WEBVTT - Short Stuff: RIP Man of the Hole 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:06.200 Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:08.560 there's Chuck and Jerry's here and this is short, short, 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.399 short stuff. This hello stuff so short. I said short 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.560 three times. Did we do a full episode on this guy? Yeah? 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:18.480 We did the who was the Man of the Whole? 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:21.160 And I think it was within the last three years, 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:23.840 maybe maybe four years. I would guess it was probably 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.520 around two thousand eighteen because that's when they released that 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.640 video of him and everybody became aware that this man 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.559 even existed. Right, So this is a bit of a 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:38.159 recap and for sure a lot of tribute, uh to 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.360 a gentleman named the Man of the Whole is what 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:45.640 he was called. He was He lived by himself, um, 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:49.560 in total isolation for twenty six years on his indigenous 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:53.640 land in the Amazon rain Forest, the Tanaru indigenous land. 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:56.680 And very sad to say, the Man of the Whole 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:01.040 has passed away. Yeah, and they think roughly in mid fifties, 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:04.720 maybe age sixty tops. Um. He was discovered by a 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:09.320 FUNAI agent. Funis Brazil's Indigenous protection agency and fun I 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:13.679 had been basically tracking him quietly for the last twenty 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.000 six years. Um. And the reason that they call him 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:18.840 the Man of the Whole is because that's what fun 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:21.040 I calls him. He digs holes or he used to 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.560 dig holes. Um. Certainly some were for animal traps, but 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:28.320 they think some sadly were for protection from attack from 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:30.880 other people. I should say, Um, but the reason they 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:33.200 called them the man of the whole is because no one, 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.440 literally no human being on earth aside from that man, 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:42.160 knew what that man's name was. That's right. Uh. He 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:47.000 lived on about twenty thousand acres of for us that 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:51.480 eventually became protected, and thus he was protected. Uh. He 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.440 at one point had his people. Um, we don't know 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:57.840 what tribe he was from. We don't know what language 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:01.160 he spoke. Uh. We do know that his people were 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:07.559 likely killed uh by invaders. I think the last people 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.200 that they think he had was about six people with him. 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:15.320 They were all killed, leaving him alone. And finally that land, 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:19.800 in his lifestyle was protected. And as much as I 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:23.360 don't even we'll get to sort of the ins and 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:27.320 outs of even peeking in on somebody like this, uh, 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.000 and whether or not that's the right thing to do, 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:31.440 because that is sort of a thorny issue. But he 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:35.720 passed away on August UM no signs of struggle. Uh, 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.200 they believe he died of natural causes. Um, this is 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.160 another sort of thorny thing. They're going to do a 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.480 forensic examination of his body, which I get. I think 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:49.760 there could be some value there to see what someone 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:54.280 who lived in isolation might die of. Obviously, their genetic 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:56.400 things that can still happen, but in any sort of 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:01.920 man influenced death is probably not the likely cause. But 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.240 my favorite part about the story is that he died 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.360 in his hammock and he had covered himself with bird feathers, 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:11.480 with McCaw feathers, because he knew he was dying, and 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:16.080 that just sounds like a really peaceful, lovely way to go. Yeah, 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.520 it is. But again, like if he was sixty and 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.440 this guy was living like about as healthy a life 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.440 as a human being can live, you would think it 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.760 seems really young. But yeah, the fact that he was 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:29.320 covered in McCaw feathers and there wasn't any sign that 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.919 anyone else had been around him definitely certainly does point 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.040 to the idea that he was awaiting death and a 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.560 new death was coming, So should we take a quick break. 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:41.960 Let's do that, and won't come back and dig some 0:03:41.960 --> 0:04:08.680 more into this. All right. So you mentioned video which 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.200 was probably around the time we did our first episode 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.040 on the Man of the Whole. This was in July 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.800 of that year on Facebook. Uh, Survival International posted a 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.599 video of him from a distance chopping down a tree. 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.200 But this is from two thousand eleven. Uh. They sat 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:30.000 on this footage for seven years and um, you know, 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:32.400 they found out some things about him over his life, 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:34.960 which is that uh and some of it since he 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.240 has has left us um abandoned camp sites. This was 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.240 the fifty third thatch hut that he had built at 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:45.279 least over the past twenty six years. Holes everywhere, holes 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:48.479 inside these huts. Uh. So they're getting little clues on 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:50.359 how he lived his life a little bit now that 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.040 he's passed. Yeah, he was not just a hunter gather. 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:58.920 He was also a farmer too. He farmed corn, manioc root, papaya, bananas, um. 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.320 And he also is a great hunter, apparently with his 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.640 bow and arrow. And also those holes that he put 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:09.320 stakes in what they called like tiger tiger traps. No no no, no, 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:11.839 that sounds that sounds good. But he used those to 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.440 like catch wild bore. Um. So this is how this 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:18.680 guy was living um again by himself for twenty six years. 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:20.480 He did not, as far as we know, have any 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:24.400 contact with anybody, despite um Fu and I trying to 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.480 make contact with him after he became the last surviving 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.359 member of his tribe um because when they tried to 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.640 initiate contact, they brought him some gifts and they basically 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.680 went and visited him at his home and he apparently 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.280 flipped out. They said he was terrified and very aggressive 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.880 and was clearly not at all happy that they were there. 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:46.839 So from that moment, on Fu and I said, we're 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:49.560 never contacting this man again. We're gonna track him, we're 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:52.000 going to make sure that he's okay, but we're going 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.560 to keep our distance, both for um his own comfort, 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:57.760 but also for his safety too, because one of the 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:02.600 problems is people from outside of the Amazon coming into 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:06.239 contact with an uncontacted tribe bring a lot of germs 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:11.120 that the uncontacted tribe has no defenses against whatsoever. Yeah, 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:12.800 and that sort of brings up a little bit of 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.719 what I mentioned before, which is what what do you 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:17.840 do in a situation like this? Do you go in 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.280 and try and um vaccinate people to try and keep 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.640 them safe? Do you try and completely leave them alone. 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:26.080 Do you give them these gifts like they would? They 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:30.000 would give them seeds apparently, and small tools occasionally, which 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:32.760 apparently he rejected. He never or at least rarely took 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:37.760 the gifts. Um. You know, it is sort of a 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:43.080 moral question that I don't think it's super easily answered. Um. 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:47.320 I think leaving someone alone like that is for sure 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.719 probably the best route. But what does leave someone alone 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.960 really mean? Like does is even spying in and tracking 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.960 them too much? Well? So, yeah, you could definitely argue that, 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:00.960 like his his privacy was being invaded, whether he was 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:02.680 aware of it or not, in that in and of 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.560 itself like robs him of some of his dignity. But 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:08.200 the reason Fu and I was doing this wasn't just 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:10.880 for their you know, own jollies or anything like that. 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:15.200 The way that Brazil's government set up protection of indigenous 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:21.119 lands was you had to verify through a sighting, uh 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:25.080 that an uncontacted tribe existed, And I guess they through 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:27.680 And I think there's about a hundred undred and fourteen 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.680 uncontacted tribes living in the Amazon still, but they're only 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:35.520 aware of something like twenty three They've only confirmed twenty three, 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.240 so only twenty three are protected, and that protection is 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.760 only continued. Uh when there's a sighting within a certain 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.320 amount of time, every like say three years, they have 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:47.520 to be cited. So that's why they were tracking him 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.800 like that. Yeah, and you know, the idea of protection 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.120 is not just here, take this vaccine to help protect 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:56.240 you from sickness. UM. One of the articles I read 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.960 was talking about the fact that these parts of the 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.720 jungle are not just free of people. They're bad people 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:04.960 in there. Their drug dealers and poachers and people use 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:09.480 this place for cover. So it's not like they're completely alone. 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:14.480 They're just living, uh, you know, their indigenous lifestyle, ideally 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.360 away from the bad people. Yeah. So those bad people 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:21.240 apparently are the reason why he was living alone for 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:25.120 twenty six years. UM and fun I pieced together probably 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.640 what happened to his tribe from um local residents in 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:31.800 the area around where he lived, and they said that 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.400 in the seventies they believed that most of the tribe 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:38.360 was killed because they were given poison sugar, probably by 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:42.200 ranching interests that were invading the area. UM, which would 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:45.480 explain why he would accept zero gifts from anybody. UM. 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:47.480 When they tried to give him to him in the nineties, 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.560 and then in the other six I think he was 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:56.480 um one of seven survivors, and in or six the 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:59.199 six others were gunned down, and from that moment on 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:03.440 for the next any six years, he lived by himself. Yeah, 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:05.439 it kind of cracks me up when I think of 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:07.839 I love all the survival shows alone and all the 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:10.680 shows where they're like, we made it a hundred days, 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:16.000 What an experience, even with our modern duels, and this 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:20.600 guy's like, what a hundred days I've been That's what 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:22.400 he said. He went, but I've been out here for 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.680 twenty six years. Right, you cracked the code. His language 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:29.040 was not lost after all. Um. So the thing is, 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.560 Chuck is, in addition to those tools, not just making 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.840 it being alone, having no one to talk to, no 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:38.920 one to interact with, Like, how would you not crack 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:41.520 up in that sense? Even though you have an area 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.400 that's almost as big as the entire Disney World resort, 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.720 bigger than the entire island of Manhattan to wander around, 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:51.079 you're still wandering around it by yourself, on your own. 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:55.560 That would be the hardest thing of all, I think. Yeah, 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.080 And you know, as far as leaving people alone, like 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.800 as a curious individual, part of my brain says, oh, 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.480 I would love to have seen a documentary on this 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.800 guy's day to day life because it's so fascinating to me. 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:12.280 But the other part of my brain says, no, chuck, 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:17.199 that's the wrong instinct, like leave him alone. So Brazil 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.200 officially did say we will leave these people alone. When 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:24.080 we discover an unkind contacted tribe, we will cordon off 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:28.600 their um indigenous lands and just leave them alone. Um. 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.559 The problem is they have a president right now called Bolsonaro, 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.480 President Bolsonaro UM, and he has done everything he can 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.640 to roll back every protection that he can find that 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.880 protect indigenous lands and indigenous people and instead open the 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.560 Amazon up to ranchers and loggers and miners and just 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.240 basically chew through the Amazon and an even even faster 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.120 rate that it was being chewed through before. So they 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:55.760 think that I should say fu, and I believes that, Um, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.200 probably more and more uncontacted tribes are going to go extinct, 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.800 include some that we will have never confirmed and never 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.000 even knew about. And by extinct, we're saying like they're 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.800 being massacred. Their genocides that are being carried out day 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.040 to day, um year to year in the Amazon, so 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:17.400 that people can grow plants or um graze their cattle 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:20.840 there instead for progress. That's what makes this whole thing 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:27.600 so heartbreaking to me. Yeah. Absolutely, Um, hats off to you, sir, 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.840 man of the whole not you, Josh I. My hats 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.880 always off to you. But R I P and just 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.120 very interesting story. I want Does that mean this twenty 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:39.719 acres is now a progress so the protection runs out. 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.000 It's not clear whether they'll try to roll it back 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.040 before then, but fu and I was trying to say, no, 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:49.240 let's just make this particular preserve permanently protected. And who 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:54.080 knows what will happen depends on whose president I think. Alright, well, good, 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:56.800 good yet sad follow up to this story Creed Chuck 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.640 good idea, uh and I guess that ain't short. Stuff 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:04.760 is out. Radio Stuff You Should Know is a production 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.720 of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my Heart Radio, 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.080 visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:12.400 listen to your favorite shows.