WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.960 This episode is brought to you by Thorne, and 00:00:01.960 --> 00:00:03.919 I have some incredible news for any of you that 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:06.459 are in the military, first responder, or medical 00:00:06.459 --> 00:00:09.660 professions. In an effort to give back, Thorne 00:00:09.660 --> 00:00:15.080 is now offering you an ongoing 25 % off each 00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:18.019 and every one of your purchases of their incredible 00:00:18.019 --> 00:00:20.879 nutritional solutions. Now Thorne is the official 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:25.739 supplement of CrossFit, the UFC, the Mayo Clinic, 00:00:26.019 --> 00:00:29.359 the Human Performance Project, and multiple special 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:32.500 operations organizations. I myself have used 00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:34.679 them for several years, and that is why I brought 00:00:34.679 --> 00:00:37.560 them on as a sponsor. 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Now, for those of you who 00:01:27.510 --> 00:01:30.489 don't qualify, there is still the 10 % off using 00:01:30.489 --> 00:01:34.819 the code BTN. 10 behind the shield 10 for a one 00:01:34.819 --> 00:01:37.560 -time purchase now to learn more about thorn 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:40.980 go to episode 323 of the behind the shield podcast 00:01:40.980 --> 00:01:46.000 with joel totoro and wes barnett welcome to the 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:47.859 behind the shield podcast as always my name is 00:01:47.859 --> 00:01:49.680 james geering and this week it is my absolute 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:53.099 honor to welcome back onto the show british military 00:01:53.099 --> 00:01:58.250 veteran turned conservationist harry turner Now, 00:01:58.269 --> 00:02:00.609 this time I was actually talking to Harry from 00:02:00.609 --> 00:02:03.609 the middle of the rainforest. So a really powerful 00:02:03.609 --> 00:02:05.709 and beautiful episode. And you can literally 00:02:05.709 --> 00:02:08.509 hear the incredible nature that surrounds him. 00:02:08.629 --> 00:02:12.449 And we dove into another spectrum of topics from 00:02:12.449 --> 00:02:14.830 his continual mental health healing journey, 00:02:15.069 --> 00:02:20.280 deforestation, poaching. his non -profit Emerald 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:23.500 Arch, and so much more. Now, before we get to 00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:25.759 this incredible conversation, as I say every 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:29.039 week, please just take a moment. Go to whichever 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:31.960 app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show, 00:02:32.180 --> 00:02:36.020 leave feedback, and leave a rating. Every single 00:02:36.020 --> 00:02:39.280 five -star rating truly does elevate this podcast, 00:02:39.580 --> 00:02:41.979 therefore making it easier for others to find. 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:46.740 And this is a free library of well over 1 ,100 00:02:46.740 --> 00:02:50.659 episodes now. So all I ask in return is that 00:02:50.659 --> 00:02:53.379 you help share these incredible men and women's 00:02:53.379 --> 00:02:56.860 stories so I can get them to every single person 00:02:56.860 --> 00:03:00.460 on planet Earth who needs to hear them. So with 00:03:00.460 --> 00:03:03.259 that being said, I welcome back onto the show, 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:28.219 Harry. Well, Harry, I want to say... Two things. 00:03:28.340 --> 00:03:30.680 Firstly, welcome back to the Behind the Shield 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:33.520 podcast. And when I ask, where are you today? 00:03:33.659 --> 00:03:35.219 You're probably going to have a cooler answer 00:03:35.219 --> 00:03:37.900 than any of the other 1100 plus guests I've had 00:03:37.900 --> 00:03:42.860 so far. So, yes, I'm currently on the plot of 00:03:42.860 --> 00:03:44.840 land that we just bought in Ecuadorian Amazon. 00:03:45.060 --> 00:03:47.699 I wasn't sure if I was going to have service. 00:03:47.699 --> 00:03:50.539 So if it does cut out, I do apologize. But it's 00:03:50.539 --> 00:03:54.039 just the. It's just the kind of name of the game 00:03:54.039 --> 00:03:56.620 out here. But yeah, I'm in the Ecuadorian Amazon 00:03:56.620 --> 00:04:00.699 on our plot of land, which is 184 acres. Amazing. 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:03.639 Amazing. Well, I want to get to that. We first 00:04:03.639 --> 00:04:06.020 spoke in January 2024. For everyone listening, 00:04:06.139 --> 00:04:09.539 if you haven't heard episode 878, then you need 00:04:09.539 --> 00:04:12.060 to hit stop. Go listen to that first and then 00:04:12.060 --> 00:04:15.500 come back and play this. So give me an overview. 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:19.800 January last year, what are some of the big changes 00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:23.560 that have occurred, not only as far as the nonprofit 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:26.300 and the book, but also even your own kind of 00:04:26.300 --> 00:04:29.800 a mental health and emotional journey? Yeah, 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:33.139 I feel like, so next month I'm going to be 32 00:04:33.139 --> 00:04:36.459 years old. And for a lot of people, that's still 00:04:36.459 --> 00:04:41.920 quite young. And for me, I kind of, man. Back 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:44.399 in the days of, you know, contemplating suicide 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:46.379 every day, I never even thought I'd get to this 00:04:46.379 --> 00:04:50.600 age. But I've progressed a lot in my mental state 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:55.139 in regards of I now understand a lot of the reasons 00:04:55.139 --> 00:04:59.959 why a lot of the bad things happened. A lot of 00:04:59.959 --> 00:05:03.259 the times for me, in the moment, you don't understand 00:05:03.259 --> 00:05:06.939 the importance of that traumatizing experience 00:05:06.939 --> 00:05:09.879 or that experience which you just think is a 00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:13.980 pain in the ass. It's everything is kind of like 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:18.899 making you and guiding you to do the things that 00:05:18.899 --> 00:05:23.480 you need to do. If I had never, you know, you 00:05:23.480 --> 00:05:25.660 know, I didn't necessarily fail at school, but 00:05:25.660 --> 00:05:29.480 if I didn't like do very well at school, I never 00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:32.339 would have been, you know, pushed to do the army. 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:35.339 If I hadn't have gone to Afghanistan, I never 00:05:35.339 --> 00:05:37.660 would have gone to the Peruvian Amazon to commit 00:05:37.660 --> 00:05:40.810 suicide. If I hadn't have had that epiphany moment 00:05:40.810 --> 00:05:43.410 on the boat, I never would have continued to 00:05:43.410 --> 00:05:46.310 stay. If I had never have done all these things, 00:05:46.470 --> 00:05:48.490 I never would have been the person I am today. 00:05:48.949 --> 00:05:51.370 And it's obviously taken me quite a while to 00:05:51.370 --> 00:05:55.730 understand the fact that these traumatizing and 00:05:55.730 --> 00:05:59.670 these moments that you really just truly think 00:05:59.670 --> 00:06:01.709 are just negative can actually be very, very 00:06:01.709 --> 00:06:04.910 powerful and impactful and pivotal moments in 00:06:04.910 --> 00:06:08.139 someone's life. And so when you're feeling super, 00:06:08.199 --> 00:06:10.600 super down, I now realize that then points in 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:13.620 my life are actually important and I should actually 00:06:13.620 --> 00:06:15.779 acknowledge them instead of just brushing them 00:06:15.779 --> 00:06:21.920 under the rug. Like we have up days, we have 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:25.019 down days. When I'm in the jungle, I have my 00:06:25.019 --> 00:06:29.899 up days, but I do have some down days. But I've 00:06:29.899 --> 00:06:34.730 found that just with, you know, since. the last 00:06:34.730 --> 00:06:38.310 podcast my kind of viewpoint on life has changed 00:06:38.310 --> 00:06:41.029 quite a bit because i've been able to kind of 00:06:41.029 --> 00:06:44.689 like take the negatives and take the the bad 00:06:44.689 --> 00:06:46.949 moments and kind of like look at them in a better 00:06:46.949 --> 00:06:51.170 light i remember in the documentary and then 00:06:51.170 --> 00:06:53.490 when we spoke you know you you went home your 00:06:53.490 --> 00:06:57.170 parents came to visit um when you reflect back 00:06:57.170 --> 00:07:02.519 now this is interesting when you go home Leaving 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:07.899 this extremely natural environment that we would 00:07:07.899 --> 00:07:09.879 have been surrounded by, obviously not in England 00:07:09.879 --> 00:07:12.300 as far as the Amazon specifically, but that much 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:15.079 more basic natural environment. Did you find 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:17.699 any level of jarring when you were dropped back 00:07:17.699 --> 00:07:22.279 into the urban or the suburban setting? Yeah, 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:26.720 so when I originally left Peru in 2019 to go 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:30.800 back for the first time in a long time. back 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:33.879 to the uk which was captured in the documentary 00:07:33.879 --> 00:07:39.199 i remember having extreme anxiety and panic attacks 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:47.040 it was december of uh 2019 and i remember going 00:07:47.040 --> 00:07:49.480 out with my parents and a few of their friends 00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:51.720 just to go get a few drinks down at the local 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:57.759 pub and fireworks were being set off and I could 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:02.180 not help myself apart from freak out. I've never 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:05.480 been one to love fireworks, but with my trauma 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:09.939 in Afghanistan, fireworks unexpectedly can really 00:08:09.939 --> 00:08:14.279 put me in a bad place. And I just remember... 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:18.300 being surrounded by these loud bangs and like 00:08:18.300 --> 00:08:20.600 looking at everybody just laughing and having 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:23.519 fun and being drunk and i've been sober for 12 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:25.800 years now so like i wasn't drinking then either 00:08:25.800 --> 00:08:29.600 and i just remember thinking like everybody is 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:33.860 so disconnected like we we appreciate these loud 00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:37.799 bangs and we have 20 conversations drunk with 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:40.919 all these people and Everybody's stepping outside 00:08:40.919 --> 00:08:43.460 to have cigarettes. And it was just like one 00:08:43.460 --> 00:08:45.039 of these things where I went back and was just 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:50.320 like, what have we become as humans? And what 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:53.659 do we see as normal? I've just come back from 00:08:53.659 --> 00:09:00.360 a three day excursion. And it was one of them 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:04.039 moments where I didn't charge my phone for the 00:09:04.039 --> 00:09:06.100 whole time because I didn't need to use my phone. 00:09:06.559 --> 00:09:12.330 I didn't. miss anything apart from a nice shower 00:09:12.330 --> 00:09:17.049 or dry feet. I was in the moment. I was listening 00:09:17.049 --> 00:09:20.610 to the monkeys. I was bathing in the streams. 00:09:20.730 --> 00:09:23.090 We were catching fish from the streams to eat 00:09:23.090 --> 00:09:25.850 for breakfast the next morning. We found a few 00:09:25.850 --> 00:09:29.429 species of snake. We were tracking different 00:09:29.429 --> 00:09:32.909 tapir and different kind of animals like mammals 00:09:32.909 --> 00:09:36.250 in the jungle. And I brought one of my friends 00:09:36.250 --> 00:09:39.549 from America with me. His first time in the Amazon, 00:09:39.690 --> 00:09:42.970 his first time, you know, going deep, you know, 00:09:42.970 --> 00:09:48.730 off trail, just cutting and going. And as much 00:09:48.730 --> 00:09:51.889 as it destroys the body, it enriches the soul. 00:09:52.409 --> 00:09:55.049 And it's one of them things where it's like a 00:09:55.049 --> 00:09:57.370 lot of people these days never, ever push themselves 00:09:57.370 --> 00:10:00.730 to the point of breaking. That breaking point 00:10:00.730 --> 00:10:06.070 for so many people is. is not being able to go 00:10:06.070 --> 00:10:09.090 onto Instagram and not being able to kind of 00:10:09.090 --> 00:10:12.710 like talk to their family for a few days. Like 00:10:12.710 --> 00:10:16.490 my breaking point is putting me in the deepest, 00:10:16.789 --> 00:10:24.629 darkest, most grueling experiences to find that 00:10:24.629 --> 00:10:28.190 one gem of the forest. And that's pushing myself. 00:10:28.370 --> 00:10:34.429 And I thrive off of feeling that. One thing I've 00:10:34.429 --> 00:10:37.970 observed with all of the inputs that we have, 00:10:38.009 --> 00:10:40.009 I've made this observation a few times here. 00:10:40.070 --> 00:10:43.490 If you go to a restaurant in America, it is almost 00:10:43.490 --> 00:10:46.649 impossible to sit down and not have TV screens 00:10:46.649 --> 00:10:49.149 in the restaurant itself, flashing at you Fox 00:10:49.149 --> 00:10:51.889 News and football and whatever the thing is. 00:10:52.370 --> 00:10:54.230 And then you've got, like you said, the cell 00:10:54.230 --> 00:10:57.769 phones. And I find that there is this buildup 00:10:57.769 --> 00:10:59.789 of this kind of inner monologue, that monkey 00:10:59.789 --> 00:11:01.490 mind just gets louder and louder and louder. 00:11:02.059 --> 00:11:06.379 What do you experience after that kind of detox 00:11:06.379 --> 00:11:09.879 from all the electronics, all the external stimulus 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:12.200 when you find yourself back in the rainforest 00:11:12.200 --> 00:11:18.539 again? It's definitely a cleansing. It's one 00:11:18.539 --> 00:11:20.580 of those things where you go out into the forest 00:11:20.580 --> 00:11:23.720 and for the first few days, you'll want to take 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:25.779 photos of absolutely everything because you want 00:11:25.779 --> 00:11:28.000 to be able to kind of say, look, hey, you know. 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:30.899 Lexi, I, you know, photographed this really cool 00:11:30.899 --> 00:11:33.139 animal and I've taken a video and here we go. 00:11:33.259 --> 00:11:37.399 But I find that when I go into the forest and 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:41.059 when I'm here, especially if I've completed the 00:11:41.059 --> 00:11:43.340 majority of what I need to complete around here, 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:48.679 then the use of technology just goes down. I 00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:50.399 get told, you know, I'm trying to fundraise for 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:52.179 my nonprofit. I'm trying to do all these things. 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:54.899 And everybody's like, Harry. We need content. 00:11:54.980 --> 00:11:57.480 We need this. You need to film yourself doing 00:11:57.480 --> 00:11:59.179 this. You need to film yourself for a minute 00:11:59.179 --> 00:12:04.799 a day. A minute a day is nothing. But I, when 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:07.860 I'm here, don't have the time to film myself 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:10.720 for a minute a day because I'm so lost in doing 00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:13.740 everything else. As soon as the sun, you know, 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:16.620 you have to work with the energy of the forest, 00:12:16.659 --> 00:12:20.870 the climate, you know, the weather. And as soon 00:12:20.870 --> 00:12:23.370 as the sun comes out after a few hours of rain, 00:12:23.610 --> 00:12:27.110 I know that I need to go to find some snakes. 00:12:27.169 --> 00:12:29.409 I know I need to like specifically go to specific 00:12:29.409 --> 00:12:32.789 areas. And when the rain is happening, it's like, 00:12:32.850 --> 00:12:35.429 what can I do now? You know, there's I find when 00:12:35.429 --> 00:12:37.990 I go back to England and I find when I'm, you 00:12:37.990 --> 00:12:42.549 know, back home in the US. I enjoy being lazy. 00:12:43.629 --> 00:12:46.509 And and like you said, like when you go to a 00:12:46.509 --> 00:12:50.899 restaurant, like the sound of. baseball games, 00:12:51.019 --> 00:12:53.500 basketball games, different conversations, people 00:12:53.500 --> 00:12:55.840 playing music on their phone or people, you know, 00:12:55.840 --> 00:13:00.120 scrolling Instagram. Like it's just a huge kind 00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:02.639 of like buzz and it's not the buzz of cicadas. 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:07.279 It's the buzz of electronics. And it really is 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:09.860 an interesting thing, you know, because there's 00:13:09.860 --> 00:13:13.379 a happy medium. I can't live here full time all 00:13:13.379 --> 00:13:16.500 the time. I have done that. And you can see in 00:13:16.500 --> 00:13:20.460 the documentary that I. Did that for years. And 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:25.399 my mental health was not of the greatest. My 00:13:25.399 --> 00:13:29.440 physical was pretty bad. Imagine drinking stream 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:33.019 water for, you know, like two and a half years 00:13:33.019 --> 00:13:35.000 straight. You know, something's died in there. 00:13:35.059 --> 00:13:36.919 You know, something's defecated in there. Like 00:13:36.919 --> 00:13:41.539 I have got to a point now where my health is 00:13:41.539 --> 00:13:45.740 like, I don't know, 89%. It should be 100%, but 00:13:45.740 --> 00:13:51.019 it's a little bit less. um there needs to be 00:13:51.019 --> 00:13:53.220 a happy medium when it comes to stuff and i feel 00:13:53.220 --> 00:13:56.440 like a lot of places where you have the best 00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:59.480 of everything you never feel that kind of like 00:13:59.480 --> 00:14:05.779 um you never feel that kind of uh struggle but 00:14:05.779 --> 00:14:08.139 you because this is a struggle but it's a great 00:14:08.139 --> 00:14:12.559 struggle It's funny what you said about the kind 00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:15.080 of white noise of electronics versus cicadas. 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:17.860 We have cicadas, you know, based on the season 00:14:17.860 --> 00:14:20.659 here in Florida. And we have, you know, the crickets 00:14:20.659 --> 00:14:22.299 and the bullfrogs and all these other things. 00:14:22.779 --> 00:14:25.080 And I can sit on my back porch, which is a very 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:28.320 kind of tight suburban neighborhood. But a huge 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:30.299 amount. You'd love it here. So much wildlife. 00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:32.759 It's kind of grown over the last decade or so. 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:35.779 All kinds of hawks. And I mean, just it's absolutely 00:14:35.779 --> 00:14:38.240 stunning. I sent you a picture of that. owl that 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:41.720 came on my son's birthday one year um but uh 00:14:41.720 --> 00:14:44.960 then someone will fire up lawnmowers weed whackers 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:46.759 etc because you know the problem with florida 00:14:46.759 --> 00:14:48.340 in the summer is that we're constantly cutting 00:14:48.340 --> 00:14:52.299 our grass and two similar sounds but completely 00:14:52.299 --> 00:14:54.779 different to the soul the cicadas you know the 00:14:54.779 --> 00:14:57.340 nature i find it soothing the moment someone's 00:14:57.340 --> 00:15:00.679 weed whacking you know two two yards over I have 00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:02.399 to go inside. It just annoys the shit out of 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:06.200 me. So you can even kind of see that contrast. 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:08.820 You can have a lot of noise somewhere that's 00:15:08.820 --> 00:15:11.539 beautiful and it actually is kind of soothing. 00:15:11.620 --> 00:15:13.240 You can have a lot of noise in the middle of 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:15.840 a sports bar and you kind of want to throw a 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:19.480 television through a window. For sure. I have 00:15:19.480 --> 00:15:23.120 that issue here. This issue that I have in the 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:27.049 Amazon is based around oil companies. Oil companies 00:15:27.049 --> 00:15:32.090 in the Ecuadorian Amazon especially are the number 00:15:32.090 --> 00:15:35.950 one destruction of this place. I just recently 00:15:35.950 --> 00:15:38.210 went to an oil spill where they said they had 00:15:38.210 --> 00:15:42.549 cleaned it up. I went in. I went to the front 00:15:42.549 --> 00:15:45.090 gate. I told them that I was like a journalist. 00:15:45.129 --> 00:15:47.269 You know, I made up some bullshit story just 00:15:47.269 --> 00:15:50.129 to try to get in. And they were like, nah, like 00:15:50.129 --> 00:15:53.350 our boss is on holiday. And the reason he's on 00:15:53.350 --> 00:15:55.990 holiday is for the fact that. he doesn't want 00:15:55.990 --> 00:15:57.889 to be in contact with anybody because this oil 00:15:57.889 --> 00:15:59.929 spill is going to cost him his job if it's not 00:15:59.929 --> 00:16:03.129 done properly oil spills happen all the time 00:16:03.129 --> 00:16:06.250 here so i was like look i can't go this route 00:16:06.250 --> 00:16:09.330 which way can i go so i jumped on a boat with 00:16:09.330 --> 00:16:12.129 the koyabeno rangers which are the rangers of 00:16:12.129 --> 00:16:16.990 the reserve here and uh we spent nine hours basically 00:16:16.990 --> 00:16:19.049 well we spent four and a half hours getting to 00:16:19.049 --> 00:16:23.070 the oil spill and uh We walked around. I documented 00:16:23.070 --> 00:16:25.950 it. I filmed. It was definitely not cleaned up. 00:16:27.570 --> 00:16:30.029 And then we got back on the boat and we spent, 00:16:30.049 --> 00:16:31.649 you know, another four and a half hours coming 00:16:31.649 --> 00:16:35.529 back. And grueling day, you know, bushwhacking, 00:16:35.610 --> 00:16:38.690 looking for, you know, horrible oil spills and 00:16:38.690 --> 00:16:42.350 saw a little bit of death and destruction on 00:16:42.350 --> 00:16:45.830 the way. And it was, you know, horrible. Oil 00:16:45.830 --> 00:16:48.990 companies in this area are the number one reason 00:16:48.990 --> 00:16:54.789 for deforestation and destruction. The second 00:16:54.789 --> 00:16:57.350 is obviously people's farms. You know, people 00:16:57.350 --> 00:17:01.149 cut down specific hectares for specific things 00:17:01.149 --> 00:17:05.109 like growing fruits and vegetables, mainly cows. 00:17:05.349 --> 00:17:07.529 There's people with sheep and goats around here 00:17:07.529 --> 00:17:10.509 as well. But if you was to look at the destruction 00:17:10.509 --> 00:17:13.630 of both of them side by side, the oil. Definitely, 00:17:13.630 --> 00:17:15.890 as soon as it touches water, it disperses into 00:17:15.890 --> 00:17:19.329 absolutely every place. If you used to look at 00:17:19.329 --> 00:17:23.710 people with rates of cancer in this area, the 00:17:23.710 --> 00:17:25.890 numbers have gone up dramatically since the oil 00:17:25.890 --> 00:17:28.309 companies have been in this place. And they've 00:17:28.309 --> 00:17:32.109 been drilling and dumping crude oil and all these 00:17:32.109 --> 00:17:35.430 things. So I have these sounds that you can probably 00:17:35.430 --> 00:17:38.450 hear right now of birds and all these things. 00:17:38.470 --> 00:17:41.839 But I also have... the oil trucks that drive 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:44.640 past the road, which is, you know, not 200 feet 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:48.920 from my house. And it's one of them things where 00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:53.000 as Emerald Arch, we really want to do everything 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:57.440 that we possibly can to help this place. The 00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:01.099 problem that we have is funding. Funding is a 00:18:01.099 --> 00:18:04.460 huge thing. And the second thing we have is time. 00:18:05.370 --> 00:18:08.029 Oil companies right now are looking at a plot 00:18:08.029 --> 00:18:11.670 of land that we were looking at recently. And 00:18:11.670 --> 00:18:14.190 the issue that we have is that they're trying 00:18:14.190 --> 00:18:17.170 to buy a small plot of land right next to where 00:18:17.170 --> 00:18:21.529 we want to buy for double the amount that we 00:18:21.529 --> 00:18:26.130 can pay. And so my relationship with local communities 00:18:26.130 --> 00:18:28.589 and local families down here is extremely important 00:18:28.589 --> 00:18:33.609 so that we can actually navigate that very slippery 00:18:33.609 --> 00:18:38.619 slope. of, look, this for you selling to the 00:18:38.619 --> 00:18:44.099 oil companies is great temporarily. If you sell 00:18:44.099 --> 00:18:46.539 to them, you're going to have a lot of money, 00:18:46.680 --> 00:18:50.680 but your family and the streams and the animals 00:18:50.680 --> 00:18:53.720 and everything around you is going to be completely 00:18:53.720 --> 00:18:58.279 destroyed, completely die off. However, if you 00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:00.259 wait until we raise a little bit more money. 00:19:01.099 --> 00:19:03.559 We will still allow you to work on your farm. 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:06.359 We will own the area. We will make a reserve. 00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:08.960 We will do all these things and you will have 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:12.299 a wage and you will have the money from the land. 00:19:12.759 --> 00:19:16.819 Like we're trying to work with people in a very 00:19:16.819 --> 00:19:20.619 specific way here that isn't just a Westerner 00:19:20.619 --> 00:19:24.480 or a Western organization coming in, but a friend 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:28.910 and somebody who wants. their health and their 00:19:28.910 --> 00:19:32.230 family's health to be number one priority. Oil 00:19:32.230 --> 00:19:34.950 companies don't care. They care about where can 00:19:34.950 --> 00:19:38.009 they drill the most oil. Okay, Ecuadorian Amazon 00:19:38.009 --> 00:19:42.869 is one of the hot spots for oil. Where can they 00:19:42.869 --> 00:19:46.410 drill the reserve, which is just on the border 00:19:46.410 --> 00:19:48.609 of the lands that we are looking to buy and the 00:19:48.609 --> 00:19:53.190 land that we currently have. That reserve is 00:19:53.190 --> 00:19:58.819 the biggest. area of oil in the whole area. If 00:19:58.819 --> 00:20:01.920 it wasn't for tourism, that place would be completely 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:06.099 destroyed. If it wasn't for local organizations 00:20:06.099 --> 00:20:11.000 wanting to buy areas of land outside of the reserve 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:13.900 to stop the oil companies drilling into the reserve, 00:20:14.180 --> 00:20:17.220 it's going to get destroyed. If it wasn't for 00:20:17.220 --> 00:20:21.339 local people and education, local people would 00:20:21.339 --> 00:20:24.819 basically be selling to the oil companies so 00:20:24.819 --> 00:20:27.900 that they could get a little bit of money quickly 00:20:27.900 --> 00:20:30.599 and then the rest of their health is going to 00:20:30.599 --> 00:20:34.599 go down the drain so the issue that i'm currently 00:20:34.599 --> 00:20:37.799 going through right now is building relationships 00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:41.559 with people but not forcing them to want to do 00:20:41.559 --> 00:20:45.220 anything for money but wanting to do it for the 00:20:45.220 --> 00:20:48.640 correct reasons are these ecuadorian companies 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:53.220 or from other nations A lot of this is Texaco 00:20:53.220 --> 00:20:58.599 and Chevron. You also have Ecuadorian companies, 00:20:58.700 --> 00:21:03.380 which are, you know, subcontracted to drill this 00:21:03.380 --> 00:21:05.859 oil and to do all these things. But it gets distributed 00:21:05.859 --> 00:21:09.759 across the entire world. A lot of it most likely 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:15.240 going towards the US. And the people here get 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:18.630 paid pennies. When I went to the oil spill, I 00:21:18.630 --> 00:21:21.230 actually saw people trying to clean up and I 00:21:21.230 --> 00:21:24.890 asked them and it was actually their land. You 00:21:24.890 --> 00:21:26.789 know, they didn't ask for this. They didn't ask 00:21:26.789 --> 00:21:28.589 for the oil companies to drill there, but they 00:21:28.589 --> 00:21:32.890 were getting paid by oil companies to clean up 00:21:32.890 --> 00:21:35.190 their land because of the oil company's error. 00:21:36.269 --> 00:21:39.150 I didn't ask them personally how much they make, 00:21:39.210 --> 00:21:42.289 but one of my good friends here who I've been 00:21:42.289 --> 00:21:46.250 who I'm partnering with. and whose family's land 00:21:46.250 --> 00:21:49.069 is the land that we want to buy he told me that 00:21:49.069 --> 00:21:51.069 you know these people are probably getting paid 00:21:51.069 --> 00:21:53.490 six hundred dollars a month to to clean this 00:21:53.490 --> 00:21:58.009 oil and the detriment that that has on their 00:21:58.009 --> 00:22:01.930 health is disgusting six hundred dollars for 00:22:01.930 --> 00:22:04.769 a few months to clean up their land that they 00:22:04.769 --> 00:22:07.349 didn't you know want they didn't want this issue 00:22:07.349 --> 00:22:11.900 um and If you're surrounded by crude oil and 00:22:11.900 --> 00:22:13.920 if you're surrounded by all of these different 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:16.539 things, then it's going to cause some problems. 00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:20.240 But it's kind of one of those things where it's 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:22.960 like, you know, the local salary around here 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:26.759 is below $450 a month. So if an oil company is 00:22:26.759 --> 00:22:30.220 going to give you $600, it's one of those things. 00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:32.980 So it's another thing that we're trying to kind 00:22:32.980 --> 00:22:35.579 of like negotiate on and try and figure out is 00:22:35.579 --> 00:22:39.500 like, what can we do, which is going to... incentivize 00:22:39.500 --> 00:22:42.980 these people but at the same time like not uh 00:22:42.980 --> 00:22:47.819 overwhelm them what is it that's created the 00:22:47.819 --> 00:22:52.500 need for jobs and what i mean by that is you 00:22:52.500 --> 00:22:55.480 know most of us if you go far enough back in 00:22:55.480 --> 00:22:58.039 our lineage we're living off the land was somewhat 00:22:58.039 --> 00:23:00.019 self -sufficient didn't need a big corporation 00:23:00.019 --> 00:23:03.339 to work for or you know that kind of thing especially 00:23:03.339 --> 00:23:05.539 if you're talking about one would imagine someone 00:23:05.539 --> 00:23:09.660 like the amazon so how was that shift from being 00:23:09.660 --> 00:23:12.099 able to simply live off the land and not need 00:23:12.099 --> 00:23:15.859 an air quotes job to this leverage that these 00:23:15.859 --> 00:23:18.460 companies have now because these people are required 00:23:18.460 --> 00:23:23.480 to earn actual you know money currency because 00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:26.460 of the oil company's presence it's up the price 00:23:26.460 --> 00:23:30.839 of quite a few things in amazonian towns um so 00:23:30.839 --> 00:23:33.819 because of that people now need to earn more 00:23:33.819 --> 00:23:40.839 money the two things that The two things that 00:23:40.839 --> 00:23:45.200 Ecuador has that brings money is oil and is tourism. 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:49.779 That's it. The region that I am in, in Coyabeno 00:23:49.779 --> 00:23:55.180 and the reserve, has an area which is full of 00:23:55.180 --> 00:23:58.779 oil but is protected by tourism. I'm also near 00:23:58.779 --> 00:24:01.980 the Colombian border, so that also gives a huge 00:24:01.980 --> 00:24:04.140 issue because of drug cartels and everything 00:24:04.140 --> 00:24:10.160 like that. Excuse the parrots. But the issue 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:14.380 that we have is that, okay, if you work for the 00:24:14.380 --> 00:24:18.640 oil companies, you're going to get disregarded. 00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:21.779 You're going to basically do all this hard, hard 00:24:21.779 --> 00:24:25.759 labor. If you work for tourism, you need to learn 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:29.859 English. And because the majority of people coming 00:24:29.859 --> 00:24:33.220 speak English. And so a lot of the people don't 00:24:33.220 --> 00:24:35.619 want to speak English. They don't want to do 00:24:35.619 --> 00:24:38.920 these things. So they go the route of oil companies 00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:41.160 because it's the thing that they know the most. 00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:45.480 It's the most local for their tongue. And the 00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:48.019 education that Emerald Arch is trying to bring 00:24:48.019 --> 00:24:51.680 here is that you don't need to speak English 00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:54.200 and you don't need to work in tourism if you 00:24:54.200 --> 00:24:57.940 want to protect the land. We want to, once we 00:24:57.940 --> 00:25:01.140 buy this new plot of land, which is... 3 144 00:25:01.140 --> 00:25:04.440 acres it's a huge plot of land and i need to 00:25:04.440 --> 00:25:07.319 raise about 1 .3 million just for that land alone 00:25:07.319 --> 00:25:10.859 the thing that we are going to do is we're going 00:25:10.859 --> 00:25:14.839 to make park rangers i would love to employ female 00:25:14.839 --> 00:25:17.240 park rangers because a lot of the times around 00:25:17.240 --> 00:25:19.900 here it's like a more masculine job you know 00:25:19.900 --> 00:25:23.220 go out and do this but the amount of women out 00:25:23.220 --> 00:25:25.299 here that actually want to go out and do cool 00:25:25.299 --> 00:25:28.200 things and be a park ranger or be a guide or 00:25:28.200 --> 00:25:32.019 be something it's one of them things where like 00:25:32.019 --> 00:25:35.619 me and my wife and my team of Emerald Arch have 00:25:35.619 --> 00:25:39.339 sat down and we've said like, we want to do what 00:25:39.339 --> 00:25:42.619 we can to help the local community members. We 00:25:42.619 --> 00:25:46.240 don't want to come in as Westerners with our, 00:25:46.279 --> 00:25:49.220 you know, light colored hair and our light colored 00:25:49.220 --> 00:25:51.700 skin and basically be the bosses. We don't want 00:25:51.700 --> 00:25:54.880 to do that. We weren't born here. This is not 00:25:54.880 --> 00:25:58.390 our land. This is their land. They know it best. 00:25:58.589 --> 00:26:02.509 So who better to run the ranger program than 00:26:02.509 --> 00:26:05.450 local people? And if they don't want to learn 00:26:05.450 --> 00:26:09.750 English, like that's completely fine. I don't 00:26:09.750 --> 00:26:12.089 want to force somebody to learn a language. When 00:26:12.089 --> 00:26:15.170 I was at school, I was kind of forced to learn 00:26:15.170 --> 00:26:18.529 French at one point and I couldn't stand it because 00:26:18.529 --> 00:26:21.390 I didn't have the incentive to learn French. 00:26:22.029 --> 00:26:24.309 I then got told that I'm too stupid basically 00:26:24.309 --> 00:26:26.529 to speak another language. So they did extra 00:26:26.529 --> 00:26:29.269 English and extra maths and, you know, all this 00:26:29.269 --> 00:26:32.890 other crap. But it's one of these things where 00:26:32.890 --> 00:26:35.650 it's like, I want to empower people here to do 00:26:35.650 --> 00:26:38.490 the things that they want to do, but give them 00:26:38.490 --> 00:26:41.329 the opportunity. Everybody here wants to protect 00:26:41.329 --> 00:26:43.789 the forest. That's the thing. But they just have 00:26:43.789 --> 00:26:47.289 a more incentivized plan from the oil companies 00:26:47.289 --> 00:26:50.490 because it's more cash in their pockets. Well, 00:26:50.490 --> 00:26:52.150 it's interesting because there's two contrasts 00:26:52.150 --> 00:26:53.990 in my mind when you're saying that. Firstly, 00:26:54.190 --> 00:26:58.109 I've spoken to a few people when the kind of 00:26:58.109 --> 00:27:01.849 backstory of Somali pirates comes up and sea 00:27:01.849 --> 00:27:03.630 spirit is another good place to kind of learn 00:27:03.630 --> 00:27:06.670 this backstory. You hear about the overfishing 00:27:06.670 --> 00:27:09.769 of the seas of Somalia and all the fishermen 00:27:09.769 --> 00:27:12.509 that were able to make money and feed their village 00:27:12.509 --> 00:27:15.119 and feed their family. you know, the ability 00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:17.579 to fish went away. I mean, these mega, you know, 00:27:17.619 --> 00:27:19.940 ships are coming in and trawling and there were 00:27:19.940 --> 00:27:22.039 hardly any fish left for anyone to actually, 00:27:22.119 --> 00:27:25.579 you know, bring home that they've been doing 00:27:25.579 --> 00:27:28.240 for arguably hundreds, if not thousands of years. 00:27:28.700 --> 00:27:31.619 And so then you have this very judgmental, well, 00:27:31.700 --> 00:27:33.500 these Somali pirates and, you know, we're all, 00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:35.400 you know, applauding when they're killed because 00:27:35.400 --> 00:27:37.339 they took our, you know, American ship. And I 00:27:37.339 --> 00:27:39.579 understand that at that moment, a hundred percent. 00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:43.240 But when do we take ownership of? The origin 00:27:43.240 --> 00:27:45.619 story. And the same with this. If you didn't 00:27:45.619 --> 00:27:47.440 have these oil companies coming in the first 00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:49.980 place and then creating this supply and demand 00:27:49.980 --> 00:27:53.039 and raising up prices, would you even have this 00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:55.799 issue at the moment? No, you wouldn't. Conversely, 00:27:55.900 --> 00:27:59.619 one of the best things that I've seen on my travels, 00:27:59.740 --> 00:28:02.299 and this is Fiji, so it was developed. It wasn't 00:28:02.299 --> 00:28:05.599 as remote as you're talking about now. But I 00:28:05.599 --> 00:28:08.599 went during the coup. It just happened that right 00:28:08.599 --> 00:28:10.559 when my girlfriend at the time, we had a round 00:28:10.559 --> 00:28:13.029 -the -world ticket. A few days before we're going 00:28:13.029 --> 00:28:14.430 to leave, they're like, oh, there's a military 00:28:14.430 --> 00:28:16.910 coup going on. I was like, well, let's just see 00:28:16.910 --> 00:28:19.069 what that looks like. Because, you know, I know 00:28:19.069 --> 00:28:22.210 how things are reported. And in Fiji, they will 00:28:22.210 --> 00:28:24.029 go in, they'll occupy the government building. 00:28:24.089 --> 00:28:26.069 They'll sit down, they'll drink kava together. 00:28:26.349 --> 00:28:28.009 And everyone knows kava kind of chills you the 00:28:28.009 --> 00:28:30.250 fuck out anyway. So it's not like they're, you 00:28:30.250 --> 00:28:32.710 know, drinking jack and fist fighting each other. 00:28:33.009 --> 00:28:35.509 And they talk about it. And basically a shot 00:28:35.509 --> 00:28:38.160 is usually never fired. So we ended up just going. 00:28:38.279 --> 00:28:39.380 We said, screw it, we're going to go anyway. 00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:41.819 But as you can imagine, a lot of tourism was 00:28:41.819 --> 00:28:46.920 deterred. So we ended up doing the open, the 00:28:46.920 --> 00:28:49.059 paddy open water dive at a place called Mike's 00:28:49.059 --> 00:28:53.640 Dive Shop. And what he had done is as an American 00:28:53.640 --> 00:28:55.700 guy, he'd opened a dive shop, but he'd integrated 00:28:55.700 --> 00:28:59.480 the local Fijian village. So we, for example, 00:28:59.480 --> 00:29:02.859 went on a dive and we saw Morgan's Wall and Morgan 00:29:02.859 --> 00:29:05.660 was in the boat. You know what I mean? He was 00:29:05.660 --> 00:29:08.079 the one that discovered it. And this is Fijian 00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:10.119 guy was one of our guides. And then we went after 00:29:10.119 --> 00:29:12.619 to the village and we drank carbo with with the 00:29:12.619 --> 00:29:14.480 chief. And, you know, it was phenomenal. But 00:29:14.480 --> 00:29:17.319 just like you said, the American guy came in 00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:19.460 and created a business. But basically everyone 00:29:19.460 --> 00:29:22.160 that worked with him, I wouldn't say even for 00:29:22.160 --> 00:29:25.660 him. He integrated the local Fijian village and 00:29:25.660 --> 00:29:28.599 the Fijian people and kind of. brought an ability 00:29:28.599 --> 00:29:32.039 brought a way for them to make money so very 00:29:32.039 --> 00:29:34.500 very different what you're talking about you 00:29:34.500 --> 00:29:37.819 can with industry come in and kind of integrate 00:29:37.819 --> 00:29:40.400 with another nation with another group of people 00:29:40.400 --> 00:29:42.799 but there's a difference between working with 00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:48.759 them and them working for you for sure i uh you 00:29:48.759 --> 00:29:50.500 know as you're mentioning you know all these 00:29:50.500 --> 00:29:53.359 things i have these thoughts in my head and i 00:29:53.359 --> 00:29:55.279 you know i just said like i come off of a three 00:29:55.279 --> 00:29:58.700 -day expedition and um I went out with my friend 00:29:58.700 --> 00:30:01.640 Roger, who's from the US but originally German. 00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:06.359 My friend Hilva, who's an entrepreneur here. 00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:10.299 He has two lodges in Coyabeno. Very great Ecuadorian 00:30:10.299 --> 00:30:14.460 dude. And then two of his friends, Samuel and 00:30:14.460 --> 00:30:22.460 Jairo. Jairo basically earns $450 a month. He's 00:30:22.460 --> 00:30:25.380 got two kids. He's got a wife. You know, he works 00:30:25.380 --> 00:30:28.970 his absolute ass off. Samuel probably earns about 00:30:28.970 --> 00:30:34.369 $200 a month. He owns everything that he can 00:30:34.369 --> 00:30:38.250 carry on his back. But yet, these people with 00:30:38.250 --> 00:30:41.130 very limited resources, these people with hardly 00:30:41.130 --> 00:30:44.190 anything, are the happiest people I have ever 00:30:44.190 --> 00:30:49.930 met in my life. Happiest. Jairo, we were just 00:30:49.930 --> 00:30:52.920 like... We hiked and hiked and hiked all day 00:30:52.920 --> 00:30:54.480 yesterday. We were trying to get to this one 00:30:54.480 --> 00:30:56.880 point on the GPS, but it was swamp everywhere. 00:30:57.059 --> 00:31:00.539 We're up to our chests in places. They were like, 00:31:00.579 --> 00:31:02.099 where do we go? And I'm like, we've got to go 00:31:02.099 --> 00:31:04.619 over here. We've got to do this. He's just joking 00:31:04.619 --> 00:31:08.460 and laughing. I'm like, dude, this is serious. 00:31:08.539 --> 00:31:10.180 We've got to get to this point. If we don't get 00:31:10.180 --> 00:31:11.640 to this point, we're stuck in the middle of a 00:31:11.640 --> 00:31:14.769 swamp all night. he's like ah you know it's all 00:31:14.769 --> 00:31:17.509 good it's all good anyway we make a decision 00:31:17.509 --> 00:31:21.130 to come back we get to camp we start eating oh 00:31:21.130 --> 00:31:23.890 sorry start cooking and then hiro just gets in 00:31:23.890 --> 00:31:26.150 the in the stream and he's just like you know 00:31:26.150 --> 00:31:30.069 playing about in the water this is like a 38 00:31:30.069 --> 00:31:33.710 40 year old man you know just like living his 00:31:33.710 --> 00:31:37.930 best life he used to work for the oil companies 00:31:37.930 --> 00:31:40.490 and i had a conversation with him about it he 00:31:40.490 --> 00:31:44.079 was like anything i would do anything apart from 00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:45.980 work for the oil companies he was like saying 00:31:45.980 --> 00:31:49.019 how he used to walk with big drills and like 00:31:49.019 --> 00:31:52.240 oil pipes and all these things six seven eight 00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:54.440 kilometers into the forest so they could test 00:31:54.440 --> 00:31:58.420 for the oil and he was getting paid 25 30 a day 00:31:58.420 --> 00:32:02.460 for that and it's like that is an that's an hourly 00:32:02.460 --> 00:32:05.319 salary in seattle you know because me and my 00:32:05.319 --> 00:32:09.500 wife live in seattle like that is outrageous 00:32:10.700 --> 00:32:13.759 but here he is you know cutting trails with us 00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:17.740 scoping out new locations you know cooking you 00:32:17.740 --> 00:32:20.220 know things that we've caught in the stream just 00:32:20.220 --> 00:32:24.599 playing just having fun like some of the people 00:32:24.599 --> 00:32:27.420 that i have met in indigenous and local communities 00:32:27.420 --> 00:32:29.960 are the happiest people that i've ever met in 00:32:29.960 --> 00:32:33.059 my entire life i had a conversation with hilva 00:32:33.059 --> 00:32:37.359 recently um who's the guy who owns the plot next 00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:41.000 door uh the entrepreneur guy you know he is a 00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:44.980 great guy and i remember just being really down 00:32:44.980 --> 00:32:48.920 one day um can't remember exactly what it was 00:32:48.920 --> 00:32:53.200 it could have been anything to be honest um but 00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:56.680 he said why are you depressed why are you sad 00:32:56.680 --> 00:33:01.460 i was like well i can't really explain you know 00:33:01.460 --> 00:33:08.099 i have complex ptsd i was At war, I have seen 00:33:08.099 --> 00:33:13.299 a lot of death. When Khan was killed, that destroyed 00:33:13.299 --> 00:33:19.539 me. I've been through quite a lot in my life, 00:33:19.539 --> 00:33:22.759 which has now shaped me, but it still doesn't 00:33:22.759 --> 00:33:25.920 take away from the fact that I'm not fragile. 00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:30.059 Every human has a fragile point, and you can 00:33:30.059 --> 00:33:32.579 be tough and tough and tough. And you can work 00:33:32.579 --> 00:33:34.400 through it and you can do everything. But there's 00:33:34.400 --> 00:33:36.319 always going to be that soft spot that you definitely 00:33:36.319 --> 00:33:40.400 still have. And I said, have you ever had depression, 00:33:40.500 --> 00:33:45.019 Hilda? And he was like, yeah, I think so. I said, 00:33:45.059 --> 00:33:47.039 OK, well, what was it? He said, well, when my 00:33:47.039 --> 00:33:52.359 brother died, I was sad. And I was like, of course, 00:33:52.400 --> 00:33:55.980 your brother died. Like, that's not like that's 00:33:55.980 --> 00:33:58.339 not something small. That's a huge thing in your 00:33:58.339 --> 00:34:01.490 life. And he goes, yeah, but, you know. He died. 00:34:01.609 --> 00:34:04.450 I felt sad. And then I realized I live in this 00:34:04.450 --> 00:34:08.329 beautiful place with my beautiful family. And 00:34:08.329 --> 00:34:13.110 I'm so grateful for everything that I have. And 00:34:13.110 --> 00:34:16.170 my brother wouldn't want me to be sad. And I'm 00:34:16.170 --> 00:34:19.329 like, dude, if everybody had your mindset, this 00:34:19.329 --> 00:34:25.280 world would be so different. So different. What 00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:28.019 are you seeing as far as the villages that some 00:34:28.019 --> 00:34:30.219 of these men and women are growing up in? Because 00:34:30.219 --> 00:34:32.579 if we kind of wrote down, you and I, okay, what 00:34:32.579 --> 00:34:35.420 are the things contributing to trauma in, you 00:34:35.420 --> 00:34:37.940 know, people our age, and obviously you're younger 00:34:37.940 --> 00:34:44.920 than me, in the Western world, it would be everything 00:34:44.920 --> 00:34:47.739 from, you know, unadjusted childhood trauma and, 00:34:47.780 --> 00:34:49.000 you know, all these kind of things. And then 00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:51.300 you go into war or the first responder professions 00:34:51.300 --> 00:34:54.860 and all these other areas. That simply, you know, 00:34:54.860 --> 00:34:57.360 a lot of it you kind of realize, oh, these are 00:34:57.360 --> 00:35:01.340 all Western problems. So, you know, what are 00:35:01.340 --> 00:35:05.480 you seeing as far as the community level that 00:35:05.480 --> 00:35:07.659 these people that you're working alongside in 00:35:07.659 --> 00:35:09.940 Ecuador have? Because one of the big things that's 00:35:09.940 --> 00:35:14.420 glaringly obvious in the UK and America is. You 00:35:14.420 --> 00:35:16.800 know, you have this household and then 18, get 00:35:16.800 --> 00:35:19.019 out, go get your own place, you know, and then 00:35:19.019 --> 00:35:21.079 they're struggling and they're drowning in debt 00:35:21.079 --> 00:35:23.119 and trying to keep above their mortgage or their 00:35:23.119 --> 00:35:26.119 rent. And you look at a lot of, you know, the 00:35:26.119 --> 00:35:29.780 older style communities around the world and 00:35:29.780 --> 00:35:31.500 you look at our history, if you go far enough 00:35:31.500 --> 00:35:34.519 back, they say it takes a village. It was a village. 00:35:35.159 --> 00:35:37.519 You didn't leave at 18. You know, you became 00:35:37.519 --> 00:35:39.599 the hunter or the warrior or whatever it is, 00:35:39.619 --> 00:35:41.639 but you were still in the village. And a group 00:35:41.639 --> 00:35:43.699 of people helped raise your children. And there 00:35:43.699 --> 00:35:45.559 were elders that you would, you know, respect 00:35:45.559 --> 00:35:47.619 and listen to their wisdom and they were healers. 00:35:47.780 --> 00:35:51.380 And so, you know, you see the Iroquois and some 00:35:51.380 --> 00:35:53.679 of these other people, these other groups that 00:35:53.679 --> 00:35:56.679 have been written about where, you know, Westerners 00:35:56.679 --> 00:35:59.380 in the early settler times were actually going 00:35:59.380 --> 00:36:01.260 back to the native tribes because the quality 00:36:01.260 --> 00:36:03.199 of life was better than the cities that they 00:36:03.199 --> 00:36:07.480 were from. What are you seeing in these kind 00:36:07.480 --> 00:36:09.659 of upbringings, these incredible people that 00:36:09.659 --> 00:36:12.920 you're working alongside as far as their communities 00:36:12.920 --> 00:36:18.559 in contrast to the UK, the US, etc.? So just 00:36:18.559 --> 00:36:22.360 to put this into perspective, Hilva is my good 00:36:22.360 --> 00:36:24.739 friend, basically a business partner down here. 00:36:24.860 --> 00:36:27.300 And I have got to know him and his community. 00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:31.000 He lives in a small, small town called Pazibien. 00:36:31.059 --> 00:36:35.360 There's 330 people that live in Pazibien. 240 00:36:35.360 --> 00:36:41.820 of them are his family. Oh, my God. So he is 00:36:41.820 --> 00:36:45.000 surrounded by family. His network is family. 00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:49.619 If I have an issue, all I say in that whole area 00:36:49.619 --> 00:36:53.739 is I'm friends with Hilva. Done. Whatever you 00:36:53.739 --> 00:36:58.139 need. Whatever you need. So the community here 00:36:58.139 --> 00:37:03.860 is very family orientated. Also, if somebody's 00:37:03.860 --> 00:37:07.219 sick, everybody pitches in a few bucks because 00:37:07.219 --> 00:37:11.960 that's the way it's done. It's basically as if 00:37:11.960 --> 00:37:15.639 there is a constant GoFundMe for everybody because 00:37:15.639 --> 00:37:19.539 it's like, how can somebody pay this $600 bill? 00:37:20.059 --> 00:37:23.099 Okay, there's 300 people here. Each one of you 00:37:23.099 --> 00:37:27.579 give $2. Done. The community that they have is 00:37:27.579 --> 00:37:34.619 a huge net and a web of love. and celebration. 00:37:36.400 --> 00:37:38.559 Ecuador is apparently known as one of the most 00:37:38.559 --> 00:37:40.659 celebrated countries in the whole entire world 00:37:40.659 --> 00:37:43.000 because if it's someone's birthday, they celebrate. 00:37:43.199 --> 00:37:45.659 If it's New Year's, they celebrate. If somebody 00:37:45.659 --> 00:37:48.079 dies, they have a celebration of life. You know, 00:37:48.119 --> 00:37:51.019 like they celebrate absolutely everything. If 00:37:51.019 --> 00:37:55.880 the women win the football match, everybody celebrates. 00:37:56.039 --> 00:37:57.840 It doesn't matter who won or who lost. There 00:37:57.840 --> 00:38:00.320 might be a few tears, but everybody celebrates. 00:38:01.420 --> 00:38:04.980 everybody here is wildly connected to each other 00:38:04.980 --> 00:38:09.320 um which has its pros and also has its cons you 00:38:09.320 --> 00:38:13.440 know if i'm trying to date and 240 people on 00:38:13.440 --> 00:38:16.519 my family then it's going to be a bit a bit of 00:38:16.519 --> 00:38:20.019 a small pool um and i've you know i spoke to 00:38:20.019 --> 00:38:21.860 a few people about that kind of issue around 00:38:21.860 --> 00:38:24.260 here and they're like yeah like um you know i 00:38:24.260 --> 00:38:27.039 tried doing this and tried doing that but it's 00:38:27.039 --> 00:38:32.750 like yeah like that could be a a big con um but 00:38:32.750 --> 00:38:34.550 yeah no it's kind of like one of them things 00:38:34.550 --> 00:38:38.030 it's just like i i see the happiness in them 00:38:38.030 --> 00:38:41.269 and they figure out the issues together as a 00:38:41.269 --> 00:38:44.269 group of people it's it's a truly beautiful thing 00:38:44.269 --> 00:38:46.909 and i love it when i bring my wife here because 00:38:46.909 --> 00:38:51.510 they know who i am and they they bring her in 00:38:51.510 --> 00:38:54.809 with love you know and And when I bring my friends, 00:38:54.909 --> 00:38:56.710 I go, oh, by the way, you know, he doesn't speak 00:38:56.710 --> 00:38:58.789 Spanish, but like he's a good egg. And they're 00:38:58.789 --> 00:39:02.429 like, oh, OK, yeah, come on. Let's let's go and 00:39:02.429 --> 00:39:04.730 have food and let's have drinks and let's have 00:39:04.730 --> 00:39:06.889 conversations and let's go to the forest for 00:39:06.889 --> 00:39:10.150 three days and thrash our bodies to oblivion. 00:39:10.190 --> 00:39:14.710 And it's like, yeah, like here, if you if you 00:39:14.710 --> 00:39:17.650 respect people, you are respected. Whereas in 00:39:17.650 --> 00:39:21.150 a lot of other countries, because of the disconnect, 00:39:21.610 --> 00:39:27.559 there's a disrespect. When you talk about 300 00:39:27.559 --> 00:39:30.719 people chip in $2, it immediately reminds me 00:39:30.719 --> 00:39:35.300 of the NHS, not the kind of dismantled NHS that 00:39:35.300 --> 00:39:38.219 we see at the moment, but the core of the philosophy 00:39:38.219 --> 00:39:41.119 of what it was supposed to be. And I've talked 00:39:41.119 --> 00:39:43.579 about, you know, I love these conversations with 00:39:43.579 --> 00:39:44.880 people that are in different countries, especially 00:39:44.880 --> 00:39:46.840 if they've come from one and they see another 00:39:46.840 --> 00:39:49.559 one. You know, I lived in Japan for 15 months. 00:39:49.699 --> 00:39:51.679 You know, I mean, all places all over the world 00:39:51.679 --> 00:39:54.980 have great ideas and great philosophies and great 00:39:54.980 --> 00:39:57.159 principles, you know, based on their culture 00:39:57.159 --> 00:40:00.469 and some of the solutions to problems. And the 00:40:00.469 --> 00:40:02.829 NHS is one of the ones over here. You've seen 00:40:02.829 --> 00:40:05.409 it. You heard it. Oh, socialized medicine. Like 00:40:05.409 --> 00:40:07.449 everyone's goose stepping around the wards and 00:40:07.449 --> 00:40:09.809 throwing up frickin, you know, Hitler sites. 00:40:10.170 --> 00:40:12.429 It's like, no, it's just people taking care of 00:40:12.429 --> 00:40:14.889 people. And when I was young, as you alluded 00:40:14.889 --> 00:40:16.889 to, thank you very much. A lot longer than, you 00:40:16.889 --> 00:40:19.710 know, long further ago than you were. You know, 00:40:19.750 --> 00:40:22.829 it was it was you just that's what happened. 00:40:22.889 --> 00:40:24.730 You got it all. You went to the doctor and you 00:40:24.730 --> 00:40:26.610 came out. And even recently, even though it was, 00:40:26.610 --> 00:40:30.469 you know, a worse experience as far as. The time 00:40:30.469 --> 00:40:34.469 it took him, my dad had a knee surgery complication 00:40:34.469 --> 00:40:37.889 through a clot in his lung and had to go to the 00:40:37.889 --> 00:40:41.130 NHS hospital for a few days. And he just walked 00:40:41.130 --> 00:40:43.210 out. Didn't have a bill that he's going to have 00:40:43.210 --> 00:40:46.250 to refinance his home now to pay. He just left 00:40:46.250 --> 00:40:48.670 with all this equipment and then all these kind 00:40:48.670 --> 00:40:50.369 of follow -up visits and rehabs and all these 00:40:50.369 --> 00:40:52.949 other things. And this is where I think there's 00:40:52.949 --> 00:40:56.050 a huge disconnect again. If you look at the most 00:40:56.050 --> 00:40:59.739 basal human model. There was no ancient tribe 00:40:59.739 --> 00:41:01.380 that was like, well, let me see your insurance. 00:41:01.820 --> 00:41:05.159 You got sick. You were just taken care of. And 00:41:05.159 --> 00:41:06.440 this is one of the things I think the British 00:41:06.440 --> 00:41:08.139 have done very well. And it's a shame they've 00:41:08.139 --> 00:41:10.559 allowed the American system to kind of corrupt 00:41:10.559 --> 00:41:15.099 it is at its core. We said we will take care 00:41:15.099 --> 00:41:17.139 of each other. And the beautiful side effect 00:41:17.139 --> 00:41:20.059 of that when it was running properly is now the 00:41:20.059 --> 00:41:22.480 incentive is to make the nation healthy. So we 00:41:22.480 --> 00:41:25.550 use the least amount of tax money. But what's 00:41:25.550 --> 00:41:27.889 happened now is the privatized, you know, American 00:41:27.889 --> 00:41:29.829 system has pushed its way in. And I don't know 00:41:29.829 --> 00:41:31.809 if you've noticed this, but, you know, the British 00:41:31.809 --> 00:41:33.489 are getting fatter and sicker, just like the 00:41:33.489 --> 00:41:35.750 Americans. And it's tragic because it's a complete, 00:41:35.769 --> 00:41:38.489 you know, abuse of the British and the American 00:41:38.489 --> 00:41:41.610 population so that these drug companies can profit 00:41:41.610 --> 00:41:46.449 from them. Pharmaceutical companies are also 00:41:46.449 --> 00:41:49.190 another big reason that the Amazon is being destroyed, 00:41:49.369 --> 00:41:53.670 which is a topic that not many people talk about. 00:41:54.170 --> 00:41:57.269 But the majority of the medicines that we get 00:41:57.269 --> 00:42:02.849 are from natural places. And the Amazon is full, 00:42:02.889 --> 00:42:07.969 like we went out on a hike and we went through 00:42:07.969 --> 00:42:11.530 some pretty rough terrain, ticks and, you know, 00:42:11.570 --> 00:42:15.150 there's little mites out here called chiggers. 00:42:15.250 --> 00:42:17.630 And there's like a bunch of other like bits and 00:42:17.630 --> 00:42:21.369 pieces out here. Everything we need is in the 00:42:21.369 --> 00:42:24.289 forest. If we want to cleanse our body, you know, 00:42:24.289 --> 00:42:25.929 there's all these different things. There's a 00:42:25.929 --> 00:42:28.389 garlic plant out here where it's just like the 00:42:28.389 --> 00:42:30.389 leaves and the roots of garlic. You just chew 00:42:30.389 --> 00:42:32.789 on the garlic leaf. Man, you wouldn't want to 00:42:32.789 --> 00:42:36.210 kiss me afterwards, but like the, it does its 00:42:36.210 --> 00:42:39.530 job. It eradicates the fleas, the ticks, the 00:42:39.530 --> 00:42:43.369 mites, like everything. It cleanses your body. 00:42:43.510 --> 00:42:48.130 If you are, you know, dehydrated, there's the 00:42:48.130 --> 00:42:51.340 bamboo, there's the... different roots and vine 00:42:51.340 --> 00:42:54.079 systems there's like small pockets of streams 00:42:54.079 --> 00:42:57.159 that are clean enough to drink from like everything 00:42:57.159 --> 00:43:02.239 here has a purpose and everything that the pharmaceutical 00:43:02.239 --> 00:43:06.320 companies are doing are taking from here and 00:43:06.320 --> 00:43:09.619 making it expensive so that you can feel healthier 00:43:09.619 --> 00:43:14.739 um i i've been playing the long game honestly 00:43:14.739 --> 00:43:17.420 in in the us i still don't have insurance because 00:43:17.420 --> 00:43:20.719 i'm like you know what At this point, it's actually 00:43:20.719 --> 00:43:22.960 comedy just to kind of like see how long I can 00:43:22.960 --> 00:43:28.639 go without doing myself over. But it's it's it's 00:43:28.639 --> 00:43:31.519 sickening. The reason why people stay in these 00:43:31.519 --> 00:43:33.719 nine to five jobs with these corporate companies 00:43:33.719 --> 00:43:35.659 and they don't pursue or follow their dreams 00:43:35.659 --> 00:43:37.599 is because they can't afford their health insurance. 00:43:39.199 --> 00:43:42.059 And I'm the type of person where I'm never, ever 00:43:42.059 --> 00:43:44.500 going to stick to a nine to five when I go home. 00:43:44.559 --> 00:43:46.679 Yeah, of course, I work and I earn some money 00:43:46.679 --> 00:43:48.440 so that I can come back to a place like this. 00:43:49.389 --> 00:43:53.530 Honestly, the fear that the government and the 00:43:53.530 --> 00:43:57.110 countries put into people so that they stay is 00:43:57.110 --> 00:44:02.170 sad. It's truly sad. It's funny you say that 00:44:02.170 --> 00:44:04.170 because I haven't had health insurance for several 00:44:04.170 --> 00:44:06.030 years. I'm actually just about to get it. My 00:44:06.030 --> 00:44:10.670 wife graduated med school. in two weeks so hopefully 00:44:10.670 --> 00:44:12.650 i don't get hit by a bus before then we'll actually 00:44:12.650 --> 00:44:15.789 have insurance again but you know i left the 00:44:15.789 --> 00:44:18.710 fire service left all you know the pensions and 00:44:18.710 --> 00:44:20.150 the health insurance and all the other things 00:44:20.150 --> 00:44:23.250 so i could do this but by doing this you know 00:44:23.250 --> 00:44:25.429 i took a pay cut you know this is not making 00:44:25.429 --> 00:44:27.610 a lot of money but i it's not the currency that 00:44:27.610 --> 00:44:29.690 i care about i care about you know connecting 00:44:29.690 --> 00:44:31.829 all these guests with the people that need to 00:44:31.829 --> 00:44:33.849 hear what they're talking about and hopefully 00:44:33.849 --> 00:44:36.550 you know making their lives better but it is 00:44:36.550 --> 00:44:38.969 you step away and you're like what You know what? 00:44:38.989 --> 00:44:40.829 If something happens, it happens. But until then, 00:44:40.869 --> 00:44:43.329 I'm not going to be paralyzed by this fear of 00:44:43.329 --> 00:44:45.710 not having insurance because what does it do? 00:44:45.789 --> 00:44:46.989 It just is like, all right, well, let me make 00:44:46.989 --> 00:44:49.110 double sure that I'm healthy. Let me make sure 00:44:49.110 --> 00:44:50.849 I'm eating right. Let me make sure I'm exercising. 00:44:51.309 --> 00:44:54.650 The danger of having this perceived safety net 00:44:54.650 --> 00:44:56.250 is, all right, well, then I can eat like shit 00:44:56.250 --> 00:44:58.849 and not exercise because I can get all the pills 00:44:58.849 --> 00:45:02.670 and potions for a lesser amount. You think about 00:45:02.670 --> 00:45:04.969 that, that's completely opposite from what we 00:45:04.969 --> 00:45:10.230 actually need people to be thinking about. I 00:45:10.230 --> 00:45:14.369 saw on your socials a few weeks ago, maybe, that 00:45:14.369 --> 00:45:17.449 you got some test results back from your fire 00:45:17.449 --> 00:45:20.809 service days and how you had specific things 00:45:20.809 --> 00:45:25.210 in your blood. The same issue is here. When people 00:45:25.210 --> 00:45:28.309 work for the oil companies, they have so many 00:45:28.309 --> 00:45:32.349 problems when it comes down to later in life. 00:45:32.699 --> 00:45:35.860 issues because of the oil the crude oil the chemicals 00:45:35.860 --> 00:45:38.179 that they've been surrounded by and with yourself 00:45:38.179 --> 00:45:41.940 you know i can't remember the exact uh stuff 00:45:41.940 --> 00:45:47.000 that i've read but um is that detrimental for 00:45:47.000 --> 00:45:51.880 future oh yeah for your health so pfas they're 00:45:51.880 --> 00:45:55.260 called forever chemicals now i'm incurable optimists. 00:45:55.280 --> 00:45:57.800 So the people that I've just had approached me 00:45:57.800 --> 00:46:00.719 about six months ago, that paid for this blood 00:46:00.719 --> 00:46:03.340 test of developing a probiotic that it looks 00:46:03.340 --> 00:46:05.260 is going to be able to pull those out the human 00:46:05.260 --> 00:46:08.480 body. So that's a beautiful opportunity where 00:46:08.480 --> 00:46:10.800 someone can make some money on a very natural 00:46:10.800 --> 00:46:13.579 medicine that truly will make a difference. So 00:46:13.579 --> 00:46:15.539 I'm all about supporting something like that. 00:46:15.559 --> 00:46:18.630 That's preventative, that's proactive. But yeah, 00:46:18.750 --> 00:46:22.210 they were created by DuPont. So all the waterproofing 00:46:22.210 --> 00:46:24.590 that you see, the Teflon pans, and then in my 00:46:24.590 --> 00:46:27.929 job, the waterproofing in our gear that we're, 00:46:27.929 --> 00:46:30.650 you know, sweating in and wearing for hours at 00:46:30.650 --> 00:46:33.670 a time, the foam that we use to fight fire, they're 00:46:33.670 --> 00:46:36.989 all riddled with this stuff. So it is directly 00:46:36.989 --> 00:46:41.469 linked to a host of things from cancers to neurodegenerative 00:46:41.469 --> 00:46:44.219 disorders. So, yeah, so it's it's terrifying. 00:46:44.280 --> 00:46:46.179 Now, the other side of the coin is obviously, 00:46:46.219 --> 00:46:48.800 again, making the body as healthy as possible. 00:46:48.860 --> 00:46:50.920 So hopefully it doesn't succumb to this stuff. 00:46:51.219 --> 00:46:54.380 But that is supposedly I forget. It's something 00:46:54.380 --> 00:46:57.739 terrifying, like 95 percent of the world's population 00:46:57.739 --> 00:47:00.739 has this in their body because it does not break 00:47:00.739 --> 00:47:04.500 down, doesn't degenerate. So you've got. The 00:47:04.500 --> 00:47:07.239 ability now, hopefully, to maybe remove it from 00:47:07.239 --> 00:47:09.179 the humans, but then there's obviously this whole 00:47:09.179 --> 00:47:10.980 environmental push. It's like, well, how do we 00:47:10.980 --> 00:47:13.480 get it out of the environment? Because if they 00:47:13.480 --> 00:47:15.360 did a test on you, I mean, you've been in the 00:47:15.360 --> 00:47:17.760 West as well, even though you spent all that 00:47:17.760 --> 00:47:21.840 time in the Amazon and these kind of remote areas, 00:47:22.099 --> 00:47:24.179 even some of the guys that you were just talking 00:47:24.179 --> 00:47:27.139 about that are indigenous to that specific area, 00:47:27.219 --> 00:47:31.559 I guarantee you. Oh, for sure. Just the pollution, 00:47:31.739 --> 00:47:33.260 like you said, from the oil company. There's 00:47:33.260 --> 00:47:35.360 probably elements of it in there too. So this 00:47:35.360 --> 00:47:38.500 is what's so disgusting. This is a very, very, 00:47:38.539 --> 00:47:41.480 very, very recent problem. And you think about 00:47:41.480 --> 00:47:45.480 the last two or three generations, how much they 00:47:45.480 --> 00:47:48.760 fucked up this planet based on pure power and 00:47:48.760 --> 00:47:51.880 greed. And as you alluded to, it's not even us. 00:47:52.039 --> 00:47:54.260 It's our children, our grandchildren, our great 00:47:54.260 --> 00:47:56.539 -great -grandchildren. What is going to be left 00:47:56.539 --> 00:47:59.710 for them? It's going to be like the Lorax. Yeah, 00:47:59.750 --> 00:48:06.329 of course. It's definitely scary. And a lot of 00:48:06.329 --> 00:48:10.670 the people around here are worried that the oil 00:48:10.670 --> 00:48:12.730 companies in the area and the people of their 00:48:12.730 --> 00:48:14.789 family who are working with the oil companies 00:48:14.789 --> 00:48:18.429 are going to later on have incurable diseases, 00:48:18.590 --> 00:48:22.590 which will ultimately end their life. Yeah, which 00:48:22.590 --> 00:48:24.550 is unacceptable because as you just were talking 00:48:24.550 --> 00:48:26.670 about, you know, there's all this plant medicine 00:48:26.670 --> 00:48:29.349 around you. And this is, I think. just to underline 00:48:29.349 --> 00:48:32.610 your point a very lesser known thing about modern 00:48:32.610 --> 00:48:35.570 medicine is all pretty much all the chemicals 00:48:35.570 --> 00:48:39.309 that work are the ones that are you know duplicating 00:48:39.309 --> 00:48:41.829 a naturally occurring substance all the ones 00:48:41.829 --> 00:48:44.110 that are shit they just made up and those are 00:48:44.110 --> 00:48:46.510 the ones you know three paragraph warning at 00:48:46.510 --> 00:48:48.809 the end might include you know shit after death 00:48:48.809 --> 00:48:51.139 and all these other things But yeah, but if you 00:48:51.139 --> 00:48:53.280 look at the ones that are most effective, you 00:48:53.280 --> 00:48:55.960 know, they actually derive from a plant or, you 00:48:55.960 --> 00:48:57.880 know, insulin from a pig or, you know, whatever 00:48:57.880 --> 00:49:00.900 the thing is. So the answer is in nature. And 00:49:00.900 --> 00:49:04.760 this is what's so disgusting is, you know, why 00:49:04.760 --> 00:49:08.099 not just allow that to be taken as modern for 00:49:08.099 --> 00:49:10.800 its natural form rather than say, well, I want 00:49:10.800 --> 00:49:13.179 to oppose any natural production of this thing, 00:49:13.360 --> 00:49:16.500 synthesize it and then charge a hundred times 00:49:16.500 --> 00:49:20.610 what it would cost to the consumer. Yeah, for 00:49:20.610 --> 00:49:23.730 sure. No, I think nature is definitely a therapy. 00:49:25.510 --> 00:49:28.510 For sure, it saved my life. And it's one of the 00:49:28.510 --> 00:49:31.250 biggest reasons why we at Emerald Arch want to 00:49:31.250 --> 00:49:34.510 bring on the Veterans Nature Therapy Program 00:49:34.510 --> 00:49:37.929 is because we want to bring people who are struggling 00:49:37.929 --> 00:49:41.949 to nature. And we want to continue to help not 00:49:41.949 --> 00:49:44.989 just the environment, but the people in this 00:49:44.989 --> 00:49:48.579 world who are struggling deeply. It's one of 00:49:48.579 --> 00:49:51.380 them things where it's going to take a lot of 00:49:51.380 --> 00:49:53.579 time. It's going to take a lot of energy and 00:49:53.579 --> 00:49:57.139 work and effort. But ultimately, if we can save 00:49:57.139 --> 00:50:01.480 one person's life from destruction to be in this 00:50:01.480 --> 00:50:03.780 incredible place, just to kind of change their 00:50:03.780 --> 00:50:07.119 mindset slightly. For me, and I don't know if 00:50:07.119 --> 00:50:09.539 you remember from the previous podcast, but we 00:50:09.539 --> 00:50:12.039 talked about how it only took me about 14 days 00:50:12.039 --> 00:50:15.750 to really... You know, it took me about 14 days 00:50:15.750 --> 00:50:19.909 to really realize that my life had meaning. And 00:50:19.909 --> 00:50:23.789 after that 14 days is where I spent the next 00:50:23.789 --> 00:50:28.429 14 days and I was in my element. And so if I 00:50:28.429 --> 00:50:33.170 and if we can change the viewpoint of just one 00:50:33.170 --> 00:50:37.449 person's life and we can save their life, that's 00:50:37.449 --> 00:50:40.800 incredible. At the same time as saving this place, 00:50:40.860 --> 00:50:42.960 at the same time of giving local people jobs, 00:50:43.239 --> 00:50:47.320 at the same time of helping this place with reforestation, 00:50:47.519 --> 00:50:50.400 doing scientific research so we can see how many, 00:50:50.440 --> 00:50:52.719 you know, animals we have on specific lands. 00:50:52.920 --> 00:50:55.400 Like, we just collected our camera traps a few 00:50:55.400 --> 00:50:59.000 days ago. This place, you can probably hear the 00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:02.579 road so close by. The land goes in that way, 00:51:02.699 --> 00:51:07.679 2 .6 kilometers. And, you know, it's... It's 00:51:07.679 --> 00:51:10.139 about 300 meters wide. It's a very kind of skinny 00:51:10.139 --> 00:51:13.820 plot of land, but very long. So incredible streams, 00:51:14.039 --> 00:51:16.699 incredible areas. So I put up 15 cameras before 00:51:16.699 --> 00:51:21.579 I left in April. And we had giant anteater. We 00:51:21.579 --> 00:51:25.599 had tamandua, jaguar, ocelot, giant armadillo, 00:51:25.840 --> 00:51:29.679 nine -banded armadillo, tyra, gryson, which blew 00:51:29.679 --> 00:51:32.820 my mind, short -eared dog. monkeys that are coming 00:51:32.820 --> 00:51:36.639 down, and I could go on with paca, agoutis, birds 00:51:36.639 --> 00:51:38.960 eating snakes, like all of these different things. 00:51:39.239 --> 00:51:41.800 And this is just one section of land, which is 00:51:41.800 --> 00:51:45.380 184 acres. Imagine what we can do when we protect 00:51:45.380 --> 00:51:49.039 3 ,000 plus acres, which is going to be destroyed 00:51:49.039 --> 00:51:51.119 by oil companies in the next two to three years, 00:51:51.159 --> 00:51:53.880 guaranteed, because they're not going to buy 00:51:53.880 --> 00:51:56.019 the 3 ,000 acres, they're going to buy about 00:51:56.019 --> 00:51:58.920 40. And then what they're going to do is they're 00:51:58.920 --> 00:52:01.539 going to dump the crude oil in somewhere in that 00:52:01.539 --> 00:52:04.320 area because it's their land. And then when it's 00:52:04.320 --> 00:52:07.420 rainy season, the oil is going to disperse across 00:52:07.420 --> 00:52:09.500 the whole place and make its way down the stream 00:52:09.500 --> 00:52:13.019 to the community of Pazibien. So the importance 00:52:13.019 --> 00:52:15.960 that we have is not just saving community lives, 00:52:16.059 --> 00:52:19.699 not just helping people with PTSD, not just protecting 00:52:19.699 --> 00:52:21.940 this environment and all these people. It's a 00:52:21.940 --> 00:52:27.239 combination of so much more. And a lot of people 00:52:27.239 --> 00:52:31.800 in this world fear that leap of faith. And for 00:52:31.800 --> 00:52:33.840 me, I'm not going to stop until it's completed, 00:52:34.019 --> 00:52:38.739 dude. Like this is it. And who knows, we might 00:52:38.739 --> 00:52:40.900 do a podcast in another two years or whenever 00:52:40.900 --> 00:52:43.340 it will be. I can guarantee you there's going 00:52:43.340 --> 00:52:46.500 to be change because that's my mindset. That's 00:52:46.500 --> 00:52:51.699 my goal. And that only happened after I had that 00:52:51.699 --> 00:52:54.860 experience and that love in the jungle. If I 00:52:54.860 --> 00:52:56.800 had never had that epiphany, if I had never had 00:52:56.800 --> 00:53:00.019 that moment of clarity where I thought suicide 00:53:00.019 --> 00:53:03.900 is not your option. You have people at home who 00:53:03.900 --> 00:53:07.940 love you. You have a great and bright future 00:53:07.940 --> 00:53:11.800 ahead of you. All you need to do is make that 00:53:11.800 --> 00:53:15.900 leap of faith. Say yes to things. Put yourself 00:53:15.900 --> 00:53:19.460 in uncomfortable situations. And the most important 00:53:19.460 --> 00:53:23.059 thing is follow your heart and follow the fire 00:53:23.059 --> 00:53:26.619 in your gut. Because if you don't follow what 00:53:26.619 --> 00:53:30.579 you need to follow, if your brain is telling 00:53:30.579 --> 00:53:33.699 you to go left and you're fighting to go right, 00:53:33.780 --> 00:53:37.860 go right. Because that right move will put you 00:53:37.860 --> 00:53:40.460 exactly where you need to be at exactly the right 00:53:40.460 --> 00:53:43.159 moment, which will make for incredible stories 00:53:43.159 --> 00:53:47.139 and will make for memories that you'll never, 00:53:47.199 --> 00:53:51.960 ever forget. If I had not... When I was in Australia, 00:53:52.099 --> 00:53:56.199 for example, I left Peru because Khan was killed 00:53:56.199 --> 00:54:00.219 by a poacher's trap. Devastated me. Actually 00:54:00.219 --> 00:54:04.119 shook me to the core and broke me as a human 00:54:04.119 --> 00:54:08.840 being. If I hadn't have gone to Australia, I 00:54:08.840 --> 00:54:12.800 never would have had the energy to go back because 00:54:12.800 --> 00:54:14.860 when I was in Australia, I remember speaking 00:54:14.860 --> 00:54:17.139 to my friend Matthew and he said to me like, 00:54:17.300 --> 00:54:20.980 what's next? And I said, something is unfinished 00:54:20.980 --> 00:54:24.139 in Peru. Something is unfinished. I don't know 00:54:24.139 --> 00:54:27.079 what it is, but I need to go back. I didn't want 00:54:27.079 --> 00:54:30.300 to go back. This is a place where my son had 00:54:30.300 --> 00:54:34.500 been killed. This is a place where I just terrible 00:54:34.500 --> 00:54:38.400 shit. I needed to go back and I didn't know why, 00:54:38.480 --> 00:54:40.780 but I followed my heart. And I went back and 00:54:40.780 --> 00:54:43.460 then Keanu was there. And then because Keanu 00:54:43.460 --> 00:54:46.199 was there, I was able to make. a documentary 00:54:46.199 --> 00:54:48.659 which changed people's viewpoints and changed 00:54:48.659 --> 00:54:52.380 people's lives. Not only that, but I found my 00:54:52.380 --> 00:54:55.219 wife. She came to the jungle at the very, very 00:54:55.219 --> 00:54:58.920 end of 2019. And without her, I never would have 00:54:58.920 --> 00:55:02.260 been able to have accomplished this. And it's 00:55:02.260 --> 00:55:04.800 like, if I hadn't have followed my gut instinct, 00:55:04.940 --> 00:55:07.599 if I hadn't have followed my heart, who knows 00:55:07.599 --> 00:55:10.239 where I would be. And I think that's one of the 00:55:10.239 --> 00:55:13.639 things that I'm very proud about in myself and 00:55:13.639 --> 00:55:17.920 in my life is that When I have a feeling, I go 00:55:17.920 --> 00:55:20.980 with it. I have to, because if I don't, I will 00:55:20.980 --> 00:55:25.820 regret not following my heart. Well, you mentioned 00:55:25.820 --> 00:55:28.760 Khan, you mentioned Keanu, and you said that 00:55:28.760 --> 00:55:30.760 there were us a lot, you know, where you are 00:55:30.760 --> 00:55:33.639 now. Have you had any sort of interaction? Have 00:55:33.639 --> 00:55:35.239 you been able to actually be there or are they 00:55:35.239 --> 00:55:38.300 just caught on camera at the moment? These ones 00:55:38.300 --> 00:55:40.659 at the moment are just on camera trap. I found 00:55:40.659 --> 00:55:43.980 the tracks, I found the male spray territorial 00:55:43.980 --> 00:55:50.860 marks, and I've been able to be close enough 00:55:50.860 --> 00:55:56.059 that I know that there is a good amount here. 00:55:56.880 --> 00:56:01.920 I have not found any with my eyes at the moment, 00:56:01.980 --> 00:56:07.460 and I definitely have not... I found an ocelot, 00:56:07.500 --> 00:56:10.239 which is definitely in need of reintroducing. 00:56:10.320 --> 00:56:12.480 I think if that happened, me and my wife would 00:56:12.480 --> 00:56:14.820 definitely have to have a talk because she knows 00:56:14.820 --> 00:56:19.179 what I'm like. However, when I was on the plane 00:56:19.179 --> 00:56:22.380 down here, my friend Hilva messaged me and he 00:56:22.380 --> 00:56:24.860 goes, oh, I'm sorry, Harry. And I was like, oh, 00:56:24.920 --> 00:56:28.340 no, what is it? He sent me a video of him going 00:56:28.340 --> 00:56:30.780 into one of the houses on the property and there 00:56:30.780 --> 00:56:36.059 was three orphaned kittens there. And I was like, 00:56:36.139 --> 00:56:38.480 oh, don't touch them because I want the mum to 00:56:38.480 --> 00:56:40.860 be able to come back if she's there. And then 00:56:40.860 --> 00:56:43.099 when I got here, I saw all three. So I left some 00:56:43.099 --> 00:56:45.380 food out for the mum. And when I came back the 00:56:45.380 --> 00:56:47.940 next day, the mum had taken the two healthy ones 00:56:47.940 --> 00:56:52.840 and left the runt to basically die. So now I 00:56:52.840 --> 00:56:54.739 have a kitten that I'm looking after. It's not 00:56:54.739 --> 00:56:58.639 an ocelot, but it's a stray cat. And we're going 00:56:58.639 --> 00:57:00.840 to do our absolute best to make sure that that 00:57:00.840 --> 00:57:04.570 doesn't reproduce on this land. has a way better 00:57:04.570 --> 00:57:09.750 life than just a feral cat life. But there's 00:57:09.750 --> 00:57:12.769 plenty of stuff on this land, man. There's an 00:57:12.769 --> 00:57:16.909 incredible amount of diversity. And I think that 00:57:16.909 --> 00:57:20.510 the abundance and richness of this place is going 00:57:20.510 --> 00:57:22.909 to change many people. I want to continue to 00:57:22.909 --> 00:57:25.769 bring people out here. I would love to bring 00:57:25.769 --> 00:57:27.409 you out here if that's something that you'd be 00:57:27.409 --> 00:57:31.869 interested in. It's one of them things where... 00:57:32.170 --> 00:57:35.849 just even waking up to the sound of of parrots 00:57:35.849 --> 00:57:39.829 and macaws and just being able to kind of like 00:57:39.829 --> 00:57:43.309 be god this freaking horsefly keeps biting me 00:57:43.309 --> 00:57:47.309 um just being able to kind of like be in nature 00:57:47.309 --> 00:57:50.670 and just be surrounded by the beauty it's like 00:57:50.670 --> 00:57:54.769 it's it's something not many people truly experience 00:57:54.769 --> 00:57:58.769 in their life when you're talking about in this 00:57:58.769 --> 00:58:01.719 case a veteran in crisis One of the things of 00:58:01.719 --> 00:58:04.119 having so many conversations and a lot of people 00:58:04.119 --> 00:58:06.440 on the show have been in that place. They really 00:58:06.440 --> 00:58:08.460 have. And even some of the people that they're 00:58:08.460 --> 00:58:10.800 not on here talking about their powerful mental 00:58:10.800 --> 00:58:12.719 health journey. And we find ourselves there and 00:58:12.719 --> 00:58:14.519 OK, that's another person that was struggling. 00:58:14.559 --> 00:58:19.119 I didn't even realize. But there's such a powerful 00:58:19.119 --> 00:58:21.639 common denominator with all of these stories 00:58:21.639 --> 00:58:24.139 where obviously, you know, when people are hurting, 00:58:24.159 --> 00:58:25.579 they want the suffering to stop. That's part 00:58:25.579 --> 00:58:27.840 of it. But I think we talked about this last 00:58:27.840 --> 00:58:31.039 time. This perception that they are a burden 00:58:31.039 --> 00:58:33.739 to the people that they love. And if they just 00:58:33.739 --> 00:58:36.420 remove themselves, then everyone will be happier. 00:58:36.579 --> 00:58:39.659 Completely distorted reality. But people get 00:58:39.659 --> 00:58:42.340 there because of this kind of perfect storm of 00:58:42.340 --> 00:58:44.880 all the factors. It's never one thing. Oh, you 00:58:44.880 --> 00:58:46.960 had that divorce. Oh, you lost a child. You know, 00:58:46.980 --> 00:58:49.619 whatever the thing was, that was just one of 00:58:49.619 --> 00:58:53.239 these things. So I can see how when, you know, 00:58:53.239 --> 00:58:56.050 whoever it is, a veteran that, you know. whatever 00:58:56.050 --> 00:58:58.170 background someone has that they are removed 00:58:58.170 --> 00:59:01.750 from, as we mentioned earlier, this kind of white 00:59:01.750 --> 00:59:04.369 noise effect of where they were currently, you 00:59:04.369 --> 00:59:07.329 know, existing and they find themselves in the 00:59:07.329 --> 00:59:10.389 Amazon and they have nature and they're probably 00:59:10.389 --> 00:59:12.409 going to have exercise and they're going to sleep 00:59:12.409 --> 00:59:15.409 deeper and they don't have these phones and these 00:59:15.409 --> 00:59:17.409 social media things going off. And obviously 00:59:17.409 --> 00:59:19.250 they're not having to go to work for that period 00:59:19.250 --> 00:59:23.320 of time. you can see how you then start disassembling 00:59:23.320 --> 00:59:26.019 all of those pieces of that perfect storm to 00:59:26.019 --> 00:59:28.719 where they're able to think clearly and go, wait 00:59:28.719 --> 00:59:32.280 a second, I'm not a burden. I've got some things 00:59:32.280 --> 00:59:34.260 that I need to work through and I was kind of 00:59:34.260 --> 00:59:36.739 angry towards my kids and whatever the thing 00:59:36.739 --> 00:59:39.719 was, but I can start to see why that was the 00:59:39.719 --> 00:59:42.920 case. And now I can have the ability now to work 00:59:42.920 --> 00:59:46.019 on that. So what you're doing, immersing someone 00:59:46.019 --> 00:59:50.989 into a place like Emerald Arch, I mean, it just 00:59:50.989 --> 00:59:53.610 makes so much sense. There's so many different 00:59:53.610 --> 00:59:56.789 healing modalities out there. And the project 00:59:56.789 --> 00:59:59.849 I'm working on with my show, I want to bring 00:59:59.849 --> 01:00:01.469 light to those. In fact, that's something I think 01:00:01.469 --> 01:00:04.250 that I'd love to get you on as part of that project 01:00:04.250 --> 01:00:07.230 as well. But when people find the thing that 01:00:07.230 --> 01:00:08.889 resonates with them, someone might be like, I 01:00:08.889 --> 01:00:10.590 couldn't think of anything worse than going to 01:00:10.590 --> 01:00:13.170 the middle of Amazon. Okay, that's not the trip 01:00:13.170 --> 01:00:16.369 for you then. Maybe ayahuasca or maybe MDMA or 01:00:16.369 --> 01:00:18.989 maybe just equine therapy, whatever your thing 01:00:18.989 --> 01:00:21.829 is. But there's so many people that if you can 01:00:21.829 --> 01:00:25.650 just remove them from the nucleus of their turmoil 01:00:25.650 --> 01:00:29.349 and put them somewhere where they literally, 01:00:29.590 --> 01:00:32.530 you know, are totally in touch with nature, it 01:00:32.530 --> 01:00:35.110 makes so much sense of that would, you know, 01:00:35.110 --> 01:00:37.829 of course we use the word healing, but ultimately 01:00:37.829 --> 01:00:40.550 would start stripping away all those contributing 01:00:40.550 --> 01:00:42.969 factors that led them down that dark path in 01:00:42.969 --> 01:00:47.840 the first place. Absolutely. And with the kind 01:00:47.840 --> 01:00:51.099 of disconnect of modern and social kind of like 01:00:51.099 --> 01:00:54.000 life, when you are in the jungle with somebody 01:00:54.000 --> 01:00:57.639 and you are completely kind of like disconnected 01:00:57.639 --> 01:01:03.320 from the outside world, the amount of genuine, 01:01:03.360 --> 01:01:05.559 serious conversations that you have with these 01:01:05.559 --> 01:01:11.099 people become life changing. And a lot of my 01:01:11.099 --> 01:01:13.460 closest friends that I still hold dear to my 01:01:13.460 --> 01:01:15.559 heart are the people that I met when I first 01:01:15.559 --> 01:01:18.340 came to the jungle because I didn't have a phone. 01:01:18.480 --> 01:01:21.099 I didn't have, you know, internet. I didn't have 01:01:21.099 --> 01:01:24.699 any of these things. I had an experience where 01:01:24.699 --> 01:01:28.159 we were all in a jungle together, all finding 01:01:28.159 --> 01:01:31.099 cool and incredible species, doing everything 01:01:31.099 --> 01:01:35.260 that we, you know, were doing, but genuinely. 01:01:35.800 --> 01:01:37.780 not because we were doing it for social media 01:01:37.780 --> 01:01:40.179 not because we were doing it for this or you 01:01:40.179 --> 01:01:42.619 know trying to impress people we were there because 01:01:42.619 --> 01:01:46.639 we wanted to be there and to bring people into 01:01:46.639 --> 01:01:50.440 that and to be able to kind of like have them 01:01:50.440 --> 01:01:54.340 deep conversations it changes people it you get 01:01:54.340 --> 01:01:56.900 to know that true person and what they're genuinely 01:01:56.900 --> 01:02:02.039 going through um you don't you don't need to 01:02:02.039 --> 01:02:04.179 hide your secrets when you're in the jungle not 01:02:04.179 --> 01:02:08.079 at all Well, I want to get to the book in a minute, 01:02:08.119 --> 01:02:11.079 but before we do, talk to me about what's needed 01:02:11.079 --> 01:02:13.440 for the purchase of the land, for the creation 01:02:13.440 --> 01:02:16.199 of the retreat, you know, for anyone listening 01:02:16.199 --> 01:02:18.360 now that might have maybe one of the pieces of 01:02:18.360 --> 01:02:21.179 the jigsaw puzzle, what is needed so you can 01:02:21.179 --> 01:02:24.159 achieve your goal, help healing, you know, veterans 01:02:24.159 --> 01:02:28.340 and keep these oil companies at bay. Yeah, so 01:02:28.340 --> 01:02:31.199 I've been networking a lot recently, trying to 01:02:31.199 --> 01:02:34.039 figure out funding. Funding right now is the 01:02:34.039 --> 01:02:36.960 most crucial part because of the fact that we 01:02:36.960 --> 01:02:39.980 have a very limited amount of time. I spent the 01:02:39.980 --> 01:02:42.360 last five years making connections with local 01:02:42.360 --> 01:02:44.460 communities and local people so that they can 01:02:44.460 --> 01:02:47.760 actually have trust in somebody like me and my 01:02:47.760 --> 01:02:51.719 organisation. So right now, funding is extremely 01:02:51.719 --> 01:02:57.710 important. um if people know anybody who you 01:02:57.710 --> 01:03:00.329 know happens to have quite a lot of money and 01:03:00.329 --> 01:03:03.849 wants to have a tax deductible kind of like get 01:03:03.849 --> 01:03:07.610 away by doing something good then that's great 01:03:07.610 --> 01:03:12.590 um i feel like the other thing that uh emerald 01:03:12.590 --> 01:03:15.170 arch kind of needs at the moment is just word 01:03:15.170 --> 01:03:17.650 of mouth if you don't have anything to contribute 01:03:17.650 --> 01:03:22.099 to to the cause that's fine If you believe in 01:03:22.099 --> 01:03:24.179 what we are trying to achieve and what we are 01:03:24.179 --> 01:03:28.460 currently doing here, then talk about it to people. 01:03:29.699 --> 01:03:32.360 That's one of the reasons why I love doing podcasts 01:03:32.360 --> 01:03:34.800 is because I will be able to reach many ears 01:03:34.800 --> 01:03:36.579 that I would never be able to reach. And then 01:03:36.579 --> 01:03:38.659 their conversations will be able to go on to 01:03:38.659 --> 01:03:43.559 other people. We have a new website now so people 01:03:43.559 --> 01:03:45.860 can go on and they can check out everything now. 01:03:46.619 --> 01:03:49.039 You know, that took a while to kind of get up 01:03:49.039 --> 01:03:54.190 and running. And honestly, just kind of like 01:03:54.190 --> 01:03:57.489 the experience itself, if people want to donate 01:03:57.489 --> 01:03:59.070 and they want to come down, but they want to 01:03:59.070 --> 01:04:00.849 actually see with their eyes where their money's 01:04:00.849 --> 01:04:04.909 going, it's a completely doable and achievable 01:04:04.909 --> 01:04:09.590 kind of goal. We have land now. I have a great 01:04:09.590 --> 01:04:12.469 amount of connections down here. I have some 01:04:12.469 --> 01:04:16.909 very close friends. And so any help in any way 01:04:16.909 --> 01:04:24.429 is fantastic. But ideally, funding would be and, 01:04:24.530 --> 01:04:28.570 you know, everybody needs money. But I feel like 01:04:28.570 --> 01:04:31.949 if people genuinely listen to the issues that 01:04:31.949 --> 01:04:35.670 are here and they genuinely want to make change, 01:04:36.090 --> 01:04:41.269 the Amazon, apart from the ocean, is the biggest 01:04:41.269 --> 01:04:45.469 absorber of carbon dioxide. This place is in 01:04:45.469 --> 01:04:49.630 such. because of oil companies and deforestation 01:04:49.630 --> 01:04:54.449 and fires and all these things, that if people 01:04:54.449 --> 01:04:59.250 genuinely want to do good, just even investing 01:04:59.250 --> 01:05:06.530 into land is powerful. For example, a hectare 01:05:06.530 --> 01:05:14.730 of land is $1 ,000 here. So I believe my calculations... 01:05:15.360 --> 01:05:20.400 Four hectares is about an acre. So even with 01:05:20.400 --> 01:05:24.159 $5 ,000, you can save a huge, huge chunk of the 01:05:24.159 --> 01:05:26.940 rainforest. And then when it comes down to saving 01:05:26.940 --> 01:05:29.460 rainforest, you're then actually giving jobs 01:05:29.460 --> 01:05:31.559 to local people that are educating themselves 01:05:31.559 --> 01:05:34.599 more in why this place is important to save. 01:05:34.980 --> 01:05:38.980 And also bringing people down here who are struggling 01:05:38.980 --> 01:05:46.480 deeply. There's a lot that... conversation and 01:05:46.480 --> 01:05:51.880 uh and funding can can do here for sure when 01:05:51.880 --> 01:05:54.400 you say saving the amazon i feel like jeff bezos 01:05:54.400 --> 01:05:56.139 needs to give a lot of money because he's used 01:05:56.139 --> 01:05:58.340 that word to make a lot for himself it seems 01:05:58.340 --> 01:06:00.239 like it would be a good fit for him to give back 01:06:00.239 --> 01:06:05.139 if anybody's got any connects to him that would 01:06:05.139 --> 01:06:07.960 be great but i know that his uh his money is 01:06:07.960 --> 01:06:13.400 going elsewhere um and uh You know, I can't hate 01:06:13.400 --> 01:06:15.699 on somebody for making money from, you know, 01:06:15.699 --> 01:06:18.000 being very intelligent and doing all these things. 01:06:18.039 --> 01:06:20.059 But I feel like with all of the billionaires 01:06:20.059 --> 01:06:22.719 in the world, we could definitely make a difference 01:06:22.719 --> 01:06:25.019 when it comes down to mental health support, 01:06:25.219 --> 01:06:27.380 when it comes down to homelessness, when it comes 01:06:27.380 --> 01:06:30.119 down to Amazon conservation, when it comes down 01:06:30.119 --> 01:06:33.579 to just genuinely, you know, everything that 01:06:33.579 --> 01:06:37.480 is a struggle in this world. I feel like that 01:06:37.480 --> 01:06:41.829 is the... The thing that they could definitely 01:06:41.829 --> 01:06:44.750 change the most, but unfortunately, it takes 01:06:44.750 --> 01:06:48.329 a lot of good people to do the small things in 01:06:48.329 --> 01:06:52.469 the world. And we're trying. We're doing our 01:06:52.469 --> 01:06:56.389 complete best here. I am, like I said, incurably 01:06:56.389 --> 01:07:00.650 yet angry optimist. And I truly believe that 01:07:00.650 --> 01:07:04.829 there is the beginning, the cracks of a revolution 01:07:04.829 --> 01:07:08.210 of kindness and compassion. I think there's an 01:07:08.210 --> 01:07:11.360 awakening of... the corporate greed and some 01:07:11.360 --> 01:07:13.179 of the things that we talked about. And I hope 01:07:13.179 --> 01:07:15.920 that that's going to extend not only into physical 01:07:15.920 --> 01:07:18.500 mental health in, in the developed nations and 01:07:18.500 --> 01:07:21.000 obviously beyond that, but also in the conservation 01:07:21.000 --> 01:07:24.099 side, you know, this kind of eye rolling about 01:07:24.099 --> 01:07:26.659 the ozone layer, for example, I've always said, 01:07:26.679 --> 01:07:29.599 well, just look at the, the quality of the air 01:07:29.599 --> 01:07:32.960 in London or LA or, you know, Mumbai. You don't 01:07:32.960 --> 01:07:34.480 need to worry about the ozone there. You can 01:07:34.480 --> 01:07:37.539 physically see it, the trash in the oceans and 01:07:37.539 --> 01:07:40.679 all these other areas. So for too long, we've 01:07:40.679 --> 01:07:43.079 kind of been duped, almost like defending these 01:07:43.079 --> 01:07:45.639 corporations. And I feel like now finally there's 01:07:45.639 --> 01:07:48.119 an awakening. And I hope even the holistic healing 01:07:48.119 --> 01:07:51.260 side will start protecting the Amazons and these 01:07:51.260 --> 01:07:53.460 other areas from a medicinal point of view too. 01:07:53.639 --> 01:07:56.880 So I hope the timing is right and that there'll 01:07:56.880 --> 01:07:59.420 be people leaning into nonprofits like yours 01:07:59.420 --> 01:08:03.170 to be able to help. Yeah, I hope so too. And 01:08:03.170 --> 01:08:05.949 I appreciate that kind of confidence. I feel 01:08:05.949 --> 01:08:11.090 like there are definitely people that are wanting 01:08:11.090 --> 01:08:13.650 to do change. And there are many, many change 01:08:13.650 --> 01:08:15.929 makers in the world. It's just that we need to 01:08:15.929 --> 01:08:19.010 work together. One of the issues I found working 01:08:19.010 --> 01:08:21.390 in conservation for the past 10 years is the 01:08:21.390 --> 01:08:24.649 fact that when people or when one person does 01:08:24.649 --> 01:08:28.250 something which is great, people in conservation 01:08:28.250 --> 01:08:31.109 to some degree get jealous and they want to do 01:08:31.550 --> 01:08:34.250 something great themselves and you end up actually 01:08:34.250 --> 01:08:38.390 having kind of like not necessarily fights but 01:08:38.390 --> 01:08:41.010 people are clashing heads because they're trying 01:08:41.010 --> 01:08:43.369 to do good but they're trying to outdo each other 01:08:43.369 --> 01:08:46.710 and so i feel like with a lot of these people 01:08:46.710 --> 01:08:49.409 that want to do good if we just work together 01:08:49.409 --> 01:08:53.729 we can make so much we don't need to outsmart 01:08:53.729 --> 01:08:57.029 each other or do the next best thing Like, I 01:08:57.029 --> 01:08:59.069 don't want someone to just like come up to me 01:08:59.069 --> 01:09:00.630 and be like, oh, well, you did this, this and 01:09:00.630 --> 01:09:02.850 this. So I'm going to do this. It's like, oh, 01:09:02.890 --> 01:09:04.789 well, well done for doing something good. You 01:09:04.789 --> 01:09:06.590 know, I feel like I have also done something 01:09:06.590 --> 01:09:09.590 good. How about let's collaborate and let's do 01:09:09.590 --> 01:09:12.810 something which works for the both of us so that 01:09:12.810 --> 01:09:16.930 we can truly make a huge difference. But then 01:09:16.930 --> 01:09:18.789 again, you know, throughout the world, jealousy 01:09:18.789 --> 01:09:22.270 is kind of one of the biggest kind of like horrible 01:09:22.270 --> 01:09:25.970 things that happens. It just kind of. It causes 01:09:25.970 --> 01:09:30.770 issues. I see that even in first responder nonprofits. 01:09:31.050 --> 01:09:32.750 And I'll get people say, and it's coming from 01:09:32.750 --> 01:09:36.210 a beautiful place. I had my own mental health 01:09:36.210 --> 01:09:37.930 struggle. I'm going to start a nonprofit. And 01:09:37.930 --> 01:09:39.810 I tell them the same thing. Find a nonprofit 01:09:39.810 --> 01:09:42.229 that you already like. Find one out there that's 01:09:42.229 --> 01:09:44.609 been well established and join them. Be part 01:09:44.609 --> 01:09:47.029 of their team. If everyone's reinventing the 01:09:47.029 --> 01:09:50.069 wheel, there's so much wasted energy. So as you 01:09:50.069 --> 01:09:52.609 said, collaborate. If you're already an established 01:09:52.609 --> 01:09:55.380 nonprofit. then link arms with another one. And 01:09:55.380 --> 01:09:56.920 if you're not, if you're someone wanting to do 01:09:56.920 --> 01:09:58.939 good, then find someone who's already working 01:09:58.939 --> 01:10:01.159 there. And then whether it's fundraising, whether 01:10:01.159 --> 01:10:03.420 it's boots on the ground, be part of an organization 01:10:03.420 --> 01:10:05.640 that's trustworthy, that's already established. 01:10:05.859 --> 01:10:08.300 So you're not spinning your wheels and spending 01:10:08.300 --> 01:10:12.340 thousands on establishing your nonprofit only 01:10:12.340 --> 01:10:16.079 to kind of watch it struggle a year later. Yeah. 01:10:16.640 --> 01:10:20.500 Yeah. The reason we started our nonprofit in 01:10:20.500 --> 01:10:25.289 this area is for the, for the fact that we don't 01:10:25.289 --> 01:10:28.350 see a lot happening for the oil companies here 01:10:28.350 --> 01:10:30.409 and we don't see anything happening for the local 01:10:30.409 --> 01:10:35.109 communities um me and lexi discussed you know 01:10:35.109 --> 01:10:37.449 a lot about kind of like what we want to do with 01:10:37.449 --> 01:10:40.729 our life and our future and um obviously making 01:10:40.729 --> 01:10:42.810 a difference was the biggest thing and then when 01:10:42.810 --> 01:10:45.609 we both came to ecuador together i had been here 01:10:45.609 --> 01:10:49.770 before her but when we both came we saw a demand 01:10:49.770 --> 01:10:53.529 that was not being met And that demand was respect 01:10:53.529 --> 01:10:57.890 of the local communities and education on oil 01:10:57.890 --> 01:11:03.949 and the issues and impact that it has. And yeah, 01:11:04.649 --> 01:11:07.640 there's not many people. like us that want to 01:11:07.640 --> 01:11:10.699 kind of work with conservation with mental health 01:11:10.699 --> 01:11:13.079 with local communities with all of these things 01:11:13.079 --> 01:11:15.880 combined and so if there are any other people 01:11:15.880 --> 01:11:17.979 out there that like this story and want to talk 01:11:17.979 --> 01:11:19.880 about it and if there are people that want to 01:11:19.880 --> 01:11:21.920 collaborate on anything as well in the future 01:11:21.920 --> 01:11:27.119 our ears are open um our doors are open we want 01:11:27.119 --> 01:11:32.890 this place to heal um just like myself. I needed 01:11:32.890 --> 01:11:35.810 to heal when I came to the jungle, but this jungle 01:11:35.810 --> 01:11:38.770 needs healing now and it's our time to step up 01:11:38.770 --> 01:11:42.970 and pay back what was given to me. I couldn't 01:11:42.970 --> 01:11:45.510 agree more. Well, talk to me then about the book. 01:11:47.689 --> 01:11:53.829 Oh, man. I'm not very good at writing. I feel 01:11:53.829 --> 01:11:56.250 like I'm okay, but I didn't do well in school 01:11:56.250 --> 01:11:58.449 for the fact that I just can't sit behind a screen. 01:11:59.420 --> 01:12:03.640 it's coming along um i have a really great uh 01:12:03.640 --> 01:12:08.779 editor and advisor and i have um so she's my 01:12:08.779 --> 01:12:12.920 agent and and i have i have a story i have a 01:12:12.920 --> 01:12:16.180 very impactful and powerful story um something 01:12:16.180 --> 01:12:20.239 that kind of i want to be able to get out there 01:12:20.239 --> 01:12:22.119 there's only so much that you can really get 01:12:22.119 --> 01:12:25.170 in an hour and 40 minute documentary And for 01:12:25.170 --> 01:12:27.850 me, like there's so much backstory to a lot of 01:12:27.850 --> 01:12:31.590 where, you know, to a lot of my story where what 01:12:31.590 --> 01:12:34.310 made me do this and how did I get to this point 01:12:34.310 --> 01:12:37.270 in my life? And there's many whys in the documentary, 01:12:37.329 --> 01:12:40.189 which is, you know, part of filmmaking is you 01:12:40.189 --> 01:12:42.390 want people to be making questions so that they 01:12:42.390 --> 01:12:46.409 keep watching. But I want people to understand 01:12:46.409 --> 01:12:50.029 the whys. So I want to, and I'm writing my book 01:12:50.029 --> 01:12:54.800 to talk about, you know, the jungle how it saved 01:12:54.800 --> 01:12:58.140 my life why did i always love animals how did 01:12:58.140 --> 01:13:00.079 i get to this point what i want to do in the 01:13:00.079 --> 01:13:03.579 future stories about khan and keanu that nobody 01:13:03.579 --> 01:13:06.779 apart from my closest fan friends and family 01:13:06.779 --> 01:13:10.760 know about like there's so much in -depth detail 01:13:10.760 --> 01:13:14.640 that i want to go into that this book i feel 01:13:14.640 --> 01:13:19.119 is going to be powerful and also i want to not 01:13:19.119 --> 01:13:22.310 just you know conserve like this is a great I 01:13:22.310 --> 01:13:24.210 love living here and I love doing all these things, 01:13:24.250 --> 01:13:27.609 but I want to make a living from being a public 01:13:27.609 --> 01:13:31.109 speaker. I want to speak about my stories. I 01:13:31.109 --> 01:13:32.789 want to speak about my mental health. I want 01:13:32.789 --> 01:13:36.750 to be able to help and contribute to other people 01:13:36.750 --> 01:13:40.550 who are going through something similar or just 01:13:40.550 --> 01:13:45.079 struggling in general. I feel like my story can 01:13:45.079 --> 01:13:48.319 be a light to many people. And, you know, when 01:13:48.319 --> 01:13:50.680 the documentary came out, I had so many people 01:13:50.680 --> 01:13:53.560 messaging me beautiful messages. And the one 01:13:53.560 --> 01:13:59.880 that will stick with me the most was a lady messaged 01:13:59.880 --> 01:14:01.859 me and basically was like, thank you for your 01:14:01.859 --> 01:14:04.279 documentary because now I understand what my 01:14:04.279 --> 01:14:06.340 husband was going through after Afghanistan. 01:14:07.239 --> 01:14:10.819 Now, I didn't make a documentary to change. you 01:14:10.819 --> 01:14:13.260 know how a relationship works in a different 01:14:13.260 --> 01:14:17.819 part of the world but my struggle was able to 01:14:17.819 --> 01:14:21.619 be captured so that other people could relate 01:14:21.619 --> 01:14:24.399 to how other people in their lives were struggling 01:14:24.399 --> 01:14:30.079 and that was powerful very very powerful so if 01:14:30.079 --> 01:14:33.840 my book can go into more detail about that and 01:14:33.840 --> 01:14:36.810 more people can understand why they're husbands 01:14:36.810 --> 01:14:39.750 or why their kids or why their family members 01:14:39.750 --> 01:14:45.489 or friends are struggling then that you know 01:14:45.489 --> 01:14:47.609 once again i'm trying to make a difference i'm 01:14:47.609 --> 01:14:49.850 just trying honestly james i'm just trying to 01:14:49.850 --> 01:14:52.729 do good in this world and people that try to 01:14:52.729 --> 01:14:59.329 do good don't really uh don't really uh win a 01:14:59.329 --> 01:15:01.619 lot we struggle and struggle and struggle until 01:15:01.619 --> 01:15:04.300 we get to a point of where we go you know i i'm 01:15:04.300 --> 01:15:06.239 successful in what i've done but it took about 01:15:06.239 --> 01:15:10.720 20 years to get well i mean firstly i agree i 01:15:10.720 --> 01:15:14.000 think that was this the uh environment and i 01:15:14.000 --> 01:15:16.220 hope it's starting to change now because i think 01:15:16.220 --> 01:15:18.060 the people for example that were just standing 01:15:18.060 --> 01:15:20.659 in the middle in a lot of these extremist years 01:15:20.659 --> 01:15:23.500 that we've had that were demonized this is the 01:15:23.500 --> 01:15:27.189 thing that the most um censored voice by far 01:15:27.189 --> 01:15:29.550 was the voice of common sense for a long, long 01:15:29.550 --> 01:15:33.149 time. But I think now people are seeing the bad. 01:15:33.250 --> 01:15:35.550 So I hope that then is going to get people realize, 01:15:35.649 --> 01:15:37.909 well, then what does a good look like? And it 01:15:37.909 --> 01:15:39.550 is, you know, like yourself and so many other 01:15:39.550 --> 01:15:41.989 people had on the show that are out there. You 01:15:41.989 --> 01:15:43.810 know, a lot of them did serve in uniform and 01:15:43.810 --> 01:15:45.729 then they got out and they're like, I need to 01:15:45.729 --> 01:15:47.689 do more. And this is, you know, this is what's 01:15:47.689 --> 01:15:49.670 so admirable. They're not paid to do this. They 01:15:49.670 --> 01:15:52.470 decided to do it off their own back. But the 01:15:52.470 --> 01:15:54.529 other thing is also storytelling. And I'm sure 01:15:54.529 --> 01:15:57.109 if you look at, you know, again, the Ecuadorian 01:15:57.109 --> 01:15:58.930 culture, there's a lot of that. You look at, 01:15:58.949 --> 01:16:01.210 you know, ancient British, ancient Egyptian, 01:16:01.310 --> 01:16:04.619 ancient insert area here. It was storytelling, 01:16:04.880 --> 01:16:08.359 hunting and war and gathering and don't eat this, 01:16:08.399 --> 01:16:12.659 but do eat this. And, you know, plagues and famine 01:16:12.659 --> 01:16:15.159 and all these things. It was all told from generation 01:16:15.159 --> 01:16:17.380 to generation. And I think we've really lost 01:16:17.380 --> 01:16:20.439 that in the kind of seven second TikTok bullshit 01:16:20.439 --> 01:16:23.119 that we've been exposed to. So this is where 01:16:23.119 --> 01:16:25.479 I think there's a lot of power in long form podcast 01:16:25.479 --> 01:16:28.880 and in documentaries and in books is when you 01:16:28.880 --> 01:16:31.000 pull someone into a story. And this is what I'm 01:16:31.000 --> 01:16:34.039 hoping with my most recent project. when they 01:16:34.039 --> 01:16:38.079 get to the end of that series or the book, put 01:16:38.079 --> 01:16:40.760 it down and go, I'd never thought of it that 01:16:40.760 --> 01:16:43.640 way. And then, like you said, you leave them 01:16:43.640 --> 01:16:45.699 with questions, not all the answers because no 01:16:45.699 --> 01:16:47.500 one has all the answers. And then they go off 01:16:47.500 --> 01:16:50.319 on their own healing journey because you've inspired 01:16:50.319 --> 01:16:52.859 hope and you've given them a few tools so they 01:16:52.859 --> 01:16:55.279 can start taking those few steps. So I think 01:16:55.279 --> 01:16:57.380 there's such a need for exactly what you're talking 01:16:57.380 --> 01:17:02.010 about. I appreciate that. And I think that what 01:17:02.010 --> 01:17:05.649 we are both trying to do is just shine a light 01:17:05.649 --> 01:17:10.449 onto, you know, anything is, you know, it's mental 01:17:10.449 --> 01:17:14.529 health is a huge crisis in the world, in, you 01:17:14.529 --> 01:17:19.229 know, in England. And even here, even though 01:17:19.229 --> 01:17:23.010 these people are happy, like they're fighting 01:17:23.010 --> 01:17:26.029 a battle with like, do I work with this oil company? 01:17:26.170 --> 01:17:29.649 Do I do this? Do I do that? Like, It's a struggle 01:17:29.649 --> 01:17:32.069 wherever we go, but if we can shine light on 01:17:32.069 --> 01:17:34.810 the hopeful stories in the world and try and 01:17:34.810 --> 01:17:41.250 bring something to local people or just to do 01:17:41.250 --> 01:17:46.489 good, we're doing what we intended to do and 01:17:46.489 --> 01:17:50.989 we're doing what we must. I'm just really grateful 01:17:50.989 --> 01:17:53.930 that I have people like yourself and people like 01:17:53.930 --> 01:17:57.800 my wife and my team and family. that support 01:17:57.800 --> 01:18:00.640 me in the in the things that i'm doing because 01:18:00.640 --> 01:18:05.140 trying to do things alone uh in this world to 01:18:05.140 --> 01:18:07.800 make change is not easy and if you're trying 01:18:07.800 --> 01:18:10.739 to do something alone in your mental health forget 01:18:10.739 --> 01:18:15.039 it you need to have somebody whether you know 01:18:15.039 --> 01:18:18.260 them or whether you just need to you know listen 01:18:18.260 --> 01:18:20.920 to someone that has gone through something else 01:18:20.920 --> 01:18:24.000 or whether you just need a conversation or a 01:18:24.000 --> 01:18:26.619 friend or something If you try to do everything 01:18:26.619 --> 01:18:31.199 alone, you're never going to win. You're never 01:18:31.199 --> 01:18:34.680 going to be successful. The greatest thing, and 01:18:34.680 --> 01:18:36.779 this is once again coming back to the Ecuadorian 01:18:36.779 --> 01:18:39.979 families, the greatest thing is community. And 01:18:39.979 --> 01:18:43.159 when you have community, you can move forward. 01:18:44.520 --> 01:18:46.899 I wanted to ask you this early on. I'm glad that 01:18:46.899 --> 01:18:52.039 we circled around. Elements of your journey have 01:18:52.039 --> 01:18:55.180 included... you know isolation somewhat and obviously 01:18:55.180 --> 01:18:57.539 some of it was you know this this incredible 01:18:57.539 --> 01:19:00.579 bond you have with ocelots and other experiences 01:19:00.579 --> 01:19:04.039 but how are you able to balance that community 01:19:04.039 --> 01:19:07.359 element yourself with the uh the time on your 01:19:07.359 --> 01:19:11.439 own in the jungle i feel like every person is 01:19:11.439 --> 01:19:17.880 unique and for me i love to be solo and alone 01:19:17.880 --> 01:19:23.859 but i love to come back to comfort And when I 01:19:23.859 --> 01:19:26.640 am surrounded by people constantly, I start to 01:19:26.640 --> 01:19:31.260 get anxious, panicked, losing my mind. Whereas 01:19:31.260 --> 01:19:34.600 like my wife, she can be surrounded by her family 01:19:34.600 --> 01:19:37.159 and friends all the time. And she might just 01:19:37.159 --> 01:19:39.739 need like a break to watch Modern Family, you 01:19:39.739 --> 01:19:45.760 know, but she can do that. And I can't. I need 01:19:45.760 --> 01:19:48.159 lots of time occasionally to be able to just 01:19:48.159 --> 01:19:51.720 go, you know what? i'm struggling i know that 01:19:51.720 --> 01:19:53.760 i'm struggling what i need is a slight break 01:19:53.760 --> 01:19:56.859 and then i go off into the forest the times in 01:19:56.859 --> 01:19:59.060 the documentary and the times that i have spent 01:19:59.060 --> 01:20:02.960 alone i spent a lot of time alone it wasn't easy 01:20:02.960 --> 01:20:07.420 i remember one time i was cooking dinner and 01:20:07.420 --> 01:20:12.079 i put on some music and i went to sing and my 01:20:12.079 --> 01:20:14.460 voice cracked like i was a 13 year old boy again 01:20:14.460 --> 01:20:17.439 because i hadn't spoke to anybody for four or 01:20:17.439 --> 01:20:20.079 five days i hadn't opened my mouth i didn't need 01:20:20.079 --> 01:20:23.739 to you know like i had drank water and brushed 01:20:23.739 --> 01:20:25.739 my teeth that was the only movement that my jaw 01:20:25.739 --> 01:20:31.180 did and it was like i went to sing and i was 01:20:31.180 --> 01:20:34.619 like wow when did i last speak to somebody and 01:20:34.619 --> 01:20:40.159 it was days and days and and you know after months 01:20:40.159 --> 01:20:44.180 of being alone in the jungle my mental health 01:20:44.180 --> 01:20:46.600 wasn't great Even though I was in the most beautiful 01:20:46.600 --> 01:20:50.319 place in the world, I struggled because I didn't 01:20:50.319 --> 01:20:54.079 have that community that I needed. However, with 01:20:54.079 --> 01:20:56.979 moderation, everything is great. If I spend five 01:20:56.979 --> 01:21:00.159 or six days in the rainforest here, just catching 01:21:00.159 --> 01:21:02.920 snakes and photographing things and having fun, 01:21:03.159 --> 01:21:06.300 and then I come back to my family, my dogs and 01:21:06.300 --> 01:21:11.199 my wife and my friends, I am then complete. And 01:21:11.199 --> 01:21:15.399 I feel like a lot of people... They need to understand 01:21:15.399 --> 01:21:20.119 what works for them. The McCores have come in, 01:21:20.180 --> 01:21:23.760 sorry. And what works for them can be different 01:21:23.760 --> 01:21:26.640 than absolutely everybody. But for me, I need 01:21:26.640 --> 01:21:32.100 to have lone time so that I can reflect and I 01:21:32.100 --> 01:21:36.960 need to have together time so that I can use 01:21:36.960 --> 01:21:40.760 what I've thought about and reflected on to then 01:21:40.760 --> 01:21:45.039 make my... relationships and friendships and 01:21:45.039 --> 01:21:52.359 and work kind of balance better i had the author 01:21:52.359 --> 01:21:55.279 of a book the introvert's edge on the show a 01:21:55.279 --> 01:21:57.640 few years ago and i remember him giving me the 01:21:57.640 --> 01:22:00.619 definition of an introvert and extrovert and 01:22:00.619 --> 01:22:02.199 he said everyone thinks that introvert is someone 01:22:02.199 --> 01:22:05.140 who's just quiet he said what defines you is 01:22:05.140 --> 01:22:08.180 where you get your energy from and i was like 01:22:08.880 --> 01:22:12.100 Because that's me as well. I can be in crowds 01:22:12.100 --> 01:22:15.159 and be fine. But as I've said many times on here, 01:22:15.319 --> 01:22:18.000 I'm the person at a party that either A, I'm 01:22:18.000 --> 01:22:19.539 sitting out in the garden when everyone's in 01:22:19.539 --> 01:22:21.800 the house, or I'm just like, all right, I'm out, 01:22:21.840 --> 01:22:24.340 peace, and I just disappear. And it's not that 01:22:24.340 --> 01:22:26.319 I'm overwhelmed or having any sort of issue. 01:22:26.399 --> 01:22:27.979 It's just I've hit that wall and it's like, all 01:22:27.979 --> 01:22:30.340 right, I need to go and recharge. So it seems 01:22:30.340 --> 01:22:33.060 like that's expandable. For you, it's several 01:22:33.060 --> 01:22:35.899 days. For some people, it might just be walking 01:22:35.899 --> 01:22:39.100 a dog for an hour. But I'm that same thing. And 01:22:39.100 --> 01:22:42.060 if you truly draw your power from crowds and 01:22:42.060 --> 01:22:44.220 from people in that community, then, yeah, you're 01:22:44.220 --> 01:22:46.699 probably more of an extrovert, a true extrovert. 01:22:47.020 --> 01:22:50.000 But I think a lot of us, a lot more of us are 01:22:50.000 --> 01:22:52.760 introverts than we realize. And that, I think, 01:22:52.760 --> 01:22:56.619 is one of the backstories for alcohol use. There's 01:22:56.619 --> 01:22:59.000 a lot of people that think they should be the 01:22:59.000 --> 01:23:02.239 life of the party, that pregame before they even 01:23:02.239 --> 01:23:05.340 go out so they can be comfortable in crowds because 01:23:05.340 --> 01:23:08.369 they don't realize that. It's actually normal 01:23:08.369 --> 01:23:10.789 to not feel completely comfortable in a crowd 01:23:10.789 --> 01:23:14.390 because going back to ancient humans, you know, 01:23:14.409 --> 01:23:17.029 we weren't surrounded in this tiny space by, 01:23:17.109 --> 01:23:20.829 you know. 300 human beings you know it's a very 01:23:20.829 --> 01:23:23.430 abnormal thing same as being on stage you're 01:23:23.430 --> 01:23:25.750 not supposed to be like everyone's watching you 01:23:25.750 --> 01:23:28.449 and you alone so when you break it down it's 01:23:28.449 --> 01:23:30.329 interesting that yeah the community is really 01:23:30.329 --> 01:23:32.289 important but there would have been a lot of 01:23:32.289 --> 01:23:34.949 times in you know ancient human lives where we 01:23:34.949 --> 01:23:37.369 were foraging hunting whatever we would have 01:23:37.369 --> 01:23:39.590 had time to just be on our own and reflect and 01:23:39.590 --> 01:23:42.430 finding that balance in modern society i think 01:23:42.430 --> 01:23:44.909 is is is hard you know you've got to really do 01:23:44.909 --> 01:23:49.060 some self -assessment Yeah, no, that is definitely 01:23:49.060 --> 01:23:51.560 interesting. And I've always kind of class myself 01:23:51.560 --> 01:23:54.300 as like when I was younger, I class myself as 01:23:54.300 --> 01:23:56.779 like the class clown. But it was honestly because 01:23:56.779 --> 01:24:00.279 I was I was doing things just to get out of doing 01:24:00.279 --> 01:24:03.819 things. And I would be the fool that got sent 01:24:03.819 --> 01:24:06.859 out of class because I threw a freaking rubber 01:24:06.859 --> 01:24:09.560 at a teacher or, you know, throwing pens or, 01:24:09.640 --> 01:24:14.479 you know, just doing dumb shit. But when I when 01:24:14.479 --> 01:24:17.909 I would go to a party, I would. I would be outrageous, 01:24:18.010 --> 01:24:21.350 but the next day I would feel drained, exhausted. 01:24:22.289 --> 01:24:24.789 Whereas when I'm here, even though I'm tired 01:24:24.789 --> 01:24:27.189 now, like my shoulder, like my bag was like 90 01:24:27.189 --> 01:24:29.470 pounds or something like that. And I hiked for 01:24:29.470 --> 01:24:33.590 three days and just, I don't feel drained. I 01:24:33.590 --> 01:24:36.390 feel alive. But you put me in a nightclub for 01:24:36.390 --> 01:24:38.750 three hours, forget it. Even though I'm sober, 01:24:38.789 --> 01:24:41.069 I've been sober for 12 years now. The reason 01:24:41.069 --> 01:24:45.329 I became sober was because I, for some reason, 01:24:46.630 --> 01:24:50.130 knew deep down that I had an issue. And after 01:24:50.130 --> 01:24:52.250 Afghanistan, I was drinking and drinking because 01:24:52.250 --> 01:24:54.810 the mentality of the British army is, you know, 01:24:54.810 --> 01:24:59.189 drink, run, have fun, drink more. And it was 01:24:59.189 --> 01:25:02.050 like, okay, cool. I guess I'll just keep drinking 01:25:02.050 --> 01:25:05.590 because this is what's expected of me. And I 01:25:05.590 --> 01:25:09.149 remember one time that I, and this is in the 01:25:09.149 --> 01:25:11.409 book as well, where the girl that I was seeing 01:25:11.409 --> 01:25:13.630 at the time, she kind of like ran up behind me 01:25:13.630 --> 01:25:16.449 as I was leaving a party, very, very drunk. and 01:25:16.449 --> 01:25:18.529 scared the absolute shit out of me and i turned 01:25:18.529 --> 01:25:21.909 around and i with fist clench went to punch whoever 01:25:21.909 --> 01:25:25.149 it was that scared me because like you know i'm 01:25:25.149 --> 01:25:27.409 dealing with stuff from afghanistan i'm drunk 01:25:27.409 --> 01:25:30.890 as hell like i'm i'm in a blacked out phase i'm 01:25:30.890 --> 01:25:34.970 i'm depressed i'm dark as soon as i see her and 01:25:34.970 --> 01:25:38.770 her face and my fence my fist is clenched i instantly 01:25:38.770 --> 01:25:42.390 sobered up and i remember thinking to myself 01:25:42.390 --> 01:25:46.770 if you if you Getting to the point of where you 01:25:46.770 --> 01:25:49.310 can't associate kind of like good and bad. And 01:25:49.310 --> 01:25:53.170 if you can't figure out your shit because you're 01:25:53.170 --> 01:25:55.869 dealing and struggling with something, you need 01:25:55.869 --> 01:25:59.529 to take away something. And then the next day 01:25:59.529 --> 01:26:02.109 I went to a friend's house for a barbecue who 01:26:02.109 --> 01:26:04.170 I also served in the military with. I was in 01:26:04.170 --> 01:26:07.250 Afghanistan with him. And I remember he threw 01:26:07.250 --> 01:26:10.550 me a beer and I caught it, cracked it. And that 01:26:10.550 --> 01:26:14.869 smell. of beer after that night of, you know, 01:26:14.869 --> 01:26:16.909 almost punching someone who I was supposed to 01:26:16.909 --> 01:26:20.630 have loved. It smelled like regret. I can't even 01:26:20.630 --> 01:26:22.510 explain what regret smells like, but it smelled 01:26:22.510 --> 01:26:26.109 like regret. And I was like, ah, mate, like I'm, 01:26:26.109 --> 01:26:28.369 I'm still hung over, mate. Like, just take it 01:26:28.369 --> 01:26:31.890 from me. I'm, I'm, I'm good. And that was the 01:26:31.890 --> 01:26:37.550 7th of July and, uh, 12 years ago. And I, it 01:26:37.550 --> 01:26:39.829 took, it was a, it was a struggle. It was a very. 01:26:40.390 --> 01:26:42.489 big struggle for me being in the military and 01:26:42.489 --> 01:26:44.890 trying to be sober. But it was one of the best 01:26:44.890 --> 01:26:46.510 things that ever happened to me because if I 01:26:46.510 --> 01:26:49.670 wasn't sober, I wouldn't be here today. I'd probably 01:26:49.670 --> 01:26:53.449 be in prison. I'd probably be, you know, I'd 01:26:53.449 --> 01:26:57.789 have warrants out for me. I was drink driving 01:26:57.789 --> 01:27:04.850 and doing dumb shit and just trying to feel normal 01:27:04.850 --> 01:27:09.119 because what I had been through was not. what 01:27:09.119 --> 01:27:11.239 any 18 year old should have ever have gone through 01:27:11.239 --> 01:27:16.479 i had a police officer on the show about six 01:27:16.479 --> 01:27:20.699 months ago now and she started doing um oh my 01:27:20.699 --> 01:27:25.539 god what's the term uh not pathology what do 01:27:25.539 --> 01:27:27.680 you call it autopsy there we go having a brain 01:27:27.680 --> 01:27:31.420 fart for a second autopsy as far as the events 01:27:31.420 --> 01:27:34.020 leading up to police officer suicide. So she 01:27:34.020 --> 01:27:36.479 wasn't, you know, the body itself, but kind of 01:27:36.479 --> 01:27:38.039 working out what was going on in their life. 01:27:38.560 --> 01:27:41.560 And she said every single one, they had consumed 01:27:41.560 --> 01:27:45.279 alcohol within 10, excuse me, 12 hours of their 01:27:45.279 --> 01:27:48.960 suicide. And when I think back to, you know, 01:27:48.979 --> 01:27:51.539 when I, I mean, I still drink to this day, but 01:27:51.539 --> 01:27:53.560 when, you know, when I drank and I was clubbing 01:27:53.560 --> 01:27:56.220 and all that stuff and I was younger, there are 01:27:56.220 --> 01:27:59.199 girls that I ended up getting with. that I wouldn't 01:27:59.199 --> 01:28:02.779 have if I was sober. So if alcohol, and that's 01:28:02.779 --> 01:28:05.420 just a very mild example, if alcohol can distort 01:28:05.420 --> 01:28:09.819 your judgment in such a simple scenario, now 01:28:09.819 --> 01:28:13.699 take someone who's in crisis and you're about 01:28:13.699 --> 01:28:15.560 to take your own life, but there's still that 01:28:15.560 --> 01:28:17.659 little voice in your head saying, no, no, no, 01:28:17.680 --> 01:28:20.220 no, don't do it. And then you start drinking. 01:28:21.079 --> 01:28:24.079 That voice is then silenced. And I think this 01:28:24.079 --> 01:28:25.680 is probably one of the things that saved your 01:28:25.680 --> 01:28:27.680 life is you weren't drinking because so many 01:28:27.680 --> 01:28:31.220 people I know they were at the time. But, you 01:28:31.220 --> 01:28:33.619 know, if you if you're stone cold sober and you're 01:28:33.619 --> 01:28:35.159 young and you haven't been in the military and 01:28:35.159 --> 01:28:37.600 you go up on a high building and you go near 01:28:37.600 --> 01:28:39.880 the edge of the building, there's that hand, 01:28:39.979 --> 01:28:42.460 the visible hand pushing you back away from the 01:28:42.460 --> 01:28:45.600 edge. Yeah. When you were in this crisis and 01:28:45.600 --> 01:28:47.560 you've been consuming alcohol, that hand goes 01:28:47.560 --> 01:28:49.619 behind you and starts pushing you towards the 01:28:49.619 --> 01:28:52.560 ledge. So I think, again, alcohol is a really 01:28:52.560 --> 01:28:55.539 important part of this whole conversation is 01:28:55.539 --> 01:28:58.619 if you are struggling, that is the worst thing 01:28:58.619 --> 01:29:00.380 that you should do, because that's taken away 01:29:00.380 --> 01:29:03.880 your your innate defense capability of resisting 01:29:03.880 --> 01:29:08.000 the urge to take your own life. That's a really 01:29:08.000 --> 01:29:10.939 interesting way of thinking about it. I know 01:29:10.939 --> 01:29:13.680 that obviously with alcohol, you're kind of like 01:29:13.680 --> 01:29:18.020 perception is skewed for sure. And you'll do 01:29:18.020 --> 01:29:21.020 things that you don't normally do. for her to 01:29:21.020 --> 01:29:24.020 have acknowledged by these autopsies that you 01:29:24.020 --> 01:29:26.699 know basically a hundred percent of people who 01:29:26.699 --> 01:29:29.779 have committed suicide have had alcohol in their 01:29:29.779 --> 01:29:33.500 system and we know this we know this as people 01:29:33.500 --> 01:29:36.840 that alcohol is the worst substance that anybody 01:29:36.840 --> 01:29:40.279 can take because it's legal and everybody thinks 01:29:40.279 --> 01:29:43.060 it's a good thing because it gives you the confidence 01:29:43.060 --> 01:29:45.199 to go talk to that person or it gives you the 01:29:45.199 --> 01:29:47.899 confidence to get up on a mic at karaoke and 01:29:47.899 --> 01:29:51.229 it's like this this thing you know that gives 01:29:51.229 --> 01:29:53.869 you that energy but it's actually that thing 01:29:53.869 --> 01:29:56.529 that gives you depression and it's actually that 01:29:56.529 --> 01:29:59.369 thing that kind of holds you back from being 01:29:59.369 --> 01:30:03.590 a good person um you know everything's good in 01:30:03.590 --> 01:30:08.949 moderation but um a lot of the times when i was 01:30:08.949 --> 01:30:12.390 drinking i was making very bad decisions and 01:30:12.390 --> 01:30:17.829 um you know i i regret doing a lot of things 01:30:17.829 --> 01:30:22.380 in my life but I definitely do not regret stopping 01:30:22.380 --> 01:30:27.159 drinking alcohol because that has truly saved 01:30:27.159 --> 01:30:32.340 my life and made me the person I am today. One 01:30:32.340 --> 01:30:33.760 more area, then I want to go to some closing 01:30:33.760 --> 01:30:36.680 questions so I can let you go. Earlier, you were 01:30:36.680 --> 01:30:39.960 talking about one of the guys that you were hiking 01:30:39.960 --> 01:30:44.140 with having all that stuff on his back. In the 01:30:44.140 --> 01:30:46.560 town that I'm living in now, there's all these 01:30:46.560 --> 01:30:50.239 storage areas popping up, storage for people's 01:30:50.239 --> 01:30:53.399 stuff from their home, storage to store Winnebago's 01:30:53.399 --> 01:30:56.720 and boats and all these things. And we have been 01:30:56.720 --> 01:30:59.880 driven to this extreme consumerism, again, through 01:30:59.880 --> 01:31:01.819 our television. You're not a man, Harry, unless 01:31:01.819 --> 01:31:04.779 you have a ram truck and a fifth wheel and jet 01:31:04.779 --> 01:31:08.539 skis and dirt bikes and et cetera. And I think 01:31:08.539 --> 01:31:12.500 that really. found legs pre -crash of 2008 where 01:31:12.500 --> 01:31:14.279 everyone was refinancing their home and buying 01:31:14.279 --> 01:31:16.340 all these toys and then everything fell apart 01:31:16.340 --> 01:31:22.100 when I traveled the world after I graduated school 01:31:22.100 --> 01:31:25.119 and then drama school and everything I had a 01:31:25.119 --> 01:31:28.479 guitar and a backpack that was it yeah and I 01:31:28.479 --> 01:31:31.619 found it so liberating and I had some stuff boxed 01:31:31.619 --> 01:31:33.779 up still at home and throw everything away but 01:31:34.479 --> 01:31:37.300 I downsized so much to the point where if it 01:31:37.300 --> 01:31:39.119 wasn't on my back, if I couldn't carry it, then 01:31:39.119 --> 01:31:42.439 it didn't come on this trip. Talk to me about 01:31:42.439 --> 01:31:47.319 the materialism element of not only yourself, 01:31:47.479 --> 01:31:49.979 but the people that you're working amongst and 01:31:49.979 --> 01:31:52.760 contrast to what we're told we should have in 01:31:52.760 --> 01:31:58.859 the US. That's a great question. And honestly, 01:31:59.000 --> 01:32:03.800 to see the amount of stuff. um that people have 01:32:03.800 --> 01:32:08.739 is is is wild uh before i came here this is you 01:32:08.739 --> 01:32:11.079 know several months ago now i actually was doing 01:32:11.079 --> 01:32:15.079 a job working on a hoarder's house and top to 01:32:15.079 --> 01:32:18.640 bottom basement first floor second floor he'd 01:32:18.640 --> 01:32:22.560 even cut out holes in his ceiling and in his 01:32:22.560 --> 01:32:25.920 bathroom walls so he could store more stuff and 01:32:25.920 --> 01:32:30.560 i see i that's that's an extreme And then I see 01:32:30.560 --> 01:32:32.520 other people who are like, I don't want to throw 01:32:32.520 --> 01:32:35.100 that away because it has sentimental value or 01:32:35.100 --> 01:32:38.119 I'm going to collect these things. Like here, 01:32:38.319 --> 01:32:42.100 it's one of them things where it's like, they 01:32:42.100 --> 01:32:45.100 don't just buy something if something is broken. 01:32:45.300 --> 01:32:47.560 They will do whatever they can to fix that broken 01:32:47.560 --> 01:32:52.220 thing. Or, you know, they will just have the 01:32:52.220 --> 01:32:54.300 essentials of what they need. Because whatever 01:32:54.300 --> 01:32:57.180 else they don't need is a risk of getting lost 01:32:57.180 --> 01:33:00.819 or stolen or, you know, is money that they could 01:33:00.819 --> 01:33:04.380 have spent elsewhere. And so for a lot of the 01:33:04.380 --> 01:33:07.619 people around here, it's one of them things that 01:33:07.619 --> 01:33:12.479 is a beautiful thing of kind of like downsizing 01:33:12.479 --> 01:33:14.920 and kind of like not really having all these 01:33:14.920 --> 01:33:17.800 essentials. I found that when I bought my house, 01:33:17.979 --> 01:33:20.819 I started collecting more things because I had 01:33:20.819 --> 01:33:24.800 space to put it. And and it's one of them things 01:33:24.800 --> 01:33:27.140 where it's like when I moved from my rental property 01:33:27.140 --> 01:33:30.199 to the house that I'm living in now, I did it 01:33:30.199 --> 01:33:32.819 in two car trips. You know, that was it with 01:33:32.819 --> 01:33:36.680 like my staff and my wife's staff. And and now 01:33:36.680 --> 01:33:40.079 if I was to move house, I would have to do several 01:33:40.079 --> 01:33:44.119 trips because I've been able to have. a wardrobe 01:33:44.119 --> 01:33:47.039 where i can put four or five more t -shirts i've 01:33:47.039 --> 01:33:49.119 been able to have a shoe rack where i can have 01:33:49.119 --> 01:33:53.039 four or five more pairs of shoes i you know have 01:33:53.039 --> 01:33:57.260 things that i have just collected over the years 01:33:57.260 --> 01:33:59.859 like when i threw the first pitch at the la dodgers 01:33:59.859 --> 01:34:03.380 game i kept that ball that i threw and i had 01:34:03.380 --> 01:34:06.020 signatures on it them types of things like they 01:34:06.020 --> 01:34:08.020 have small meanings but it's not necessarily 01:34:08.020 --> 01:34:11.060 like important and i think that the people here 01:34:11.550 --> 01:34:13.550 have the things that are most important to them 01:34:13.550 --> 01:34:15.729 and the things that are most essential to thrive 01:34:15.729 --> 01:34:20.029 and live here. However, they spend their money 01:34:20.029 --> 01:34:25.050 on family and food and other things that are 01:34:25.050 --> 01:34:27.149 more important than just valuables that they 01:34:27.149 --> 01:34:31.729 associate with good memories. I saw a documentary 01:34:31.729 --> 01:34:34.729 a while ago and it was on, there's a term for 01:34:34.729 --> 01:34:36.289 it, I'm getting this wrong, but basically disposable 01:34:36.289 --> 01:34:39.329 fashion. So there's super cheap high street stores 01:34:39.329 --> 01:34:41.430 where you buy it. You know, I think this is less 01:34:41.430 --> 01:34:43.109 men, more women. But, you know, they're wearing 01:34:43.109 --> 01:34:44.550 an outfit once and they're like, I've already 01:34:44.550 --> 01:34:47.649 worn that. And then, you know, it's kind of disguised 01:34:47.649 --> 01:34:49.850 as charitable donations and all these things 01:34:49.850 --> 01:34:52.130 are then sent and dumped in Haiti or wherever 01:34:52.130 --> 01:34:55.329 the supposed, you know, benefiting nation is. 01:34:55.529 --> 01:34:58.069 But it's just shifting trash from one country 01:34:58.069 --> 01:35:00.680 to another. And again, it goes back to, which 01:35:00.680 --> 01:35:02.479 I hope is going to see something that we're going 01:35:02.479 --> 01:35:04.699 to see a resurgence of is, you know, a good pair 01:35:04.699 --> 01:35:06.859 of jeans will last you a long time. You know, 01:35:06.899 --> 01:35:10.199 a good shirt will last you a long time. And, 01:35:10.260 --> 01:35:12.420 you know, even your furniture, if it's not this 01:35:12.420 --> 01:35:15.420 shit, you know, lamb board or chip board and 01:35:15.420 --> 01:35:18.159 Ikea bollocks, but you actually have a real cabinet, 01:35:18.199 --> 01:35:20.859 maybe real wood or a dining room table, you're 01:35:20.859 --> 01:35:22.619 going to pass that on for generation to generation. 01:35:22.880 --> 01:35:25.699 So I think getting away from this, you know. 01:35:26.119 --> 01:35:28.479 I want more things and each of those things is 01:35:28.479 --> 01:35:31.020 going to be shittier quality. If we actually 01:35:31.020 --> 01:35:33.920 reinvest in something that will last, it is repairable, 01:35:33.939 --> 01:35:36.619 like you said, then that's going to have a long 01:35:36.619 --> 01:35:39.199 -term impact on everything from the amount of 01:35:39.199 --> 01:35:41.899 trash that we throw away to even the consumption 01:35:41.899 --> 01:35:45.479 of oil. Like if we go back to normal size vehicles, 01:35:45.579 --> 01:35:47.760 if you're not a tradesman and don't need a giant 01:35:47.760 --> 01:35:51.680 truck, imagine how, you know, the impact that 01:35:51.680 --> 01:35:53.979 would have on the demand for oil and even that. 01:35:54.329 --> 01:35:55.989 would have a ripple effect to where you are right 01:35:55.989 --> 01:36:00.729 now absolutely yeah it's uh it's crazy the amount 01:36:00.729 --> 01:36:03.050 of things that we think we need and the things 01:36:03.050 --> 01:36:08.630 that we actually need um but it's you know everybody's 01:36:08.630 --> 01:36:11.189 guilty of it everybody has things that they kind 01:36:11.189 --> 01:36:16.130 of like collect have love enjoy have memories 01:36:16.130 --> 01:36:19.149 connected to but um yeah i feel like a lot of 01:36:19.149 --> 01:36:22.319 people here they have memories which are in their 01:36:22.319 --> 01:36:24.899 heads and not on their phones or not as like 01:36:24.899 --> 01:36:28.079 valuable items. It's the memories here are more 01:36:28.079 --> 01:36:32.220 important than the actual physical item. So one 01:36:32.220 --> 01:36:34.579 of the last questions for you, when do you think 01:36:34.579 --> 01:36:36.399 the book will be out and do you have a title 01:36:36.399 --> 01:36:43.380 for it yet? Well, I am hoping to finish my book 01:36:43.380 --> 01:36:47.560 on my first draft at the end of this year. I'm 01:36:47.560 --> 01:36:52.579 then hoping to... get an editing kind of situation 01:36:52.579 --> 01:36:55.420 going and i know that that takes a while and 01:36:55.420 --> 01:36:58.260 then with kind of like publishers and all these 01:36:58.260 --> 01:37:00.380 types of things it could take another year so 01:37:00.380 --> 01:37:03.619 i'm expecting the end of next year that the book 01:37:03.619 --> 01:37:07.439 will be out um i have a few names for them and 01:37:07.439 --> 01:37:10.880 one which is in the kind of uh the air at the 01:37:10.880 --> 01:37:13.380 moment moment is like gifts from the darkness 01:37:13.380 --> 01:37:18.250 um i feel like A lot of the times where I've 01:37:18.250 --> 01:37:20.710 had my darkest moments and my darkest things 01:37:20.710 --> 01:37:23.229 have actually been a gift and have actually been 01:37:23.229 --> 01:37:30.550 a hand to basically say, take this. You're going 01:37:30.550 --> 01:37:33.829 through some shit. You're struggling. Everything's 01:37:33.829 --> 01:37:37.590 going to shit around you. Nothing is great. But 01:37:37.590 --> 01:37:40.430 this is a moment and a pivotal moment, kind of 01:37:40.430 --> 01:37:42.369 going back to what we kind of started with at 01:37:42.369 --> 01:37:44.590 the beginning of this podcast. This is a moment 01:37:44.590 --> 01:37:48.000 that is going to shape you. And so these dark 01:37:48.000 --> 01:37:51.239 moments aren't necessarily looked at and viewed 01:37:51.239 --> 01:37:54.899 as negatives. Now they're actually viewed as 01:37:54.899 --> 01:37:58.859 kind of positives because if I didn't do so -and 01:37:58.859 --> 01:38:02.020 -so, I wouldn't be here because of that. If I 01:38:02.020 --> 01:38:05.399 didn't go to this place and struggle, I wouldn't 01:38:05.399 --> 01:38:09.539 be here now because of this. So gifts from the 01:38:09.539 --> 01:38:12.800 darkness is one of them. And then if I don't 01:38:12.800 --> 01:38:16.279 really like that. I also kind of like the name 01:38:16.279 --> 01:38:19.380 Through the Eyes of an Ocelot because a lot of 01:38:19.380 --> 01:38:22.319 the things that I'm kind of looking at now is 01:38:22.319 --> 01:38:27.960 via my boys. And I've done everything I could 01:38:27.960 --> 01:38:31.619 through them. And to see life differently is 01:38:31.619 --> 01:38:34.420 to see life how an animal would see it or to 01:38:34.420 --> 01:38:38.350 see it how somebody else. Who is living in an 01:38:38.350 --> 01:38:41.430 incredible place and who is just having the best 01:38:41.430 --> 01:38:43.470 time of their life, like swimming in a stream 01:38:43.470 --> 01:38:46.750 and, you know, doing whatever, because like everybody 01:38:46.750 --> 01:38:52.050 is, is viewing things through their own eyes. 01:38:52.090 --> 01:38:54.609 But if you look at it from somebody else's perspective 01:38:54.609 --> 01:38:58.109 or an Ocelot's perspective, you can really truly 01:38:58.109 --> 01:39:03.399 gain to appreciate. The kind of concept that 01:39:03.399 --> 01:39:05.579 you were talking about with the first title is 01:39:05.579 --> 01:39:07.619 something I think we need to see a lot more of. 01:39:07.680 --> 01:39:09.699 I've made this kind of observation recently, 01:39:09.699 --> 01:39:11.840 and this is what my most recent book was about, 01:39:11.960 --> 01:39:15.779 was in the mental health conversation, we understand 01:39:15.779 --> 01:39:19.010 that we need to smash the stigma. the message 01:39:19.010 --> 01:39:21.130 for a long time but that doesn't get you any 01:39:21.130 --> 01:39:23.529 closer it just really is saying hey when people 01:39:23.529 --> 01:39:25.289 are struggling don't be a dick that's pretty 01:39:25.289 --> 01:39:27.510 much it yeah you know create an environment how 01:39:27.510 --> 01:39:29.470 your friends are doing and and you know kind 01:39:29.470 --> 01:39:32.489 of go or the correct route but like how do you 01:39:32.489 --> 01:39:35.510 personally see that yeah well then the thing 01:39:35.510 --> 01:39:37.529 so the next thing is the hope of post -traumatic 01:39:37.529 --> 01:39:39.029 growth and that's what you're talking about let 01:39:39.029 --> 01:39:42.460 me just bang my mic um you know When you can 01:39:42.460 --> 01:39:44.819 work through this and you found your own unique 01:39:44.819 --> 01:39:47.840 toolbox, whether it's a month in the Amazonian 01:39:47.840 --> 01:39:50.420 jungle or whether it's, again, some retreat or 01:39:50.420 --> 01:39:52.840 simply just talk therapy with someone that you 01:39:52.840 --> 01:39:56.020 trust, whatever your thing was, now you can reflect 01:39:56.020 --> 01:39:58.720 back and see the gifts that you were given in 01:39:58.720 --> 01:40:01.819 these traumas. So I think that there's so much 01:40:01.819 --> 01:40:05.560 power to that hope of, you know, look where Harry 01:40:05.560 --> 01:40:08.800 is now. Look where Harry was. You know, he's 01:40:08.800 --> 01:40:10.899 a completely different person now. He's not. 01:40:11.239 --> 01:40:13.760 who he was before he went to war. He's a different 01:40:13.760 --> 01:40:16.159 person now, but he's got more resilience, more 01:40:16.159 --> 01:40:19.039 compassion, more empathy. So I think that's such 01:40:19.039 --> 01:40:23.359 a needed conversation now is the storytelling 01:40:23.359 --> 01:40:27.859 of the hope of the 2 .0 version of yourself that 01:40:27.859 --> 01:40:30.460 then will drive you through whatever your own 01:40:30.460 --> 01:40:35.079 kind of crucible is to get there. Yeah. I feel 01:40:35.079 --> 01:40:39.569 like a lot of people see... me and and see the 01:40:39.569 --> 01:40:42.569 change that i have become and they and they use 01:40:42.569 --> 01:40:45.869 somewhat of the term of like you know harry is 01:40:45.869 --> 01:40:49.630 healed i'm not healed what i have done is i have 01:40:49.630 --> 01:40:54.250 learned to accept the challenges that i have 01:40:54.250 --> 01:40:57.289 had in life i've learned to try and see things 01:40:57.289 --> 01:41:01.550 differently i've learned that um you know everything 01:41:01.550 --> 01:41:04.529 happens for a reason but like i think what i've 01:41:04.529 --> 01:41:09.460 truly learned is that if you just do the things 01:41:09.460 --> 01:41:13.840 that you want to do and and that you feel is 01:41:13.840 --> 01:41:16.779 important you will never be disappointed in yourself 01:41:16.779 --> 01:41:19.979 and I still have days like negative days where 01:41:19.979 --> 01:41:24.060 I I contemplate suicide and I think about self 01:41:24.060 --> 01:41:28.239 -harm and I think about you know absolute just 01:41:28.239 --> 01:41:33.399 terror and horribleness but I also now can associate 01:41:33.399 --> 01:41:39.029 with my mental health that you know that is one 01:41:39.029 --> 01:41:42.229 of them things where it just, that's part of 01:41:42.229 --> 01:41:45.550 life. What I need to do now and with age and 01:41:45.550 --> 01:41:47.529 with all these things is that, you know, you're 01:41:47.529 --> 01:41:50.010 never going to be healed, but what you can do 01:41:50.010 --> 01:41:53.909 is you can kind of like, you can use what you 01:41:53.909 --> 01:41:56.590 know now about your body, your mental health, 01:41:56.689 --> 01:42:00.189 your physical health, all these things. And you 01:42:00.189 --> 01:42:03.510 can say, look, it's just one of them bad days, 01:42:03.510 --> 01:42:05.289 but one of these bad days is going to be a good 01:42:05.289 --> 01:42:09.659 day soon. Absolutely. Well, for people listening, 01:42:09.859 --> 01:42:12.659 where's the best place to find Emerald Arch online 01:42:12.659 --> 01:42:15.619 and then any other social media handles you want 01:42:15.619 --> 01:42:19.279 to do as far as your own projects too? Yeah, 01:42:19.300 --> 01:42:23.899 so Emerald Arch is www .emeraldarch .org. And 01:42:23.899 --> 01:42:32.210 we're also on Instagram with emerald .arch. I'm 01:42:32.210 --> 01:42:35.130 hoping to start a YouTube channel soon, but oh 01:42:35.130 --> 01:42:38.729 my God, I've got so much going on. I'm just trying 01:42:38.729 --> 01:42:41.170 to do all the important stuff right now, but 01:42:41.170 --> 01:42:44.409 YouTube will be up soon and we'll get some cool 01:42:44.409 --> 01:42:47.149 videos from the land and some of the cool stuff 01:42:47.149 --> 01:42:51.310 that we found. And we just put some plaques up 01:42:51.310 --> 01:42:54.750 on some really cool trees on the land to honor 01:42:54.750 --> 01:42:56.930 some of the beautiful people that have passed 01:42:56.930 --> 01:43:00.359 away. One of them being a very good friend of 01:43:00.359 --> 01:43:03.619 mine, Dana, who died of cancer two years ago. 01:43:04.520 --> 01:43:08.680 And so it's what we're what we're doing is we're 01:43:08.680 --> 01:43:10.699 collecting content. We're doing all these things 01:43:10.699 --> 01:43:12.680 so that we can really, truly show people what 01:43:12.680 --> 01:43:15.439 this land is about, how we can help local people, 01:43:15.579 --> 01:43:20.539 how we can do all these things. So I'm honored 01:43:20.539 --> 01:43:23.899 for you to ask me to be on again. Thank you so 01:43:23.899 --> 01:43:27.829 much for this opportunity to. spread the word 01:43:27.829 --> 01:43:30.250 about what we're doing here and the good and 01:43:30.250 --> 01:43:32.729 positive that we're trying to trying to achieve 01:43:32.729 --> 01:43:36.489 in this place um but yeah uh keep your eyes out 01:43:36.489 --> 01:43:38.250 dude because we're going to be doing some good 01:43:38.250 --> 01:43:40.149 stuff and we're going to be making big moves 01:43:40.149 --> 01:43:43.250 in the next in in the next few years we're going 01:43:43.250 --> 01:43:46.649 to be making big changes here um but if anybody 01:43:46.649 --> 01:43:48.869 does have a spare million dollars let me know 01:43:48.869 --> 01:43:51.670 because that's what that's what's going to really 01:43:51.670 --> 01:43:52.289 help us