October 11, 2025 • 59 mins
In this episode of the Doc & Jacques radio variety show, Jared Wilson recounts his transformative travels across New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji, highlighting his journey toward independence and self-discovery after high school. He shares stories of living off-grid, navigating cultural differences, and facing survival challenges, such as hunting with a Fijian village and venturing […]
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(00:09):
Welcome.
Welcome. You have now entered
the cosmic radio receptors of KCIW
one hundred point seven FM in Brookings, Oregon.
Thank you for tuning into this week's
fabulous program once again. I'm doctor Gigi, and
my cohost
is, as always, and again,
Jacques Kepner. How are you today, Jacques? Greetings,
(00:31):
everybody. Welcome. Thank you, doctor. Welcome to the
Doc and Jacques Radio Variety Show. Special thanks
to sound engineer, Tom Bozak.
And, hey, Ray Simon's out of the office.
He's, gonna be gone for a couple weeks.
Michael Gorso, I just was speaking to
Ray Gary, Rick McNamer, all the people. The
voices of KCAW are always gathered here on
Wednesdays where if you have a PSA or
(00:51):
public service announcement,
you can come down Wednesdays between, I think
it's 01:30, two o'clockish until
two to three. Okay. From two to three
it is.
And, you can record a PSA or public
service announcement about your community
event or group, etcetera.
Alright. I wanna mention that you're hearing this
live show on KCIW in Brookings, Oregon. That
(01:13):
said, the same syndicated show will be rebroadcast
in exactly one week from now, each and
every Wednesday on k z z h ninety
six point seven FM in Eureka Humboldt
at 8AM in the morning, and then a
few hours later at 1PM on my old
alma mater, k f u g one zero
one point one FM in Crescent City, California.
So now you know, doctor Gigi and I
(01:36):
have your
coast
covered.
Right on. So,
Jacques Epoo, we've missed you. You were gone
the past three weeks, and
you were traveling past somewhere in the East.
Tell us about it. Keisha. I had a
great time, everyone. And, Doc, I missed you
tremendously.
I got to see the incredible fall colors
(01:56):
in you, Utah.
Wow, go Utah. From there it was so
nice up near Park City and coming through
the mountains
into Salt Lake City. It was amazing
how colorful it was. I hit it peak,
peak, peak. Also Nebraska,
Wyoming, Southern Wyoming, although it's mainly desert there,
the bloom was out there. And it rained
while I was there. So it was really
cool to drive across the desert Wow. And
(02:17):
find the desert soaked and taking on a
green hue.
Nebraska, Missouri, and Arkansas, took all those little
back roads the whole way. Had a great
time, three weeks.
I just took my time. Took a long
drive across America and accompanied only by my
what? My trio
of traveling
Triples.
I brought Kush and Cosimo and Cleaver all
(02:38):
were with me. They had a great time
hanging out too.
A big shout out to all those that
filled my shoes while I was gone, like
your son, Lucas. Lucas. Lucas. You did a
good job, excellent job last week. And who,
I wanna say just two days ago, drove
from Crescent City
to Salt Lake City
in one day. Folks, that's nearly 900 miles.
(03:00):
Okay? And he he did it. He pulled
it off. Did it, and he he and
he he got my car, which is 24
years old in in 2002
RAV four. Of course, it's a Toyota. What
do you expect? Come on. I love it.
A big shout out, also to your sister,
your twin sister, Rita. Hey, Rita. What's going
on? Who you interviewed and who she co
hosted the show with. Right. Mhmm. Two weeks
(03:23):
ago. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. And
it was always so fun to hear you
and your sister and your son having such
a good time on this radio,
with our guests Right. In our area. Love
it. It just feels really, really good to
be back home, back on the show, on
this lovely West Coast
seaside slice of heaven. And sitting here
(03:44):
beside you, my most precious,
smart, and lovely treasure,
you,
Gigi, I really truly love you. So good
to be back. Thank you. Alright. You too.
Okay. What medical marvels does my German, multilingual,
medical doctor, hospice director, three time patent holding
scientist, and university professor
have for us today on this week's segment
(04:05):
of
MDGG?
Well,
you suggested
the tongue.
So let's have a little
tongue
Tongue tongue. Tongue twisted. Tongue tongue conversation.
So listen to this. The tongue consists of
eight interwoven muscles,
(04:26):
making it extremely flexible and strong, whereby four
of the eight muscles are attached only to
each other, which is very much unheard of
that muscles are connected to muscles.
And the hyoid bone, which is a little
u shaped bone in your, you know, in
your where the where the, thyroid usually sits
(04:46):
right there, that's where some other muscles attach
and that's the only bone, we're talking the
tongue, but that's the only bone where some
tongue muscles attach that is not attached to
another bone. Interesting that you would be talking
tongue because
last week while I was in Arkansas, Northern
Arkansas, I went to a cafe Yeah. And
I asked the waitress what was good and
(05:07):
she recommended the beef tongue sandwich. Oh. I
replied, yuck. How filthy.
I'm never gonna eat anything that comes from
an animal's mouth. So she just shrugged and
said, well, then how about some eggs?
Back to the tongue. The human tongue. The
average human tongue is about 10 centimeter, which
(05:28):
is about four inches
long from base to tip. I'm six inches
at least. I have do have a long
tongue. I've I'm born with a long tongue.
Okay. Everybody wanted to hear that. Tongue tying
contest.
I got busted for tying people's tongues up.
And that judge, he he gave me a
a tough sentence.
You get a sentence?
(05:49):
No. Oh, You can't talk. You can't talk
with long okay. Students have 8,000 to 10,000
taste buds Wow.
Mainly in the tongue. But guess what? They're
also in your cheeks and inner lips and
roof of the mouth. Wow. And these taste
buds
detect five
flavors, five main flavors. Do you remember them?
(06:10):
I do. Well, tell them to me. Sour.
Mhmm.
Sweet. Bright.
Salty? Yes.
Oh, mum mum mummi?
Mummi. Mummi. Mummi, which is what? Kinda like
the taste of meat or Savory.
Savory. Interesting.
MSG. Right? And,
oh, the like a lemon bitter. That's not
Lemon is sour. Yeah. But bitter. Uh-huh. Yeah.
(06:31):
Bitter is like, Like medicine.
Oh, yeah. That's not So we don't like
bitter because usually the bitter stuff is not
good for us, actually. A COVID test nurse
a COVID testing nurse Yeah? Recently asked me
if I had, why, if I'd had a
sudden loss of my taste. Yeah. And I
told her, no. I've always dressed like this
(06:51):
for quite a while.
I have good taste in my dressing. Belgium,
we're investing time right now. Oh my god.
Alright. Taste buds regularly die off and are
replaced every few weeks. Wow. So that's why
when we burn our tongue, we kill some
taste buds and then they're coming back.
And
this is also interesting. Every person's tongue is
unique in shape and pattern similar to a
(07:14):
fingerprint. Did you know that identical twins have
different fingerprints?
I do. Do that. But you both have
different tongues, but it does leave a different
pattern. Everybody's
Yeah. Yeah. Tongue is different. Speaking about,
mouth and the tongue and stuff, my dentist
recently won an award.
It was just a little plaque.
(07:36):
Okay. Okay.
The tongue is one of the fastest healing
tissues in the body. Got it. It harbors
about 300
types of
bacteria
in one milliliter of saliva.
It could contain about a million
bacteria.
Oh my goodness. My my Not necessarily bad,
(07:57):
but yeah. My dentist asked me if I
floss and I told him, yes, I floss
religiously. And he said, really? Come on. And
I said, yep, I do. Every Christmas and
Easter.
Religiously.
Okay. The tongue can gain weight as
we gain body weight. So and then it's
called
obese tongue. You're kidding. Are you serious?
Yeah. And it's associated with sleep problems. So
(08:19):
when you're laying down, the tongue kind of
rolls in back. Oh.
Then you can't breathe. The tongue gets fat
on you. Yeah. And some people can roll
or curl their tongue, which is the yes.
You can do it. I could do it.
Can you? Oh, yeah. Oh, this can do
it. I'll show it our tongue. Yeah. It's
okay. Yep. Hey. If your coffee tastes like
mud, guess what? What? It's probably fresh ground.
(08:40):
That's a good one.
The blue whale's tongue
is the largest in the animal kingdom. We
know blue whales are really big. Right? They're
big mammals, actually. So the blue whale's tongue
can weigh 5,000 to a 100 pounds. No
way. No way. 5,000. This is the way
of an African foraged elephant?
Tons of that's several tons. They're just their
(09:02):
tongue. Yeah. Yeah. Woah.
I'm so fat that if I wear a
yellow raincoat, people hang me down and thinking
I'm a taxi.
Okay. Let's speed this up. The color and
appearance of the tongue can indicate overall health.
As a matter of fact, I worked with,
my cute Yingying, Yang Yang Yang,
(09:22):
and she was my when I did research.
And so whenever anybody and she was a
barefoot,
doctor in China. So, you know, that so
anyway, so whenever somebody said, oh, I feel
bad or whatever. First thing, show me your
tongue. Stick out your tongue. And that's true.
They do look at your tongue. Right? So
pink indicates normal, healthy tongue. K. Red,
(09:43):
dark, beefy red, may signal vitamin b deficiency,
fever,
or certain infections such as scarlet fever
or hormone imbalances or Scarlet red top, is
that Yeah. Yes. That's what the scarlet comes
for and part of it and Kawasaki disease.
Yeah.
White could be caused by a fungal infection,
like oral thrush, I think we're all familiar
(10:05):
with. Weird or white plaque? Which means you
have little white plaques on there, which can
be indicating certain things.
Poor oral
hygiene. Yeah. I would say that's part like
Yeah.
Eating cheese and popcorn. Or just dehydration
or an immune deficiency.
Hey. Did you know that the brain said
to the liver, hey, you're a six.
(10:25):
And the spleen said to the colon, hey,
you're a seven.
And the urethra said to the bladder,
you're an eight.
I don't know how that goes with the
tongue, but we're gonna go with it. Okay.
Where's my water?
Yellow can it's under your Oh, it's under.
Yellow can result from bacterial buildup,
(10:46):
smoking. That's kind of gross. Chewing tobacco,
jaundice. They did a lot of that in
Arkansas, Missouri. I'm telling you. Yeah. They chaw.
They had a lot of chaw. Yellow tongue.
And they carry around these bottles.
Purp.
Purple or
blue, of course, is poor blood circulation
or blood poor oxygen,
which can be caused by heart or lung
(11:07):
issues. Very interesting. What part of your body
never dies, doctor? Which one? The liver.
Oh, because it lives
The liver. Liver.
Okay. Okay. One more. Brown or black tongue,
me, is usually actually
harmless
because Black tongue is harmless. Well, brown because
(11:27):
you have been chewing tobacco. Oh, yeah. So,
you know, depending on the black tobacco or
brown or yellow tobacco.
But it can also be linked to the
bacteria. That's when you start Oral hygiene.
For oral hygiene
or actually medication
or
diabetes.
Yeah. I don't remember hearing anybody say, woah.
Yeah. That caught me. First thing I noticed
(11:49):
was your black tongue. Yeah. Oh, it turned
me on.
Alright. Well, that's very, very interesting. I wanted
to let everybody know that I had to
quit smoking marijuana recently because my cholesterol was
just getting way too high.
Right? Okay.
I'm done. I'm done fantastic. Thank you, doctor.
It feels good to be back in the
studio with you and our great guest today,
(12:10):
a friend of ours, a guy that we've
known, a gentleman we've known for a couple
years who's been on the old Jacques Talks
down on KFUG,
and KZZH.
And he was,
such an interesting guy. We know his mom,
Jaden. Big shout out to Jaden and Grant.
I'm Jaden. And Vera. Yeah. The other one.
His grandmother, Vera.
I hope you're all listening and Mhmm. Having
(12:31):
a good time. And even Sam, who you'll
find out a little bit about Sam a
little bit. It's a matter of all. Alright.
But every now and then,
someone does something that the rest of us
just look at
our passports. And we realize that those passports
have been buried in a forgotten bedroom drawer
under old tax papers and car titles.
(12:51):
Some people dream about travel, and they scroll
past pictures of sunsets in Bali or mountain
peaks in Patagonia.
But every so often, we all do it.
We all daydream
that maybe, just maybe,
we should step out of our familiar sunrise
and into the shadows of surprise. Mhmm. I
(13:11):
mean, that's okay. We can't all be Jack
Kerouac or Anthony Bourdain or Rick Steves, but
sometimes
someone actually gets up and
goes.
They jump over the edge and
into the oftentimes
unknown.
And I'm not talking about a cruise ship
or a tour bus through Italy and France.
I'm talking travel, deep dive travel.
(13:34):
Our guest today,
Jared Wilson,
once upon a time decided to do such
and not just to go anywhere.
He started out tame and then he went
wild.
He disappeared
deep into the jungles of Fiji and many
other places,
places where Wi Fi is just an imaginary
thing. The air hums with mystery, and the
(13:56):
locals have been telling stories older than most
nations.
Jared
is no stranger to us.
He has been on my show personally, multiple
ones, and we've become friends and I've gotten
to know this man very well. He is
totally cool.
It's my take that the stories you're gonna
be hearing were ones that he did not
(14:18):
take as a tourist,
but rather as a curious soul
searching for a connection,
for meaning, and maybe,
just maybe, for a little trouble
of the good kind. Today on the Doc
and Jacques Show, we're gonna break down some
barriers with Jared Wilson
for let me ask you, what makes someone
trade comfort for adventure,
(14:40):
safety for discovery,
and give up the creature comforts for a
straw bed, if that, without a mosquito net?
Today, we'll find out about this interesting man
that lives within our midst,
our keen, well spoken, and philosophical friend, philosophical
friend, Jared. So lean back
and get ready to take a journey because
(15:01):
Jared's stories
just might inspire you to dust off that
passport, pack lightly,
and say goodbye to the sanity of sameness
and hello to new adventure.
Without any further ver verbiage from me, doctor
Gigi and I wish to welcome Jared Wilson
to the Doc and Jacques radio show. Welcome,
Jared.
Hey, Owen, North Coast folks and beyond
(15:24):
and beyond. Very cool to have you here.
Mom is listening and Sam. And who who's
Sam?
Well, Sam is my sweetheart. There you go.
Cool. Great. Alright. Well, to introduce you even
more or from the beginning,
we're gonna start.
From the beginning, where were you born and
raised, Jared? Well, I grew up in the
Santa Cruz Mountains.
(15:45):
In fact, I'm pleased to say I've lived
in every range of the Santa Cruz Mountains
all the way through the whole county.
You know, graduated from Santa Cruz High. Wow.
And,
it was a really beautiful, special place to
to come up. Do you know ice cream
gray ice cream grade cone? No. Ice cream
cone grade?
Indeed. It's actually just a stone's throw from,
(16:07):
from Gam's house, my grandma. Wow. How cool
is that? Exactly. I have some friends in
there. So what brought you here, mister
stone what?
Oh, ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream
comb grade. It's our big road in Santa
Cruz up on the top of the mountain.
Right? Bonny Doon. Bonny Doon. Yeah. There we
go. So what brought you here? Well, I
I came to the North Coast,
(16:28):
essentially to
reassemble
my family.
It's, what you might consider a legacy project.
It's it's a labor of love. And,
we were all living dispersed throughout the county
as adults, and,
my grandma was in need of some assistance.
And so we decided to join back together
(16:50):
and,
create a family homestead and live the dream.
Up here in our coastal region of the
Brookings Crescent City realm. Right? Exactly. Very cool.
Now what do you like best about this
area? Oh, I like the redwoods, and I
love the sea. Oh, oh, I didn't know
I was. Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Johnny.
Well, it's a coastal wonderland, you know. I
(17:11):
mean, it's
very reminiscent of where I grew up, but,
you know, maybe a little more in a
time capsule, so to speak.
Really the first thing that struck me was
just the wild opulence everywhere. You know, there's
berries popping off the vine. There's the two
major rivers up here. There's elk running all
over the place. I mean It's for someone
who's living wild like I was, I'm thinking
(17:32):
this is really special, you know, even for
a California native, you know.
And also as I started to scratch the
surface up here,
I realized how genuine
these people are. They're just such real ones.
And
I I feel as though the majority of
them have chosen to be here. Yeah. You
know? Yeah. Right. We behind the redwood curtain.
(17:52):
That's right. The red curtain.
Yeah. It's a one of a kind spot.
But don't tell anyone.
Mhmm.
Yeah. It's a queen. It's slowly growing. Give
us an overview of your experiences that we'll
be talking about. Where when you were let's
just go back. When you were younger, were
you traveling off to some far off exotic
locations all the time, or you were just
(18:12):
pretty much just going to school, went to
graduated from
Santa Rosa? Hardening to Santa Cruz. Yeah. Santa
Cruz. Ice cream cone high.
Yeah. I mean, you know, I was growing
up in Santa Cruz County and,
I don't know.
I didn't really have any ex exotic plans
in in mind. I was mostly,
(18:33):
just kinda cruising along and,
enjoying myself.
But a lot of things happened that led
me to that decision. And,
I don't know. I think
it's sort of a getting thrown in the
deep end situation.
Especially when you're really young, you just feel
like you have very minimal agency in your
life. Like, things just sort of happen to
(18:53):
you and you gotta deal with it, you
know? And, it's very disempowering.
And I had just graduated high school when
I decided to go on this adventure. And,
it was real I was 19 and it
was just my way of claiming my own
life, like, radically, you know, and and developing
my own autonomy
for the first time.
Self empowerment, really.
(19:13):
Tell us a little bit about your father.
If you don't mind, do you wanna talk
about your dad? Tell us Of course. Yeah.
He's a big part of the story. My,
my dad, was a really special man. He,
basically was like the James Harriet of the
West. And,
he had a mobile veterinary clinic that was,
in kinda like an RV type of,
(19:34):
vehicle. We called it the van. Right? Travely
vet. Mhmm. And so, you know, of course,
I grew up going on house calls with
him starting as a little boy. And, actually,
even the practice was in our own home
for a while. So there's a lot of
turnover with kind of, both domestic and wild
animals just in and around me all the
time.
And, then later he got, an actual residence
(19:58):
to do this that he called the building.
And it's funny because, like, I didn't realize
it until recently.
It's like, yeah, it was, you know, the
building where he was doing his practice, but
he was the practice,
clinic.
And, even twenty years later almost, I'm visiting,
you know, friends and neighbors. Oh, yeah. You
know, your dad spayed my dog right here
(20:18):
on this chainsaw bench.
So Yeah. He's everywhere all the time. You
know? Soft bench. So, you know, yeah, it
really created this super intimate community for myself,
kind of an extended family that really reminds
me of almost like Highlander clan mentality, you
know, where just Cool. It it's it goes
without saying, you know, because the mountain is
such an intimate place. So
(20:39):
So so after high school, you decide to
not go and throw it all away. You
you have
that was not your plan in the beginning.
Right? You you had a different plan in
the beginning then came to fruition some other
way? Well, yeah. So my dad actually,
passed away when I was 11. Mhmm. And,
it was really difficult to,
(21:01):
understand how to
be a grown man coming up,
with sort of those limited resources that were
left.
And,
so I realized, okay. As soon as I
get the opportunity
to go do what I wanna do Yeah.
I'm gonna claim myself and become the man
that I wanna be, that he's, you know,
sort of left me to be.
(21:22):
And so I,
at that time was with, a girl in
high school, and she had dual citizenship to
New Zealand.
And that was her mission to go out
there and go to school. Yeah. And so
I thought, okay. This is a really fantastic
opportunity for us to go on this amazing
adventure to the other side of the world.
And, we were super dynamic. We both saved
(21:44):
up $10
and,
bought a one way ticket. And as soon
as we graduated, we jumped on the plane
and flew over there. What? Dude, you're literally
on the other side of the world. Yeah.
Right. As far as you can get. Yeah.
And so you were gonna stay there for
a little bit and come back? Or what
was the plan? I mean, you know, it
was really pretty much like an indefinite plan.
(22:06):
It it was the one way, you know,
adventure. She had planned to go to school
and, I also had endeavors out there that
were interesting to me.
She had family kinda dispersed over both islands.
So we thought, okay. Well, you know, we'll
get a car. We'll see what feels right
and find out where we fit and, you
know, kinda start building a life here.
Full of enthusiasm. 19 years old. Right? How
(22:28):
old was that? New Zealand. OMG.
What's your drinking age in New Zealand? 18.
I think it was 19. So
it's right in the pocket there. Yeah. I
thought I'm promoting that.
Very nice. So then what happened? Well, so
we're out there for several months traveling around.
We got a little car, got to see
all the sights and the special, you know,
Lord of the Rings qualities because they really
are hobbits out there. I mean, those people
(22:49):
are super hospitable and sweet. You know, come
on in. Have a cup of tea. You
know? And, so we were just having the
time of our lives adventuring. And, and then,
yeah, suddenly, she received some news that was,
truly
life changing
and,
was faced with a choice to stay and
be,
kind of in in a in a tricky
(23:10):
situation or to return to America and, attend
those things.
So,
she decided to go back,
with that news, which
left me thirty days to be in the
country because I was,
kind of part of her, visa situation. On
the garage. Yeah. You know? Sure.
(23:30):
And so suddenly, I was kinda faced with
my own choice of, okay. Do I wanna
come back to America?
Which I had already made the choice in
a way. I sold everything I owned and
said goodbye to my people
and, was committed to this. So I thought,
well, it's
almost already been made. I'm out here, you
know? Yeah. And, so it was just this
(23:51):
open invitation for me to have a natural
initiation,
into adulthood experience,
kind of a walkabout, if you will. Cool.
So I decided to take it and She
had the family there, so you were able
to kinda get you were aligned with some
of her family members. Right? So it wasn't
like you were totally out there. Yeah. I
mean, you know, it did feel,
(24:12):
right up front like it was sort of
a no safety net, like open water situation.
But,
you know, yeah. At the same time, it
was friendly. I did have some connections,
English speaking, you know, just just feeling Sure.
Sure. Kind of like the kiddie pool for
travelers, really. Yeah.
And,
yeah. So So the thirty days came to
an end and you were still not back.
(24:34):
What happened?
Well, yeah. I had one month and I
decided to go to,
Waheke Island and build,
a mud house with a group of other,
travelers and and woofers. What it Wahe Keke
Island? Waiheke Island. Yeah. It's off of Auckland,
which is, the main, capital or, not the
capital, but one of the the main cities
(24:56):
in New Zealand,
in the North Island. Oh, was this something
it was like a commune that was there.
Right? I think I recall you, Tom. So
you went to this commune. Yeah. We well,
yeah. We were all living off grid, in
a in a big old,
teepee and, you know, eating off the land
and helping this woman build a two story,
roundhouse out of Cobb.
And,
so I ended up making some friends and,
(25:19):
getting to really invest my big feelings into
a project, which is really exciting.
So in the process of doing that,
I made plans with some of these friends
to go to a festival called Confest in
Australia,
which is, in the it's, I think it's
like the North
Western Corner of New South Wales, if I
(25:40):
read all. And, it was sort of a
perfect progression,
to give me somewhere to go next and,
sort of a jumping off point to my,
wild adventure ahead. So Okay. Back to the
comment. Do I recall you telling me it
was like you were naked. Were you Everybody's
naked. Right?
Everybody's naked in this commune. Right? Yeah. Of
(26:00):
course. I mean, we're out in the wild
country
and Building mud huts. Your god mud huts.
The way you build cob is stamping it
with your feet. It's a mixture of clay,
straw, and aggregate.
And, it's sloppy mud, so it's gonna you're
just gonna get it all over you anyways.
And it's not like we wanted to really
do laundry every day because we're just exhausted
(26:21):
from building.
So it's like first thing in the morning,
have a cup of joe, strip down, and
jump in that mud, get going. And,
I do recall that. I'm glad I pulled
that out of you.
Take a look. Wow. What a trip. So
now you're you go to Australia.
Yeah.
And that was a real dream come true.
I had a couple of things that were
really important to me growing up that I
(26:42):
wanted to see.
And so, yeah, I fly there to the,
to the festival, which is kind of like
a Burning Man equivalent. People out in the
wild Yeah. Just being creative and, you know,
workshops and art projects and music and, you
know, late night bonfires, the whole nine yards.
And, so that was the perfect way to
get indoctrined into that culture and meet those
(27:03):
people.
And then it was kind of wide open.
I was like, well, you know,
I've set a couple of main checkpoints. Like,
I knew I was gonna be in Australia
for thirty days because that was the visa.
Yeah. So I thought, okay. I'm gonna try
to make the full circle as much as
I can in that much time and hit
as much as I can. So, yeah. I
ended up going to the Man from Snowy
River Festival, which was really special to my
(27:25):
heart and, seeing all of the authentic cowboys
competing to be the best horsemen in the
whole country.
I, hitchhiked through the middle of the country
on the Stewart Highway,
which is just full deep outback, hundreds of
miles of red dirt and,
road trains and skeletons.
And,
(27:46):
Sautiluru,
which is the the native spiritual rock right
in the middle of the country,
up to the top and then over west,
down the Great Barrier Reef,
and landing in Sydney finally and seeing all
of those things.
Yeah. The Steve Irwin Zoo.
So many influences growing up that way. At
(28:07):
this point, that's a huge trip for any
Yeah. That's pretty great. Most of us are
gonna say, okay. Well, that's really good. We
heard about a nice man that young man
that that traveled to to New Zealand, Adrian.
But that's just the beginning
of the story
in a way.
We got about a minute and a half
till I have to break.
What was the next step you took,
(28:28):
from
Australia?
What'd you do? Where'd you go? Well,
I had made a promise to my brother
that I would be back for his high
school graduation.
K. And,
I thought, well, what's in between here and
California?
The Pacific Islands.
So I, decided to do a little layover
in Fiji and check out what, the jungle
(28:48):
had to offer.
Fiji, which is
pretty,
it's pretty remote, many parts of it. Rural.
Yeah. Very, very rural. Right?
And, some amazing things. You think you've heard
anything yet? Wait till you hear what's coming
up in Fiji when we return right after
this one moment break
to tell you,
(29:09):
that you're listening to one hundred k KCAW
one hundred point seven FM Studios in lovely
Brookings, Oregon and beyond. The list of major
sponsors for this community radio are Advanced Airlines,
flying in and out of nearby Crested City
to Oakland and LA seven days a week.
Michelle Bewpert. Hey, Michelle.
Our own vibrant local Curry County Chamber of
(29:29):
Commerce. Nick and Lisa Rail and the PPA,
he was on not too long ago,
for the Partnership for Performing Arts.
The medical team at Chetco Medical and Anesthetics
at Harvard, where Doctor. Gigi is a physician.
And lastly, my dear host, co host, Doctor.
Gigi Reed, MD, and yours truly, Jacques Kepner.
On behalf of KCIW,
thanks to all of you. We're speaking with
(29:51):
Jared Wilson here about his incredible time that
he had. And you think it's been good
now? Wait until you hear what's coming up
next. This is my,
I have I've I've heard it before on
one of my on this earlier show way
back in the day, a couple years ago.
And, you fly to Fiji because it's halfway
between
Australia
and,
(30:11):
California. You gotta be back for your brother's
graduation. Mhmm. What happens when you fly to
Fiji? Yeah. Well,
I mean, I pretty much went full feral
wild ban, you know, if I wasn't alright.
Feral wild. Yeah.
W. That didn't really happen.
That's right.
You know, New Zealand, Australia is really safe
and nurturing in their own ways. I was
(30:33):
hitchhiking across both of those countries, and everybody
I met was kinda like a friend that
was just waiting to be, you know, discovered.
But then, yeah, as soon as I got
to, Fiji, it was like, oh, boy. This
really is, you know, the real thing. I'm
the only white person I saw that whole
month.
You know, they were, they had just experienced
a typhoon, so there's a lot of kind
(30:55):
of urgency
and,
you know, lack of resources.
But, basically, it was the first time I
ever felt kind of under threat,
because I've been living out in the wild
and, you know, I'd I'd never been afraid
of,
wild animals or the elements or anything like
that. You know?
It was more like, I sure hope I
don't meet a bad man one day. You
(31:15):
know? And suddenly, I'm in this place where
everybody's got hungry eyes because I'm
a white guy with with big pockets. And
I was like, oh, man. I'm kind of,
like, prey for the first time. Okay. You
know? You also stand out. How tall are
you, Jared?
Oh, I'm gonna say about five eighteen ish.
Five eighteen. So he's at least six six
as far as I know. Right? You're a
(31:37):
tall guy, tall, well proportioned,
healthy
man. And you do stand out, though. Well,
yeah. Especially in,
foreign lands. Fiji.
Right. Yeah. Fiji. The average tights is maybe
five five, and suddenly you're a you're a
towering presence among them. You weren't hanging out
in the city very long, were you? Well,
I yeah. I landed there and,
(31:58):
immediately was kinda like, alright. Unless I wanna
go the full catered route and be behind,
like, you know,
kind of gated communities and stuff, I really
need to get out into the wild and
do my thing like I've been.
So, yeah, you know, I filled up my
backpack with some canned food and whatnot and
got a big old machete knife and,
just sent it out into the jungle, really.
(32:19):
I had my phone for maps, and, I
knew I wanted to, again, see as much
as I could. So, I was kinda following
waterways
and, foraging and, trying to hit kinda some
major roads and different little smaller villages inland
and things of that nature.
But, yeah, it got to be really pretty
extreme. There is a part,
along the way where I had some,
(32:42):
wild boars almost run me down. And,
it was just that moment of kinda like,
oh, this is really long. You're out there
almost nude. Are you in fact you've you're
wearing some sort of a loincloth
right at this point. You're kinda hiking around
and suddenly you hear this huge,
or or what big Yeah. I mean, the
there wasn't a lot of, squealing, but it
(33:03):
was just the whole junket the whole jungle
was shaking, all the trees and everything around
me.
And it was coming at me almost like
an invisible force. Oh, wow.
And so, yeah, I dived out of the
way and there was just this huge pack
of boars running through the underbrush and, the
I mean, kind of big boars with big
tusks and Oh, yeah. I don't know if
you've seen wild boars, but, you know, they
can get to be, you know, 400
(33:24):
with tusks.
And it just occurred to me, yeah, you
know, if, if I got gored out here
or something, I'd just be under, you know,
the foliage and no one would ever know.
Right. And I'm just really,
kind of almost for the very first time,
like, this is
serious business. What am I doing?
Debsis sets in.
You're out there. You're doomed. So what did
(33:46):
you do? Well,
the main thing was to try to get
to higher ground and figure out where I
was because it was just deep, you know,
rural terrain.
And, so, yeah, I think it was maybe
the third day or something I was, coming
down a ridgeline, and I saw this little
village down in the in the valley and
I thought, well, that'll be a nice place
to check out and Village? You mean, nice
(34:08):
red roofs, chimneys? Or this is our, like,
primitive kind of huts and kind of native
people out there? Yeah. 10 shacks and, you
know, there's there's one transport truck a week.
I mean, I was probably 20 miles inland,
and it's all dirt roads. So there's not
like a No Walmart. Turnover. Uh-huh.
And, yeah, pretty much just kinda staggered out
(34:30):
of the the brush into town, and there
is quite a bit of interest right away.
They found a fellow who could speak English
because he was a international rugby player. And
so he was,
my right hand man, Nabuka. And, Nabuka.
Aw. Great man. And,
so,
you know, it's,
(34:51):
You stumble out of the forest. You're kinda
needing a little support.
You're needing a little, interaction with people. You've
been out there for days and almost run
over by boars. So you come into this
primitive, rather primitive, I know how primitive it
was because you were gonna tell some stories
about how they hunt there. Mhmm. Just a
moment. So you come in and were you
accepted right away or were you looked at
(35:12):
like, wow, this guy's, who the heck is
this guy guy? What is he doing here?
They were skeptical for sure. They thought I
was running from something. And Oh, yeah. Right?
I mean, why wouldn't they? Right?
And, I was
in a little bit of a trial period,
maybe the first week or so.
But, you know, when you're out in it,
it's just full
(35:33):
immersion. And, you know, the sayings are true.
Like, when in Rome, you know, do as
the Romans do, trial by fire, just become
part of, you know, the village life. Where
were you staying? I mean, were you just
sleeping on somebody Nabuccas floor or something? Or
Well, you know,
I'm embarrassed to say I was almost like
a little bit of a celebrity. So they
were kind of, like, passing me around.
(35:56):
But it was also, like, part of that
mentality of,
everybody
was just very communal and intimate,
all the time. And so even if, you
know, you didn't live in a house, you
could just kinda show up and they'd feed
you.
This is for everybody, you know.
There's a lot of,
communal kitchen action going on and big group
(36:17):
games and things of that nature.
So what what activities did you do to
fit in?
Well, so at first, I was really reaching,
and trying to find how I could be
of value and where my niche was. So
I was like, oh, I can help prep
food or I can, you know, look look
over the kiddos or whatever. And, finally, if
a kid pulls me aside and he's like,
listen, man. I I know you think you're
(36:38):
helping, but,
you're really making everyone really uncomfortable. I was
like, what do you mean? You know? He's
like, well, the stuff that you're trying to
do is
what the ladies do. And if you're doing
that, they're, like, not stoked, you know? And
I was like, oh,
okay. And he's like, okay. You need to
become part of, like, the boys crew. You
(37:00):
know?
And what we do is get up super
early and go out hunting and foraging so
that we can bring something back and the
gals can prep it out for a meal.
And I was like, perfect. That's that's really
where I wanna be anyways.
I just didn't know how to get it.
Right on. Sure. So
So then you,
started going out, you get up real early.
What what is early? Five? Was it before
(37:21):
sunrise?
Yep. Early, dark, before dawn. And,
they would have different destinations every morning because
they don't wanna just keep going over the
same places,
keeping it fresh. So,
yeah, we'd go out with,
with our machetes and usually
find a water source. Everything comes to water.
And,
(37:41):
the majority of the time out there was
me learning just how to pass through the
jungle in,
a way that is not gonna disrupt Conclusive,
almost stealthy,
quiet.
Box walking action,
and also to identify what we're even looking
for, you know,
to forage. So they were showing you where
to find it and what it looks like.
(38:01):
And,
so I was Everything from, like, lizards to
Mushrooms?
Mushrooms to Berries?
To deer. What
Lots of fruits,
lots of,
edible plants.
Their main food source is,
taro and kava,
which is what they farm.
(38:22):
So kind of root vegetable stuff. Super tropical.
So,
the the more experienced
boys were also,
hunting eels and fish,
fruit bats, anything that, was kinda low on
the totem pole that would be easy and
abundant.
So I felt like a little babe in
(38:42):
the woods at kindergarten. I didn't know how
to do it or what, you know, what
I was looking for. So mostly, I'm
I'm just fully in it looking at that.
I didn't hear you said the two words.
Right? Yeah.
I knew. I'm a bad teller. You have
to hear the story. So one morning you
go out and you decide
or you just come across these hanging
monstrously big you tell us the story. Well,
(39:03):
so they yeah. I I guess it was
fruit that day. So,
you know, we went to the battery. And,
I I can tell you that, before we
even got there, you can smell them because
it's the air is so pungent from their
Guano. Musk, if you will. Oh, musk. It
could be, but it's it's the smell of
the oils in their skin. And they're big.
These are not little bats. No. They call
(39:25):
them flying foxes, and they're
almost maybe the size of a fox, you
know, maybe a four foot wingspan that's Wow.
Real leathery and veiny.
And they've got this massive red furry collar
around their neck. Really cute little creature and
also pretty spooky and weird looking. And so
you're going out there with these guys and
suddenly one of them says, there's there's the
battery. Now you're all carrying guns. Right?
(39:50):
This is, They're not carrying guns, folks. Wait
till you see what they hunt with. Well,
so the machete is a multi tool. Right?
It's not really a main weapon. It's just
for traversing the jungle and harvesting, and it's
just sort of just what everyone has on
hand.
But these kids were trained from,
you know, probably the time they could walk
how to do these jungle skills. And there's
(40:12):
sort of a hierarchy that's developed after how
good everybody is. You know, there's the guy
that can swim really well, and there's, you
know, the slingshot kid, and there's, you know,
they all have their skills.
So, yeah, we come around the corner and,
there it is, this
remarkably huge tree that's just loaded with these
bats. And they're all sleeping because it They're
(40:32):
sleeping during the day. Well, they just got
in from their nightly, you know. It was,
just barely morning.
And so they're all kinda settling in. And,
we come up on the tree and everybody
kinda hides. And this one kid
walks up towards it and gets a little
closer and just very casually
picks up the stone off the ground
(40:53):
and hurls it at the
at a bat that's more on the outskirts
of the group
and just expertly
snipes it right off of the branch.
It hits it in the head, kills it
basically almost right away and drops to the
ground. Drops it, does not disturb anything. Disturb
the other ones. That is just amazing.
Rock.
I'm the fine monster bats. And that's what
(41:15):
he was explaining through my friend later. He
said, well, you know, you always pick the
one on the outskirts because you don't wanna
stir the flock and then make them feel
like their home has been compromised. So it's
a courtesy thing. But, just hit be able
to hit this object with a rock with
such velocity to knock it out of the
tree and knock it senseless. And then
(41:36):
That was the the one bat that was
eaten, or did you guys get more?
I think he did
Well, I think it the rule was something
like you harvest one bat per tree.
So
we we got that one. So he sneaks
up, then he pulls it this this Mhmm.
Our lifeless form out and then dispatches it
and then throws it over his shoulder and
starts bringing it back? We have little harvest
(41:58):
bags, you know. But, yeah, you know, in
this country, we whip out our debit card
and over there, they just whip out a
little stone.
So you know, thing but a chicken wing.
See? So you go bat hunting with rots
and you get a you score a big
bat. Mhmm. Yeah. This is a big bat
and,
it traps on home and you
drop it in the ground and then the,
what, ladies start cooking it up? Yeah. Yeah.
(42:20):
Well, that's the whole thing. You know, it's
kind of,
I I guess it's
part of that,
belonging, that,
building your own autonomy
and understanding,
the hierarchy of
where you fit in the culture.
These guys have a strong incentive to be
good hunters,
(42:41):
because they're feeding their people. And so it's
a point of pride to come home and,
you know, display the bounty and bring it
to the rest of the village and, have
a big cookout.
How was it?
Gamey.
Not the greatest,
hour or hour. You know, recommend it, but
it was,
surely
an experience that,
(43:02):
I mean, after you go and hunt a
wild bat, you can't be like,
I'm good. You know? Like, you gotta you
gotta get in there with the gang. You
know?
So This is great with taro root and
potato and things like this. Right? That's right.
I whipped up a scramble and, chef's guess.
What can I say? Wow. How long did
you stay in that village?
I think I was also there for thirty
days. I,
(43:22):
was trying to get at least a month
in everywhere I went, and that's about how
long it takes to get a full taste
of the culture.
Those people were just absolutely remarkable.
You know, they took me all over to
the neighboring villages to to see their friends.
Oh, cool. Here we go. You know, just
kind of
brought me in as part of the family.
And to that point,
(43:44):
when I was getting ready to leave, I
said, hey, you know,
I I'm gonna hike back to
Civilization.
Civilization to go fly away. And they said,
well, you're not gonna hike. We're gonna sponsor
you. And so they they didn't tell me
this until later.
They sold
a cow to get a taxi to drive
out there and get Wow. So it was
just like such
(44:04):
intimate courtesy there on their end of of
love, you know. It was a rough it
was a rough ride back, but you made
it back. Wow.
Yeah. Before we go on to anything else,
I wanna say your story is just about
halfway through because from
this point, you travel
was it to Vietnam next or no. No.
I'm not gonna we don't wanna go to
(44:25):
details because we want you back a second
show. Oh, well,
shoot. You know, I'm always down to tell
tales and spinning your ass. So interesting really
it is. Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, I did come back to California
for a minute and,
and witnessed my brother,
graduate,
which was really, a huge accomplishment.
And then, I decided to go,
(44:46):
do some time in Indonesia
and which also led me to China and
then eventually back to,
my suites here in Nevada Mountain Range,
to do some cowboy action. Hey. Let's turn
our attraction to that. So we will pick
up this story next time we're on. We're
not gonna have you on too long with
that. We gotta hear the rest of Jared
Wilson's
amazing story of what he did.
(45:08):
Before we talk about your meal packing,
experiences, which is new to me,
I always recall what Jaden, your mother said.
She said, when you came home
from that trip, I think when you flew
into Oakland, and she says, he walked right
by me. I didn't recognize him. You were
so skinny. She said, so skinny Mhmm. That
you didn't recognize him. It was like, oh
(45:29):
my goodness. This is my son. So that
was a that's a interesting story. Let's talk
about that stuff,
our next visit. But tell us about
The meal packing.
Well
Yeah.
Yeah. You know, I mean, all this stuff
overseas,
was sort of like breadcrumbs that my dad
left me. And,
(45:50):
it,
I don't know. It felt like the sous
chef was absent, but the recipes and the
ingredients were there. So it was all about,
do I have the gumption to bake this
cake? You know?
And,
so I had all of these patchwork influences,
growing up through media that,
really inspired me, you know, that got me
(46:12):
over the to those places, Manfredo, Snow White
River, Crocodile Dundee, Steve Irwin,
Tintin. You know, I was kinda like, let's
just send it. You know? And, as soon
as I came home, things had changed a
lot. It was 2016.
And,
I was back in,
you know, the Wild West again, and I
thought it's cowboy time. Let's get Last of
the Mohicans with it. You know? So,
(46:35):
I, kinda decided to, like, finish my education,
if you will,
at this pack station,
down in the Southern Sierras.
And, I was just completely in love with,
the romance of being a cowboy and living,
you know, out there
in the wilderness, like, it was 18 feet
deep. On the top of a mountain? Out
desolate mountain with mules? Packing mules for for,
(46:59):
personal trips and for the government. So so
packing mules meaning you pack them you pack
packs on them to with a tent and
stuff? Oh, yeah. Well and a lot of
these people are paying for, you know, really
high dollar hunting and fishing trips. So it's
thousands of dollars worth of gear.
And it's a combination of rural hospitality,
(47:20):
kind of survival mission skills,
and,
having animals as your coworkers
and as opposed to, like, pets, you know.
And you've gotta orchestrate all that yourself. Right?
You're you're So are you are you a
guide or are you packing the mules for
somebody else to guide them? So, I mean,
I would consider myself a guide and also,
(47:40):
my,
sort of head trail partner, Charlie, was really
the one leading it, and I was a
a support guide, if you will.
Charlie has become kind of like my older
brother,
in in the sense that he was able
to take,
where I had got to at that point
and
polish me out to being,
(48:01):
sort of a finished
young man in a sense.
Wow. That's Which is really what I needed,
you know, someone
to be a mentor on that level.
And,
so he was sort of putting it to
me like, alright, you're a really good foot
soldier and you can row, you've proven that,
but can you be a captain? I was
like, oh, boy, that is the next level.
(48:22):
And you have to out there, you know.
Your people's lives are depending on you. Mhmm.
And so he instilled that really dynamic idea
of,
I am the trail, you know, like,
you know, by my hand, you know. And,
so that that part of it, was,
like, something I couldn't have got anywhere else.
(48:44):
You know, it's such a magical moment in
time that I I needed that while I
was impressionable
and able to receive it. So when did
you do that meal packing?
That would have been towards the 2017.
Like I say, I was pretty much like
a professional raccoon, like, 2015
through '17 consistently.
So that that was sort of the end
(49:05):
of my arc.
And,
I I can't say enough about it. There
was so many elements that,
were life and death and also,
divine, you know, by
a bevy of angels know my name, and
I can say that Intervention.
To intervene on the other side. On your
behalf.
(49:25):
And you're out there was this during the
summer months only, during the spring of fall?
Because you're planning a trip coming up with
Sam. Right? I am. And, you know, that's
really,
one of the more exciting things that, I
can report about it right now is,
we're we're coming up on my ten year
anniversary since I started working at the station.
And,
(49:46):
I also just turned 30 at the September.
That's great. Happy birthday, man. Thanks.
It's a milestone. And,
you know, I remember being a young man
out there thinking, well, one day I'll get,
experienced enough in this environment
where it's
not gonna be the scary wilderness that might
kill me. You know? It'll be my living
(50:07):
room, and I can invite
my chosen, you know, partner to join me
and and experience it too. Right. Right. And,
so now that I've just hit that checkpoint
and turned 30,
I'm I'm gonna be inviting her to hit
the trail with me. And, so you're So
it's gonna be two dumps. Two
It's getting cold, though. It's getting October ish.
(50:30):
So you'll have two two mule
people. So it's gonna be two people with
two mules going in
for an a month or just Not quite
that long. It actually lasts four hours. That's
it. I would appreciate a month. But, They
have McDonald's at the end of the
the last cabin. I'm expecting a three day
trip, and, we'll bring my two girls,
(50:52):
Henrietta and Jolene,
and,
so a pack mule between us. And then
I'll get her a riding animal that,
I trust with, her life,
who, knows these trails and has been doing
it for a long time. And Charlie's still
in the picture. Right? He's still out there?
We're gonna meet him out there as well.
How cool is that? What a great Pretty
excited. Wow.
(51:12):
But, yeah, it's really a victory moment for
me,
to become
a man
worthy of a woman choosing me,
to do something this extreme and Yeah. And
unconventional.
You know? I feel like I've, in my
own,
kind of magnanimous way, chosen this path, and,
(51:34):
and I'm being so validated in that, You
know? Very wow. Excited.
So but you have done more travels, mule
packing travels before. How long are they usually,
though? Those They're out for weeks, two weeks
at a time? Do you go out in
the bush? Yeah. You know,
I would say a minimum of four days
up to two weeks Mhmm. And,
(51:55):
different levels of extremeness.
Right. Any scientists ever go out there or
anything like that? I mean
We host a range of folks.
Usually, at the beginning of the season is,
rafting and kayak people,
on the Kern River. And then it gets
into the mid season. We're doing
backpacking and hiking,
(52:16):
families who wanna camp out, fishing.
And then getting into the end of the
season, it's,
more of a serious hunting and, What's the
name of the company? Packing company? Well, you
know, unfortunately, the station actually burned down in
the last couple of years Oh my god.
From all the crazy wildfires in California. Yeah.
So,
the it's no longer kind of like a
(52:36):
functional,
brick and mortar building about it.
It's still in the golden trout wilderness and
The golden trout wilderness. How cool.
And, we're you're hired. Let's go for four
days, Juju.
Oh my gosh. I'd love to be here.
That would be so much fun. Wouldn't that
be cool? And I'll bring Charlie. He's he's
basically, like, a Doc Holliday character, you know?
(52:56):
It'll be a huckleberry. Like, he Yeah. The
huckleberry.
In the flesh.
So I think you guys would get a
kick out of it. Man, Jared Wilson,
telling the story about your father. You know,
your father passed, but it was able to
instill some things in you. You were still
a boy, 11 year old. Mhmm. But you
you've taken on the mantle and you know
your father vicariously. You've lived
(53:17):
a life,
and it's so interesting to find I did
not know he was a vet kind of
guy that was doing a mobile, helping animals
of the world and then your experiences.
You know,
you you are a deep,
say, a contemplative,
very interesting
man. And once you you get through the
veneer of all of us, like yourself, it's
(53:38):
you're you're just sweet as can be inside,
and you are such an interesting fellow.
You're up here quite a bit in the
across city, Brooke in Zurich, taking care of
grandma amongst other things.
Yeah. But we see you occasionally out and
about in the town.
Dancing. Dancing. You're great. He's a great dancer
as Jayden is too. Is is, and Grant.
I saw Grant's kind of Grant's got it's
(53:58):
a family affairs. Yeah. Right? Yeah. You're all
such a very intriguing, very interesting family
and really, really dig it. Really dig that
you,
are able to tell these stories with a
compassion
and insight.
You're 30 years old. Happy birthday. Thank you.
Some fresh And what do you think you
have actually learned most out of all these
(54:19):
stories? And we have heard a tenth of
what actually really happened. Right? So what what
what do you
what is the best that you got out
of it or the most? Oh, wow.
So many takeaways. You know, actually, I was
talking with Gam about it. And Grandma? Grandma?
Yeah. Grandma. Grandma.
Yeah.
And, you know, I was
kind of tooting my own horn in a
(54:41):
way of, like, well, you know, I've I've
only had a handful of really important things
in my life that I wanna put my
stamp on, and and I feel like I've
accomplished a good bit of them.
And, you know, I'm my own self made
man, you know.
You know, by, you know, by so many
sacrifices.
And she was kinda contemplating and goes, well,
you know,
(55:01):
we're the sum of our influences and and
the choices we make. You know?
And, Why do I know that? Right? You
know? And I was like, yeah. It really
is. You know? And and she's so wise.
But, you know, it speaks to,
you you are who you choose to be,
you know? And I I choose to be
a collage
of all of my favorite
(55:22):
chosen influences in my life and and featuring
those things.
I would say,
I learned
through being a young man in my twenties
how to, throw my hat over the wall
and then figure it out Yeah.
Which is a big part of it.
But
also, in that process,
(55:45):
I would say
evaluating
risk reward,
setting yourself up for success so that the
result kinda just does itself and you don't
have to,
do all the legwork all the time.
Having a positive attitude, which you do. You're
a very positive person to be around. There's
no there's no dumb and glum with you.
(56:05):
So you're like, ah, you're you are up
up uplifting to people that you mean.
Wow.
Alright. We are now getting to that point
of the show being over. Right? Do we
have any time for give us a few
quotes, doctor G. We have a fun time
corner. Okay. Thank you, Jared. Listen listen in.
She's got a couple of travel, I think
it is. Give us some good You're done
with your joke? Go. Okay. I'll have a
(56:25):
moment. Come on. You're doing some good. That
no. Not all
the what?
Not all
those who wander are lost. Jesus. Now I
got it. Oh. Okay. I only took me
three times. That was a quote? And it
was my quote too. I mean, not the
one that I found. Not all those who
wander are lost.
Mhmm. I true. Hey. I like to take
(56:45):
two six month vacations twice a year.
And you know why aliens don't visit our
planet?
Because it has terrible ratings and only one
star.
The airline lost my luggage recently, so I
sued them. Unfortunately, I lost the case.
Oh,
Fantastic. The world's a book, and those who
(57:08):
do not travel read only one page.
This is wisdom. Right. Alright. Very good. One
more. Got it. One more. A journey of
a thousand miles miles begins with a single
step.
True. Oh, my. Hey, how do crazy hikers
get out of the forest, doctor? Oh. They
take the psychopath.
Okay.
(57:29):
You know it well.
Oh, this is a good one. To travel
is to discover that everyone is wrong about
other countries.
This is true. Right?
Hey, I went to Bora Bora, but I'm
too poor a poor a. Oh.
Okay.
Where do where do hamsters like to take
vacations?
At where? Amsterdam.
I
(57:51):
think that's a really
Why the we're at that point, are we
not? Hey. We are kind of at the
point, so let's zoom on out. You have
been listening to the Doc and Chuck
show on KCOW
one hundred point seven FM in Brookings, Oregon.
We certainly hope you have enjoyed our show
as much as we have listening to Jared
(58:11):
Wilson's experiences
and we've only heard Kidding, man. Part of
it. Very cool.
Yep. You've been listening to Jacques and Jacques,
k c I w one hundred point six
Jacques and Jacques? Jacques and Jacques. Sorry. I'll
slow it way way down. Hey, by the
way, never fly Peter Pan Airways, I found
out. They never land.
Mail us if you are or know of
(58:31):
a talented, interesting person that might join us
on this show. Thank you. Our email is
Is docandjock@gmail.com.
Yes. There it is. Okay. Thank you folks.
Thank you, Jared and so so fun. Super
awesome. We'll have you back on in a
few months. We're gonna hear it again. Thanks,
Ben. Alright, brother. Take a few minutes at
hand. Alright.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Welcome. You have now entered
the cosmic radio receptors of KCIW
one hundred point seven FM in Brookings, Oregon.
Thank you for tuning into this week's
fabulous program once again. I'm doctor Gigi, and
my cohost
is, as always, and again,
Jacques Kepner. How are you today, Jacques? Greetings,
(00:31):
everybody. Welcome. Thank you, doctor. Welcome to the
Doc and Jacques Radio Variety Show. Special thanks
to sound engineer, Tom Bozak.
And, hey, Ray Simon's out of the office.
He's, gonna be gone for a couple weeks.
Michael Gorso, I just was speaking to
Ray Gary, Rick McNamer, all the people. The
voices of KCAW are always gathered here on
Wednesdays where if you have a PSA or
(00:51):
public service announcement,
you can come down Wednesdays between, I think
it's 01:30, two o'clockish until
two to three. Okay. From two to three
it is.
And, you can record a PSA or public
service announcement about your community
event or group, etcetera.
Alright. I wanna mention that you're hearing this
live show on KCIW in Brookings, Oregon. That
(01:13):
said, the same syndicated show will be rebroadcast
in exactly one week from now, each and
every Wednesday on k z z h ninety
six point seven FM in Eureka Humboldt
at 8AM in the morning, and then a
few hours later at 1PM on my old
alma mater, k f u g one zero
one point one FM in Crescent City, California.
So now you know, doctor Gigi and I
(01:36):
have your
coast
covered.
Right on. So,
Jacques Epoo, we've missed you. You were gone
the past three weeks, and
you were traveling past somewhere in the East.
Tell us about it. Keisha. I had a
great time, everyone. And, Doc, I missed you
tremendously.
I got to see the incredible fall colors
(01:56):
in you, Utah.
Wow, go Utah. From there it was so
nice up near Park City and coming through
the mountains
into Salt Lake City. It was amazing
how colorful it was. I hit it peak,
peak, peak. Also Nebraska,
Wyoming, Southern Wyoming, although it's mainly desert there,
the bloom was out there. And it rained
while I was there. So it was really
cool to drive across the desert Wow. And
(02:17):
find the desert soaked and taking on a
green hue.
Nebraska, Missouri, and Arkansas, took all those little
back roads the whole way. Had a great
time, three weeks.
I just took my time. Took a long
drive across America and accompanied only by my
what? My trio
of traveling
Triples.
I brought Kush and Cosimo and Cleaver all
(02:38):
were with me. They had a great time
hanging out too.
A big shout out to all those that
filled my shoes while I was gone, like
your son, Lucas. Lucas. Lucas. You did a
good job, excellent job last week. And who,
I wanna say just two days ago, drove
from Crescent City
to Salt Lake City
in one day. Folks, that's nearly 900 miles.
(03:00):
Okay? And he he did it. He pulled
it off. Did it, and he he and
he he got my car, which is 24
years old in in 2002
RAV four. Of course, it's a Toyota. What
do you expect? Come on. I love it.
A big shout out, also to your sister,
your twin sister, Rita. Hey, Rita. What's going
on? Who you interviewed and who she co
hosted the show with. Right. Mhmm. Two weeks
(03:23):
ago. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. And
it was always so fun to hear you
and your sister and your son having such
a good time on this radio,
with our guests Right. In our area. Love
it. It just feels really, really good to
be back home, back on the show, on
this lovely West Coast
seaside slice of heaven. And sitting here
(03:44):
beside you, my most precious,
smart, and lovely treasure,
you,
Gigi, I really truly love you. So good
to be back. Thank you. Alright. You too.
Okay. What medical marvels does my German, multilingual,
medical doctor, hospice director, three time patent holding
scientist, and university professor
have for us today on this week's segment
(04:05):
of
MDGG?
Well,
you suggested
the tongue.
So let's have a little
tongue
Tongue tongue. Tongue twisted. Tongue tongue conversation.
So listen to this. The tongue consists of
eight interwoven muscles,
(04:26):
making it extremely flexible and strong, whereby four
of the eight muscles are attached only to
each other, which is very much unheard of
that muscles are connected to muscles.
And the hyoid bone, which is a little
u shaped bone in your, you know, in
your where the where the, thyroid usually sits
(04:46):
right there, that's where some other muscles attach
and that's the only bone, we're talking the
tongue, but that's the only bone where some
tongue muscles attach that is not attached to
another bone. Interesting that you would be talking
tongue because
last week while I was in Arkansas, Northern
Arkansas, I went to a cafe Yeah. And
I asked the waitress what was good and
(05:07):
she recommended the beef tongue sandwich. Oh. I
replied, yuck. How filthy.
I'm never gonna eat anything that comes from
an animal's mouth. So she just shrugged and
said, well, then how about some eggs?
Back to the tongue. The human tongue. The
average human tongue is about 10 centimeter, which
(05:28):
is about four inches
long from base to tip. I'm six inches
at least. I have do have a long
tongue. I've I'm born with a long tongue.
Okay. Everybody wanted to hear that. Tongue tying
contest.
I got busted for tying people's tongues up.
And that judge, he he gave me a
a tough sentence.
You get a sentence?
(05:49):
No. Oh, You can't talk. You can't talk
with long okay. Students have 8,000 to 10,000
taste buds Wow.
Mainly in the tongue. But guess what? They're
also in your cheeks and inner lips and
roof of the mouth. Wow. And these taste
buds
detect five
flavors, five main flavors. Do you remember them?
(06:10):
I do. Well, tell them to me. Sour.
Mhmm.
Sweet. Bright.
Salty? Yes.
Oh, mum mum mummi?
Mummi. Mummi. Mummi, which is what? Kinda like
the taste of meat or Savory.
Savory. Interesting.
MSG. Right? And,
oh, the like a lemon bitter. That's not
Lemon is sour. Yeah. But bitter. Uh-huh. Yeah.
(06:31):
Bitter is like, Like medicine.
Oh, yeah. That's not So we don't like
bitter because usually the bitter stuff is not
good for us, actually. A COVID test nurse
a COVID testing nurse Yeah? Recently asked me
if I had, why, if I'd had a
sudden loss of my taste. Yeah. And I
told her, no. I've always dressed like this
(06:51):
for quite a while.
I have good taste in my dressing. Belgium,
we're investing time right now. Oh my god.
Alright. Taste buds regularly die off and are
replaced every few weeks. Wow. So that's why
when we burn our tongue, we kill some
taste buds and then they're coming back.
And
this is also interesting. Every person's tongue is
unique in shape and pattern similar to a
(07:14):
fingerprint. Did you know that identical twins have
different fingerprints?
I do. Do that. But you both have
different tongues, but it does leave a different
pattern. Everybody's
Yeah. Yeah. Tongue is different. Speaking about,
mouth and the tongue and stuff, my dentist
recently won an award.
It was just a little plaque.
(07:36):
Okay. Okay.
The tongue is one of the fastest healing
tissues in the body. Got it. It harbors
about 300
types of
bacteria
in one milliliter of saliva.
It could contain about a million
bacteria.
Oh my goodness. My my Not necessarily bad,
(07:57):
but yeah. My dentist asked me if I
floss and I told him, yes, I floss
religiously. And he said, really? Come on. And
I said, yep, I do. Every Christmas and
Easter.
Religiously.
Okay. The tongue can gain weight as
we gain body weight. So and then it's
called
obese tongue. You're kidding. Are you serious?
Yeah. And it's associated with sleep problems. So
(08:19):
when you're laying down, the tongue kind of
rolls in back. Oh.
Then you can't breathe. The tongue gets fat
on you. Yeah. And some people can roll
or curl their tongue, which is the yes.
You can do it. I could do it.
Can you? Oh, yeah. Oh, this can do
it. I'll show it our tongue. Yeah. It's
okay. Yep. Hey. If your coffee tastes like
mud, guess what? What? It's probably fresh ground.
(08:40):
That's a good one.
The blue whale's tongue
is the largest in the animal kingdom. We
know blue whales are really big. Right? They're
big mammals, actually. So the blue whale's tongue
can weigh 5,000 to a 100 pounds. No
way. No way. 5,000. This is the way
of an African foraged elephant?
Tons of that's several tons. They're just their
(09:02):
tongue. Yeah. Yeah. Woah.
I'm so fat that if I wear a
yellow raincoat, people hang me down and thinking
I'm a taxi.
Okay. Let's speed this up. The color and
appearance of the tongue can indicate overall health.
As a matter of fact, I worked with,
my cute Yingying, Yang Yang Yang,
(09:22):
and she was my when I did research.
And so whenever anybody and she was a
barefoot,
doctor in China. So, you know, that so
anyway, so whenever somebody said, oh, I feel
bad or whatever. First thing, show me your
tongue. Stick out your tongue. And that's true.
They do look at your tongue. Right? So
pink indicates normal, healthy tongue. K. Red,
(09:43):
dark, beefy red, may signal vitamin b deficiency,
fever,
or certain infections such as scarlet fever
or hormone imbalances or Scarlet red top, is
that Yeah. Yes. That's what the scarlet comes
for and part of it and Kawasaki disease.
Yeah.
White could be caused by a fungal infection,
like oral thrush, I think we're all familiar
(10:05):
with. Weird or white plaque? Which means you
have little white plaques on there, which can
be indicating certain things.
Poor oral
hygiene. Yeah. I would say that's part like
Yeah.
Eating cheese and popcorn. Or just dehydration
or an immune deficiency.
Hey. Did you know that the brain said
to the liver, hey, you're a six.
(10:25):
And the spleen said to the colon, hey,
you're a seven.
And the urethra said to the bladder,
you're an eight.
I don't know how that goes with the
tongue, but we're gonna go with it. Okay.
Where's my water?
Yellow can it's under your Oh, it's under.
Yellow can result from bacterial buildup,
(10:46):
smoking. That's kind of gross. Chewing tobacco,
jaundice. They did a lot of that in
Arkansas, Missouri. I'm telling you. Yeah. They chaw.
They had a lot of chaw. Yellow tongue.
And they carry around these bottles.
Purp.
Purple or
blue, of course, is poor blood circulation
or blood poor oxygen,
which can be caused by heart or lung
(11:07):
issues. Very interesting. What part of your body
never dies, doctor? Which one? The liver.
Oh, because it lives
The liver. Liver.
Okay. Okay. One more. Brown or black tongue,
me, is usually actually
harmless
because Black tongue is harmless. Well, brown because
(11:27):
you have been chewing tobacco. Oh, yeah. So,
you know, depending on the black tobacco or
brown or yellow tobacco.
But it can also be linked to the
bacteria. That's when you start Oral hygiene.
For oral hygiene
or actually medication
or
diabetes.
Yeah. I don't remember hearing anybody say, woah.
Yeah. That caught me. First thing I noticed
(11:49):
was your black tongue. Yeah. Oh, it turned
me on.
Alright. Well, that's very, very interesting. I wanted
to let everybody know that I had to
quit smoking marijuana recently because my cholesterol was
just getting way too high.
Right? Okay.
I'm done. I'm done fantastic. Thank you, doctor.
It feels good to be back in the
studio with you and our great guest today,
(12:10):
a friend of ours, a guy that we've
known, a gentleman we've known for a couple
years who's been on the old Jacques Talks
down on KFUG,
and KZZH.
And he was,
such an interesting guy. We know his mom,
Jaden. Big shout out to Jaden and Grant.
I'm Jaden. And Vera. Yeah. The other one.
His grandmother, Vera.
I hope you're all listening and Mhmm. Having
(12:31):
a good time. And even Sam, who you'll
find out a little bit about Sam a
little bit. It's a matter of all. Alright.
But every now and then,
someone does something that the rest of us
just look at
our passports. And we realize that those passports
have been buried in a forgotten bedroom drawer
under old tax papers and car titles.
(12:51):
Some people dream about travel, and they scroll
past pictures of sunsets in Bali or mountain
peaks in Patagonia.
But every so often, we all do it.
We all daydream
that maybe, just maybe,
we should step out of our familiar sunrise
and into the shadows of surprise. Mhmm. I
(13:11):
mean, that's okay. We can't all be Jack
Kerouac or Anthony Bourdain or Rick Steves, but
sometimes
someone actually gets up and
goes.
They jump over the edge and
into the oftentimes
unknown.
And I'm not talking about a cruise ship
or a tour bus through Italy and France.
I'm talking travel, deep dive travel.
(13:34):
Our guest today,
Jared Wilson,
once upon a time decided to do such
and not just to go anywhere.
He started out tame and then he went
wild.
He disappeared
deep into the jungles of Fiji and many
other places,
places where Wi Fi is just an imaginary
thing. The air hums with mystery, and the
(13:56):
locals have been telling stories older than most
nations.
Jared
is no stranger to us.
He has been on my show personally, multiple
ones, and we've become friends and I've gotten
to know this man very well. He is
totally cool.
It's my take that the stories you're gonna
be hearing were ones that he did not
(14:18):
take as a tourist,
but rather as a curious soul
searching for a connection,
for meaning, and maybe,
just maybe, for a little trouble
of the good kind. Today on the Doc
and Jacques Show, we're gonna break down some
barriers with Jared Wilson
for let me ask you, what makes someone
trade comfort for adventure,
(14:40):
safety for discovery,
and give up the creature comforts for a
straw bed, if that, without a mosquito net?
Today, we'll find out about this interesting man
that lives within our midst,
our keen, well spoken, and philosophical friend, philosophical
friend, Jared. So lean back
and get ready to take a journey because
(15:01):
Jared's stories
just might inspire you to dust off that
passport, pack lightly,
and say goodbye to the sanity of sameness
and hello to new adventure.
Without any further ver verbiage from me, doctor
Gigi and I wish to welcome Jared Wilson
to the Doc and Jacques radio show. Welcome,
Jared.
Hey, Owen, North Coast folks and beyond
(15:24):
and beyond. Very cool to have you here.
Mom is listening and Sam. And who who's
Sam?
Well, Sam is my sweetheart. There you go.
Cool. Great. Alright. Well, to introduce you even
more or from the beginning,
we're gonna start.
From the beginning, where were you born and
raised, Jared? Well, I grew up in the
Santa Cruz Mountains.
(15:45):
In fact, I'm pleased to say I've lived
in every range of the Santa Cruz Mountains
all the way through the whole county.
You know, graduated from Santa Cruz High. Wow.
And,
it was a really beautiful, special place to
to come up. Do you know ice cream
gray ice cream grade cone? No. Ice cream
cone grade?
Indeed. It's actually just a stone's throw from,
(16:07):
from Gam's house, my grandma. Wow. How cool
is that? Exactly. I have some friends in
there. So what brought you here, mister
stone what?
Oh, ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream
comb grade. It's our big road in Santa
Cruz up on the top of the mountain.
Right? Bonny Doon. Bonny Doon. Yeah. There we
go. So what brought you here? Well, I
I came to the North Coast,
(16:28):
essentially to
reassemble
my family.
It's, what you might consider a legacy project.
It's it's a labor of love. And,
we were all living dispersed throughout the county
as adults, and,
my grandma was in need of some assistance.
And so we decided to join back together
(16:50):
and,
create a family homestead and live the dream.
Up here in our coastal region of the
Brookings Crescent City realm. Right? Exactly. Very cool.
Now what do you like best about this
area? Oh, I like the redwoods, and I
love the sea. Oh, oh, I didn't know
I was. Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Johnny.
Well, it's a coastal wonderland, you know. I
(17:11):
mean, it's
very reminiscent of where I grew up, but,
you know, maybe a little more in a
time capsule, so to speak.
Really the first thing that struck me was
just the wild opulence everywhere. You know, there's
berries popping off the vine. There's the two
major rivers up here. There's elk running all
over the place. I mean It's for someone
who's living wild like I was, I'm thinking
(17:32):
this is really special, you know, even for
a California native, you know.
And also as I started to scratch the
surface up here,
I realized how genuine
these people are. They're just such real ones.
And
I I feel as though the majority of
them have chosen to be here. Yeah. You
know? Yeah. Right. We behind the redwood curtain.
(17:52):
That's right. The red curtain.
Yeah. It's a one of a kind spot.
But don't tell anyone.
Mhmm.
Yeah. It's a queen. It's slowly growing. Give
us an overview of your experiences that we'll
be talking about. Where when you were let's
just go back. When you were younger, were
you traveling off to some far off exotic
locations all the time, or you were just
(18:12):
pretty much just going to school, went to
graduated from
Santa Rosa? Hardening to Santa Cruz. Yeah. Santa
Cruz. Ice cream cone high.
Yeah. I mean, you know, I was growing
up in Santa Cruz County and,
I don't know.
I didn't really have any ex exotic plans
in in mind. I was mostly,
(18:33):
just kinda cruising along and,
enjoying myself.
But a lot of things happened that led
me to that decision. And,
I don't know. I think
it's sort of a getting thrown in the
deep end situation.
Especially when you're really young, you just feel
like you have very minimal agency in your
life. Like, things just sort of happen to
(18:53):
you and you gotta deal with it, you
know? And, it's very disempowering.
And I had just graduated high school when
I decided to go on this adventure. And,
it was real I was 19 and it
was just my way of claiming my own
life, like, radically, you know, and and developing
my own autonomy
for the first time.
Self empowerment, really.
(19:13):
Tell us a little bit about your father.
If you don't mind, do you wanna talk
about your dad? Tell us Of course. Yeah.
He's a big part of the story. My,
my dad, was a really special man. He,
basically was like the James Harriet of the
West. And,
he had a mobile veterinary clinic that was,
in kinda like an RV type of,
(19:34):
vehicle. We called it the van. Right? Travely
vet. Mhmm. And so, you know, of course,
I grew up going on house calls with
him starting as a little boy. And, actually,
even the practice was in our own home
for a while. So there's a lot of
turnover with kind of, both domestic and wild
animals just in and around me all the
time.
And, then later he got, an actual residence
(19:58):
to do this that he called the building.
And it's funny because, like, I didn't realize
it until recently.
It's like, yeah, it was, you know, the
building where he was doing his practice, but
he was the practice,
clinic.
And, even twenty years later almost, I'm visiting,
you know, friends and neighbors. Oh, yeah. You
know, your dad spayed my dog right here
(20:18):
on this chainsaw bench.
So Yeah. He's everywhere all the time. You
know? Soft bench. So, you know, yeah, it
really created this super intimate community for myself,
kind of an extended family that really reminds
me of almost like Highlander clan mentality, you
know, where just Cool. It it's it goes
without saying, you know, because the mountain is
such an intimate place. So
(20:39):
So so after high school, you decide to
not go and throw it all away. You
you have
that was not your plan in the beginning.
Right? You you had a different plan in
the beginning then came to fruition some other
way? Well, yeah. So my dad actually,
passed away when I was 11. Mhmm. And,
it was really difficult to,
(21:01):
understand how to
be a grown man coming up,
with sort of those limited resources that were
left.
And,
so I realized, okay. As soon as I
get the opportunity
to go do what I wanna do Yeah.
I'm gonna claim myself and become the man
that I wanna be, that he's, you know,
sort of left me to be.
(21:22):
And so I,
at that time was with, a girl in
high school, and she had dual citizenship to
New Zealand.
And that was her mission to go out
there and go to school. Yeah. And so
I thought, okay. This is a really fantastic
opportunity for us to go on this amazing
adventure to the other side of the world.
And, we were super dynamic. We both saved
(21:44):
up $10
and,
bought a one way ticket. And as soon
as we graduated, we jumped on the plane
and flew over there. What? Dude, you're literally
on the other side of the world. Yeah.
Right. As far as you can get. Yeah.
And so you were gonna stay there for
a little bit and come back? Or what
was the plan? I mean, you know, it
was really pretty much like an indefinite plan.
(22:06):
It it was the one way, you know,
adventure. She had planned to go to school
and, I also had endeavors out there that
were interesting to me.
She had family kinda dispersed over both islands.
So we thought, okay. Well, you know, we'll
get a car. We'll see what feels right
and find out where we fit and, you
know, kinda start building a life here.
Full of enthusiasm. 19 years old. Right? How
(22:28):
old was that? New Zealand. OMG.
What's your drinking age in New Zealand? 18.
I think it was 19. So
it's right in the pocket there. Yeah. I
thought I'm promoting that.
Very nice. So then what happened? Well, so
we're out there for several months traveling around.
We got a little car, got to see
all the sights and the special, you know,
Lord of the Rings qualities because they really
are hobbits out there. I mean, those people
(22:49):
are super hospitable and sweet. You know, come
on in. Have a cup of tea. You
know? And, so we were just having the
time of our lives adventuring. And, and then,
yeah, suddenly, she received some news that was,
truly
life changing
and,
was faced with a choice to stay and
be,
kind of in in a in a tricky
(23:10):
situation or to return to America and, attend
those things.
So,
she decided to go back,
with that news, which
left me thirty days to be in the
country because I was,
kind of part of her, visa situation. On
the garage. Yeah. You know? Sure.
(23:30):
And so suddenly, I was kinda faced with
my own choice of, okay. Do I wanna
come back to America?
Which I had already made the choice in
a way. I sold everything I owned and
said goodbye to my people
and, was committed to this. So I thought,
well, it's
almost already been made. I'm out here, you
know? Yeah. And, so it was just this
(23:51):
open invitation for me to have a natural
initiation,
into adulthood experience,
kind of a walkabout, if you will. Cool.
So I decided to take it and She
had the family there, so you were able
to kinda get you were aligned with some
of her family members. Right? So it wasn't
like you were totally out there. Yeah. I
mean, you know, it did feel,
(24:12):
right up front like it was sort of
a no safety net, like open water situation.
But,
you know, yeah. At the same time, it
was friendly. I did have some connections,
English speaking, you know, just just feeling Sure.
Sure. Kind of like the kiddie pool for
travelers, really. Yeah.
And,
yeah. So So the thirty days came to
an end and you were still not back.
(24:34):
What happened?
Well, yeah. I had one month and I
decided to go to,
Waheke Island and build,
a mud house with a group of other,
travelers and and woofers. What it Wahe Keke
Island? Waiheke Island. Yeah. It's off of Auckland,
which is, the main, capital or, not the
capital, but one of the the main cities
(24:56):
in New Zealand,
in the North Island. Oh, was this something
it was like a commune that was there.
Right? I think I recall you, Tom. So
you went to this commune. Yeah. We well,
yeah. We were all living off grid, in
a in a big old,
teepee and, you know, eating off the land
and helping this woman build a two story,
roundhouse out of Cobb.
And,
so I ended up making some friends and,
(25:19):
getting to really invest my big feelings into
a project, which is really exciting.
So in the process of doing that,
I made plans with some of these friends
to go to a festival called Confest in
Australia,
which is, in the it's, I think it's
like the North
Western Corner of New South Wales, if I
(25:40):
read all. And, it was sort of a
perfect progression,
to give me somewhere to go next and,
sort of a jumping off point to my,
wild adventure ahead. So Okay. Back to the
comment. Do I recall you telling me it
was like you were naked. Were you Everybody's
naked. Right?
Everybody's naked in this commune. Right? Yeah. Of
(26:00):
course. I mean, we're out in the wild
country
and Building mud huts. Your god mud huts.
The way you build cob is stamping it
with your feet. It's a mixture of clay,
straw, and aggregate.
And, it's sloppy mud, so it's gonna you're
just gonna get it all over you anyways.
And it's not like we wanted to really
do laundry every day because we're just exhausted
(26:21):
from building.
So it's like first thing in the morning,
have a cup of joe, strip down, and
jump in that mud, get going. And,
I do recall that. I'm glad I pulled
that out of you.
Take a look. Wow. What a trip. So
now you're you go to Australia.
Yeah.
And that was a real dream come true.
I had a couple of things that were
really important to me growing up that I
(26:42):
wanted to see.
And so, yeah, I fly there to the,
to the festival, which is kind of like
a Burning Man equivalent. People out in the
wild Yeah. Just being creative and, you know,
workshops and art projects and music and, you
know, late night bonfires, the whole nine yards.
And, so that was the perfect way to
get indoctrined into that culture and meet those
(27:03):
people.
And then it was kind of wide open.
I was like, well, you know,
I've set a couple of main checkpoints. Like,
I knew I was gonna be in Australia
for thirty days because that was the visa.
Yeah. So I thought, okay. I'm gonna try
to make the full circle as much as
I can in that much time and hit
as much as I can. So, yeah. I
ended up going to the Man from Snowy
River Festival, which was really special to my
(27:25):
heart and, seeing all of the authentic cowboys
competing to be the best horsemen in the
whole country.
I, hitchhiked through the middle of the country
on the Stewart Highway,
which is just full deep outback, hundreds of
miles of red dirt and,
road trains and skeletons.
And,
(27:46):
Sautiluru,
which is the the native spiritual rock right
in the middle of the country,
up to the top and then over west,
down the Great Barrier Reef,
and landing in Sydney finally and seeing all
of those things.
Yeah. The Steve Irwin Zoo.
So many influences growing up that way. At
(28:07):
this point, that's a huge trip for any
Yeah. That's pretty great. Most of us are
gonna say, okay. Well, that's really good. We
heard about a nice man that young man
that that traveled to to New Zealand, Adrian.
But that's just the beginning
of the story
in a way.
We got about a minute and a half
till I have to break.
What was the next step you took,
(28:28):
from
Australia?
What'd you do? Where'd you go? Well,
I had made a promise to my brother
that I would be back for his high
school graduation.
K. And,
I thought, well, what's in between here and
California?
The Pacific Islands.
So I, decided to do a little layover
in Fiji and check out what, the jungle
(28:48):
had to offer.
Fiji, which is
pretty,
it's pretty remote, many parts of it. Rural.
Yeah. Very, very rural. Right?
And, some amazing things. You think you've heard
anything yet? Wait till you hear what's coming
up in Fiji when we return right after
this one moment break
to tell you,
(29:09):
that you're listening to one hundred k KCAW
one hundred point seven FM Studios in lovely
Brookings, Oregon and beyond. The list of major
sponsors for this community radio are Advanced Airlines,
flying in and out of nearby Crested City
to Oakland and LA seven days a week.
Michelle Bewpert. Hey, Michelle.
Our own vibrant local Curry County Chamber of
(29:29):
Commerce. Nick and Lisa Rail and the PPA,
he was on not too long ago,
for the Partnership for Performing Arts.
The medical team at Chetco Medical and Anesthetics
at Harvard, where Doctor. Gigi is a physician.
And lastly, my dear host, co host, Doctor.
Gigi Reed, MD, and yours truly, Jacques Kepner.
On behalf of KCIW,
thanks to all of you. We're speaking with
(29:51):
Jared Wilson here about his incredible time that
he had. And you think it's been good
now? Wait until you hear what's coming up
next. This is my,
I have I've I've heard it before on
one of my on this earlier show way
back in the day, a couple years ago.
And, you fly to Fiji because it's halfway
between
Australia
and,
(30:11):
California. You gotta be back for your brother's
graduation. Mhmm. What happens when you fly to
Fiji? Yeah. Well,
I mean, I pretty much went full feral
wild ban, you know, if I wasn't alright.
Feral wild. Yeah.
W. That didn't really happen.
That's right.
You know, New Zealand, Australia is really safe
and nurturing in their own ways. I was
(30:33):
hitchhiking across both of those countries, and everybody
I met was kinda like a friend that
was just waiting to be, you know, discovered.
But then, yeah, as soon as I got
to, Fiji, it was like, oh, boy. This
really is, you know, the real thing. I'm
the only white person I saw that whole
month.
You know, they were, they had just experienced
a typhoon, so there's a lot of kind
(30:55):
of urgency
and,
you know, lack of resources.
But, basically, it was the first time I
ever felt kind of under threat,
because I've been living out in the wild
and, you know, I'd I'd never been afraid
of,
wild animals or the elements or anything like
that. You know?
It was more like, I sure hope I
don't meet a bad man one day. You
(31:15):
know? And suddenly, I'm in this place where
everybody's got hungry eyes because I'm
a white guy with with big pockets. And
I was like, oh, man. I'm kind of,
like, prey for the first time. Okay. You
know? You also stand out. How tall are
you, Jared?
Oh, I'm gonna say about five eighteen ish.
Five eighteen. So he's at least six six
as far as I know. Right? You're a
(31:37):
tall guy, tall, well proportioned,
healthy
man. And you do stand out, though. Well,
yeah. Especially in,
foreign lands. Fiji.
Right. Yeah. Fiji. The average tights is maybe
five five, and suddenly you're a you're a
towering presence among them. You weren't hanging out
in the city very long, were you? Well,
I yeah. I landed there and,
(31:58):
immediately was kinda like, alright. Unless I wanna
go the full catered route and be behind,
like, you know,
kind of gated communities and stuff, I really
need to get out into the wild and
do my thing like I've been.
So, yeah, you know, I filled up my
backpack with some canned food and whatnot and
got a big old machete knife and,
just sent it out into the jungle, really.
(32:19):
I had my phone for maps, and, I
knew I wanted to, again, see as much
as I could. So, I was kinda following
waterways
and, foraging and, trying to hit kinda some
major roads and different little smaller villages inland
and things of that nature.
But, yeah, it got to be really pretty
extreme. There is a part,
along the way where I had some,
(32:42):
wild boars almost run me down. And,
it was just that moment of kinda like,
oh, this is really long. You're out there
almost nude. Are you in fact you've you're
wearing some sort of a loincloth
right at this point. You're kinda hiking around
and suddenly you hear this huge,
or or what big Yeah. I mean, the
there wasn't a lot of, squealing, but it
(33:03):
was just the whole junket the whole jungle
was shaking, all the trees and everything around
me.
And it was coming at me almost like
an invisible force. Oh, wow.
And so, yeah, I dived out of the
way and there was just this huge pack
of boars running through the underbrush and, the
I mean, kind of big boars with big
tusks and Oh, yeah. I don't know if
you've seen wild boars, but, you know, they
can get to be, you know, 400
(33:24):
with tusks.
And it just occurred to me, yeah, you
know, if, if I got gored out here
or something, I'd just be under, you know,
the foliage and no one would ever know.
Right. And I'm just really,
kind of almost for the very first time,
like, this is
serious business. What am I doing?
Debsis sets in.
You're out there. You're doomed. So what did
(33:46):
you do? Well,
the main thing was to try to get
to higher ground and figure out where I
was because it was just deep, you know,
rural terrain.
And, so, yeah, I think it was maybe
the third day or something I was, coming
down a ridgeline, and I saw this little
village down in the in the valley and
I thought, well, that'll be a nice place
to check out and Village? You mean, nice
(34:08):
red roofs, chimneys? Or this is our, like,
primitive kind of huts and kind of native
people out there? Yeah. 10 shacks and, you
know, there's there's one transport truck a week.
I mean, I was probably 20 miles inland,
and it's all dirt roads. So there's not
like a No Walmart. Turnover. Uh-huh.
And, yeah, pretty much just kinda staggered out
(34:30):
of the the brush into town, and there
is quite a bit of interest right away.
They found a fellow who could speak English
because he was a international rugby player. And
so he was,
my right hand man, Nabuka. And, Nabuka.
Aw. Great man. And,
so,
you know, it's,
(34:51):
You stumble out of the forest. You're kinda
needing a little support.
You're needing a little, interaction with people. You've
been out there for days and almost run
over by boars. So you come into this
primitive, rather primitive, I know how primitive it
was because you were gonna tell some stories
about how they hunt there. Mhmm. Just a
moment. So you come in and were you
accepted right away or were you looked at
(35:12):
like, wow, this guy's, who the heck is
this guy guy? What is he doing here?
They were skeptical for sure. They thought I
was running from something. And Oh, yeah. Right?
I mean, why wouldn't they? Right?
And, I was
in a little bit of a trial period,
maybe the first week or so.
But, you know, when you're out in it,
it's just full
(35:33):
immersion. And, you know, the sayings are true.
Like, when in Rome, you know, do as
the Romans do, trial by fire, just become
part of, you know, the village life. Where
were you staying? I mean, were you just
sleeping on somebody Nabuccas floor or something? Or
Well, you know,
I'm embarrassed to say I was almost like
a little bit of a celebrity. So they
were kind of, like, passing me around.
(35:56):
But it was also, like, part of that
mentality of,
everybody
was just very communal and intimate,
all the time. And so even if, you
know, you didn't live in a house, you
could just kinda show up and they'd feed
you.
This is for everybody, you know.
There's a lot of,
communal kitchen action going on and big group
(36:17):
games and things of that nature.
So what what activities did you do to
fit in?
Well, so at first, I was really reaching,
and trying to find how I could be
of value and where my niche was. So
I was like, oh, I can help prep
food or I can, you know, look look
over the kiddos or whatever. And, finally, if
a kid pulls me aside and he's like,
listen, man. I I know you think you're
(36:38):
helping, but,
you're really making everyone really uncomfortable. I was
like, what do you mean? You know? He's
like, well, the stuff that you're trying to
do is
what the ladies do. And if you're doing
that, they're, like, not stoked, you know? And
I was like, oh,
okay. And he's like, okay. You need to
become part of, like, the boys crew. You
(37:00):
know?
And what we do is get up super
early and go out hunting and foraging so
that we can bring something back and the
gals can prep it out for a meal.
And I was like, perfect. That's that's really
where I wanna be anyways.
I just didn't know how to get it.
Right on. Sure. So
So then you,
started going out, you get up real early.
What what is early? Five? Was it before
(37:21):
sunrise?
Yep. Early, dark, before dawn. And,
they would have different destinations every morning because
they don't wanna just keep going over the
same places,
keeping it fresh. So,
yeah, we'd go out with,
with our machetes and usually
find a water source. Everything comes to water.
And,
(37:41):
the majority of the time out there was
me learning just how to pass through the
jungle in,
a way that is not gonna disrupt Conclusive,
almost stealthy,
quiet.
Box walking action,
and also to identify what we're even looking
for, you know,
to forage. So they were showing you where
to find it and what it looks like.
(38:01):
And,
so I was Everything from, like, lizards to
Mushrooms?
Mushrooms to Berries?
To deer. What
Lots of fruits,
lots of,
edible plants.
Their main food source is,
taro and kava,
which is what they farm.
(38:22):
So kind of root vegetable stuff. Super tropical.
So,
the the more experienced
boys were also,
hunting eels and fish,
fruit bats, anything that, was kinda low on
the totem pole that would be easy and
abundant.
So I felt like a little babe in
(38:42):
the woods at kindergarten. I didn't know how
to do it or what, you know, what
I was looking for. So mostly, I'm
I'm just fully in it looking at that.
I didn't hear you said the two words.
Right? Yeah.
I knew. I'm a bad teller. You have
to hear the story. So one morning you
go out and you decide
or you just come across these hanging
monstrously big you tell us the story. Well,
(39:03):
so they yeah. I I guess it was
fruit that day. So,
you know, we went to the battery. And,
I I can tell you that, before we
even got there, you can smell them because
it's the air is so pungent from their
Guano. Musk, if you will. Oh, musk. It
could be, but it's it's the smell of
the oils in their skin. And they're big.
These are not little bats. No. They call
(39:25):
them flying foxes, and they're
almost maybe the size of a fox, you
know, maybe a four foot wingspan that's Wow.
Real leathery and veiny.
And they've got this massive red furry collar
around their neck. Really cute little creature and
also pretty spooky and weird looking. And so
you're going out there with these guys and
suddenly one of them says, there's there's the
battery. Now you're all carrying guns. Right?
(39:50):
This is, They're not carrying guns, folks. Wait
till you see what they hunt with. Well,
so the machete is a multi tool. Right?
It's not really a main weapon. It's just
for traversing the jungle and harvesting, and it's
just sort of just what everyone has on
hand.
But these kids were trained from,
you know, probably the time they could walk
how to do these jungle skills. And there's
(40:12):
sort of a hierarchy that's developed after how
good everybody is. You know, there's the guy
that can swim really well, and there's, you
know, the slingshot kid, and there's, you know,
they all have their skills.
So, yeah, we come around the corner and,
there it is, this
remarkably huge tree that's just loaded with these
bats. And they're all sleeping because it They're
(40:32):
sleeping during the day. Well, they just got
in from their nightly, you know. It was,
just barely morning.
And so they're all kinda settling in. And,
we come up on the tree and everybody
kinda hides. And this one kid
walks up towards it and gets a little
closer and just very casually
picks up the stone off the ground
(40:53):
and hurls it at the
at a bat that's more on the outskirts
of the group
and just expertly
snipes it right off of the branch.
It hits it in the head, kills it
basically almost right away and drops to the
ground. Drops it, does not disturb anything. Disturb
the other ones. That is just amazing.
Rock.
I'm the fine monster bats. And that's what
(41:15):
he was explaining through my friend later. He
said, well, you know, you always pick the
one on the outskirts because you don't wanna
stir the flock and then make them feel
like their home has been compromised. So it's
a courtesy thing. But, just hit be able
to hit this object with a rock with
such velocity to knock it out of the
tree and knock it senseless. And then
(41:36):
That was the the one bat that was
eaten, or did you guys get more?
I think he did
Well, I think it the rule was something
like you harvest one bat per tree.
So
we we got that one. So he sneaks
up, then he pulls it this this Mhmm.
Our lifeless form out and then dispatches it
and then throws it over his shoulder and
starts bringing it back? We have little harvest
(41:58):
bags, you know. But, yeah, you know, in
this country, we whip out our debit card
and over there, they just whip out a
little stone.
So you know, thing but a chicken wing.
See? So you go bat hunting with rots
and you get a you score a big
bat. Mhmm. Yeah. This is a big bat
and,
it traps on home and you
drop it in the ground and then the,
what, ladies start cooking it up? Yeah. Yeah.
(42:20):
Well, that's the whole thing. You know, it's
kind of,
I I guess it's
part of that,
belonging, that,
building your own autonomy
and understanding,
the hierarchy of
where you fit in the culture.
These guys have a strong incentive to be
good hunters,
(42:41):
because they're feeding their people. And so it's
a point of pride to come home and,
you know, display the bounty and bring it
to the rest of the village and, have
a big cookout.
How was it?
Gamey.
Not the greatest,
hour or hour. You know, recommend it, but
it was,
surely
an experience that,
(43:02):
I mean, after you go and hunt a
wild bat, you can't be like,
I'm good. You know? Like, you gotta you
gotta get in there with the gang. You
know?
So This is great with taro root and
potato and things like this. Right? That's right.
I whipped up a scramble and, chef's guess.
What can I say? Wow. How long did
you stay in that village?
I think I was also there for thirty
days. I,
(43:22):
was trying to get at least a month
in everywhere I went, and that's about how
long it takes to get a full taste
of the culture.
Those people were just absolutely remarkable.
You know, they took me all over to
the neighboring villages to to see their friends.
Oh, cool. Here we go. You know, just
kind of
brought me in as part of the family.
And to that point,
(43:44):
when I was getting ready to leave, I
said, hey, you know,
I I'm gonna hike back to
Civilization.
Civilization to go fly away. And they said,
well, you're not gonna hike. We're gonna sponsor
you. And so they they didn't tell me
this until later.
They sold
a cow to get a taxi to drive
out there and get Wow. So it was
just like such
(44:04):
intimate courtesy there on their end of of
love, you know. It was a rough it
was a rough ride back, but you made
it back. Wow.
Yeah. Before we go on to anything else,
I wanna say your story is just about
halfway through because from
this point, you travel
was it to Vietnam next or no. No.
I'm not gonna we don't wanna go to
(44:25):
details because we want you back a second
show. Oh, well,
shoot. You know, I'm always down to tell
tales and spinning your ass. So interesting really
it is. Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, I did come back to California
for a minute and,
and witnessed my brother,
graduate,
which was really, a huge accomplishment.
And then, I decided to go,
(44:46):
do some time in Indonesia
and which also led me to China and
then eventually back to,
my suites here in Nevada Mountain Range,
to do some cowboy action. Hey. Let's turn
our attraction to that. So we will pick
up this story next time we're on. We're
not gonna have you on too long with
that. We gotta hear the rest of Jared
Wilson's
amazing story of what he did.
(45:08):
Before we talk about your meal packing,
experiences, which is new to me,
I always recall what Jaden, your mother said.
She said, when you came home
from that trip, I think when you flew
into Oakland, and she says, he walked right
by me. I didn't recognize him. You were
so skinny. She said, so skinny Mhmm. That
you didn't recognize him. It was like, oh
(45:29):
my goodness. This is my son. So that
was a that's a interesting story. Let's talk
about that stuff,
our next visit. But tell us about
The meal packing.
Well
Yeah.
Yeah. You know, I mean, all this stuff
overseas,
was sort of like breadcrumbs that my dad
left me. And,
(45:50):
it,
I don't know. It felt like the sous
chef was absent, but the recipes and the
ingredients were there. So it was all about,
do I have the gumption to bake this
cake? You know?
And,
so I had all of these patchwork influences,
growing up through media that,
really inspired me, you know, that got me
(46:12):
over the to those places, Manfredo, Snow White
River, Crocodile Dundee, Steve Irwin,
Tintin. You know, I was kinda like, let's
just send it. You know? And, as soon
as I came home, things had changed a
lot. It was 2016.
And,
I was back in,
you know, the Wild West again, and I
thought it's cowboy time. Let's get Last of
the Mohicans with it. You know? So,
(46:35):
I, kinda decided to, like, finish my education,
if you will,
at this pack station,
down in the Southern Sierras.
And, I was just completely in love with,
the romance of being a cowboy and living,
you know, out there
in the wilderness, like, it was 18 feet
deep. On the top of a mountain? Out
desolate mountain with mules? Packing mules for for,
(46:59):
personal trips and for the government. So so
packing mules meaning you pack them you pack
packs on them to with a tent and
stuff? Oh, yeah. Well and a lot of
these people are paying for, you know, really
high dollar hunting and fishing trips. So it's
thousands of dollars worth of gear.
And it's a combination of rural hospitality,
(47:20):
kind of survival mission skills,
and,
having animals as your coworkers
and as opposed to, like, pets, you know.
And you've gotta orchestrate all that yourself. Right?
You're you're So are you are you a
guide or are you packing the mules for
somebody else to guide them? So, I mean,
I would consider myself a guide and also,
(47:40):
my,
sort of head trail partner, Charlie, was really
the one leading it, and I was a
a support guide, if you will.
Charlie has become kind of like my older
brother,
in in the sense that he was able
to take,
where I had got to at that point
and
polish me out to being,
(48:01):
sort of a finished
young man in a sense.
Wow. That's Which is really what I needed,
you know, someone
to be a mentor on that level.
And,
so he was sort of putting it to
me like, alright, you're a really good foot
soldier and you can row, you've proven that,
but can you be a captain? I was
like, oh, boy, that is the next level.
(48:22):
And you have to out there, you know.
Your people's lives are depending on you. Mhmm.
And so he instilled that really dynamic idea
of,
I am the trail, you know, like,
you know, by my hand, you know. And,
so that that part of it, was,
like, something I couldn't have got anywhere else.
(48:44):
You know, it's such a magical moment in
time that I I needed that while I
was impressionable
and able to receive it. So when did
you do that meal packing?
That would have been towards the 2017.
Like I say, I was pretty much like
a professional raccoon, like, 2015
through '17 consistently.
So that that was sort of the end
(49:05):
of my arc.
And,
I I can't say enough about it. There
was so many elements that,
were life and death and also,
divine, you know, by
a bevy of angels know my name, and
I can say that Intervention.
To intervene on the other side. On your
behalf.
(49:25):
And you're out there was this during the
summer months only, during the spring of fall?
Because you're planning a trip coming up with
Sam. Right? I am. And, you know, that's
really,
one of the more exciting things that, I
can report about it right now is,
we're we're coming up on my ten year
anniversary since I started working at the station.
And,
(49:46):
I also just turned 30 at the September.
That's great. Happy birthday, man. Thanks.
It's a milestone. And,
you know, I remember being a young man
out there thinking, well, one day I'll get,
experienced enough in this environment
where it's
not gonna be the scary wilderness that might
kill me. You know? It'll be my living
(50:07):
room, and I can invite
my chosen, you know, partner to join me
and and experience it too. Right. Right. And,
so now that I've just hit that checkpoint
and turned 30,
I'm I'm gonna be inviting her to hit
the trail with me. And, so you're So
it's gonna be two dumps. Two
It's getting cold, though. It's getting October ish.
(50:30):
So you'll have two two mule
people. So it's gonna be two people with
two mules going in
for an a month or just Not quite
that long. It actually lasts four hours. That's
it. I would appreciate a month. But, They
have McDonald's at the end of the
the last cabin. I'm expecting a three day
trip, and, we'll bring my two girls,
(50:52):
Henrietta and Jolene,
and,
so a pack mule between us. And then
I'll get her a riding animal that,
I trust with, her life,
who, knows these trails and has been doing
it for a long time. And Charlie's still
in the picture. Right? He's still out there?
We're gonna meet him out there as well.
How cool is that? What a great Pretty
excited. Wow.
(51:12):
But, yeah, it's really a victory moment for
me,
to become
a man
worthy of a woman choosing me,
to do something this extreme and Yeah. And
unconventional.
You know? I feel like I've, in my
own,
kind of magnanimous way, chosen this path, and,
(51:34):
and I'm being so validated in that, You
know? Very wow. Excited.
So but you have done more travels, mule
packing travels before. How long are they usually,
though? Those They're out for weeks, two weeks
at a time? Do you go out in
the bush? Yeah. You know,
I would say a minimum of four days
up to two weeks Mhmm. And,
(51:55):
different levels of extremeness.
Right. Any scientists ever go out there or
anything like that? I mean
We host a range of folks.
Usually, at the beginning of the season is,
rafting and kayak people,
on the Kern River. And then it gets
into the mid season. We're doing
backpacking and hiking,
(52:16):
families who wanna camp out, fishing.
And then getting into the end of the
season, it's,
more of a serious hunting and, What's the
name of the company? Packing company? Well, you
know, unfortunately, the station actually burned down in
the last couple of years Oh my god.
From all the crazy wildfires in California. Yeah.
So,
the it's no longer kind of like a
(52:36):
functional,
brick and mortar building about it.
It's still in the golden trout wilderness and
The golden trout wilderness. How cool.
And, we're you're hired. Let's go for four
days, Juju.
Oh my gosh. I'd love to be here.
That would be so much fun. Wouldn't that
be cool? And I'll bring Charlie. He's he's
basically, like, a Doc Holliday character, you know?
(52:56):
It'll be a huckleberry. Like, he Yeah. The
huckleberry.
In the flesh.
So I think you guys would get a
kick out of it. Man, Jared Wilson,
telling the story about your father. You know,
your father passed, but it was able to
instill some things in you. You were still
a boy, 11 year old. Mhmm. But you
you've taken on the mantle and you know
your father vicariously. You've lived
(53:17):
a life,
and it's so interesting to find I did
not know he was a vet kind of
guy that was doing a mobile, helping animals
of the world and then your experiences.
You know,
you you are a deep,
say, a contemplative,
very interesting
man. And once you you get through the
veneer of all of us, like yourself, it's
(53:38):
you're you're just sweet as can be inside,
and you are such an interesting fellow.
You're up here quite a bit in the
across city, Brooke in Zurich, taking care of
grandma amongst other things.
Yeah. But we see you occasionally out and
about in the town.
Dancing. Dancing. You're great. He's a great dancer
as Jayden is too. Is is, and Grant.
I saw Grant's kind of Grant's got it's
(53:58):
a family affairs. Yeah. Right? Yeah. You're all
such a very intriguing, very interesting family
and really, really dig it. Really dig that
you,
are able to tell these stories with a
compassion
and insight.
You're 30 years old. Happy birthday. Thank you.
Some fresh And what do you think you
have actually learned most out of all these
(54:19):
stories? And we have heard a tenth of
what actually really happened. Right? So what what
what do you
what is the best that you got out
of it or the most? Oh, wow.
So many takeaways. You know, actually, I was
talking with Gam about it. And Grandma? Grandma?
Yeah. Grandma. Grandma.
Yeah.
And, you know, I was
kind of tooting my own horn in a
(54:41):
way of, like, well, you know, I've I've
only had a handful of really important things
in my life that I wanna put my
stamp on, and and I feel like I've
accomplished a good bit of them.
And, you know, I'm my own self made
man, you know.
You know, by, you know, by so many
sacrifices.
And she was kinda contemplating and goes, well,
you know,
(55:01):
we're the sum of our influences and and
the choices we make. You know?
And, Why do I know that? Right? You
know? And I was like, yeah. It really
is. You know? And and she's so wise.
But, you know, it speaks to,
you you are who you choose to be,
you know? And I I choose to be
a collage
of all of my favorite
(55:22):
chosen influences in my life and and featuring
those things.
I would say,
I learned
through being a young man in my twenties
how to, throw my hat over the wall
and then figure it out Yeah.
Which is a big part of it.
But
also, in that process,
(55:45):
I would say
evaluating
risk reward,
setting yourself up for success so that the
result kinda just does itself and you don't
have to,
do all the legwork all the time.
Having a positive attitude, which you do. You're
a very positive person to be around. There's
no there's no dumb and glum with you.
(56:05):
So you're like, ah, you're you are up
up uplifting to people that you mean.
Wow.
Alright. We are now getting to that point
of the show being over. Right? Do we
have any time for give us a few
quotes, doctor G. We have a fun time
corner. Okay. Thank you, Jared. Listen listen in.
She's got a couple of travel, I think
it is. Give us some good You're done
with your joke? Go. Okay. I'll have a
(56:25):
moment. Come on. You're doing some good. That
no. Not all
the what?
Not all
those who wander are lost. Jesus. Now I
got it. Oh. Okay. I only took me
three times. That was a quote? And it
was my quote too. I mean, not the
one that I found. Not all those who
wander are lost.
Mhmm. I true. Hey. I like to take
(56:45):
two six month vacations twice a year.
And you know why aliens don't visit our
planet?
Because it has terrible ratings and only one
star.
The airline lost my luggage recently, so I
sued them. Unfortunately, I lost the case.
Oh,
Fantastic. The world's a book, and those who
(57:08):
do not travel read only one page.
This is wisdom. Right. Alright. Very good. One
more. Got it. One more. A journey of
a thousand miles miles begins with a single
step.
True. Oh, my. Hey, how do crazy hikers
get out of the forest, doctor? Oh. They
take the psychopath.
Okay.
(57:29):
You know it well.
Oh, this is a good one. To travel
is to discover that everyone is wrong about
other countries.
This is true. Right?
Hey, I went to Bora Bora, but I'm
too poor a poor a. Oh.
Okay.
Where do where do hamsters like to take
vacations?
At where? Amsterdam.
I
(57:51):
think that's a really
Why the we're at that point, are we
not? Hey. We are kind of at the
point, so let's zoom on out. You have
been listening to the Doc and Chuck
show on KCOW
one hundred point seven FM in Brookings, Oregon.
We certainly hope you have enjoyed our show
as much as we have listening to Jared
(58:11):
Wilson's experiences
and we've only heard Kidding, man. Part of
it. Very cool.
Yep. You've been listening to Jacques and Jacques,
k c I w one hundred point six
Jacques and Jacques? Jacques and Jacques. Sorry. I'll
slow it way way down. Hey, by the
way, never fly Peter Pan Airways, I found
out. They never land.
Mail us if you are or know of
(58:31):
a talented, interesting person that might join us
on this show. Thank you. Our email is
Is docandjock@gmail.com.
Yes. There it is. Okay. Thank you folks.
Thank you, Jared and so so fun. Super
awesome. We'll have you back on in a
few months. We're gonna hear it again. Thanks,
Ben. Alright, brother. Take a few minutes at
hand. Alright.
Thank you.
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