Mating Season with Austin Nogiec and Paige Dacanay from “Love in the Jungle”

Dean is back with Sarah Herron and if you thought finding love on The Bachelor was strange, wait until you meet Austin and Paige from “Love in the Jungle” on Discovery+!
 
We hear all about trying to make a romantic connection by embodying an animal and reenacting mating rituals. Does it work??
 
What animal would Sarah take on if she was sent to jungle? All is revealed!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
How I Suck at Dating with Denunglert and Dared Haven
and I heard radio podcast What's going on? Everyone? Welcome
to Thursday's special episode of Help I Suck At Dating.
Like I said on Sunday, we got a great episode
for you. We got Austin and Paige from Love in

(00:20):
the Jungle joining us. Um, you, guys, thank you so
much for coming on the podcast. I gotta be honest,
I have not seen Love in the Jungle yet. I'm
going to watch it, I promise you. But Sarah has
seen it and she's obsessed with it, so I know
she's got a million questions for you, guys, so many questions.
Thank you guys for coming on. I watched. I watched
both episodes this morning, so I feel like I just

(00:41):
I switched screens from watching you on TV too. Now
you're on my computer and I'm so excited to ask
you everything. Yeah. Thanks for having us appreciate it. Yeah
he So, before we get started, can you guys give
us a quick idea of how the show works, because
for the listeners that maybe haven't seen it yet, what
can they expect when they tune tune the show on? Um? Yeah,

(01:05):
so I guess The main point is we're doing this
experience where we're really tuning into our wild animals and
we're assigned or given a spirit animal that we really
kind of embrace, and throughout the show we do different
mating rituals and just different things that animals typically do
in the wild and how they mate, and we kind

(01:27):
of reenact them to see if maybe we can attract
someone in a different way. But there's a twist. Um
in the beginning, we find out that we can't talk
to each other, and it's extremely uncomfortable, very challenging, but
it completely opens the door to just dating differently, and

(01:47):
um you earn chances to win, um, a chance to talk. Basically,
it's very it's very different wild. Do you ever wonder
how like the shows like this get thought up, Like
the producer rumor they come up with this idea and
they're like, you know what, I love it, Let's do
it because I love the idea of the show. But like,
how the heck do they even get to that point? Yeah?

(02:09):
I imagine just like tend people kind of just sitting
around and they're just spitting out ideas and it's like no, no, no,
and then someone's like Hey, let's just throw them all
in a jungle and they can't talk. And I was like,
I love it. What I loved about the show, to
give you a little context, Dean and listeners who haven't
watched yet, is like they're also juxtaposing it to real

(02:31):
um like Animal Planet style footage, and its whole things narrated,
So they have a narrator who's talking about all of
the cast, like the B is like the B is
the winner of the I don't know, you guys can
all say it better, but it's it's really kind of funny.
There's a lot of humor in it, and I think
that makes that just made the show so much more interesting.

(02:52):
And when I saw that, I was like, yeah, what
kind of writers, Like how are they even coming up
with this? But it's an awesome added element. Yeah, they
definitely added it so much different than what I was expecting, because,
like you, you're seeing it for the first time, and
so am I. You know, I was there, but you know,
seeing it all come together is really interesting and entertaining.

(03:17):
So at what point did you guys know you were
not going to be able to speak to one another? Huh? Yeah,
that's a that's a good question, because we didn't know
until the fact that we walked up the first day
of filming. We had no idea what we're doing. Um.
I remember getting there to Columbia a week before UM

(03:38):
to quarantine, and as we're walking in for the first
a shoot, you walk back these signs and says animals
can't talk, so neither can you. And that's when I
kind of just stopped and I was like, oh, like,
what the heck am I going to do? Like I'm
I'm a quala, Like do I just hang on to
people from your life? How do I get through this

(03:58):
experience right here? So I think everybody's mind was just
scrambling to find a way to interact with one more page.
How is that for you? It was so uncomfortable. I
feel like I'm just a big talker, and when you
first meet people, you're always just like selling yourself, you know,
And um, you just had to think about interacting with

(04:19):
people in a completely different and uncomfortable way. And just
I personally try to use like eye contact, but half
the time no one really like noticed it or didn't
realize that I was interested. So a lot of just
physical touch and little like noises and stuff, trying to
get people's attention, but at the end of the day,
you're not actually getting to know each other. It's all

(04:40):
like physical traction at first and just you know, trying
to figure out who you're actually interested in. But there
had to have been like slip ups along the way, right,
because just because there are signs or like people telling
you can't talk, there still had to have been moments
where people are like blurning stuff out. I mean it
was very hard, like we would accidentally like say things,

(05:01):
but at the end of the day, like we really
didn't have conversation. Yeah, that's what I always caring about too.
I remember like as people were going home, I mean
there were there were people on there that you know,
you hadn't even had it, Like, you know, I haven't
had a conversation with Dylan after the first episode, so um,

(05:22):
you're hearing people's voices for the first time. So it's
so it's crazy to think, like I had a whole
unique experience with this person and we didn't share a
single word. Yeah, how did how did you guys end
up on the show? Like how did you come about
to be on the show? I don't even remember I
think I was emailed or something and it was during

(05:45):
COVID and I have been single for three years, and
I was like, you know what, I might as well
do these auditions or you know, try this out. And
then they randomly called me up and said, oh, you'd
be perfect for the show. And me, personally, I didn't
want to do like the you know, something that had
a lot of drum in it or this that like
was super competitive between females like I just that's not me.

(06:05):
I wanted to do something that would help me grow
as a person and really look at it as an
opportunity there um and perhaps fine love if that's the case.
This specific show was so interesting and different, and I
was like, you know what, this could be really fun.
I mean, yeah, you gotta take the leap sometimes, I guess, Austin,

(06:25):
what about you? Yeah, it's I got a pretty funny
story that kind of goes with it. Um. I remember
I was on Instagram and I'm not like a huge
Instagram or I don't have I have made a thousand followers,
you know, And I get this message from a casting
producer and they're like, oh, hey, we think you would
be perfect for the show, Like just fill out this form.

(06:46):
You can find it here. And immediately I'm thinking like,
oh this this is this is fake, Like there's no way.
So I messed your back and she's like, no, here's
actually my real account. UM check me out. I I
do casting for for shows and we think you'd be
a great fit. So I didn't think anything of it.
And I actually went out a bumble day and it
was my second time meeting with this girl, and about

(07:07):
an hour of the day, I was like, this is
going horrific, Like just was on the same topic, like
just had no similar interest. I'm just sitting there thinking
like there's got to be a better way, Like this
is like terrible. So we were supposed to go out
to like the clubs afterwards. WHENOT and I was I
just looked at it. I was like, you know what,
I think. I'm just gonna go home. And I went
home and I filled out that application. I never talked

(07:29):
to No way. That is pretty funny. WHOA And now
she gets to see you on Love is Loving the
Jungle too, which is great. Um, would you guys yeah,
are you guys? Are you guys both out doorsy? You
would say yes, I love the outdoors. Granted we were
in the Columbian jungle. Like, I'm not a big camper,

(07:51):
I'm more of a glamper and literally in this like
open tree house I like to call it, and lots
of buzz ugs and it was hot and the water
was cold and it was just not ideal necessarily, but
it really made me appreciate being in that environment so

(08:11):
much more, especially with like trying to get to know someone,
because you're not distracted by all of this crazy stuff
and um, you're just really in you know, nature and
it's really beautiful and like serene puts you in a
different mindset. Yeah, for sure, Awes, what about you? Yeah,
I think I'm definitely a little bit more outdoorsy than
uh than Page. But when it comes to grasshoppers the

(08:34):
size of your forearms, I think anyone really gets come
at the bugs there were insane. Uh definitely wasn't comfortable
with that. And I consider myself, you know, I in
the past, I've done a lot of music festivals and
I like camping and um kind of I love I
love hiking and stuff, but this was on another level.
There were nice parts about it, but the bugs were insane. Yeah,

(08:56):
I've heard nightmare stories about those uh those bugs, especially
in the jungle up there. So I mean, I I
hate Bucks as most people do. You know. I give you,
guys mad prosper be able to get through that. So
what were you going to say, Sarah? Yeah, okay, So
I'm curious watching the show. I do see some like
similarities to Bachelor in Paradise that I think when Dean

(09:17):
catches up, like, we'll see some like similarities. But what
I'm curious about is during the day, like when people
go off on the dates and you're back at the
beach or I don't know what you guys called it,
buttering hole with the watering hole, Um, Like what did
you do if you can't talk? Like, and how long
would you be hanging out at the watering hole until

(09:39):
there was some sort of like change of scenery. Yeah,
so when you were on a date, it would be
a couple hours because you're doing like an excursion. Um,
so when the everyone else was back doing some type
of non verbal activity, so that lasted hours. So you know,

(10:01):
seeing on the episodes there's only bits and pieces of
the nonverbal and there's a voiceover and stuff. But we
were enduring that for long periods of time, like really
just not talking, using weird noises and just nonverbal communication.
But they made the activities when you were like not

(10:22):
on the date, they made them super fun and interactive,
and you know, I don't I don't know if they
necessarily show the activities that we did so far. As
a viewer, it just looks like you're hanging out at
the watering hole, like lounging on each other. But I'm like,

(10:42):
oh my god, for me, I would be so uncomfortable
not being able to speak and just sitting in silence.
It's so awkward. It's more so really frustrating because you
have all these questions in your head, like if you're
interested or attracted to someone right you want to know
their name and what they do for work, or if
they have few were or if you just connect with
them in any type of way aside from physical And

(11:04):
you just have these questions literally in your head because
you're not able to ask them, so it actually drives
you insane. I've never experienced wanting to get to know
someone so bad and not being able to especially Yeah,

(11:29):
I've got a question. Austin. You said you were a koala.
I believe Paige, what was your animal? How's it? Starfish? Starfish? Nice?
What was the process like for picking out the animals? Yeah? So, um,
at the beginning there was it was actually pretty intense.
There was a lot of like psych psychological and um

(11:52):
like physical trait and um emotional trait like testing that
you went through. Uh and after like all that kind
of honed in on like what your inner animal was, um,
and that's kind of how we got down to what
it was. And yeah, I mean it was it was
pretty intensive. How do you feel about being a koala?

(12:14):
I thought it was good. I thought that there was
like we share a lot of different traits. Like I
always say, I'm um, you know a little bit more
soft on the inside, a little bit more like that
cuddly person. So I was like, okay, like I I
can get down with koalas and then you really start
digging into them and they're really like not the cute
cuddly creatures you think they are, Like they're aggressive. Um.

(12:34):
So I thought that we've matched a lot of traits
and and they had some fun things that they can
do to interact with people. So I thought it was good.
I mean, coals are pretty cool. I gotta give you
that one page what about you? Starfish is a little
bit more abstract. Yeah, you know, it was. It was
difficult to grasp at first because I was like, how
do I really hone in on this? But at the

(12:56):
end of the day, I feel like starfish or just
they go with the flow. They're easy going, but and
the inside they actually have a lot of nerve ending
so they have a lot of emotions and but it's
all internal, you know. So I think for me that's
very relatable, you know, like a very bubbly and fun
but I have a lot of what I'm very sensitive
on the inside. So um, and I'm just the star
of the show, so I'm just own it. Yeah, did

(13:22):
you guys have to do like a starfish mating ritual? No,
so we didn't do like like I was a starfish,
but I didn't necessarily act like you know, we did
have a chance to do a dance or like a
little attraction that we we did. Um early on they

(13:43):
didn't really show it, but it was really fun to
see everyone do a little like mating dance. Um really
like acting like their animal. It was it was entertaining
for the I mean, I'm sure it would be Sarah,
what animal would would you be? Do you think? Well,
I'd like to take that quiz but find out. I
think I would probably say I've always kind of thought

(14:04):
like a mountain lion. I mean, that's that's sick. Mountain
lions are pretty cool. Yeah, like kind of like you know,
like a little stuff. Oh God, I was gonna say
stalker ish, but that sounds horrible, Like but like you know,
what I mean is like kind of an observer and
then you make your move. Yeah, I can see that.

(14:25):
I think I would be like a fiery ant or something.
Maybe I just I don't know. I don't want to
go into it, like I think i'd be like a
great white shark because I would end up with something
like starfish. You know, like you said Page that starfish
is a great one at the end of the day,
but at first, when you hear starfish, I'm sure you're
probably like, what starfish? That doesn't make any sense. I
think a lot of us had like animals that we

(14:46):
were not necessarily expecting, And I think that was cool
about it though, because you can go with your typical
like main big animals. But I think it was cooler
to tap into like non traditional. Yeah, I mean that's
what the show can only have so many lines on
it or it's like okay, guys, right, And it sounds

(15:06):
like that's exactly what the show is all about, is
being non traditional, which I'm excited to watch it. And
you guys said it's on Discovery Plus, right, Sarah you
said that, Yeah, Discovery Plus first episodes are out. I'm
gonna go. I'm actually bet to hop on an airplane.
I'm gonna definitely watch both of the episodes um as
quickly as I possibly can. What before we let you
guys go Page in Austin, what do you guys most

(15:26):
excited to see on the show play out? You know,
I honestly, I'm most excited to see like everyone had
a different experience, Like this was so unique and just
so out there and so different that I'm excited just
to see everyone's like journey and story. To be honest
with you, just I know it's maybe a little bit lame,
but I thought it was just so cool. I looked
at each person as kind of almost like this door

(15:50):
that you could open and learn something about yourself and
and what to take away from this experience. Yeah. Absolutely,
Page what about you. I definitely agree with that. I
think we all had a different experience and we all
got to help each other in our own experiences. And
I think for myself, I'm really excited to see my
growth because I went there knowing I needed to open

(16:11):
up emotionally and be different and not be so coldhearted,
and I think and I really tapped into that. So
it will be really interesting to re see all of that.
It's like crazy to see the actual um just like
growth especially, it's fun to be able to watch it

(16:32):
back on camera too, and like actually be able to
like see yourself change a little bit too for the better. Um.
How long How long were you guys in Columbia four
at the Eco Resort? I think, well, we were on
the reserve for a couple of weeks. Um. I personally
had to quarantine for two weeks. So that was brutal.
Did you you have No, I just hadn't had the

(16:56):
vaccine yet, so I had to go for an extra week.
You know. I was okay with it, yeah for a
new but they it really drives you crazy being in
that hotel room for for that long and then you
doing and then you're just like, well, give me out
of this room. I'm down for whatever. And then but

(17:17):
it's crazy because I think where we were filming was
way different than what production and anyone who's really used
to because we were looking they built out all all
of um just the scenery and everything. Uh, and it
was really difficult, just the terrain. So I think we
we had pretty long filming days just because it was

(17:39):
just a difficult place to be, but definitely worth it.
Did you guys production value looks great. The pictures look great.
I mean, like I said, I haven't seen it, but
yet it does look like a high, high profile show.
Did you guys know what the show was about before
getting to Columbia or was it one of those things
where they kind of like sprung it on your last moment?

(18:00):
Oh yeah, they definitely, Um, I remember like that. Like
I said, the whole interview process was probably like, you know,
between four to six I want to say, like four
to six months. And I think I got a message
like two weeks before and they're like, hey, can you
get on a plane in Columbia like you're gonna be
on the show. And I remember asking, like, you know,

(18:22):
what are we doing? Where am I going there? Like no,
you're gonna be on the show. We're gonna have people there,
We're gonna have you know, Discovery pr reach out to you,
but we can't tell you anything about it. So this
entire time, like keep in mind, like we don't know
what the show is about. We're in a foreign country.
I have my dad thinking I'm going on to another
crazy adventure, and um, you know, you're in a hotel

(18:46):
room like quarantined by yourself for like a week, pages
case two weeks, Like we still don't know what's going on.
So it's it's it's this crazy experience leading up to
this amazing journey. For sure, I had a little bit
of a different experience. I feel like my interviewing process
was pretty quick, like from I guess first interview two

(19:07):
going it was maybe just like two months or socio months,
and um, really quick. But I did remember during your
interview process, they're like, okay, choose your animal and then
we're gonna have you act out. So I remember I
think I chose like a line just in the beginning,
and I was legit like crawling on the ground like
it was just so awkward about interview. Guys know, it's

(19:30):
screw it. Everyone's uncomfortable here at the time, and I
remember what kind of mentioning like, if you can't communicate
with words with someone, what are you gonna do? So
I was just like, oh, that's interesting. And they kind
of mentioned it a couple of times of like nonverbal
communication and how are you going to do anything without words?
And I was like okay. So I had it in
my head a little bit of like can we not talk? Uh?

(19:53):
I didn't, But I really like how it actually all
played out where um, we had a chance to win
alpha and be able to talk and it was competitive.
I love the competitiveness about it because it just made
it so much more fun. Um, and you know, I'm
very competitive, so I like to win everything. Nice. They
probably saw you on your knees, roaring like a line

(20:15):
and they're like, this girl is reality TV goals. We
gotta get it on board. Yeah, um nice. Well, like
I said, I'm excited to watch. It's on Discovery. Plus,
how many more episodes do we think there's going to
be this season? So what a new episode drops every Sunday,
So if you have patience, maybe wait until Sunday because

(20:36):
you can binge three episodes and I believe that's seven
or eight total episodes. I'm not sure on that though.
I'm not entirely sure on that either. Um, but I
know episode two, if you're waiting to watch that on
the plane, it's it's going to leave it with with
with a cliffhanger, so nice. I have one more question.
I'm sorry if this is obvious and I missed it,

(20:58):
but what is the and objective to leave in a relationship?
Or is there okay? Yeah? Or I was just curious
if there was like cash or something you went home
with the greatest prize of all. Um. Yeah, Paige and Austin,
thank you guys so much for joining us. Uh. Like

(21:18):
I said, I'm excited to watch for the listeners, be
sure to tune in on Discovery Plus every Sunday. I
was just informed there seven total episodes, so five more
to come out. I'm probably gonna wait till Sunday like
Paige suggested, and just binge the first three. So thank
you guys so much for joining us. We're excited to
see your love stories unfold, hopefully depending I mean, I
don't know what we'll see what happens. You guys were
pretty koy professionally though it was good. You guys have

(21:40):
spilled too much beans for us, which I which I appreciate. Um.
But yeah, thank you guys so much. Best of luck. Yeah,
thank you for having us. Yeah, of course, thanks for
thanks for being verbal with us. We appreciate it. Yeah,
thank you. See you guys, all right, we'll see you by.

(22:09):
What do you think, Sarah, could you do something like that?
You think? Hell? No, no, I would run away as
soon as I walked onto set. I can't believe they
didn't tell austin the format of the show. Yeah, well
a lot of the times. Yeah, they just keep in
the dark until the very last second. And then I
wonder if anyone like was like, you know what, No,
I'm not going to do this even though they've already

(22:30):
done it. Had to it. Yeah, I mean when I
watched it, you, I will be so curious to see
what you say when you watch it. But when I
watched it, I was like crawling out of my skin
at how uncomfortable I would be in that situation. Yes,
is it uncomfortable for like a viewer too, or like
you know, like the funny uncomfortable like second second hand awkwardness? Yeah,

(22:52):
because I'm like, but more just like, oh my god,
if that was me, I would literally die. But yeah,
maybe don't watch it on the airplane would be my recommend. Well,
it's good. It's good because and I are always looking
for new shows to watch the Maybe I'll just wait
until I see here. Anyways, Yeah, it's you. It's definitely.
The entertainment factor is high. Nice. Um, well, thank you

(23:13):
for co hosting these two episodes with me. I really
appreciate it. Of course. It's been so much fun and
um great to get to know you better. And hopefully
we can do it again sometime. I guarantee you it
will continue on at some point. I am gonna actually
I'm driving out to Basalt, uh sometime soon hopefully, and
hopefully when that happens, we can meet up and do

(23:33):
something fun or maybe float or something like that. We'll see. Yeah, yep, totally.
I would love to meet you guys in person and
we'll go out on an adventure. Yeah. What I want
to ask you? What part of Carbondale are you in? Uh,
we're like downtown Carbondale by the library. Oh nice, that's
an amazing spot. Yeah, we love it, love it. We're wrenters.

(23:56):
We don't own yet, but we did buy a piece
of property. Hopefully we'll be able to build someday once prices. Dude,
owning in Carbondale is like you have to have like
millions of dollars right now. It seems like, yeah, you can't.
There's a house on the corner right next to us
that just went up and it's like a beater and
it's uh one point seven millions. Cool yeah, cool hardboard box. Yeah.

(24:23):
So probably not gonna be buying in downtown card Mill
anytime soon, no, especially when interest rates are Yeah, and
that's probably so different from when you grew up, because
Carbondale is probably like the much more affordable option down
valley from Aspen and now it's the new Aspen. Yeah,
Carbondale is always like look down on, like that was
like the graffy part of the valley. And I remember

(24:45):
when I was like thirteen. So there's like two thousand
four that GEO published an article of like top five
up and coming towns in America or something like that,
or like coolest towns to live in, and Carbondale was
one of them. And really and this was like in
two thousand four or something like that, and I remember
like laughing about with all my friends, like I can't
believe they like Carbondale. That place sucks. But now it's like, yeah,

(25:05):
I mean I love Carbondale. I think it's great. I know.
I mean when I first moved there, I definitely was
a little like, what I like, this is so different
from l A. I definitely had a little snotty attitude
about it kind of, And then um, now I love it.
I'm like, I never want to leave. I'm obsessed with it. Yeah,
and like there's like the mountain fairs and stuff I
would like. If I were to live back in the the valley,
I think Carbondale would be the spot to live for sure.

(25:27):
Like no Basalt Basalt and even Aspen is a little
hoity toity, but whatever. I guess. Oh yeah, Well, wouldn't
that be crazy if you and Kaylin moved to Carbondale,
Colorado and we're all there, that'd be so wild. I
would love that. It's it's nice to have some friends there,
you know, I know it'd be cool. But definitely let
me know when you if you decide to come out,
and I'm gonna tell Randy you say hi, I know

(25:50):
he'll really love that. Um, yeah, please do so so
so great to chat with you. Yeah you as well. Um,
like I said, thank you again for stepping in and
Jared Stead and co hosting with me today. I hope
we can do the co hosting thing against sometime too. Yeah,
anytime you do you have a podcast of your own,
I don't. I used to have a podcast and it

(26:13):
was associated with my nonprofits, so I'm not it's not
active anymore, gotcha. Gotcha. Well that's great. That means that
you're you can jump in and be our co host
permanently anytime. Yeah, Jared watch out. I mean I think
I need to watch out. Honestly, Jared's way more reasonable
and responsible than I am. So again, thank you. You've
been great and like I said, yeah, I'm excited to

(26:35):
hang out with you a little bit more and um
do some fun stuff. So thanks again for joining us
and co hosting, and have a good rest of your week.
Thanks Dean YouTube, Thanks everyone, Bye Sarah Bye. Follow help
by suck at Dating on I Heart Radio or wherever
you listen to podcast