August 29, 2025 • 10 mins
This was originally uploaded as a video on my youtube channel here: https://youtu.be/Otm9cDuVTfw?si=Q2Fh50k68ZTJ0Osv
I went to a gecko zoo in Brooklyn to discover whether it would be better to be a lizard or a human. I talked to people and learned things. I think you will enjoy it.
Watch 1 hour of uncut interviews + support my ability to make more of this kind of content here: patreon.com/lyleforever
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, folks, this is a little bonus episode that I
originally filmed as a video for my YouTube channel as
part of a series of these mini documentaries I'm trying
to do once a month. And if you're hearing this
right now, it means that you're not listening on Spotify,
which means I can't upload the video on whatever podcast
platform you are listening on. So you can either go
(00:23):
to the link in the episode description to watch this
as a video, or you can stick around and I
have edited a version of this video that works to
listen to as just audio. Okay, And with that context given,
let's play the thing. Would you rather be a human
or a gecko?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Human? For sure? Why would you rather be a human?
The human experience? I mean, would you rather be a lizard?
I mean, obviously, I guess huh, Well.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I was thinking about it, right, because like there's a
lot of suffering I think that comes with like just
being conscious.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We're the only animals that like, like know we're going
to die.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
You get on this, Oh yeah, we're the only animals
that know we're gonna die. It's an interesting burden that
the human race suffers.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, but we get way cooler stuff because of it.
That is true.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I got invited to the opening of a new gecko
zoo that these two guys are running out of a
basement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It also happens to be right
next to the Museum of Bones. This was shortly after
I experienced an existential crisis that sent me spiraling into
my own brain thinking about death and consciousness and the
(01:37):
meaning of existence. As I looked at the lizards, I
thought about the blissful ignorance that comes with being a
dumb animal with no thoughts. They live a purely objective
life of eating, sleeping, and mating. We do all that
stuff too, but we have this added layer of consciousness
that brings with it both higher highs and lower lows
(02:00):
than that of a lizard. It made me think about whether,
if given the choice, would most people prefer to keep
the high highs and low lows of being human or
would they rather experience a more stable baseline as a lizard.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Would you rather be a lizard or a human?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I want to be a lizard.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I want to be a covid animal with no emotions,
well cared for. I'm yeah, e books, it's just hard
power here for humans, poverty, hunger, unemployment, and also when
at a hyper capitalistic society and everything's basically spectacle and
(02:42):
as time grows one gets tired of it.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Humans are probably the least moral of the animals. They
start wars, they they do crimes, they do things that
animals don't. You know, they we don't we'll get into politics.
We don't want need to get in politics. But you know,
humans are in way corrupt, right, whereas animals are very
instinctual and they don't have to deal with those kinds
of things because they're intrinsically simple or at so they're
(03:08):
the big scale problems that humans face are not are
not always present on TV and being like oh shit,
that's our new president or oh shit, that's going on
in the Middle East or something. You know, Geckos are
very simple in that way, and I wish I had
a gacko brain.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Is there anything at all that you would miss about
humanity if you were a lizard, I.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Will miss like the process of studying and acquiring knowledge
and also making things.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
With my hands.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And do you feel as though the process of acquiring
knowledge and making things and whatnot you would give it
all up.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
To be a lizard.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Just I'm okay with blissful ignorance.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, just living in my own little world.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
And you would acquire that, but at the cost of
all the gifts that your human consciousness gives you.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Again, like I said before, one gets tired of being sentient.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
It's true. Being sentient can be tiresome, and it's made
even more difficult by the fact that we're constantly inundated
with an infinite amount of information about the flaws and
corruptions of our species that the lizards are blissfully unaware of.
But I did talk to a lot of people who
believe that despite all the crazy shit it comes with,
(04:31):
sentience remains worth it. What kind of cool stuff do
you like about being a human?
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Video games, good food, the ability to travel more than
like a five mile radius?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
What about art too? Do we know any animals that
have art? I guess like there's like funny dog videos
and stuff. Yeah, but the dog isn't taken the video.
That's true. Would you guys rather be a human or
a lizard?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
When you stare at the lizard and you see how
it like as like an absent mind, does that ever
look appealing to?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Just have no thoughts. No, honey, no, do you enjoy
the quality of your thoughts?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I do?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
What kinds of things do you normally think about it
throughout the day. We might respect money, but if.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
You were a lizard, you wouldn't have to think about
money ever.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I was getting a little tired of talking about existential crap,
so I took a break to go to this room
where they had drinks and snacks. It was a good
exercise of my human agency. What was his name again, Richie, Ritchie.
Richie said that he wished he had a lizard brain.
That's like a that makes a joke. Well, there is
(05:43):
this desire to have a brain that is totally objective.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
What he meant, essentially is that sometimes having a simpler
life is a lot easier. With geckos, it's very repetitive,
they're very habitual. So you know, when he said that,
he just means that simplicity sometimes isn't a bad thing.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Do you ever have times where you genuinely do wish
that you had like a simple lizard brain and you
didn't have to deal with all this shit?
Speaker 5 (06:06):
No, because if I had a simple lizard brain, I
wouldn't be able to do this. With every struggle comes
a lesson. With every struggle comes to newfound knowledge about something.
You know, there's no such thing as success without struggle.
That's called luck. That's not success. So being a human,
it has his ups and downs. With the ups or
I get to live out a dream.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I appreciated that this man used his higher human consciousness
to embrace struggle and find a purpose that he would
not give up to become a lizard, even if that
purpose ironically involves lizards.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
Limbers have a beautiful existence. But at the same time,
do they know they exist?
Speaker 7 (06:42):
As humans were innately aware of our own consciousness, Like,
look at this guy.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
You think he knows where he where?
Speaker 7 (06:49):
This little man is right now that he's sitting on
someone's hand coseplaying as a giant gig day gecko.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
No, do you think that lizards are happier because they
don't know that they exist?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Because Dandrew's literally just here. If you're here and you
don't know that tomorrow is gonna bring sad? Is what
tomorrow is gonna bring? Any and what's smallw is gonna
bring anything? This makes you automatically happen.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Do you think humans can develop the braining of a
lizard in that sense of like trying to always be
in the present.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
You can try what.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
You might have to get like motom eyes or something,
because how are you gonna stop yourself from thinking about
their future or even the past. The past and the
future always hants us. So that's part of even human.
But that's the beautiful point about being human. I love
knowing that I'm here. It's beautiful that we actually know
we have a past.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Let me know we have a future.
Speaker 7 (07:43):
We are aware of our own existence, and that's both
scary yet beautiful.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You would take the beautiful curse over the ignorant lizard stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
A million a million funds in the paints.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I liked this perspective that the knowledge we have of
our own existence is a gift to be appreciated rather
than a weird, scary thing to be burdened with. It's
a choice of how you want to view it. Would
you rather be a human being or a lizard?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Take a human more freedom?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Do you think consciousness is more freedom or more restrictive? Right,
because a lizard has like freedom from a lot of
the kind of difficulties the humans have.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
You know, true, all you gotta do is eat and poop.
That's it, right. Do you ever envy that lifestyle or
would you still want to be a human? I think
i'd be a humor. I could drive, Yeah, you can't
drive as a lizard. Yeah, you can't drive as a lizard.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Have you traveled any places recently that you really liked
that you couldn't have gone to if you were a lizard?
Speaker 6 (08:49):
New Mexico it's kind of far, especially from here to
get down there, and it travel a whole year, that's true.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, it would take a whole year. It's a walk
as a lizard from year to New Mexico.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I guess the lizards don't even want that because they
don't even lizards don't even know that New Mexico exists.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Nah.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Is there anything about being a lizard that you envy
that you wish you could? Uh? Who you could do?
Who she could be?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Lizard?
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Ah?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I don't know, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Never thought about that. I guess you don't have to
think about it. I'm good the way I am no lizard.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
After the event, I journaled on my phone about my
conclusion from these interviews. While the human experience can be
very challenging. It can be improved by having purpose, appreciating
the little things I feel like. I read that Redemption
two would be one of the reasons for me why
I would want to be a human instead of a lizard.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Absolutely, there you go. If that's all it.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Is, choosing to view the bigger things as beautiful instead
of scary, maintaining good quality of thoughts, and going to
to New Mexico. And at the end of the day,
I would also choose to remain a human. It is
an honor
Hey, folks, this is a little bonus episode that I
originally filmed as a video for my YouTube channel as
part of a series of these mini documentaries I'm trying
to do once a month. And if you're hearing this
right now, it means that you're not listening on Spotify,
which means I can't upload the video on whatever podcast
platform you are listening on. So you can either go
(00:23):
to the link in the episode description to watch this
as a video, or you can stick around and I
have edited a version of this video that works to
listen to as just audio. Okay, And with that context given,
let's play the thing. Would you rather be a human
or a gecko?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Human? For sure? Why would you rather be a human?
The human experience? I mean, would you rather be a lizard?
I mean, obviously, I guess huh, Well.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I was thinking about it, right, because like there's a
lot of suffering I think that comes with like just
being conscious.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We're the only animals that like, like know we're going
to die.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
You get on this, Oh yeah, we're the only animals
that know we're gonna die. It's an interesting burden that
the human race suffers.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, but we get way cooler stuff because of it.
That is true.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I got invited to the opening of a new gecko
zoo that these two guys are running out of a
basement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It also happens to be right
next to the Museum of Bones. This was shortly after
I experienced an existential crisis that sent me spiraling into
my own brain thinking about death and consciousness and the
(01:37):
meaning of existence. As I looked at the lizards, I
thought about the blissful ignorance that comes with being a
dumb animal with no thoughts. They live a purely objective
life of eating, sleeping, and mating. We do all that
stuff too, but we have this added layer of consciousness
that brings with it both higher highs and lower lows
(02:00):
than that of a lizard. It made me think about whether,
if given the choice, would most people prefer to keep
the high highs and low lows of being human or
would they rather experience a more stable baseline as a lizard.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Would you rather be a lizard or a human?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I want to be a lizard.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I want to be a covid animal with no emotions,
well cared for. I'm yeah, e books, it's just hard
power here for humans, poverty, hunger, unemployment, and also when
at a hyper capitalistic society and everything's basically spectacle and
(02:42):
as time grows one gets tired of it.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Humans are probably the least moral of the animals. They
start wars, they they do crimes, they do things that
animals don't. You know, they we don't we'll get into politics.
We don't want need to get in politics. But you know,
humans are in way corrupt, right, whereas animals are very
instinctual and they don't have to deal with those kinds
of things because they're intrinsically simple or at so they're
(03:08):
the big scale problems that humans face are not are
not always present on TV and being like oh shit,
that's our new president or oh shit, that's going on
in the Middle East or something. You know, Geckos are
very simple in that way, and I wish I had
a gacko brain.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Is there anything at all that you would miss about
humanity if you were a lizard, I.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Will miss like the process of studying and acquiring knowledge
and also making things.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
With my hands.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And do you feel as though the process of acquiring
knowledge and making things and whatnot you would give it
all up.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
To be a lizard.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Just I'm okay with blissful ignorance.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, just living in my own little world.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
And you would acquire that, but at the cost of
all the gifts that your human consciousness gives you.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Again, like I said before, one gets tired of being sentient.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
It's true. Being sentient can be tiresome, and it's made
even more difficult by the fact that we're constantly inundated
with an infinite amount of information about the flaws and
corruptions of our species that the lizards are blissfully unaware of.
But I did talk to a lot of people who
believe that despite all the crazy shit it comes with,
(04:31):
sentience remains worth it. What kind of cool stuff do
you like about being a human?
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Video games, good food, the ability to travel more than
like a five mile radius?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
What about art too? Do we know any animals that
have art? I guess like there's like funny dog videos
and stuff. Yeah, but the dog isn't taken the video.
That's true. Would you guys rather be a human or
a lizard?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
When you stare at the lizard and you see how
it like as like an absent mind, does that ever
look appealing to?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Just have no thoughts. No, honey, no, do you enjoy
the quality of your thoughts?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I do?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
What kinds of things do you normally think about it
throughout the day. We might respect money, but if.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
You were a lizard, you wouldn't have to think about
money ever.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I was getting a little tired of talking about existential crap,
so I took a break to go to this room
where they had drinks and snacks. It was a good
exercise of my human agency. What was his name again, Richie, Ritchie.
Richie said that he wished he had a lizard brain.
That's like a that makes a joke. Well, there is
(05:43):
this desire to have a brain that is totally objective.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
What he meant, essentially is that sometimes having a simpler
life is a lot easier. With geckos, it's very repetitive,
they're very habitual. So you know, when he said that,
he just means that simplicity sometimes isn't a bad thing.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Do you ever have times where you genuinely do wish
that you had like a simple lizard brain and you
didn't have to deal with all this shit?
Speaker 5 (06:06):
No, because if I had a simple lizard brain, I
wouldn't be able to do this. With every struggle comes
a lesson. With every struggle comes to newfound knowledge about something.
You know, there's no such thing as success without struggle.
That's called luck. That's not success. So being a human,
it has his ups and downs. With the ups or
I get to live out a dream.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I appreciated that this man used his higher human consciousness
to embrace struggle and find a purpose that he would
not give up to become a lizard, even if that
purpose ironically involves lizards.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
Limbers have a beautiful existence. But at the same time,
do they know they exist?
Speaker 7 (06:42):
As humans were innately aware of our own consciousness, Like,
look at this guy.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
You think he knows where he where?
Speaker 7 (06:49):
This little man is right now that he's sitting on
someone's hand coseplaying as a giant gig day gecko.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
No, do you think that lizards are happier because they
don't know that they exist?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Because Dandrew's literally just here. If you're here and you
don't know that tomorrow is gonna bring sad? Is what
tomorrow is gonna bring? Any and what's smallw is gonna
bring anything? This makes you automatically happen.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Do you think humans can develop the braining of a
lizard in that sense of like trying to always be
in the present.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
You can try what.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
You might have to get like motom eyes or something,
because how are you gonna stop yourself from thinking about
their future or even the past. The past and the
future always hants us. So that's part of even human.
But that's the beautiful point about being human. I love
knowing that I'm here. It's beautiful that we actually know
we have a past.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Let me know we have a future.
Speaker 7 (07:43):
We are aware of our own existence, and that's both
scary yet beautiful.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
You would take the beautiful curse over the ignorant lizard stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
A million a million funds in the paints.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I liked this perspective that the knowledge we have of
our own existence is a gift to be appreciated rather
than a weird, scary thing to be burdened with. It's
a choice of how you want to view it. Would
you rather be a human being or a lizard?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Take a human more freedom?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Do you think consciousness is more freedom or more restrictive? Right,
because a lizard has like freedom from a lot of
the kind of difficulties the humans have.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
You know, true, all you gotta do is eat and poop.
That's it, right. Do you ever envy that lifestyle or
would you still want to be a human? I think
i'd be a humor. I could drive, Yeah, you can't
drive as a lizard. Yeah, you can't drive as a lizard.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Have you traveled any places recently that you really liked
that you couldn't have gone to if you were a lizard?
Speaker 6 (08:49):
New Mexico it's kind of far, especially from here to
get down there, and it travel a whole year, that's true.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, it would take a whole year. It's a walk
as a lizard from year to New Mexico.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I guess the lizards don't even want that because they
don't even lizards don't even know that New Mexico exists.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Nah.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Is there anything about being a lizard that you envy
that you wish you could? Uh? Who you could do?
Who she could be?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Lizard?
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Ah?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I don't know, to be honest.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Never thought about that. I guess you don't have to
think about it. I'm good the way I am no lizard.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
After the event, I journaled on my phone about my
conclusion from these interviews. While the human experience can be
very challenging. It can be improved by having purpose, appreciating
the little things I feel like. I read that Redemption
two would be one of the reasons for me why
I would want to be a human instead of a lizard.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Absolutely, there you go. If that's all it.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Is, choosing to view the bigger things as beautiful instead
of scary, maintaining good quality of thoughts, and going to
to New Mexico. And at the end of the day,
I would also choose to remain a human. It is
an honor
Host
Lyle Drescher
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