0:01They they spawn and their whole life is connected to the river from the sea upwards. And then as if this wasn't bad enough, as if we wouldn't dam the rivers that stopped the salmon, then you have farmed salmon. In every store you can get wild caught you can get farmed.
0:14Farmed salmon, they're genetically engineering the salmon, they're filling them with antibiotics, they're keeping them in pens that are in the ocean. And so when the farmed salmon get out, what do they do? They go breed with the wild salmon and this is catastrophic because a wild animal, I say this every time I eat a piranha or the big pacu which is like the vegetarian piranha in the Amazon.
0:35That animal has for millions of years been swimming in those waterways and generations and generations and generations and that they've been surviving and it's the strongest of them have been surviving, escaping predators and surviving against the elements and finding food. And so when you are when you have the incredible luck, again, the it's almost supernatural to be able to get this fish out of the Amazonian river because if somebody brought you to the edge of the river and you didn't have any tools, you were just a human, it's completely impossible in 15 ft deep water that's racing by at 12
1:08miles an hour, you have zero chance of ever getting this powerful fish out of the river. You don't even know how to find it. But if you have a fishing line made from plastic that comes from somewhere else and a piece of metal that comes from somebody else, both somewhere else, both that somebody else made for you that you bought, now you have this special thing that you tied to a rope and then you need a piece of meat from an animal that somebody grew on a farm.
1:29So now you have all these things that your society helped you get. And somehow you're able to pull this fish out of the river and you feel like you did it yourself, but really you had a lot of help.
1:39And I I the the incredible sacrament of of eating something that came out of a wild river, you are incorporating into your physical system something that has been forming for millions of years. You're taking part in this great natural cycle. And to do you have to do that with the difference and respect of this great, great, great story. And so, the thing of building a dam across a river and stopping the lives of millions or billions of migratory animals that depend on this river for life and ruining it for future generations is is one of the greatest acts of terrorism that you could possibly imagine.
2:22And so, you can imagine that when I do leave the jungle where it is wild and where I can drink from the rivers and I come back to the world, I'm horrified by what I see.
2:30I mean, even upstate New York, I know where the endangered American eels live and I actually have gone and seen them.
2:37>> The endangered American eels?
2:38>> American eel. They're beautiful. They're bright yellow. They are beautiful. I go look at them at night in the in the pools where they live. They come up the Hudson and they're trying to move up the waterways cuz they want to go up the streams and that's where they that's where they spawn. They're beautiful.
2:54But there's all these dams. And you look just below the dam, all the eels are sitting there. All the eels are just below the dam. There's no way of getting over a 6-ft dam. Stupid concrete 6-ft dam is ruining it for an entire species as part of the entire ecosystem that's part of the Hudson Valley that provides the clean water that goes to New York City. And the reason New York City has clean water is because the Catskills are protected, but the Hudson River's part of that.
3:19And so, even that, like who's advocating for the eels? I mean, the fact that there's still sturgeon. I think they found a 13-ft sturgeon in the Hudson River not that long ago. These are dinosaur fish. I mean, these are ancient fish.
3:30>> Wait, actually, I think I remember that.
3:33Yes.
3:33>> Oh, that where it where it washed up on the side?
3:36>> Yeah, yeah, yeah.
3:36>> And like the cops were out with the lights and there was this giant fish on the side of the rocks.
3:40>> got it.
3:42Dude, they're catching [ __ ] bull sharks out here now.
3:44>> Yeah, well, the water's getting healthier and so, the wildlife is coming back. I mean, again, look at California.
3:49There it the water is so much cleaner and so, there's more fish, there's elephant seals and sea lions and whales and it's amazing what happens when you just stop polluting the the nature.
3:59>> Unbelievable, right? You would never think.
4:01>> It's like man, the tree has been standing there for 150 years. If you just don't cut it over.
4:05>> Oh my god.
4:06>> Somehow it keeps standing there.
4:09>> Do we have it Dave?
4:10>> they found this one in Maine this year too.
4:13>> Nice.
4:13>> Oh, that's a big [ __ ] >> No, but you type in like New York City sturgeon rocks.
4:18>> remember I remember that one.
4:20>> nuts. Cuz everyone's walking by being like, damn.
4:23>> Yeah, that was right out by Maxwell Park, right up here. I'm pretty sure if my memory serves me right.
4:30Let's see if Dave can find it. It's not coming up?
4:32>> Yeah, I know exactly the one you're >> Like we all have it in our >> I think Hoboken girl had it. Like back then on Instagram. I don't know when that would have been though, but It's all good. We know what happened.
4:42>> We know what happened. It was a big fish on the edge of the city and everybody was losing their minds.
4:47>> Yeah.
4:47>> It's one thing when you see out in the middle of nature, but like seeing it like in the Gowanus.
4:52>> Yeah, right here.
4:53>> Like a 10-ft fish with spikes coming off of its back. Like people were losing their >> Some dude's eating a [ __ ] B alley 3 ft away. Jesus Christ. You know Paul, now it's it it obviously like you're able to have a profile and you go talk about this stuff and you're seeing the fruits of many years of work actually go into helping you do that work and get it way farther, but like we were saying earlier, there were a lot of years there where you were like kind of yelling out and a lot of people wouldn't listen and you couldn't get the proper attention on it and you were fighting fighting fighting down there to
5:26do what you do and you stuck with it.
5:29And I always admired that so much because I I can't even imagine like when we met you'd been down there for like 16 and a half years or something like that.
5:37And I tried to think about my life that was well more than half my life at that point. You know, how did you how did you keep like such a I don't want to say like upbeat mentality, but how did you keep a day-to-day mentality of focusing on the mission when so much time would pass without any real progress happening despite all of your efforts?
6:05>> Uh I think that the thing that sent me down to the Amazon in the first place was panic over what I saw happening to the environment. And so when I got there and I discovered that this place was more beautiful and more complex than anything I had ever imagined.
6:23Reality surpassed my wildest dreams for the first time in my life. And so that place made me happy. It was a selfish thing.
6:32And then over the years, it's not that I was upbeat at all. It's that I was running away from the the the depression of of being told that we're living at the end of days and that all the rivers are damned and all the rivers are polluted and all the species are going extinct. And so as a young person, as a kid, I mean I remember crying crying to my parents at night because I was worried about the the turtle, Lonesome George, who was the last of the Pinta Island Galapagos tortoises, or hearing that elephants are going to go extinct, or the horrible videos they played you at the Bronx Zoo where you hear that sound of the
7:06chainsaw like a nightmare and you can see the trees going over. And so when I finally got to the rainforest and it was like it was like in the the adventure stories when you you you know, they reach the island where everything's possible and there's these incredible species, these beautiful snakes, and rainbows of macaws flying across it. And for a while there was this beautiful play period. There was like the age of innocence where the for the first few years it was you have to go two years two two days you'd have to get on the boat and go two days from the nearest city to reach this remote research station. There was no one else
7:39out there. And you're all alone out in the Amazon with surrounded by life.
7:46The antithesis to the millions of miles of frigid space, this glowing beautiful complex carnival of life all around you at all times. You could jump into the river, you could drink it out of with your hands.
7:58And then seeing that get destroyed changes you because the thing you love the most gets annihilated in front of your eyes. And then you come back and I would come home and go why aren't why isn't everybody freaking out about this?
8:14And everybody be worried about whatever was on the news that week. And I go, "Guys, wait. No. The we're we're losing something that's irreplaceable." And at that time you're right. I had no no platform, no vehicle by which to communicate the destruction I was seeing. And so I just went back and spent more time cuz I said maybe my job is to witness the destruction of this great thing.
8:36Maybe that's it. It's to bear witness to the to the loss of something beautiful.
8:40I mean, that's what Peter Beard was doing in Africa when he saw these. So he wrote The End of the Game where he just saw this vast wilderness destroyed and and and sort of domesticated and ruined and denatured. And and so I said maybe this is dark. And so I think actually when peop- people have asked me what is it that allows you to take some of the risks that you took? And so a lot of the risks that I took I was able to take because I thought there were it wasn't much point to it. I figured I was just going to see a lot of bad stuff. And I didn't think I was ever going to have a life that that integrated with the world I
9:17had come from, like society, New York, America. I had gone to this very very foreign place, discovered something that altered the chemical composition of my soul, and now I was inherently obligated to protect these animals that had given me so much that it that that made me feel this feeling of warmth and life and beauty and and and then when I went and then it got easier once I realized that if if I didn't do it nobody else was going to.
9:45The day that we saw the smoke on the horizon and JJ said I said there has to be somebody we can call to do something about this and JJ looked upriver and he looked downriver and he goes do you see anybody?
9:53He goes do you see anybody here? And he had there's a little bit of uh you know, there was an attitude there too where he he he went what are you talking about?
10:01You still stupid or have you been here for a few years? He goes there's nobody else. There's no help coming.
10:07And so he goes if anybody's going to do anything you have to figure it out and I won't he didn't say we have to figure it out.
10:12He said you have to figure it out. So that's where you know, Jungle Keepers it's what's so crazy is that right now as we're talking there's people driving up and downriver in boats with a Jungle Keepers logo.
10:23There's rangers wearing shirts with a Jungle Keepers logo. There's 136,000 acres of rainforest protected because Jungle Keepers because people from around the world have joined us in this fight but what it started out with was just an idea.
10:35Two guys standing barefoot with machetes on the side of a river who said we should just protect this thing. We should be the Jungle Keepers.
10:41We made it up. And now it's become a movement. Now it's become a book. Now it's I mean I certainly never thought that it would get to this point. And so now >> I did.
10:54>> after a huge I got to give you credit for that. You did.
10:57I and I you'd always you'd always sort of pump me up and you know that there were periods where I was like man I'm dying. I mean all of last I would say all of once once the once the narcos hit and then all the way through till like September I would say I was I would say I was that was probably the cuz that was probably that was you know, that was dark times. That was like PTSD times.
11:21>> I think about this like there's moments obviously like anyone's career out there that like stick out to you that you just remember and you can put yourself right back in place.
11:32And I remember when we first wrapped filming for the first time in October >> Yeah.
11:38>> 2022. And you It's funny cuz you were like "Was that any good?" I was like "That was [ __ ] fire." I knew it was going to happen.
11:45>> Yeah.
11:46>> But You were just You could see it.
11:49>> Yeah.
11:49>> You were exhausted. And we I remember it came full circle cuz you and I had a conversation the last night in the Amazon about this and I It was like amazing to see where you were at that point in May 2024.
12:00You know I said to you like I can I can see you're [ __ ] tired, but it's about to get a lot better and then obviously it did, but even in that exhaustion, you were going back in maybe like 2 weeks or something like that.
12:14This still like when you would when we changed the subject and and be talking about like when we went to dinner afterwards like what you were going to do when you got back. Of course shit's burning. Like in that way it's miserable. But like that light, that spark, I think I I don't know. From the outside, I think for all those years, that's what kept you going. Like if I were guessing like you're extremely upset at the destruction. Cynically you're thinking am I just here to [ __ ] document this as you just said.
12:41But you are so in your element and in such a beautiful place that is like your life's calling that your efforts to protect it is as putrid as or not putrid but like as barren as they were for a long time cuz you couldn't get the support that you wanted. It's like the battle of still doing that.
12:59There was something to had to be something exciting in that.
13:01>> pure love. I mean you just love I love seeing these places. I love to exploring these things. I love to expanding my knowledge. And I mean at this point you know I've gotten to see and do things that were that that are that are far beyond what my wildest dreams would have been.
13:18I mean when I went to the first to the Amazon, I wanted to see the Amazon. Just see it. Just see the jungle. I never thought I'd get to explore the deepest parts of it. We never thought we'd find I mean what this book is about. I mean it's about how you know, meeting JJ who unlocked the Amazon for me, finding the biggest anacondas, going on the solos, all these things and then realizing that we had to protect it, finding your your calling. I never thought any of that was possible. I mean we've there's the the the the highest peaks that we could see at the beginning are things that that we look down on now as as quaint and cute.
13:48It's like you know, this >> Keep that perspective though, man.
13:51>> You got to keep that perspective. But also again, from the bare foot machete days, from the days of the inception of the thought that we could possibly do this, I would tell everybody, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. So so we just got on the field at the World Cup. We could still lose.
14:07And if we lose, everything dies.
14:10It's not like we get a second shot at it. And so all of this, the 20 years that are in this book, the 20 years that I've put in right now, it's still like yeah, great. Like congratulations me that I've gone on a few talk shows.
14:23Doesn't mean [ __ ] The fact that more people are coming in, the fact that we're getting a little bit closer to to the large donors and the thousands of small donors getting us past that point where we get the access $20 million. We got $20 million tomorrow, save the rest of the river, story over. Then we make a documentary about how we save the wildest place on earth, inspire other people, use that blueprint to save tons of other places. So we're on the cusp of doing something historic.
14:48But it doesn't just cuz you're at the end of your walk on the high wire, it doesn't mean you're going to make it.
14:53You got to finish it. We do have to finish it. And so I'm very aware of that. Where it's like none of this none of this is going to mean anything until it's safe.
15:03Because until then it's all just an idea.
15:05>> It's well said.
15:08Who who who inspires you besides conservationists? We've talked a lot about Jane Goodall, we've talked a lot about Steve Irwin, we've talked a lot about the greats and the people who for obvious reasons you look up to. But you know, over the years like while you've been down there, are there are there other people that you're like, "God damn, I I love this person cuz they do this or they think like this or they talk like that?"
15:31>> I mean, there's definitely people outside of conservation. I don't know. I don't I don't really I I I don't lift my head up so much to look at the the people that inspire me are the people that I know in real life who are just who are who are good at it, whether those are people who are just raising amazing families or people who are, you know, the people I know who are really good at the art that they do, whatever that may be.
15:54Um I think people who know how to live life well, who are good at the art of living, are the people that I respect the most. There's I there's not many people that I that I truly, you know, it's not like I have like a mentor or something at this point where I have a team of peo- I have a team of people working with me though that, you know, it's it's not just JJ. It's like me, Mosten, JJ, Stefan, Roy, and it's like and it's like this team of Avengers of people that, you know, everyone's doing a job that nobody else can do.
16:22And so, yeah, there's there's other there's there are other conservation projects though, like the uh all over the world there's people saving elephants and there's people working on cheetah populations, there's people trying to free whales from nets. And so, I look now and and that's that's the cool thing. People say social media's toxic. I go on my Instagram, that [ __ ] is curated. Every time I go on, all I see is good stuff. All I see is I mean again, sometimes an elephant got poached, but like last week I was watching somebody remove a snare from an elephant's foot that the elephant would have died if there wasn't people to go
16:53tranquilize it and veterinarians to go fix it. And now that elephant's going to live. And it's like, so I see these things happening. I go, "Okay, it's not just us. We're fighting here, but there's people fighting all over the world."
17:02>> And they're making progress on the elephant conservation front. [ __ ] was bleak a decade ago and now it's it's it's better. It's still got ways to go, but >> have gone up from I think 3,000 to 5,000. Like tigers are going up and that's I mean, you're talking about from India through China. Like you're talking about a huge area where where Asia with the population of Asia, they're still managing to to get some wins like to protect the species, set aside, to create connectivity through the through the protected areas. That's tremendous.
17:31And there's hope to be found in that.
17:34>> We have sturgeon.
17:35>> Oh, Joe found the sturgeon. Yeah, this was right by Maxwell Park.
17:39Going back to this.
17:41>> That's wild.
17:43>> That's it's crazy. It was right there.
17:45>> I walked there like every day. It's where I take calls when I talk to you on the phone.
17:49>> I walked there.
17:51>> All right.
17:52>> Get out of the way.
17:54>> What was going to happen?
17:55>> Get the [ __ ] out of the way.
18:00There's a 100 million year old fish there.
18:03>> Holy [ __ ] >> Look at that [ __ ] thing.
18:09>> Whoa.
18:13Wow.
18:14>> That's awesome. That is a big >> Right here in Hoboken, people say.
18:18>> Why isn't she living in the water? Why is she suffering?
18:20>> All right, that's good there, dude.
18:21>> I love that there's always that one person, leave it alone. Shut up, lady.
18:26>> It's summer in New York.
18:27>> are cuz it was dead.
18:30We didn't want a bum to eat it.
18:32>> Could you see yourself raising a family in the Amazon someday?
18:35>> Uh I think it'll always be a half half thing, especially now that I'm getting, you know, it's more valuable for me to be spreading this message and then the team on the ground doing it. This this is just a new development after 20 years in the Amazon. I think it'll become more of a 50/50 thing. Right. My kids will grow up in the Amazon, 100%.
18:53>> savages.
18:53>> They're going to be disgusting. They're going to know how to They're going to have the calluses off their feet by the time they're 3 years old.
18:59I'm going to start them off on bullet ant stings.
19:02You know, just let them learn.
19:03>> bullet ants on them?
19:04>> Well, I want them to learn. I mean, the the the the babies that that like JJ's family like, you know, his brothers are constantly having babies and and you know, I there'd be like a 1 and 1/2 year old sitting right there and you know, they would they'd hold up their arms and a wasp lands here and then they put their arms down and a wasp stings them. And so, these babies were getting stung by wasps like five times a day. And you watch them as they grow up and the first few times they cry, the first few times they cry.
19:31You see the same kid six months later and he gets stung by a bee and he's like, "Whatever." Savage. They just don't care.
19:38So, the jungle makes you tough. I mean, I have pictures of this five-year-old, one of the we we turned a gold miner into a eco-tourism operator, which is an amazing story.
19:48>> Love it.
19:48>> But but his kid at like five years old when he was he was I mean, he he was great with a machete, but he would also use this huge kitchen knife and he knew how to keep his fingers away from the piranha's mouths and he would work with a bucket of piranhas and he'd get all the scales off them and cut them down the belly and remove the guts and he just this kid was an expert with a knife and handling fish that could remove the tips of his fingers.
20:10Five years old. And so, yeah, of course, the jungle >> No. And so And so, the I want I would definitely want my kids to be, you know, have a little bit of that.
20:20>> Yeah, we got to evolutionarily study the Paul Rosolie spawns.
20:23>> Yeah, they're going to have wide feet from walking barefoot. I mean, I just I see parents helicopter parenting and like, you know, like every time every time I'm babysitting, it's always, you know, "Do you want to climb that tree?
20:32I'll I'll be here if you fall. I will catch you. We're going to have responsible adventures, but you're going to try it."
20:39>> Yeah, I got good hands.
20:40>> Yeah, I got great hands. I can catch a football.
20:42>> Just keep them away from the uncontacted tribes. We we got to get to that now. We haven't talked about that yet today.
20:47Like, don't don't let those If If there's little Rosolies running around, don't take your chances with 300 [ __ ] yard 7-ft arrows. That's uh that's next level.
20:58>> That is next level.
21:00Um >> Yeah, so you obviously have gone public with this video you alluded to earlier, Chief. If you just pull up Paul's Instagram again, it's in the last 25 30 posts or so.
21:11But this tribe is This is the original one we talked about the first time we were together, the Mashco Piro tribe.
21:16>> Yeah.
21:18>> Just for people out there who are unfamiliar with the background Are we talking about a tribe here when we say uncontacted tribe? Obviously, they're not a part of society, but how Are they Are these like pre-stone age kind of people?
21:35>> Again, if you think about the fact that the Egyptian empire was what, 3,000 to 5,000 years ago, and the Stone Age was something like 3 million years ago.
21:46>> Yeah.
21:47>> These people are pre-stone age. They're in the bamboo age. And And there's certain anthropologists that get incredibly upset when you say that cuz they go, "No, they're modern people.
21:56They have their own technology." But there's also a lot of anthropologists that just acknowledge that there's tribes all over the Amazon that have way more sophisticated societies where they have traditions and then they have carved out boats and they have they have more complex societies.
22:13These are still living a nomadic hunter-gatherer life, which is why they've been so hard to to understand. And for the first 20 years that I worked in the Amazon, this was always a mythic thing. When I wrote Mother of God, where I'd been out on the solo when I and I caught a glimpse of them across the river, I ran for days, and I knew for a fact that nobody believed me.
22:33I just could see it on people's faces. I would tell that story and people would be like, "Yeah, okay. Sure."
22:37>> Where Like, where >> Deep in the forest. I had gone 10 days deep into the most remote part of the forest because I was trying to have this incredibly wild experience with the deepest part of the Amazon. I wanted to commune with the with the the deepest of the the heart of the jungle. And then it turned out that I went so deep that I came out the other side into their territory, and they had happened to be moving through the same area.
22:57And I saw the smoke, and I ran for my life, and I left them alone. Now, on this day >> You saw the smoke from their fire.
23:04>> Mhm.
23:05On this day, the thing that makes it historic is that they contacted us.
23:13>> Wait, what? What's the context here? How did that go down?
23:15>> We work with the indigenous communities now that are inside the Jungle Keepers Reserve. A lot of the people in the indigenous communities that are our friends, our boat drivers, our guides, our rangers, they live in the indigenous communities.
23:27They they fish out of the rivers, they hunt monkeys.
23:32>> They hunt monkeys?
23:33>> Yeah, of course. That's what they eat.
23:35>> Damn it.
23:35>> And so, No, no. I mean, again, you know, you can't get >> I've seen the videos.
23:39>> get mad at us for eating deer. They they like monkeys. Um there's lots of monkeys.
23:46We got word that the Mashco-Piro were going to come out of the forest.
23:50>> Are they like very close to the Brazilian border? Is that where we're talking or >> about the southeast of Peru, yeah.
23:56>> Okay.
23:57>> And so, but the the indigenous community said to us, you as directors, they said, you as as our neighbors who want to help us protect this watershed, you need to be here for this because we are sick of being attacked by these people.
24:15>> Wait, the Mashco-Piro were attacking?
24:17>> The Mashco-Piro come out and do raids.
24:20They want children, women, crops, whatever they can get. They do raids.
24:24>> When was the last raid?
24:26>> I think in 2013 they came out and they sacked the village. The men were all fishing. It was like a holiday and the men had all gone out of the village fishing and the Mashco came in and they surrounded the village. They corralled all the women and children into one hut and so everyone assumed they were going to burn it. And then they were all in there crying as these naked male warriors walked around the village and they cut up the beds, stole the machetes, took a few pots, and murdered every animal that was in the village.
24:51>> But not the people.
24:53>> They actually left the people living.
24:55That day.
24:57>> How many of How deep are they?
24:59Like how many people did did the Mashco have?
25:03>> We don't know because from Manu National Park over to our river and down and then over to the Brazilian side, there's a few thousand clans of nomadic uncontacted. You can say voluntarily isolated nomadic people.
25:16>> So not So the Mashco's are just one.
25:19>> Yeah. And so yeah, I would say volun- Think that that that that I think this is a very accurate word. Voluntarily isolated nomadic people because they are shunning contact with the outside world.
25:29The term uncontacted right away leads people to be Well, how uncontacted are they? You know, are they contacted now that you've seen them? It's like shut up. Who cares? They're very, very, very wild people.
25:40And so on this day, they came and you can see them coming down the beach with the bows out, 7-ft arrows.
25:46>> How did they You said that they contacted the the indigenous tribe you know?
25:51>> The indigenous tribe started seeing footprints on the river. They knew they were coming. They got the sense. They know the jungle. They said, "There's people out there walking barefoot." They start to find an arrow on the side of the river. They go, "They're They're here. They're around here."
26:04>> there.
26:04>> And they said, "If they show up, it could become violent.
26:08They might have the communication. We don't know They said, "But you until you see it, you won't believe it."
26:14And they said, "So you get here."
26:16And we were >> this?
26:17>> This was a little over a year ago.
26:19>> Okay.
26:21>> And so we ended up there and you see in the video, they come with the bows out. You see them walking very cautiously, looking at us, pointing at us, scoping us out. And for everyone that you saw on the beach, there was 10 more in the forest in the shadows, tracking us with arrows.
26:39>> Behind So when you say in the forest, I'm seeing Is that river behind them?
26:42>> That's river behind them, but this is because it's at the bend of a river. So off to the right is forest.
26:46>> And so where are you guys? You guys >> We're on one side of the river, they're on the other side of the river.
26:51And so they came out and the local indigenous anthropologist, again, we're just there as observers. We're there as directors because the indigenous people want help dealing with this problem that they have, that they share territory with this tribe that has no rules.
27:08This tribe will take your crops. This tribe will take your take you or kill you. It doesn't matter. They don't have the same rules that we have.
27:16>> What language do they speak?
27:18>> I mean the some derivation of Yine. And so they they actually the it seems like they call themselves the Nomole. So Mashco Piro means the the wild Piro. And so that's what the the people in the countryside call them. But it seems like when they came to the edge of the river after we convinced them to put down their bows, they held up their hands and they said Nomole, which is brothers.
27:40So they said Nomole and we said Nomole and everybody kept saying Nomole back and forth across the river.
27:45And it was this this acknowledgement of like we are brothers. We are brothers.
27:48But they were scared to put down their their bows and arrows, which means you know, many of the theories with the uncontacted tribes, some people say they've been out there for thousands of years. And other people will say they haven't always been this wild, that these are splinter factions of tribes that got scared during the rubber boom when people went down to get rubber and they they just decimated the local populations. And so that's part of the reason they're living such basic lives with this minimalist technology where they just have bamboo and rope because they used to be part of larger groups and clans and societies
28:23and then they got split off. So whether they've been out there for a hundreds or thousands of years or whether they've just been out there for a century, doesn't it's not really relevant. The point is they're extremely wild people that speak a language that almost no one else speaks. And we know nothing about how they reproduce, where they reproduce, what they do with their old people, what their creation myths are.
28:45We know a little bit about what they eat because we find turtle shells and monkey skulls next to their fires on the beaches.
28:53We know that on trails, if they leave an X made of sticks, you don't walk down that trail if you want to continue to breathe cuz they will fire an arrow through you. And I say fire an arrow through you because a lot of their arrows are so long, the 7-ft arrows, that when it goes through you, it'll pass completely through you.
29:09>> Yeah.
29:10>> And so you'll be you'll just feel the impact.
29:13You'll have a machete-size cut going straight through your body, and so you have a few seconds before you bleed to death.
29:18>> So are they leaving the X to tell you not to be there, or is that their X cuz they're hunting back there and if you go in there >> they're telling you this, don't go further, this is our territory.
29:30So, people have disrespected that and wound up dead. The New York Post report reported on it, I think in 2024 in August or September that two loggers were killed, at least two loggers were killed by the Mashco-Piro. It was like global news because their bodies were found, but for everything that makes the news, there's 20 other things, of course, or 50 other things, incidents that happen out past the the scope of what anybody's ever going to see, and it just decomposes out there.
29:57One of the things on sort of the backwoods WhatsApp network was a few years ago they my friend turned to me and he goes, "Yo, the Mashcos got some loggers." And I went, "Where?" And he goes, "Up on the river."
30:09And he showed me his phone, and it was just pictures of the loggers that other fishermen had found, and the loggers had arrows sticking out of them, and they were bloated from days of being on the edge of the river, and all the vultures had picked out their eyes, and you could see half of their skull, and it was like it was just the most terrifying thing in the world. I mean, even though they were loggers, they shouldn't have been there, they were told not to go there, and the boogeyman got them.
30:35>> When you have this moment of contact, though, with them, you said there's the river between you guys. How far away did you say it was again?
30:43>> I mean, at this point they're about 100 m away.
30:48>> So, they're in range. Okay.
30:49>> They're in range.
30:50>> When they First of all, who who's everyone that's there with you?
30:55And how many of the indigenous >> indigenous community community, which is probably like 35 people at this point cuz they evac a bunch of people.
31:01We have an indigenous anthropologist with us, someone that has communicated with uncontacted Mashco-Piro groups before.
31:09He lives out there. JJ had introduced him to me years ago. He'd been >> Rommel. JJ had been like, "This guy is incredible. He actually one time communicated with those people." And he was like, "This man is the leading expert on these people."
31:23>> He speaks their language?
31:25>> He speaks the the Yine, which is the closest to what they So, it's like when I go to Italy, I can speak Spanish and kind of get by.
31:33I can speak Spanish and we can get there.
31:35>> Got it.
31:36>> En cuanto cuesta? And they're like, they're like, "Así and then gracias."
31:39And I'm like, "Okay, cool." We get there a little bit and they're like, "I understand a little bit of Spanish. It's close enough."
31:43They do that.
31:45But as these people came out, he said, "I've never seen any of them."
31:48He said, "This is a completely new tribe. This is first contact. These people are coming out of the jungle. And whatever they want, this is the first time they're seeing the outside world."
31:57And so, we're standing on the beach and he was the one standing out in the front in the river, his up to his waist, hands up saying, "I am I am not a threat. No mole brothers. I do not want violence. Please put down your weapons." And he's saying this in a language that half translates, but they listened and they put down their weapons. So, we're all standing there and it's me and the other two directors, Moasan and Stefan, who are both professional photographers. And here's the other thing.
32:24Tradition All this footage is shot by them, by the way.
32:26>> to look at the footage in a couple minutes. I want you to continue, though.
32:28>> Wherever I go, everyone keeps saying Paul Rosalie, you know, Paul Rosalie's talking about it. Paul Rosalie wrote about it, but it's not the They Moasan and Stefan both professional photographers on my team and directors of Jungle Keepers, were the ones on either side of me shooting this with photos and video. And what we knew was that, you know, if you Google uncontacted tribes in the Amazon, my whole life I had always done that and everything you see is like looks like Bigfoot footage. It's blurry, it's from far away, it was crappy, it's unclear. This is the first time in history that we are
32:58getting a view into what it was like when people were living in the Stone Age. It's like an aperture back in time and these people have been stuck in a time capsule because they've been living this life in the jungle where they don't even know that there's parts of the world that aren't jungle.
33:14They may not even know that water I mean they certainly have never seen water freeze cuz they live in the jungles they don't know about ice.
33:22They know only know about metal because they've stolen machetes from loggers.
33:25They do have one thing that we discovered is that they do have some paracord so they've either either found it on the side of the river or they've gone and raided loggers.
33:33They do have some modern rope that they've managed to steal.
33:37But I mean I've been in vil- villages where you're sleeping in a little thatched hut and in the night the dogs start to bark and you're in a village that's way out in the jungle.
33:50Like deep deep jungle and you're in this tiny little village and around you is just this ocean of green jungle and at night the dogs start to bark and you know, in this country people have dogs as pets and they treat them like one of the family and out there dogs are an alarm system. That's why you have dogs.
34:06And the dogs start to bark in the middle of the night and then we were missing shirts in the morning off the clothesline and there was barefoot tracks on the ground and so the tribe comes and walks through the village in the night.
34:19Which if you think about getting up if you get up in the middle of the night there's no indoor bathrooms you're in a village you have to walk outside >> right?
34:27>> and go piss in the grass and so every time you wake up in the night and walk outside. You run the risk of shining your flashlight onto a 6-ft tall person with a face painted red with whose first reaction is going to be to shoot you so you don't make noise. So, he's going to shoot you right in the neck.
34:45>> I took a lot of pisses off the side. I was there now thinking about that.
34:50Ooh.
34:51>> Mhm.
34:53So, yeah, we were scared.
34:54>> So, So, how did what the one part I'm still unclear on I I couldn't really tell. They knew that they were coming cuz they had seen the footprints and so they said, "You guys got to be here."
35:04And then Rommel goes out into the middle of the river and and does this to signal.
35:09>> Yeah.
35:10>> But, how did you know like that day at that time they were going to >> No, we didn't know that day at that time. We'd gotten to the village and it had been days. It had been like two days that we were waiting there and then you know, we we said, "Look, we have a lot of stuff to do. We have land that we have to protect. We have office work to do." I was like, "I have to And we were like, "We got to go." And they kept saying, "Please stay." They said, "Do not leave."
35:30And then I was actually sitting there writing the chapters of this book. I was sitting there just working on the book on my laptop in the middle of the community in the middle of the Amazon.
35:39And they all started screaming, "Mashco!" And everyone started lifting kids and putting them away and chickens were going crazy and dogs were barking and then we looked across the beach and we saw this and it was just everyone was running. I mean, you just heard people loading shotguns getting ready cuz you don't know if this is going to be a friendly encounter and they're going to want to talk about things or if this is going to be a massacre.
35:59So, you had no idea.
36:00>> Rommel goes out into the middle of the river. How long of a process is it from him going like this to them to him backing off and then them walking over to where we're going to see them?
36:11>> No, he he went out into the into the first third of the river and this is the dry season so the river's very very low.
36:17You really could walk across the entire river. You could, in fact. And then gradually they came slowly. They put down their bows. They came to the edge of the river and then they all huddled up and they were pointing at us, and they're looking at us, and then that we realized also that you we couldn't have the big cameras up.
36:33Most of us were shooting on uh professional cameras with like 800 >> know what You don't know what they are.
36:39>> They don't, and so they were actually saying "Chichiksu Chichiksu." They're saying "You have guns on us." Even though we didn't have guns on It was the cameras. And so we had to put down the cameras cuz they didn't know what a camera is, but they know what a gun is.
36:50>> They do know what a gun >> They do know what a or at least some of them know what a gun is because the loggers and the narcos have fired on them.
36:56And so they they are aware that that the outside world can pose a danger. And so then what you can see in the video is that then when he was out there, the other people present prepared a boat covered in plantains. And the first thing we did was to push it across and give them an offering. And so Romo walked it out, pushed it to them, and then that's when you see them rush across the river, and grab those plantains. And the terrifying thing was that it wasn't like they were going to share them.
37:22You can see them in the video pulling, and mine are mine, and his are his, and that's it. And so it makes you wonder what kind of of society or ranking they have within their own culture.
37:36Because it >> Were you Were Paul, were you able to make eye contact with them? Like and and it's close enough that you can you both can understand you're looking into each other's pupils.
37:46>> Oh, yeah. No, and they There was At first, the first 2 hours were very tense.
37:51>> 2 hours?
37:52>> Yeah, yeah. They were there communicating for long cuz they were they got one thing of bananas, and they wanted more bananas. They wanted more plantains. And then they got they got they got a load of sugarcane.
38:01And then they were like, "Well, while you're at it, give us some rope." And the community's being friendly. They're going, "Well, you can have more bananas, you can have more sugarcane, you can have some rope." And then at some point Romo's standing out in the middle of the river, and they they point at him, and they were like, "Give us your shirt." And so he takes off his shirt, and he hands them the shirt. And then they're like, "Well, we'll take the pants, too." And he's like, "Well, sure, why not?" And he gives them the pants.
38:21And then they come forward with this incredible necklace. And they gave him a necklace that they put over that they No, how did they give it to him? Somehow they gave him a necklace. Now, again, at this point I'm I'm running around. We're either taking pictures, talking to different people, staying behind trees.
38:34At some point I got I was became aware though that they had given him a necklace in exchange for it. He never physically touched them though. He always had a boat length between him.
38:41And he would stay He would keep the boat in such a way that if anybody did raise an arrow that he could kind of go under the boat and protect himself. There was a little bit of strategic Um for two seconds there. Yeah, for two seconds. Or at least he could like float down river. I mean, the boat's pretty big, right? So, but again, an arrow cuts through the river. He He kept the boat in between The other thing is you don't want physical contact with people that are living this wild out in the in the rainforest cuz they don't have any immunity built up to outside pathogens.
39:09And so, they they could be very devastated by the common cold. And so, Rommel knows this and was being careful of this.
39:18And yes, we were close enough that that after the first 2 hours, after we'd given them everything we could give them, you know, they started right away on the beach. They started breaking down. We have lots more footage than what we were able to release. We you know, we tried to We worked with anthropologists and ethicists and and the Peruvian government to make sure that we were doing best practices that everybody understood that we did not contact them. They came out and and presented themselves and had questions to us.
39:42>> What did the government say?
39:43>> The government doesn't know what to say.
39:44Government hardly believes it's true.
39:46>> Then they see the footage.
39:47>> And then they see the footage and they go, "Well, we want to understand what's going on here." You know, and of course, because I'm te- I'm not a Peruvian, they're interested in, you know, is this being done in an ethical way? And that's why the book is so important because it's like it takes people through the exact story and the context and why this happened. Because this is such a historical thing. Never before has there been HD footage of an encounter from the uncontacted tribes coming out to the modern world. And this type of exchange where they were asking, "Why are you cutting down our forests?" Where they're
40:18asking, "Why do you cut our ancient trees?"
40:22They're asking, "Who are the good guys and the bad guys and how do we tell the difference?" They're scared.
40:27>> They're asking Rommel all this stuff.
40:29What what's he What's he saying?
40:30>> He was answering them as best he could.
40:32Um and then of course they just wanted more and more and more plantains. And so we literally gave them all of the plantains that the community had, which is their main source of carbohydrates. And so they they they gave them all of their food. And of course as, you know, I said just keep going. I'm you know, as Jungle Keepers I was just like we'll call back and dispatch a boat. We'll make sure you guys have food. Give these poor people food.
40:55And then uh Do you remember who Ignacio is?
40:59The guy that got shot in the head with the arrow. He used this guy.
41:01>> He's got the big scar. Yep.
41:03>> He's got the big scar. So he had previously been uh shot by the Mashco-Piro >> Same tribe?
41:10>> in 2019. Not the exact same tribe.
41:12>> away, right?
41:13>> Yeah. So that's the the scar on his face like that.
41:16>> Yep.
41:17>> Yep. And so Yeah. That's the scar. Your ring Move your ring finger up a little bit. You got it right Nope. Up. There you go. Um But yeah, he was there and then, you know, he looked at Rommel and he he took off his he he showed his shirt and he was like, "Can I?" And I watched him do this and he looked at me and he was like and I was like, "I don't I don't think so." I was like, "He's the boss. I don't care." And then he took off his Jungle Keeper shirt and he threw it to Rommel and then Rommel was holding the Jungle Keeper shirt and the tribe was like, "Come on. Give it over." And so Rommel throws the Jungle Keeper shirt and it
41:47lands in the water and they grab it and they throw it over their shoulder. And then as the day ended a few things happened. One guy walked up, picks up his bow and arrow and they're all starting to leave now. They all have piles of bananas on their back and he shot one arrow in our direction across the river, landed in the sand. He just smiled at us.
42:07He just >> This is such a long period of time.
42:11>> Three hours at least. maybe more.
42:12>> Are you scared?
42:14>> The at the in the beginning we were very scared. In the beginning we were going, "What is what is what is what's going to happen? Is this going to turn into a massacre? What if somebody fires a gun?
42:20What if somebody fires, you know, the arrows? What if this And then and then it became known that we were having a communication that they were talking to them and that this community was saying, "We are your brothers. You don't have to be scared of us. We'll give you whatever you need." And the tribe was saying God knows what. They all speak at the same time. There's there they're like a flock of parrots. They're all speaking at the same time.
42:40>> same time.
42:41>> They all speak at the same time. It wasn't like there was quiet and one man would speak. They all were speaking at the same time. There was a cacophony of voices at all times. So, for us watching we were we were so, "What are they saying?"
42:52>> When they speak or they speak and with their hands a lot, too?
42:55>> with their hands a lot. A lot of them were doing this this thing where they put their finger under their nose. I don't know what that means. They all seem to have the same haircut. It was just just this some of and then some of them are carrying this this large necklace that seems to be made out of Brazil nuts and has teeth all around it. And two of them were carrying the same necklace and it was made the exact same way. It seemed to have like half of a Brazil nut and then this this part would be all teeth coming out straight out straight out like this. And then the other side looked exactly the same as this side.
43:26But I'm what I'm thinking is that they >> up a little bit just to be able to >> like so this is almost a perfect representation of it except more round where they had probably a piece of Brazil nut and then some piece of leather or something that had that had looked like Cayman teeth all stuck into there and then on the other side was the the same as this. So, it would be and they were wearing that as a necklace.
43:48And it's a huge necklace. It was a big ball size of a softball and they were wearing it and they made sure to never get it wet which makes me think that it was probably smoldering embers so that they don't have to make a fire from scratch every time.
44:00>> Smoldering embers on the >> So, that's a picture of the necklace.
44:04Look at that.
44:07>> Holy [ __ ] That's like that's like Flavor Flav's clock.
44:11>> That's like some Indiana Jones [ __ ] >> Yeah, well yeah, I mean obviously like from the Dave, can we see it clear?
44:17>> That's just nice that's nice and clear.
44:19Yeah, and that's the moment that they rushed across and we're getting at the at the plantains, but that thing right there I don't understand. That's this this right here is the moment that he shot the arrow across at it. So, you know, that's the thing back in the old days there's a lot of stories of people like oh that sent that that sounds like it never happened. It's like well this we happen to have two professional photographers there. So, it's all caught on video and camera.
44:39Um there's a lot of footage that we haven't released yet. We just we just we released like 2 minutes of footage of hours of this interaction because we're saving it for the documentary of course, but as we should and also we wanted to we were very very conflicted about whether or not we should release this footage because we said are people going to understand this? Are people going to to you know, think that these this tribe is you know, noble savages and we need to be like them and we should need to go find them and study them and no, these people have indicated for decades if not centuries one single thing and that is
45:17that we want to be left alone.
45:20And so the only thing that we can do is protect the forest they live in and so not only is Jungle Keepers protecting 130,000 acres and not only is Jungle Keepers doing that with the leadership of the indigenous people and then through the help of people around the world, but we're protecting this incredibly pristine ecosystem where if you imagine a football field, think of a football field and how tremendous it is if you just take a handful of coins and sprinkle it across the field. In about that much area you have these tiny clans of people surviving in this vast vast vast wilderness that is the whole
45:54300,000 acres that we're trying to protect.
45:56And so most of it is pristine untouched jungle with just wildlife and then living out there is this tiny population of indigenous people. And when you think of what happened to the Comanches and the Navajo and the Iroquois and the Cherokee's, all of these indigenous cultures that were devastated in the last several hundred years, this is a chance to take history and change the narrative where we actually just protect their environment and leave them alone. And if they want to contact the next closest tribe, the indigenous communities that we work with, if they want to learn how to plant bananas and maybe they think
46:31it's fine, but that's none of our business.
46:33>> Right.
46:34>> The thing that they've asked for, the way that we respect them is all we have to do is leave the jungle alone.
46:40And this tribe remains safe.
46:43And so for the sake of the animals and the heartbeats and the ancient trees and the undiscovered medicines and the uncontacted tribes, that is why I'm on this mission to protect this river now.
46:55>> When he went to shoot that arrow, you didn't [ __ ] yourself though? I can't imagine.
46:58>> No, the way he did it, he walked out with a swagger and a smile and he walked right up to the edge of the beach and he held the bow nice and high. He made it clear he wasn't aiming at anybody, fired off the arrow and then took a big smile at everybody and was like, "What are you going to do about that?"
47:14>> And then how did they leave it? Did they Did they back away like looking at you or did they >> No, no, they all turned away at that point. One guy had a machete and there's we have a great video. My friend is going, "Oh, they have me a machete. He's going, "Put that on my machete." And they which they don't understand Spanish as he says is hysterical, but um because he's speaking to them in Spanish, but it didn't matter what language he was speaking in. He was going, "Hey." And yelling at the guy and the guy had a machete and he just looked back over his shoulder and was like, "Yo, you come over here and get it. How
47:41about that?" And even then they were smiling. They were like, "Yeah, you want to you want to come get it?" Not.
47:45>> Isn't that amazing?
47:46>> That across culture and language and a thousand year gap >> A lot more than that. Yeah.
47:52>> Sure.
47:52>> Yeah.
47:53>> But that we could still you know, >> We're all just human.
47:56>> Yeah. And then there was moments where you know, towards the end they were all spread out on various parts of the beach and we were all spread out and everybody got uncomfortable by then and you know, like Ignacio raised his hand and went like this and they would raise their hand and go like this and then you know, I mean he did like a little you know, he like kicked his foot and like did like a little dancing and they do the same thing and we were all just like we started playing with each other.
48:14>> That's amazing.
48:15>> You know, I raised my hands like this and they'd raise their hands like this and it was like it was just it was just kind of like both both tribes, shirts versus skins both tribes were like this is wild. Like cuz they were them too. They're going okay, these people are this is interesting, you know, and we're over there thinking I mean if a [ __ ] Tyrannosaurus Rex walked out of the the jungle behind them, I would could not have I wouldn't have been more shocked.
48:36This is the uncontacted tribes and they're in front of us. This is something that I mean you you you you hear about people, someone's brother, uncle, cousin, whatever in the jungle saw a glimpse of them. I'd caught a glimpse of them.
48:51But the fact that they came out and and asked us what's going on?
48:56>> That's >> We want an update on why our forest is disappearing.
49:01You know, the fact that the the and then like the odds, the odds. I know I've been there 20 years but the odds, the human odds of being there for something like this and it happened at the perfect time because you know, the the the global news of this happening has helped >> Yes.
49:19>> with the launch of the book and the book it helps explain this to everybody and it's getting in front of more readers and so everything has sort of come together at the perfect time just like me going to the Amazon and I met JJ at the perfect time and so it's like you just you keep hoping that we keep having that serendipity of of just maybe we came to this river at the perfect time and everyone is going to swell and that enough people are going to hear about this that we are going to protect it and if we can do that, I think that the hope shockwave that that's had that you know, we're in the hope business now and the
49:47the amount of excitement and the sense of accomplishment that can be said that this wasn't done by some wild institution or some, you know, some some out of touch scientists. This was done by the people because this place should be protected. And I think that's that's what's makes it so exciting.
50:07>> When you were I I just can't get over like what it must be like when you actually come upon them and they recognize you and you recognize them even though you're literally from different time zones.
50:18You know, when you were having that moment, I don't know how long it is where you are eye contact eye to eye with this other person right here. Like from a human perspective, like was that one of those things where time kind of stops and you realize like you talk about the laughing and all that and you see the humanity in those things as the time goes on, but when you're first just eye to eye staring at each other, like what is it can you describe that feeling?
50:48>> No, that's why I write because I can't put it into words. You have to spend the time to to try and get it out of yourself and onto the page and you try and you try and explain to someone some semblance of it. And that's the beautiful thing about writing is you can you can you know, when you read, you're you're sort of magically inside someone else's brain.
51:06And as a writer, that's your job is to take that moment. And in that moment that they were shooting, they had their cameras out and they're shooting video and they're shooting photos and they're making sure they get everything and documenting. I literally sitting there with my eyes open going as a writer, I need to drink in every moment of this. I'm holding onto the tree and pinching myself going this is this is real.
51:25And so all of those moments, you know, I mean the moment that they left, I was like bang, notebook notebook is open.
51:32Just everything everything everything just downloading everything that was coming at me and just and then there's a video of me from the the the following day as we're going down river. I literally have the laptop open because I was like this is too insane. I was like I just the first draft is just going to come out and it's like I have no shirt on. I have noise canceling airpods in, no roof on the canoe for 9 hours down river and I'm just I'm just typing on a MacBook Air. I'm just like, this is has this is has to come straight out of my brain to fingertips into this because it would had to come fresh.
52:04That was that was the wildest thing and you know, the the thing that I always think with with this, anytime I get something that means a lot and that could again, it can be a an amazing day of of fun with friends or or something historic like this where you go I kind of love the next day cuz you go, it happened.
52:23>> Adrenaline, yeah.
52:24>> Adrenaline, no, but also that because now that it's happened and it's over, it can't be taken away. I remember the first time I caught a big Anaconda and I kept that that classic picture of me and JJ with the Anaconda over us and I kept I kept turning on my camera even though at that time I had no way to recharge my camera.
52:40I kept turning it back on and I kept going back and looking cuz I was like, this was so incredible that I can't I would I would go, I hope it was real.
52:48I didn't just think that up and I'd go back and check and I'd be like, wow, look at that snake. And when this happened you'd wake I woke up the next day and turned to my friends and went that did happen, right? Like that didn't just dream that and they were like, no, yeah. And then you could we had arrows at that point. There was arrows that they had, you know, we'd found diff- multiple different arrows.
53:07>> Did you have a Did you put a picture of the arrows in here?
53:11>> There must be a picture of the arrows in there. I don't know.
53:14>> I mean, they've been >> Well, yeah, that's the bow. He's holding it. Maybe not.
53:19>> Yeah, I want to see that. I remember that video right there. I can't show that one on camera.
53:23That's I mean, all right, let's play the video cuz we haven't done it yet. Def, we got to make a note just cuz there's some nudity in here. We got to >> Oh yeah, you got to you got to bleep over that area on the post. You have to bleep out the balls.
53:36>> But let's let's take a look at this for people who have not seen it.
53:42Okay, is there sound on it?
53:48So, they're like on the They're pointing at you. Oh my god.
54:02How tall are they? Like 5 36 57 >> They were pretty tall. They're taller than look at her.
54:08They're getting They're not getting They're saying don't listen to them as they go.
54:16>> And that's Rama.
54:17>> Interestingly, that's not That was This is the second boat.
54:21That was some other different guy.
54:23But see how they are rushing with >> Yeah, what the ones in the back, what's he holding? Who's bent over right there?
54:27See him holding that thing?
54:29>> Do you know what that is?
54:29>> Not sure. I can't tell from this video.
54:45Is this when they're about to leave?
54:47>> This is them moving up off the beach.
54:50And you can see people carrying little backpacks and they they have You see there's still arrows and stuff stuck in the beach. And so, the community goes and collects those things after the collection of artifacts.
55:04That's dude.
55:06>> Like you said the next day you're you're feeling it, but in that moment you you're totally aware you're living through insane history.
55:15>> Yeah. Oh, yeah. In that moment. It was good that it was 3 hours. It wasn't like a 10-minute thing. It wasn't a 5-second thing.
55:20>> That's unreal.
55:20>> With wildlife encounters, I'm very used to, you know, you you see a jaguar, you draw one breath, and the jaguar vanishes back into the forest, and you're like, "God, that was incredible, but it was so fleeting."
55:30This was like for hours we were there.
55:32There was multiple layers to this. There was moments of communication. There was moments of beauty, moments of fear.
55:38There were so many questions that we have unanswered and and then they went back out into the jungle.
55:43>> And there's a thousand more tribes like that down in their area that we've never seen.
55:48>> never seen.
55:49>> The indigenous Some of the indigenous tribes who do have contact though, they have contacted those other tribes, too, or >> They have limited contact with them, but even they're scared to do that because there was a There was a guy by Manu National Park who did kind of befriend them for a while.
56:04And uh he started giving them believing them bananas and he left them some shirts and time went on and he would talk to them and then one day they found him porcupined arrows sticking up, him laying flat.
56:16And no one knows why.
56:18>> That was the first intro I ever edited for 124. People want to hear that story.
56:22It still hits so hard these days.
56:24>> it just sucks cuz it's so scary cuz you go he did everything right.
56:27>> Yep.
56:28>> He only wanted good for them. He only wanted to help them.
56:33So.
56:33>> Didn't work out.
56:34>> Yeah.
56:35>> You come any closer to finding those [ __ ] pyramids?
56:38>> We're not We're not going to talk about that.
56:39>> going to Wait a minute. You can't just say that.
56:42>> Oh, I certainly can. I got a hard out at 5:00. We're not talking about the [ __ ] pyramids.
56:46>> can't just say You have found something.
56:52>> And then he dropped both of them and left the room.
56:55>> Hold on.
56:55>> Give me the hard drive.
56:56>> Have you found something?
56:57>> There's nothing that we found. There's nothing. There's nothing there.
57:01We looked.
57:01>> Will you blink twice and tell me off camera?
57:04>> I would be remiss if I wasn't honest with my best Hoboken friend that >> That's That's a That's a shot in the [ __ ] boat.
57:15God damn.
57:17>> Um yeah, no. I There's no no pyramids that we know about down there. I mean, the Amazon as as our as our dear scientist colleagues have have made public, there's more um geoglyphs in the Amazon than we previously thought.
57:32>> But that doesn't mean the Amazon's man-made.
57:34>> But that doesn't in any way mean the Amazon is man-made and every person that says that needs to be slapped in the face.
57:41The Amazon is formed in 30 what? 30 30 something million years ago if not 55 million years ago in the Eocene and has been developing since then and the fact there's a couple of bits of terra preta and some some some earth sculpting under the forest does not mean that the whole thing was man-made. So >> Do you think El Dorado still out there somewhere?
58:01>> I don't think El Dorado was ever out there ever. I can't believe that those dumb [ __ ] went looking for it and killed themselves over it.
58:07I mean really. They're like the [ __ ] Percy Fawcett and all the other conquistadors that showed up and they were just like you have entire civilizations of people that came out to meet you and give you textiles and food and clothing and they were so friendly that they all of their original if you go back and read Pizarro's original journals, they were friendly the people when they showed up. If you read Columbus's journals where he says I'll give a gift to the first person to seize land and the men were having an argument over who saw it first and he goes I told them screw them and I goes I gave the
58:35gift to myself.
58:36And then the first person that they found they caught hold of him on board and started interrogating him asking about gold and of course he didn't speak their language so he didn't understand what gold was and they're like showing him and they're like you know, it was like Sam Jackson interrogating the guy in the beginning of Pulp Fiction. English [ __ ] do you speak it?
58:52And they're like you got a piece of gold.
58:57God damn it. It's out there though.
59:00>> I'm telling you it's out there. The golden city?
59:03Come on, grow up.
59:04>> of it are somewhere. They're going to use lidar. They're going to find it.
59:07Graham Hancock will find it.
59:09>> Good. I hope he finds it. He should go find it.
59:11>> That's right.
59:12>> Um I love that thumbnail you sent me.
59:13That was very good. And I took that personally.
59:17That was good.
59:17>> Yeah.
59:18>> Paul Rosalie, it's always a pleasure brother. I'm really proud of all the work you're doing. Congratulations on having a number one New New Times best seller. I'm not surprised at all.
59:27Can't wait for the next book already.
59:29And I also can't wait to go down there again.
59:31>> Yeah, you got to get back down there, man.
59:33>> [ __ ] yeah.
59:34>> All right, brother.
59:35>> We'll do it again soon. Everybody else, you know what it is. Give it a thought.
59:38Get back to me. Peace.
59:39>> Thank you guys for watching the episode.
59:41If you haven't already, please hit that subscribe button and smash that like button on the video. They're both a huge, huge help. And if you would like to follow me on Instagram and X, those links are in my description below.
59:52Thank you guys for checking out this clip. If you haven't already subscribed, please subscribe and hit the like button on this video. It is a huge, huge help.
59:58And if you'd like to check out this clip's full podcast episode, that link is in the description below or right here. And finally, you can follow me on Instagram and X by using the links in my description below.
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