The guest
Paul Rosolie: Conservationist, author, and founder of Jungle Keepers who has spent ~20 years protecting the Peruvian Amazon rainforest.
What this episode covers
Paul Rosolie returns to JRE to recount the past year of his Amazon conservation work with Jungle Keepers, including a near-fatal waterless expedition with Lex Fridman and a $150,000 Instagram fundraiser that bought and saved ancient mahogany forest by hiring loggers as rangers. He and Joe range across food-system toxicity (Apeel, glyphosate, dyes), the suppression of hemp as a paper alternative, the giant Bondo apes of the Congo, elk hunting logistics, and the plight of uncontacted Amazon tribes tricked by missionaries. Paul describes the violence of remote logging frontiers, including loggers killed by tribal arrows. The conversation turns to obsession, purpose, and why people gravitate to extreme challenges. It closes on cultural polarization, with Paul revealing he lost a million-dollar book deal for retweeting Elon Musk praising his treehouse.
Recommended on this episode
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Empire of the Summer Moon
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“have you seen the movie sissu It's like a John Wick movie from World War II this movie rules yeah it rules it rules”— Paul Rosolie
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Big reveals from this episode
- A client named Jay pledged $150K, sparking an Instagram fundraiser that raised $150,000 in 48 hours to buy and protect ancient Amazon forest.
- Jungle Keepers hires the former loggers as Rangers, growing protected land from 55,000 to nearly 100,000 acres in a month and a half.
- On the expedition with Lex Fridman they went a full day with no water in 99-degree full humidity, nearly suffering severe dehydration.
- Two loggers were found dead, killed where they stood by arrows from uncontacted tribes on the Tahuamanu River.
- Paul says he lost a roughly million-dollar book deal after retweeting Elon Musk's comment that his treehouse was cool.
- Paul describes a tiger-cub-petting operation that breeds tigers and incinerates them on-site once they grow too large.
- Paul recounts repossessing and helicopter-relocating an entire 11-elephant herd from a neglectful reserve to a safe sanctuary.
Worth remembering
- Apeel fruit coating is made from monoglycerides and diglycerides extracted using ethyl acetate and heptane, with no human consumption trials.
- A 2022 study cited that ~80% of Americans and 87% of children have glyphosate (Roundup) in their urine.
- The word 'canvas' derives from 'Cannabis'; hemp fiber is far more durable than cotton and twice as effective as trees at sequestering carbon.
- The 1930s decorticator made hemp processing easy, threatening paper mills owned by William Randolph Hearst, fueling marijuana prohibition propaganda.
- The Denisovan human species was only identified in 2010; gorillas were considered mythological by outsiders until the early 19th century.
- Bondo apes (Bili apes) of the Congo can stand around six feet tall, nest on the ground like gorillas, and are nicknamed 'lion killers'.
- A harvested elk yielded 400 pounds of meat; hunters may make four 100-pound pack-out trips over 30 miles of mountainous terrain.
- About 50% of rainforest life lives under 160 feet of canopy, largely inaccessible, making vast stretches of Amazon scientifically unexplored.
- A liger named Hercules reached 922 lbs and one named Nook over 1,213 lbs, far heavier than lions or tigers.
- Coyotes now inhabit essentially every U.S. city, including Central Park; killing them causes females to have more pups and expand range.
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