we were able to you know rule the

1731
02:12:58.880 --> 02:13:03.840
world because of our intellect but we are the apex are the human brain is the most complex thing

1732
02:13:03.840 --> 02:13:11.120
that we know of and so in that way we are the stewards we are the jungle keepers we are the ones

1733
02:13:11.120 --> 02:13:16.160
that are supposed to be caring for the rest of this and so again whether or not we can I mean there's

1734
02:13:16.160 --> 02:13:20.800
sort of this this people say that you know that this times are worse than they've ever been and

1735
02:13:20.800 --> 02:13:25.120
it's like I go I'm down in the jungle right so I'm down there I miss out on a lot I come out

1736
02:13:25.120 --> 02:13:31.840
I come up here and people are people are I rate about some new news thing right what someone said

1737
02:13:31.840 --> 02:13:37.120
to someone or what someone and I always come up and I'm like man civilizations rise and fall

1738
02:13:38.480 --> 02:13:44.960
the health of our oceans the existence of our rainforests we're dealing with a with a one

1739
02:13:44.960 --> 02:13:51.120
way door in history right now you think world war two was big the ecological collapse of our planet

1740
02:13:51.120 --> 02:13:57.040
is pending but it's not too late Jane was right there's still hope but we're the last generation

1741
02:13:57.040 --> 02:14:01.840
it's going to have it and so it's like first of all if you feel meaningless go put your boots on

1742
02:14:01.840 --> 02:14:08.240
and help you know if church show the day before d day was going oh it's probably not going to work

1743
02:14:08.240 --> 02:14:12.560
what would have happened and it's like we are alive at the most exciting time in history not

1744
02:14:12.560 --> 02:14:16.000
only is there a million things that need to be done this people all over the world is doing it so

1745
02:14:16.000 --> 02:14:20.400
one of the things I've started telling to young people the advice that I can give is go find

1746
02:14:20.400 --> 02:14:26.080
someone that you admire go find a master who's doing the work that you want to emulate and put

1747
02:14:26.080 --> 02:14:31.360
five years in working for them don't go try to start your own private right away don't go try to

1748
02:14:31.360 --> 02:14:36.640
start saving the world before you know how it works go find the guy that's tracking the snow leopards

1749
02:14:36.640 --> 02:14:43.440
that's up in the mountains find him follow him learn from him if it's a business go find the

1750
02:14:43.440 --> 02:14:48.960
person that's doing whatever it is you want to do learn from them I've seen people brilliant people

1751
02:14:48.960 --> 02:14:53.360
with great business ideas that don't have the people skills go learn those people skills go work

1752
02:14:53.360 --> 02:14:56.720
with the people that have those people that easy common touch or they can just shake your hand

1753
02:14:56.720 --> 02:15:01.360
all of a sudden you feel like they're your best friend my whole thing I mean us starting an

1754
02:15:01.360 --> 02:15:07.120
organization that can protect the jungle me and JJ could could could whack and machete and catch

1755
02:15:07.120 --> 02:15:11.520
all the anacons we want most of them was taking pictures of them we had this team that was like doing

1756
02:15:11.520 --> 02:15:17.440
you know the motor could could could could it was going but it wasn't starting and then I mentioned

1757
02:15:17.440 --> 02:15:22.960
the guy Stefan who was running teams at apple now this guy this man knows how to run a spreadsheet

1758
02:15:22.960 --> 02:15:27.360
this man knows how to run teams of people he knows how to organize things so he came in and

1759
02:15:27.360 --> 02:15:31.840
what do you try trying to do you trying to do this want to do it this way you save a bunch of

1760
02:15:31.840 --> 02:15:35.760
money by doing it this way and he started running the teams and so we needed we realized we we

1761
02:15:35.760 --> 02:15:41.200
we needed things that we didn't even know existed and so again the relentless list the

1762
02:15:41.200 --> 02:15:47.520
relentless list you you survived to another day but for people going out find those people because

1763
02:15:47.520 --> 02:15:52.480
we learned things from these people that we meet I mean even from DAX he came in and provided the

1764
02:15:52.480 --> 02:15:57.360
funding but also this is a man that won capitalism as a billionaire he's someone that knows how to

1765
02:15:57.360 --> 02:16:01.040
run a business he said okay so this is how you're going to run your range of program tell me how

1766
02:16:01.040 --> 02:16:05.760
you're going to do this just as a friend and consultant you end up learning so much from him

1767
02:16:06.720 --> 02:16:13.200
the very antithesis of what I saw when you played the video of the uncontacted tribe

1768
02:16:13.200 --> 02:16:19.520
is some of the things going on at the moment in California and Texas with humanoid robots and AI

1769
02:16:19.520 --> 02:16:25.920
yeah it's like the opposite yes you know we live in opposite worlds yeah I wondered if you had

1770
02:16:25.920 --> 02:16:30.160
any thoughts about this world we're heading into where people might have microchips in their brain

1771
02:16:30.160 --> 02:16:34.080
and we'll have humanoid robots some they're forecasting there'll be a billion of these humanoid

1772
02:16:34.080 --> 02:16:40.080
robots in the future and AI is now so intelligent that they're saying within a year or two there'll

1773
02:16:40.080 --> 02:16:44.720
be AI is that a smarter than every human that's ever lived and even one example of the humanoid

1774
02:16:44.800 --> 02:16:49.680
robot situation that blew my mind is when one of the robots learned something all of the robots

1775
02:16:49.680 --> 02:16:54.000
learn it and obviously you were just talking about there about having to learn from mentors with

1776
02:16:54.000 --> 02:17:01.040
humanoid robots and the future that we seem to be huddling towards it seems like they might be the

1777
02:17:01.040 --> 02:17:06.880
the apex species I wondered if you thought much about the technological acceleration of the earth

1778
02:17:06.880 --> 02:17:12.880
and the risk of that and because it's the opposite of everything you're talking about in so

1779
02:17:12.880 --> 02:17:18.080
many ways it isn't it isn't I mean I like I love living in modern times I think that like

1780
02:17:18.080 --> 02:17:25.360
heart surgery and and your iPad and the cameras I think like I love so much of modern technology

1781
02:17:27.040 --> 02:17:31.200
flight my god how I love flight we can go anywhere would it take in the eight months

1782
02:17:33.280 --> 02:17:39.120
this new obsession that everybody has it not a lot of things get me biblical but it makes me

1783
02:17:39.120 --> 02:17:44.480
think of the the you know thou shalt not with the false idols everyone is so obsessed about AI

1784
02:17:44.480 --> 02:17:49.520
shut up go outside touch some grass don't worry about the robots we don't live in minority

1785
02:17:49.520 --> 02:17:55.280
report yet and it's like if it's coming first of all we are the engineers of our reality right

1786
02:17:55.280 --> 02:18:01.360
it's us so where are these robots gonna come from unless we make them and if they're so smart

1787
02:18:01.360 --> 02:18:05.840
well then get on your knees and pray to them you know it's like do whatever but I think that

1788
02:18:06.640 --> 02:18:13.840
as as as more and more people like rebel against the AI slop they see in their feeds

1789
02:18:14.480 --> 02:18:21.520
as more and more people appreciate real human art and what it takes a person to stare at a wall

1790
02:18:21.520 --> 02:18:26.800
with with some paint and create something that could move you to tears I think that we're going

1791
02:18:26.800 --> 02:18:32.160
through a period of delirious adolescence with a new technology just like at Y2K everyone

1792
02:18:32.160 --> 02:18:35.600
is like everything's gonna shut down and nothing's gonna work and it's like okay great

1793
02:18:36.400 --> 02:18:42.000
I'll be on a hike the world's gonna continue to work and you know they've been saying we're gonna

1794
02:18:42.000 --> 02:18:46.560
have flying cars for how many years we still don't have them everyone's like we should go colonize

1795
02:18:46.560 --> 02:18:54.240
Mars it's great fuck Mars though yeah let's fix this planet prove that we're capable of managing

1796
02:18:54.240 --> 02:18:59.760
it's like the kid going I want to take over the company and the father going get your room clean

1797
02:18:59.760 --> 02:19:03.600
I think what you do might be hugely benefited by everything that's going on with technology and I

1798
02:19:03.600 --> 02:19:11.120
in part because I think people are people's appreciation for community for nature for things that

1799
02:19:11.120 --> 02:19:16.720
are irreplaceably human is only going to increase yeah I have you know I have a couple of like

1800
02:19:16.720 --> 02:19:21.360
wild hypotheses and one of them is that people are gonna want to in a world where we no longer need

1801
02:19:21.360 --> 02:19:27.760
to gather in cities for collective labor which is basically why cities exist in large part they will

1802
02:19:27.760 --> 02:19:32.480
then want to be out in nature yeah because I'm as low of your need of being out in the trees and

1803
02:19:32.480 --> 02:19:37.120
the all we get and the mental health benefits are gonna remain the same even if there is robots yeah

1804
02:19:37.120 --> 02:19:42.000
actually if I don't need to be in a city where would I would rather be in the beautiful nature in

1805
02:19:42.000 --> 02:19:46.080
the beautiful nature I was saying to my friends that I think people are gonna start buying up farmland

1806
02:19:46.080 --> 02:19:52.320
and natural places because you notice that whenever one sort of makes it and gets rich enough that

1807
02:19:52.320 --> 02:19:56.720
they can do what they want they go get a house in the country exactly where they can raise their kids

1808
02:19:56.720 --> 02:20:02.400
breathe some air not just traffic exhaust and but what I'm what I'm not understanding those why

1809
02:20:02.400 --> 02:20:08.480
everyone's so worried about it I mean everyone's acting like it's the beginning of Terminator 2 except

1810
02:20:08.480 --> 02:20:15.440
no one's catching on right and but but again if you listen to what's the guy's name who runs

1811
02:20:15.440 --> 02:20:22.160
in video and jensen one yes his I listened to him on on Joe Rogan it was amazing because Rogan has

1812
02:20:22.160 --> 02:20:26.240
the ability like most like like which is why he's so good at it he asked the questions we all

1813
02:20:26.240 --> 02:20:31.920
want to ask and he was like what is AI going to take over and jensen was like listen AI is going

1814
02:20:31.920 --> 02:20:36.880
to optimize how effective humans can be at their jobs right like he was like I think he said with

1815
02:20:36.880 --> 02:20:41.840
radiologists he goes we thought we'd not need any more radiologists he's like it it made radiologists

1816
02:20:41.840 --> 02:20:46.800
better at their jobs and it's like I think that the hysteria of like robots taking it's like well

1817
02:20:46.800 --> 02:20:51.760
that's good let's use some robots to deliver packages like great but I don't think that this this

1818
02:20:52.800 --> 02:20:58.640
this anticipatory doom that everyone's feeling on these fallen times of everything's about to change

1819
02:20:59.280 --> 02:21:04.960
again real like literally actually guys go touch the grass like it's I'm serious like it's not

1820
02:21:05.680 --> 02:21:09.920
I come back from the jungle where I'm fighting to save the trees that make the air that these

1821
02:21:09.920 --> 02:21:16.960
people are breathing and I'm a little bit a little bit shocked by the the amount of hysteria

1822
02:21:16.960 --> 02:21:22.240
that I'm seeing and like I'm down there getting hunted by narco traffickers and and and running

1823
02:21:22.240 --> 02:21:26.480
from the flames and these people like you won't believe what I saw on the news today and I'm like

1824
02:21:27.200 --> 02:21:33.280
I got it I'm going back do you consume this stuff are you on social media no do you have apps and

1825
02:21:33.280 --> 02:21:38.480
social media apps I um it's funny I got into a fight somebody I'm sure that we'll get this

1826
02:21:38.480 --> 02:21:42.720
reaction for this conversation but people kind of get mad at me about this where I go I don't

1827
02:21:42.720 --> 02:21:47.200
I don't want to that sort of civilizations rise and fall thing a lot of people get very offended

1828
02:21:47.200 --> 02:21:51.600
because they're very invested in the news cycle and and they're very hysterical and they almost

1829
02:21:51.600 --> 02:21:56.560
want to hold on to their hysterics right and to me it's very important I was just sitting at a

1830
02:21:56.560 --> 02:22:00.240
table with people and they said you know the world's going to shit it's never been worse

1831
02:22:00.240 --> 02:22:05.280
first of all live with the most peaceful time in history there's better technology we can save

1832
02:22:05.280 --> 02:22:09.840
your life we can almost you know cure so many different diseases we've never we've have this

1833
02:22:09.840 --> 02:22:16.800
expanding compassion where our species has learned to be more compassionate that differences don't

1834
02:22:16.800 --> 02:22:21.360
make us less right and now we're even expanding that's understand like oh wait the other creatures

1835
02:22:21.360 --> 02:22:27.120
on this planet matter too we've never been more dedicated to compassion I mean I was just at

1836
02:22:27.120 --> 02:22:31.680
a conservation conference and I was meeting people who were making period pads for girls in

1837
02:22:31.680 --> 02:22:35.600
Africa who don't have access to them I know people who are trying to save cheetahs I

1838
02:22:35.600 --> 02:22:40.400
I'm seeing people doing amazing work all over the news and you know what the news is reporting

1839
02:22:41.920 --> 02:22:46.080
it was you know that there's an assassination in the Philippines we're tribal we're supposed to

1840
02:22:46.080 --> 02:22:51.120
only know what's going on in our village not doom scrolling through a thousand tragedies a day

1841
02:22:51.120 --> 02:22:55.520
that's of course it's going to send your brain on fire so I have I have none of that I go on

1842
02:22:55.520 --> 02:23:01.040
to Instagram I've curated it so that it's my feet I see conservationists rescuing elephants

1843
02:23:01.040 --> 02:23:05.840
I see a couple of artists that I really like I have a couple like it just all really cool stuff I

1844
02:23:05.840 --> 02:23:10.560
never go to that like that page that just shows you the internet I never do that just don't do it

1845
02:23:11.200 --> 02:23:15.280
just don't do it it's bad for you it's really really bad for you I watch people doing it scary

1846
02:23:16.560 --> 02:23:24.000
when I did go to the Amazon I went with my now fiance and she wanted to do some plant medicine

1847
02:23:24.000 --> 02:23:28.480
yes as I said you before we start recording I couldn't do it because apparently I hadn't

1848
02:23:28.480 --> 02:23:32.800
followed the diet regime properly yeah but I know that you did ayahuasca and for anyone that

1849
02:23:32.800 --> 02:23:37.840
doesn't know ayahuasca is a powerful psychoactive brew from the Amazon used traditionally by indigenous

1850
02:23:38.640 --> 02:23:46.080
cultures how did your experience with ayahuasca change you what happened and how did it change you

1851
02:23:46.080 --> 02:23:51.760
oh god again I don't know why I'm very because I'm just I'm just in a mood today there's no filter

1852
02:23:51.760 --> 02:23:55.520
I don't know this is one of the chapters I didn't know if I should put in the book because I

1853
02:23:55.520 --> 02:24:01.200
got to take people through the whole thing because the shaman that we knew was the old shaman it was

1854
02:24:01.200 --> 02:24:08.560
JJ's great JJ's old father's best friend and so he's old guy he's been mixing ayahuasca

1855
02:24:08.560 --> 02:24:16.880
in the forest for decades and learned from the ancient guys now the first time I did it it wasn't

1856
02:24:16.880 --> 02:24:22.160
such a big deal I saw some geometric patterns I threw up I had a conversation with a tree it was

1857
02:24:22.160 --> 02:24:30.480
okay the problem is the old shaman at 80 something fell asleep while he was boiling the ayahuasca

1858
02:24:32.560 --> 02:24:39.120
and it became more intense and its potency and so when we drank the normal dosage we were receiving

1859
02:24:39.120 --> 02:24:46.560
a mega dose and I went on a trip that I would never ever ask to go on I'm talking about the

1860
02:24:46.560 --> 02:24:51.840
creation of the universe the big bang I mean I went through worlds I for a while I was shapeless

1861
02:24:51.840 --> 02:25:00.080
in outer space between solar systems I mean it was like it was horrifying and when we woke up the

1862
02:25:00.080 --> 02:25:04.640
shaman was gone you know the people drink ayahuasca they go I'm gonna go on a journey I'm gonna

1863
02:25:04.640 --> 02:25:12.640
focus on this I want to I have my intentions over here and I want to this was this was just warm

1864
02:25:12.640 --> 02:25:18.160
holes and explosions and and just just craziness and in the morning we found the shaman and he was

1865
02:25:18.160 --> 02:25:22.960
laying in a stream naked like the way they find ET at the end of the movie and uh so what the

1866
02:25:22.960 --> 02:25:28.800
hell happened and he said I overboiled the ayahuasca and he said by the way I retire and he

1867
02:25:28.800 --> 02:25:35.920
retired as shaman for a whole week but but like that was my experience was that it was so intense

1868
02:25:35.920 --> 02:25:41.200
that I was just happy to have physical form again I feel I felt like I died and came back it is

1869
02:25:41.200 --> 02:25:47.760
very very powerful you said in the book I felt changed I felt changed in the sense that I had never

1870
02:25:48.400 --> 02:25:53.680
you know I'd come close to dying a bunch of times I'd come but I mean to to be removed and you

1871
02:25:53.680 --> 02:25:58.480
know if you go for surgery they put you out and it's black and then you come back this was I mean who

1872
02:25:58.480 --> 02:26:06.000
the hell even knew it's like it's like opening it's like you've lived in a gigantic mansion with

1873
02:26:06.000 --> 02:26:12.640
3000 rooms your entire life but you've only ever lived in like one and then you take this stuff

1874
02:26:12.720 --> 02:26:18.400
and all of a sudden you go whoa there's so many rooms and you have access to them and the doors

1875
02:26:18.400 --> 02:26:22.400
are all open and you're being sucked through all them at once and so it was like I mean at one point

1876
02:26:22.400 --> 02:26:27.680
I was I mean you did jungle vibrates through you I took the form of different animals I mean it was

1877
02:26:27.680 --> 02:26:33.200
insanity I don't I wouldn't recommend it to anybody what did the local people think it is as a

1878
02:26:33.200 --> 02:26:36.880
compound as a psychoactive what do they think is happening do they think it's a religious experience

1879
02:26:36.880 --> 02:26:44.240
absolutely that most of them believe that this is the gift of the gods to humans and it is

1880
02:26:44.240 --> 02:26:50.640
linked between the spirit world and our world and they say that the Amazon was formed when

1881
02:26:51.760 --> 02:26:58.480
the anaconda god slipped out of the murk the Milky Way and carved the rivers right and if you

1882
02:26:58.480 --> 02:27:04.720
take the 40,000 species of trees in the Amazon and did trial and error to try and figure out which

1883
02:27:04.720 --> 02:27:09.440
ones would interact with each other it doesn't really make sense that ancient peoples came to this by

1884
02:27:09.440 --> 02:27:18.160
accident and so the shamans say that the gods gave this to humans so that we could interact with

1885
02:27:18.160 --> 02:27:25.360
the other side what is jungle keepers we've used the word several times now and you know it's

1886
02:27:25.360 --> 02:27:29.040
word on the front of your new book and I see it's written there on your chest but for anyone that

1887
02:27:29.040 --> 02:27:33.040
doesn't know what jungle keepers is what the mission of it it is how they might be able to get

1888
02:27:33.040 --> 02:27:41.040
involved and help what is it jungle keepers is the method we developed to find a way to save the

1889
02:27:41.040 --> 02:27:47.200
Amazon and what we did was this we worked at the local people we spent years understanding what

1890
02:27:47.200 --> 02:27:52.880
the reality was on the ground jungle keepers is the system with which we actually are saving the

1891
02:27:52.880 --> 02:27:58.720
Amazon rainforest it's how we employ the loggers and gold miners as conservation rangers but

1892
02:27:58.720 --> 02:28:04.240
it's the way that we do that what we've done usually conservation is done through grant writing

1893
02:28:04.240 --> 02:28:10.480
and government deals we've done this using modern technology using social media for good we've used

1894
02:28:10.480 --> 02:28:15.520
I mean it was through Instagram that we got our first big funder it was through Instagram and

1895
02:28:15.520 --> 02:28:22.000
podcasts that we've reached a lot of our smaller funders and today jungle keepers is the most

1896
02:28:22.000 --> 02:28:27.040
direct way for people around the world to help the indigenous people protect the Amazon

1897
02:28:28.000 --> 02:28:33.120
and what that means is we have a donor program people go to jungle keepers.org and whether it's for

1898
02:28:33.120 --> 02:28:41.120
5, 10, 100 some people do a thousand dollars a month they can directly protect the land and provide

1899
02:28:41.120 --> 02:28:46.480
jobs for the local people and it's saving more animal heartbeats than endangered species and

1900
02:28:46.480 --> 02:28:51.680
those entire uncontacted tribes all because people all over the world care and they're willing to

1901
02:28:51.680 --> 02:28:58.880
part with the price of a Starbucks coffee once a month so if people have been inspired by this

1902
02:28:58.880 --> 02:29:05.360
conversation they can go to jungle keepers.org and on the website I'm on there now that you can give

1903
02:29:05.360 --> 02:29:11.440
once in a small donation or you can give monthly anything from as you said the price of a coffee

1904
02:29:11.440 --> 02:29:17.920
up to bigger donations if you're able to and there's some superb information and resources and

1905
02:29:17.920 --> 02:29:23.280
videos on the website that explains more about the work being done. I'm certainly going to sign up

1906
02:29:23.280 --> 02:29:28.720
to a monthly subscription. Thank you to donate keepers. No it means a lot because it's a shopping

1907
02:29:28.720 --> 02:29:32.640
cart principle it's like if none of us do it it won't work yeah all of us do it it will work

1908
02:29:33.360 --> 02:29:39.200
will make history. Well I'm going to sign up right now um definitely I'll give my monthly

1909
02:29:39.200 --> 02:29:43.680
donation and I implore anyone else that can has the means to also do it because it's such an

1910
02:29:43.680 --> 02:29:48.720
you know it's such a such an important beautiful part of the world for all the reasons we've

1911
02:29:48.720 --> 02:29:56.080
discussed in a way that I think is often unappreciated and not not thought about enough because

1912
02:29:56.080 --> 02:30:00.160
in part these messages don't get out there and most people don't realize that the oxygen we breathe

1913
02:30:00.160 --> 02:30:05.040
comes from this part of the world and many of the medicines we've discovered and the research

1914
02:30:05.040 --> 02:30:09.200
that we continue to do originates from this part of the world I mean there's so many I wanted to

1915
02:30:09.200 --> 02:30:14.720
talk to you about this there's so many medicines and um sort of medical research taking place

1916
02:30:15.920 --> 02:30:22.160
in in this ecosystem that is incredible incredible and I was I was hearing I heard you talk about

1917
02:30:22.160 --> 02:30:27.200
how one day you got an infection yeah antibiotics couldn't touch and someone took you into the jungle

1918
02:30:27.200 --> 02:30:33.040
gave you some sap from a tree bark and it killed the infection yeah you see this where it looks like

1919
02:30:33.040 --> 02:30:38.000
as somebody put a cigar out on my arm right there a little smooth bit that was a very rare disease

1920
02:30:38.000 --> 02:30:42.880
I was living in a mud hut in India trying to track tigers there's only 3,000 tigers left

1921
02:30:44.320 --> 02:30:47.760
although now it's gone up to five tigers are coming back so you know the success story

1922
02:30:47.760 --> 02:30:51.200
but I was living in a mud hut in India trying to track tigers and I got this disease called

1923
02:30:51.200 --> 02:30:56.560
tuliremia and it's so rare that when I got it I brought it back to New York went to the

1924
02:30:56.560 --> 02:31:01.520
infectious disease doctor when he figured out what it was and I'd been in bed for like a month

1925
02:31:01.600 --> 02:31:08.160
with this horrible infection in my arm this deep pocket of pus and and I was on antibiotics and he

1926
02:31:08.160 --> 02:31:12.640
went this is so rare he goes do you mind if I call in my students my fellows he goes that he goes

1927
02:31:12.640 --> 02:31:17.520
guys you're never gonna see this again it's a disease that's tick-borne through rabbits and

1928
02:31:17.520 --> 02:31:23.680
somehow gets into people and manifests with an infection on the right elbow he goes this is one

1929
02:31:23.680 --> 02:31:27.760
of the rarest ones you're gonna see because this is rare they put me on double antibiotics I had

1930
02:31:27.760 --> 02:31:30.800
already had a MRSA infection they were like look we got to really kill this thing

1931
02:31:31.680 --> 02:31:36.720
and it was 2012 and my parents said whatever you do do not go back to the jungle with an infection

1932
02:31:36.720 --> 02:31:40.960
because the jungle's just gonna make it worse and of course I went to the jungle we had stuff to do

1933
02:31:40.960 --> 02:31:46.000
or we our station was in danger of dying so I had to go back with JJ and fix it up and I showed

1934
02:31:46.000 --> 02:31:49.360
up and he looked at me because why is your arm taped up and I said wow this terrible infection

1935
02:31:49.360 --> 02:31:53.520
said I've been in bed for two months I said I have no energy on all these antibiotics and he looked

1936
02:31:53.520 --> 02:31:58.480
and he went this is okay and he goes no no come with me we walked out he marches out into the

1937
02:31:58.480 --> 02:32:04.640
jungle hits this hits the tree with a machete collects the white sap rubs it over this and now

1938
02:32:04.640 --> 02:32:10.720
this these sap have like a latex quality and when you heat them they they they they form almost

1939
02:32:10.720 --> 02:32:14.720
like a rubber so it formed a rubber rubber cap over the infection now if you had pushed down

1940
02:32:14.720 --> 02:32:21.520
up a four plus with leak out he just went like this until it formed a seal and then he put a

1941
02:32:21.520 --> 02:32:26.640
little bit into a concoction of leaf juice that he made made me drink that either way next day

1942
02:32:26.640 --> 02:32:34.080
I woke up and the infection was denatured it was still a wound but it was no longer infected kill

1943
02:32:34.080 --> 02:32:37.920
the infection one night the antibiotics hadn't been able to kill for two months

1944
02:32:39.840 --> 02:32:44.960
and so stuff like that where he not only knew what to do he knew where to find it recently when I

1945
02:32:44.960 --> 02:32:51.120
was stung by a stingray and I was an agonizing pain two of my friends collected bark which was JJ's

1946
02:32:51.120 --> 02:32:56.640
nephew and brother it's good to be part of an indigenous family um they connect collected two

1947
02:32:56.640 --> 02:33:01.280
different kinds of bark they boiled it into a poultice and they sucked the venom out of my out of my

1948
02:33:01.280 --> 02:33:08.240
foot with plant medicine it's incredible and these are technologies we don't have from by the way

1949
02:33:08.240 --> 02:33:13.120
yeah we're losing physical animals we don't want to lose species but we're also losing indigenous

1950
02:33:13.760 --> 02:33:20.640
cultures we're losing dialect and and and anthropologists like Wade Davis will say that you know each

1951
02:33:21.200 --> 02:33:26.240
language each each culture is a different manifest I said he wasn't he's a beautiful quote we said

1952
02:33:26.240 --> 02:33:31.600
other cultures are not failed attempts at being you you know it's it's each of these is a different

1953
02:33:31.600 --> 02:33:38.960
manifestation of the human the different blossoms on the same vine and uh we're losing languages

1954
02:33:38.960 --> 02:33:45.280
because what happens is roads come in to these communities they'll learn to speak Spanish let's say

1955
02:33:45.280 --> 02:33:50.320
so they stop speaking essay huh you know and the same thing in India where you guys have seen this

1956
02:33:50.320 --> 02:33:54.240
happening where like the kids in the village might speak a really local language and then all

1957
02:33:54.240 --> 02:33:58.240
of a sudden everybody wants to go to the big city everybody has the internet and Instagram and

1958
02:33:58.240 --> 02:34:02.800
TikTok and wants to make a little more money and they go and these we're losing languages and

1959
02:34:02.800 --> 02:34:08.240
these each of these languages is a different way of expressing ourselves and so this is just this

1960
02:34:08.240 --> 02:34:12.560
very interesting shift happening in the world right now where there's a lot of beautiful things that

1961
02:34:12.560 --> 02:34:17.680
can still be saved and that's why it's like we're at this amazing time where there's there's still the

1962
02:34:17.680 --> 02:34:22.640
old amazing things and we still have all this amazing new technology flooding in and more knowledge

1963
02:34:22.640 --> 02:34:27.520
at our fingertips than ever before and so the feeling of apathy I don't get I don't understand

1964
02:34:27.520 --> 02:34:38.000
how everybody isn't stoked I see you've got a wedding ring on oh this yes I am you know I know

1965
02:34:38.000 --> 02:34:44.640
you're recently married I like yes two weeks ago two weeks ago one would ask how it's possible

1966
02:34:44.640 --> 02:34:50.400
for someone that's been so long living in the jungle to hold down a successful romantic relationship

1967
02:34:51.360 --> 02:34:59.040
yeah um I think that the same thing happened with this that happened with the career where I said

1968
02:34:59.040 --> 02:35:03.360
I think right around the time where I gave up I said it's never going to happen because what girl

1969
02:35:03.360 --> 02:35:11.120
as a what girl could keep up with you know repeated seven months in the jungle and and um all the

1970
02:35:11.120 --> 02:35:15.360
botflies and infections and anacondas and then forget now that we're being hunted by the narco

1971
02:35:15.360 --> 02:35:21.440
traffickers and all this stuff now nobody nobody fit into the life and then actually it was on a

1972
02:35:22.560 --> 02:35:31.280
I was giving a talk about the Amazon in California actually over a year ago and I met this girl

1973
02:35:31.280 --> 02:35:37.040
and instantly we had a connection and and and it was the same thing it was like we we kind of had

1974
02:35:37.040 --> 02:35:41.120
both reached that same point where both gone yet it's never gonna work because of our different

1975
02:35:41.120 --> 02:35:47.920
lifestyles um and then and then it just and then it's just a cart you just when you know you know

1976
02:35:47.920 --> 02:35:51.360
you got to know each other and then the only way I could know if she was really the one

1977
02:35:52.080 --> 02:35:57.200
was to take her catching uh we went crocodile catching for cameine catching first night that she

1978
02:35:57.200 --> 02:36:02.320
arrived she came up the river on the boat and we went out and we caught a crocodile held it together

1979
02:36:02.320 --> 02:36:06.320
I got to show her the dictating membrane and the the spikes coming out of it and it was just

1980
02:36:06.320 --> 02:36:11.040
beautiful smooth friends it came in and then as we were floating down the river up to our next

1981
02:36:11.040 --> 02:36:15.360
in the black water with the milky way above us and we're just sort of holding hands and I just

1982
02:36:15.360 --> 02:36:19.680
looked over and I was like oh I think this is it and then I proposed to her in the treehouse

1983
02:36:20.400 --> 02:36:25.040
so on top of the top of the jungle canopy with all the mist and all the animals singing

1984
02:36:25.600 --> 02:36:30.400
um but it that um you know that makes me say I'm so I'm so glad that I waited

1985
02:36:31.600 --> 02:36:35.520
you know it's like you have to wait until the time where it makes sense on that thing you know

1986
02:36:35.520 --> 02:36:41.280
and I think you probably feel the same where um probably took you a while to find the right person

1987
02:36:43.440 --> 02:36:49.440
and she comes on these expeditions with you know she's way more than that man I mean look there's

1988
02:36:49.440 --> 02:36:54.160
like I said there's a lot of things I'm not good at um the planes trains automobiles the human world

1989
02:36:54.160 --> 02:36:59.280
the ubers the fact you have to push a button the the apparently like I learned to come on my way to

1990
02:36:59.440 --> 02:37:05.440
you the the Tesla handles work differently um she knows all that and so she's very good at keeping

1991
02:37:05.440 --> 02:37:10.560
me organized and when we go to the jungle she's very good at being like hey don't forget to thank

1992
02:37:10.560 --> 02:37:16.000
those donors hey don't forget you think this is normal it is not normal teach people about those

1993
02:37:16.000 --> 02:37:20.000
those leaf cutter ants and it's like she's really good at you know so she's totally integrated

1994
02:37:20.000 --> 02:37:24.800
loves being in the jungle it is just incredible so it's most it's the most wonderful part of the

1995
02:37:24.800 --> 02:37:28.480
journey so far I'd love to actually um you just mentioned leaf cutter ants and I did watch your

1996
02:37:28.480 --> 02:37:32.080
video on Instagram about the leaf cutter ants and I think that was the moment I said to you

1997
02:37:32.080 --> 02:37:36.160
before we start recording that I really wanted to go and do some sort of survival yeah um

1998
02:37:36.160 --> 02:37:40.320
expedition in the jungle I could make this happen for you I think you I think you might be the guy

1999
02:37:41.360 --> 02:37:47.920
but uh I did take a moment of pause when I watched this video one of the worst episodes yet

2000
02:37:47.920 --> 02:37:53.840
of why you think you want my job but definitely don't really right now my tent is being dismantled

2001
02:37:53.920 --> 02:37:58.720
by leaf cutter ants it's about 2am and I've been trying to sleep and there's about 10 million

2002
02:37:58.720 --> 02:38:05.120
leaf cutter ants outside of this tent and all that we're doing is cutting leaf size holes out of my

2003
02:38:05.120 --> 02:38:10.640
tent they are carrying away the nylon into the night and because the leaf cutter ants are working

2004
02:38:10.640 --> 02:38:15.120
to dismantle every single thing that I own they're opening up holes big enough for me to put my

2005
02:38:15.120 --> 02:38:20.320
fist through which means everything else in the Amazon is coming into my tent and because of that

2006
02:38:20.320 --> 02:38:25.360
I keep turning on the lights I just woke up because there's a leaf cutter ant using its pincer jaws

2007
02:38:25.360 --> 02:38:31.200
to bite my ear to try and carry off a piece and inside this tent right now our ants and termites

2008
02:38:31.200 --> 02:38:36.960
and mosquitoes some sort of centipede hoppers moths and in some insects that I can't even identify

2009
02:38:36.960 --> 02:38:41.920
this is one of those times where you know it's four more hours until morning if you get out of the tent

2010
02:38:41.920 --> 02:38:45.920
you're gonna get destroyed by mosquitoes it's raining outside you're gonna get wet this is what

2011
02:38:45.920 --> 02:38:50.080
camping in the wild is sometimes you put your tent in the wrong place and it'll be cutter ants

2012
02:38:50.080 --> 02:38:54.880
and the gods of the jungle decide it's gonna be the worst night ever all I can do is try and get

2013
02:38:54.880 --> 02:38:59.280
some sleep and I wake up every few seconds to try and slap something off my face or something flies

2014
02:38:59.280 --> 02:39:06.720
up my nose this is one of those nightmare nights man I didn't think of ants as being the problem

2015
02:39:08.400 --> 02:39:14.080
the thing that might derail my journey to the jungle but there's a lot of scary things in the jungle

2016
02:39:14.240 --> 02:39:21.360
that quote you read about life being a moment of stasis among the dead amongst the the churning death

2017
02:39:21.360 --> 02:39:27.040
march of the every thing you see in the jungle is going to be eaten at some point every jaguar every

2018
02:39:27.040 --> 02:39:32.160
butterfly every leaf if the amazon didn't have fungal my sylium growing through everything it would

2019
02:39:32.160 --> 02:39:37.840
bury itself in leaves and cease to exist it is a recycling machine and so yes every time a baby

2020
02:39:37.840 --> 02:39:43.280
is born they try to survive you look at that baby snake that baby snake might come out of its egg

2021
02:39:43.280 --> 02:39:47.840
now that's an african ball python but you say like a baby boa constrictor comes out of its mother

2022
02:39:47.840 --> 02:39:53.920
starts crawling around the jungle and it might just get eaten by a bird done and this is sort of

2023
02:39:53.920 --> 02:39:57.040
back to what you're saying about when should people give up on the dream it's like look sometimes

2024
02:39:57.040 --> 02:40:05.040
you get eaten by a bird right out of the hatch like but in the jungle the ants the mosquitoes the

2025
02:40:05.040 --> 02:40:12.640
fungus the infections it's all trying to take you down you are calories the leaves which you

2026
02:40:12.640 --> 02:40:17.680
don't realize the jungles and energy economy right those trees are stretching up to 160 feet

2027
02:40:17.680 --> 02:40:22.560
because they're trying to reach above the other trees to get to the light because they want the

2028
02:40:22.560 --> 02:40:28.400
sunlight that tropical sunlight is what gives them the energy to grow those big trunks and then

2029
02:40:28.400 --> 02:40:33.040
all the other epiphytic plants the orchids and the lichens and the and the picture plants those

2030
02:40:33.040 --> 02:40:38.160
are all growing on the branches and then down there in the shadows this trees waiting that have no

2031
02:40:38.160 --> 02:40:42.320
access to light less than 3% of the sunlight in the rainforest hits the ground and they're

2032
02:40:42.320 --> 02:40:47.360
waiting beneath these titans and they're waiting for a little bit of sunlight and once a day a little

2033
02:40:47.360 --> 02:40:51.680
bit of sunlight comes by and they grow that much it could take them and then when one big tree falls

2034
02:40:51.680 --> 02:40:58.080
over and obviously you have this rush of sunlight capital all these trees shoot up and now those trees

2035
02:40:58.080 --> 02:41:02.080
shoot up and what's happening the leaf cutter ants are taken there little bits of those leaves

2036
02:41:02.080 --> 02:41:06.720
that have heavy chemical compounds to stop the leaf cutter ants from doing this but they take it

2037
02:41:06.720 --> 02:41:10.560
and they bring it underground and they farm it they're one of the only other species that farms

2038
02:41:10.560 --> 02:41:16.880
they farm fungus off of the leaves and that they eat but the entire thing is this vast interconnected

2039
02:41:16.880 --> 02:41:25.280
matrix of competition for sunlight energy you carry so much our skin we are these gods of energy

2040
02:41:25.280 --> 02:41:32.080
where we're a large animal walking through the forest and so the mosquitoes and the leeches and

2041
02:41:32.160 --> 02:41:37.120
and the jaguar and the like all those things are like man if you died you realize how many animals

2042
02:41:37.120 --> 02:41:43.360
you'd make happy like the jungle the jungle's saying come here come to me I'll recycle you

2043
02:41:44.560 --> 02:41:50.240
are you scared of anything i'm scared that people won't wake up quick enough to save the systems

2044
02:41:50.240 --> 02:41:56.240
that keep us alive but i also am an optimist and i believe that we're at this point where people

2045
02:41:56.240 --> 02:42:02.480
feel very lost and things look really dire and then it pulls back you know and i'm a big believer

2046
02:42:02.480 --> 02:42:07.680
and i mean tigers went from a hundred thousand tigers in 1900 down to just like three thousand

2047
02:42:07.680 --> 02:42:12.720
tigers now we're coming back up we're up around five or six thousand tigers humpback whales before

2048
02:42:12.720 --> 02:42:17.120
before wailing you think you're like a hundred thirty thousand humpback whales they went down as

2049
02:42:17.120 --> 02:42:22.480
low as a thousand humpback whales you almost lost humpback whales then they banned whales

2050
02:42:22.560 --> 02:42:27.760
wailing and now humpback whales are back almost pre-wailing numbers same thing goes for bald

2051
02:42:27.760 --> 02:42:32.160
eagles there's been so many conservation success we had a hole in the ozone layer

2052
02:42:32.160 --> 02:42:36.480
everybody forgets us we had a hole in the in the only thing that protects us from being incinerated

2053
02:42:36.480 --> 02:42:44.480
by the sun and we found a way to fix it so i'm an optimist not i'm not scared and this is my

2054
02:42:44.480 --> 02:42:50.160
this is my best computation to the darkness this is my best way of saying look that that title when

2055
02:42:50.160 --> 02:42:54.320
they told me that i didn't come up at the subtitle the what it takes was say what it takes to change

2056
02:42:54.320 --> 02:42:58.160
the world i didn't come up with that but i thought it was too hefty i didn't want it it's felt

2057
02:42:58.160 --> 02:43:08.400
uncomfortable um but i do think that that the idea that that we can change the fate of things

2058
02:43:08.400 --> 02:43:15.120
is an important thing to remember in these times jungle keeper what it takes to change the world

2059
02:43:16.080 --> 02:43:20.480
this book is about the profound power of saying yes yes to one's calling yes to sticking with

2060
02:43:20.480 --> 02:43:24.960
your dream when it comes at a high cost and yes to taking a stand to save what might otherwise

2061
02:43:24.960 --> 02:43:32.720
be gone in a generation it's a story of occasion connectedness and hope what a brilliant beautiful

2062
02:43:32.720 --> 02:43:37.920
rare book i'm gonna link it below for anyone that wants to continue this conversation and wants to

2063
02:43:37.920 --> 02:43:42.880
learn more and go deeper um you're a brilliant storyteller thank you it's one of your great skills

2064
02:43:42.880 --> 02:43:46.400
i don't know why you learned it because i i don't think they do classes for storytelling in

2065
02:43:46.400 --> 02:43:50.640
in the amazon but it's certainly one of your great skills and it's a very important skill to

2066
02:43:50.640 --> 02:43:54.560
wield when you've got a message you need the world to hear it's a very important story i think

2067
02:43:54.560 --> 02:43:59.600
i learned it from Tolkien and from Arthur Conan Doyle and from Jane Goodall i mean those were the

2068
02:43:59.600 --> 02:44:05.200
people my parents read to me growing up we have a closing tradition pull whether last guest leaves

2069
02:44:05.200 --> 02:44:08.640
a question for the next not knowing who they're leaving it for and the question left for you

2070
02:44:09.280 --> 02:44:22.400
is if you only had three years left to live what would you regret not doing and are you working on

2071
02:44:22.400 --> 02:44:34.160
that now if no why not if i had three years left to live a very much regret not finishing the mission

2072
02:44:34.240 --> 02:44:41.520
that i started and so whether we like it or not we're going to we're either going to win and save it

2073
02:44:41.520 --> 02:44:49.840
or we're going to lose three years would be like just barely able to see it i would regret so much

2074
02:44:49.840 --> 02:44:57.840
coming so far and then not coming to fruition because you mentioned before the idea of a wave

2075
02:44:57.840 --> 02:45:02.320
and it's like so much has happened and we have come to this place where so much is possible

2076
02:45:03.280 --> 02:45:08.640
but we're still in the barrel and we're not done yet so if i had three years left to go

2077
02:45:09.440 --> 02:45:14.480
i know that all those heartbeats are depending on me and however that's that would be my answer

2078
02:45:15.840 --> 02:45:20.240
poor thank you it's an incredible work you're doing and i'm so glad that there's people in the world

2079
02:45:20.880 --> 02:45:26.000
like you that are doing this and if anyone has been inspired by your conversation i really do

2080
02:45:26.000 --> 02:45:30.800
highly recommend you go and make a donation or pledge support in some way over on the jungle keeper

2081
02:45:30.800 --> 02:45:36.080
website because not all of us have the means or the ability to go out and do what you're doing

2082
02:45:36.720 --> 02:45:42.240
on the front line of this issue but as you say it makes a huge amount of difference even people

2083
02:45:42.240 --> 02:45:46.240
donating small amounts of money because it compounds into something much more bigger and

2084
02:45:47.040 --> 02:45:49.680
and those small gestures can save all the heartbeats that you're describing.

2085
02:45:49.680 --> 02:46:03.280
thank god for it thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you