The Art of Manliness - #64： Survivorman With Les Stroud

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00:01:14.300 Brett McKay here, and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.

00:01:33.900 Now, I think most guys at one time or another have gone through this scenario in their head.

00:01:38.060 What would happen to me if I was dropped in the middle of nowhere in the wilderness,

00:01:42.020 like, you know, in Canada, right?

00:01:45.320 With nothing but the clothes on my back and my wits, would I be able to survive?

00:01:50.620 Well, our guest today has made a living answering that question for himself,

00:01:55.020 but in front of millions of TV watchers.

00:01:58.160 His name is Les Stroud, better known as Survivorman.

00:02:01.180 You've probably seen his show where it's just him and a camera that he's operating himself,

00:02:06.340 trying to figure out how to survive in different locales around the world.

00:02:12.860 But besides being a survival expert and a TV star, Les is also a musician.

00:02:17.040 And in today's episode, we're going to talk about Les's just fascinating career,

00:02:21.220 how he got into survival training, how he developed the idea of Survivorman.

00:02:26.240 We're going to talk about tips and know-how that he thinks everyone should know

00:02:30.400 if they want to survive in the wild, if they find themselves in the middle of nowhere

00:02:34.880 with nothing but the clothes on their back and their wits.

00:02:37.480 And we're going to talk about his music career,

00:02:40.080 how wilderness survival training has changed his music.

00:02:44.920 And so it's an interesting podcast.

00:02:46.560 Stay tuned.

00:02:48.560 All right, Les Stroud, welcome to the show.

00:02:50.340 Hey, thank you very much.

00:02:51.400 Okay, so let's start off by talking about your history.

00:02:53.960 Because I know there's some of you who, people who are listening,

00:02:55.940 that they know who you are, they're big fans of your show, what you do.

00:02:58.300 But I'm sure a lot of people aren't, and I'm sure the people who know about you

00:03:02.060 don't know about your history, your career history.

00:03:04.100 Because I think it's really interesting.

00:03:05.740 Because I know there's a lot of young men who listen to our podcast,

00:03:08.380 and they're at that stage in their life when they're trying to figure out

00:03:10.660 what they're going to do with their lives.

00:03:12.100 And they feel like they have to figure out what they're going to do now.

00:03:15.120 And they don't realize that opportunities come up.

00:03:18.040 You never know where life's going to take you.

00:03:20.200 Can you talk a little bit about your career history?

00:03:22.000 Because you didn't start off as a wilderness survival guy, right?

00:03:24.720 No, I mean, well, I didn't, I didn't.

00:03:26.200 I mean, I came by it, honestly, in terms of my early past, my childhood,

00:03:31.600 in that I was a, you know, I was a big fan of Jacques Cousteau and Tarzan movies.

00:03:36.740 And I went to my cottage a lot and loved going out in the back 40s.

00:03:40.040 So I had that within my childhood sort of DNA.

00:03:42.980 But I also left it around the age of 14 when I discovered rock and roll

00:03:47.160 and focused entirely on being a musician for a good solid 10 years easily.

00:03:51.700 Um, and it was, uh, it was around the age of 25.

00:03:56.300 I had been doing pretty decent and pretty well in, in, in, as a singer songwriter and so on,

00:04:01.100 but not well enough.

00:04:03.420 And, uh, I was extremely disillusioned with the industry during the mid eighties.

00:04:07.180 I hated the music of the eighties and didn't like where it was going and,

00:04:10.220 and felt a lot of it lost its soul.

00:04:11.700 And so I decided to make a big, a big, a big decision and, and, and quit all that I'd known.

00:04:17.820 I mean, really everything that I knew was about music.

00:04:20.240 That's all I ever wanted to do.

00:04:21.780 So, you know, and I, and I quit it all.

00:04:23.680 And when I, when I decided, when I made that decision, um, two things happened.

00:04:28.340 The world lifted off of my shoulders in two ways.

00:04:31.260 And the first way was it lifted off of my shoulders and that responsibility of trying

00:04:34.940 to be that thing in music was gone.

00:04:37.040 And then it was lifted off my shoulders and that, what do I do next came up.

00:04:40.380 And I, and I knew right away, it's just wilderness adventure.

00:04:43.440 Didn't have a clue what that meant, but I knew that was the direction I wanted to go.

00:04:47.100 And I was, I was 25 years old when I made that decision to start to look into what it

00:04:52.000 meant to, to be involved with wilderness adventure.

00:04:54.520 So yeah, the wild called you back.

00:04:56.180 Oh, absolutely.

00:04:57.000 You know, I, I don't think it ever left my soul.

00:04:59.260 Um, I know that even as a, a later teenager, not doing anything to do with adventure out

00:05:04.380 in the outdoors, my buddies, my party buddies, you know, still used to nickname me Ewell Gibbons

00:05:09.460 because for some reason I knew which plants to eat and stuff.

00:05:11.920 But, so I must've, I must, it must've never left me somehow because I, you know, I got

00:05:17.160 that nickname for a reason, but it was certainly kept away from me until, until my mid twenties.

00:05:21.920 You decided to make this big leap and it was wilderness adventure.

00:05:24.660 That's what you wanted to do.

00:05:25.660 How did, was it sort of a serendipity that led you towards the whole survivalist aspect

00:05:30.860 of it?

00:05:31.600 Well, let's be careful with that word too.

00:05:33.220 I never call myself a survivalist.

00:05:34.800 Not, not at all.

00:05:35.760 I'm a, I'm a, I'm an outdoor adventure, a wilderness adventure.

00:05:38.720 Um, uh, I'm not a thrill seeker.

00:05:41.880 Uh, I'm a documentary filmmaker, uh, and I'm those things and I've combined, I'm an entertainer

00:05:47.120 and I've combined all those things.

00:05:49.400 Survivalism.

00:05:50.460 It's a, it's a, it's a very tricky word to use because it conjures up images of preppers

00:05:55.860 and, and, and building bunkers for the apocalypse sort of thing of which I'm not.

00:05:59.820 But so, sorry, what was your question again?

00:06:02.140 How did you get started?

00:06:03.180 Like, I guess, you know, not the survivalist aspect, but you know, look, learning how to live

00:06:07.300 off the land, um, learning how to, you know, just live with nature when you're out there

00:06:12.460 by yourself.

00:06:13.560 Well, I mean, the first thing I saw when I said, I mean, I did the obvious thing.

00:06:17.160 I just started looking in the newspaper and I didn't even know what to look for.

00:06:20.540 I mean, I didn't know that you could do things like you could be a canoe guide.

00:06:24.360 I didn't, I didn't even know, you know, I just, I just didn't know what was available

00:06:27.180 to me.

00:06:27.560 I was a kid from the suburbs, you know?

00:06:29.440 And, and, uh, I always thought that when you went overseas to Africa or someplace like that

00:06:33.220 or South America, well, that was only for privileged people.

00:06:35.280 I didn't know it was something that a lot of programs had been developing that you

00:06:38.680 could, I had access to.

00:06:39.920 So I looked in the newspaper and I saw a little tiny article that was for wilderness survival

00:06:43.880 training.

00:06:44.940 And of course I thought, well, that sounds like me.

00:06:48.060 Okay.

00:06:48.480 I had no idea what it meant.

00:06:49.940 It just sounded cool, you know?

00:06:52.200 And I took the leap and, and, and, uh, I enrolled in a, you know, in class and every Thursday

00:06:57.040 night you meet in a classroom at the local college and there's some guy there and he starts

00:07:00.200 to talk to you about wild edible plants.

00:07:02.500 And man, I just soaked it up.

00:07:05.420 I was like, okay, we went out into the, you know, the first thing we did was, okay, everybody

00:07:10.000 get up.

00:07:10.400 We're going outside.

00:07:11.100 I went off.

00:07:11.520 We went to the Valley.

00:07:12.400 And as soon as I was in a classroom where we went outside and into the bush, I knew I

00:07:16.440 was home.

00:07:16.960 I was in the right place for it to learn the types of things I wanted to learn.

00:07:20.560 And at that point, it's just this ever expanding world of knowledge to, to partake of, you know,

00:07:28.120 from, from, you know, being able to dog sled and canoe and kayak to edible and medicinal

00:07:33.780 plants, to survival methods, to wilderness spirituality, to everything.

00:07:38.100 And, uh, you know, there were certain areas that I, that I, well, actually I, I went after

00:07:42.080 everything in certain areas that I really took on well.

00:07:44.940 And of course, survival was a big one for me.

00:07:47.040 Okay.

00:07:47.340 So, um, it sounds like you, uh, you just mentioned you're kind of an entertainer at

00:07:50.840 heart.

00:07:51.080 You were in the music industry.

00:07:52.020 I, I, did you have any involvement with, uh, television and film before this too?

00:07:57.580 Absolutely.

00:07:58.240 Um, as a musician, I worked in rock videos.

00:08:00.560 Um, and so I did a lot of filming with rock videos and, um, you know, fast forwarding to

00:08:05.240 the future and 10 years of nothing but wilderness adventure under my belt, not having picked up

00:08:10.200 my guitar for eight years and done nothing with cameras or anything.

00:08:14.160 I started to have experiences and to do things in the outdoors that I, as an entertainer,

00:08:19.160 as a creative person, as an artist thought, boy, these would make some great films.

00:08:23.360 And the only thing that existed back then at the time really was like the Warren Miller

00:08:27.480 ski films.

00:08:28.180 People weren't really filming their adventures.

00:08:30.020 I mean, you, you couldn't cause the cameras were too big.

00:08:33.940 And so I knew though, that, that I had some great stories happening.

00:08:37.680 The first thing I did when I was married was our honeymoon.

00:08:40.740 We spent a year living in the bush.

00:08:42.500 We did it as if it was 500 years ago, no metal, no matches, no plastic, no nylon.

00:08:47.000 And when we partook to do that, when we, when we were about to do that, I knew that, okay,

00:08:51.280 this would make a great documentary film.

00:08:53.760 And I do remember how to be creative.

00:08:57.040 And, and so I took it upon myself to film that year.

00:09:00.160 And that, that opened a lot of doors for me.

00:09:02.700 Is that how you made your segue into television host or film creator?

00:09:06.540 I would say yes.

00:09:08.320 Yeah.

00:09:08.860 Because that became a calling card.

00:09:10.360 It'd be like, look, you know, then I started thinking, this is fun.

00:09:14.580 Now my creative juices that never left me, but were sort of laid a little dormant could

00:09:19.480 now be combined with my adventure desires to create film work.

00:09:25.660 And lo and behold, my past dream world of Jacques Cousteau and Tarzan.

00:09:31.100 If you think about it, that's what survivor man is.

00:09:33.500 It's a hybrid of Jacques Cousteau and Tarzan.

00:09:36.540 And yet there I was in this position, having something completely unique, no one else had

00:09:40.560 ever done before and able to say, okay, I'm going to film my adventures.

00:09:44.700 And then I thought, Hey, wait a minute.

00:09:45.960 I really specialize a lot in survival.

00:09:48.000 Why don't I, why don't I film survival?

00:09:50.220 That would be cool.

00:09:51.240 You know?

00:09:51.900 And, and that, uh, yeah, that led me to a, a cold call for, for, to pitch survivor man.

00:09:57.280 There was nothing else like it on television at the time.

00:09:59.400 Mark Burnett survivor series had come on air, but it was a joke.

00:10:02.860 It was not survival, but it also helped me to think, well, wait a minute, this idea

00:10:06.660 I have, it might be able to take traction, right?

00:10:09.080 With that thing sort of distracting everybody and everybody going, Oh, survival is kind of

00:10:12.520 cool, but yet it's all bull.

00:10:13.940 I thought, well, let me show them the real thing.

00:10:16.060 Yeah.

00:10:16.480 Let's talk about how, for those who aren't familiar with the show, can you talk about

00:10:19.140 how survivor man differs from all the other, I guess, survival shows that are out there

00:10:23.260 on the discovery and history and all those other, I mean, what's, what's, what makes

00:10:26.720 survivor man different?

00:10:27.880 The only one that's real.

00:10:29.020 The only one.

00:10:29.800 Well, it's just you, right?

00:10:31.760 Um, you and a camera, like it's, you don't have a cameraman, you don't have a crew.

00:10:35.240 That's right.

00:10:35.860 Yeah.

00:10:36.220 I mean, everything else came along after because survivor man became such a strong show and

00:10:40.920 a hit that then the creation of man versus wild and dual survival and man, woman, wild

00:10:47.280 and naked and afraid and marooned, all of this stuff came along after it's like the only

00:10:52.200 one who's actually out there doing it.

00:10:53.800 And I really still, I still knowing production as I do, I have my questions as the guy doing 0.95

00:10:58.160 marooned, he seems to actually have his shit together and be doing something for real.

00:11:02.060 The rest of them are all staged. 0.99

00:11:03.460 Yeah.

00:11:03.840 And if they're staged, they're not real.

00:11:05.640 And if they're not real, then, then why are they pretending to hurt?

00:11:08.820 Yeah.

00:11:09.060 You know what I'm saying?

00:11:09.580 Yeah.

00:11:09.840 That is interesting.

00:11:11.400 Cause I, you know, I've, I've watched their shows and like, yeah, that doesn't seem like

00:11:14.160 they're in any type of danger.

00:11:16.600 They're not, it's completely set up and it's completely a matter of television production.

00:11:20.960 The difference is when survivor man was created, it was created by me, a guy who teaches survival.

00:11:26.740 I love survival.

00:11:28.100 I taught it and I came, first thing I wanted to do was just simply teach.

00:11:32.020 I just wanted to teach the skills.

00:11:34.160 The other shows came from the side of television producers.

00:11:37.780 What they wanted to do was jump on the bandwagon and produce a TV show.

00:11:42.100 Yeah.

00:11:42.360 Hence, you know, a guy like bear is nothing more than a TV host.

00:11:45.960 That's all he is.

00:11:46.900 He is not a survival anything.

00:11:49.060 Um, you know, I wouldn't say the same for Cody. 1.00

00:11:51.220 Cody knows his shit. 0.98

00:11:52.640 He's a, he's a good survival instructor, but the show dual survival is still just set up 1.00

00:11:57.340 and stage.

00:11:57.780 So there in life, the difference is mine came from being instructional and really learning 0.99

00:12:02.160 good shit. 0.97

00:12:02.820 And the other shows came from TV producers jumping on a bandwagon. 1.00

00:12:07.460 What do you think?

00:12:08.320 I mean, these shows are like, all these shows are like, you know, pretty popular.

00:12:11.920 Um, what, what do you think's going on?

00:12:13.560 Actually, you're an artist, right?

00:12:14.460 You're kind of a creative type.

00:12:15.300 I'm sure you think about this, you know, what's going on in the culture, right?

00:12:18.320 That would make these, like people would be drawn to these shows.

00:12:21.340 Like they'd want to watch, you know, you in the middle of nowhere, you know, surviving

00:12:26.300 with just you and your wits.

00:12:27.780 I mean, what, what do you, what do you think's going on with the kind of the wider culture

00:12:30.240 that makes people drawn to this?

00:12:31.820 Well, I won't comment on the other shows cause I think that's primarily entertainment.

00:12:36.820 Um, in my case, uh, you know, I was very lucky.

00:12:40.020 I mean, to back up a bit is to say that when I would create these shows, I would always

00:12:44.120 concentrate on and even meditate on the thought that, okay, I want to make something.

00:12:48.220 I want to do something today that's inspiring for people that will take them to a positive

00:12:52.020 place and be a positive influence in their life.

00:12:54.480 And lo and behold, I would get all these reactions by email of exactly that going on.

00:12:58.620 Things that had nothing to do with survival, just making, building shelters and making

00:13:02.460 fire.

00:13:02.880 How can that be inspirational?

00:13:04.360 But yet it was.

00:13:05.660 And I think that in a larger perspective, the survival itself, it touched on, you know,

00:13:12.040 certain people's way of looking inside and going, man, I could, I wonder if I could

00:13:18.200 do that.

00:13:18.480 I wonder if I could like have nothing and be like a cave person again and, and survive

00:13:22.260 like I was a caveman.

00:13:23.340 I wonder if I, and so we've got that, you know, that inner sort of thing of fantasy thinking,

00:13:27.740 I wonder if I could survive if I threw everything away and just had to get my water, my food,

00:13:32.960 cover myself from the cold.

00:13:34.740 Isn't that cool?

00:13:35.800 You know?

00:13:36.080 And then I think the other more fun superficial level are those that sort of watch more out

00:13:40.700 of morbid fascination.

00:13:41.660 It's like, Oh my God, is he really going to eat that?

00:13:43.780 That's the more fun side of it.

00:13:45.000 You know, that brought people together too, but as a result, the demographic is wide from

00:13:50.660 young kids right on up to senior academics and everything in between, because I think

00:13:55.140 it was really one of those big questions.

00:13:57.440 I wonder if I could do that.

00:13:59.320 All right.

00:13:59.520 If you are looking for another podcast to listen to that interviews experts to get insights

00:14:04.080 on how to live a better life, make better decisions.

00:14:06.280 One podcast I recommend you check out is the Jordan Harbinger show.

00:14:09.480 And I've had Jordan on my podcast two times already.

00:14:11.840 And I have him here again, Jordan, you just did an episode with general Stanley McChrystal

00:14:15.700 about his new book leaders myth and reality.

00:14:18.400 So what's, what does Stanley McChrystal say about the myth of leadership?

00:14:21.100 Yeah, he's got a lot to say about this and the book and our discussion centers around the

00:14:25.660 counterintuitive ability of leaders who value their own mission essentially over the lives

00:14:31.020 of the people who work for them.

00:14:32.200 Right?

00:14:32.440 So he's got to send people to things where he's like, you might die.

00:14:35.840 And I thought, wow, what is that going to be like?

00:14:38.540 What is that decision making process like?

00:14:41.220 And so we go over different leadership styles as well.

00:14:43.740 And the danger of these three myths of leadership.

00:14:47.580 And he goes into detail in all of this.

00:14:49.440 And this is a guy who's had to deal with sending people, I hate saying it this way, but to their

00:14:54.080 death or to serious bodily harm.

00:14:56.300 And he's really had to think about this.

00:14:58.000 So it was a very fascinating conversation with somebody.

00:15:00.280 You know, it's different when you lose a couple million dollars of your company's money.

00:15:03.240 It's a totally different game when you say, yeah, we lost, you know, 75 men and injured

00:15:09.080 countless others and a bunch of civilians died.

00:15:11.440 I mean, the stakes are just so high.

00:15:13.200 So that's episode 111, General Stanley McChrystalman on the Jordan Harbinger show.

00:15:17.340 Jordan, thanks for stopping by, man.

00:15:18.580 Thanks for having me on, man.

00:15:19.500 And now back to the show.

00:15:20.980 I think all of us have that, in modern life, have that question.

00:15:24.520 We never get to answer it.

00:15:25.760 Yeah.

00:15:26.180 But Les Stroud Survivorman does get to answer it.

00:15:29.560 And that's the cool part.

00:15:30.660 Yeah, that's very cool.

00:15:31.880 Are there, have you had any close encounters with death during the show, during the filming

00:15:36.560 of the show?

00:15:37.460 Yeah, I've had a few.

00:15:39.180 The two most, the biggest recollection is Norway episode going down the mountainside

00:15:44.620 and the potential for hypothermia there.

00:15:46.520 That was more potential than anything that I narrowly, you know, escaped.

00:15:50.400 But the heat stroke in the Kalahari Desert, that was very dangerous.

00:15:54.580 I mean, that was a, I did get heat stroke and it took five to six hours just to cool down.

00:15:59.100 And that was a very dangerous situation to be in for sure.

00:16:01.260 Have you had any incidents outside of the show, like before, where it's just like,

00:16:04.560 holy cow, I can't believe I did that and I survived?

00:16:08.100 Yeah, but more, I suppose being chased up a tree by a 1,500 pound moose was, that was

00:16:14.660 more, you know, one of those like crazy moments.

00:16:17.540 That was pretty dangerous.

00:16:18.860 I've been, you know, slightly hypothermic on lots of things.

00:16:22.380 But the thing is, I know what I'm doing.

00:16:24.880 And in many ways, I'm boring because I know what I'm doing.

00:16:28.720 I set things up so that, so that I don't have errors and problems.

00:16:33.700 You know, that said, I found myself sweating to the bone and trying to get to my cottage

00:16:37.700 this last New Year's Eve with minus 45 degrees Celsius.

00:16:41.360 It was ridiculously dangerous situation.

00:16:43.360 And there I am, survivor man, I'm supposed to know what I'm doing.

00:16:46.020 And yet I was caught, you know, in the middle of a frozen lake, you know, pouring with sweat,

00:16:50.940 trying to get to my cottage, a dumb move, struggling against slush, trying to pull a sled through.

00:16:55.700 So those things happen.

00:16:57.320 But the closer to death are probably more of the adrenaline things where I've been on a

00:17:02.260 wild ride, paddling it.

00:17:04.360 That's the situation where it's, you know, your heart's in your throat and pulled a couple

00:17:09.680 of those.

00:17:10.040 But by definition, I'm not an adrenaline junkie.

00:17:12.440 I'm very much about calculated risk.

00:17:14.380 And I think that's interesting.

00:17:16.320 I think a lot of people who are drawn to that, like extreme sports or like survival, they

00:17:20.520 would say that they're not, I've talked to lots and they say, I'm not an adrenaline junkie.

00:17:23.800 I like the risk, but I'm definitely not there for the rush.

00:17:27.520 That's a different game altogether.

00:17:28.780 Yeah.

00:17:29.820 You've traveled all over the world.

00:17:31.220 Is there any place in particular that you just loved filming at?

00:17:35.780 It's so hard to nail one, but absolutely the high Canadian Arctic is always a thrill.

00:17:40.600 Yeah.

00:17:41.680 And the high Peruvian Andes is a thrill.

00:17:44.380 And the Utah Canyonlands.

00:17:46.280 Those places are the types of places where I like to say you could throw the camera on

00:17:50.280 the ground and it's still going to get a good angle.

00:17:52.640 It's beautiful out there.

00:17:53.720 I've been, I've been to the Utah Canyonlands, but none of those other places.

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00:18:26.840 And now back to the show.

00:18:29.660 So let's kind of like some, I like to ask like some practical tips from people who are

00:18:32.960 experts.

00:18:33.820 When you're out, say if some, or one of our listeners finds themselves stranded in the

00:18:38.040 wilderness for some reason, right?

00:18:39.300 What are the most important things a person should do in that situation in order to survive

00:18:43.600 and make it in the wild?

00:18:45.220 Well, the big thing is to remain calm.

00:18:46.800 Always, always, always remain calm.

00:18:49.240 And the way I like to describe the way to do that is I've sort of devised this in my instruction,

00:18:54.200 as you know, I've got some books out and stuff like that.

00:18:56.160 And I want to do an updated version of my book called Survive, which is the manual, because

00:19:00.880 I've sort of come up with a new methodology I call the zone of assessment.

00:19:04.900 And that is when you find yourself in a situation like that, you look at your three zones

00:19:08.640 of assessment.

00:19:09.580 So number one is your body, your pockets, your coat, whatever you're carrying with you

00:19:13.080 and ask, you know, what have I got?

00:19:15.140 You know, am I injured?

00:19:16.020 What's in my pockets?

00:19:17.160 Zone of assessment number two is the immediate surroundings.

00:19:19.760 Same question.

00:19:20.800 And zone of assessment number three is the further beyond.

00:19:23.220 What's around the corner?

00:19:24.440 Once you do that and you determine, well, there's a cabin a half a kilometer away.

00:19:27.960 I've got a backpack full of food and a tent.

00:19:30.460 I've got a broken ankle and I've got food in my pocket and a flashlight.

00:19:33.600 Once you get all those answers, you now can make a proactively based decision or make a

00:19:40.860 decision and then become proactive because you have answers.

00:19:44.860 And that helps you to be even calmer.

00:19:46.960 And that is what people forget to do.

00:19:48.560 They run around and they get panicky and they forget.

00:19:50.680 But if you just sit down and do your three zones of assessment, you will have enough information

00:19:55.800 that you will know what to do next.

00:19:57.720 And that's what's vital.

00:19:58.820 All right.

00:19:59.000 So stay calm.

00:19:59.640 That's the most important thing.

00:20:00.580 Um, any advice for people who are listening?

00:20:02.940 They're like, yeah, I want to do this too.

00:20:04.120 I want to learn about wilderness survival.

00:20:06.460 Um, anything they can do to get started with survival training?

00:20:09.800 Yeah.

00:20:10.200 Well, firstly, is to remember that philosophically speaking, they have to understand something.

00:20:14.280 This is a contact sport.

00:20:16.160 Survival is a contact sport.

00:20:17.660 It's not like you watch an Olympic ski jumper.

00:20:20.260 And then the next day you strap on skis and go off and jump.

00:20:22.800 You don't do that.

00:20:23.800 Don't watch survivor man.

00:20:25.180 And then head off into the, into the bush next weekend.

00:20:28.080 It doesn't work like that.

00:20:29.300 You could die.

00:20:30.220 It's as simple as that.

00:20:31.840 The wilderness is a completely neutral zone.

00:20:35.600 There is nothing to be versus or against the wilderness.

00:20:38.140 Wilderness is just the wilderness.

00:20:39.520 If you screw up, you screw up.

00:20:41.380 It doesn't screw up for you, but anything can happen.

00:20:44.080 So you have to realize that to get involved in survival is to get involved with something

00:20:47.560 that is a demanding level of, of skill required.

00:20:52.100 Learn properly, go take the classes, go out with groups.

00:20:55.600 I went out for two years before I was doing solo stuff, you know, with groups and other

00:21:01.080 students and instructors, people who had my back.

00:21:04.100 That's what you really need to do to learn these skill sets.

00:21:06.780 And then, then when you can go on your own and stuff, boy, it just feels amazing.

00:21:11.500 But it's definitely not something you learn in one weekend and then you're a pro.

00:21:14.660 All right.

00:21:15.660 So you talked about the beginning, how you left music, rock and roll for eight years

00:21:20.660 before you, and it was eight years before you picked up a guitar.

00:21:24.120 And, but now you, you are playing again.

00:21:26.240 You're, aren't you, you've put out a new album.

00:21:28.380 I think you have another one coming out soon.

00:21:30.000 Is that correct?

00:21:30.700 Yes.

00:21:31.340 Yep.

00:21:31.520 Um, how has your experience with, you know, being out in the outdoors, has that affected

00:21:37.200 your music at all or influenced it at all?

00:21:40.760 Radically.

00:21:41.320 So actually, um, what's happened is my creative juices have never stopped.

00:21:48.760 I, I love being creative.

00:21:50.140 I love being an artist.

00:21:50.920 I love being prolific and, you know, so I write books and so on.

00:21:54.620 Well, musically speaking, I, I allowed it to start to seep back into my life, uh, a number

00:21:59.880 of years ago, and it's just been growing and growing.

00:22:02.240 And now I'm at a place where, and I believe this too, I mean, once a writer, always a writer.

00:22:05.840 And, and I'm at a place where my music is just, it, it, it surrounded with the influence

00:22:12.700 of, of, of who I've been and what I've done as Survivorman, from the crazy ceremonies I

00:22:18.020 did with remote cultures, filming the Beyond Survival series, to being alone on the middle

00:22:22.380 of a mountain as Survivorman, to all of my adventuring, which has taken me down a strong

00:22:27.680 path of environmental concern and, and, and wanting to celebrate nature and the earth

00:22:32.820 and also wanting to protect it.

00:22:34.060 So my music embodies that in a very big way.

00:22:37.120 And my performances have large video screens and storytelling and imagery from around the

00:22:41.920 world, combined with music.

00:22:43.840 That's like Dave Matthews meets Tool sort of thing, or Ray LaMontagne.

00:22:48.260 And, and so very much so, uh, it's all a blend.

00:22:52.040 If you come to see a Survivorman show, Survivorman in concert, you're going to get, you know,

00:22:56.740 Survivorman telling you stories and keeping it, and there's also going to be, you know,

00:23:01.700 a rock extravaganza and, and videos and, and, and all of that.

00:23:06.460 So yes, it's very well blended.

00:23:08.500 And you know what I like to say is, come on, man, I'm over 50.

00:23:10.840 Nobody wants to hear me do love songs.

00:23:12.340 So I'll do what I know really, you know, really well and, and, and, and speak on subjects

00:23:16.840 that I know really well and, and, uh, and, and, and, and go from there.

00:23:20.140 Um, so what can we see from you, uh, this coming year in 2014?

00:23:24.660 Well, right now we're still rolling out brand new Survivorman shows, um, new Survivorman

00:23:28.900 classic shows, Survivorman and Son, where I went out with my 16 year old son, uh, Survivorman

00:23:33.660 Bigfoot, where I'm on the trail of Bigfoot.

00:23:36.100 Uh, and I've been, you know, there, everything is doing so well that yes, I will definitely

00:23:40.280 be doing more filming and more Survivorman work.

00:23:42.500 And in addition, I've got two new albums coming out and hopefully very soon launching

00:23:47.120 a, um, a tour, uh, a world tour on, uh, as Survivorman and in this respect, I'm hoping

00:23:54.180 it's everything from opening up for a major act as a solo artist or my own stage with my

00:24:00.900 full band and large screens where you come and it's just the whole extravaganza and everything

00:24:05.460 in between.

00:24:06.700 And as you know, my, the only thing that I really maintain a virtuosity on is, is, is blowing

00:24:11.260 good blues harp.

00:24:12.520 And so I like to take the stage at festivals and rock, rock people's socks off.

00:24:15.940 But all of that is what you can expect because, uh, I'm, I'm, I really feel at my prime.

00:24:21.060 I really feel, um, full of energy and passion still.

00:24:24.440 It's been 12 years of doing Survivorman.

00:24:27.160 Wow.

00:24:27.440 Yeah.

00:24:27.840 And yet I feel more energized now than ever before.

00:24:31.260 Um, and I'm happy to, to keep up, to honor those that are the Uber Survivorman fans and bring

00:24:38.000 them into the new world of everything else that I do as well.

00:24:40.420 Very good.

00:24:40.960 Well, Les Stroud, uh, it's been a great conversation.

00:24:43.360 Uh, thank you so much.

00:24:44.640 Uh, it's been a pleasure.

00:24:46.180 Thank you very much.

00:24:47.260 Our guest today was Les Stroud.

00:24:48.640 Les is the star of Survivorman, where it's just him and a camera trying to survive in the

00:24:54.540 wild.

00:24:55.260 Definitely recommend you check out the show, check your local listings for airtimes.

00:24:59.020 And then you can also find out more about Les's work at lesstroud.ca.

00:25:03.860 You can find, read his blog and you can also find out more information about his music.

00:25:08.300 Well, that wraps up another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.

00:25:13.900 For more manly tips and advice, make sure to check out the Art of Manliness website at

00:25:17.920 artofmanliness.com.

00:25:19.200 And until next time, stay manly.

00:25:22.880 The Art of Manliness.

00:25:28.680 Yeah.

00:25:30.280 Yeah.

00:25:30.760 Yeah.

The Art of Manliness - April 18, 2014

#64： Survivorman With Les Stroud

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