Speaker 1: It's time for sauce on the side. This could get weird,
Speaker 1: and it is gonna get weird, maybe not super weird.
Speaker 1: But hello, I'm gandhi, co host of the Elvis Aram
Speaker 1: Morning Show. We are on Z one hundred here in
Speaker 1: New York City and we're syndicated on like eighty ish
Speaker 1: stations across the country. But I've been working on this
Speaker 1: podcast in my head only for like five years, gone
Speaker 1: through a bunch of different versions of it, different co hosts,
Speaker 1: different ideas, and finally settled on just doing it by
Speaker 1: myself with my producer Andrew, who is sitting here silently.
Speaker 2: Hi, guys, there we go, I could speak yay.
Speaker 1: So what we're gonna do is pretty much just talk
Speaker 1: about the stuff that I want to talk about that
Speaker 1: we don't talk about much on the big show, like
Speaker 1: science and nature and OnlyFans, content, creators, comedians, all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff. Who else have we had in here?
Speaker 2: We've got some good guests lined up for you, guys.
Speaker 2: I don't want to tease too much. Death Lady Yes,
Speaker 2: oh my god, my favorite. But I've just loved working
Speaker 2: with you and I can't wait for you guys to
Speaker 2: like see all this behind the scenes stuff that's going
Speaker 2: on finally come to life because Gandhi has put in
Speaker 2: the work into this podcast. You guys, get ready make
Speaker 2: sure you're liked and subscribed because this is going to
Speaker 2: be a ride for you guys.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, they're such a good hype man.
Speaker 2: Shoot thinks, where's this?
Speaker 1: The rest of the time, you know, I.
Speaker 2: Do it subtly.
Speaker 1: Andrew's fairly evil. I want you to know something about him. Okay,
Speaker 1: he wants me to do a burn book. Go ahead
Speaker 1: and explain your burn books.
Speaker 2: So you have the most savage takedowns. I feel like
Speaker 2: you can or is it destroy somebody? I feel with
Speaker 2: your words. So I think a fun segment would be
Speaker 2: Gandhi's burn book where you just take people down, tape
Speaker 2: their picture in the book, and close it and we
Speaker 2: move on.
Speaker 1: Okay, I already have like plenty of ideas. I also
Speaker 1: think there's potential to maybe get me canceled, because you know,
Speaker 1: everybody's like all sensitive and you never know why that
Speaker 1: person acted that way on that day.
Speaker 2: Canceled, shmanceled. I think you're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: He's a menace, by the way, Please know that behind
Speaker 1: the scenes on TV shows, on radio shows, wherever it is,
Speaker 1: it's the producer that are up to all the bullshit
Speaker 1: and all the nonsense. So if anything terrible happens on
Speaker 1: this show, it was Andrew's fault. But first, I want
Speaker 1: to get to my first guest on my first podcast,
Speaker 1: because I'm so excited. It is right up my alley,
Speaker 1: Bertie Gregory. Let's give it up. Yay, it's just me, Hi, Bertie,
Speaker 1: how are you.
Speaker 3: I'm very good. Thanks, thanks for having me, Thank you.
Speaker 1: For coming, because I'm about to harass you in a
Speaker 1: good way, I promise.
Speaker 3: Okay, there's a good way. Okay, good, good way. I
Speaker 3: look forward to being harassed in a good way.
Speaker 1: So, if you don't know Bertie Gregory, he is. How
Speaker 1: would we say? You are a wildlife photographer, documentarian of
Speaker 1: all of the things that I would love to be.
Speaker 1: How do you describe yourself?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess I hang out with animals for a living,
Speaker 3: wild animals for a living, and uh yeah, fortunate enough
Speaker 3: to make make wildlife films.
Speaker 1: Yeah, genuinely my dream. I have a dream of doing
Speaker 1: a podcast called Can I Touch It? Where, yeah, people
Speaker 1: will get interested by the name, but then it will
Speaker 1: just be a series of me trying to touch different
Speaker 1: animals and seeing if indeed they attack me. You can
Speaker 1: have that idea if you want to, because I don't
Speaker 1: think they're gonna let me do it here.
Speaker 3: Got it?
Speaker 1: But you really get to do this. So I just
Speaker 1: started watching your series Animals up close. If you want
Speaker 1: to stream it, you can stream on Disney Plus.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been it's been really really cool. You know,
Speaker 3: you work on something for such a long time, you
Speaker 3: get so close to it and then it's like, how
Speaker 3: are people gonna react? So it's been awesome seeing, Yeah,
Speaker 3: seeing what resonates with people and what doesn't.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine any of it doesn't resonate. The thing
Speaker 1: that struck me the most is what you just said,
Speaker 1: how long you've been working on it? Because you've got
Speaker 1: six episodes right, ye, and they're in very different climates
Speaker 1: across the world, and you're tracking these animals and watching
Speaker 1: them for a long time. How long did it take
Speaker 1: to do these six episodes that we get to see
Speaker 1: in what an hour ish?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So they're all about forty forty five minutes. So
Speaker 3: what's interesting is that I think you know in when
Speaker 3: you're making a wildlife film, time is your greatest adversary.
Speaker 3: Tom Cruise line that, Yeah, and really you need the time.
Speaker 3: That is the key thing, and you need to spend
Speaker 3: a lot of time, and that is so you can
Speaker 3: learn the habits of the animals, make relationships with the
Speaker 3: local people, and really you know, figure out how these
Speaker 3: animals tick. And that's how you make films. Usually, with
Speaker 3: the wildlife films that I work on that are kind
Speaker 3: of pure wildlife, they're called blue chip naturalistory shows. Typically
Speaker 3: those are four years long, and there's a year of research,
Speaker 3: two years of filming, and a year of editing. Animals
Speaker 3: up close A bit different. It's because each episode is
Speaker 3: just about one animal rather than taking you around the world.
Speaker 3: We tend to do one or two shoots per episode,
Speaker 3: but these shoots are long, so usually we're spending four
Speaker 3: to six weeks per episode. The most number of days
Speaker 3: I think we spent on any episode was the Patagonia
Speaker 3: Puma episode. The Puma episode, but across the series I
Speaker 3: think we did it was two hundred and nineteen filming
Speaker 3: days within one calendar year. We shot it all within
Speaker 3: two so we were all broken by the end of
Speaker 3: that year.
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine. So the one episode, and one
Speaker 1: thing about the episode that really struck me. I am
Speaker 1: obsessed with elephants, and in it, it shows a moment
Speaker 1: of you filming and while you're filming, there are bugs
Speaker 1: all over your arm, and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: he has to get attacked and bitten and just really
Speaker 1: bothered by all of these things while he's sitting there
Speaker 1: quietly and silently to not disturb other.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we weren't just filming any elephants. We were
Speaker 3: filming forest elephants. So I think most people are more
Speaker 3: familiar with savannah elephants, which is a different species of elephant,
Speaker 3: and they're the ones in Lime King live in big
Speaker 3: open plains alongside lions and hyenas and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: He's order fined because they're not hidden in the forest.
Speaker 3: Correct. So forest elephants, as their name suggests, live in
Speaker 3: the forest. They live in deep, thick jungle. They also
Speaker 3: really don't like people kill them, right, So that ivory
Speaker 3: is more dense than savannah elephants, So for the ivory trade,
Speaker 3: their tusks are more valuable per pound per kilo, and
Speaker 3: as a result, their numbers have just been decimated twelve
Speaker 3: thousand in the last year. Yeah, I mean, it's it's
Speaker 3: just wild and if and it's thought that if if
Speaker 3: the rate of poaching in crete continues at the current rate,
Speaker 3: they could be gone within the next ten years, which
Speaker 3: is why one of the largest land animals in the world.
Speaker 3: And yeah, we're doing the jungle totally. So so we
Speaker 3: we you know, as that they don't like people, understandably,
Speaker 3: and so we want to film them behaving naturally. We
Speaker 3: also want to stay safe because if you bump into
Speaker 3: them in the forest, you know, they've got a personal space,
Speaker 3: just like we humans do. If you if you enter
Speaker 3: that personal space and surprise them, just like a person,
Speaker 3: they get very upset. And with a savannah elephant you
Speaker 3: can see them from a long way away. You know
Speaker 3: each other are coming in the jungle, you just bump
Speaker 3: into each other. For that reason, we had to live
Speaker 3: off the forest floor. That meant building a canopy camp
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty foot up a big sapilli tree
Speaker 3: deep in the in the jungle. And yeah, so we
Speaker 3: kind of zip line to work. It was pretty cool commute.
Speaker 3: But you mentioned about the bugs, So the entire time
Speaker 3: during the day, like during daylight hours. If you're sweaty,
Speaker 3: you're covered in sweat bees. Now they don't bite, they
Speaker 3: don't sting, they but they're looking for salt. Their diet,
Speaker 3: like the elephants diet, it's very salt deficient, so a
Speaker 3: sweat is full of salt. So they just every time
Speaker 3: you get sweaty, which is the whole time there because
Speaker 3: it's hot and sticky, they just try and go in
Speaker 3: any of your holes, in your nose, your ears, your eyes.
Speaker 1: Just take it.
Speaker 3: Well, you've just got a zen out because if you
Speaker 3: if you, you know, start squishing them more and more
Speaker 3: arrive and say you've just got a zen out.
Speaker 1: And there's no type of bug spray that can help
Speaker 1: you out in this, not with.
Speaker 3: The sweat bees. No, they they just love sweat a lot.
Speaker 1: Also, in the beginning of that episode, it showed you
Speaker 1: pretty much up in one of these trees filming and
Speaker 1: a lightning storm is coming through. Yeah, they're like, Bertie,
Speaker 1: we need you back, and then use zipline across back
Speaker 1: to the tent. How much adversity climate wise are you
Speaker 1: guys facing in these different scenarios because you were in
Speaker 1: the the Glopagus Africa to forget these elephants, and then
Speaker 1: you're working with gorilla, which would terrify me. But we'll
Speaker 1: get to that in a minute. I mean, how difficult
Speaker 1: is this? How many times have you guys had to
Speaker 1: stop filming because of the environment.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean it's a good question because I am
Speaker 3: very often asked about, Oh, the animals are so dangerous,
Speaker 3: and that is just not true. The most dangerous thing
Speaker 3: is people and the physical environment. Yeah. Probably the hairiest
Speaker 3: encounter we had filming for animals up close was in
Speaker 3: the Galapagos. We were filming marine iguanas, which are like
Speaker 3: a mini Godzilla. They're like three or four feet long,
Speaker 3: and the biggest males. The males are the biggest. They're
Speaker 3: the biggest and strongest, and they're all hunting foraging for seaweed,
Speaker 3: and the best seaweed grows where the currents and the
Speaker 3: waves are biggest and strongest, and they're like pro surfers.
Speaker 3: They conduct dive under big ten foot waves. So we
Speaker 3: wanted to go in the water to see what that
Speaker 3: was like. We wanted to be a marine iguana, be
Speaker 3: alongside them. And I don't know if you surf, but
Speaker 3: if if you surf, you'll know that when you're waiting
Speaker 3: for the waves to come in every now and again,
Speaker 3: like once every half hour, you'll get an extra big
Speaker 3: set of waves, much bigger than all the others. And
Speaker 3: surfing you can see that coming because you're on a
Speaker 3: board on the surface. We were scuba diving under the waves,
Speaker 3: so you never know when that really big one's coming.
Speaker 3: And we thought we were safe kind of in a
Speaker 3: little sheltered, kind of little rocky cave, and this extra
Speaker 3: big set came through the iguanas all dived under it,
Speaker 3: and it just picked me and Jeff the guy was
Speaker 3: filming me, It just picked us up and just flung
Speaker 3: us in different directions. The underwater visibility went to zero
Speaker 3: because it's just bubbles everywhere. And yeah, I remember hanging
Speaker 3: onto a rock with one hand camera with my other hand,
Speaker 3: just really questioning my life choices. And fortunately, as well
Speaker 3: as getting to hang out with cool animals, I get
Speaker 3: to hang out with cool people. And I had this
Speaker 3: guy called Haavia Mahuad, who's one of the top divers
Speaker 3: in the Glapagus. He was safety diving for us, and
Speaker 3: he was not in kind of it's called the suction
Speaker 3: zone of the wave. He just watched both me and
Speaker 3: Jeff just get ripped off in different directions and he
Speaker 3: was giggling, I'm sure in his you know, scuba regulator
Speaker 3: the whole time. And he came and found us and
Speaker 3: kind of led us back into a safer spot. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: have you saved the day?
Speaker 1: Good for him for being there. That's a terrifying position
Speaker 1: to be in for any of them. We went to
Speaker 1: Hawaii earlier in the year and we went to this
Speaker 1: beach called Magic Sands. We didn't realize it was called
Speaker 1: Magic Sand because you'll be standing on a rock, the
Speaker 1: wave comes and all of a sudden, the sand's gone
Speaker 1: and you're just splatted out on a rock and that's
Speaker 1: just us on the surface. I can't imagine being down
Speaker 1: there also with all of the different animals, because I
Speaker 1: saw I believe it was you with a leopard seal
Speaker 1: trying to eat your face and you're just like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's okay, behave oh behaved? What hell I would have?
Speaker 1: It would have been an instant like crap my pants situation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So that was in Epic Adventures, my last Disney
Speaker 3: Plus show. We down in Antarctica and yeah, we were
Speaker 3: actually sheltering from really bad weather came around this corner.
Speaker 3: Found a huge chin strap peng win colony, as you do.
Speaker 3: At the base of this penguin colony that probably had
Speaker 3: you know, tens of thousands of birds in it, there
Speaker 3: was this kind of rocky tongue that all the penguins
Speaker 3: would use as a launch pad to get in the water.
Speaker 3: And they were all kind of lining up. They look
Speaker 3: like commuters that rush out again on the subway, and
Speaker 3: they were all kind of like, oh, I don't want
Speaker 3: to get in. And the reason they were really nervous
Speaker 3: because there was this massive female leopard seal that looks
Speaker 3: like a dragon.
Speaker 1: Explain how big it is.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think how big she was. She's like
Speaker 3: ten foot plus, like, and like, they don't have it.
Speaker 3: They've got these really like serpentine necks, really long. They
Speaker 3: look like a dragon underwater. Yeah. Really, they're an intimidating animal.
Speaker 3: And every leopard seal you get in the water with
Speaker 3: is different. They have different personalities, and this one was
Speaker 3: encountered quite a lot. Okay, yeah, some of them you
Speaker 3: get in the water with and they don't want anything
Speaker 3: to do with you. They're really shy. They disappear you
Speaker 3: never see them. Some are really friendly and they come
Speaker 3: over and like literally like lounge on your head. Some
Speaker 3: imediately very bitey, very aggressive. This female was like perfect
Speaker 3: because she was curious and bold, but not super bity,
Speaker 3: like I.
Speaker 1: Don't care if it's a little body, it's a upper seal.
Speaker 3: But let me clarify when I say bity like, these
Speaker 3: are an ambush predator. If they wanted to kill you,
Speaker 3: you know nothing about it, they'd come out of nowhere.
Speaker 3: The fact that she was presenting herself to us meant
Speaker 3: that this was this was curiosity. I should also say
Speaker 3: that you know, if you or I want to find
Speaker 3: out what a new funky object feels like. Well, you
Speaker 3: mentioned the podcast idea, you have no you're going to
Speaker 3: touch it, right because you got you got hands, right, Well,
Speaker 3: a seal doesn't have hands. They got flippers, so they
Speaker 3: use their teeth and that's why yeah, us they Yeah,
Speaker 3: they kind of just get all up in your space.
Speaker 3: When you look at the encounters we're having, we're we're
Speaker 3: animal experts or we're working with animal experts, and we're
Speaker 3: reading the animal's body language the whole time. We're not
Speaker 3: just throwing ourselves to the wolves. Now, that phrase in
Speaker 3: itself is completely misfounded because wolves are't aggressive to people.
Speaker 3: That's a whole other side point all day. Don't worry
Speaker 3: exactly right, Well yeah, yeah, so so in the case
Speaker 3: of the seals, yeah, we're reading their body language. And
Speaker 3: you see in the scene in that episode she gets
Speaker 3: more and more fired up, more and more curious, and
Speaker 3: it starts to go from being curious to being a
Speaker 3: bit too a bit too bold and playful. And so
Speaker 3: that was the time to get out.
Speaker 1: So what do you do on that situation? What if
Speaker 1: you can't get.
Speaker 3: Out, you get out before it gets to that stage.
Speaker 1: Oh see, I wouldn't know that because I'd be trying
Speaker 1: to touch it and all I'm hearing is leopard seal.
Speaker 1: Maybe you can touch it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well no, So everything is on their terms, right,
Speaker 3: So she dictates the encounter, and you'll see that we
Speaker 3: are never touching her. I have a no big, no
Speaker 3: touch policy, but we're never touching her. The encounter is
Speaker 3: on her terms. She can come check us out or
Speaker 3: she can leave us alone. It's up to her.
Speaker 1: So what kind of background did you have to get
Speaker 1: into photography, but specifically animal photography and getting these up
Speaker 1: close encounters because I imagine there's a lot of training
Speaker 1: that goes into this, So.
Speaker 3: I guess I'm definitely interested in wild By First photography
Speaker 3: and videos was a secondary thing, like what I was doing,
Speaker 3: because when I was in particularly in my early teens,
Speaker 3: I'd sneak off from like sports practice, friends' birthdays, school
Speaker 3: to like go and find animals in the farmland near
Speaker 3: to where I lived. And you know, if you're choosing
Speaker 3: to like skip football practice to go sneak up on
Speaker 3: a badger, like when you're twelve, that's kind of a
Speaker 3: weird thing to do. And I, you know, as soon
Speaker 3: as I started showing people, oh this is why I
Speaker 3: wasn't there, I was doing this, suddenly it's like, oh
Speaker 3: that's cool. And suddenly it starts that you go from
Speaker 3: being a bit weird to you know, people getting stoked
Speaker 3: about the thing that you're stoked about, which is which
Speaker 3: is always a goal, right if you love something, getting
Speaker 3: someone else excited about it is is an amazing thing.
Speaker 1: That's why you're here, right, this this is amazing getting
Speaker 1: people pumped. I want everybody to get pumped about it
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of information as well as you're
Speaker 1: gonna you're going to see the animals, You're going to
Speaker 1: get up close to them, like you said, then you
Speaker 1: learn a lot. I mean the poaching. We've known that
Speaker 1: elephant poaching is going on for a long time, but
Speaker 1: when you were actually holding some of those tusks and saying,
Speaker 1: this was an elephant a week ago, this was an
Speaker 1: elephant last year, it's devastating that. Actually I told you earlier.
Speaker 1: You made me cry before we actually started recording.
Speaker 3: That's what That's what you're talking about. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had to take a pause for a second because
Speaker 1: I just I can't fathom how people could look at
Speaker 1: something like that and decide they want to kill it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh no, it happened. Well, that turned on my waterworks. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that was I mean what so for context, Yeah, we
Speaker 3: were visiting the anti poaching team in the Zangasanga National
Speaker 3: Park in the Central African Republic. Amazing people that literally
Speaker 3: put their lives on the line to protect these elephants.
Speaker 3: And Tatiana, one of the Tatiana solo, one of the
Speaker 3: eco guards that she said, I want I want to
Speaker 3: show you something and she led me into this shipping
Speaker 3: container that was full of all of the tusks, elephant
Speaker 3: tusks and guns and ammunition that they'd confiscated from poaches
Speaker 3: that year. And what what was key about that was
Speaker 3: it was that year. I mean, I know, poaching goes on.
Speaker 3: That's why we were there to you know, help tell
Speaker 3: that story. But it was when there was there were
Speaker 3: dates on each of the tusks, when they were killed,
Speaker 3: when they were confiscated, and and that was that made
Speaker 3: it so much more real. And you know, yeah, first
Speaker 3: tusk I picked up was from like a week ago.
Speaker 3: There was a huge task that was you know, taller
Speaker 3: than me, weigh like fifty pounds. That that was. That
Speaker 3: was really moving and yeah, I don't often get yeah
Speaker 3: theory like that, and that was that was pretty dark.
Speaker 1: Absolutely I had a pose it for a second and
Speaker 1: just be like I didn't.
Speaker 3: But I think that's that's a key thing part of
Speaker 3: the show is that we show, as well as amazing
Speaker 3: animal behavior, the bigger environmental context. You know, there's no
Speaker 3: secret we humans are trashing the planet. Yeah, rible, But
Speaker 3: the important thing before everyone gets too doomy and gloomy,
Speaker 3: is that in every episode, and this is the thing
Speaker 3: that I'm most proud of with the series, we show
Speaker 3: the good news, a lot of the solutions and a
Speaker 3: lot of the amazing people already doing their bit to
Speaker 3: change our relationship with the natural world. Because to me,
Speaker 3: that is the key for getting people stoked about trying
Speaker 3: to change things, is that surely it's much better motivation
Speaker 3: to be told this is what you can do, rather
Speaker 3: than don't do this.
Speaker 1: Hope. It is terrifying, but it is good to know that, hey,
Speaker 1: at the end of this there might be something that
Speaker 1: we can all do to make this a little bit better.
Speaker 1: You're doing the good work and I love that. By
Speaker 1: the way, we are with Bertie Gregory, who is would
Speaker 1: we call you the host creator of Animals up Close.
Speaker 3: We will go with host one of the camera people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the Camera People is streaming on Disney
Speaker 1: Plus right now. It dropped in September, September thirteenth, and
Speaker 1: it's amazing. We have six episodes. And we were talking
Speaker 1: about the different environments you were in, how dangerous they can.
Speaker 3: Have you ever had a well you were saying how
Speaker 3: dangerous they were. Say they're dangerous.
Speaker 1: I mean if there's a leopard seal, you're just The
Speaker 1: Arctic in general is cold. There's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that can go wrong when you guys are out there
Speaker 1: in the middle of the water filming orcus. I mean,
Speaker 1: have you ever been in a situation that you had
Speaker 1: to exit immediately for some reason, whether it was the
Speaker 1: animal or the environment.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean you you mentioned earlier when we were
Speaker 3: filming the forest Elephant episode and we were living in
Speaker 3: the forest canopy, staying off the floor so we didn't
Speaker 3: disturb the elephants. We were in a there was a
Speaker 3: big tropical lightning storm came through and famously, in a
Speaker 3: lightning storm, you're it's recommended that you're not up at
Speaker 3: all object covered in metal, and we were up a
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty foot tree that we'd covered in
Speaker 3: metal our camp. So we had a plan, it was
Speaker 3: called the bailout plan for if this happened, and the
Speaker 3: idea was to clip into a high line of zip
Speaker 3: line that took a to a neighboring tree that was
Speaker 3: not covered in metal, and in theory, therefore we'd be safe.
Speaker 3: What we didn't plan was that this happened on the
Speaker 3: first night we were in the canopy. It was in
Speaker 3: the middle of the night and it was torrential rain.
Speaker 3: So the thing that we don't mention in the show
Speaker 3: was so Meg, one of the tree experts. She was
Speaker 3: across first. I went second, and me and Meg got
Speaker 3: over to the safety of the tree and Meg was like,
Speaker 3: you're good. I'm like, yeah, I'm good, You're good. And
Speaker 3: then Meg, Meg and I had this realization. We looked
Speaker 3: around in this tree that was meant to be our
Speaker 3: safe tree, and Drew, our sound recordist, he was based
Speaker 3: in that tree for filming, so to increase the transmission range,
Speaker 3: he'd covered that tree in aerials that are made of metal.
Speaker 3: So Drew had in fact covered our safe tree in metal,
Speaker 3: which was entirely the point of the tree. So Meg
Speaker 3: and I just sat there like, ah oh dear. But
Speaker 3: fortunately the storm carried on going and it was a
Speaker 3: source of good entertainment later that.
Speaker 1: Are you guys ever visited by things that you did
Speaker 1: not anticipate visiting?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, a lot of birds, you know that they
Speaker 3: instinctively are scared of upright mammals on the ground. A
Speaker 3: lot of them are hunted by us humans. But when
Speaker 3: you're in the trees, you know that's not a place
Speaker 3: that we humans hunt things from, and so they're much
Speaker 3: more bold Yeah, loads of different birds that on the
Speaker 3: ground you could never get anywhere near, and suddenly they're
Speaker 3: really bold.
Speaker 1: Do you guys ever have encounters with, say, people like
Speaker 1: the poachers, who the egoguards are there to protect against.
Speaker 1: Have you guys ever had any human issues?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this was in the film. We did hear
Speaker 3: gunshots one night that was poaches poaching, but yeah, they
Speaker 3: didn't come to where we were. Fortunately.
Speaker 1: Is there certain things that you are there certain things
Speaker 1: that you're supposed to wear or not wear when you're out,
Speaker 1: let's say, dealing with the gorillas. You actually got very
Speaker 1: close to a silver bacuerilla, which I would find terrify
Speaker 1: You guys just seem to be fine with it. But
Speaker 1: what are the rules of something like that? And can
Speaker 1: I touch it?
Speaker 3: And definitely not that would be very bad for everything involved,
Speaker 3: mostly you. So the gorillas, they have this amazing group
Speaker 3: of people that they take it in turns, but they've
Speaker 3: they're followed. But gorillas that have never seen people, are
Speaker 3: you know, run away from people. These gorillas have been
Speaker 3: habituated over many, many years of being followed. In the
Speaker 3: case of the gorilla family we were filming. Yeah, mccumba
Speaker 3: is the name of the Big the Big Male Silverback.
Speaker 3: He was born in nineteen eighty and yeah, this project
Speaker 3: has known him pretty much every every day of his
Speaker 3: life and as a result, he's kind of familiar with
Speaker 3: with with people and as long as you're with one
Speaker 3: of those people. Interestingly, the whole time the person I
Speaker 3: was with, he's called osolo. He was going all the time,
Speaker 3: and that is something that he does. The Gorilla family
Speaker 3: know that. Oh that's a thing that you know, the
Speaker 3: human we know makes and and that was that was
Speaker 3: I guess their way of saying, you know, it was
Speaker 3: like be saying, Oh, it's Bertie here, it's Bertie here.
Speaker 3: You're good, You're fine.
Speaker 1: Thank God for all these people who allow you to
Speaker 1: get into places that. How else would you get back
Speaker 1: there and be able to do.
Speaker 3: This totally well, I get very lost, never mind never
Speaker 3: mind being able to film the Gorillas.
Speaker 1: Oh, I know season one. If season one just the
Speaker 1: six episodes correct, not just but obviously took your whole
Speaker 1: year to do it. Do we have a season two coming?
Speaker 3: That depends how many people watch it. So if you
Speaker 3: go watch it, so if you enjoy it, please yeah,
Speaker 3: share it. With your friends and family, watch it on Loop. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I will so much appreciated streaming.
Speaker 1: On Disney plus animals up close. If you get a
Speaker 1: season two, do you already have the animals in mind
Speaker 1: that you what are they?
Speaker 3: That would be a secret? Oh the secret spoilers, So
Speaker 3: you got it.
Speaker 1: You have to tease people so that they all go
Speaker 1: watch it, so that you can get Well.
Speaker 3: All I can promise is that if we are lucky
Speaker 3: enough to get another season, it will be equally, if
Speaker 3: not more epic and more exciting.
Speaker 1: Can you give us countries, no regions of the world,
Speaker 1: no nothing? Can you do a rhymes with damn it? All?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Well season or trying that. I'll keep going. As soon
Speaker 1: as the microphone shut off, I will continue to ask
Speaker 1: you if we want to follow you on Instagram? Where
Speaker 1: do we find you at?
Speaker 3: Bertie Gregory? And yeah, that's where I post lots of
Speaker 3: fun stuff about about the series and behind the scenes,
Speaker 3: some stuff that well, I mean, the series is kind
Speaker 3: of behind the scenes, so behind the scenes and behind
Speaker 3: the scenes, which is that it's quite meta. Yeah, so
Speaker 3: so yeah, that's that's the best way of staying in touch.
Speaker 3: And yeah, if if anyone has any questions or feedback,
Speaker 3: positive or negative. We love it mostly the positive feedback. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but it's good to improve. So yeah, constructive criticism okay,
Speaker 3: much appreciated.
Speaker 1: Instagram is great at constructive criticism. It is there anything
Speaker 1: you want us to know about what you're doing that
Speaker 1: we haven't covered?
Speaker 3: I think the thing that I love about the format
Speaker 3: of this series we want you to feel like you're
Speaker 3: on the expeditions with us. We want you to go
Speaker 3: through the emotional and physical highs and lows. I mean,
Speaker 3: you're not going to go through the physical highs and
Speaker 3: lows emotional, although that might be a fun interactive thing.
Speaker 3: Scorching Sun there's like a yeah, Scorching Sun treadmill that
Speaker 3: like goes up really steep when you've got to climb
Speaker 3: the mountain with us bugs. Yeah, well that's season two.
Speaker 3: Then is the four D Animals up Close Experience Animals
Speaker 3: up Closer?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so through these episodes you have dealt with let
Speaker 1: me see if I can remember all of them. African
Speaker 1: wild dogs orcas. That was fascinating by the way, watching them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it made me very sad for the seals, but that's
Speaker 1: what they and the.
Speaker 3: Key thing is we're celebrating just how intelligent these killers are.
Speaker 3: I mean, could you imagine being smart enough and like
Speaker 3: physically capable of as a family creating a wave with
Speaker 3: your bodies to wash a seal off of a chunk
Speaker 3: of icin into the water.
Speaker 1: No, I am a radio DJ. That's not o thing.
Speaker 1: The intelligence, We're not really there. So you've got the Orcas,
Speaker 1: You've got the wild dogs. You went to the Galapagos
Speaker 1: Islands and dealt with the iguanas like Little Godzilla's elephants, Pumas.
Speaker 1: What am I missing?
Speaker 3: You're missing Devil Ray, Devil Ray Island.
Speaker 1: Yes, of these six episodes and these encounters with these animals,
Speaker 1: do you have a favorite?
Speaker 3: I should say that's impressive that you rattled off most
Speaker 3: of that list. I struggle with that sometimes, yet it's
Speaker 3: cool line. So my favorite has got to be the
Speaker 3: Patagonia Puma episode, just because we weren't going to find
Speaker 3: any puma. We were going to find one puma in particular.
Speaker 3: She's called Pataka. She's a female puma that I've known
Speaker 3: since she was a cub, and we went back four
Speaker 3: years on to see how she was doing. And not
Speaker 3: only has she survived those four years, which is a
Speaker 3: big deal for a wild puma. You know, the survival
Speaker 3: rate is not really high. But she's just transformed from
Speaker 3: this cute little bundle of fluff that was totally reliant
Speaker 3: on her mother to now this powerful mother herself with
Speaker 3: two cubs of her own. And you know, we are
Speaker 3: trained to emotionally disconnect from our subjects so that we
Speaker 3: can focus on keeping you know, them in focus and
Speaker 3: in frame. But when you've known an animal, you know,
Speaker 3: since it was a little cub, and she is battling
Speaker 3: males that are twice as heavy as her that are
Speaker 3: trying to kill her cubs. She took us on this
Speaker 3: crazy rollercoaster emotional and physical, and that was really special.
Speaker 1: Does she have any memory of you guys being around?
Speaker 1: Does she just ignore you? Does she?
Speaker 3: I mean I've described her as a long lost friend.
Speaker 3: This is very much a one way relationship. She sees
Speaker 3: us as part of the landscape, and as much as
Speaker 3: I want her to really enjoy our company, she doesn't
Speaker 3: care about us.
Speaker 1: So Patagonia Puma, Can I touch it?
Speaker 3: Definitely not.
Speaker 1: Is there anything you would say I could touch?
Speaker 2: Maybe?
Speaker 3: Yeah, But in all seriousness, you know, these are wild
Speaker 3: animals and nine hundred and ninety nine times out of
Speaker 3: a thousand, when you hear about a wild animal attacking
Speaker 3: a human, it's because the humans have done something wrong,
Speaker 3: like try to touch it. I once, this is a
Speaker 3: true story. I was once filming black Bears in British
Speaker 3: Columbia and I went to this place and I saw
Speaker 3: this family with a small daughter, and the family were
Speaker 3: putting honey on the small daughter's hands. Oh, and I
Speaker 3: wandered over and said, what exactly are you planning here?
Speaker 3: And they said, oh, we're putting honey on her hands
Speaker 3: so she can go over and feed the bears. The
Speaker 3: problem with this, as well as being totally bizarre that
Speaker 3: you think this is a good idea, is that something
Speaker 3: bad will happen in this situation and ultimately the animal
Speaker 3: will suffer. Maybe the human will get injured, but always
Speaker 3: the animal suffers, and that is why it's such a
Speaker 3: selfish thing to do. The show is called Animals up Close.
Speaker 3: We do get close to these animals, but I should
Speaker 3: say we're experts are working with experts. It's on their terms.
Speaker 3: We all want to hang out with these animals because
Speaker 3: we love them and want them to do great things
Speaker 3: and be ambassadors for their species, but we need to
Speaker 3: make sure that their well being is the most important.
Speaker 1: Thing, all right, So we will end it on don't
Speaker 1: touch it, even if you want to, don't do it.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to myself because I don't think a lot
Speaker 1: of other people will try to touch it. That's a
Speaker 1: good note. The animal suffers the consequence, not us again.
Speaker 1: Animals up close streaming on Disney Plus right now on
Speaker 1: the net. Geotile is where you need to find.
Speaker 3: It, correct, sweet, Yeah, if you just search animals up close,
Speaker 3: you'll find it.
Speaker 1: All right. Well, thank you so much. It's been so
Speaker 1: fascinating talking to you. I could do this all day long.
Speaker 1: But I know that you have a life and things
Speaker 1: that you have to do, and you have secrets that
Speaker 1: you don't want to tell us. But we'll get to that,
Speaker 1: and hopefully we'll have you back here again to be
Speaker 1: talking about season two.
Speaker 3: That would be cool.
Speaker 1: That would be amazing. Thank you, Bertie Gregory, thanks very much.
Speaker 1: And now after something so amazing and profound and interesting,
Speaker 1: we get back to the bare bones of this podcast.
Speaker 1: All right, So, Andrew, let's talk about your first idea.
Speaker 1: What is it that you think I should do well?
Speaker 2: Gandhi. I first of all loved that interview. That was
Speaker 2: so fun. What a great guess.
Speaker 1: Here comes the producer show.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to hear it.
Speaker 1: Uh huh, please more smoke up my ass.
Speaker 2: Please, You're wonderful.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. What's your idea?
Speaker 2: My idea is Gandhi's burn book. I think it's a
Speaker 2: really fun idea because you have the most savage takedowns
Speaker 2: of people or things or situations Like I feel like
Speaker 2: when I need to come to somebody for snark, You're
Speaker 2: usually one of my first people to go to. Oh,
Speaker 2: I've always compared you to like a Teddy bear with
Speaker 2: like a knife.
Speaker 1: You have on multiple occasions.
Speaker 2: Yes, And so I feel like for our listeners, like
Speaker 2: they could take situations like I know of a couple
Speaker 2: of things that are really annoying you, and I'd love
Speaker 2: to see you, like almost write them out here.
Speaker 1: You want me to air out my grievances.
Speaker 2: Air out your grievances, write it in the burn book,
Speaker 2: close it, and let's go.
Speaker 1: Do you think people know what a burn book is?
Speaker 2: Well, if they don't, they need to go watch the
Speaker 2: two thousand and four hit movie Mean Girls Iconic. It
Speaker 2: is one of the best movies of all time. I
Speaker 2: rewatched it recently. It still holds up one of the
Speaker 2: greatest movies of all time.
Speaker 1: Okay, burn book. You know who's going on my burn book? First?
Speaker 1: Kevin from Mean Girls? You want to talk about this?
Speaker 1: Have I told you about that?
Speaker 2: It first first entry and most fitting is Kevin from
Speaker 2: Mean Girls.
Speaker 1: Kevin from Me let Me Pull Them up here? So Kevin,
Speaker 1: if you recall, he was like the head of the mathletes,
Speaker 1: the Indian guy Kevin, it was just poor Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: Kevin napour.
Speaker 3: Kevin g thank.
Speaker 1: He apparently did Mean Girls, and then he quit Hollywood altogether.
Speaker 1: The reason he quit, according to the things that I've read,
Speaker 1: was because he really truly, deeply prepared to have the
Speaker 1: role of Pie in the Life of Pie, great freaking movie,
Speaker 1: great book, by the if you haven't seen it, he
Speaker 1: really practiced. He did all kinds of things to prepare
Speaker 1: for this role, and his agent essentially said, it's definitely yours. Well,
Speaker 1: fast forward, all these years later, we know it was
Speaker 1: not his. It went to Dev Patel from slum Dog Millionaire,
Speaker 1: also a great movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, love that one.
Speaker 1: And for those reasons, Kevin Depoor left Hollywood because he
Speaker 1: was devastated and he's never returned. So I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is fascinating. Okay, you know what, I have a
Speaker 1: podcast coming out. Let me hit up Kevin Dapoor because
Speaker 1: I would love to talk to him about what's going on.
Speaker 1: Indian person to Indian person. By the way, we call
Speaker 1: ourselves they folk, they sy to day. See we can
Speaker 1: talk about what's going on and being Indian in the
Speaker 1: entertainment industry and all these different things. Kevin Dapoor from
Speaker 1: Mean Girls, who has been an abb movie, wrote back
Speaker 1: to me and said, sure, I'll do your podcast. My
Speaker 1: podcast VI is two thousand dollars. Please reach out to
Speaker 1: my team and we can make it happen, at which
Speaker 1: point I just said the fuck.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, that's insane. That's insane, right, two thousand dollars
Speaker 2: to if you're on a podcast on my.
Speaker 1: Podcast, I know what kind of budget you think I'm
Speaker 1: working with, buddy. Oh my god. I was just like Wow,
Speaker 1: the audacity.
Speaker 2: The audacity of being in a movie and.
Speaker 1: Ah movie and then being like, sure, here's my podcast.
Speaker 1: Be whoa Kevin Depoor, You're on my list? Buddy. Also,
Speaker 1: I really hope you're getting your two thousand dollars for
Speaker 1: every podcast that you do, and I would like to
Speaker 1: hear all.
Speaker 2: Of them or one of them.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're anywhere. To be honest, I
Speaker 1: know that was a shitty thing to say, but Kevin
Speaker 1: really pissed me off. So he can be first in
Speaker 1: the burn book.
Speaker 2: And that is exactly what I wanted it to be.
Speaker 1: Oh, you want me to burn random actors or just
Speaker 1: like whatever.
Speaker 2: Is on your mind. I feel like, yeah, you're just
Speaker 2: I don't. I hate the use of this works. It
Speaker 2: feel it's overused, especially by gen Z. But like I feel,
Speaker 2: you're savage.
Speaker 1: Oh well, times all right. I like to think of
Speaker 1: myself as the teddy Bear without the knife, just a
Speaker 1: teddy bear. But I'll take it, I understand. I like
Speaker 1: to think I lead with truth.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's what we'll call it, leading my or speaking.
Speaker 1: My truth, speaking my truth. That's what's happening here. So,
Speaker 1: Kevin Napour, if you ever change your mind and you'd
Speaker 1: like to do a podcast without a two thousand dollars fee,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be here for you, buddy. You can come.
Speaker 1: This is a safe space, even though it probably doesn't
Speaker 1: feel like that to you at the moment. I will
Speaker 1: make it feel like a more safe space. And I
Speaker 1: hope that you and your ceramics are killing it out
Speaker 1: there and that's just you speaking your truth. That is
Speaker 1: my truth.
Speaker 2: Are we changing the title to know speaking your Truth?
Speaker 2: I actually love that.
Speaker 1: But the burnbuck is actually really good too. Maybe we'll
Speaker 1: just leave the burn book for Kevin Napour because it's perfect,
Speaker 1: that timing is perfect.
Speaker 2: It's in, but the segment could be called Speaker Truth.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're in here, and I'm glad that you're
Speaker 1: my producer.
Speaker 2: Well for now, glad to be working on this show.
Speaker 2: And I'm very excited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2: A lot of exciting guests coming and I'm so excited.
Speaker 2: I feel like even when you don't have guests, just
Speaker 2: I feel peeling apart. Your mind is fun, Like I
Speaker 2: love going out for dinners with you, chatting with you
Speaker 2: just on the side, like outside of the show, Like
Speaker 2: you just have so many fun layers that I feel
Speaker 2: like whether you're just talking by yourself and like a
Speaker 2: random ramble like.
Speaker 1: Don't makee people think I talked to myself.
Speaker 2: No, I'm sure you don't.
Speaker 1: I do all the time.
Speaker 2: I know you do. I feel like you talk to
Speaker 2: your plants, you talk.
Speaker 1: To like that's how it helps him grow.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'm just excited that everybody is going to
Speaker 2: get to like see the inside of your mind a
Speaker 2: little bit more like we all get to here.
Speaker 1: Okay, So that's I guess what we're going to be
Speaker 1: doing here. We're going to have glimpses into the inside
Speaker 1: of my brain. Good luck everybody. My sister says, it's
Speaker 1: a terrifying place. I think we're going to talk to
Speaker 1: amazing guests like Bertie Gregory. He was awesome and wonderful
Speaker 1: and well and with an ask me anything should we
Speaker 1: do one?
Speaker 2: Now? Sure?
Speaker 1: Here, I'm going to hand you my phone, Andrew, and
Speaker 1: you pick one that you think is a good one.
Speaker 2: Okay, the power I wheeled, the power. I love being producer.
Speaker 1: Oh Neil de grasse Tyson started a live video.
Speaker 2: Time to join that one.
Speaker 1: Love him.
Speaker 2: Okay, Oh, this is actually a really good question. I
Speaker 2: feel for the first episode, it's kind of deep, but
Speaker 2: at the same time, I I love it. Okay, So
Speaker 2: do I read the name? Sure? So?
Speaker 1: Aita, I bet that's how you say it?
Speaker 2: Angiita asks on Instagram. When did you realize that marriage
Speaker 2: was not for you and how did you come to
Speaker 2: that realization.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's a good question, Angiita. If you listen to
Speaker 1: The Big Show, you've probably heard me say I don't
Speaker 1: believe in marriage. I'm never going to get married. I
Speaker 1: am in a relationship. I've been dating my boyfriend for
Speaker 1: four years now and we're both on the same page.
Speaker 1: We don't need to get married. I don't want to
Speaker 1: have kids, and I think that if you are in
Speaker 1: a financially stable situation, there's really no reason to go
Speaker 1: get married and involve the government in your love affairs
Speaker 1: or whatever is going on. That's part of it, but
Speaker 1: the bigger part, honestly, I think that I know, we
Speaker 1: know a lot of people, and I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: anybody on the show, so do not jump to conclusions.
Speaker 1: But people who are married and they're not happy, and
Speaker 1: a big part of the reason why they stay in
Speaker 1: these unhappy marriages is because they say it's too hard
Speaker 1: to walk away. So for me, I think it's so
Speaker 1: much more romantic to be in a relationship where somebody
Speaker 1: chooses me every single day knowing that they can walk
Speaker 1: away with no strings attached, and I am what they
Speaker 1: want to be part of. I want my partner to
Speaker 1: just have freedom to do what they want to do
Speaker 1: and to leave a situation if they're not happy with it,
Speaker 1: and you know, vice versa. Same for me. I don't
Speaker 1: know that I believe in forever. I think I do,
Speaker 1: but until I really figure it out, I just don't
Speaker 1: see the need to make my life more complicated. And
Speaker 1: I just I believe in romance, and I think it's
Speaker 1: more romantic to have that, to know that person is
Speaker 1: just there and they don't have to be. Nothing is
Speaker 1: forcing them to stay there. They're there because they want
Speaker 1: to be, so Angita, that is my reason. And if
Speaker 1: you want to know, when I realize that I've never
Speaker 1: wanted to get married my entire life. I know lots
Speaker 1: of people fantasize about what their wedding's going to be
Speaker 1: like in their wedding dress and those shots and those
Speaker 1: thoughts just never entered my head. So I feel like
Speaker 1: I've just really never been a marriage type person. But
Speaker 1: I do love love and I do love relationships, and
Speaker 1: I'm happy to go to any weddings, so I'm not
Speaker 1: crapping on other people that's just what I want for me.
Speaker 1: Good enough answer for you, Andrew.
Speaker 2: I thought that was a great answer. Right. Make sure
Speaker 2: you follow her at Baby Hot Sauce and when she
Speaker 2: posts the ask me any things, we'll go through them
Speaker 2: on air every week for every episode. So if your
Speaker 2: question wasn't asked this time like Angietas was, then next
Speaker 2: week your question could be asked.
Speaker 1: It could be thanks for tuning in, We'll see you
Speaker 1: next time. It's us on the side.
Speaker 2: So this is as producer. Yeah, so we're gonna say,
Speaker 2: make sure you like this podcast wherever you're listening. I
Speaker 2: hate that follow, subscribe.
Speaker 1: Don't they know to do that if they're listening to.
Speaker 2: A podcast, I have to tell them that. And if
Speaker 2: you like it so so much, you could even leave
Speaker 2: a review. Five stars is preferred. Tell us what you think.
Speaker 1: Wait, now you're opening it up to people giving me
Speaker 1: one star.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, they're only going to give you five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Andrew, we'll see how this one goes.
Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, So, yeah, make sure you like, follow
Speaker 2: and subscribe and follow Gandhi at Baby Sauce and until
Speaker 2: next week on an all News Sauce on the side.
Speaker 1: I love you we'll talk to you later.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.