Arctic Biologist Seth Beaudreault ｜ This Past Weekend #221
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 21 minutes
Words per Minute
192.98203
Summary
An Arctic biologist from the Great White North joins us to talk about iguanas, crackling, and ice cream. Seth Boudreaux is a wildlife biologist from Alaska and has been living and working in Alaska for the past 5 years.
Transcript
00:00:00.580
Today's guest is an Arctic biologist who has come down directly from the great white north
00:00:08.220
to let us know exactly what's going on and to answer some questions we have about, well, all sorts of stuff.
00:00:15.720
We're going to get into nature. We're going to get into the depths of the cold and Alaska.
00:00:41.080
Right now, coming from Costa Rica back up to Alaska.
00:00:44.740
I just went down to see my lady and spent some time at my place, kind of in the middle of the work season.
00:00:50.320
So, basically five months a year in Alaska, May through September, studying migratory birds and wildlife,
00:00:56.580
and then the rest of the year I'm down in Costa Rica.
00:01:00.000
And, yeah, because you sent me a picture one time of lunch, I guess it was, and it was some iguana claws.
00:01:14.140
Yeah, my lady's dad traps them in the yard and cooks them up, and it's not that great.
00:01:21.240
Yeah, if you're in a tight spot, some iguana will get you through.
00:01:24.020
Well, yeah, it looked, when I looked at them, and we'll have Nick put the picture up, too, but they looked, I'd have thought you'd have eaten a different part of the iguana.
00:01:39.020
Yeah, it was kind of all chopped up in there, but they're mostly bones, so it probably looked like a pot full of claws.
00:01:46.600
But when you cook them up, how do you even cook those?
00:01:51.920
I think he cooked them in a pressure cooker with, like, a chopped tomato and some garlic and onion, maybe, some chicken bouillon.
00:02:00.680
It's just kind of, you can cook it the same way you cook chicken.
00:02:09.700
I think a lot of rural people eat it occasionally, but a lot of people think it's gross and definitely don't eat it, too.
00:02:19.700
Like, it's almost like, when I was growing up, people would eat a lot of, like, hogshead cheese and stuff.
00:02:26.300
You know, where my sister lived, they cooked cracklings a lot of times, where they'll just, you know, take a bunch of fat and put it in a pot.
00:02:33.040
At the beginning, you're like, where's the meat, you know?
00:02:39.300
Oh, and they look, yeah, and they're just so dang tasty, really, and airy.
00:02:42.880
They're almost just, it's almost like, they're almost like cotton candy, like the inverse of cotton candy.
00:02:51.520
So, when you go up to, when you go to Alaska, what part of Alaska are you in?
00:03:00.660
Can you pull that up, Nick, the Brooks Range, so we can see that?
00:03:09.560
Yeah, and I don't even know where Fairbanks is, dude.
00:03:19.440
Fairbanks kind of right in the middle, and I'm up towards the top there.
00:03:30.020
That's where there's a lot of oil business going on, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
00:03:39.380
It's about a 10-hour drive to get up to where I work.
00:03:42.280
And if you go off the top, say you get to the top of Alaska, and you take a boat north, what do you hit?
00:03:51.380
And you can't really access the coast there without paying for a permit from the oil company to go on a tour.
00:03:58.740
You can go on, like, an hour-long tour where you get to dip your toes in the Arctic Ocean, but they don't want people messing around up there.
00:04:08.560
They kind of own the whole north coastline there.
00:04:17.500
It's, like, an industrial outpost where everything's made of metal, and there's just testosterone in the air.
00:04:26.260
But you can see some cool birds up there, spectacle eiters and phalaropes and king eiters and stuff.
00:04:37.040
Spectacle eiters, yeah, are real Arctic specialists.
00:04:40.060
They didn't even really know where they spent the winter until pretty recently.
00:04:43.920
The whole population goes to, like, an opening in the ice out in the Bering Sea, I think.
00:04:54.920
And when you're up there, like, how close are you getting to these birds?
00:04:59.140
Uh, my job, I'm a naturalist, uh, for the science station up there, and so every day I'm out there just trying to document what's happening with wildlife, when the bird species arrive to the area, when they leave in the fall, and then other wildlife.
00:05:14.320
You know, there's bears and wolves and wolverines and stuff up there, so I'm just out there spending time trying to see what's going on and document it, um, just for posterity, basically.
00:05:25.380
Yeah, so it's a sea duck, and they just breed, um, on the coasts in grassy ponds and then spend the winter out among the sea ice and openings.
00:05:43.020
Yeah, what, and so what is that, coming off the back, it almost looks like gills up there by its head, is that?
00:05:52.080
And can you have one of these at the house, or these more, these are?
00:05:54.760
These, you gotta get some special permits for that, yeah, they don't, they don't take kindly.
00:06:02.020
There's just not that many of them, and they breed in really specific areas.
00:06:06.360
And can you watch them fight, or they don't fight?
00:06:09.260
They seem pretty docile to me, they're just kind of sitting around on the water, minding their own business.
00:06:14.580
It's, you know, Arctic summer is really short, and so the birds kind of have to get there and get on with it, get the breeding done, and then get the hell out of there.
00:06:22.220
So, and that's when a lot of them do breeding, is in the summertime?
00:06:26.940
So, we have like 110 species of birds we've observed in the area that are coming from the lower 48 states, Central America, South America, even all the way down to Antarctica.
00:06:40.360
So, birds kind of just come, like everybody's kind of popping in, huh?
00:06:43.980
Who's kind of the randiest group, you know, because sometimes you're like on a plane to Vegas, and you've got different groups.
00:06:49.180
You've got a couple of German guys, you know, you've got one guy making his own cocaine in the backseat.
00:06:54.540
You know, you've got a bunch of Italians just, you know, drinking DECA 200.
00:06:59.800
You've got guys really, what kind of group gets up there and just really just turns it out?
00:07:04.160
Well, there's a bird called the blue throat that is mostly a Eurasian bird, and the population just barely extends over into Alaska.
00:07:12.580
So, you have, if you want to see them in the United States, you have to go up there.
00:07:20.220
They do, like, imitations of other bird species, and they'll do this repertoire that goes on for, they can imitate up to, like, 25 species of other birds.
00:07:29.460
But you hear, so you hear it, you hear them singing all this stuff, but it sounds a little off, like karaoke, where you're like, I don't think that's really the white-crowned sparrow, and it's that guy.
00:07:38.700
Oh, and so they're just kind of, they're like impersonators on those.
00:07:43.840
And, yeah, the females seem to get a kick out of the male with the biggest repertoire.
00:07:54.540
That bird's, like, going to be like, I'm going to go up there.
00:07:57.460
Now, can they, will they tempt other females from other species to come on over with, since they're using different people's songs?
00:08:04.040
I haven't seen them tempt females, but other species will definitely get agitated if they hear another bird singing their song, because they, when birds sing, they're basically advertising their territory.
00:08:15.000
So, they sing on the edges of their territory, and then the bird with the next territory over will hear it, and he'll kind of establish his border.
00:08:22.700
So, they suddenly hear their own song in a place where they thought they had their territory staked out.
00:08:30.800
So, it's, so when a bird, like, sings, it's always to let people know that this is my territory?
00:08:39.760
So, they're singing to let the females know that they've got this pad, and they're ready to roll.
00:08:47.380
I've got a little spot at the Days Inn or whatever.
00:08:56.640
If you hear a bird, they're letting somebody know about their territory, or they are letting females know that they're available.
00:09:04.000
And do, is it just male birds that sing, or female birds also sing?
00:09:08.260
Mostly just male birds sing, and females do little calls that they use to keep in touch with each other, and to warn each other of predators and stuff.
00:09:17.120
Yeah, I'm waiting for this one bitch to text me back right now, dude.
00:09:20.920
It's only been two weeks, so she's probably busy, you know, traveling or something.
00:09:28.800
How cold, so when you get up to Alaska, man, how cold is it, like, because people think of Alaska, and, you know, like, a lot of people, you think of, like, gold gold.
00:09:38.260
And, you know, and that sort of thing, you think of it being cold.
00:09:41.500
Is there a level where it doesn't matter that it's cold anymore, that you can't even, like, we can't even really feel a difference between, say, you know, 20 degrees below and, like, 80 degrees below?
00:09:54.880
When you get down to 40, I think 50 below is the lowest I've experienced.
00:10:02.620
And, yeah, so down to minus 20, it's very dry up there, at least in Fairbanks, and so you can still go skiing and stuff and have an all right time.
00:10:14.600
But when it gets colder than that, like, you can feel a breeze coming underneath the bottom of your cabin door just because the temperature difference is so great that the air is just, like, blowing in, trying to equal it out.
00:10:32.020
When there's differences in temperature, the air, wind is basically air moving from one place to another, right?
00:10:39.680
That's kind of a ridiculously simple way to describe wind.
00:10:47.440
But, like, when there's a big difference inside and outside, the air is trying to equalize to normal it out.
00:10:54.840
So you have these, like, 10-inch thick walls of a cabin or even the doors usually have several inches of insulation.
00:11:02.280
But just at the bottom, the only space where there's a little bit of air, it's just blowing in like your pants will go like this in the wind if you're standing near the door.
00:11:13.180
And it's so much colder outside than it is inside if you have it, you know, 60 inside that it just creates wind just trying to.
00:11:24.820
I get up there in early May, and that's when it's still winter a little bit.
00:11:29.680
There's usually a few feet of snow on the ground, but it's already full daylight, so I don't see the sunset until September.
00:11:40.100
So the sun's up the whole time you get there when you get there from May.
00:11:42.980
Yeah, which, yeah, as I get older, it gets harder to be used to that.
00:11:47.260
Like, we have blackout curtains, you know, to try to make it dark in my room and stuff, but you can't keep it out the light a little bit.
00:11:55.240
So, yeah, it's kind of still winter a little bit in early May, and that's when the birds start to arrive to the area.
00:12:01.880
So I'm out there all day, like, just visiting the same types of habitat and trying to keep track of when each species arrives to the area.
00:12:12.540
And so you do that for years and years and years, and then you have a nice record of exactly what was happening, you know, in any given year.
00:12:21.680
And you can track changes over time, and that's kind of how the good kinds of science work, where you're just—
00:12:28.280
There's people studying really specific stuff up there about carbon release into the atmosphere and all that,
00:12:34.200
but I'm just studying very basic, like, what are the animals doing?
00:12:37.960
And I really love that because I've just always been more of a generalist where I like being outside and just paying attention to stuff
00:12:44.760
rather than have my nose in the tundra sniffing gases or whatever they're doing.
00:12:50.540
Yeah, you're not as much of a corporate hunter.
00:12:56.600
When they—when you start to see, like, different patterns from birds, like, is there a time when you, like, really start to get scared?
00:13:04.660
Like, is there one species that you really start to pay attention to?
00:13:07.960
Yeah, there's a couple times that birds have frightened me a little bit.
00:13:12.540
There's a bird called the long-tailed jaeger that—it's a seabird, basically.
00:13:18.320
It's kind of like a gullish, ternish type of bird, but they're a predatory seabird.
00:13:28.060
Um, so they eat voles and lemmings and stuff, and when there aren't a lot of lemmings or voles around, those populations kind of crash occasionally, and when there's not any round, they'll just form groups of, like, 40 and just maraud around.
00:13:43.680
And one time I saw a group of 40 just coming over a hill, and there was kind of a thundercloud in the distance, and I was like—I didn't know that they did that yet.
00:13:50.960
It's like, why are these 40 birds coming at me?
00:13:54.940
Or you thought maybe they teamed up when we're coming to get you?
00:13:56.760
I thought there was a tsunami coming or something.
00:13:59.580
Yeah, you just—you spend enough time out there, you see weird things like that that most people, you know, don't know happen.
00:14:07.040
Yeah, how—I mean, animals are so in tune with Mother Nature, they're almost like—it's almost like they're, like, working for Mother Nature or something.
00:14:18.180
Or, like, you could get clues from them, you know?
00:14:20.880
I learn a lot about us from watching them, and I think that's one of the great things about doing that kind of work,
00:14:27.240
is just being out there and having the opportunity to be away from all the other noise that's going on
00:14:32.600
and just watch other things and have time to think.
00:14:36.720
And, yeah, I've been doing it for 17 years now, so, like, ever since I've been an adult.
00:14:43.900
And is it a lifestyle that you think you could get—that you would want to go away from,
00:14:47.920
or do you start to, like, look forward—I mean, do you really just look forward to that time up there?
00:14:52.520
Yeah, I mean, I'm away from my girlfriend, fiancé, for those five months,
00:14:57.940
which is why I go down and visit in the middle of that for 10 days, so it's really great to see her.
00:15:04.780
Like, it's definitely an alternative lifestyle, and a lot of couples, I don't think, could pull it off,
00:15:10.160
long-distance relationship, but we've been going nearly six years now, and it's working really great.
00:15:27.340
I mean, yeah, it would just be—I think it's almost something I'm going to have to have in my life.
00:15:32.660
I'm trying to think of, like, something that I think about, like, how quiet does it get?
00:15:39.120
It gets so quiet that you can hear your own heartbeat, like, in your ears.
00:15:43.740
Yeah, where there's no other sound, especially when there's no wind or anything.
00:15:48.780
And you don't—yeah, being here, I'm in the belly of the beast here.
00:15:56.700
Everybody else seems to think it's fine, but I'm looking out there like, this is so wrong.
00:16:02.340
Now, when you say that, is it just, like, the amount of people, the amount of, like, goings-on in one space,
00:16:09.420
Yeah, that just humans living so out of balance with nature and just everything that's here,
00:16:16.540
we depend on someone else somewhere else making and doing, you know?
00:16:26.380
Like, having watched animals for so long, you kind of realize, like, we are just another animal.
00:16:39.760
We just have changed our habitat a lot, you know, to suit us.
00:16:43.720
But it comes at such a great cost that when you're outside of this stuff and have the peace and time to kind of get out of it,
00:16:53.360
and then you come back to it, it's pretty shocking.
00:16:56.840
But it's like, you know, if you're in a bad relationship and your buddy could come up and tell you why you shouldn't get out of it?
00:17:05.580
You can listen and it makes logical sense maybe, but you come up with excuses for why you're just not going to do it yet.
00:17:11.860
And then years later, when you do, you look back and you're like, what the hell was I thinking?
00:17:17.860
Just because I had that chance to be outside of this human civilization, kind of.
00:17:24.260
And so you get a different perspective, I think.
00:17:26.640
But I can't expect to make people understand that in the same way that when you're in a bad relationship, like, someone could explain something perfectly.
00:17:37.160
Yeah, it's hard to see something when you're in it.
00:17:39.540
So it's nice to, like, down in Costa Rica, you know, I'm living in a tiny little village.
00:17:45.760
It's 200 people, and there's no other gringos around except for a couple of families of Mennonites.
00:17:56.940
They've got a little bakery, and they're pretty interesting.
00:18:01.280
They called, I got a Facebook message from someone I didn't know the other day saying, the Mennonites want you to call them.
00:18:08.840
And I'm like, what do the Mennonites need me for?
00:18:14.560
I saw a bird that wasn't in the book, and I'm like, yeah, it's a southern left wing.
00:18:17.820
Getting ready for Thanksgiving over there with those minnows, man.
00:18:22.220
And they're pretty self-sufficient, those cultures, aren't they?
00:18:27.260
The Mennonites are kind of weird where they use cell phones.
00:18:30.860
They don't use the internet, but they'll use cell phones.
00:18:36.200
They're really nice, but you feel a little weird around them because the women are covered, you know, from head to toe.
00:18:44.040
And I kissed an older Mennonite lady on the cheek by accident because that's a custom in Costa Rica when you say goodbye to someone.
00:18:52.840
And as I got closer, I kind of realized, like, she doesn't want this to happen, but I'm in too deep.
00:18:58.940
That's a lot of Gianni and Nick sexual history.
00:19:05.860
But, yeah, so being in these quiet places, it's great when people visit.
00:19:10.180
Like, I've got a lot of good buddies I grew up with who have come down to the place in Costa Rica.
00:19:15.600
Few have come up to Alaska, but I don't get that much time off up there.
00:19:19.240
So, yeah, my seven months a year off is down in Costa Rica, and that's where people come visit and can kind of, like, I think they, before they visit, they imagine me laying in a hammock on the beach drinking Imperial or something.
00:19:32.120
When they come down and see we're living in, like, a really small rural agricultural village, we're growing coffee.
00:19:39.680
Yeah, which is, that's kind of the best way we can be is just doing work that's meaningful to you, to people around you.
00:19:50.840
Yeah, I can imagine the exchange, the human exchange you get by helping others or being part of a small community.
00:19:58.500
Like, we're supposed to be living in tribal groups of, you know, up to 100 or 150, and then we've gotten so far away from that that I don't think,
00:20:11.240
But do you think there could be a correction that happens that brings us back?
00:20:14.620
Like, sometimes I feel like that's the thing that I wonder.
00:20:16.640
Like, does Mother Nature finally be like, oh, right, enough of this Sims bullshit, you know?
00:20:27.980
Every other species' population goes up and down and up and down.
00:20:31.480
Yeah, I mean, like, lynx and snowshoe hares, their populations kind of follow each other.
00:20:36.600
As the hare population gets high, the lynx start producing more kittens and then start eating all the hares and start dying off,
00:20:47.720
And if you look at a graph of the human population, since, like, 1700, we've just gone.
00:20:54.300
And we've done it by, you know, like, advances in agriculture and medicine and everything,
00:20:59.680
which some of them are great, but we can't keep going forever.
00:21:07.260
So, that's hard to watch happening, like, and that no one gives a shit, you know?
00:21:14.000
Like, I'm lucky the time I've had to be out in the wild and get that perspective,
00:21:19.500
but it makes it harder to be in the civilized world because no one else, like, knows what the hell I'm talking about.
00:21:30.200
You start to seem like something that's, it starts to seem like you're the odd man out.
00:21:36.940
I mean, I think especially in America, we don't notice that there's more, like, rural living in a lot of other cultures.
00:21:44.580
We don't realize that, like, in the whole globe that there's tons of it going on.
00:21:49.780
Yeah, like, when people are talking about how we're going to have smart cars driving everybody around here,
00:21:55.340
the rest of the world has no idea that's even being discussed.
00:21:58.920
Except for in big cities, maybe, but, like, yeah.
00:22:02.060
Yeah, it's funny, I go to Illinois, like, in the summer, and they have a small town up there,
00:22:11.120
So it's like, if you want to watch a video, dude, you got to drive with your buddy, you know, 19 minutes, you know,
00:22:17.200
and park outside the McDonald's to catch enough freaking phone heat.
00:22:20.660
So it's like, those people aren't even worried about, and it's more like an agricultural environment in that area.
00:22:34.360
They do all the stuff that we kind of try to get away from having to do ourselves.
00:22:43.540
I mean, especially, like, a lot of, like, media and stuff these days.
00:22:46.260
Because, you know, I mean, even Alaska, I'm sure.
00:22:48.700
I mean, CNN hates anything that's white, it seems like.
00:22:51.720
So I'm surprised that they even, I'm surprised they're not Alaska deniers.
00:22:59.380
I guess it's like, I mean, you have such an interesting insight into that because you get to see what,
00:23:04.280
it's like you're almost living in two different realms.
00:23:08.140
And just occasionally passing through this one and just being like, what the hell is going on, you know?
00:23:13.140
Because your layovers are here on your way back to Costa Rica.
00:23:17.780
Basically, between these two kind of remote areas, I pass through places like this.
00:23:23.140
And so I'm away for long enough where things have changed since I last came through, and I can see them.
00:23:30.800
Like, the Uber drive over here is scarier than any bear encounter I've ever had.
00:23:39.200
I mean, like, it's way more dangerous being on a highway here than being up there.
00:23:44.900
And now, so do you just, you must notice so many just like small, like, do you notice that you are alarmed at a personal level?
00:23:51.520
Or do you notice that you are alarmed at a natch, at a level of like, you know, tension in your body or things like that,
00:23:59.140
that from being in the city, like on the Uber drive, for example?
00:24:04.620
Like, I definitely feel way more in danger just because we're supposed to know everybody that we interact with.
00:24:11.800
That's how our brains have been for hundreds of thousands of years.
00:24:14.920
So to be in a place where I've got a couple buddies I grew up with that I visit when I'm here, other than that, everybody's a stranger.
00:24:23.620
Yeah, it is kind of wild to think of how many strangers you run across and run past.
00:24:30.040
So, and like, people are great generally, but you just, I think, evolutionarily, in the back of your mind, you're not at ease, or at least I'm not, you know?
00:24:39.360
And I think, you know, we're an ape, but we're obviously super adaptable, so most people have adapted to deal with that pretty fine.
00:24:55.140
Anybody who thinks we're not just hasn't thought about it enough, I think.
00:24:59.600
But don't you think, man, you got to think, if we're an ape, like, I've never looked at an ape, like, for example, I've never been to the zoo and been like, you know, miss the old place, you know?
00:25:11.280
Like, nowhere in my body does that reflect, and I'm not saying, I think maybe we might be monkeys that God created, you know?
00:25:18.900
Like, I think maybe, I mean, do you think we're really an ape?
00:25:24.620
Have you ever smelled your armpit, like, after a nice hike?
00:25:28.680
Yeah, a little bit when I was younger, you know?
00:25:31.760
I mean, I get the hang of it now, kind of, but, oh.
00:25:36.300
Yeah, I mean, like, you watch how we behave in groups and.
00:25:43.600
Like, it's a miracle any time we act above an ape, I think.
00:25:51.900
Oh, I am, the more that I, I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt, and then I'll go around to different places, then I'm like, damn.
00:26:01.780
You know, people, like, we will constantly let each other down.
00:26:06.000
But that's because there's so many of us so crowded in that we don't mean anything to each other.
00:26:12.660
Right, yeah, that's a, and that's a great statement.
00:26:14.540
That's exactly what I feel like here all the time.
00:26:16.520
So when you're in a small community where you're kind of interdependent, that's how we're programmed to function.
00:26:23.340
Like, in a group of apes, non-human apes or human apes, like, everybody's supposed to have a role.
00:26:31.220
And everybody kind of does something that contributes to the group every day.
00:26:35.340
So in larger cities, you're going to have a lot of people that they don't, they may have a role, but they're, it's not as prominent, or it's not as defined, or maybe they can't find their role.
00:26:48.680
And so you probably didn't create a lot of depression, I would bet.
00:26:52.160
So it's not surprising to me at all how much depression there is and how people are so disconnected.
00:27:01.600
Because we're in, no, I like thinking about this, this is interesting.
00:27:04.260
Yeah, because in cities, it's so funny, when I go home or I go someplace else, even when I go to other places in the U.S. even, I just feel somewhat, the second I leave here, I feel so much more relaxed.
00:27:17.520
You know, I just feel like, yeah, I don't know.
00:27:21.080
I just don't feel like, I have to just, I feel like I have to fight so hard here to just be a person, you know?
00:27:32.620
There's no quiet, there's no darkness at night, there's all the light pollution, like it's so against how we're, how we spent so much time being, just in this recent fraction of modern times, is the only time we've gotten.
00:27:50.460
What do you think are going to be some of the side effects of some of this that we're going
00:27:53.780
I mean, obviously we're seeing a lot of them now with like depression.
00:27:56.320
You know, people not feeling like they fit into the world, which makes sense.
00:27:59.960
It's like, how could you feel like you fit in when there's so many people all clogged together
00:28:04.380
and our genetics haven't really caught up to this new way of living?
00:28:16.440
Even after all this time, it still boggles my mind.
00:28:19.760
And I see no way out of it other than just each person trying to do good things where they
00:28:27.400
can, on a scale that they can see the results of, you know?
00:28:32.240
You know, so like these, we always think of these problems as big global issues, but they're
00:28:39.800
Just piled on top of each other and they're all results of individual people's decisions,
00:28:51.140
You can just see work that needs to be done, do it, and hope that you live to see the results
00:28:57.160
or that your kids do or something, but even that, we're, being an ape, we're not programmed
00:29:07.900
I mean, it's just like, here's the thing, dude, I've never seen an ape and been like,
00:29:23.560
But I've never seen an ape, yeah, not once have I looked at an ape and been like, oh,
00:29:33.880
I'm not saying that it's not a possibility, but you're out in nature, you're out in the
00:29:43.480
expanse of probably some of the most beautiful places you could probably see.
00:29:53.180
Like, the mosquitoes in Alaska in the summertime, I don't know if you know, but it's insane.
00:29:59.080
And that's not a racial slur, he's talking about the actual animal.
00:30:09.180
It's pretty dry, but with all the snow melt, that melts in the spring, and the mosquitoes have
00:30:15.580
laid their eggs in those areas, and they kind of start hatching out.
00:30:19.160
But there's videos that have been shot up where I work, where you will not believe the amount
00:30:25.060
Oh, you got to go to Jefferson Parish, dude, in Louisiana, bro.
00:30:31.180
Where we bring our mosquitoes, and you bring yours, and we watch them fight or something
00:30:50.800
But, well, hold on a second, because there's two things I'm thinking.
00:30:58.020
I know they're insects, but are they similar to birds or not?
00:31:00.200
They fly, and some people say it's the Alaska State bird, you know, some bumper stickers
00:31:07.020
But as far as, like, genetically, and like, are they similar?
00:31:28.520
And some, I repeated it, because some of our listeners still didn't get it.
00:31:40.720
But wouldn't that beauty make you think, like, okay, there's a higher power.
00:31:45.000
I mean, yeah, there's something, there's something bigger going on.
00:31:50.220
I just, with that question, I always just end up saying, I don't know, and I don't know
00:31:59.140
Like, basing your whole existence on that seems kind of intense.
00:32:03.140
I'm thinking that you know which one of the many thousands of answers is the right one.
00:32:08.000
But do you, but when you're in some of those spaces and it's so natural and it's so quiet
00:32:15.280
and you have the ability to even hear your own heartbeat, like, it must be, like, almost
00:32:20.380
like a really intense meditation that goes on at, like, a core level or at, like, a level
00:32:24.340
of even your cells that you can't even really fathom, probably a level of, like, peacefulness
00:32:30.520
Do you, does that make you feel, like, what insight do you get to, is there, like, something
00:32:38.120
bigger going on here or is there, do you feel, like, a part of something bigger or do you
00:32:47.560
You definitely feel more part of the big picture, but you also feel small because you are a tiny
00:32:58.200
Because especially if you're studying nature and stuff like that, you're really, I mean,
00:33:14.800
Now, what do you mean when you say you had an incident with a swan?
00:33:17.300
I mean, I've had, I've had, I mean, I've had a couple, I had some fucking shit go off
00:33:22.040
in Oregon one time, but, you know, I was trying to jog in these.
00:33:26.160
Dude, when some of those animals group up, they get real violent.
00:33:37.460
And you really, you went toe to toe with a swan up there?
00:33:55.960
And the wings are probably more than six feet across.
00:34:13.400
There have been so many, dude, I remember they used to have this group in a, you know,
00:34:16.440
I use this term, I don't know, loosely or however I use it, but they used to have a group that
00:34:20.700
would come through our college in town called, it was fag fist fights, right?
00:34:24.600
And it was gay men that would fist fight each other in a boxing ring.
00:34:29.480
You'd pay $6 or something, and you got a beer, and you got to watch these guys go at it.
00:34:33.280
And, but I would pay anything to watch, you know, a biologist and a four and a half foot
00:34:47.340
What's something, so a lot of, do they strike at you?
00:34:52.060
Yeah, I got it by the neck right away, so it couldn't get me with the beak, but it was
00:35:01.020
And the fact that it went to the body first, that's always the best strategy.
00:35:07.180
But, yeah, so I had it by the neck, and it was beating me with its wings.
00:35:14.740
So does it feel, like, painful, or does it feel, like, scary?
00:35:17.560
Kind of scary, just because I thought, you know, I had shot it once, and that was the
00:35:25.020
You just shoot it point blank, or how'd you shoot it?
00:35:34.860
Man, sorry to call you out, dude, but damn, bro.
00:35:37.200
I know, but dude, we had no more food, and we had another week to go out there, so what
00:36:00.280
I mean, we had this guy, this pilot was supposed to fly over, drop off two dry bags full of
00:36:06.020
food, and he was supposed to get 100 feet off the water, but because of the weather, he
00:36:10.860
was 500 feet up, so these dry bags hit the water, exploded.
00:36:16.560
So all we could salvage, we ran out into the river and we're trying to grab what we
00:36:23.000
We got a small bottle of whiskey that the pilot had included for us just to be nice.
00:36:31.080
And so that's your rations for what, the next week?
00:36:41.020
So, and we were, you know, probably a couple hundred miles outside of Fairbanks, I think.
00:36:46.860
So there's no getting out of there, and we're up a tiny little river where you have to float
00:36:51.660
all the way down to get to a place where a plane, a float plane can come get you.
00:36:56.120
And so, yeah, we just had to start hunting grouse and geese and ducks and whatever there
00:37:01.320
was, but we had a limited, we weren't planning on hunting.
00:37:04.520
We have guns for bear protection, so we didn't have that many bullets, you know?
00:37:09.000
So you had to, did you guys miss a couple times, or did you?
00:37:15.360
And is it a pistol, you walking right up on them and shooting them in the back, or is
00:37:26.420
Some grouse out there chilling, dude, you know?
00:37:34.480
Yeah, thinking about owning land one day, and you fucking just come up and blow them in the
00:37:39.460
They're, grouse aren't that smart, like, yeah, I've hunted them before, and they'll
00:37:43.100
get into a tree, and they don't realize that they don't blend in with the tree.
00:37:47.180
They blend it in when they're on the ground, but then they're in a tree, and you can see
00:37:51.720
They think they still blend in, and they're like, I see you, man.
00:38:02.700
We had a fox in school when I was young, and somebody stole it, right?
00:38:12.340
Yeah, there's red foxes up there, the occasional arctic fox.
00:38:18.500
You watch them hunting voles through the snow in the spring, and they're walking along on
00:38:23.820
top of the snow, and then they'll cock their head and kind of triangulate the sound.
00:38:28.480
They're hearing the vole moving under the snow.
00:38:30.480
Then they pop up into the air and dive into the snow, and probably six times out of ten,
00:38:44.600
Is that one of the most unique hunting techniques that you see out there?
00:38:48.680
Yeah, that's one of the few species I've actually got to see hunting.
00:38:52.220
Even all this time up there, I've seen wolves chasing a caribou once.
00:39:02.440
They're like the Greg Luganus of the animal kingdom.
00:39:06.480
So they hear the rodent under the snow, and then they get that lift and just hit them.
00:39:14.960
They triangulate the location, and then I don't know how.
00:39:25.400
Now, what are some of the larger animals that you'll see up there in the area that you're in?
00:39:28.400
Grizzly bears, the occasional moose, muskox, caribou.
00:39:33.980
Which ones are the most friendly do you find to humans?
00:39:43.840
You know, are any of those larger animals you see up there friendly?
00:39:51.440
You can trick them to come closer to you by putting your arms up, and it kind of looks like a pair of antlers.
00:39:56.880
And either their eyesight's not that good, or they're not that bright, but they'll start walking towards you wondering if they're going to fight you or try to copulate.
00:40:18.260
They're just eating vegetation and staying put pretty much.
00:40:24.320
Do you get a sense of what the Ice Age was like and stuff when you're up there?
00:40:32.820
Do you start to get a sense of, wow, what people have gone through over history and stuff like that?
00:40:37.580
Yeah, you'll find not only fossils from 300 million years ago of coral and stuff when it used to be under the ocean up there.
00:40:47.540
But then you'll also very rarely find artifacts from native folks from 10,000 years ago or whatever.
00:40:54.020
I found a little spearhead sitting on top of this little knoll.
00:40:58.660
I went up there because it looked like a good viewpoint, and I'm sitting there looking for animals and stuff, and then I see sitting next to me this spear point.
00:41:06.180
So, someone else thought it was a good viewpoint also 10,000 years ago.
00:41:21.380
I would feel so like, wow, like I'm a part of something.
00:41:27.260
And then you go back to the station and eat raviolis.
00:41:33.840
You cut that microwave on and it really kind of shuts down those inner beacons, huh?
00:41:39.100
Yeah, I guess it's like, it's hard to not be stuck sometimes, though, in this society
00:41:51.360
Is it just the, like, where we are kind of like, and this isn't everyone.
00:41:55.480
Obviously, this is more cities than rural areas.
00:41:57.560
Yeah, I think it's the natural tendency for most animals to try to make their situation
00:42:03.260
easier, not necessarily better, or maybe in a certain definition, but easier.
00:42:09.620
Like, if a dog gets unlimited food, they might just eat themselves into obesity, right?
00:42:16.560
And it's not good for them, but they might, if they could articulate their thoughts, they
00:42:24.980
So, I think every little incremental change along the way has seemed like a benefit to
00:42:32.820
us, and it has been in a sense, but there are always unforeseen effects that come off
00:42:38.280
of it that you can't predict, and by the time they're really prevalent, you're already
00:42:43.780
too far used to the thing that you can't really think about going back, you know what
00:42:49.760
Yeah, if you get used to, like, doing Halloween and they tell you no.
00:42:54.220
Dude, you're going to be, you're still going to be, you'll lay on the porch forever, you
00:43:03.100
I can totally see that, and it's really interesting because then even as humans, we have the addictive
00:43:08.800
We have the ability, the easy ability to, like, that sugar lizard that just gets with,
00:43:16.000
It's like you really have to fight that instinct these days in order to get to a more natural
00:43:24.680
And most people aren't interested in that at all, like, would never spend five minutes
00:43:33.300
Because I think a lot of times that we're all on this struggle where we're trying to,
00:43:39.660
We know that some of the stuff you're saying, we get it, we can feel it, you know?
00:43:42.940
We know that I'm taking these easy way outs here and there, and I know it's not benefiting
00:43:50.280
But, but then you see some people and you're like, oh, they don't, they don't stand a chance.
00:43:56.160
Not this, maybe their next generation or two might, but whoever this person is, you know,
00:44:01.260
I've seen some people wandering around a gas station sometime, like, oh, this dude,
00:44:12.660
You know, this dude will lay on the grill after a while.
00:44:22.000
Like, it's just, you meet people that are like, and it's not their fault, really.
00:44:28.720
Or it's the culture where if everybody's doing this one thing, it's so hard to go against the grain.
00:44:33.500
And that's the biggest part of the trouble is that the way I talk about things, a lot of people say, like, what, do you want to go back to the 1700s?
00:44:45.660
Like, there were good things we gave up along the way that we shouldn't have given up.
00:44:49.540
Like, the great things we've come up with in medicine.
00:44:51.880
Yeah, like witchcraft, I think, bro, to be honest with you.
00:44:57.680
They're not laughing at any of my jokes either.
00:45:03.500
We've created a real totalitarian environment that we're not very proud of sometimes.
00:45:09.760
But so isn't it crazy to think then that, like, we're, it's like survival of what will be the fittest then moving forward?
00:45:21.680
Is it people that are able to realize that, like, not to give in to all the comforts that are able to have some awareness?
00:45:34.120
Because survival of the fittest used to be it was the strongest.
00:45:40.020
But you had to also, like, you had to align yourself with somebody that was strength because you would need that support.
00:45:45.940
But now I'm wondering what it's becoming in our society, in America anyway.
00:45:51.400
I feel like we're adapted to get the next generation going, but not really anything beyond that, which logically we shouldn't be programmed to think that far into the future.
00:46:01.840
Because every other animal just tries to get the next generation out, and then they've done their part, you know.
00:46:09.680
Forget what the hell I was, where I was going with that.
00:46:12.720
Happens to me in the middle of every sentence, dude.
00:46:14.940
Imagine running into a room to tell people something and they're forgetting what it was.
00:46:21.140
It's like, dang, dude, this is going to be good.
00:46:23.640
And then you're just standing there with a murder weapon in your hand.
00:46:37.400
When you're up in Alaska away from people that long, and then you come back, do you find it hard to communicate with people?
00:46:46.020
I think because I work alone most of the time up there, and I have my thoughts, you know, on tumble dry up top, yeah, it can be weird trying to articulate these kind of ideas, I guess.
00:47:05.940
When you come back to us, like when you come back to like, you know?
00:47:09.180
No, like it's not stupid at all because you guys are well adapted to your situation here, you know?
00:47:16.340
Like maybe not long term as a species, but everybody's just kind of doing what they got to do, you know?
00:47:28.600
Like people are here passing through to get enough to get to the next whatever they would rather be doing or an environment that would be more comfortable.
00:47:35.600
It's really a, almost for all, for the entire world, this is almost just like an airport, it feels like.
00:47:43.600
It feels like we're still in just like a very far terminal of the airport right here.
00:47:48.300
And even when I'm at my apartment, it feels like that.
00:47:50.660
I'm like, man, I'll just never leave the airport.
00:47:54.560
What is amazing about L.A. is how quickly you can get way away from here.
00:47:59.860
Like the hike I went on yesterday with my buddy up in the San Gabriel Mountains, I guess.
00:48:07.060
It was Dawson Saddle up to Thoop Peak, I think.
00:48:12.880
Which is up at like 9,000 something hundred feet.
00:48:16.680
And we maybe passed 10 people on the trail in four or five hours.
00:48:29.700
You can have a 360 view of everything way out to, I don't know if it's Palmdale, where
00:48:37.280
I've been to Eagle Rock or something out there before.
00:48:39.920
It was about an hour and 40 minute drive to get out there.
00:48:45.380
Was there a chairlift that if you wanted to, like it was around there in that area?
00:48:53.320
And you can see L.A. and downtown in the distance in the smog.
00:48:56.660
And it's just like all of that is happening down there.
00:49:09.360
I'll show you some fucking bush tits right over here off the 101.
00:49:18.760
That's the rules we have going on around here, bro.
00:49:25.880
I remember jerking off back in the day to National Geographic, you know?
00:49:37.840
Do you think, like, do you get a sense when you're up there by other animals that they
00:49:44.980
Do they know, like, do they think that you're like an anomaly or like an abnormality, do you
00:49:50.500
It is kind of weird because, yeah, they're not evolved to know what we are.
00:49:55.220
I guess, you know, native people have been there for 10,000 years, so maybe that's enough
00:50:00.500
Most of them run away like they seem to understand that whatever you are, it's probably not good.
00:50:04.820
But I've had birds laying on my head, you know?
00:50:10.100
So there's some animals that seem to see you as, like, something to land on, I guess.
00:50:14.840
Do you find that animals are still, like, curious about it?
00:50:17.400
Like, do you find that they're curious a little bit?
00:50:21.100
They're mostly just minding their own business and trying not to get eaten by something.
00:50:32.360
Like, they'll take a bite and then look up, and they just can't relax.
00:50:38.800
And then the migration, you know, like, they migrate using the celestial sky, so they orient
00:50:49.700
So they operate totally, their migration patterns, they base those after looking at the stars
00:50:55.440
They know where the North Star is, and they orient based on that.
00:51:00.340
So they have these kind of, like, tracks in their genetics, basically.
00:51:04.680
Some of them have it in there, and some of them learn it.
00:51:07.720
But that's, it's sad, because, like, all these cities and all this light pollution totally
00:51:15.520
You got a couple of sparrows jerking off outside of Detroit for no reason.
00:51:23.200
Yeah, like, how we're damaging, like, how we're, like, we don't even realize the effects
00:51:29.340
Yeah, because most people never would have a reason to stop and think about it.
00:51:33.840
Like, the Twin Tower Memorial in New York, they have these two pillars of light that they
00:51:40.100
put up around that time, I think, in late September.
00:51:45.120
And there's videos of literally hundreds and thousands of birds flying around and around
00:51:53.120
And if they see a certain number of birds up there in the lights, they'll shut them off
00:51:58.360
But just that alone is killing probably thousands of birds a year.
00:52:07.460
Like, we're doing something that we feel like, humans are doing something that we feel
00:52:10.340
like, is honoring, you know, others, that it's, you know, it's out of love and, you
00:52:16.620
And then, even in that space, we're killing thousands of fucking birds every year.
00:52:24.460
Some guy's shoveling him into the ditch in the morning.
00:52:33.940
And I think any time you can ask yourself, what is the cost of what I'm doing or what
00:52:39.500
I'm participating in, you find, you go further down the line and you realize things that you
00:52:45.560
never would have figured out from the get-go and that nobody really talks about.
00:52:50.720
We try and think about that even sometimes just here with podcasts, like, trying not to
00:52:56.640
You know, we're trying, like, you know, I'm trying to think of what else...
00:53:00.280
Yeah, I mean, I think we try to affect the things that are close to us.
00:53:09.060
It's like you grow up, or I grew up anyway, I guess, like, you end up working in a business
00:53:14.740
or in society, and it's kind of built where it's like you want to, you know, achieve things
00:53:24.740
And with those, it's almost like you don't even realize the side effects that are going
00:53:31.680
Like, the whole system we're a part of isn't even...
00:53:34.600
It's not working, like, very, like, copacetically with nature all the time.
00:53:38.420
Because we don't have to see the effects of anything we do now.
00:53:43.700
Somebody else is doing everything to produce the things that we use and depend on.
00:53:48.740
So, back when we were in hunter-gatherer groups, we saw the effects of everything you did.
00:53:54.820
Yeah, you couldn't eat everything there was because then there was nothing left.
00:53:58.760
Here, we just kind of pretend that there's an endless supply of everything, and we create
00:54:17.560
It's totally sad, and that's one of the hardest things, is, like, feeling so at odds with the
00:54:23.440
rest of how most of society works, and kind of feeling like it really shouldn't be like
00:54:28.440
this, but you've got to play the game a little bit, but...
00:54:40.240
Is it hard not to look at society as, like, oh, well, they're bad people?
00:54:46.440
And that would just be an emotional, frustrated reaction, you know?
00:54:50.420
But I know everybody is in the situation they're in, and if I was in a different situation,
00:54:56.640
I would have, you know, less freedom to make choices, too.
00:55:03.340
But that's why, like, where we live down south, that small village where everybody knows everybody,
00:55:10.460
and you kind of help your neighbors out, you trade bananas and oranges and stuff.
00:55:17.160
We grow coffee, and we drink our own coffee, you know?
00:55:21.380
It's nice to just, when you can do something for yourself, do it.
00:55:24.560
Because it hits this kind of instinctual feeling we have where that was a part of our genetics, you know?
00:55:34.620
Do you feel like we're far from that if we really tapped into it?
00:55:43.360
Like, have we already become too much of, like, you know, zombies, you know?
00:55:48.180
Like, I think every other species gets knocked back down by starvation, predation, or disease,
00:55:58.220
And we keep pushing those things off, but we can't do it forever.
00:56:07.240
Like, if I die in, like, a big, you know, thing that's crazy, it's like a, you know,
00:56:12.360
a war for food or something, at least it's gonna be exciting.
00:56:15.840
It's gonna be a good couple hours of television, you know?
00:56:24.340
Like, sometimes I think about that, like, imagine being in, like, a real shootout or
00:56:27.460
a real, like, you know, like, you see a Leonardo DiCaprio fight that bear in the remnants
00:56:38.940
It's almost, like, just to feel that alive for a minute.
00:56:43.040
You know, I was talking the other day to this UFC fighter, and he was telling me, like, I've
00:56:48.580
seen a picture of him, he'd lost a fighter, he'd come in second.
00:56:52.240
And I was like, man, but you still look like you had, like, gone through something.
00:56:57.900
He's like, every fight you go through, it's like you come out...
00:56:59.960
Even if you don't get the outcome you want, he's like, you come out the other side, there's
00:57:04.860
You have new revelations about yourself, like, at a level that you didn't even really know.
00:57:10.860
Man, it's so enviable than, like, sometimes just beating this drum out here.
00:57:17.500
Obviously, you know, like, you know, it's comfortable, for sure.
00:57:25.800
If I'm very much rewarded at, like, a level inside of me that is almost like a light that's
00:57:32.220
getting dimmer and dimmer over time, because we just keep throwing these, like, blankets
00:57:37.820
I think you do good things, you know, for the single moms and stuff like that.
00:57:43.720
You've definitely had an eye for seeing things that you can do that are good and do them.
00:57:53.180
You know, and I'm lucky I got, you know, Nick and Johnny, everybody's super, you know, we
00:57:59.060
You know, Nick and I have similar backgrounds in some of that.
00:58:01.340
And, yeah, but I think even just hearing you say that, like, you know, touch the things
00:58:10.420
When I start saying, oh, we all need to be like this, it's like when...
00:58:13.440
That's when we get preachy and then we just get disconnected.
00:58:26.860
It's like, if something's going to be different, we have to make it.
00:58:36.000
So the problem is always down at the individual level.
00:58:43.620
If all these cities burn or if there's an electric outage and we're never able to get
00:58:48.520
it back up or something, you know, like, immediately, you really quickly are going to be...
00:58:53.860
Like, your brain is going to be asking yourself, who am I?
00:59:16.080
If something does go down, like the power, you're right.
00:59:19.900
Can you imagine how quickly it would be complete chaos?
00:59:27.980
The water suddenly doesn't come to your apartment.
00:59:38.860
Like, I can grow some things, but not enough to...
00:59:42.060
But, dude, you could fucking, bro, let's be honest, you could rear naked choke a swan.
00:59:47.760
You could have fucking twice the chance we are.
00:59:55.740
You can see his ass in the movie Ma, if you ever want to see that movie.
01:00:00.560
But, yeah, dude, for no reason in the middle of the movie they make Gianni get naked.
01:00:09.040
So, I feel like a lot of people all the time are like, oh, well, where do I start?
01:00:12.800
There's so much, like, I feel like I'm so behind.
01:00:15.300
Like, what's something that someone could start doing, like, every day?
01:00:18.880
Like, somebody could do something where they could further themselves to help the environment instead of just destroying it?
01:00:23.980
Well, I think the Amish, like, you wouldn't want to live like the Amish, right?
01:00:35.740
Humans do best when their choices are limited, I think.
01:00:40.060
And if you have every new technology that comes out, the Amish asks themselves, what is this going to do to our community?
01:00:49.500
And they usually come to a conclusion that they shouldn't accept this new technology.
01:00:54.920
And we should do a lot more of that on the individual level.
01:01:00.540
Like, I kept off from getting a smartphone for a bunch of years longer than most people.
01:01:05.220
But then I got one, and I spent too much time on it.
01:01:08.600
And we're so easily falling into those holes, you know?
01:01:18.740
Like, people need to get away from light pollution and noise pollution and just get to a quiet place and sit there and think a little bit, you know?
01:01:27.020
Like, so many of our politicians and stuff who are making big decisions that affect everybody, most of them have never been to a wilderness area.
01:01:36.680
Like, they don't even know what it is to be a human animal.
01:01:40.240
They just know, like, what it is to be living in modern society and think that that's how everything has to be, you know?
01:01:47.720
Yeah, and we, and it's so funny even hearing, like, it's making me think, like, we think that so much.
01:01:52.540
Like, even just being in L.A. for a while, you start to think that everybody's similar to you, that everybody's like you.
01:01:57.420
Yeah, which probably makes you have some desire to be different, which makes a lot of people act freakishly, probably.
01:02:10.040
I couldn't, I was listening to you, but I couldn't process what you were saying.
01:02:13.220
And that's probably my, it's, you know, sometimes it's fucking, you know, sometimes I go offline, man, and that's it.
01:02:20.960
Sometimes I'm looking at stuff, I don't really know what's going on.
01:02:25.580
But, you know, here's what I was thinking about.
01:02:29.660
Like, if you're just born into an environment, like, it's nobody's fault.
01:02:36.100
It's just like, I guess, what type of life do we want to know?
01:02:40.300
Or what type of, yeah, what can, like, what type of life do we want to live?
01:02:46.900
What do we want to see, like, the capabilities in ourselves?
01:02:51.080
Some cultures, especially, are very happy with just, like, comfort.
01:02:54.680
And, you know, and then I think there's some people, or not cultures, but some people, they
01:03:01.660
When things are available, it's hard to deny yourself taking them.
01:03:11.900
So we get blamed for slavery, but they really did it.
01:03:17.540
It's like, when things, and it's like, I wonder if that's just the story of humans, how we're
01:03:28.420
And even a bird, you set a nice little thing of bread over two, you know, two branches from
01:03:33.040
a bird, that guy's going to fucking be over there.
01:03:43.160
A coyote ate my fiance's sandals the other day, and I was kind of surprised.
01:03:52.340
I was kind of surprised that a coyote had the spare time to be doing that kind of stuff.
01:03:57.360
Like, shouldn't they be out finding something to eat?
01:04:03.360
You're going to see a coyote in sandals like a whole once or an hour.
01:04:10.960
When do you go back into the Great White North?
01:04:19.080
People don't even realize, if we get to the north of Alaska, you're almost, you're pretty
01:04:25.760
I've been to one of the Alaskan islands where you can see Russia.
01:04:28.940
It's like 35 miles away, and you just see this icy cliff.
01:04:32.440
And the native folks said that they used to go back and forth, because the Siberian
01:04:37.500
UPICs speak the same language as the ones on the Alaska side.
01:04:41.060
They used to trade ladies back and forth and stuff, and now they can't anymore.
01:04:54.640
And so you can see really great distances, and yeah, it's incredible.
01:05:02.160
All the little plants start growing a little bit and flowering.
01:05:08.140
And then by late August, it starts snowing again, and everything dies.
01:05:11.920
And then September, it starts getting covered in snow again.
01:05:18.140
Yeah, very condensed into a short period of time.
01:05:22.260
And yeah, so once the migratory birds take off, then I basically follow them down to Costa Rica
01:05:38.340
Well, I haven't seen one up there and then seen the same individual down there, but I
01:05:43.640
have seen birds return that have gone on migration and come back to the same exact places.
01:05:50.160
So, because I've done bird research in Costa Rica, and you band them.
01:05:58.380
And so, yeah, we studied golden-winged warblers, and they winter in Central America and breed
01:06:08.500
So they fly all the way there, navigating by the stars, and then it's past the breeding
01:06:14.120
season, don't get eaten by anything, reproduce, and fly all the way back to the same patches
01:06:25.300
Do you think it's some of that same type of thing?
01:06:28.320
Or is it just more of like a natural thing that they have to go right back to the same
01:06:38.380
They have territories, so they'll come back to the same spot and defend a territory, even
01:07:08.720
You, yeah, you show up to shore and there's two million of them.
01:07:13.380
Dude, you'll plan it, you know, you'll plan a route in anybody that's freaking, you know,
01:07:19.800
Yeah, I worked, uh, in Antarctica as well, so I've, I've done...
01:07:30.820
I worked on a sail ship, uh, a hundred-year-old Dutch tall ship, um, that took people down to
01:07:37.440
the Antarctic Peninsula from Argentina and back.
01:07:41.180
And, uh, and, and once we did a trip all the way over to South Africa from South America
01:07:46.180
via Antarctica, visited Tristan da Kuna, which is the most remote inhabited island in the
01:07:53.200
It's like 400 inbred people living on this volcano in the middle of the Atlantic.
01:08:04.880
Do they seem really, like, in tune with what's going on?
01:08:07.080
Or are they just, like, five-armed and just, you know, hoping for the best?
01:08:11.900
They weren't even on a monetary system until 1960.
01:08:17.800
And every family has, like, a couple of sheep and a cow and a certain size piece of land
01:08:25.640
They were nice people, but you could tell that after being there a couple days, they're
01:08:31.900
Because you kind of, what, you upset the flow a little bit?
01:08:35.020
Yeah, just, maybe just because, like we were talking about, you're supposed to know everybody
01:08:42.160
And then you have this ship sailing up and a bunch of scruffy people from Holland and
01:08:49.340
stuff coming up and taking pictures of everything.
01:08:55.500
I'd like to go over there and we could do a group trip.
01:09:04.700
Like, there's no other way to get there because it's too far for any...
01:09:08.740
And when you pull up, like, what are these people doing?
01:09:10.900
I mean, they're all, I mean, like you said, it's very tribal, huh?
01:09:22.420
They're all descended from sealers and whalers who shipwrecked there.
01:09:40.640
My last question for you are, this is my last thing I want to think about that everybody,
01:09:44.200
you know, it's obviously a big topic, always global warming, you know?
01:09:52.360
Do you feel like that it's just the flow of things that, you know, that there's a cycle?
01:09:58.600
Like, what's some of your vibe from being up there on some of the front lines of just
01:10:04.380
Where I work, there's a lot of people studying climate change.
01:10:11.220
And of course, it's because of us, like, at least to a certain extent, like, the amount
01:10:16.760
of people on the earth burning things and using up resources, like, there's no way that
01:10:24.260
So, but to me, that's kind of like, it's a big concern, but even if we fix that, we'd
01:10:31.680
still not be really getting anywhere as far as I'm concerned.
01:10:37.480
And do you see, like, a lot of the people that are up there doing research and that kind
01:10:40.720
of stuff, do you trust all the research that they're doing?
01:10:42.600
Like, sometimes it just seems like, I mean, people these days, especially, you can create
01:10:49.940
And I'm not denying climate or anything like that.
01:10:52.360
I'm saying, like, but, you know, people can create anything they want.
01:10:55.860
Everybody has the technology to create any story that they want to.
01:11:01.360
Like, some of it seems, like, kind of motivated, like, in, like, negative ways?
01:11:04.820
Or do you feel like it's honest, just research, like, people want to know what's going on?
01:11:08.700
I think the research is pretty honest, trying to document what's going on.
01:11:12.620
But you definitely see people studying things that they know they'll be able to get funding
01:11:18.740
Right, so you have to, yeah, you almost have to, you have to plan ahead, because you want
01:11:24.160
Because, yeah, even if your idea is too obtuse sometimes, though it could be more helpful,
01:11:28.600
a government agency or something, they're not going to get the funding for that.
01:11:36.380
And there's up to 150 people there during the peak of the summer.
01:11:41.300
There's only about three people there during the winter most of the time.
01:11:47.300
And a little bit of murder every now and then, or what's that?
01:11:51.040
No, there's never been any real, that's the thing, is like, I don't know, we look back
01:11:56.060
at hunter-gatherer people, or small groups of people, and think that it was all violence
01:12:00.640
It really wasn't, like, it was occasional skirmishes with neighboring groups and stuff,
01:12:07.960
There was high infant mortality, but if you made it through that, you generally lived
01:12:14.840
Yeah, babies die, especially if you've got an open fire going on, dude.
01:12:30.000
It's just different value systems, you know, that we can't imagine taking part in, but
01:12:35.000
if we were born there, we'd think it's totally normal.
01:12:39.420
I almost feel like a little bit, not embarrassed, I guess, talking to you a little bit, but
01:12:43.200
like, I almost feel a little ashamed of our own existence a little bit.
01:12:46.860
Not from you as a person, but just, like, thinking about that, because you never think
01:12:52.400
about it, you know, like you never really, I don't know, or I don't anyway, a lot of
01:13:00.260
And I think you actually reached out to me originally saying, hey, man, you should go
01:13:02.800
on some hikes, you should, I think that's how we kind of crossed paths, is that right?
01:13:14.700
Because then I know we've communicated every email, you've sent me some very beautiful
01:13:17.300
pictures, and we're going to put some of those up throughout the episode.
01:13:19.460
But, and like, just kind of filling me in, like, every now and then I'll get a, you know,
01:13:24.200
like, an email just letting me know what's going on.
01:13:32.180
And I'll tell somebody next to me, and they don't give a fuck, bro.
01:13:39.180
Yeah, you shouldn't feel embarrassed or anything, like, I know I...
01:13:42.880
I guess I feel ashamed a little bit as a human, there's a little bit of that that starts
01:13:46.900
I think we should all have a little bit of that, because we, at the expense, or what
01:13:52.340
we demand for our, like, standard of living creates a lot of destruction.
01:14:00.420
We should do some work to become aware of our effects on the world, because just to be
01:14:09.560
But, I know it sounds preachy, and I know that most people are just getting up and having
01:14:15.500
to work and not, don't have the time to think about that stuff, but...
01:14:18.540
It sounds hopeful, though, also, I think, in a little bit.
01:14:24.040
I think it sounds, like, studied and hopeful, you know?
01:14:36.200
Just when you fly into LAX, man, like, you look down at that.
01:14:39.640
I'm not asking you to have hope around here, okay?
01:14:42.340
But, no, I, look, it's, like, especially here, like, you know, everybody, people here
01:14:46.320
look down, they have no empathy for, like, people in other parts of, like, especially
01:14:49.300
America, smaller towns, where people are, like, what do they do?
01:14:52.620
All they're doing is, like, having a, trying to have a good life, be loving more to their
01:14:57.220
neighbor, and not get overwhelmed with things that don't, kind of, make their spirit feel
01:15:03.340
They're more into, you have more people that can hunt, more people that can grow.
01:15:11.000
It's hard when there's some parts of rural living that aren't good, you know?
01:15:15.400
Like, there's the massive opioid addiction issues, but I think that stems from them being
01:15:25.500
And industries, like, coal coming in and taking all the money away and leaving people
01:15:33.700
Yeah, it's not surprising at all when people feel, like, left out.
01:15:37.460
And it's happening in the village in Costa Rica, too, where everybody's being raised to think
01:15:42.580
if you get out of this village, you're a success.
01:15:46.140
If you get a college degree, it doesn't matter what you end up doing, or if you never see your
01:15:55.360
And people are separated from their families, and it's happening down there, and it's kind
01:16:04.820
I think some of that could really start to change.
01:16:06.720
I believe that because I think people are starting to realize that there's just such a...
01:16:13.360
With not certain parts of America, like LA used to control, like, what would happen in
01:16:17.680
Hollywood and the media and that sort of thing, and it's going away now.
01:16:21.340
So, I think a lot of people who are dreamers or who want to be creators, I think a lot of
01:16:27.060
these people are hopefully going to start to want to build up the places that they're
01:16:33.520
There's such a bottleneck in certain places that a lot of the best creativity never gets
01:16:38.240
Even though if it were spread out a little bit more, it would really flourish.
01:16:41.840
Did you have any people believing really wild things where you grew up, like rural superstitions
01:16:51.900
We have a woman we're friends with down in the village who...
01:16:56.940
So, 40 years ago when she was pregnant, they had an outhouse out in the backyard and she had
01:17:08.300
She didn't feel like walking all the way to the outhouse, so she just went behind the house.
01:17:14.680
When she looked down after she peed, there was a Ferdilance pit viper coiled up right
01:17:24.140
And she always prefaces this kind of stuff with, I know you're not going to believe me,
01:17:27.440
but it didn't bite me because the urine of pregnant women is electrified.
01:17:32.220
So, she thinks a snake was sitting there like just...
01:17:40.780
Dude, if something pissed on me that was pregnant, dude, I'd take the afternoon off.
01:17:46.860
Yeah, I'd probably enjoy the warm rain sensation.
01:17:52.540
I mean, that's really as dark arts as you can get.
01:17:55.700
Dude, you have to come back and let us know what's going on out there, you know?
01:17:58.600
Any warning signs, you know, of like any real huge flare-ups.
01:18:01.820
But I certainly appreciate you coming, Seth, and just talking to us about, you know, what
01:18:06.740
it's like by the North Pole up by Alaska and like...
01:18:10.140
And they never built a Santa or anything like that up there, right?
01:18:12.400
Yeah, actually, south of Fairbanks, there's a town called North Pole, where they have a
01:18:17.840
giant Santa statue and a sad little reindeer in a pen.
01:18:25.820
And they're also, it seems like they're trying to make a statement with the reindeer in the
01:18:40.220
But that's, you know when you see animals in the zoo and they're walking in circles and
01:18:46.620
I kind of draw a parallel between that and human society.
01:18:51.340
Like, they have food, they have shelter, so in a sense you think they're fine.
01:18:59.680
Like, we're safe generally, we've got food, don't have to worry about all that much.
01:19:07.420
Because there's something that Tiger, who walks around the cage all day long, is missing.
01:19:20.340
But we also have to, yeah, we have to break out of the zoo.
01:19:23.440
We got to take enough food with us so we don't have to fucking choke a stork out.
01:19:37.460
Now I'm just floating on the breeze, and I feel I'm falling like these leaves.
01:19:49.040
Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind I found.
01:19:54.520
I can feel it in my bones, but it's going to take a little time for me to set that parking brake and let myself unwind.
01:20:10.280
Shine that light on me I'll sit and tell you my stories Shine on me And I will find a song I will sing it just for you
01:20:32.280
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Jonathan Kite, and welcome to Kite Club, a podcast where I'll be sharing thoughts on things like current events, stand-up stories, and seven ways to pleasure your partner.
01:21:03.680
And as always, I'll be joined by the voices in my head.
01:21:12.520
I've been talking about Kite Club for so long, longer than anybody else.
01:21:21.140
Anyone who doesn't listen to Kite Club is a dodgy bloody wanker.
01:21:25.680
Hi, I'll take a quarter pounder with cheese and a McFlurry.
01:21:30.200
Sorry, sir, but our ice cream machine is broken.
01:21:37.000
Anyway, first rule of Kite Club is, tell everyone about Kite Club.
01:21:41.200
Second rule of Kite Club is, tell everyone about Kite Club.
01:21:45.420
Third rule, like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts or watch us on YouTube, yeah?
01:21:51.180
And yes, don't worry, my Brad Pitt impression will get better.