Forrest Galante: Stingray Shuffle
44:58 Share

Art in your home can instantly transform your space and bring you joy. Saatchi Art makes it easy for you to discover and buy one-of-a-kind art that you'll love. Whether you're looking to complement your home decor, fill a blank space on your walls, or start an art collection, you can find the perfect piece for your specific style and budget at Saatchi Art. Go to SaatchiArt.com today to bring the beauty of art into your home. Plus, listeners get 15% off their first order of original art with code ROB.

That's 15% off at SaatchiArt.com. S-A-A-T-C-H-I-Art.com. Ever wish your favorite TV show had twice as many episodes? Everyone knows that feeling, and so does Discover. Everyone wants more of their favorites. That's why Discover doubles another favorite thing, cash back.

That's right. Discover automatically doubles the cash back earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with Cash Back Match. Now that's a real crowd pleaser. Everyone knows how it ends. Double the cash back. See terms at discover.com slash credit card.

I have friends who think I'm insane. You are insane. That's why we're friends. I know, but I'm not even a smidge of what you are. Oh, you're understating it. I've met you paddle boarding with great white sharks. You're understating it.

Hey, everybody. Today on Literally with me, we've got Forrest Galante, adventurist, survivalist. You've seen him on Animal Planet. You've seen him on Discovery Channel. He has a great, had a great series called It's Extinct or Alive, where you go out and try to rediscover extinct species. Has great programming on Shark Week. Is a good friend of my son Matthews and I because he's a Santa Barbara native.

native as well. And there's nothing I love more than outdoor adventures. So it's going to be a good one. Forrest!

Rob. When we talk about animals and we have an animal. Maxie. This is Max. Max is in the studio for every podcast we do. Yep. What is that? What are you looking at, Max? We love Max. This is an experiment to see if we have a live animal here. I love it. I think it adds to the whole ethos of the podcast. Well, because we're talking about you, one of the great...

Oh, see? Hey, Maxie. He knows somebody who knows and loves animals. I've known this pup since he was about this big, too. He's a good boy. We'll let him wander. We like this. He's a wild animal. It's good. So wild in his sweater. Yeah, he's very wild. So you obviously are like a modern-day Steve Irwin guy.

I don't know. Would that be... That's not insulting. He was a legend. No, that's an honor. Every time anybody says that, I think it's like I'm not even near his level, but it's an honor to be compared to him for sure. Well...

Since I brought him up, and obviously he sadly passed away from a stingray bite, I got stung by a stingray. Oh, no. Recently? No way. By your house or where? Walking out right in front of my house. As you know, I'm renting on the beach for a while. And this is stingray season. Yeah. So I know. You know me. I'm in the water all the time. All the time. Every time I run into you, you're in the water. Yeah. I'm like, you know.

The Pisces in me. So I was doing the stingray shuffle. Uh-huh. You got to shuffle your feet. Yep. And they feel the vibration and they bail. Right, usually. Right? Well...

And I did that going out and I swam. But when you come in, you eventually have to put your foot down. Of course. To do the stingray shuffle. Of course, yeah. And I put my foot down right on a stingray. It was huge. Yeah. Oof. Huge. And you know that rubbery... Yeah, you felt it like that. Oh, like the rubbery fin. Yep. But I also knew that I hadn't stepped on its tail or anything. Right. And I moved my foot as quickly as I could.

And immediately, I felt a sensation that felt like I had ripped every tendon in my ankle. And I thought I did it to myself by overreacting. Yeah.

Right, because you get in your own head immediately about it. Yeah. And what it felt like was somebody took a baseball bat and swung it as hard as they could. And I thought I had broken my ankle. It wasn't what I expected from a stingray. I thought it would be like electric or a prick or a cut or a jab or a poke. No, it's the whole thing. Yeah. Dude. It's excruciating. If you look up stingray sting symptoms...

One of the characteristics on Wikipedia or wherever is like excruciating pain or symptoms rather. Excruciating. Yeah. Like excruciating. I knew it would be bad. And I thought about Stever when I thought, if that hit me in my heart, it would be done. Yeah. So did you have a big puncture hole from the barb? Immediately, I looked down and I saw nothing. And I still thought I had somehow broken my own ankle. Yeah.

And then the blood started. Uh-huh. And it poured and it poured and it poured. And luckily, I got off the beach to my low deck. Yeah. And I called Matthew, my son, Matthew. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who's like you, an amazing waterman. And I said, what do I do? Yeah. And he said, get scalding, scalding, scalding. As hot as you can tolerate. By the way,

It burned my foot so badly, the water, but it's the only thing that takes the pain away. I know. It's such a weird balance. You have to hurt yourself more to neutralize the venom. It's crazy. And it took me an hour of reheating and reheating before I could get off. Yeah, I bet. And then I walked up the stairs. And as I walked up the stairs, I was making these

from the pain that my dogs were howling. It was horrible. Yeah. And this is the world we love. Absolutely. So my son, the first time we ever took him to Bali was two years old. We get down there, we get into the house, everything's good. And I'm like, go swim, buddy. The water's warm. Same thing as you run straight into the ocean. Bam, stingray right in the foot. Two years old. And my heart just sunk. The big puncture hole, blood squirting, had to do the same thing, put him in the hot water. How does a two-year-old survive it? I thought about

that. How does that even... He literally passed out from the pain. And we're in remote... He passed out. Yeah, passed out. I put his foot in the boiling water, the same thing as you did. And he was creaming and crying and passed out from the pain. They wake up screaming and pass out. And we were like five hours from a hospital. My wife was panicking. It was... But that's a good thing about Stingrays, right?

There's actually nothing you can do as long as it doesn't get infected. The notion of being... I thought about what do you do if you're a kid? And then what do you do if you're away from something and you had both? Yeah. Yeah. It was scary. But I also knew because I've also been tagged in the past. I also knew nothing you can do. It didn't hit him in an artery. You know, it just sucks. And so you just got to grit your teeth and get through it as you experienced.

How's your foot now though? You better? Yeah, it's totally better. I have a scar. Yeah. But that's the coolest. That's the coolest. That's what I always say. I'm like, the scars, they're better than a tattoo. It's better than a tattoo. It's a life scar. Did you just get back from Shark Week?

No. No, I'm just kidding. No, but I believe it. They take that so seriously. They do, but literally as I was driving in here, I was like, hey, I'm meeting up with Rob to do a show. Is it cool if I talk about it? And they're like, technically no, but yeah, it's fine. We know you. You're not going to say anything wrong. So yes, literally got back, landed at 1 a.m. last night, got a little sleep in, hit the gym and came here.

It was a good shoot. Really fun. Where did you shoot? So I've got two coming up this year. One that we did in Japan. We were there for a month. Wild adventure show. And then this one, I'm not on camera for. I just created the show and my company produced it. Right. And so I was show running it. And it's in Florida on bull sharks. Awesome show. Big, meaty bulls ripping things to shreds, going to the inland waterways. It's awesome. Where in Florida? Jupiter. Jupiter?

Okay, and the thing about bull sharks is they can go out of saltwater. They go into brackish and then they go into... Did they ever go into like proper... Fully fresh. Fully fresh? They found bull sharks historically. They found them all the way up the Mississippi near to Chicago.

thousand miles from the ocean. No way. Yeah. Yeah. That would be fun. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. I mean, they're not there now. And there's a whole rumor about a truck that was going to an aquarium that crashed and the shark survived and blah, blah, blah. But regardless, these sharks can go hundreds and hundreds of miles into freshwater ecosystems. Isn't the worst shark attack

in the United States, a bull shark attack in a river in New Jersey. That's what Jaws was based around. Jaws was based on. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? And they made it a great white because it's cooler, it's scarier, it's bigger. But the reality was it was a couple of bulls going in and out of the rivers in New Jersey. They're amazing though, Rob. They're amazing sharks. Like you and I, we've been paddle boarding with white sharks together. We should tell people how we met. I mean, really how we met was, so my son, Matthew, um,

He's a commercial fisherman as well as being in finance. I love... By the way, as a dad, I go... I did okay. I've got a commercial fisherman slash lawyer finance person. Yeah, he's smart and talented. He's a good kid. Yeah, he's the best. But I'm good friends with him. And he loves you. And we live in Santa Barbara and the Great White Sharks have started...

I've lived here 30 years. Yeah. About 15 years ago, 10 years ago. That's about right. Yeah. Great white sharks started showing up. Right. Right off our beach. Right. Literally in front of where we both live. Yeah. Like right there. Yeah. Every day. Never been seen. When I grew up in Southern California, I came here in 76. There were no great white sharks. No. And nobody talked about them. Right. They weren't seen. They're now everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere.

Sandy Bay basically has juveniles pupping and sitting at it now. So I went paddle boarding. Yeah. And it kind of got viral, but you were there shooting with your drone. That's right. Yep. And so the drone, I think you can YouTube it and see it somewhere. You YouTubed

me paddle boarding above Great White Sharks. Yeah, I was on the boat. Was Matt with me? No, he was with you, right? Matt was with you. You guys were paddle boarding. He's like, hey, Forrest. I was like, hey, dude. And I was just filming. And you guys were just perfectly situated with these white sharks. It was epic. It was so cool. And people were like, wait,

what if you'd have fallen in? And I'm like, well, the thing is the juveniles don't want to go after us, right? No, no. So especially those sharks down by Padaro, they're up to maybe eight feet, and that sounds like a big shark, but for a great white shark, that's a small shark. They're hanging out there specifically because that bay is a nursery for stingrays, as you just found out. And that's what their diet mostly consists of. Once they get to a big enough size, they're

They move out and go look for marine mammals. They don't really stay there, which is why literally right now there's probably a summer camp with a hundred kids swimming off that beach. And it's really nothing to worry about. But if the, that's what makes me laugh is if the parents only knew like legitimately five feet from their kids are great white sharks every day, all the time with 100% certainty. And they don't even know. And they don't even know. There's a guy, I don't know if you follow him on Instagram called the Malibu artist, all

All he does is drone white sharks up and down the coast of California. And he drones a Padaro constantly. And you literally see the summer camp, like eight-year-old kids splashing and an eight-foot shark swimming four feet away, clueless. They have no idea. And it's insane. And yet, no accidents. No accidents. Of all of the stuff you've done and you've been with,

With cannibals and... Where were you? You love that. You love that. Every time we talk about that. I love the notion that, A, that there still are cannibals in the world. I know. I know. It's crazy. And by the way, what's so interesting, Rob, and we'll talk about that. I was in Papua New Guinea. But what's so interesting is...

it's sort of like a conspiracy in a way. Like the government and the people there, you know, the modernized people that are living in cities and stuff are like, there's no cannibalism here. Like we're beyond that. We've moved on. But then you get remote and they're like, of course, we've been doing this for 500 years. Of course, we're still doing it. It's not like they're just eating people, you know, for dinner. It's ritualistic. It's ceremonial. It comes with its own set of lore, but it's still practiced, even though like

the literature and everything is like, oh no, there's no more cannibalism. That's like, it's like a coverup. It's wild. So this is Papua New Guinea? Papua New Guinea. Yeah. And Western Papua as well. That whole island still has active cannibalism and the Congo. I found out recently too. Really? Yeah. Warlords in the Congo, uh,

Have you met my mom? I forget. I think you met her once or twice. Your mom? My mom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I met her. Yeah. You know, she's in her late 70s now and she just got back from Antarctica. She's wild. She's that's where I get it from. Right. So she's yeah, she's still going after it. But two years ago, she went to the Congo to see gorillas and by herself, 70 something year old woman went to the Congo to see gorillas and

And her guide, who was like this little Congolese guy, was telling her how his parents ate people and it was part of their thing and still happening today.

I mean, look, don't get me wrong. I don't want to get eaten. On the other side of it, it makes me so happy. It's cool. That people are still eating people. It's great. It's cool. It's their culture. It's something... I mean, I don't want to be a part of it. I'm not sure I'd taste it, but I think, you know, leave them alone. Let them do their thing. What is the lore that you've heard? What is it like, I eat the heart of somebody because of whatever? So...

I eat the heart. We eat the heart of somebody because of whatever. When we were in Papua, we came into this cave of crystallized skulls, right? And so that's where they had- Which happens. You know, crystallized skulls, sure. Their burial site. But what we found out in talking to that village was that when they go to war with a neighboring village, they eat their kill and it gives them the strength of their enemies.

Allegedly, there's another village where basically they eat their grandparents. Like when the grandparents die in order to keep their spirits, they'll cook them and eat them. And not like the whole body or whatever, but like a piece of them in order to sort of savor them and keep their spirit within the family.

Crazy, huh? This, see, this is the kind of stuff, I love this stuff so much. It's so interesting. It's, okay, so we've talked about it. Let me ask you this. What is, okay, so what is the thing you are most scared of happening? And then what was, when you've been the most scared that did happen in all of your adventures?

porta potty splashback. That's the scare. It's by far the thing I'm the most terrified of. No, for me, it's insect-borne illnesses.

So, you can navigate a bad political situation, which we've been chased down runways in Mozambique by rebels. We've run into cannibals and pop oil. You can navigate that if you're respectful and everything else. You cannot control getting hemorrhagic dengue fever from a mosquito. It's just luck of the draw. I mean, you cover up, take DEET or put DEET on whatever. But it's like the places that we operate for extended periods of time, it's just like...

You're sort of just rolling the dice every time. That would be my warrior parasites. Yeah. I've had some pretty terrible parasites. I picked up something in the Amazon that stuck with me for like three years. It's like amoebic dysentery. I was up throwing up every night for like three years. Nobody could figure it out. And then it passed. All right, Max, you get to leave now. Sorry, Max. He heard amoebic dysentery and he was out. Gone. He's a good boy though. We love him.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel.

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select US airlines. Deposit and Hilton honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply. It really is. You can do all the shots you want. You can use all the mosquito repellent. It just is what it is. I also think when I was younger,

I was dumber about it, right? Like, I'd be like, all right, whatever. I'm going to run around the jungle with my shirt off at night, you know, or I'm going to eat this jungle crab that I just threw over a fire because I think it'll taste good or it could be fun. Now, as an older person with two kids at home, I'm like, you know what? I'm going to skip the half-rotten crab and stick to the granola bar. And I think it has made a difference. Like, just making good choices. Yeah. Okay. So, what would be the number one and two? Because I'm sure so many, like,

But half the people listening, they're like, I would no sooner go to the jungle. Like, I have friends who think I'm insane. You are insane. That's why we're friends. I know, but I'm not even a smidge of what you are. Oh, you're understating it. I've met you paddle boarding with great white sharks. You're understating it. That's well, so when I go and do this stuff. Yeah. What are the rules to like try to come back safe? Number one rules, cover up at night.

A cover-up at night? At night. Malaria... So malaria is the main thing, right? And malaria mosquitoes typically only come out at night. So if it's getting dark out, have long sleeves and long pants on. Do not wear a t-shirt, even if it's 105 degrees out, being long. So that's the number one rule. If you do that, you avoid so much likelihood of sickness. Really? Yeah. And then drink clean water. That's the other one. Because...

everywhere you go, especially like us living in Santa Barbara, right? We've got these fragile little constitutions from having everything. I mean, we live in paradise basically. And then you go to Papua New Guinea and they're like, yeah, we've been drinking water out of the stream for nine generations. Great. But we can't handle that. You know, they've already got all the parasites and everything in that stream and their bodies have adapted to it. We cannot. So being really conscious about your water choices and

And then covering up at night. Would you, okay, we're in Alaska. We're salmon fishing. Yep. And there's this Alaskan stream. Would you drink out of it? Or is this just like real, like,

third world jungle stuff we're talking about. It sort of just depends. If it's glacial runoff, it's fine because nothing can really live in it, right? It's too cold. There's no parasites there. Santa Barbara water, if you're up in the mountains here by the San Ynez, don't drink it. Right. You know, there's coyote stuff in there. There's all kinds of fecal matter. You can get rat lungworm. You can get a whole bunch of stuff. So it really just depends. Colder climates, you're typically safer.

But as a general rule of thumb, I don't scoop water off the ground or out of a stream and drink it. Always boil it if you can. There's things called like LifeStraw. There's pills you can put in. LifeStraw, yeah. Yeah. Believe it or not, a lot of people don't know this. I'm not recommending it. You put a splash of bleach in your water and drink it.

Kills everything. Yeah. Doesn't taste good, but... Amazing. Have you been to Antarctica? Never. Been to the Arctic a lot. Never been to Antarctica. Is it a wives' tale that... I have two things to ask you. Sure. Is it a wives' tale... One of the things I love about Forrest is, unlike me, I love conspiracy theories...

And I love Bigfoot. And you're not having it. I'll just debate you politely on it. That's all. You've been very polite. It's very clear. You're not having it. So one of the things that I have heard is that there are areas both in Antarctica and...

the Grand Canyon of all places, that the government has shut down and you are not allowed to go there. And then you can debate why. But is that even true? I mean, who knows? I wouldn't put it beyond it, right? I think having a secret research station in Antarctica makes perfect sense. I interviewed a guy. There's a great conspiracy, by the way. You'll love this, about a murder at the Antarctica station.

Yeah, it's really cryptic. He like all of a sudden disappeared. It all got covered up. It's crazy. This sounds like we're going to do this as a podcast. Keep that. I don't tell me. All right. I won't tell you murder in Antarctica. True crime podcast. All covered up to let's go to government. Not joking. Real story. Not like there's files. OK, but we're not talking anymore. That's it. It's our idea. If you're listening, we'll sue you. That being said, there are research bases there. Right. I know Australia, New Zealand.

Australia and or New Zealand, I'm not sure if it's combined, have a base there. The US has a base there. Argentina has a base there.

It's a perfect place. It's inaccessible. And what about the Grand Canyon? Have you ever heard anything about that? I didn't know about that. No. But I will say this. I know some guys that are big-time rock climbers, explorers. And they went into the Grand Canyon to have a soup pie or one of those things. And they just started walking. They wanted to basically just go off the beaten path. They were like a day and a half into this zone. And...

And all of a sudden, a bunch of military guys came out of the woodwork, like literally like popped out like full desert camo and everything and told him to turn around. And they're like, why? And he wouldn't give them an answer. True story. And I could introduce you to that guy. Yeah. Oh, you introduced me to that guy? Absolutely. Yeah. And he was like, I don't understand. Like, there's nothing that says off limits. There's no signs. There's no anything. And they're like, turn around. Don't come down here.

We need to go there. Yeah, right? We need to go there. And I completely believe him. Like my buddy who... Yeah, why would he make it up? It's like a really weird thing to make up. He was just cruising around like exploring and they're like, turn around. People ask, well, what do you like to do in your spare time? This is it. Yeah, it's pretty exciting. Let's figure out the Grand Canyon trip. Yeah.

Tell me what... Okay, let's see what... You've got so much going on. Tell me the... First of all, let's talk about the... One of the things that you've done is Extinct or Alive, as it's called. Yeah. Right? Yeah. That was the title, right? Yeah, it's my Animal Planet series. And how...

How many species did you rediscover? - Eight. - Eight? - Eight, yeah. Seven more than any one, any other organization in history has found. So it was pretty cool. It was fun when we started it, right? So the premise of Extinct or Alive was that

Not all animals that are declared extinct are gone. Just because some stuffy guy in a smoking jacket in an office in London writes a piece of paper to say it's extinct doesn't mean it is, right? And I'm not saying there aren't a little bit more in-depth protocols than that, but for the most part, it's decided by some Western scientist. I was like, bullshit, you know? So, sorry, can I swear on your podcast? Yeah, you can do that. Oh, yeah, man, 100%. So I was like, bullshit. Like, I believe that a lot of these species have...

wrongfully been accused of being extinct. And by the way, once something's declared extinct, that's it. All funding's gone, all conservation efforts are gone. It doesn't mean hiding somewhere. It means eradicated from the universe, right? So we set out

And we're viewed as like tinfoil hat lunatics when we came up with this, but to look for extinct animals. And literally on the second to last shoot of our first season, eight or nine episodes in, we found the first one and then found seven more the next year. What was that like? You shoot eight episodes, you sell the series, and you've got two more episodes and you

actually fun. What were you looking for in that one? That was for the Zanzibar leopard. So on Zanzibar, there's a little insular leopard. It was really small, hadn't been seen in 30 years. And we got a trail camera video of it. And

I remember it was funny because in hindsight, I wish I could have done it differently. But we had thousands of hours of camera footage to go through. I've been through hundreds already. And we were literally sitting on the tour bus to go back to town to sleep in a hotel because we've been camping. And I was like, I'm just going to go through cards. And I was 80 plus clips in and I click it. And this leopard just walks across the frame. I looked up.

In the bus, I was really just sitting in the back of the bus with our crew. You know what a production crew is like. Eight, ten guys hanging out. They're all sipping a beer. It's been a long day. It's like one in the morning. And I click it again. I'm like...

Like, I must be, like, something's wrong. And I click it again. And then I just, I literally blacked out. I'm like, pull this bus over. Like, throwing stuff in the air. I headbutt my audio guy and split his bridge of his nose open. I literally lost control because I couldn't believe it. And that was the start of it. Yeah, and my audio guy was like, thanks, man. You know, like, literally split the bridge of his nose open. Like, I lost my mind and couldn't believe it. Yeah. Unbelievable. That's insane.

It was nuts. And the footage is like terrible, right? Because like my one cameraman happened to have his camera on his lap. So he turns it on and turns it. But otherwise, like you never would have got that organic reaction. And it's sort of in the story. It's like, wait, why are they on a bus all of a sudden? But who cares? That was the reality of it. Yeah. Oh my God.

And quickly, what's the list of the other ones that you rediscovered? So the leopard was first. Then we found three sharks in South Africa. We partnered with a guy named Dave Ebert, who's an elasmobrandtologist or shark scientist. Found three lost shark species in one month-long trip, which was crazy. And then we found a monkey called the Miller's grizzle langur. We found the Fernandina island tortoise, which was like the huge news one that was on the cover of all the magazines and blah, blah, blah.

the real apoporus caiman, which is a type of crocodilian. Yep. What am I missing? Caiman. I love caimans. Oh, and wait, is there another? Oh, and then the pondisherry shark. Sorry, one other shark. So that's the eight. Yeah. And then you'll find Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Maybe one day. So you have no interest in even looking for those legendary things. Actually, this leads me to what I really want to ask you. Sure. How do you go? I think...

that particular species might be around. There has to be a reason you're choosing what you're choosing. Yeah. So, I mean, we have like a pretty, you know, I come from a scientific background. I come from the world of biology. So, we go through protocols to go, is it there? The end of the day, people hate it, especially in the scientific community when I say this, but at the end of the day, I go on gut feeling. But, we,

We go, when was it last seen? Why was it declared extinct? Who declared it extinct? How much habitat is there still? Is there prey or ample resources for that animal to survive? How many sightings are there and by who and whom, you know, and where? And so we go through this sort of checklist. And if it checks all the boxes, it's like, all right, well, we might as well go look. Like eight people have said they've seen it in the last 10 years. This

this is a wild area where basically nobody goes. No Western science has been there in 30 years. It was declared extinct 50 years ago. You know, like, and you check all these boxes and go, well, basically nobody's looking. Like, let's go look. And, you know, we have way more failures than we do successes, right? We've made a lot of episodes of that show and done a lot of expeditions that have never even aired. But those successes are big successes. Is there a

a sweet spot to nobody's seen it in X amount of... Like if somebody says, nobody's seen it in 50 years, is that too long or 100 years or like is... What's the kind of baseline? I think the sweet spot is nobody cares. Like,

oh yeah, we found this lizard in this cool part of Borneo 70 years ago and collected four specimens. And then 20 years after that, somebody said it was extinct because they couldn't find it and nobody else cares. Like the locals, they're probably eating them on a Wednesday night, right? But,

Nobody in the Western scientific world cares or has looked into this seriously. So let's go investigate it. And it's still a big discovery because somebody wrote somewhere that it's gone. So when you come back and go, hey, it's not gone. It actually deserves to be protected. And there's a population or an individual or whatever. It's a big deal. So I think that's really the sweet spot more so than timing. It's just like, who actually is looking? Who cares about this species? ♪

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I'll never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply.

Let's talk about the Galapagos. Yeah, very cool place. Right? Yeah, unbelievable. But isn't it insane how much it looks like the islands off of Santa Barbara in Southern California? It's honestly shocking. Shocking. When you get there and you're like, I feel like I didn't leave home. And then even the species are similar, like the birds and the sea lions. And obviously we don't have the iguanas, but like the density, not the density, but the diversity of species is like pretty similar. You look at it and you're like, kind of looks like home. I know. I got to be honest. There was a part of me that went, wait a minute.

I schlep. It's a schlep. Oh, my God. Yeah. It's brutal to get to the Galapagos. Yeah. And I got there and I was like, I'm on the backside of Catalina. Totally. Totally. You're like looking at kelp in the water and like a mountain behind you. And you're like, I could have gone to Avalon and had a buffalo milk. Why am I here? No, it's unreal. And look, once you've seen one blue-footed booby. Right. Right.

You've kind of seen them all. Same with the seals, same with the iguanas. But when you take it all in together and paint that picture, you're like, holy shit, this place is wild. And nothing's scared of you. I love that part about it. None of the animals are scared. Yes. Yeah. And the notion that the reason it's so biodiverse is that it sits...

at the apex of like 17 different climates or something like that. Isn't that what it is? Yeah, I don't know if it's 17, but between the upwelling and then where the sun is and the currents that bring creatures there, it's just like, it's this perfect storm of conditions to have major species diversity. And you realize that when you realize the islands are completely pedestrian. Yeah. Like, oh, it isn't about islands. Right, no. It's about this proper location. Exactly. Exactly.

Exactly. What are the name of those insane iguanas that literally are underwater? Yeah. Like, I would go diving and they just like...

They're sitting there eating. They look like Godzilla. It's the most Godzilla creature. And interesting, so they're called marine iguanas because they're the only aquatic iguana species in the world. They dive down and eat algae off the rocks. They are literally, might as well be fish. They're aquatic. It's unbelievable. And one of my favorite things, we have these incredible shots of them with the silhouetted sunset in the background. Because they're eating algae off the seafloor and they're a lizard, which those two things don't go together, they ingest

tons and tons of salt. It's like if you or I were just chugging gallons of table salt every day, right? Like you die. But these guys have created this evolutionary...

to get rid of it, where they shoot it out their nose like a water rocket. And they shoot out this watery salt concoction. And it literally lands and dries white because it's so high in sodium. And to sit there and watch these things majestically silhouetted in the backdrop of the red sun, just snot rocketing out salt. It's bizarre. It's an amazing place. It is. Did you do any diving with big pelagics?

while you were there? Unfortunately not. So when I was there... And I'm super bummed. I went all the way... Because people say... The sharks and all of the big fish there are unbelievable. Apparently, that's in a very specific...

part of the Galapagos. Is that right? I think so. I mean, we were there on a tortoise mission and I would love to go back just to dive it. Yeah, I didn't dive it. And I'm like, I went all the way there. Did you surf while you're there? No. I was the adventurous one. Yeah. It was a guy's trip and a lot of the guys were not water people. Yeah, fair enough. They were there to check it off of a list. It's hard to picture you going there and not surfing, to be honest. Oh, no.

I know. A little bit of a missed opportunity, but it is what it is. Where are you... Is there a part of the world where you would be... Well, you wouldn't be scared to go anywhere, but you're more apprehensive about going than others? It's anywhere, Rob, that's...

people violence related. I was going to say. It's not wildlife related. You can manage the wildlife. You can predict. I mean, don't get me wrong. Mistakes happen, right? You can step on a venomous snake, whatever. But people are so much more unpredictable. Is there jungle warfare? Is there kidnapping taking place? Is there something they see you with dollar signs in their eyes for whatever reason, right? And not everybody, of course. Most people are absolutely lovely, but it only takes one bad egg to

from a people standpoint, one bad group of people, I mean, they look at you and go, your shoes are worth more than your life to me. And that's it. That could be the end of it. So it just sort of depends where that is. And we've had some really close calls in Myanmar and Mozambique, various places around the world. Strangely enough, Papua New Guinea, even though we literally saw a guy get hacked up by a machete in a village fight, didn't feel threatened.

Mozambique, which beautiful country, one of the best for safaris in the world, we nearly got shot down. Like, you know, you just never know. It's just so unpredictable. You're from Africa? Yeah, from Zimbabwe. And the Zambezi is in Zimbabwe? Yeah, it's the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It's the river that creates the border. Okay, so that river, when I laid eyes on it, I had the most visceral impression

reaction to it? I don't know. They say Africa is all of our homes. That's it. That's what you're feeling. Is that what it is? Well, look, I grew up there, so I'm biased, obviously. But

We all crawled out of the human primordial soup from Africa, right? That's where humanity originated. At least that's what we believe. Right. I think, and I've been with a lot of people, you know, my buddies came with me from Santa Barbara. Like you've been, I've talked to a lot of people. You step foot in wild Africa. I don't mean in some shitty city or township or whatever, but wild Africa in the bush, that red dirt, the morning dove cooing, the elephant in the background, the Zambezi River. And you're like,

something inside of you goes, I'm home. This is my evolutionarily where my kind is from. And you feel, like you said, you have this visceral, almost emotional reaction that you can't explain. You're like, what the hell is going on? Cool, it's pretty. I've seen a lot of pretty places, but you're like, I'm drawn to being here. It's really true. You're so right. We see pretty places. We're lucky enough to be able to have the ability to go and see them, but that doesn't have the emotional connection

Bizarre. That Africa does. And in particular for me, the Zambezi. Yeah. When I laid eyes on it. What's the fish you fish for there? Tigerfish. Yeah, I went tigerfishing. Of course, it was the wrong season. And they don't tell you that because they want you to fish. Yeah, yeah. They want you to fish. And I kind of figured...

Did Matt get one? No, he wasn't with me on this trip. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. There were no tiger fish. Yeah. But I'm not going there and not fishing for a tiger. Of course. Yeah, of course. No, I mean, so that's where my family had their businesses in monopoles on the Zambezi River, safari business. So like I say, I'm biased, but it's just such a wild, incredible place. Big game everywhere, animals everywhere you look.

That smell, that Africa smell. I know. It's unreal. Yeah. Everybody... I mean, it's just... We're just so lucky that we get to... Right. We get to go there. And then you see it change. I went to Kenya for the first time almost 35 years ago. And that's changed. I bet. Tremendously. Yeah. The Masamara and then to go to... Tanzania is the place we like to go. Yeah. But it's...

become commercialized, right? There's incredible lodges and all of that, but you're on a paved road. You're sitting in a nice car. Like it's very much so changed from, yeah, the animals are out there. Take a gun. Don't get killed. That's what I want. I want to go to the fly camps where literally you go, you're not going to... I said to the alpha, I don't want... I said, what do you want to do? I said, I don't want to see another human being. Right. No matter what we do, I don't ever, ever...

I want to see another human being. That's it. That's wild Africa. And it still exists in pockets. You just have to find it. And you have to have the will to do it. Yes. Because it is daunting, right? You're out there in the middle. You wake up, there's an elephant stepping over your tent. Or there's lion tracks through camp between your tent and the fire. And you're like, wow, we're in it. Oh, they were talking about...

Some people that left their tent open after being told not to leave their tent open. A lion got in there and it was not a good ending. It happens. It happens. I bet you zipped your tent up though. I zipped my tent up. I definitely zipped my tent up. The last time you were in Southern Africa, you were filming your Netflix show or sorry, movie. I was, yeah, we were in South Africa. We were filming in the Kruger. Yeah. And filming, what's the damn title of it? Holiday in the Wild. Holiday in the Wild. Yeah. And it

And it was amazing. We shot in the Kruger and if we had 25 minutes, we'd just go on a little safari. It's not so great. It was insane. Yeah, it's so great. I mean, frankly, it was the reason I did the movie. I'm sure. Yeah. Like, we're actually going to be with real elephants, wild elephants. Yep. Yep. And when we shot with the wild elephants, still on Netflix, by the way, you can watch right now, Holiday in the Wild. The elephants are so wild that we were the only ones permitted to get

off of the buses. Love that. And they had sharpshooters. Yeah. Yeah. So it,

It was like not fooling around. Like if those elephants charge, you're done. Yeah. If they change their mind, that's it. Yeah. But I bet you had really good safari guides who were like, stay on this side of the wind and here's the body language and the matriarch's fine with it and all that kind of stuff. We had to literally take our... The scene we were doing that I'll never forget was a romantic out of Africa style picnic where we're having this seven page...

falling in love, and then, oh, by the way, here come the elephants to the watering hole. I love it. So we knew the watering hole they went to. We knew what time they went. But they're wild. They're wild. Right. You can't predict it. The entire movie crew setting it up, feeling it.

Getting ready. We're sitting on the blankets. We know our seven pages of dialogue. And we wait. And we wait. And we wait. And we're the only ones out. And guys with guns are out of the roofs of the vans. And we're waiting. And all of a sudden, we hear, and here they come. And we've got to start this dialogue.

It was, it was, the adrenaline is pumping. I bet. It's gotta be hard to do that. Like I'm falling in love with you when you're like, there's an elephant right over there. It was, it was so, so much fun. Um, if you could go on a adventure vacation and didn't have to work, where would you go?

I think I go back to Palau. I went there once when I was like 20 years old in Micronesia. I'm like you. I love the ocean. If I can see anything, it's ocean wildlife. And I was so blown away by the people, the culture. Small, tiny little island nation, but the ocean was next level. That's where you swim in those jellyfish lakes with the stingerless jellyfish, the

huge sharks everywhere. I remember, you'll love this. I went out fishing with this guy and we get on the boat. It's the morning. He goes, hey, brother, how many tuna you want to catch? I'm like, as many as we can. What do you mean? He's like, how many? I'm like, I don't know. Let's see how we go. Okay. Put a line in five minutes later, tuna in the boat. And he looks at me, he goes, how many tuna you want to catch? I'm like,

That was a fluke. That's not going to happen again. Puts the line in, another tuna in the boat. It's like, brother, how many tuna you want? I'm like, we're done. No more tuna. Two is enough. Yeah. And it's just like that. It's just like the ocean is so vibrant there and so filled with life. And it's one of my favorite reasons about Palau. It's the first nation in the world to outlaw commercial fishing. So it's only... Or it's not commercial. It's... I forget what it is. But basically, you can't fish and sell large quantities of fish. You can sell...

for the fish market or fish for your family, but there's no big trawlers, there's no long lines, nothing like that. This is the thing that real fishermen and outdoorsmen and watermen know.

is that the draconian, they're all great attempts. They're all the well, well meaning and we should, we've got to protect our resources. Right. There's no question about it. That's why we're here. We love it. Right. But, but it, people want, eat fish. They've, we need to have, it's got to have value, the ability to, to fish. It's the industrialized. Exactly. Right. Exactly. And, and the fact that we have nations like China, Oh,

In fact, how about when the Chinese fishing fleet encircled the Galapagos? I know, right. They had, what, 12 boats around it or whatever? We love this stuff, so we pay attention to it. But if you're listening and you love animals, the Chinese fishing fleet literally encircled the most diverse, teeming, unbelievable area in the world and just ruckused it with their gillnets.

And everything, and no one did a thing. Well, yeah, because they're in international waters, right? There's like a line, it's 12 miles off the island or whatever. And they're like, great, we know all the fish are going to come through this line. So that's what people need to focus on, not giving my son grief when he's fishing off the beach in Santa Barbara. Oh, God, no. So we can have sushi tonight. A hundred, I mean, you know, I fish with Matt all the time. Like, it's, you should be a sportsman. If you want to care about the environment, if you want to care about animals,

Go and learn about them, have value on them, target them if you like. I don't particularly like hunting, but I love fishing and diving.

It doesn't mean I don't like animals. I want them to be there. I love them. But you have to understand, those are not the problems. The problem is the industrialization of consumption. 100%. This is sick, man. We got to figure out what kind of trip we're going to go do. Hopefully, we got something. We're cooking up a little something. Yeah, y'all, we're cooking up some fun stuff we're going to do together. And if we do it, we'll do a version of... We'll do some literally podcast while we're...

on our way. From the tent? From the tent. Yeah, I'm not going to say more than that. I'm just going to say it might involve cannibals. I'm just saying it might. Might involve shrunken heads. And we're bringing Matt. We're bringing Matt. If we're going to make a sacrifice, we're going to put Matt out in front. No, I'm kidding. Yeah, he will be the first one to be eaten. Yeah. So fun. I'm so psyched to go and go on an adventure now.

I love taking advantage of our world. And I encourage you out there, get outside. No matter where you are, you can be a part of nature and it keeps you young. It keeps you vibrant. You don't have to go to, you know, all these crazy places that Forrest and I like to go. But get outdoors, get inspired. What's that? Oh, it's the lowdown line. Hello, you've reached literally in our lowdown line.

where you can get the lowdown on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-570-4551. So have at it. Here's the beep. Hi, Rob. My name is Mark, and I'm calling from San Francisco. I just watched the Nut Place roast with Tom Brady and was thinking back to your Comedy Central roast. I'd be curious what advice you would give to future roast recipients and also who you would like to see get roasted back. Thank you.

Hey, Mark, what a great question. Yeah, I watched the Tom Brady roast. I'm a little proprietarial because with all humility, I think my roast was the best one that's ever been done.

I really actually do. But you know what? I got to give it up. They did a great job with the Brady roast, particularly because it was live. So that adds a whole level of drama because all the other roasts, including mine, were live. But then when you see them, it's been cut down to all the best parts. And I thought it was great. I thought they did a great job. I thought Tom was great. Everybody was super, super funny. And the reason it was great was the reason that I thought mine was because...

no holds were barred. If you're not like going, oh, oh my God. Oh, geez. If you're not, if you're not doing that, then the roast is no good. So the host has to be a stud who can take it. You know what I mean? I love people who can dish it out just like they can take it. And, um,

you know, the meaner, frankly, it's a roast. It look, if you want sweet comedy and, you know, vanilla comedy, there's plenty of it out there. God only knows, but like this roast or a throw down and you better peel the paint off of that mother. And they did. And, and I appreciated when they came at me, the meaner, the better I can take it because I was going to dish it out even more mean. Um, so yeah. So my advice is, um,

Don't be roasted if you have areas that are off limits. That's lame. And I know there's been some blowback about they should have said that. That's excuse me. That's bullshit. It's a roast. Come on. You know what you're getting into, please. So that I didn't love that Tom had to backtrack. It was not of the goat's stature. It was not goat like. But other than that, I love him. And how about a roast of Bruce Springsteen? Huh?

Let's get the icon. I like that they've raised the level. It's icons only at this point. So let's do Bruce Springsteen roasted. Let's do The Rock roasted. Let's do Arnold. Ooh, Arnold. Ooh, that's a good roast. And by the way, I think he might do it. Anyway, I would tune in for any of those. Great question. Thanks for listening. That was a super special episode. And we'll be back next week on Literal Life.

You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Sean Doherty, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar and research by Alyssa Grau. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel. Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Nick Liao, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd. Music by Devin Bryant.

Special thanks to Hidden City Studios. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel.

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply.