Speaker 1: You know, I was trying to think about the most
Speaker 1: adventurous thing I've ever done, and I have to say
Speaker 1: that it's probably something that I've done on a set.
Speaker 1: I've gone to all different kinds of crazy places with
Speaker 1: the gigs that I've had, you know, Whitewater or in
Speaker 1: the zero G airplane for about thirteen and all kinds
Speaker 1: of exotic locations and stuff like that. But nothing, nothing
Speaker 1: that I've done, compares to our guest's life. And I
Speaker 1: have to say that this is the first time that
Speaker 1: a guest on the Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon podcast
Speaker 1: has shown up to the interview soaking wet. But it
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense because today's guest is Bear Grills.
Speaker 1: This is a fun one. I'm glad you're here, Bear Grills.
Speaker 1: It's so great to meet you. Thank you for being here.
Speaker 2: Likewise likewise, so nice to see you. Sorry to be
Speaker 2: rushing in late. Normally it's a normally well often it's
Speaker 2: quite wind and rainy up here, but I've bought our
Speaker 2: middle boy works in a butcher on the mainland which
Speaker 2: is over there, so but on a day like this
Speaker 2: I have to have.
Speaker 3: To pick him up. I'm a little inflatable.
Speaker 2: So what normally takes me about twenty minutes across like
Speaker 2: two miles across the sea there right, Well it's like this.
Speaker 2: I mean you can't see him at the moment, but
Speaker 2: it's big, old, big old white horses and stuff. So
Speaker 2: we both got absolutely submerged. But he's he's in the shower.
Speaker 2: I'm in my man cave, which is here to my office.
Speaker 2: Never give up, and I'm already all yours are ready
Speaker 2: to go.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's fantastic. I love it. This is this
Speaker 1: is this is the best. So just so people know
Speaker 1: you're you were on an island in Wales. You're on
Speaker 1: your island in Wales.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, we we.
Speaker 2: Live on this little twenty acre island. It's about two
Speaker 2: miles offshore. We'd put Shara and me and my wife
Speaker 2: bought it when we first got married and I was
Speaker 2: just leaving the military and we were trying to figure out,
Speaker 2: you know, where to live, what to do as a job,
Speaker 2: and all of that stuff, and we almost bought this
Speaker 2: one bedroom apartment in London that we couldn't really afford.
Speaker 2: It was tiny, and a part of my soul was
Speaker 2: to go, oh no, this is this is like, come on,
Speaker 2: there's gonna.
Speaker 3: Be another way.
Speaker 2: And then we found this island for sale. There was
Speaker 2: like it was less than the one bedroom apartment in London.
Speaker 2: It was on a really short lease. It had no power,
Speaker 2: no electricity, no mains water. And we bought it and
Speaker 2: just steadily done it up and made a home and
Speaker 2: our boys.
Speaker 3: We got three boys that you know Elvis.
Speaker 2: One's grown up now, but it's been a huge, wonderful
Speaker 2: part of their life. And we have the wind turbine
Speaker 2: powering everything. Oh, I love you are the best. It's
Speaker 2: is Shara, Hi, how you doing? Hi?
Speaker 1: To meet you in and out?
Speaker 3: That's as good as your gap for as being in
Speaker 3: anything public where she is nice.
Speaker 1: She was clearly interested in meeting me. She was clearly interested.
Speaker 2: She she hates being on anything public, so that's that's
Speaker 2: her thing. But anyway, that's home. And how do you
Speaker 2: get back after this? How do you get back and
Speaker 2: forth to the to the island in a in a
Speaker 2: little little inflatable boat with an outboard engine and yeah.
Speaker 1: And so you just got completely swamped today coming across.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well we have we have he drives a little
Speaker 2: old D class lifeboat. Well, you know, one of the
Speaker 2: really little kind of kill outboards and they use some
Speaker 2: of the on shore rescue stuff. So he's he's seventeen,
Speaker 2: he right, he drives out on his own. And then
Speaker 2: we have a bigger ribbed you know, rigid inflatabul boats
Speaker 2: that we take for you know, some lies and all
Speaker 2: that stuff across.
Speaker 3: And yeah, then we have.
Speaker 2: These which are pretty fun as well, the flight boards,
Speaker 2: you know, the flight board hydrofoils.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, they kind of raise up. Yeah, they raise
Speaker 1: up out of the water, right right, right right, They must.
Speaker 1: They must be kind of difficult than choppy water, though,
Speaker 1: are they are they? Yeah? Anyway, they're they're they're they're
Speaker 1: probably they look like they're impossible. I mean, are they
Speaker 1: really hard to learn how to use? I've never used one.
Speaker 3: Well, that they are, they're hard.
Speaker 2: They're one of those things on Instagram when you see
Speaker 2: people bombing around on them. They look so cool and
Speaker 2: you know, the music is playing and then the reality
Speaker 2: is cut to me and it's like endless wife outs
Speaker 2: drinking a lot of the North Wales state.
Speaker 1: Well, this is not a disappointing way to meet you.
Speaker 1: It almost it almost feels like it's it's it's almost
Speaker 1: it's almost hard to believe that this isn't a setup,
Speaker 1: since you're out there with the elements, you're running around
Speaker 1: on an island and having to get go back and
Speaker 1: forth in a swamped dinghy. It's it's it's absolutely perfect.
Speaker 1: You know. I was thinking about, uh, when you were
Speaker 1: when you first came in and you were here for
Speaker 1: just a moment, I assumed connecting it. I was about
Speaker 1: to say, hey bear, hey bear. And I had this
Speaker 1: connection to it because we have a farm out in
Speaker 1: the in the country, and just recently we've had this
Speaker 1: kind of influx of bears, so I've been running into
Speaker 1: bears fairly frequently. And and and the other night, my
Speaker 1: wife and I were walking and uh, and there was
Speaker 1: a bear looking right at us. And I was like,
Speaker 1: hey bear, Hello bear, Hello bear. And she's like, what
Speaker 1: are you doing? And I said, That's what I've I've
Speaker 1: always heard you're supposed to do. I don't know, So
Speaker 1: you tell me, is is that correct? Am I? Am?
Speaker 1: I a bear? Correctly?
Speaker 3: Yeah? You so?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 3: So what do you have black beds around you?
Speaker 1: Black bears? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Think with I think with with black beds made yourself. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know what do they say, brown, lie down, black,
Speaker 2: fight back. So if you do get you know, if
Speaker 2: you do get, you know, approached by black babes, make
Speaker 2: lots of noise, make itself big and scary, and generally
Speaker 2: they're they're back away.
Speaker 3: But like like humans.
Speaker 2: Nobody likes to be disturbed when they're eating, when their young,
Speaker 2: or fornicating, you know, those things back away. I'm surprised
Speaker 2: that yet I did. It's a good one. Brown, lie down, back,
Speaker 2: fight black, fight bag. My head is full of so
Speaker 2: many little phrases like this that Mike the Sharha who
Speaker 2: you it's all running away from the camera, says, your
Speaker 2: head's full of all this information that nobody's had this
Speaker 2: this's irrelevant, and I well, it's irrelevant unless your life
Speaker 2: is on the.
Speaker 3: Line, you know.
Speaker 1: There there you go. Let me ask Let me ask
Speaker 1: you about your I'm sure a lot of people ask
Speaker 1: your first name. Let me ask you about your second name.
Speaker 1: The the spelling of which is it's an unusual name.
Speaker 1: I've never I've never seen it before. Is it is
Speaker 1: it Welsh or or or Gaelic or what.
Speaker 2: Kind of way it's actually actually Scottish? Is my ancestry
Speaker 2: is in the Highlands Jesse. We only found out about recently.
Speaker 1: We did a did a.
Speaker 3: BBC show called who Do You Think You Are? Which
Speaker 3: is basically trace. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2: But it's funny because for years I've privately at home.
Speaker 2: I never do it public because my family give me
Speaker 2: too much greef. But I always wear a kilt at
Speaker 2: home and I love it. I just you know, run
Speaker 2: around here and you know, shirt off. I've got old
Speaker 2: canvas kilts and I love it. It just feels free
Speaker 2: and and but my family have given me grief for
Speaker 2: years and actually so to find that actually I've got
Speaker 2: this strong Scottish Highland live and also we met sharam
Speaker 2: Me met all those years ago in the mountains in Scotland,
Speaker 2: so it feels like full circle it.
Speaker 1: Do you have a Do you have a fondness for
Speaker 1: hagis or or or no?
Speaker 3: Well, actually I do. I love haggis.
Speaker 2: I mean haggis essentially is amazing. It's like all the
Speaker 2: awful and uh you know, from from the from the animals.
Speaker 2: So I'm I'm very into like liver and kidney and
Speaker 2: all that stuff. I think it's so so good for
Speaker 2: youidering a.
Speaker 1: Lot of the stuff that you've eaten in the wild,
Speaker 1: I'd say that's a step up for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a step up, and you can you can
Speaker 2: actually make haggards taste pretty good. I mean, the idea
Speaker 2: of it's not very nice because there's sort of stuffed
Speaker 2: to signed sheeps in it and stuff with all the
Speaker 2: lung and heart and all of that. But actually it's
Speaker 2: pretty tasty.
Speaker 1: Well, have you ever tasted scrapple?
Speaker 3: No, tell me about that.
Speaker 1: Scrapple is something that you really only have to be
Speaker 1: from Pennsylvania to know. I grew up in Philadelphia, and
Speaker 1: I think it was a an Amish dish and it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of similar to haggison that you don't really
Speaker 1: want to know what's in it. It's I think it's
Speaker 1: every single part of the pig or whatever you're not,
Speaker 1: whatever you're is left over once you've gotten the cuts
Speaker 1: off a pig, ground up and mixed with corn meal
Speaker 1: and then sliced and then fried in butter and served
Speaker 1: with apple butter. Yeah, like an apple kind of thing.
Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, I think you'd love it.
Speaker 2: But I think a lot of these things that are
Speaker 2: so delicious because you always had that frying them in
Speaker 2: butters always good. They cook it in blood a lot
Speaker 2: of the time, which which in terms of survival is
Speaker 2: a bad as nutrient dense as you're gonna get. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: And as you said, a lot worse things in the
Speaker 2: wild that I've had to eat haggis has or scrapple,
Speaker 2: scrumple would.
Speaker 3: Be would be dreamy.
Speaker 1: I'm not familiar with scrumple notter.
Speaker 3: What was your one called?
Speaker 1: Oh, scrapple, scrapple scrap I thought you were introducing me
Speaker 1: to a new one. Well, you know, I uh, I,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if this has ever come
Speaker 1: across your radar, but I have been asked a couple
Speaker 1: of times to do various you know shows with you,
Speaker 1: and it's never really worked out. It's it's always been, uh,
Speaker 1: just a schedule thing that's been following at a weird
Speaker 1: time or whatever, which is which is regrettable to me
Speaker 1: because I I I love what you do, and I
Speaker 1: love I mean, I love the stuff without the celebrities
Speaker 1: as well. But I mean, I think it's also you know,
Speaker 1: kind of interesting when you see people put into those situations.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I'm always really struck
Speaker 1: with is that for us, we live this life of
Speaker 1: pretending to be something that we're not a lot of times,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, that's that That's actually why
Speaker 1: I became an actor was because I was like, I
Speaker 1: didn't really want to be this kid all the time
Speaker 1: that who was me? I wanted to you know, be
Speaker 1: someone something else, experience something else, you know, have a
Speaker 1: have an adventure that was a pretend adventure, and that
Speaker 1: is a very different thing from having an adventure that
Speaker 1: isn't a real adventure, which is what what you have
Speaker 1: spent your life doing. And I'm just wondering what it
Speaker 1: is has that it's drawn you to that that's that's
Speaker 1: that's that's been the driving force all these years, pushing
Speaker 1: yourself farther and farther and farther.
Speaker 3: You're so sweet. First of all, you are an adventurer,
Speaker 3: you really are.
Speaker 2: You know, adventure is a state of mind, and look
Speaker 2: at how you've lived your life, and I think you'd
Speaker 2: be first of all, you'd may also make an amazing
Speaker 2: running wild guest. We've we've been wanted to shoot with
Speaker 2: you for ages because I think your story, your resonate
Speaker 2: is is powerful, you know, and how you started as
Speaker 2: a kid and all of that stuff, and you're upbringing
Speaker 2: and you're always honest, you know, whenever I see you interviewed,
Speaker 2: you're always heart on the sleeve, you know, and you
Speaker 2: don't do a lot of those sort of things. So
Speaker 2: you know, and we have met guess who are in
Speaker 2: your sort of ilk, you know, people who are quite
Speaker 2: private but have amazing stories and a raw talent and
Speaker 2: a big heart. And so yeah, I always think also
Speaker 2: the right time comes for these adventures.
Speaker 3: As you say, your schedule's be busy.
Speaker 2: I'm always trusting that the right time people comes and
Speaker 2: you never need to force any of that. But in
Speaker 2: terms of in terms of my stuff, I mean, unlike you,
Speaker 2: I didn't have very many talents growing up, you know.
Speaker 2: Mine was mine wasn't really considered a talent. I was
Speaker 2: just a kid that could climb up everything at school
Speaker 2: and wasn't particularly brilliant or sport or academic or anything.
Speaker 2: But I love the outdoors. It was a safe space
Speaker 2: for me, and I don't know. My dad was a
Speaker 2: former Romarine commando and I spent so much time with
Speaker 2: him as a kid just out doing stuff. Always we'd
Speaker 2: climb together a lot We're always making things and tinkering
Speaker 2: around and figuring things out. And I don't know he's
Speaker 2: no longer alive. He died far too young in my life.
Speaker 2: But I look back and as a dad now to
Speaker 2: three boys, you know, I kind of wish I've got
Speaker 2: a chance to say thank you to so much to him,
Speaker 2: because he really instilled in me at such a young
Speaker 2: age to go for things and to fail and fail lots,
Speaker 2: and be kind.
Speaker 3: And be a good friend of people. But you don't
Speaker 3: have to be a superstar at school.
Speaker 2: You know, You've got to have a resilient spirit and
Speaker 2: find something you love and however quirky it is. And
Speaker 2: in my world, my stuff was quite quirky. It was like,
Speaker 2: you know, nobody did adventure stuff or survival stuff. It
Speaker 2: was like, you know, unusual, But I loved that, and
Speaker 2: then I think it was a natural step to the military.
Speaker 2: I spent five years and with the militaryish I loved,
Speaker 2: and my job there became teaching a lot of the
Speaker 2: combat survival and I don't know if somebody could say
Speaker 2: you'd have a job that involved doing everything that I
Speaker 2: loved since I was a kid, and I've done through that.
Speaker 2: My army days. I was thought, wow, you know, that's
Speaker 2: all I've ever wanted. I really thought it would lead
Speaker 2: to a particularly brilliant career as such. And you know,
Speaker 2: but I've always tried like my dad, who say, as
Speaker 2: a kid, just follow what you love and be resilient,
Speaker 2: be the most enthusiastic and dogged person you know, and
Speaker 2: the rest will follow, you know. And I try and
Speaker 2: say the same to our boys nowadays. You know, it's
Speaker 2: like the middle one today going off to work in
Speaker 2: the butcher's getting up early, getting on time, he has
Speaker 2: his commuters, you know, twenty minutes of four six big waves.
Speaker 3: He arrived soaking wet, smile on his face, you know.
Speaker 3: And I couldn't be proud of that. I love it.
Speaker 2: And as you know, in your life, you've half of
Speaker 2: this showing up on time and being super enthusiastic and
Speaker 2: doing your best, as the Scouts say that, do your best,
Speaker 2: which is such a brilliant and powerful motto for young people.
Speaker 3: And having that resilient spirit.
Speaker 2: So not rocket science, you know, but that's been I
Speaker 2: suppose the background to my stuff.
Speaker 1: Now when you we mentioned mentioned your dad, and you
Speaker 1: mentioned the time that you spent, I'm often thinking about myself,
Speaker 1: my relationship to my parents and what I held on to.
Speaker 1: And I think I've been mostly in in my life
Speaker 1: as a parent, uh, thinking about the things that I
Speaker 1: wanted to do differently. Not that they were bad, they
Speaker 1: were great. I loved them. I think that was a
Speaker 1: fantastic family to grow up in. But there were things
Speaker 1: that you know, Uh, I think, especially with my dad,
Speaker 1: where we're kind of I wanted to do it differently
Speaker 1: in this generation. Do you ever are you one hundred
Speaker 1: percent like your dad was to you or are there
Speaker 1: any kind of differences that you've learned from from uh,
Speaker 1: from your time with him and that you that you
Speaker 1: pass on to the time with the boys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think and see, you know, family, family is
Speaker 2: always tricky, you know. And I always think families a
Speaker 2: bit like fudge, mostly sweet, but with a few nuts
Speaker 2: thrown in. And uh, you know, we we all have
Speaker 2: a few nuts and and and no parentsy journey is easy.
Speaker 2: And and you know, I look with my dad, he
Speaker 2: had a he had a much colder father.
Speaker 3: So my grandfather to hit, his father was much was much.
Speaker 2: More distant, and uh, and I think he was you know,
Speaker 2: he's just at that generation where they were never held
Speaker 2: or hugged or told that they loved them. And I
Speaker 2: think for my dad, he really wanted to do that differently,
Speaker 2: and he really did. And he really was that sort
Speaker 2: of cozy one who was always I mean, I remember
Speaker 2: so much as a kid, I got picked to be
Speaker 2: the linesman of the football team under eight.
Speaker 3: You know, I wasn't in the team.
Speaker 2: I was just my job was to bring on the
Speaker 2: oranges and uh and you know, and it was winter
Speaker 2: and no parents were really there. But the only dad
Speaker 2: on the touch line was my dad. It was like
Speaker 2: it was almost embarrassing. I was like, oh no, you know,
Speaker 2: it's like I haven't even got a role on this team.
Speaker 2: He's the one that's there and I carry on the
Speaker 2: oranges a halftime he'd be cheering me on, you know.
Speaker 2: So I look back and I think, even though he died,
Speaker 2: you know, far too young, I'm so grateful for that
Speaker 2: example and kindness and coziness and connection.
Speaker 1: That he gave me.
Speaker 2: And and you know, it's what I've always really tried
Speaker 2: to bring with with my family. I mean, I failed
Speaker 2: a lot. I think, you know, parenting is a humbling journey,
Speaker 2: isn't It's all of us, and we get so much
Speaker 2: of it wrong. And if you meet people who think
Speaker 2: they've got it all right that generally so far away
Speaker 2: from it.
Speaker 1: You make a very good point, which is that you know,
Speaker 1: I for for both my mom and my dad for
Speaker 1: a long time because my my parents were very old,
Speaker 1: well relatively old, when I was bored, because I was
Speaker 1: the youngest of six in my there was eighteen years
Speaker 1: between me and my eldest siblings, so they were really
Speaker 1: you know, I was in the mistake category. And you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't know my grandparents, so I didn't think much
Speaker 1: about my grandparents, and I never saw my parents' relationship
Speaker 1: to my grandparents had I had one grandmother that I
Speaker 1: sort of knew a little bit, and I think that
Speaker 1: in understanding my parents, and it took me. I had
Speaker 1: to stop and jump back one generation and try to
Speaker 1: really imagine what their lives were, and it gave me
Speaker 1: a lot of perspective I think on them, and that frankly,
Speaker 1: what I thought to myself was, well, they're doing a
Speaker 1: lot better than their parents doing so are doing so
Speaker 1: so you know, if you can, if you can just
Speaker 1: you know, try to take the lessons of history and
Speaker 1: just be a little bit better. Whatever it is, loving,
Speaker 1: or or understanding or or nurturing, then you're ahead of
Speaker 1: the game for sure.
Speaker 2: And how often hard that bringing lead to brilliant lives
Speaker 2: as well. There you look at you, you know, I
Speaker 2: mean you're saying, you're saying the last of the six
Speaker 2: and you know that mistake. I mean, out of out
Speaker 2: of those words come so many brilliant, genius, kind incredible
Speaker 2: human beings and h and I love that. I think
Speaker 2: your life is an example of that. And and and
Speaker 2: good for you. You know, I think I've never met
Speaker 2: a strong person who's had an easy pass and and
Speaker 2: you know, so those times, I think it's important not
Speaker 2: to sugarcoaches. And that's everything's great because actually those hard
Speaker 2: those hard times are what also make us and uh
Speaker 2: and yeah, good for you. And and also you're honesty.
Speaker 1: Hate so you know, you one of the youngest people
Speaker 1: to climb Everest and uh, I mean, and that's just
Speaker 1: that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of
Speaker 1: the kind of physical challenges that that you've had. It's
Speaker 1: it's mind blowing. And I mean, do you feel I
Speaker 1: know that this is it's it's kind of what you
Speaker 1: do now right, it's it's it's, it's it's it's it's
Speaker 1: part of your how you make a living. But I
Speaker 1: mean you feel a certain kind of pressure to keep
Speaker 1: upping the anti or or is that no longer really
Speaker 1: a focus? I mean, clearly you don't have to have
Speaker 1: much left to prove. I guess yeah.
Speaker 3: I say jams. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe, And I think we go through phases in our
Speaker 2: lives that we wear different things drive us. I think
Speaker 2: in the early years, I was really I really wanted
Speaker 2: to make my mark, you know, and I did. I
Speaker 2: was out to prove something. Probably, I mean I look
Speaker 2: back and I think probably was willing to risk it
Speaker 2: all for a mountain in a way I probably wouldn't
Speaker 2: be now, you know.
Speaker 3: And I hope.
Speaker 2: That's a positive progress, because you know, the journey of
Speaker 2: life is you don't ever have to prove through stuff
Speaker 2: is to anyone.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It's like life is a gift, isn't it.
Speaker 2: And it's about connections and friendships and living with that
Speaker 2: adventure spirit and all we do. And that covers so much,
Speaker 2: you know, work and relationships and how we.
Speaker 3: Tackle lives and our own goals and ambitions.
Speaker 2: And I hope. Now I do things much more from
Speaker 2: that drive. You know that I really love it. I
Speaker 2: mean it almost feels much more full circle now in
Speaker 2: the sense that as a kid I loved adventure, wasn't
Speaker 2: out to prove an apart from I just wanted to
Speaker 2: be close to my dad and be outside, And in
Speaker 2: a way I feel the same thing now. I love
Speaker 2: the crew we work with. I love having adventures with
Speaker 2: my family and great friends. You know, if I could
Speaker 2: do all of these things without the TV cameras, to
Speaker 2: be honest, that would be heaven for me. I mean
Speaker 2: that the TV and the filming side of it is
Speaker 2: what I struggle most with, and it's a It's like
Speaker 2: a running joke with our crew. It's like the reason
Speaker 2: all of your shows work bears what they say, and
Speaker 2: the reason they're called running everything, running wild, right, is
Speaker 2: that you're always running away from and there is an
Speaker 2: element to that. Really, I'm much more of an introverted person.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't like the cameras. I really don't.
Speaker 2: I love the adventure and I love the guys we
Speaker 2: do it with, and we go and have these incredible
Speaker 2: intense sort of you know, life on the line moments
Speaker 2: and I love that.
Speaker 3: But I struggle with the filming side of it. And
Speaker 3: it's just always been like that.
Speaker 2: And I've learned now not to not to sort of
Speaker 2: not to apologize for that, because in a way, that
Speaker 2: tension has been what's made it work. You know, we
Speaker 2: never do second take of anything. It never feels like
Speaker 2: we're trying to create anything. It's like all like, does
Speaker 2: not turn the camera and follow and then see where
Speaker 2: it leads?
Speaker 1: No, it does not. And that's that's part of why
Speaker 1: it's it's it's so infectious. And and also I think
Speaker 1: that whether you like it or not, I mean, you
Speaker 1: just some do have you know, you have a quality
Speaker 1: that the camera really really likes. You may not want
Speaker 1: to be in front of it, but there's a there's
Speaker 1: a that there's something that's that's almost intangible, uh there,
Speaker 1: it's something that you know, we I think I think
Speaker 1: you can get better at I mean, I feel like
Speaker 1: if you know, on my side of things, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't I don't know that I really
Speaker 1: understood the camera when I was first in front of
Speaker 1: it because I was a theater guy, you know. But
Speaker 1: but I do think that you can get better at it.
Speaker 1: But but I think that there has to be something
Speaker 1: that the camera a person, that this camera kind of
Speaker 1: sees past the naked eye and sees an inherent positive
Speaker 1: energy or or whatever the energy happens to be, which
Speaker 1: it really does with you.
Speaker 3: It's funny. Though you're very kind. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I think by the way, I think, I think, I
Speaker 1: think a lot about the crew though, you know, being
Speaker 1: a filmmaker, you know you you can't help, but think,
Speaker 1: I mean, they're right along there with you. I mean
Speaker 1: you must have have you been working with them for
Speaker 1: a long time, yeah, forever?
Speaker 2: And that the better, bigger, stronger, nice Really, I mean
Speaker 2: they are that they are the through unsung heroes in
Speaker 2: my life. You know, we've been together from day one.
Speaker 2: A lot of them were ex military guys that I
Speaker 2: bought on right at the beginning, and I knew that
Speaker 2: if we're going to do this journey, I really it's
Speaker 2: not that I want these guys beside me.
Speaker 3: It's like I need these guys beside me.
Speaker 2: And there have been such a rock and a strength
Speaker 2: and a support and friend to me through so much.
Speaker 2: And and also that yeah, they are incredible in their
Speaker 2: own right.
Speaker 3: They really are they carry so much gear? They do
Speaker 3: everything I do.
Speaker 1: I'm sure changes, you know, according to the situation, but
Speaker 1: like how big a crew is it and what I'm
Speaker 1: curious about the I mean it's I mean, I know
Speaker 1: sometimes you have a you use a go pro right
Speaker 1: sometimes that you have, but then.
Speaker 2: Go pros definitely changed our filming life because the early
Speaker 2: day is a man versus while if we wanted, like
Speaker 2: you know, it's drones as well. It's the other thing
Speaker 2: has changed our life. I mean beforehand, when we're in
Speaker 2: a jungle, it'd be like would be let loose, like
Speaker 2: three of us, four of us and uh, and then
Speaker 2: they'd go, we just make sure one thirty today and
Speaker 2: and you know six am tomorrow you're at this lat
Speaker 2: long clearing is we're going to do a pass at
Speaker 2: a helicopter and we want to pick you up as
Speaker 2: you're moving.
Speaker 3: And it was like, you know, super difficult.
Speaker 2: Sure, But now now with drones and go pros, it's
Speaker 2: made our life ever easier. I mean, it's allowed us
Speaker 2: to push the boundaries and what we do. But with
Speaker 2: Running Wild, the team hasn't grown much.
Speaker 3: I mean there's.
Speaker 2: Probably two carramings or seven two cameras to sound, and
Speaker 2: then we have a we have a like a safety
Speaker 2: guy who's one of our who's one of my guys
Speaker 2: really who will be alongside each of them. So that's
Speaker 2: like six or seven eight maybe, But we never have
Speaker 2: a director, you know, we have we really don't we
Speaker 2: We kind of we have people call themselves producers. Were
Speaker 2: really there one of us. We're all in the same game.
Speaker 2: We're all we're all doing the same to helping each other.
Speaker 2: They're carrying kids as much as anyone, you know.
Speaker 3: They they help interview the guests quite a lot. They
Speaker 3: do help with that.
Speaker 2: But you know, we really keep it fluid and loose
Speaker 2: and fun and light, and I think the energy comes
Speaker 2: from that, and the guests often say, wow, we really
Speaker 2: kind of I thought it'd be like this, but I
Speaker 2: wondered would there be some craft services behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: We have some you know, much more of a plan
Speaker 2: and much more of an idea for what we're doing
Speaker 2: in like thirty people moving and it's like it really
Speaker 2: is a coil of rope and a small gang and
Speaker 2: off we go and figuring it out on the move.
Speaker 1: I don't need to ask about the thread count in
Speaker 1: the on the on the in the bed in the hotel.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I mean we try and look after people
Speaker 2: before and after, but for the forty eight hours you're out,
Speaker 2: it's but you know, what's the experience, isn't it? And
Speaker 2: I think for people like you, you know, you're you're
Speaker 2: your top of your game, your your your top of
Speaker 2: that tree. And you don't need none of our Running
Speaker 2: World guests need the money or the fame. They don't
Speaker 2: need that. They want something else. They want the the
Speaker 2: experience and insight into kind of some of the skills,
Speaker 2: into the wild places, and and that dynamic with the crew,
Speaker 2: and and it creates often really lovely friendships, and I
Speaker 2: love that. I think it's very bonding. When you go
Speaker 2: through intense experiences, you know where your life is on
Speaker 2: the line, and you have to.
Speaker 3: Trust each other. And I love that.
Speaker 2: I never take that for granted. But in terms of
Speaker 2: the crew, yeah, you are right. They are the remarkable heroes.
Speaker 2: And I love hearing them get the right deserved accolade.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I can't imagine. I can't imagine being on
Speaker 1: their crew. And and you know when we when you
Speaker 1: when we hang up today, you're not gonna shoot something today.
Speaker 1: I don't think you're at home. What do you do?
Speaker 1: What's what's your what's your what's your what's your day
Speaker 1: off look like?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's always quite physical on the island
Speaker 2: because you know, just getting supplies is hard work. You know,
Speaker 2: it's as I say, it's you know, it's two miles
Speaker 2: just to the mainland and there's quad bikes and there.
Speaker 2: You know, if it's low tide, that's a mile then
Speaker 2: up the low tide beast to get to the frack
Speaker 2: to then leads you to the village. And you know, say,
Speaker 2: everybody's quite physical already.
Speaker 3: But I don't know.
Speaker 2: I like to I like to train in the morning
Speaker 2: and nothing crazy. I like to be outside but for
Speaker 2: half an hour and I do a mixer stretching and
Speaker 2: I have my pill up bar and you know, the
Speaker 2: dogs chase me around and I do work out and
Speaker 2: then I run down. I dive in the sea every
Speaker 2: day and then you know, then it's kind of just life.
Speaker 2: I mean with I do. I don't do very much
Speaker 2: press stuff. I actually don't do many of these sort
Speaker 2: of things. I definitely I'm not a sort of I
Speaker 2: don't And there's no filming when we're not filming.
Speaker 3: You know, that definitely is a no note for me.
Speaker 3: But you're just normal life as a.
Speaker 2: Family and bringing up teenagers and you know, definitely not
Speaker 2: a there's no heroics at home.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've low down the pecking order.
Speaker 2: You know, You've got the dogs and chickens, the cat.
Speaker 2: So yeah, definitely very pretty regular life, apart from the
Speaker 2: place we live, which is maybe a little bit more irregular.
Speaker 2: And I try and do our filming in term times,
Speaker 2: so when the boys are at school, I'm away and
Speaker 2: I try and pack it in. You know, we'll go
Speaker 2: for ten days and we'll do a couple of episodes
Speaker 2: back to back, and there's quite a lot of travel
Speaker 2: often involved with that. But you know, we're pretty efficient
Speaker 2: now and I've learned to One of the reasons I
Speaker 2: fought hard in the early days to be able to
Speaker 2: make our own shows and produce our own shows was
Speaker 2: as much about just being able to schedule things when
Speaker 2: we wanted them, you know, with the crew we wanted, sure,
Speaker 2: and that's made a big difference because you know, otherwise wins,
Speaker 2: but your family doesn't always win, and at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, that's not a win. So I sort
Speaker 2: of learned early on just keep try, try with all
Speaker 2: your heart to keep family first, to work second. And
Speaker 2: I know, I know, we all know that, but it's
Speaker 2: sometimes hard to do that.
Speaker 1: And sure it is, Sure it is and actually is.
Speaker 2: And I've failed a bit along the way, you know,
Speaker 2: when they were younger. I think that's probably a way
Speaker 2: too much, you know. But now I'm really proud that
Speaker 2: I am there, and I am sort of there for
Speaker 2: the important stuff, and all of us could be five
Speaker 2: percent more successful, ten percent more successful, but I really
Speaker 2: try consciously it see that family stuff first, and I
Speaker 2: think if that's happy, then other stuff follows, doesn't It
Speaker 2: sure does.
Speaker 4: If you are inspired by today's episode, please join us
Speaker 4: in supporting six degrees dot org by texting the word
Speaker 4: Bacon to seven zero seven zero seven zero. Your gift
Speaker 4: empowers us to continue to produce programs highlight the incredible
Speaker 4: work of everyday heroes, well also enabling us to provide
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Speaker 1: I think we should bring Paul and Paul Gurney from
Speaker 1: becoming X would you like to join us. Hey, Kevin,
Speaker 1: I'm great. I'm great. How are you doing? Whereabouts are you? Paulman?
Speaker 5: Doing really well? Yes, I'm in I'm in London. I
Speaker 5: can see from bears weather. We're sharing the gray Skies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, doing well? Now, how did you guys meet?
Speaker 5: So actually met Bear through a filming opportunity. We brought
Speaker 5: Bet in to do one of the very first films
Speaker 5: that we did as Becoming X. So Bear and I
Speaker 5: have since set up the organization called Becoming X. But
Speaker 5: it's all about helping people realize their potential. So it's
Speaker 5: about giving people those really important skills and opportunities to
Speaker 5: go out and succeed in life. We've already done a
Speaker 5: couple of pilots and Bear luckily was one of the
Speaker 5: very first people we interviewed. And it's all about sharing
Speaker 5: the real insights of how people got to where they
Speaker 5: got to, the real story behind the celebrity and success.
Speaker 5: And you know, Bear being the star that the years
Speaker 5: saw the vision of what we want to do. We
Speaker 5: set up together and that's the that's the big game.
Speaker 5: How can we really help people succeed and how can
Speaker 5: we help them thrive in life?
Speaker 1: And you yourself was a bit of an adventurer. I think,
Speaker 1: is that correct.
Speaker 5: Well, I've rewind ten years, yes, and that was really
Speaker 5: part of the genesis of becoming X. You know, yeah,
Speaker 5: I've got to do some fun stuff over the years.
Speaker 5: I've raised from land to the North Pole, sort of
Speaker 5: five hundred miles across the frozen Arctic minus fifty degrees,
Speaker 5: done the marathon discables. So six marathons and six days
Speaker 5: through the Sahara climbs of the highest mountains in the world.
Speaker 1: Hang On, hang on, hang on. The marathon is a
Speaker 1: it's six marathons in six days.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's called the dis It's picture You're.
Speaker 1: A running marathon. I just want to clarify what we're
Speaker 1: talking about here.
Speaker 3: It's a running marathon.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 5: So it's I mean the story behind this and this
Speaker 5: leads into Bigcami X. I mean I was at a
Speaker 5: time in my life where I wanted to really push
Speaker 5: the boundaries of what was possible and really try to understand,
Speaker 5: you know, what are our limits? What can we achieve
Speaker 5: as individuals? And I've already done some adventures, We've done
Speaker 5: some stuff. I was just curious, you know, what are
Speaker 5: my own boundaries and I found myself signing up to
Speaker 5: do the world's toughest race, this race from land to
Speaker 5: the North Pole, and it was in doing that and
Speaker 5: everyone said to me, you know, poor, you get a die.
Speaker 5: You know, you're not you're not a in order of adventure.
Speaker 5: You don't have a minute.
Speaker 1: That's a running that's a running race, or so well,
Speaker 1: what what runs snowshoe?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you'd be doing well to run. I mean, you've
Speaker 5: got eighty kilograms of gear behind you, You've got big
Speaker 5: snow boots on, so you're basically going as fast as
Speaker 5: you can, trying not to fall through the ice, trying
Speaker 5: not to get hypothermia, frostbite, attacked by a polar bear.
Speaker 5: So you've got all You've got all that. But I'd
Speaker 5: signed up to this race and it was a two year
Speaker 5: journey to get.
Speaker 1: By the way Berry, you didn't mention, you didn't. You
Speaker 1: told me, uh, black fight back round, lie down, but
Speaker 1: you didn't mention white bear as well.
Speaker 3: Keep away from them. Yeah, unbelievable, you know, yeah, the
Speaker 3: bear be castles.
Speaker 5: That's exactly right. You you know, they're they're beautiful, incredible animals,
Speaker 5: but you know they can run as fast as horses.
Speaker 5: Over a very short distance. They can smell you from
Speaker 5: miles away. They're enormous, you know, hundreds and hundreds of kilograms,
Speaker 5: and yeah, pretty scary. But Kevin, I'd signed up to this.
Speaker 5: Everyone said to me, you know, Paul, you're gonna die
Speaker 5: because you don't have for these skills. And ironically, and
Speaker 5: Bear I'll probably never told you this. Ironically, you've got
Speaker 5: to be like Bear Grills or Serunal Fines or someone
Speaker 5: with real experience at this. And I was like, well,
Speaker 5: I'm just prepared to learn, and I'm prepared to do
Speaker 5: what I can. Because I was telling people I'm doing
Speaker 5: the world's toughest race. Someone said to me, you know, oh,
Speaker 5: so you're doing the marathon day sup. I was like, no,
Speaker 5: I'm doing this race to the North Pole. And I'd
Speaker 5: heard of the marathon diss up as I said, it's
Speaker 5: six mouths and six days through the Sahara Desert, extraordinary heat,
Speaker 5: soft sand, very tough race. And I go on the
Speaker 5: website and lo and behold it's also described as the
Speaker 5: world's toughest race. So I thought, well, hang on, you
Speaker 5: can't have two world's toughest races. Let's try and which
Speaker 5: one's harder and suddenly found myself doing, you know, two
Speaker 5: of the toughest races on Earth in the same year,
Speaker 5: and realizing actually that literally only a handful of people
Speaker 5: had ever done these two and suddenly here's a guy
Speaker 5: with next to no background in this stuff trying to
Speaker 5: do these two adventures. So it was really through that
Speaker 5: that I learned what it actually takes to do to
Speaker 5: do really difficult things, which is what kind of led
Speaker 5: me to do becoming X. How can we equip other
Speaker 5: people to help them know that it's not about what
Speaker 5: you know, It's really about the attitudes that you bring,
Speaker 5: the effort that you're prepared to put into it, the determination,
Speaker 5: the resilience, the relationships you build along the way, because
Speaker 5: those are things that help people succeed, and sadly, we
Speaker 5: don't see young people learning those things. So that's why
Speaker 5: we said I'm becoming.
Speaker 1: X correctly from go ahead, go ahead, Bert, please no.
Speaker 2: I gotta say Paul I always recognized as a great
Speaker 2: adventure spirit, you know when we say adventures a state
Speaker 2: of mind. That the minute I'm met him and heard
Speaker 2: some of his staff. Also, you've got to remember his
Speaker 2: he was a corporate guy. He was just working. Where
Speaker 2: are we at the time? Were your centur at the time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, fifteen years Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, and he was sort of taking all of
Speaker 2: his banking up all this holiday to go and do
Speaker 2: these epic races, almost dying and he's coming back sort
Speaker 2: of covered and just blistered some blood and like you know,
Speaker 2: you were.
Speaker 3: You were raw grit that got you through those things.
Speaker 2: And I think as soon as we met, I thought,
Speaker 2: here's somebody's definitely got something different. But also, bubb all, Paul,
Speaker 2: you had a heart for sharing some of it, sharing
Speaker 2: some of the stuff that actually what can help people
Speaker 2: get ahead. And you know, when you don't pay a
Speaker 2: lip service when you say you wanted to find out
Speaker 2: what the boundaries.
Speaker 3: Were, you really lived that.
Speaker 2: And I think what's become so powerful now with what
Speaker 2: you've done is say, hold on, let's let's actually get
Speaker 2: under the skin with success some of these people. We've
Speaker 2: made films with that. So often you just hear the headlines,
Speaker 2: don't you that somebody has won an Oscar or you know,
Speaker 2: been chosen by NASA as an astronaut, or become the
Speaker 2: Nobel Prize winner. But on the back of that, and
Speaker 2: your life is a testament that my life's a testament to.
Speaker 2: This is an awful lot of failure. You know, we
Speaker 2: fail so many times, and it's those stories that actually
Speaker 2: are the interesting ones. And I think so many the
Speaker 2: kids at school never get to realize how important failure is,
Speaker 2: how important it is, how relatable it is when you
Speaker 2: see these people that you know, Kevin, you've experienced some
Speaker 2: of this as well. You know there where we build
Speaker 2: our muscle, aren't they. So that was a vision of
Speaker 2: becoming X and pulling me coming together, say let's actually
Speaker 2: try and articulate some of your journey, some of my journey,
Speaker 2: and actually make it tangible for people, you know, every day,
Speaker 2: people in schools growing up. The stuff they don't teach
Speaker 2: you in school, you know, the way from the academics
Speaker 2: actually one of the life skills that can really give
Speaker 2: people an edge and demystify this whole thing of what
Speaker 2: it takes.
Speaker 3: To succeed and all.
Speaker 2: You've been so brilliant, you know, for me, it's so
Speaker 2: nice having you on this and being able to actually
Speaker 2: say publicly what a brilliant guy you have been, how
Speaker 2: resilient and positive and worked your way through so many challenges,
Speaker 2: setting up becoming X and the foundation through all this
Speaker 2: COVID time and you've come out of it shining and
Speaker 2: that it's doing so well, and that's down to all resilience,
Speaker 2: and I admire that so much.
Speaker 1: By the way, thanks you for pointing that out. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's really you know that that's kind of the essence
Speaker 1: of this of this podcast is we we we frame
Speaker 1: it as as as an opportunity to talk to famous people,
Speaker 1: but it really is about those people highlighting and giving
Speaker 1: a voice to the people who are running these foundations
Speaker 1: and are doing the great work on the ground. So
Speaker 1: bye bye bye. By saying what you said, that's exactly
Speaker 1: kind of the essence of what we're trying to highlight
Speaker 1: here in this this podcast. You know, you said something interesting.
Speaker 1: I wonder if part of Becoming X is trying to
Speaker 1: define for people exactly what success is. Because when you
Speaker 1: look at what you guys have done, or what some
Speaker 1: of the you know, some of the people that have
Speaker 1: been interviewed for becoming ACCEPT done, this is like the
Speaker 1: very very cinnical the top of the literally on the
Speaker 1: top of the mountain them Bear's case, or you know,
Speaker 1: you know, finishing six marathons in it a row. These
Speaker 1: are to a lot of people completely unsurmountable goals and
Speaker 1: you kind of think to yourself, well, if I can't
Speaker 1: do that, then I'm not going to be success. So
Speaker 1: can you speak a little bit to what you know?
Speaker 1: How how what the messages in terms of how one
Speaker 1: defines success for oneself. Yeah?
Speaker 5: Absolutely. And to set the context of this, you know,
Speaker 5: we didn't want this to be about our opinion of
Speaker 5: what it really says. He wanted this to be evidence based.
Speaker 5: It show as many stories as we could. So we've
Speaker 5: gone out now in films about sixty of the world's
Speaker 5: highest performers. You have had presidents and Peace Prize winners,
Speaker 5: the ten Olympic gold medalists, Oscar winners, but also a
Speaker 5: whole lot of people from really tough backgrounds who are
Speaker 5: not famous but have gone through everything from homelessness, being
Speaker 5: in prison and gone out and done amazing things. So
Speaker 5: our idea of success, you know, so often into society
Speaker 5: is defined by the job title, how much money you've got,
Speaker 5: you know, what car you drive, And for us, that
Speaker 5: is not what success is about. Successes book is about
Speaker 5: waking up in the morning being proud of what you do.
Speaker 5: You know, being able to look after your family, being
Speaker 5: able to support in your community, and having that sense
Speaker 5: that you're doing something that's fulfilling. So we want to
Speaker 5: tell kids that, you know, this is not about how
Speaker 5: many likes you get on social media. It's about the
Speaker 5: impact you can have in the world and doing stuff
Speaker 5: that challenges you so that you're always learning. So, actually,
Speaker 5: all the work that we've done and all of these
Speaker 5: interviews and people want to see them actually on our
Speaker 5: website becoming x dot com, all available, made available for free.
Speaker 5: You know you'll hear what it takes to succeed. And
Speaker 5: we took about four things when we talk about the skills,
Speaker 5: the knowledge, the attitudes and relationships that you need to
Speaker 5: thrive in life. And you know, we've done all of
Speaker 5: this work and we've looked at all of the other
Speaker 5: bits of research out there, and it's so obvious to
Speaker 5: us that education has just got a change at the
Speaker 5: moment it doesn't work and help young people. And the
Speaker 5: truth is it's not really changed much in the last
Speaker 5: hundred years, and we're still focused on teaching particularly young
Speaker 5: people knowledge. You know, what can you know about a subject,
Speaker 5: what can you recall in a two week exam period.
Speaker 5: Now we're living at a time when we've all got
Speaker 5: mobile phones, we've all got you know now AI and
Speaker 5: chat GPT. The things that will help young people is
Speaker 5: actually the skills they have. It's the attitudes they bring,
Speaker 5: the ambition, the determination, the resilience and the relationships that
Speaker 5: they can bring. Those are the things that help them.
Speaker 5: There's no lessons on that kids aren't learning that they'll
Speaker 5: go through, you know, thirteen sixteen years of education and
Speaker 5: not be taught how to do with failure. They not
Speaker 5: be taught how to continually work on something, and they'll
Speaker 5: not be taught how to work well in their team.
Speaker 5: So that's what we really want to do. How can
Speaker 5: we help people learn those critical things that will help
Speaker 5: them get ahead of the life.
Speaker 1: I would think also it's also you know, at least
Speaker 1: not that everybody has to know it right out of
Speaker 1: the gate, but choosing something that you have a you
Speaker 1: have a skill for choosing something that you care about
Speaker 1: and something that I mean, I don't know that all
Speaker 1: of us are going to have a job that there
Speaker 1: we're going to love as much as I love my job,
Speaker 1: for instance, I mean I love my job, you know,
Speaker 1: but I do think that you can even if you
Speaker 1: don't love your job, you can still find other things
Speaker 1: that give you pleasure. As we were talking about before
Speaker 1: Bear outside of your actual work. You know, things that
Speaker 1: like whatever it happens to be family or I don't know,
Speaker 1: cooking or the yoga or sports or you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a million, a million things. So I
Speaker 1: think that this these kinds of leffons. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know for myself, I come up through the public school
Speaker 1: system in Philadelphia. I think the teachers are absolute hero
Speaker 1: was uh for for what for what teachers have to
Speaker 1: do and go through every day? Uh you know, it's it.
Speaker 1: They it for very very little money and very very
Speaker 1: little uh praise, and uh you know there's it's a
Speaker 1: really really hard gig. And I admire what they do.
Speaker 1: But in terms of like, yeah, I mean in terms
Speaker 1: of like the curriculum though, you know, it was mostly
Speaker 1: kind of knowledge based. I had a couple of teachers
Speaker 1: that were very very inspirational and had made me think
Speaker 1: about things that I hadn't really thought about in a
Speaker 1: different kind of way. But there was a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff that was you know, sort of dry and and
Speaker 1: I wasn't a good student. I mean, I I don't
Speaker 1: read very well and I can't add, and you know,
Speaker 1: so it was school was something that I looked at
Speaker 1: as a place to leave.
Speaker 2: Well said, what set what set you on that part then?
Speaker 2: And where did you find this the courage to think, actually,
Speaker 2: this is what I love and I'm good, I'm actually
Speaker 2: going to try and.
Speaker 3: Do this as a child.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I just I never had a plan.
Speaker 1: B I knew I wanted to be an actor, but really,
Speaker 1: to tell you the truth, before I wanted to be
Speaker 1: an actor. I wanted to be famous and wealthy and
Speaker 1: get girls. But but it was acting that sort of
Speaker 1: I thought would I took a class and I kind
Speaker 1: of fell in love with it. But I was probably
Speaker 1: about twelve, and then I knew I would just count
Speaker 1: the days until high school was over. And then I
Speaker 1: was out left home in seventeen, and you know, I
Speaker 1: was ready to go. But you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: that necessarily everybody has that kind of clarity. So is
Speaker 1: part of the program to you know, kind of give
Speaker 1: people the skills to figure out what it is that
Speaker 1: they might want to do with their lives.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was so I see, Yeah, sorry, no, it's
Speaker 2: just going to say, I think you know, you're right.
Speaker 2: Everybody might have that clarity. But I think you can
Speaker 2: empower kids to have the aspiration to not to settle,
Speaker 2: then to actually find something that they really love, you know,
Speaker 2: and we might not always hit that, but I think
Speaker 2: giving kids permission to like teach them how do you
Speaker 2: build dreaps?
Speaker 3: How do you set goals? How do you how do
Speaker 3: you explore what you love?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: These are such key conversations. I mean, one percent of people,
Speaker 2: like you might have that clear goal. Most people you've
Speaker 2: got You've got to be freed up, haven't you to
Speaker 2: kind of try different things and to fail? And you know,
Speaker 2: how can you do that without the failing?
Speaker 3: And I think sort of.
Speaker 2: Kids get pushed into what they should be doing or
Speaker 2: their parents want them to do, and is so empowering
Speaker 2: when young people can be told, actually the teachers now
Speaker 2: saying to me, what do I what would you?
Speaker 3: What really excites you?
Speaker 2: You know, maybe there is a career in that or
Speaker 2: maybe you know, and it's that free thinking that it's
Speaker 2: never really articulated for young people.
Speaker 3: But I do think you're right.
Speaker 2: Also, the teachers are such heroes and it isn't in
Speaker 2: a way the teacher's job, because they're battling. They're in
Speaker 2: a job, they're badling. You know, they're doing their best
Speaker 2: to serve their community, serve their class, earn a living,
Speaker 2: do their best, make a difference, and as you say,
Speaker 2: aren't always paid brilliantly and they're always often on the
Speaker 2: back foot and therefore becoming exit. The vision was try
Speaker 2: and step into that gap a little bit and resource
Speaker 2: teachers to be able to be that person and then
Speaker 2: be that inspiration to young kids to help fire a
Speaker 2: whole load of Kevin Bacon's out there in the world
Speaker 2: to find what.
Speaker 1: They tell me what does on a on a on
Speaker 1: a just a basic function of function function or basis
Speaker 1: what what what does becoming action do? And and and
Speaker 1: and and and also tell me how people can get
Speaker 1: involved and help and learn about it, et cetera.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, so a few different things. So, first, we
Speaker 5: have a platform, an education platform for schools and for
Speaker 5: parents that allows them to essentially teach this stuff kind
Speaker 5: of ready to go lessons that they can deliver in school.
Speaker 5: So we want to teach your kids how to work
Speaker 5: well as a team. You've got a plug and play lesson.
Speaker 5: You know, Bear introduces them all. We have insights from
Speaker 5: different people, you know, so if it's a lesson, if
Speaker 5: you want to do a lesson with your kid on
Speaker 5: you know, discipline, well hey you've got Bear introducing it.
Speaker 5: You might have some insights from Rodern Federer, right, You'll
Speaker 5: get that kind of that kind of insights from people.
Speaker 5: But it's also backed by real evidence, so really really
Speaker 5: high quality teaching content. So that's kind of the education side.
Speaker 5: We also do a lot of work with companies as well,
Speaker 5: supporting the kind of building the next generation of leaders
Speaker 5: who are inspired to build great teams.
Speaker 3: To have an impact on what they do.
Speaker 5: And thirdly, we know we're also really proud of the
Speaker 5: social impact work we do. You know, Bear has been
Speaker 5: out to Kiev recently to meet President Zelenski. We've just
Speaker 5: built an amazing platform for you Ukrainians. So we're trying
Speaker 5: to support the seven million Ukrainian refugees at the moment,
Speaker 5: but also really excited to build another platform for refugees
Speaker 5: in the UK. So we're really just looking at all
Speaker 5: these different groups to say, how can we equip them,
Speaker 5: how can we give them the opportunity, how can we
Speaker 5: give them the skills. So really that's our big goal,
Speaker 5: you know, different audiences and different ways to get involved.
Speaker 1: Amazing. That sounds amazing, and how can people help and
Speaker 1: how can people learn about it? This is the this
Speaker 1: is the moment for the card that action.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I think listen a few things. I think
Speaker 5: if you're in education becoming x dot com slash education,
Speaker 5: you know, there's a way that immediately your school can
Speaker 5: start teaching this, or if your school, if this isn't
Speaker 5: on the agenda for the school at all, you can
Speaker 5: do this as a parent. I think if you're a
Speaker 5: big you know, international film star Kevin and you want
Speaker 5: to do a film with us, you know, always great.
Speaker 5: We want to have people tell their real story. I
Speaker 5: mean that's been one of the great privileges of this
Speaker 5: is having so many inspiring people join us and tell
Speaker 5: a story that other people don't know. They were so
Speaker 5: empowering for young people in particular to hear the you know,
Speaker 5: the stars they see on TV. They weren't born talented.
Speaker 5: You know, these are people that had to work in it,
Speaker 5: that have failed, that have just invested so much time.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you guys, Bear Grills, Paul Gurney Becoming X.
Speaker 1: It's been so fun talking to you Bear from an island,
Speaker 1: Paul from your very cozy office, temperature controlled. It's been
Speaker 1: great meeting both of you. I'm super impressed with everything
Speaker 1: that you're doing. And you know, keep up the great work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, then you're you're a star. Thank you for having
Speaker 2: a son. And yeah, likewise, back at you. Keep up
Speaker 2: making a difference and we'll get it together.
Speaker 3: For running wild one time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Would love to keep the Lincoln.
Speaker 1: I would love to Yeah, sure, for sure.
Speaker 3: Thank you, God blessed. Thank you guys.
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks for listening to another episode of Six
Speaker 1: Degrees with Kevin Bacon. If you want to learn more
Speaker 1: about Becoming X Foundation, head to their website at Becoming
Speaker 1: Exfoundation dot org. You can find all the links in
Speaker 1: our show notes. You never know who you're gonna get here,
Speaker 1: so make sure you subscribe to the show and tune
Speaker 1: into the rest of our episodes. You can find Six
Speaker 1: Degrees with Kevin Bacon on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. We'll see you next time.