Remembering I'm an Animal

Ol' Arty believed that every living thing has a specific potential, one dictated by its internal structure and fulfilled through vital activities. That's what this show is about. Also:We've swapped wonder for warning.Is anything invented or is it all discovered?And why the hell do horses let us ride them?

The answer is embarrassingly simple, which is to clean out your mind and body. Easy enough, right? Actually, yes, and Billy discusses how three weeks without a phone, and without putting crap into his body, has had such profound effects that he's just mad at the moron who took this long to do it. Also, Jody buys "barefoot" shoes that aren't hideous (finally); the boys present a drunk history version of the discovery of Bermuda; and how a trip to a homestead that functions off the grids of electricity, money, and motor vehicles made Billy very uncomfortable when they started singing.

What happens to your brain, like immediately, when you just get rid of your phone? Billy reports back from his first week since dumping his iPhone for a cellular watch. Plus, Doc and Billy discuss whether we've abandoned survival of the fittest, plus Doc explains his recent off-air comment that he wasn't listening to Billy during the first 14 episodes.

The show took a hiatus, but Billy and Doc did not. We're back to catch you up on the evolution of our RIA project, which is deeper and more dynamic than ever. We have much to talk about!

In this very strange crossover episode of The Crowded Hour and Remembering I'm an Animal, Billy and Jody are back together. It will make sense if you listen. Probably.

It's been a little over a year since Jody and Billy decided to start documenting this journey they call "Remembering I'm an Animal." Thirty-seven episodes later, the boys take a look back, list their highs and lows, and look ahead to more species-appropriate behaviors.If you've been listening, thank you. If you haven't, it would be kinda weird if you were reading this.

It's been a while since the boys have done an old-school, multi-topic episode, so settle in. And, once again, Billy announces his New Life Plan.Plus: the three (and a half) types of fun; the collapse of the metaverse; how "avid" hikers are the heavyweight champions of Mr. Outdoors behavior; lots of life lessons from Stephen King; the misnomer that substance abuse plays any positive role in creativity; and the most important question that will never be answered: Who is the youngest person named Dick?

In a very surreal turn of events, much of Billy's personal quest comes to a climax. Except it wasn't Billy doing it. It was Jody.F-ing Jody.(Speaking of F-ing Jody, he got Covid, which is why it has been so long since our last episode. But there's another one coming right behind this fella.)

Chris Borgatti was a high school science teacher at a prep school, until a challenging question from a student made him face a dilemma that is central to this podcast: Why didn't he hunt for his own food?Fast-forward nine years and Chris has become an acclaimed hunter and conservationist, and has left the classroom to become the New England and New York coordinator for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.Chris takes Billy hunting (behind Jody's back), and it goes so well -- while also raising many challenging questions -- that Billy fires Jody as his mentor and hires Chris.So much drama, people. So much.

Following a disastrous assignment where he attempted to smoke his way through the tiny town that has become the Pot Capital of America, Billy is back and firing on all cylinders, with some insights about what it is we're chasing on this program, this algorithm to animal authenticity, and how hitting it 80 percent of the time is the goal.Plus: Jody gets the authorities called on him for legally hunting; some insights from the long life of "the world's dirtiest man;" feedback from listeners who claim to be hip experts; and more bullying until Billy agrees to enter a swim race against a 77-year-old woman in 34-degree water.

This whole mess of a story started for Billy years ago at an agricultural fair, and a return visit this time around brings back all the questions about our relationship to food.This all goes down as another suburban hunting season gets going. How's it going? Nowhere.Plus: one of the boys finds out they need a new hip; the magical feeling of lateral momentum; more trash-talking from a 77-year-old cold water swimming bully in Maine; and how a Radiohead song from 1997 predicted the Instagram wellness cult of today. 

We humans are living in a time of evolutionary mismatch, asked to live a life we were not designed for.Our DNA demands better from us, so on this show we discuss how to listen to it, to take take dance lessons from it. That plus the magic of knots, and the 77-year-old Maine woman who continues to challenge Billy to a swim race in 34-degree water.

The "llst" of the fundamental evolved abilities of the human species is long and impressive. But can you boil that list down to the fundamentals, the 9 abilities that showcase the best "magics" of the Homo sapiens?Plus: the toxicity of deadlines; why briefs are more primitive than boxers; and whether to dance or fight. 

Martha Wood is something of a myth on the North Shore of Massachusetts, a real-life mermaid who seems to thrive in water cold enough to kill.Today on the show, the 59-year-old Wood tells the story of how a botched colonoscopy led her into the winter ocean, beginning a journey that culminated a few weeks ago when she swam across the fabled English Channel. 

A few months ago, the boys asked themselves the question: What's the one thing you could change about yourself, that you would change, that you're not changing?For Billy, it was to stop poisoning himself each day with crappy food and drink. That effort has gone so-so, and it was incomplete, because it missed the third major self-poison of the modern world: crappy media. So a new effort to achieve poison-independence has begun.Plus, Billy goes to Vermont to visit America's most famous fly fisherman, Tom Rosenbauer, to again try to answer the question: Is fly-fishing just a bunch of self-indulgent bull$hit? Also on the show, Jody's crypticness gets cryptic; the primal appeal of creating through Substack; the ethics of rock cairns; a lobster dive ends in an emasculation; and a breakdown of new research that makes the very clear case that alcohol is the single most dangerous self-administered poison of the modern world.It's a fun show. For real. 

Inspired by comedian Nikki Glaser, the boys discuss the problems living in a world where there is so much information about food and alcohol, so many experts, that you stop listening to yourself, the part that says "Have you tried moderation?"Billy pays a visit to the "Woodstock of hunting" to see what the new age hunters are up to.Jody tells the story of spending a night sleeping high up in a tree.Plus.... the primal pleasures of rollerblading, the terrible trend of disemvoweling, and the rather insane story of how Billy waited until he was standing at the open door of an airplane to decide that skydiving was not a species-appropriate activity.

We came from the trees, and there remains deep inside of us a desire to return to them.On this episode, the boys are joined by Andrew Joslin, a legend in tree climbing who has scaled some of the largest trees on earth, and then spent the night in them.Joslin recounts his storied career, his side business rescuing cats, and his wild day trying to get Billy up into a tree canopy (which quickly goes sideways, to the shock of no one).Plus Jody talks about his own past as a "recreational tree climber," which impresses Joslin (who needed impressing after the "ceiling" incident with Billy).

Billy returns from a long vacation to rant about how misguided the modern idea of "vacation" has become. Or something like that.Jody leads a mindblowing explanation of the aquatic ape theory.Plus Billy explains the smart reason he declined the chance to give a TED Talk,  and the reason why he thinks instead he's going to write a great book. That plus non-alcoholic beer, praise for the American redneck, and the birth of the term "magics."

On this episode, the boys process all the things they've learned from freedive master Whitey Baun, and tell the story of the breathing exercise he put them through after the mics were turned off (which nearly tripled the amount of time each could hold their breath, instantly). They also take a deeper look into the mind-blowing science behind the Master Switch of Life (see link below).Plus, they look at the states where it's legal to own a chimpanzee, our closest living relative; the 10 Primal Blueprint Laws; learning from our elders; Jody eats more wild crap; and even more examples of being a Billy.Don't be a Billy.https://magicseaweed.com/news/the-master-switch-what-happens-to-your-heart-when-you-dive-into-the-sea/6771/

When the human body takes a deep breath and dives down into the ocean, it reflexively sets off a series of physiological responses so magical that it has been called "The Master Switch of Life."To connect with that switch, the fellas connect with Whitey Baun, a freediving master who at age 72 has been called the dean of the underwater world in Massachusetts. A day after taking Billy for a humbling, frightening, and ultimately inspiring dive off the coast, Whitey sits down at the mic to talk about his extraordinary life, and the meditative calm he can only find at the bottom of the ocean.Here's a link to some great information about the Master Switch of Life, excerpted from the excellent book "Deep" by James Nestor:https://magicseaweed.com/news/the-master-switch-what-happens-to-your-heart-when-you-dive-into-the-sea/6771/

After a brief summer break, the boys are back, and Billy reveals he has been conducting an experiment for three weeks where he followed the diet of our ancestors, the ones who ate like Homo sapiens and consumed only two things: plants and animals. The results have been so positive that you'll probably want to skip this part of the podcast because no one wants to hear about how good he feels.Instead, skip to the part where he talks about he never would have survived in the time of our ancestors because of his extraordinary ability to repel wild animals, as told through the stories of three recent can't-miss fishing trips where he most definitely missed. What is with this frigging guy? Don't be a Billy.And the boys start making plans for future explorations of the incredible abilities of the human animal. Jody agrees to row around Cape Ann; Billy finds a 72-year-old man who is going to teach him how to freedive to the bottom of the ocean; and they commit again to run up Mt. Washington (for real this time).This plus a rant against the salesmen who dominate the male wellness space. We aren't going to sell you any answers on this show. Instead, we're running a question factory.

Gloucester, Massachusetts is America's oldest fishing port, and for generations, as part of a festival to celebrate St. Peter, the patron saint of fishermen, its young men have tested themselves in a dangerous contest known as "The Greasy Pole."At the young age of 47, our hero, Gloucester-native Dr. Jody Simoes, walked The Greasy Pole for the first time, connecting to the ancient lineage of male rites of passage.

Mt. Washington delivers on its promise of being home to "The World's Worst Weather" when Jody tries to run up it, in a chaotic day on the highest mountain in New England.Elsewhere, Billy launches #shirtlesssolstice, sunscreen is the new margarine, and more discussion of the ultimate riddle of the conscious modern man -- What the hell should I eat? -- as the guys continue their attempt to read the owner's manual written into their genes so they can restore these Homo sapiens to factory settings. Also, fuck fishing. 

You ever try to feed a dog something they're not "supposed" to eat? People lose their shit. Yet we feed the same crap to ourselves and our children without a second thought. At the same time, the question of what we should be eating is so clouded with pseudoscience and fad diets that it's impossible to know who is right. Or if there is such a thing as the "right" diet for humans. Here on the little show, we lean toward ancestral, species-appropriate behaviors, but in a modern world. Its a blend, and nowhere is that blend tougher to maintain than with what we eat. So today, the boys pick through Michael Pollan's painfully practical "food rules," which are simple, time-tested (which we love) ideas about how to eat, and how to avoid stressing too much about what you eat.Also on the show, Jody details the emotions of his roller-coaster ride since finding out he's going to walk the Greasy Pole at the St. Peter's Fiesta; the launch of the "shirtless solstice" movement; and Billy explains what it's like to have an attractive woman give you a colonic. 

Billy interrupts Jody at work to inform him that he is officially walking the Greasy Pole at the St. Peter's Fiesta in Gloucester. Not only that, he's walking on Sunday, the main event, with all the past champions.Jody's response (other than shock): Don't tell my wife.

Spearfishing season has returned to New England, and with it all the excitement and fear that comes from putting a land animal -- in this case, a land animal who has seen the movie "Jaws" -- into an environment where it is ill-equipped and wildly vulnerable. Or you can just think of it as armed snorkeling, and try to feel all James Bond-y.Either way, a successful hunt yields to all sorts of inner turmoil for Billy, as he finds himself bonding with the three dead flounder in his refrigerator, unable to gut them properly because he feels like they're looking at him.It's a journey, people. A journey. In other news, the boys record at their new, top secret summer studio, just inches above the ocean; Jody again illustrates that he is an unfrozen caveman; more encounters with Mr. Outdoors; and the most important question a middle-aged outdoorsman can ask himself: Am I ready to acknowledge the functionality of dad sandals?

Is fly fishing the highest form of fishing? Or is it just a bunch of self-indulgent bullshit designed to make “catching a fish as difficult as possible?” And is this all Brad Pitt’s fault for looking so damn hot in “A River Runs Through It?”  These are the questions Billy has been wrestling with during his failed attempts to actually catch a damn fish on a fly, so to help unravel the riddle he spends a day fishing with Tom Rosenbauer, the "chief enthusiast" for Orvis and perhaps the most famous fly fisherman in America.Also in this episode, Jody answers the question of what simple thing he could change in his life that he should change; the "Remembering I'm an Animal" t-shirt line is launched, courtesy of a listener; Billy goes on a rant about the condescending new terms "bromeotherapy" and "bromeopathic": the five types of hobbies you need; the magic of the pre-dawn "creator's time,” brahmamuhurta; and whether or not Jody should walk the greasy pole at the St. Peter's Fiesta in Gloucester.Plus more testicle tanning, and Jody's contention that Billy needs to stop reading a table of contents at the top of the show because people read it here. But is anyone reading this? Hello?

This week we explore the enneagram, an ancient model of the human psyche that breaks everyone into nine different personality types. Billy and Jody establish their numbers, then use them as an excuse to explain all their failures, obviously.Also in this episode, the guys rank the months of the year; Billy tells the story of watching his chiropractor break a world record by doing 21,000 pushups in 12 hours; Jody is horrified by Billy's new hobby of sunning his genitals; a bit about the power of wonder for adults; more Fundamental Abilities of the Human Animal are considered; Jimmy Buffett's 50 Things to Do By 50; Jordan Peterson's 42 Rules for Life; more than you wanted to know about the movie "The Notebook"; Billy continues to insist he can defeat an ostrich, and Jody comes armed with a Johnny Cash story to shut him up; and the answer to last week's question: "What's one simple thing you fix about yourself, that you would fix about yourself, that you're not fixing?"

Syd Sydla takes people fishing on the Quabbin. Will Staats hunts for moose antlers in the spring mountains of northern New England. They are great outdoorsmen who are not assholes about their greatness, and as such they are the inaugural class for the Remembering I'm an Animal hall of fame.Also, Billy eventually loses his train of thought about his problems with people who are excessively core about their outdoor activity, the Mr. Outdoors-types who just want to be more right, a zero-sum status game of leap-frog...Plus, Jody eats freeze-dried bugs live on air and it is as awful as it sounds; a reader/friend of Jody's/pyromaniac says interesting things about habitat restoration; three (maybe four) additions to the list of the Fundamental Evolved Abilities of the Build; and so much more. Our most action-packed episode to date. I'm exhausted thinking of typing any more of it.PLUS EVERYONE HAS HOMEWORK: Figure out your enneagram number for the next episode.

For the first time, Billy took his young sons bowhunting for turkey, and it was a magical day, soaked in a deep connection to the fathers and sons who have done such things for millennia.Then the cops were called.

Inspired by a recent New Yorker article about the booming Margaritaville retirement community in Florida, a Twitter thread about wealth creations, and his 46th birthday, Billy is on a mission to finally pay attention to wealth creation so that he would at least be able to move to Margaritaville when his time comes. (It all ties in. It really does, and in many ways the most primal urge of adulthood is to put hay in the barn for those years when you can't any more.)Also, the fellas go deep into the "Lindy" theory and its connections to the "Remembering I'm an Animal" journey; Jody fails to convince Billy that "catch and release" fishing has any ethical basis; Billy finishes up his guided psychedelic therapy, then has the angriest birthday of his life; and the guys tackle the grandest question in life: What's the biggest animal you can beat in a fight?

William Patrick is an author and editor with a long connection to books that are very relevant to this journey that Billy and Jody are on. So much so that when Billy discovered him years ago, it felt so uncanny that he thought seriously of reaching out to this stranger to say “We have a lot in common and should meet.” Instead, years later, William happened to hear Billy being interviewed on NPR,  recognized the connection, and then he emailed Billy to say "We have a lot in common and should meet." So today, William joins the show to talk about the Mythopoetics of the early 90s, how the disappearing male tribe has created an era of loneliness, and what we can do to be 10% happier. 

Billy returns from a two-week road trip to Florida very much convinced that he has uncovered a hidden-in-plain-sight secret: that Florida Man is the most admirably primitive species in modern America.Plus, Jody's emotional day appreciating the gift of human achievement whilst holding a sign atop Heartbreak Hill during the Boston Marathon; a vow to figure out what is meant by "lindy;" the strange magic of chimpanzees; the stranger magic of very cold water; and a philosophical discussion of whether wildlife should be managed for the benefit of humans, or the benefit of wildlife.

Male friendship is the focus this week, with the paperback release of Billy's book, "We Need to Hang Out," and an invitation to join a legendary crew of older guys who have been gathering in a barn on Wednesday nights for decades.The boys also discuss the pros and cons of "bitch stance" while digging for clams, the "new golden age of wildlife," Jody's attempts to eat the random weeds that grow in his yard without dying, and whether or not the bird sounds on TV during The Masters are real. Plus a random story about how Billy's 94-year-old grandmother, who is from Spain, is wracking up huge charges on his credit card by watching TV shows in Korean.

Not to get all Oprah on you, but the guys get a bit Oprah on you today as they discuss the topic of self-compassion, which might just be the missing link connecting the incessantly-forward-thinking modern human to the in-the-moment animal they evolved to be. The boys continue adding to the list of fundamental human abilities, while trying to figure out what to call the list; discuss how Billy is both a Jim and a Dwight, which explains his issues with not wanting to learn how to make a friction fire;  hear about Jody's attempts at barefoot running through a field of green grass and goose poop; and introduce two new segments -- the Question of the Week, and Unsolicited Advice. All this and the greatest joke of all time, courtesy of Mitch Hedberg and a fire at a potato factory in Maine.

Billy has returned from competing in a swim meet held in a pool cut out of a frozen lake on the Canadian border in Vermont. Jody has become a Forrest Gump-esque running fool, to the point he's now drinking some potion used by an elusive tribe of Mexican distance runners. And the guys try to answer the most important question in life: Should I become a falconer?

At the beginning of the show, Jody declares himself a believer in the theory that the earliest hunters simply wore down large mammals with the human's superior endurance and the almost singular ability to sweat. At the end of the show, he attempts this live with three deer. In between, Billy declares himself a believer in the theory that the earliest humans used psilocybin to expand their minds, and tells the story of his recent walk in the woods to find out.The guys also try some of Jody's maple syrup, continue working on their list of the Fundamental Abilities of the Human Build, and review Billy's disastrous first attempt at having "the talk" with his 12-year-old. 

Winter is a time of preparation, of list-making, and the guys continue working on their list of the fundamental abilities of the human build by discussing all the things this animal can't do. Also, Jody reveals he has set off running, quite literally, which has led to a big commitment -- the guys are going to train to run up a hill. That hill just happens to be 7.6 miles long, and end at the summit of Mt. Washington.In the second half of the show, Billy and Jody perform a wild experiment and welcome their first guest -- some regular dude they don't know, who just so happens to be on a journey that is weirdly parallel to this thing we're calling "Remembering I'm an Animal."  

At a base level, this whole misadventure we call "Remembering I'm an Animal" is about trying to crack open the user's manual for Homo Sapiens to figure out how to use this thing correctly. Today on the show, Jody and Billy attempt to identify the signature abilities of the build, from the big evolutionary ones like language, advanced tool-making, and fire-making, to the physical gifts like our ability to throw and run long distances, to the strange ones like mysticism and the inexplicable desire to get intentionally impaired.Also, Jody eats road kill, Billy goes to a blind acupuncturist, and one of the boys vows to quit caffeine until their next recording. Maybe.

Billy thought his little project would consist of a year of beginnings, followed by a year of breakthroughs. Add this to the list of things he has been very wrong about. Year one was certainly "Beginnings." But as they review year two, it was really a story of "Beginning Again." As usual, this is somehow Jody's fault. He's supposed to be the expert.In this episode, Jody and Billy look back at 2021, wrap up their historically bad deer season, discuss a bear hound controversy in Vermont that Billy stupidly got involved in, discuss Jody's concept of cooperatives, and plan ahead for 2022, which will involve singing and dancing (for real) and will definitely be the year these aspiring homo sapiens hit "Breakthroughs." Probably. Maybe. 

The deer rut has come, and the deer rut has gone, and Jody joins Billy to take the blame for everything that went wrong. Also, they discuss the reaction to Billy's front-page article in the Boston Globe about the (alleged) deer overpopulation problem in Massachusetts, and public perceptions of wild game management in a state where less than 1% of people hunt. Special guest appearance by the flower delivery guy. 

Billy Baker is trying to remember he's an animal and access the signature abilities of our build, and one of those things is learning to bowhunt. The guy teaching him is Dr. Jody Simones, who claims to know what he's doing and allegedly has a Ph.D in something to do with wildlife. Two years into their partnership, they've yet to bring home dinner.  Will the deer rut finally change that?