Joe Rogan Experience #1240 - Forrest Galante

1. 0:00 – 0:03

   Intro

   1. FGForrest Galante0:00

      (laughs)

2. 0:03 – 1:18

   From “Naked and Afraid” to real-world field survival

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:03

      All right, here we go. Five, four, three, two, one. Yes! How are you, man? What's going on?

   2. FGForrest Galante0:10

      Joe, I'm stoked, man. I'm really good. Really glad to be here.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:13

      I'm stoked, too.

   4. FGForrest Galante0:14

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      Nice to meet you. Um...

   6. FGForrest Galante0:15

      You too.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      Dude, you were on Naked and Afraid.

   8. FGForrest Galante0:17

      (laughs) Sure was.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:18

      How ridiculous is that?

   10. FGForrest Galante0:18

       Sure was. (laughs) Ah, dude, it's so, it's so ridiculous. Like, to say ridiculous is such an understatement.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:24

       See, because they oftentimes will have, like, a, an actual survival expert or a wildlife expert, or someone who knows how to live in the woods.

   12. FGForrest Galante0:30

       Sure.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:31

       And, uh, that was the idea with you, to get a wildlife expert?

   14. FGForrest Galante0:34

       Definitely. I mean, I'm, I'm kind of a combo. Like I, I've practiced primitive survival for many years in a means to get closer to wildlife. Like I just got back from the Amazon, and we had to feed ourselves every day. We had to build shelter, blah, blah, blah. And I don't do it, like, for fun. I do it as a means to be out further and stay longer, kind of thing.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:52

       But it, it's gotta be a little bit of a conscious effort, right, like to, to have fun, like fishing for your food-

   16. FGForrest Galante0:58

       (laughs) For sure.

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:59

       ... and, you know, putting up shelter and stuff. I mean, it's gotta be, like, kinda cool to live like that for a little bit.

   18. FGForrest Galante1:04

       It's, uh, it's human nature.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:05

       Yeah.

   20. FGForrest Galante1:05

       You know? Like we, we intrinsically wanna hunt things and fish things and build a shelter and survive. And so it's totally fun. I think it's like to your core, it's fun. You know what I mean? You just feel it, like you know that you're doing something that's like primal human nature.

3. 1:18 – 2:58

   Amazon abundance: instant fishing and what “untouched” looks like

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:18

      Yeah, the Amazon fishing clips that you have on your Instagram page, so it's, it's, it's crazy. Like you just throw a cast out there and you were catching a big fish, like instantly.

   2. FGForrest Galante1:26

      Bonkers. Like I fished a lot of places. I'm really into fishing and spear fishing, and every... Joe, I'm not kidding, every single cast was a fish. A peacock bass or a piranha every cast. And, and where we were in the Amazon, super remote, like not a lot of people go there. I'm sure those fish have never ever seen a lure, never seen a hook before.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:43

      Wow.

   4. FGForrest Galante1:43

      And, uh, it wasn't like sportfishing. It was like, "Okay, let's go catch 10 fish. In other words, take 10 casts and we have enough food." And that was it, and it was amazing. (laughs)

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:52

      Does it make you think of what the ocean must have been like before people fucked it up?

   6. FGForrest Galante1:56

      Of course.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:57

      (laughs)

   8. FGForrest Galante1:57

      I mean, of course. As a biologist, that's like all I can think about.

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:59

      'Cause I was in, uh, Hawaii recently, and we did some snorkeling. And when you're swimming around with the goggles on, looking down at the ocean, one of the things that's kind of shocking is how few fish there are.

   10. FGForrest Galante2:10

       I know.

   11. JRJoe Rogan2:11

       Like you think this, it should be like teeming with life, you, you're over these reefs and you see like three or four fish, or five fish-

   12. FGForrest Galante2:18

       Right.

   13. JRJoe Rogan2:18

       ... or something like that.

   14. FGForrest Galante2:20

       It's so weird. I mean, there's, there are these pockets left in the world that are completely untouched. And it's like as soon as you get into one, you can see it. You're like-

   15. JRJoe Rogan2:27

       Yeah.

   16. FGForrest Galante2:27

       ... "This is what it used to be like everywhere."

   17. JRJoe Rogan2:29

       Yeah.

   18. FGForrest Galante2:29

       And it's like humans haven't had an impact. I don't, you know, I don't wanna disparage anyone in Hawaii, but I don't think there's anywhere in Hawaii like that, 'cause it's all so accessible.

   19. JRJoe Rogan2:38

       Yeah.

   20. FGForrest Galante2:38

       And, um, it's just, you know, I've, I've been fortunate enough to see a couple of these pockets, and they're just booming with stuff. And it's like, "This is what it could be."

   21. JRJoe Rogan2:46

       Yeah, I mean, I guess that's l- like what it must be to just be in the Amazon itself as well, right? You're-

   22. FGForrest Galante2:52

       For sure.

   23. JRJoe Rogan2:52

       ... in the jungle, not just the rivers and the, the lakes or whatever's out there, but the actual jungle itself. It's...

4. 2:58 – 4:22

   First Westerners in decades: visiting an isolated Amazon community

   1. FGForrest Galante2:58

      It was incredible. The jungle there... So we were in Colombian Amazon, and like talk about untouched by people. There's been this kind of ongoing conflict in Colombia for many, many years. So we're, we were the first Westerners to go there in over 60 years. So the village we flew into, they'd literally never seen white people before. And then we went 200 kilometers from that, so like middle of nowhere.

   2. JRJoe Rogan3:18

      Did they wanna touch you?

   3. FGForrest Galante3:19

      To... Yeah, hair.

   4. JRJoe Rogan3:20

      Oh.

   5. FGForrest Galante3:20

      'Cause their hair was very dark and very different. And like I'm not particularly fair, but just to touch like the hair and see the blue eyes and stuff, they were just loving on it.

   6. JRJoe Rogan3:27

      Were they, were they friendly?

   7. FGForrest Galante3:28

      Super friendly. Like, the culture was very stoic. Like there wasn't a lot of smiling or cry- you know, there wasn't like a lot of emotional exchange. But straightaway, they came and greeted us, like shook hands, you know, said hello. Um, it was really cool. (laughs)

   8. JRJoe Rogan3:42

      Wow, that's gotta be... Now, how do you set something like that up? Do you have like a liaison that, that like acts as a go-between between you and the tribes?

   9. FGForrest Galante3:50

      Um, yeah, so we did, in this case, have one guy who communicated. I speak Spanish, Spanglish, I guess. Um, and they, they all speak Spanish from back in the day.

   10. JRJoe Rogan3:59

       Oh.

   11. FGForrest Galante4:00

       So we set it all up. It's part of the wildlife stuff that I do. We, we literally flew a, uh, DC-3, a World War II cargo plane, into this cocaine dealer's airstrip.

   12. JRJoe Rogan4:08

       What?

   13. FGForrest Galante4:08

       And then got... That's how we got there. I mean, like mind-blowing stuff.

   14. JRJoe Rogan4:11

       Current cocaine dealer or former?

   15. FGForrest Galante4:13

       Former. Former.

   16. JRJoe Rogan4:14

       Oh. (laughs)

   17. FGForrest Galante4:14

       Yeah. Well, you know, TBD.

   18. JRJoe Rogan4:16

       Who knows? It's still Colombia, right?

   19. FGForrest Galante4:17

       Exactly. Um...

   20. JRJoe Rogan4:19

       Wow.

   21. FGForrest Galante4:19

       So yeah, it was, that, that one was really cool, really remote.

5. 4:22 – 8:35

   Language, identity, and barefoot athleticism in the jungle

   1. JRJoe Rogan4:22

      How crazy is it that they learned Spanish from people who came over on boats from Spain and it just stuck?

   2. FGForrest Galante4:28

      Isn't that nuts? And took over the whole like-

   3. JRJoe Rogan4:31

      Region. Yeah.

   4. FGForrest Galante4:32

      ... yeah, the whole world.

   5. JRJoe Rogan4:32

      Except for-

   6. FGForrest Galante4:33

      And, and here's this tribe in the middle of the Amazon that has this language from another continent.

   7. JRJoe Rogan4:37

      Well, and Brazil, right? From Portugal.

   8. FGForrest Galante4:40

      Right.

   9. JRJoe Rogan4:40

      It's really incredible when you stop and think about it. I mean, we... Well, it's, it's incredible, but it's also part of it's a little sad. Like wouldn't you have loved to have heard what their original language was?

   10. FGForrest Galante4:50

       Oh, absolutely.

   11. JRJoe Rogan4:51

       Like what it, what it sounded like?

   12. FGForrest Galante4:52

       Well, they did. So it's funny because when they didn't want us to understand what they were talking about, they would switch to their native Indian language. So they still had... They were bilingual, a community of 25 people that have never left and they're bilingual.

   13. JRJoe Rogan5:05

       Wow.

   14. FGForrest Galante5:05

       It's amazing.

   15. JRJoe Rogan5:06

       Now, th- w- their native language is what? What is it?

   16. FGForrest Galante5:10

       It's an Amazonian Indian dialect. I, I honestly don't even... They might have said the name, but I don't recall.

   17. JRJoe Rogan5:15

       What, what is the name of their tribe?

   18. FGForrest Galante5:17

       Uh, also I'm not even sure. They're, they're so isolated, they're unaware of what country they live in. They don't even know that they're in Colombia.

   19. JRJoe Rogan5:25

       Really?

   20. FGForrest Galante5:25

       Really. They're just like... To them, they're Amazonian. They're not Colombian, Ecuadorian, Brazilian. They're, they're Amazonian.

   21. JRJoe Rogan5:31

       Whoa.

   22. FGForrest Galante5:32

       Yeah. (laughs) You know?

   23. JRJoe Rogan5:33

       So they just stay. Like-

   24. FGForrest Galante5:35

       Stay.

   25. JRJoe Rogan5:35

       ... where they are, they stay.

   26. FGForrest Galante5:36

       And the village we were in is literally... I think it's over 200 kilometers from the next, "next" village of 15 or so people. And they don't have fuel, they don't have motors, you know. They're just in this pocket, and they just substance live.

   27. JRJoe Rogan5:49

       And they're all barefoot, right?

   28. FGForrest Galante5:51

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan5:51

       Do they have those crazy splayed out feet?

   30. FGForrest Galante5:54

       Big feet, you know?
6. 8:35 – 14:04

   Jungle medicine ethics: ringworm, parasites, and unintended consequences

   1. JRJoe Rogan8:35

      When, when you're around these people, like, what, what do they do if they get injured?

   2. FGForrest Galante8:40

      So funny you ask that, because we, we kind of had that same question, right? And they don't leave, they stay in the village. They have a shaman at the village who blessed us with a crazy green powder, and that's a whole nother story. But they have a shaman and he is their doctor. However, he has no access to any Western medicine. So it's only his learned knowledge handed down through generations, plus jungle powders and whatnot. And, um, and that's it. So we actually, we spent today, 'cause we had a medic with us, doing like kind of village help, if you will. Everybody had ringworm, everybody had respiratory infections. Uh, there were a lot of lady problems in the village that our medic had to deal with. I mean, there was a lot of health issues and you don't even realize it.

   3. JRJoe Rogan9:24

      I'm gonna write something down before I forget. I'm sorry, this is totally unrelated.

   4. FGForrest Galante9:28

      No, all good.

   5. JRJoe Rogan9:28

      But, um, there's a doctor named Peter Hotez that's coming on the podcast and I have to follow up on him. He, w- when you started talking about the people in the jungle, he was, he's a, an actual, uh, a doctor, uh, who is, uh, he specializes in infectious diseases in jungle and tropical climates, and he's like, "Everyone's infected with something."

   6. FGForrest Galante9:47

      Everyone.

   7. JRJoe Rogan9:47

      Everyone, 100%.

   8. FGForrest Galante9:47

      He'd have a heyday down there. (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan9:49

      Yeah, I'm sure. He's probably been.

   10. FGForrest Galante9:50

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan9:51

       But, um, the... So when these people have ringworm and all these d- different infections, do they treat it? Do they have, like, some naturopathic cure or some shit?

   12. FGForrest Galante10:02

       I, I think it's kind of a 50/50. Like, a lot of it they don't treat because it's just part of everyday life. Like, when I say everybody had ringworm, I meant everybody had it. So I don't think there was any kind of treatment or cure, it was just kinda part of i- part of them.

   13. JRJoe Rogan10:14

       Huh.

   14. FGForrest Galante10:14

       But other things, you know, the, the, the witch doctor or the shaman was trying to treat. Um, and then we kinda went in and we had, like, medication for ringworm, so we dewormed everybody, and with the shaman's blessing, and he was, like, super excited to have Western medicine in the village and...

   15. JRJoe Rogan10:30

       Would you use, like, Lamisil or something like that?

   16. FGForrest Galante10:32

       I couldn't tell you. Um, I think it was, uh, not, it wasn't topical. I think it was, like, a Vermox, like a pill that you take that kills the, kills the worms.

   17. JRJoe Rogan10:39

       Hmm. The weird thing about that is, like, don't you, you leave and then they're gonna get it again, right?

   18. FGForrest Galante10:46

       I mean, there's only so much you can do, right?

   19. JRJoe Rogan10:48

       Yeah.

   20. FGForrest Galante10:48

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan10:48

       So-

   22. FGForrest Galante10:48

       Totally, that, we were having the same dilemma.

   23. JRJoe Rogan10:51

       Yeah.

   24. FGForrest Galante10:51

       And it was like, do we interfere because we're from the outside world? Do we help? And, uh, we talked to the shaman through our translator and he said, "Please help. Please help."

   25. JRJoe Rogan10:59

       Mm.

   26. FGForrest Galante11:00

       So we gave, including him, everybody this dewormer but, you know-

   27. JRJoe Rogan11:03

       Yeah, it's like-

   28. FGForrest Galante11:04

       ... they'll just come back.

   29. JRJoe Rogan11:05

       Yeah, and also they probably don't understand the consequences of taking some antibiotic that's gonna do some weird shit to your whole biome, right?

   30. FGForrest Galante11:13

       Right, right.
7. 14:04 – 18:53

   When things go wrong: crocodile attack, venom risks, and remote emergencies

   1. FGForrest Galante14:04

      Oh, that, uh, of course, yeah. I'll, I'll tell you a story, Joe. I was in, uh, Myanmar early, late last year, and we're down there filming this thing, and this kid, like a 22-year-old crab fisherman, gets bitten by a crocodile.

   2. JRJoe Rogan14:16

      Oh.

   3. FGForrest Galante14:16

      The croc grabs him by the arm, grabs him by the thigh, and death rolls. So it breaks the arm in, like, I don't know, 15 places, compound fracture, the real deal.

   4. JRJoe Rogan14:24

      (inhales deeply)

   5. FGForrest Galante14:24

      I can show you pictures of it, it'll blow your mind. And we hear about this, and we're minutes away. We just, it's kind of one of the similar situations where we're the first Westerners to be there in a long time. We go bombing over at high speed, and we get there, and the mom is, like, off mourning the death of her child, but her child is sitting there still alive. Like, they have-

   6. JRJoe Rogan14:43

      Oh.

   7. FGForrest Galante14:43

      ... written him off, and it's sh- Mom is, mom is literally mourning the death of her child, and he's, he's lying there conscious but, like, in total shock. Fortunately, just because of the situation, we had a speedboat, everything else, we bandaged him up, you know, tied, tried to keep his arm stable and his leg stable, put him in our speedboat, and it was six hours by speedboat to a village that had a, had, or to a, to a hospital, really. And so he got there and his life was saved, but I asked, we asked the, the people in the village, "What w- were you going to do?" And they're like, "There's nothing we can do."

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:13

      Wow.

   9. FGForrest Galante15:13

      So he was just going to bleed out or go septic, and that was the end of it.

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:17

       Ooh, what a fucking rough way to go.

   11. FGForrest Galante15:19

       Right? (laughs)

   12. JRJoe Rogan15:20

       Oof. How did he get away from the crocodile?

   13. FGForrest Galante15:23

       Uh, I don't know. I think he was just hitting it or hammering on it. He was crab fishing in the water, and it came up and grabbed him, rolled a few times, and at some point he escaped. How he even got back in the boat and made it back to the village, I have no idea, because his leg was shattered, his arm was shattered.

   14. JRJoe Rogan15:37

       (sighs)

   15. FGForrest Galante15:37

       It was brutal. And it was a canoe, you know? It wasn't like he had a little motor or a wheel to drive. He canoed back.

   16. JRJoe Rogan15:42

       One of the most disturbing stories I ever read was, um, these guys were kayaking in an African river, and the guy in front of them got grabbed by a crocodile.

   17. FGForrest Galante15:50

       Mm-hmm.

   18. JRJoe Rogan15:51

       And that it went under and, like, it, like, plunged like a bobber as the crocodile pulled him out of the bottom of the kayak.

   19. FGForrest Galante15:59

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan16:00

       I'm like, "Fuck."

   21. FGForrest Galante16:01

       It's awful.

   22. JRJoe Rogan16:02

       Imagine being the guy behind him and watching that shit.

   23. FGForrest Galante16:04

       Right, just watching, yeah, and knowing that you're pretty much helpless.

   24. JRJoe Rogan16:07

       Did you see any jaguars or anything?

   25. FGForrest Galante16:09

       Uh, I've never seen a jaguar. I've seen a lot of li- I'm from Africa, I don't know if you knew that, but... So I've seen a lot of lions growing up. My family did safaris. Um, and then I've seen, you know, mountain lions here in California, leopards, stuff like that. I've never seen a wild jaguar.

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:23

       Really?

   27. FGForrest Galante16:23

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan16:23

       Even when you were in the Amazon?

   29. FGForrest Galante16:25

       I think they're really elusive.

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:26

       Hmm.
8. 18:53 – 29:59

   Growing up in Zimbabwe: walking safaris, hippos, and why mosquitoes are worst

   1. JRJoe Rogan18:53

      Wow. How long you been doing this?

   2. FGForrest Galante18:56

      I mean, like, for TV, for Animal Planet, uh, three years, I guess. But to go on exp... The reason I got into that and doing it for TV is because I've been doing it, like, my whole life. I grew up in Zimbabwe. My mom was a bush pilot, so when we weren't on safari, she was, like, flying us to these remote places in the middle of bush and we were going out on safari. And, like, as long as I can remember, this has been what I do.

   3. JRJoe Rogan19:19

      Now, when you go on safari, are you in those open Jeeps?

   4. FGForrest Galante19:22

      Walking safaris.

   5. JRJoe Rogan19:23

      What?

   6. FGForrest Galante19:24

      Yeah. (laughs)

   7. JRJoe Rogan19:25

      Dude.

   8. FGForrest Galante19:27

      (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan19:27

      What are you doing? (laughs)

   10. FGForrest Galante19:28

       (laughs) Uh, we take a 458, an elephant gun-

   11. JRJoe Rogan19:30

       Okay.

   12. FGForrest Galante19:30

       ... put it on your shoulder and-

   13. JRJoe Rogan19:31

       That helps.

   14. FGForrest Galante19:32

       ... walking safari.

   15. JRJoe Rogan19:33

       God damn, man. Only during the day, right?

   16. FGForrest Galante19:35

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan19:35

       Obviously.

   18. FGForrest Galante19:36

       Cannot move at night.

   19. JRJoe Rogan19:36

       And what do you do when you're confronted?

   20. FGForrest Galante19:39

       I mean, I've had some pretty close calls. Uh, my wife, Jess, who's here with me, I saved her from a hippo.

   21. JRJoe Rogan19:44

       Oh!

   22. FGForrest Galante19:45

       Um, yeah. We've had some pretty close calls. (laughs)

   23. JRJoe Rogan19:48

       Fuck, man. One of my, the scariest pictures I ever saw was this guy, this, uh, African guy running down the street and a hippo's chasing him, and you look at the size of the hippo and you're like, "Good Christ, that thing is huge."

   24. FGForrest Galante19:58

       They're... Joe, they are the scariest animals on earth. Like, interacting with a hippopotamus, they're so erratic, they're so unpredictable. If they feel threatened at all, I mean, they're just-

   25. JRJoe Rogan20:08

       Yeah. Th- this, this video is fucking bananas.

   26. FGForrest Galante20:09

       Oh, yeah. (laughs)

   27. JRJoe Rogan20:10

       This is... This guy's on a row, uh, motorboat and the hippo is swimming after him-

   28. FGForrest Galante20:15

       Yep.

   29. JRJoe Rogan20:15

       ... like a torpedo.

   30. FGForrest Galante20:16

       So, this is where I'm from. This is Zimbabwe.
9. 29:59 – 40:34

   Tasmanian tiger (thylacine): credible sightings and the grind of evidence

   1. JRJoe Rogan29:59

      Did you have something to do with looking for the Tasmanian tiger?

   2. FGForrest Galante30:02

      Yeah. Yeah, I did. Um-

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:04

      No. What do you think?

   4. FGForrest Galante30:05

      I think (sighs) of all the extinct animals that have gone extinct at the hand of man, given their, their range ... I don't know if you know this, but the Tasmanian tiger at one point ranged from Papua New Guinea all the way down to Tasmania. So not just the island of Tasmania, but thousands, tens of thousands of miles. I think given their range, the frequency of sightings, the amount of untouched habitat in Australia and Tasmania and Papua New Guinea, where they just found a new dog species, by the way.

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:31

      They did?

   6. FGForrest Galante30:31

      Yeah, the island dog in New Guinea, uh, maybe a year ago now. Incredible looking animal. Like-... absolutely. Could there be a very small remnant population of thylacine, Tasmanian tiger, hiding out in a isolated pocket of habitat? I, I totally think it's possible.

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:45

      And these sightings, are they coming from credible sources?

   8. FGForrest Galante30:48

      So, I did, I did one expedition. I've done two expeditions looking for thylacine and one of them, I was literally talking to the man who is the head park ranger for, like, the entire North Queensland. So he's a scientist by trade, a biologist by degree, and he says, "I saw four of them."

   9. JRJoe Rogan31:04

      Whoa.

   10. FGForrest Galante31:04

       You know, so this isn't like some crackpot drunk who's like, "Yeah, they're, they're here!" You know? This is a guy who is, like myself, a scientist, a biologist, and spends his life in the bush. He knows every animal in that area and he goes, "I saw four of them."

   11. JRJoe Rogan31:16

       Wow.

   12. FGForrest Galante31:16

       So, like, how do you not ... Like, I get goosebumps talking about it 'cause how do you not, like, take that as credible?

   13. JRJoe Rogan31:22

       No, that's about as credible as it gets. Whoa, look at that cool-looking dog.

   14. FGForrest Galante31:24

       There it is.

   15. JRJoe Rogan31:25

       What a freaky-looking ... The, the world's rarest and most ancient dogs have been rediscovered in the wild. So this New Guinea highland dog was thought to be extinct, is that the idea?

   16. FGForrest Galante31:33

       That's right, yep.

   17. JRJoe Rogan31:34

       Wow. So this thylacine, this area is, where, where they are, has there been a concerted effort to find these things?

   18. FGForrest Galante31:41

       Sort of. I mean, it's, it's one of those things where, like, I would say the thylacine is, like, the icon of animals coming back from extinction for Australia, right? It's kinda, like, everybody knows about it in Australia. They all care about it. But where these efforts are is, like, outside of Sydney or, you know what I mean? It's, it's close to home. So there hasn't been a lot of expeditions really deep in to look for them.

   19. JRJoe Rogan32:02

       Mm-hmm.

   20. FGForrest Galante32:02

       And that's what I did. So, there's so much belief that the animal is still out there that the, uh ... Shoot, it's the university in Cairns. I'm blanking on the name of it right now. The university itself put money towards funding to s- find it. So when you have a credible si- uh, institution, like a university going, "Here's money. Go and find this thing," you've gotta think, and I'm not a big conspiracy theorist, but you've gotta think they have some intel that says, "Look, we're not wasting our money to look for something that's not there. We've heard something, we've seen something, we caught something on a trail camera. Let's prove it." And so I actually teamed up with-

   21. JRJoe Rogan32:35

       They caught something on a trail camera?

   22. FGForrest Galante32:37

       Hard to say, but what they did do is fund this expedition. So myself and the university, who's still ongoing with the research, went and looked in this area in North Queensland where I went.

   23. JRJoe Rogan32:46

       And how far deep did you go in?

   24. FGForrest Galante32:48

       Uh, 1,200 miles.

   25. JRJoe Rogan32:50

       1,200 miles?

   26. FGForrest Galante32:52

       Yep. Took 14 hours driving and then hiking from there.

   27. JRJoe Rogan32:55

       Whoa.

   28. FGForrest Galante32:56

       Yeah, 14 hours on dirt roads.

   29. JRJoe Rogan32:57

       Because this is the area where they've been sighted the most numerous?

   30. FGForrest Galante33:00

       Uh, this is where that sighting that I was talking about came from-
10. 40:34 – 47:47

    Not ‘Bigfoot,’ but still surprising: Bili ape and other borderline discoveries

    1. JRJoe Rogan40:34

       Now, because of the fact that you spend so much time in the wild and, you know, and that you have this, uh, interest in these, uh, what would you call cryptozoology animals? Like, that's-

    2. FGForrest Galante40:45

       Well, I, I'm not a crypto guy, so just to be clear.

    3. JRJoe Rogan40:47

       Right.

    4. FGForrest Galante40:47

       And nothing against crypto guys, but I don't do Loch Ness or Bigfoot or anything.

    5. JRJoe Rogan40:51

       Yeah.

    6. FGForrest Galante40:51

       I'm a true wildlife biologist, so I only focus on wildlife. So not to interrupt you, but I'm just very, very structured in the sense that I really only look for animals that we, we have an understanding of.

    7. JRJoe Rogan41:03

       Right. Right.

    8. FGForrest Galante41:03

       Yeah.

    9. JRJoe Rogan41:04

       Well, yeah. The bi- the Bigfoot one is, um, the m- the most compelling, but also probably the most bullshit.

    10. FGForrest Galante41:11

        I think there's a mix there. I think people believe that they've seen certain things.

    11. JRJoe Rogan41:15

        Yeah.

    12. FGForrest Galante41:15

        Um, you know, it's, it's, do I think that there could have been large primates that we attribute to Bigfoot? Sure.

    13. JRJoe Rogan41:21

        Sure.

    14. FGForrest Galante41:21

        Whether they're still here or not, whether people have ever seen them, I, I'm so like, not well read on that.

    15. JRJoe Rogan41:26

        Isn't it interesting, though, that if there was one, it would probably be the most spectacular find ever?

    16. FGForrest Galante41:34

        Absolutely.

    17. JRJoe Rogan41:34

        But meanwhile, we have chimps and bonobos.

    18. FGForrest Galante41:37

        Right.

    19. JRJoe Rogan41:37

        And you know, we have all these things that are real.

    20. FGForrest Galante41:39

        Well, 'cause there's so much like lore and culture associated with it now.

    21. JRJoe Rogan41:42

        Yeah.

    22. FGForrest Galante41:42

        Right? And not just like, our western culture, but like cave paintings of big hairy creatures and like everything.

    23. JRJoe Rogan41:47

        Right.

    24. FGForrest Galante41:48

        I mean, it would be like this mind-blowing discovery.

    25. JRJoe Rogan41:51

        Have you ever went and looked for the Bondo Ape?

    26. FGForrest Galante41:53

        No. I know what it is, but no.

    27. JRJoe Rogan41:55

        Yeah.

    28. FGForrest Galante41:55

        Never gone and looked for it.

    29. JRJoe Rogan41:56

        They're, they're sure that's a real thing.

    30. FGForrest Galante41:57

        Really?
11. 47:47 – 1:10:10

    Tools of the trade: HEX suits, snake hooks, thermal imaging, and wolf fascination

    1. FGForrest Galante47:47

       You know, I, I, um, I wear this fabric you were talking about, Thermacell, called HEX.

    2. JRJoe Rogan47:52

       Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

    3. FGForrest Galante47:52

       Um, you've heard... Yeah, I think so, yeah, yeah.

    4. JRJoe Rogan47:53

       H-E-C-S, HEX.

    5. FGForrest Galante47:54

       H-E-C-S, HEX. Exactly.

    6. JRJoe Rogan47:55

       Yeah.

    7. FGForrest Galante47:55

       And, um, I wear it for a lot of reasons, 'cause I definitely feel it helps me get closer to wildlife, but I've noticed mosquitoes do not like it.

    8. JRJoe Rogan48:02

       Really?

    9. FGForrest Galante48:03

       So, that's-

    10. JRJoe Rogan48:04

        Explain-

    11. FGForrest Galante48:04

        ... that's one of my cover ups.

    12. JRJoe Rogan48:04

        ... what a HEX suit is for, for people that don't know what we're talking about.

    13. FGForrest Galante48:08

        Sure. So, it's this f- interwoven carbon grid that actually holds the body's electrical energy and capacity, like the door of a microwave oven, like a Faraday cage, right?

    14. JRJoe Rogan48:17

        Mm-hmm.

    15. FGForrest Galante48:17

        And so you, you naturally emit electrical energy, and then when you wear this clothing, it's got this conductive carbon grid, and when you touch the ground or something, it grounds it and releases all the energy. So, birds migrate using-

    16. JRJoe Rogan48:28

        There it is.

    17. FGForrest Galante48:28

        Yeah, there you go.

    18. JRJoe Rogan48:29

        Now, has it been proven that this stuff actually work- I mean, it- it has been proven that it has an effect on the electrical energy that you release, but has it been proven that the animals can actually recognize that electrical energy?

    19. FGForrest Galante48:39

        With certain animals, yes. So, we know electroreception is... Certain wildlife is capable of it. Birds use it to migrate. Sea turtles use magnetic poles to migrate. Um, they just discovered, I believe, 2014, that lobsters' antenna have electrical detective s- sensors. Um, electroreception is the word. Um, so it's proven on some things, not everything. You know, our understanding of animal behavior and animal adaptability is constantly growing. So, it's passive, you know what I mean? I wear it because it's a passive technology.

    20. JRJoe Rogan49:10

        Mm-hmm.

    21. FGForrest Galante49:11

        It's like, I'm gonna wear a shirt anyway. Why not wear one that might or might not help?

    22. JRJoe Rogan49:15

        Yeah.

    23. FGForrest Galante49:15

        So, I feel it helps.

    24. JRJoe Rogan49:16

        My friend, John Dudley, is a, a bow hunter.

    25. FGForrest Galante49:19

        Yep.

    26. JRJoe Rogan49:19

        Pretty famous bow hunter.

    27. FGForrest Galante49:20

        I know John, yeah.

    28. JRJoe Rogan49:21

        Yeah. Okay.

    29. FGForrest Galante49:22

        Mm-hmm.

    30. JRJoe Rogan49:22

        And he, he swears by it.

Episode duration: 2:09:57