A Rare Podcast at 30 Below Zero — Sue Flood on Antarctica and Much More! | The Tim Ferriss Show

Recorded in a tent on the Weddell Sea in Antarctica at many degrees below zero, Tim Ferriss interviews wildlife photographer Sue Flood, whom he met unexpectedly on an emperor penguin expedition. Sue traces her path from being a baby told she'd never walk, through unpaid expeditions in Australia and Bermuda, to persistent letters that landed her a researcher job at the BBC and eventually work with David Attenborough on The Blue Planet and Planet Earth. She shares vivid stories of filming orcas hunting gray whales in Monterey Bay, polar bears hunting belugas in the High Arctic, the 'divorce whale' incident with her ex-husband cameraman Doug Allan, and the natural history of emperor penguins and polar bears. The conversation also covers her transition from filmmaker to photographer, teaching photography, reducing her carbon footprint, and meeting the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

• The word penguin likely comes from Welsh 'pen gwyn' (white head), named by early Welsh sailors who settled in Patagonia and saw Magellanic penguins.
  00:07:48
• Sue was born on Friday the 13th with malformed hips and told she would never walk; a special bracing frame allowed her to recover, and she keeps that brace in her office as a reminder.
  00:11:58
• Sue landed her BBC break by pretending to be in Bristol, taking a 5-hour coach ride for a coffee with producer Michael Bright, and saying she could start that very day on a 3-day contract.
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• After being a dive instructor, Sue got hired onto The Blue Planet, telling her boss Alister Fothergill it was 'better than winning the lottery.'
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• The 'divorce whale': while filming humpbacks in Tonga, a calf hit Sue with its tail; husband-cameraman Doug Allan chose to save his sinking camera over rescuing her with a suspected broken leg.
  00:58:16
• Sue's great white shark photo made the cover of BBC Wildlife and National Geographic, giving her the confidence to quit the BBC and become a full-time photographer.
  01:09:11
• Sue has chronic imposter syndrome, initially thought the Buckingham Palace invitation to meet the Queen was a joke, and now has one of her photos hanging on the palace wall.
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• The Antarctic camp is kept pristine by flying all waste, including bodily products, back out to South America.
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• Emperor penguins are the largest penguin species, standing about 1.25 m tall and weighing around 40-45 kilos, and toboggan on their bellies to travel.
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• Male emperor penguins keep the egg at about 34-35 degrees C in a brood pouch even when the outside temperature is minus 50, fasting for roughly four months and losing 30-40% of their body weight.
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• Orcas hunting gray whale calves in Monterey Bay drowned them and ate only the tongue, leaving the rest of the carcass to sink and feed other creatures.
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• No person has ever been killed in the wild by an orca, according to Sue.
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• Sue's longest continuous filming stretch was 36 hours, capturing polar bears hunting beluga whales trapped in a 'sassat' (ice hole).
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• Seals build hidden snow lairs (subnivean lairs) under the ice with a tiny breathing hole called an aglu, which polar bears detect by smell and pound through.
  01:21:41
• After Mount Pinatubo erupted, cooler temperatures kept Antarctic-region sea ice longer, letting polar bears feed more and produce healthier cubs nicknamed the 'Pinatubo bears.'
  01:22:47
• In the southern Hudson Bay population, forest fires can damage maternity dens dug into tree-root-stabilized riverbanks, linking forest fires to polar bear denning.
  01:24:54
• In February 2021 Sue won the climate change category of the Royal Photographic Society's Science Photographer of the Year contest for a North Pole underwater image.
  01:35:18