His Mother Vanished. 20 Years Later He Found Her in the Amazon. | David Good | Ep. 035

David Good grew up with one foot in suburban Pennsylvania and the other in the Amazon rainforest. His father, anthropologist Ken Good, spent 12 years living with the Yanomami — one of the last relatively isolated peoples on Earth — and married David's mother, Yarima, the daughter of a headman. Then, when David was six, Yarima walked back into the jungle and didn't come out. He wouldn't see her again for 20 years. This is the story of what happened next: two decades of trying to bury his own identity, and then a bug-fearing 24-year-old's decision to travel days up the Orinoco River to find the mother he thought had abandoned him. What he found reframed his entire life — a family, a new name, a brother he would later grieve in a Yanomami funeral, and a scientific calling studying the Yanomami gut microbiome, which may hold clues to the diseases of the modern world. David is a microbiome researcher at the University of Guelph, the founder of the Yanomami Foundation, and the subject of the new documentary WAYUMI. This is one of the most singular life stories we've ever had on the show. Venezuelan Earthquake Relief Fund: https://welove.foundation WAYUMI Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3aWDwQNTqk Yanomami Foundation: https://www.yanomamifoundation.org/ David's book, The Way Around: https://www.amazon.com/Way-Around-Finding-Mother-Yanomami/dp/0062382128 David's book, GOOD: https://nbmpub.com/products/good David's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidalexandergood