December 27, 2024 • 47 mins
Trey and Brian take a deep and inspiring dive with Susan Baur, founder of Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage, and discover how this incredible group of volunteers empower women and save the planet all at the same time.
Susan Baur and friends formed Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage, aka OLAUG, in 2017 as a volunteer pack of female swimmers, ages 64–85, whose mission is to clean the freshwater ponds of Cape Cod, from Falmouth to Chatham, by diving along the shallows to pick up all manner of trash and debris. Brian Phelps is an American radio personality, actor, and comedian best known for co-hosting the nationally and globally syndicated Mark & Brian Morning Show in Los Angeles for 25 years. As the co-lead of his own television series, with multiple roles in movies, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Phelps is also an inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame.
Trey Callaway is an American film and TV writer and producer who wrote the hit movie I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and has produced successful TV series like CSI:NY, Supernatural, Rush Hour, Revolution, The Messengers, APB, Station 19 and 9-1-1 LONE STAR. He is also a Professor at USC.
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Susan Baur and friends formed Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage, aka OLAUG, in 2017 as a volunteer pack of female swimmers, ages 64–85, whose mission is to clean the freshwater ponds of Cape Cod, from Falmouth to Chatham, by diving along the shallows to pick up all manner of trash and debris. Brian Phelps is an American radio personality, actor, and comedian best known for co-hosting the nationally and globally syndicated Mark & Brian Morning Show in Los Angeles for 25 years. As the co-lead of his own television series, with multiple roles in movies, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Phelps is also an inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame.
Trey Callaway is an American film and TV writer and producer who wrote the hit movie I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and has produced successful TV series like CSI:NY, Supernatural, Rush Hour, Revolution, The Messengers, APB, Station 19 and 9-1-1 LONE STAR. He is also a Professor at USC.
___________________________________
Make sure to follow us on social media at:
begoodhumanspodcast.com
instagram.com
tiktok.com
threads.net
facebook.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If Grant's ready, if Sean's ready, if Brian's ready, and
most importantly, if Brian's ready.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Most importantly, No, most importantly, you ready, everything breaks down
without you, Pali, Yeah that's not true. All right, all right, Ready,
here we go.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Good humans, be good humans. Be good humans, or we will.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Thank you sucked, or we will thank you suck.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Welcome back to the Good Humans podcast. Thanks for coming.
Oh my gosh. We hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.
Whatever it is you celebrate, however it is you may
be celebrating it. Did you give me anything? Yeah? Have
you shopped yet? Have you shopped for me yet? What
did you get? You give you a hit? Well, you know,
it's kind of behind us now. So if you didn't
get a gift already, I don't know how to break
this to you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
My gift is behind me. Yeah, we'll get into that later.
Welcome back to the show, Brian.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Here's what I want to ask, because while everyone else
watching and listening is probably enjoying some version of a
winter wonderland wherever they might be watching or listening, you
and I here in La like you know, it just
comes with the territory that it's just another hot day
in La, right, But the good news is it's in
the eighties, so it's not that hot.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
However, I'm sweating here because I'm wearing a scarf in
celebration of the holiday.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yes. Well, and it's also always freezing in this studio,
like we like every black in that way. But at
least in La while everyone else might be shoveling snow
in their driveways around the country, we can always go
to the beach.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
People are hating us right now.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I know that's true. But Brian, how do you I
don't know if we've talked. How do you feel about
the beach? Do you do you the beach?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Do you like spend a lot of time on the
water or the beach? Yeah? Like you know what, I
know we both have pools, but like we literally have
in our backyards relatively speaking, yeah, the Pacific Ocean, so like.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do love the beach for about
an hour. I'm not as you can tell, glass of
milk with hair. I don't lay out to tan. I'm
not you know, I'm either bright red or white. The
sun is not our friend, no, no, no, no, and
sand it tends to get in all my crevices, so yeah,
(02:08):
not yeah, but I love swimming in the beach and
boating in the beach, boating boating off the beach, out
on the water.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
So I'm guessing I do not.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I'm lucky. I love I love all water sports. In fact,
I have a great friend who used to have a
sports boat and it was it was well used, you know,
wasn't anything fancy, sure had a nice engine on back.
We take it to lakes like Lake Castaic. Oh yeah, yeah,
all over. And one time he took us and we
(02:39):
launched it I think, out a Redondo beach into the ocean, okay,
And he uh made a mistake by showing me something
we could do, and I couldn't get enough of it,
being me, okay, I'm you rev it up as far
as fast as you can go, and you are actually
boating towards the waves, so you are getting honest goodness there.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah right, wow.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Wow, And you learned really quick to stand up like
this yeah, and not because it'll wreck your back.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Wow. So that was.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And then one time that day, in fact, we were
doing that and and he kind of actually pulled the
plug on the riding over the waves because it was damaging.
He was worried about his boat, I can understand.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
But he pulled into.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
This kind of an alcove about twenty thirty yards off
the shore and didn't know where we were, and of
course we had music going and all that. He immediately
turns the music off and he just sits there. Okay,
and I'm thinking, okay, what are we gonna rolled?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
This is.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
What's happening. He goes, just wait, okay. So I'm saying,
they're complete silence and let's saen. A minute later I
hear this and over the head came so close a
seven seven to twenty seven jet airplane.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I mean just it was at the.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
End of the run there lax. Wow, it was just
like that scene in Wayne's World chatting on the end
of the airth right here we go, and it was the
most so special is intense and experience you feel it,
you know, you feel it, of course, so that kind
of fun. Yeah, But laying on the beach and getting
stand up my places.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
No, yeah, okay, well how about you. I mean, look,
we both grew up in the Midwest, the Heartland, all
that stuff. So like my first time out to la
was when I was fourteen, years old and we all
came on a family vacation and my birthday is Christmas Eve.
Thanks for the gifts, they're behind you. Yeah, exactly. My
birthday is Christmas Eve. But so we celebrated my birthday
and Christmas on the beach in Santa Monica with my parents.
(04:57):
Brought a little tree that they put on the same
time and all that. So it's kind of cool. I
do like the beach. I like you, I'm far too
fair skin to really enjoy it for very long. But
but but getting out on the water, like, do you
ever scuba diver? Surf for scuba snorkeling?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, yeah, scuba Okay, I've been a long time skydiver,
and I decided, hey, let's do another thing, and so
I took the lessons and I became certified scuba diver.
A big adrenaline rush, it was until I think it
was my first well my the first time out was
like just in and out. But my, uh, the second time,
we took a boat off of Catalina. Yeah, and my
(05:36):
dive master is that what you call? I think so
trying to remember. We got all suited up and we
jumped off and were swimming around and I'm still trying
to remember all the lessons you learn. I mean, now
we're actually scuba diving, and what you know, you know,
you never do this like, hey, I'm having a great time,
right because you do that. I'm okay, because this means
(05:57):
get me up.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Oh wow, Okay, yeah, this is a a good rule.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So we're submerged and swimming along, and all of a
sudden it starts getting a little a little murky. Oh boy,
And and he's right there, you know, he's right there. Okay,
I think my heart's a little beating a little faster now.
And then it got a lot more murky. And then
I could not see my hand in front of my face. Now,
(06:25):
skydiving is this wonderful, all the space in the world.
If you're, you know, claustrophobic, you won't ever feel that. However,
when I couldn't see I couldn't see him, I didn't
know where he was. I honestly didn't know what was
up and what was down. I panicked and I started
everything really really heavy. And that was the day that
(06:48):
I stopped enjoying. It was a very short lived career
in stupid. I just stuck with skydiving.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
That's when you're checking to see if the tags are
still on the wet suit. Yeah, yeah, yea, yeah, yeah, yeah,
how about you let's see that that's the problem. Like,
I've had some beautiful experiences in the water. I've never
done scuba diving. I've only snorkeled, okay, okay, but like
you know, I've been to the South Pacific, so in morea,
I had this enchanting, dreamlike experience where I literally got
to with a dive master or snorkel master's help, I
(07:19):
got to, you know, grab onto the back of a
sea tortoise and be jetted through the water. You know,
just like beautiful things, right, But the problem with it
in my experience, much like your story, is that you
we really don't belong there as human beings. Like it's
beautiful to look at, probably better if you just went
to the local aquarium and supported them. But like when
you're in the water, like things can go really.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Wrong, really quicklyly fast, and in fact, I'm kind of
surprised that they let you grab hold of the Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Probably in retrospect and maybe not the best thing to
be doing to any tortoise or any sea creature, But
I remember once in Bora Bora, Like you know, it's
the classic. You slide open your coffee table and you're
over the water thatched hotch hut and then you dive
into the body temperature water and it couldn't be more beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
So I dive in and I look down underneath our
hut about eight feet down.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So I can hold my breath and get down there
well enough. But I see a coconut, and so it
occurs to me, Oh, there's a goal. That'll be fun.
I'm gonna swim down and get that coconut. Sure, never
once doing the mental math to recognize that coconuts float,
you idiot, whatever that is that is not a coconut. Yeah.
So it's not until I get down there and reach
out for it that it sprouts eight legs and fills
(08:30):
the water with squid ink. And then I'm like screaming
like a girl under water. Yeah. Yeah, whatever it was,
it didn't feel mushi in. I didn't touch it because
it blew all of its ink into the water and
like ran off. So anyway, point is like it's it's fun,
but it's also at a little dicey, a little to
become wrong. Horribly fast, and it can go horribly wrong
(08:53):
in different ways that I don't think necessarily people think
about that they should think about. I've never done, for example,
any of the scuba diving or snorkeling stuff that you've
done here on the West Coast, and lately that has
been difficult for anybody who loves to do that kind
of thing, because the waters along the coast of LA
in twenty twenty four have been a little bit regrettably
(09:14):
dirtier than usual. In fact, out of the ten most
polluted beaches okay on along the west the entire west coast,
the Santa Monica Pier and that beach area there Will
Rogers State Beach was ranked third, and it was put
at the top of the of the most polluted of
LA County's beach I had no idea, right, And sadly
(09:35):
it's not limited to the West coast. This is an
East coast issue as well. I remember when I was
doing CSI New York years ago, we learned during our
research there that the City of New York would habitually
take old subway cars and just dump them into New
York Harbor. You know, they would say, oh, we we're
creating a new artificial reef, but like you're just dumping
your trash, fully what you're doing. And I shot once
(09:55):
behind Lady Liberty, and I'm still haunted by the that
I saw drifting into shore in that water on their
ringes and nurses. Yeah, like really really awful stuff on
a daily basis. So this is obviously something that is
not great about America and its waterways. And so have
you ever?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I did, And I guess it was just a way
for me to go, yes, I'm helping out, and you know,
on the smallest, most teeny level ever, but adopt a beach.
Oh yeah, of the adopted beach.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, or the heel the bay where you show up
and pick up trash or whatever. Yeah. Sure. But look,
here's the thing. Whatever we've done is going to pale
in comparison to our next guest, because when we get back,
you guys, we're not only going to take a very
deep dive into this topic of all kinds of junk
that does not belong in America's waterways, but we're gonna
(10:50):
hear about some frankly amazing women who have finally decided
to do something directly about helping clean that mess up.
Can't wait, So.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Hold your breck and forward to talking to this lovely lady.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
That's right. Pinch your nose, hold your breath. We'll be
right back.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
We will take you suck.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Thanks for coming back.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Our guest today is the co founder of something called
OLOGG and that sounds like an acronym. It is an acronym.
It stands for Old Ladies against Underwater Garbage. Now it's
a wonderful group of women that swim, dive, heave, and
remove submerged trash from hundreds freshwater ponds throughout Cape Cod.
(11:51):
Please welcome the incredible Susan Bauer.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Hello Susan, Hello Susan.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Hi there guys.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Hey, good to have you here.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And I think this is the first person we've ever
first guest we've ever had that actually has a also
known as she's also known as the Turtle Lady.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
The Turtle Lady, you said, And I think there's got
to be a story there somewhere. I think there is, Susan.
Thank you for joining us on bigod Humans, for our
listeners and our viewers just to sort of set a
map in their minds. Susan, you're joining us from the
Cape Cod area. Of Massachusetts if you've never been there.
First of all, it's beautiful. It's this long, curvy peninsula
(12:29):
that kind of extends off the southeastern corner of the
state into the Atlantic. Wow. But it's also really interesting
because if you look down at kind of an aerial
view of Cape Cod, you will see that it kind
of barely rises above the sea surface, right, And so
all of its green area is punctuated by literally hundreds
(12:49):
of these freshwater ponds and lakes. And you know it's
all comes from the glacial age, and you know it
kind of left these depressions that filled with fresh water
over time. It's gorgeous. Almost a thousand or more of
these ponds.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Accounted them nine hundred and ninety six.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Okay, well, there you go. Susan probably knows better than
either of us, but some of them can go up
to one hundred feet deep. But in spite of their beauty, unfortunately,
thanks to all the people who love to visit places
like Cape Cod year round, those ponds and those lakes
can also get a little bit dirty with pollution, right, Susan,
For the last.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Five or six hundred years of the last thousand years,
because nobody's ever done it. So whatever has been dropped in,
whether it's from a tourist or whether it's from an
indigenous person throwing deer bones into the pond, you know,
five hundred years ago, it's still there.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I kind of want to know, let's start off here,
kind of at the beginning. What a great idea? How
did this all start? How did olik come to be?
I mean, was it You're sitting around making phone calls
to girlfriends, going, so, what do you guys want to
do today?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
How about we.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Jump into a cold, murky pond and haul up trash? No,
how did it start?
Speaker 5 (14:07):
I moved down Cape when I was sixty, in my
mid sixties, to be with a really good guy. And
if you move to Chatham, you don't swim in the
ocean because you drown. Sharks get you. Whatever. So I
started swimming in ponds and I really hated them. I
mean they were dark and they were muddy, and it
(14:30):
felt like yogurt between my toes. And then there were
snapping turtles. There were large ones and huge ones, and
the legends about snapping turtles that they're when they bite you,
they're like lock joint flyers. Oh so, and even if
they die, they won't let go ouch.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
But is that if you bothered them, or will they
just see you there and they're coming after you.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
I've learned that it's both one. You don't want to
bother them, and if it's a male and its high
mating season, they're very territorial and they want you out
of their territory. So anyway, I swam, and in those
early years, I was really very fond of trash because
(15:17):
they were markers. There were markers on this trail that
went around this sort of murky pond. But even though
there was a beer can here and a bottle there,
and a lawn chair there, nevertheless they are the last
remnants of undisturbed natural beauty. I mean, you are really
(15:38):
in the wilderness when you're in the bottom of pond.
Many farm has never been farmed, never been crossed by trail,
has never been built on, so you're really in a
foreign country. So I'm zipping along there. Not zipping, I'm
very cautiously and carefully swimming around these ponds, thinking, don't worry,
don't worry, You'll get to the lawn chair, then find
(16:00):
the beer can. And during these years when I always
swam alone, I would see turtles, and I would see
little painted turtles and musk turtles called stink pot turtles,
And to my amazement, after a couple of years, I
realized that they were as curious about me as I
was about them. So they would come to me. They
(16:21):
would sit on my head to bask in the sun.
They would look at I've got pictures of it. I
have a dive mask and snorkel, doing mask and snorkel,
and they would come and look at their reflections in
my dive mask, and I could see their little eyes
moving around and start sizing me up. So as I
(16:45):
swam over ten fifteen years, I realized that their habitat
was getting less and less as people moved in and
ran their dogs there, and there wasn't much I could
do to help them. And one day I thought, you know,
there is just one thing I can do to help turtles,
and that is get the trash out, especially things like
(17:06):
used uh spent fireworks. They're leeching perchlorates or a car battery,
something like that. I was swimming that day unusually with
two friends. We grabbed a guy on the side, stuck
a laundry basket between his legs, he was surprised, folly
(17:28):
and went around the pond and got maybe not quite
a bushel of garbage, and we thought we were freaking
heroes just for some reason made us feel just ecstatic. Yeah,
of course, somebody said, you know, hey, we're a bunch
of old ladies against underwater garbage, and the name stuck
(17:51):
and that that was the beginning. Now, we wouldn't bother
with a pond that had one bushel of garbage in
it if we can't get a hundred pounds. Were disappointed. Wow,
of this weird sort of love hate relationship to garbage,
because what we really want to find is the next
pond with two hundred pounds.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Of garden, right, the mother load of garbage.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
So yeah, and OLAG has got this incredible mission right,
This is they're swimming to remove trash from ponds, channeling
the incredible strength of older women and then challenging all
kinds of other people to try and see beyond the
limits right to take to take actual concrete action, as
Susan did with her friends Power which I love that
(18:37):
chremy you used over sixty four that's incredible.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Yeah, you know there were sixty four to eighty four
on the eighty four and we just do all this
great stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Well, okay, so there are around twenty five of you
raging in age, as you said, from the sixty four
to eighty four. Now, so once this got rolling, once
this started, there was correct me if I'm wrong with
There was so much public enthusiasm for what you were
doing that you actually had to start holding tryouts. Now
(19:09):
what did those tryouts in tail?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
How does that work?
Speaker 5 (19:13):
So the tryouts every June we had these tryouts for
these women, and there were so many who wanted to
join us. So you had to be able to swim
half a mile in under thirty minutes, obviously not doing
the backstroke, and you had to be able to dive
at least down to eight feet and basically you also
(19:37):
had to be able to be happy to be suspended
in the water for sixty to ninety minutes touching the bottom,
no fins, no stuff like that, because if you touch
the bottom, the mud becomes like diving in a cup
of coffee and you can't see any trash. Yeah, so
we were surprised at first. The first tryout, we went
(19:59):
from five to twenty one people. There was a terrible shock,
but now we've got a really close knit band. And
it's interesting because when we talk to environmentalists, they say,
thank you, you're cleaning up the ponds, you're cleaning up
(20:19):
the planet. You're great environmentalists. But when we talk to women,
they say, oh my god, you're great feminists. You're just
great feminists. You inspire women of all ages, even young
ones say I want to be like that. Most of
us have kids, and many of us have daughters, and
they're very proud, proud of us. Of course, my daughter's
(20:40):
a little she gets tired of this, but are very good.
But then when we talk to other groups, they say,
you're community builders. That's really what you are. Because we
don't do it by ourselves. We involve the community. We
always involve the homeowners association, the pond association. We get
(21:03):
them to provide the kayaks and the trash bags, and
they get to pay us. Not in money, never money,
never take money. Our entire economy is cookies. Oh my god,
they ask in homemade cookies.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Now you're speaking our language. So this is what they get.
If you're thinking they work for free e noo, they don't.
They work for cookies, cookies, And maybe maybe a cup
of hot chocolate, yes.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Yes, yes, or a gallon.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
You might already know this, Susan, and I speak from experience,
but here's a little tip where you always get the
cookies up front.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
You get the cookies. Then you jump right in the pond.
Show me the cookies.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
So then logistically, walk us through this a little bit, Susan.
So when you partner up with these homeowners associations or
a community or whatever, and you bring out the ladies
and the and the volunteers, the whole thing, So how
does it kind of work logistically? Like you've got somebody
who's presumably in a boat of some sort, who is
there to sort of help you as you hit that
(22:08):
mother load and start bringing things up. Walk us through
a sort of a typical salvage effort.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Okay, the first thing we have to do is scout
the pond, because we're not going to jump in a
pond that we know nothing about. Sure, okay, two or
four people go and scout it. They count garbage, they
don't touch it. Very hard not to do that, but
you do that.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Are they also looking out for the turtles?
Speaker 2 (22:27):
The snapping, the snapping absolutely absolutely turtle job.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
And if they find some, do you are you directed?
Does the guide the first.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
I tell them not to get between the snapping turtle
and the deep water because that makes them uncomfortable, so
we go way around them, or we go way out
of their way.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
So then on the day of the dive, the Pond
Association is there and they provide the kayaks. We don't
have to haul kayaks nice and can provide some of
the paddlers so that we're involving and that can be
any age. Any So we've got let's say six kayaks
or maybe a double kayak, sometimes a Maui mat, just
(23:10):
anything paddleboard, anything that floats, and those become garbage scows.
And each garbage scow has two swimmers, okay, and they
set off and I have a map of the pond
and my good swimmers, I say, you swim across the
pond and they say, well, that's about a mile. I say, yeah,
that's about a mile. You swim a mile and then
you start diving for garbage on the way back. And
(23:34):
the medium swimmers they'll go half a mile and they'll
start diving for garbage on the way back, and the
other ones will start right at the beach, two to
the right, to the left with the garbage scows, and
in about an hour hour and a half, In about
an hour, the whistles blow and all the kayakers have
(23:54):
a whistle. The paddles go up, and it is time
to come back. And it's so hard. Everybody cheats, everybody. Yeah,
but there's one more can. I'm not swimming that can.
I'm leaving that can.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
I want to keep going.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
And so what happens, And this is really key, and
this is what's hard to explain, is that when we
are underwater, we are riveted to the present moment. We
are in the flow, in the zone. We are like
a surfer catching waves. We are stoked. We are not
(24:32):
excited at that moment because we are so focused on
how do I get those three garbage you know tops
that are down under the water. How do I do this?
How do I come up and not hit the kayak?
How close to the shore can I go? What do
I see here? There's a tree? Can I get the
(24:54):
lures that are under that tree? No? Not without getting
another swimmer over there. We're so focus that, blessedly we're
out of our own heads, were out of our own minds.
We aren't thinking about dinner, about the person we really
like or don't like. Sure, and when you get totally
(25:15):
out of your head, you see and you feel differently.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Of course, you.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Think I am in the perfect balance. I am challenged.
It's a demanding task, but I can do it. And
then when you come back, it's like shaking a bottle
of champagne and popping the cork. Yeah, flad with relief
and joy and happiness. And the people on shore watching
(25:41):
us wade out because you stagger. You know, you don't
have your land legs, flagger out of the water. The
kayaks are loaded with g I Joe's and bowling ball
and tennis balls and dog toys and chairs and rugs.
I like rugs, tires lift them up and skewer them
with with the kayak. And they watch us come ashore
(26:03):
and they say, what are they smoking? We want that happiness,
And that's what surprises everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I have to ask quickly for a heavy thing. You
mentioned a car battery. How do you dive down in
eight nine feet of water and pull up a heavy
car battery or a toilet?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
As I've read you well like all kinds.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Of things, that was our biggest thing.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
We're going to get to that in a sec.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
There's almost nothing that three women can't heave up off
the bottom. When you find something big, you usually go down,
give it a tug. Can you move it at all?
It's just no or it's obviously like a truck tire
with a rim.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Still in it, It's going to.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
Take four women. We know what we're doing, So we
gathered around. Our kayaker blows it whistle, We gather. We
come up there. On the count of three, down we go.
We know to push down on ones and pull on
the other to break the seal in the.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Mud, right right right, and then up.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
We come to the extent we can. And then we're
on the surface, you know, breathing through our snorkels. And
then if it's got a rim inute, we've got to
put it on a special like a Maui matt or
a special raff the toad behind a kayak. If it's
just a big tire, we puff and pant, get the
(27:28):
kayak in position. On the count of three, we raise
that sucker just about a foot two feet above the water,
and the kayak shoots through.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Hey, here here's an idea you yeah, go swim a mile,
yeah exactly, and then about halfway back, raise a car
battery from the bottom of the pond.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
This is what I keep thinking, is like you know,
you know me, like goal oriented overachiever, like when I
go exercise, will take a walk, like I do have
I have to have a goal in mind, right, so
it'll be like something I make up, like I'm going
to count all the different kinds of flowers in my neighborhood.
I've literally done nothing compared to this woman in an
amazing group. Listen, you are a general, no, actually admiral,
but would be the better term appropriate here? Sure you
(28:09):
were an admiral, I would follow into battle in any
pond in America, Susan.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
And let's go here, Susan. We have so many things
to ask you, the dangers you all faced.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Now.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
You mentioned the snapping turtles, the dark, murky water, and
I was wondering if you could share the story of
the commode that you ladies lifted and what came out
of that there commode when you when it started draining
outside the on top of the water.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
That was certainly the toughest dive I've ever been on,
and The danger really is the cold. It's always the cold,
even in the middle of summer. So this was the
end of July and we had oh yay, gotten the
Boston Globe to agree to come down and do a
photo essay on the dive. Nice and the only way
we could get him was that we've done this dive.
(28:58):
We scouted five or six ponds and we said, you're
gonna want the pond with the toilet. Oh yes, yeah,
unlocked in that does it? Well, anybody can come to Boston.
I'm coming to the toilet.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah nothing, nothing, Nothing draws the American media like a toilet.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
And it's always hard for the ladies to get into
the toilet.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, it's the longest line there.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
When you need a toilet, where is it you? So anyway,
so we it's raining, it's blowing twenty miles an hour,
and we think, what are we going to do with
this photographer. Luckily somebody volunteered a pontoon boat, so we
stick them on the pontoon boat and he's got a
camera that's you know, three feet long, so he can
(29:39):
do the do that. And we had everybody wanted to
be in the Boston Globe, so we had the whole team.
We had probably twenty people. Right, We've got kayakers, we've
got swimmers, and we swim and we swim and we
swim and we can't find the toilet and we can't
find anything else because the wind is whipped up the
(29:59):
w and we cannot see, you know what, not anything.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
This isn't Were you informed? Were you were?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
You told it's probably in this area, is where it's
been spotted, so you kind of knew what direction.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
I was among the people who found it. I was
with them when they found it, and we looked ashore
and we said, it's by the gray shed. It's right
off the gray shed. So there we were, and we
went out and we couldn't find it, and the rain
rained and we got colder and colder, and nothing good,
(30:32):
nothing good was happening. Finally, one of the very good
swimmers came to me and she said, you have to
tell people to go back. You have to call off
this dive. We are blue, we are getting cold. And
I that's I think the one time I have cried
through a snorkel, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
And you had press photography.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
We had blown it. We had just blown it, and
so I gave the call, and they went back, and
the fast ones went back fast, and the mediums went back.
And I was tag and I was going to be
the last. I was going to not let anybody get
left behind. Sure, And we'd been looking off the wrong shed,
(31:17):
And when we finally got to the right gray shed,
the woman who found it the first time found it
again and screamed toilet. Only five of us left, and
we went down on that sucker and we last sued it.
We knew how we'd made a plan. We last suited
the tank. We heaved it up so that a kayak
(31:40):
could then have it suspended below the kayak. Then, of
course the kayaker couldn't paddle. We got behind the kayak.
We pushed it into three feet four feet of water
and lifted it up. Not the picture, and then I said, guys,
tip it towards me. Get the water out before we
put it on the kayak. Okay, comes this full sized
eel who'd been oh my god, full sized, Oh my god, freud,
(32:04):
where are you.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Where he went? He was in? He went through your legs.
You said it was scorning.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Around, because I said, towards me. I could see right
out of the throat of the toilet came WOA.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
But that was a banter. That was a banner day
for that Boston Globe reporter and he was getting every
there and for the eel.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
It was a banner day for all of us that really,
we were so proud.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Of that, and that picture is worth a billion dollars.
We will up put that up absolutely for everyone to see,
if you're watching on YouTube or wherever you watch your podcast.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It is just it's inspiring.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
It's it's like, all right, it's like the Sands of
Evil GiMA, you know, it's kind of like that. Yeah,
that's how inspiring it can be.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Well, when you worked that hard for it, absolutely so.
Now exactly so, Susan, you mentioned, I think you mentioned
it was a guy that you originally came out to
that area for. Then you made another passing of some
dude with a laundry basket you stopped between his legs.
As a couple of knucklehead guys. Here where I'm beginning
to notice that there's not much mention of many, if
any male volunteers in this process. Is that the case, Oh,
(33:12):
it's only for women. It's good.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
It's old ladies against underwater garbage.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Thank god. I just want to make sure that there's
no idiots like us that are trying on the fringes
to get into this.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
But you say it's only women sixty four years and older,
and again you have to go through the tryouts and
show what you got in the water. But no men
are able to join because you say they are quote
too competitive.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
You know, it's not just that they're idiots.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Well one, where's the beer.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
I think women work really well together. And I think
that just the way and and men know this that
if you want a really intimate conversation with your with
your with the lads, with your buddies, it's going to
be in a place where there's isn't any women. It
becomes it becomes a different story. It becomes a distraction. Sure, sure,
(34:05):
same for women. You get a bunch of women in
a sauna, they're going to talk differently than if there's
one guy there or two guys there. Right, right, it
just works so well.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
But you do let the men volunteer for like the
garbage throws kayaking, okay, well, just so they know their place, yeah, exactly,
and they can make cookies.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
I'm assuming every once in a while we did a
pond clean up for a man who spent his entire
life as a chef.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
That was okay.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
He labeled each of the cookies.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
That chef does your pond cleaning? Again? No, it's fine.
Are you sure we can come over and clean? We
can throw a toilet in it? Okay? Well, Susan, you're
you're just extraordinary and and and regardless if if folks,
whether you're women, if you're living or swimming in the
Cape Cod area, you want to get involved or you're
just listening from Afar uh and you want to somehow
(35:00):
help this incredible mission of OLOG, but can't necessarily don
a wetsuit and dive in directly. Is there a way
that our listeners and our viewers can help OLOG from Afar, Susan?
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Sure, they can go to our website which is O
l A U g MA dot.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Com okay, olgahmod dot com and see some wonderful pictures
there as well fantastically.
Speaker 5 (35:21):
Wonderful videos, and there's there's a donate page, and that's
really useful because what we really want to do is
we don't want to get larger. You can't manage fifty
women on a dive.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, So we want.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
To start chapters in Rhode Island and Connecticut and Middle
Mass and maybe Elkie.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Yeah, get out west. Well j we need some help
out here. Well, Susan, what you're doing is not only
special for your community and the country and the environment
in general, but it also makes a smile. So thank
you for.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
That special for us. You know, scale up.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Joy, you call with the old lady energy and it's uh,
it's incredibly inspiring.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I do have a couple of questions.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
We'll call them clean up questions because I would just
be driving home from the show today going, oh man,
I chance to ask her. Have you or your lovely
volunteers ever kept anything you brought up that you found
maybe a personal treasure?
Speaker 5 (36:19):
Absolutely absolutely, everybody's got first DIBs on what they find. Personally.
I like toys, so I have a squirre gun collection.
Oh all ones. I have a squirre gun that looks
like a frog, another one that looks like an elephant
that squirts out its butt. It's wonderful. You know great.
Other people like signs, you know other people, Yeah, flags
(36:43):
and signs.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Uh yeah, I think I take the commode just because
you know, sands full size eel.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Someone offered, someone offered to buy it.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
Someone offered to buy it and said, we'll buy it.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Another question, is is it true, Susan, that some folks
have a real problem with the name old ladies against
underwater garbage.
Speaker 5 (37:08):
Yeah, and they suggest glitter, litter mermaids.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Oh god.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
Once in a while, you know, when we get comments
after a news article or something, they're amazingly positive, snarky
stuff that you sort of expect. But every once in
a while we will get a man who will go
off in a blind rage that he is God forbid
being excluded from something. Oh God, I doubt you could swim.
(37:37):
But and then the other thing is that women who
are aghast that we should call ourselves old never do that.
People will think you do that. Oh I'm eighty four.
This is what eighty four looks like. This is what
eighty four can do. I think one of the great
underutilized resources in the United States are women from sixty
(37:58):
four to eighty four.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Question, and we should all be so lucky as to
look and feel anything like you, Susan, when we're in
our eighties.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
So you aren't looking anything like her now, No, not
even that in that kind of shape a mile to
swim a mile in less than an hour.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I'm lucky if I can do a couple of laps
in my own pool. Really, we cannot thank you enough
for taking the time sitting out in the cold of
Cape Cod, interrupting your own holiday to join us today.
We really, really genuinely appreciate you and everything that OLAG
is doing for all of us.
Speaker 5 (38:28):
Thank you both.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Thank you, We love you very much, and keep up
the great work.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
Indeed, you can't stop us.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I wouldn't even trot on that note. We'll be back
right after this. We will take you suck welcome back
to be good humans. Oh my god, that woman's amazing.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Can't imagine hanging with her. I would you just want
to go have at a cookie and just sit and
listen to her stories and just have her yell at
me and tell me what to do.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Inspiring? Yes, she's truly amazing and truly inspiring, like you said.
But you know who else is amazing? Brian, that rocket
scientist and the astronaut that we spoke to who teach
kids how to reach for space and the stars. The
chefs that we have met to not only feed hungry kids,
but help families across the country get off the streets.
(39:28):
The big guy, the bee Grive the bee she mainly
saves bees, or the guy who ran across Canada for
CRYI for heart research. The truck driver, the female truck
driver exactly, the woman who who survived a terrible car
accident and then not only made a promise to herself
to go travel the world, has since taught women all
(39:51):
over the world how to travel solo themselves.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
And the incredible musician singer songwriter who shares what she's
learned for free people wanting to start their own musical career.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah. Look, the fact is we have gotten this unique
privilege of speaking with so many incredibly good humans this year,
and it has been such a genuine gift to be
able to share their stories with each of you. Now
you may not have realized this while listening, but this
podcast was kind of always intended for us to be
a limited series of sorts. But fortunately you know what's
(40:23):
not limited, Brian at all.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Is friendship are well that that absolutely yes, But what
is also thankfully not limited is the ability that each
and every one of us has to try, just like
Susan Bauer, to try and make some kind of uniquely
positive difference in this world.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
So look, we're gonna say goodbye for now. But if
Brian and I have accomplished anything with this podcast, I
hope and I know you feel the same way that
we've inspired each of you to try and find your
own ways to carry on being good humans yourselves.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
And if you're listening to this podcast, whether you've heard
all of them or not, the fact that just that
you you wanted to check it out kind of tells
us that, yeah, you are a good human. Yes, not
to watch us, but I mean just because you relate
to being a good human and love hearing the stories
of inspiring people.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
That is absolutely right and speaking to good humans. I
know that we have a number of good humans that
we want to speak to right now. I know we
both want to thank our fellow executive producer.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Grant Anderson. Ryan, if you can bring him up, we
want to thank you. Let's bring him up real quick
before we go on.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Yeah, yeah, Grant, we want to thank you for working
so tirelessly behind the scenes to make both of us
look and sound good. And he didn't even want cookies.
He didn't want to even ask for cookies. But the
truth is, Grant, and we've said this to you directly,
but we want to say it before our entire audience.
(41:49):
We absolutely could not have done any of this without you.
You are a dear friend and a godsend.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
And it was a joy to watch to see how
you work, to see how the Hollywood bigs do it.
You know, the problem solvers.
Speaker 5 (42:01):
Well, your bar is clearly very low, but that's okay.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Thank you, We thank you, Grant, We love you, Grant.
We also want to thank both of our associate producers,
Sean Fitzgerald. Let's get him up on camera if we can.
The hardest worker here, he's always right there behind the
scenes giving us thumbs up or laughing that it means
more than you'll ever.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Know any context of people we want to talk to.
That he's just an amazing guy.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
He's helped us do tons of research for every one
of these guys. He's even helped set up this set
every week. Sean, thank you for that. You are absolutely
the real deal. And although we couldn't have her join us, Ryan, Ryan,
if you could bring up the photo of my darling
daughter Clementine Callaway, who put her incredibly creative social media
marketing skills to work on our behalf every week helping
(42:49):
us get the word out about every episode. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
One of my favorite things Clem, and that's we just
first met when she came to my house. We were
going to do quick little promos and one of my
favorite things is she just looks at me, was Brian,
I'm going to be asking you to do things that
you're not going to understand.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Why, welcome to my world?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
All right?
Speaker 1 (43:09):
So thank you fle fantastic. We definitely want to thank you.
Can't see him on camera because we don't have an
angle on him, but we want to thank Ryan Tillotson
and all of our amazing partners at straw Hut Media
who have been just completely instrumental in getting us on
the air in literally every way imaginable. So if you listen, friends,
if you are going to make a podcast, do yourself
a big favor and.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Do it at straw Hut and Brian, yes, my friend,
more than anybody else, I want to thank you from
the bottom of my heart for inspiring this.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Show really over many many years, with all of the
love and the laughter that you gave me. I know
I've spoken about this so as Grant, you gave me
so many of your listeners in LA and around the country.
Making this show with you. Getting to hear my own
voice in conversation with one of my greatest radio heroes
(44:01):
has been not only a dream come true, but it
has really taught me all kinds of things. It is also,
I hope hopefully helped me be some kind of better
version of myself. But I just want you to know
I am deeply grateful for all of that. You are
the absolute og good human.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
I could say the same about you. I got a
chance to see how you work to the process of
being a showrunner, the process on a different level. Sure,
this is a podcast and you doing you know, major
TV shows and movies. But I got to see you
and Grant how how both of you how that level
of organization of of every little detail of that that
(44:41):
you know, that the structure that got to work. So
I experienced that, and I'm very thankful for that. But
I got to have fun with you and Grant and
Sean and Clement. I got to have fun and that that, uh,
that's more important than than anything is just enjoying what
you do, looking forward to cut coming in doing a show,
sometimes not even knowing you know how it's going to go.
(45:04):
But I told you all in our introduction episode many
many months ago that there will be times where we're
doing the show, we're doing the interview, and I'll just
stop talking forgetting there's a microphone in front of me,
just to hear you and your your eloquence. And you know,
you turn a phrase better than anybody I know. If
(45:27):
it can be said in two words, he'll take twenty
twenty minutes to say it, and they're beautiful. Grant has
to edit it up. But thank you for that, my friend,
Thank you for all of it in game. I was
an honor to work with you. I couldn't agree more.
We're going to keep the links up for o Log
and all of the other guests over this past teen
thousand episodes on our website, The beg Humans podcast dot com.
(45:50):
So please continue to support any or all of their
inspiring efforts, but most importantly, please do us a favor.
Keep right on doing what my partner, Brian Phelps, has
been asking all of you to do for so many
years in the past, and will hopefully continue to do
for so many years to come.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
And what would that be again?
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Mister Phelps, Well, that would be please be good humans
in whatever level or form or way you want to
be good humans. And I will also say that I'm
looking forward to our next venture, our next project. This
was a great It was almost kind of felt like,
especially the beginning, an experiment like, can you have fun
(46:33):
while talking about nine to eleven and you know, being respectful,
Can you have fun talking about these sometimes.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
Dark someone who lost a spouse, someone who was an accident,
whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sometimes sometimes not happy, but you can
be that way with it and still respect And I
think I'm very I'm very proud of us. I'm very
proud of the show.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
For well, a good time was had by all. And
that's because from the beginning to the end, we have
surrounded ourselves with good humans. So please be good humans.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Good humans. Bye bye.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
Be good humans. Be good humans. Be good humans, or
we will thank you suck.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Be Good Humans is executive produced by Brian Phelps, Trey Callaway,
and Grant Anderson, with associate producers Sean Fitzgerald and Clementine
Callaway and partnership with straw Hut Media. Please like, follow,
and subscribe, and remember, be good humans.
If Grant's ready, if Sean's ready, if Brian's ready, and
most importantly, if Brian's ready.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Most importantly, No, most importantly, you ready, everything breaks down
without you, Pali, Yeah that's not true. All right, all right, Ready,
here we go.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Good humans, be good humans. Be good humans, or we will.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Thank you sucked, or we will thank you suck.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Welcome back to the Good Humans podcast. Thanks for coming.
Oh my gosh. We hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.
Whatever it is you celebrate, however it is you may
be celebrating it. Did you give me anything? Yeah? Have
you shopped yet? Have you shopped for me yet? What
did you get? You give you a hit? Well, you know,
it's kind of behind us now. So if you didn't
get a gift already, I don't know how to break
this to you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
My gift is behind me. Yeah, we'll get into that later.
Welcome back to the show, Brian.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Here's what I want to ask, because while everyone else
watching and listening is probably enjoying some version of a
winter wonderland wherever they might be watching or listening, you
and I here in La like you know, it just
comes with the territory that it's just another hot day
in La, right, But the good news is it's in
the eighties, so it's not that hot.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
However, I'm sweating here because I'm wearing a scarf in
celebration of the holiday.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yes. Well, and it's also always freezing in this studio,
like we like every black in that way. But at
least in La while everyone else might be shoveling snow
in their driveways around the country, we can always go
to the beach.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
People are hating us right now.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I know that's true. But Brian, how do you I
don't know if we've talked. How do you feel about
the beach? Do you do you the beach?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Do you like spend a lot of time on the
water or the beach? Yeah? Like you know what, I
know we both have pools, but like we literally have
in our backyards relatively speaking, yeah, the Pacific Ocean, so like.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do love the beach for about
an hour. I'm not as you can tell, glass of
milk with hair. I don't lay out to tan. I'm
not you know, I'm either bright red or white. The
sun is not our friend, no, no, no, no, and
sand it tends to get in all my crevices, so yeah,
(02:08):
not yeah, but I love swimming in the beach and
boating in the beach, boating boating off the beach, out
on the water.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
So I'm guessing I do not.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I'm lucky. I love I love all water sports. In fact,
I have a great friend who used to have a
sports boat and it was it was well used, you know,
wasn't anything fancy, sure had a nice engine on back.
We take it to lakes like Lake Castaic. Oh yeah, yeah,
all over. And one time he took us and we
(02:39):
launched it I think, out a Redondo beach into the ocean, okay,
And he uh made a mistake by showing me something
we could do, and I couldn't get enough of it,
being me, okay, I'm you rev it up as far
as fast as you can go, and you are actually
boating towards the waves, so you are getting honest goodness there.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah right, wow.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Wow, And you learned really quick to stand up like
this yeah, and not because it'll wreck your back.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Wow. So that was.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And then one time that day, in fact, we were
doing that and and he kind of actually pulled the
plug on the riding over the waves because it was damaging.
He was worried about his boat, I can understand.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
But he pulled into.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
This kind of an alcove about twenty thirty yards off
the shore and didn't know where we were, and of
course we had music going and all that. He immediately
turns the music off and he just sits there. Okay,
and I'm thinking, okay, what are we gonna rolled?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
This is.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
What's happening. He goes, just wait, okay. So I'm saying,
they're complete silence and let's saen. A minute later I
hear this and over the head came so close a
seven seven to twenty seven jet airplane.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I mean just it was at the.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
End of the run there lax. Wow, it was just
like that scene in Wayne's World chatting on the end
of the airth right here we go, and it was the
most so special is intense and experience you feel it,
you know, you feel it, of course, so that kind
of fun. Yeah, But laying on the beach and getting
stand up my places.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
No, yeah, okay, well how about you. I mean, look,
we both grew up in the Midwest, the Heartland, all
that stuff. So like my first time out to la
was when I was fourteen, years old and we all
came on a family vacation and my birthday is Christmas Eve.
Thanks for the gifts, they're behind you. Yeah, exactly. My
birthday is Christmas Eve. But so we celebrated my birthday
and Christmas on the beach in Santa Monica with my parents.
(04:57):
Brought a little tree that they put on the same
time and all that. So it's kind of cool. I
do like the beach. I like you, I'm far too
fair skin to really enjoy it for very long. But
but but getting out on the water, like, do you
ever scuba diver? Surf for scuba snorkeling?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, yeah, scuba Okay, I've been a long time skydiver,
and I decided, hey, let's do another thing, and so
I took the lessons and I became certified scuba diver.
A big adrenaline rush, it was until I think it
was my first well my the first time out was
like just in and out. But my, uh, the second time,
we took a boat off of Catalina. Yeah, and my
(05:36):
dive master is that what you call? I think so
trying to remember. We got all suited up and we
jumped off and were swimming around and I'm still trying
to remember all the lessons you learn. I mean, now
we're actually scuba diving, and what you know, you know,
you never do this like, hey, I'm having a great time,
right because you do that. I'm okay, because this means
(05:57):
get me up.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Oh wow, Okay, yeah, this is a a good rule.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
So we're submerged and swimming along, and all of a
sudden it starts getting a little a little murky. Oh boy,
And and he's right there, you know, he's right there. Okay,
I think my heart's a little beating a little faster now.
And then it got a lot more murky. And then
I could not see my hand in front of my face. Now,
(06:25):
skydiving is this wonderful, all the space in the world.
If you're, you know, claustrophobic, you won't ever feel that. However,
when I couldn't see I couldn't see him, I didn't
know where he was. I honestly didn't know what was
up and what was down. I panicked and I started
everything really really heavy. And that was the day that
(06:48):
I stopped enjoying. It was a very short lived career
in stupid. I just stuck with skydiving.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
That's when you're checking to see if the tags are
still on the wet suit. Yeah, yeah, yea, yeah, yeah, yeah,
how about you let's see that that's the problem. Like,
I've had some beautiful experiences in the water. I've never
done scuba diving. I've only snorkeled, okay, okay, but like
you know, I've been to the South Pacific, so in morea,
I had this enchanting, dreamlike experience where I literally got
to with a dive master or snorkel master's help, I
(07:19):
got to, you know, grab onto the back of a
sea tortoise and be jetted through the water. You know,
just like beautiful things, right, But the problem with it
in my experience, much like your story, is that you
we really don't belong there as human beings. Like it's
beautiful to look at, probably better if you just went
to the local aquarium and supported them. But like when
you're in the water, like things can go really.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Wrong, really quicklyly fast, and in fact, I'm kind of
surprised that they let you grab hold of the Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Probably in retrospect and maybe not the best thing to
be doing to any tortoise or any sea creature, But
I remember once in Bora Bora, Like you know, it's
the classic. You slide open your coffee table and you're
over the water thatched hotch hut and then you dive
into the body temperature water and it couldn't be more beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
So I dive in and I look down underneath our
hut about eight feet down.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So I can hold my breath and get down there
well enough. But I see a coconut, and so it
occurs to me, Oh, there's a goal. That'll be fun.
I'm gonna swim down and get that coconut. Sure, never
once doing the mental math to recognize that coconuts float,
you idiot, whatever that is that is not a coconut. Yeah.
So it's not until I get down there and reach
out for it that it sprouts eight legs and fills
(08:30):
the water with squid ink. And then I'm like screaming
like a girl under water. Yeah. Yeah, whatever it was,
it didn't feel mushi in. I didn't touch it because
it blew all of its ink into the water and
like ran off. So anyway, point is like it's it's fun,
but it's also at a little dicey, a little to
become wrong. Horribly fast, and it can go horribly wrong
(08:53):
in different ways that I don't think necessarily people think
about that they should think about. I've never done, for example,
any of the scuba diving or snorkeling stuff that you've
done here on the West Coast, and lately that has
been difficult for anybody who loves to do that kind
of thing, because the waters along the coast of LA
in twenty twenty four have been a little bit regrettably
(09:14):
dirtier than usual. In fact, out of the ten most
polluted beaches okay on along the west the entire west coast,
the Santa Monica Pier and that beach area there Will
Rogers State Beach was ranked third, and it was put
at the top of the of the most polluted of
LA County's beach I had no idea, right, And sadly
(09:35):
it's not limited to the West coast. This is an
East coast issue as well. I remember when I was
doing CSI New York years ago, we learned during our
research there that the City of New York would habitually
take old subway cars and just dump them into New
York Harbor. You know, they would say, oh, we we're
creating a new artificial reef, but like you're just dumping
your trash, fully what you're doing. And I shot once
(09:55):
behind Lady Liberty, and I'm still haunted by the that
I saw drifting into shore in that water on their
ringes and nurses. Yeah, like really really awful stuff on
a daily basis. So this is obviously something that is
not great about America and its waterways. And so have
you ever?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I did, And I guess it was just a way
for me to go, yes, I'm helping out, and you know,
on the smallest, most teeny level ever, but adopt a beach.
Oh yeah, of the adopted beach.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, or the heel the bay where you show up
and pick up trash or whatever. Yeah. Sure. But look,
here's the thing. Whatever we've done is going to pale
in comparison to our next guest, because when we get back,
you guys, we're not only going to take a very
deep dive into this topic of all kinds of junk
that does not belong in America's waterways, but we're gonna
(10:50):
hear about some frankly amazing women who have finally decided
to do something directly about helping clean that mess up.
Can't wait, So.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Hold your breck and forward to talking to this lovely lady.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
That's right. Pinch your nose, hold your breath. We'll be
right back.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
We will take you suck.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Thanks for coming back.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Our guest today is the co founder of something called
OLOGG and that sounds like an acronym. It is an acronym.
It stands for Old Ladies against Underwater Garbage. Now it's
a wonderful group of women that swim, dive, heave, and
remove submerged trash from hundreds freshwater ponds throughout Cape Cod.
(11:51):
Please welcome the incredible Susan Bauer.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Hello Susan, Hello Susan.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Hi there guys.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Hey, good to have you here.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And I think this is the first person we've ever
first guest we've ever had that actually has a also
known as she's also known as the Turtle Lady.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
The Turtle Lady, you said, And I think there's got
to be a story there somewhere. I think there is, Susan.
Thank you for joining us on bigod Humans, for our
listeners and our viewers just to sort of set a
map in their minds. Susan, you're joining us from the
Cape Cod area. Of Massachusetts if you've never been there.
First of all, it's beautiful. It's this long, curvy peninsula
(12:29):
that kind of extends off the southeastern corner of the
state into the Atlantic. Wow. But it's also really interesting
because if you look down at kind of an aerial
view of Cape Cod, you will see that it kind
of barely rises above the sea surface, right, And so
all of its green area is punctuated by literally hundreds
(12:49):
of these freshwater ponds and lakes. And you know it's
all comes from the glacial age, and you know it
kind of left these depressions that filled with fresh water
over time. It's gorgeous. Almost a thousand or more of
these ponds.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Accounted them nine hundred and ninety six.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Okay, well, there you go. Susan probably knows better than
either of us, but some of them can go up
to one hundred feet deep. But in spite of their beauty, unfortunately,
thanks to all the people who love to visit places
like Cape Cod year round, those ponds and those lakes
can also get a little bit dirty with pollution, right, Susan,
For the last.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Five or six hundred years of the last thousand years,
because nobody's ever done it. So whatever has been dropped in,
whether it's from a tourist or whether it's from an
indigenous person throwing deer bones into the pond, you know,
five hundred years ago, it's still there.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I kind of want to know, let's start off here,
kind of at the beginning. What a great idea? How
did this all start? How did olik come to be?
I mean, was it You're sitting around making phone calls
to girlfriends, going, so, what do you guys want to
do today?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
How about we.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Jump into a cold, murky pond and haul up trash? No,
how did it start?
Speaker 5 (14:07):
I moved down Cape when I was sixty, in my
mid sixties, to be with a really good guy. And
if you move to Chatham, you don't swim in the
ocean because you drown. Sharks get you. Whatever. So I
started swimming in ponds and I really hated them. I
mean they were dark and they were muddy, and it
(14:30):
felt like yogurt between my toes. And then there were
snapping turtles. There were large ones and huge ones, and
the legends about snapping turtles that they're when they bite you,
they're like lock joint flyers. Oh so, and even if
they die, they won't let go ouch.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
But is that if you bothered them, or will they
just see you there and they're coming after you.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
I've learned that it's both one. You don't want to
bother them, and if it's a male and its high
mating season, they're very territorial and they want you out
of their territory. So anyway, I swam, and in those
early years, I was really very fond of trash because
(15:17):
they were markers. There were markers on this trail that
went around this sort of murky pond. But even though
there was a beer can here and a bottle there,
and a lawn chair there, nevertheless they are the last
remnants of undisturbed natural beauty. I mean, you are really
(15:38):
in the wilderness when you're in the bottom of pond.
Many farm has never been farmed, never been crossed by trail,
has never been built on, so you're really in a
foreign country. So I'm zipping along there. Not zipping, I'm
very cautiously and carefully swimming around these ponds, thinking, don't worry,
don't worry, You'll get to the lawn chair, then find
(16:00):
the beer can. And during these years when I always
swam alone, I would see turtles, and I would see
little painted turtles and musk turtles called stink pot turtles,
And to my amazement, after a couple of years, I
realized that they were as curious about me as I
was about them. So they would come to me. They
(16:21):
would sit on my head to bask in the sun.
They would look at I've got pictures of it. I
have a dive mask and snorkel, doing mask and snorkel,
and they would come and look at their reflections in
my dive mask, and I could see their little eyes
moving around and start sizing me up. So as I
(16:45):
swam over ten fifteen years, I realized that their habitat
was getting less and less as people moved in and
ran their dogs there, and there wasn't much I could
do to help them. And one day I thought, you know,
there is just one thing I can do to help turtles,
and that is get the trash out, especially things like
(17:06):
used uh spent fireworks. They're leeching perchlorates or a car battery,
something like that. I was swimming that day unusually with
two friends. We grabbed a guy on the side, stuck
a laundry basket between his legs, he was surprised, folly
(17:28):
and went around the pond and got maybe not quite
a bushel of garbage, and we thought we were freaking
heroes just for some reason made us feel just ecstatic. Yeah,
of course, somebody said, you know, hey, we're a bunch
of old ladies against underwater garbage, and the name stuck
(17:51):
and that that was the beginning. Now, we wouldn't bother
with a pond that had one bushel of garbage in
it if we can't get a hundred pounds. Were disappointed. Wow,
of this weird sort of love hate relationship to garbage,
because what we really want to find is the next
pond with two hundred pounds.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Of garden, right, the mother load of garbage.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
So yeah, and OLAG has got this incredible mission right,
This is they're swimming to remove trash from ponds, channeling
the incredible strength of older women and then challenging all
kinds of other people to try and see beyond the
limits right to take to take actual concrete action, as
Susan did with her friends Power which I love that
(18:37):
chremy you used over sixty four that's incredible.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Yeah, you know there were sixty four to eighty four
on the eighty four and we just do all this
great stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Well, okay, so there are around twenty five of you
raging in age, as you said, from the sixty four
to eighty four. Now, so once this got rolling, once
this started, there was correct me if I'm wrong with
There was so much public enthusiasm for what you were
doing that you actually had to start holding tryouts. Now
(19:09):
what did those tryouts in tail?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
How does that work?
Speaker 5 (19:13):
So the tryouts every June we had these tryouts for
these women, and there were so many who wanted to
join us. So you had to be able to swim
half a mile in under thirty minutes, obviously not doing
the backstroke, and you had to be able to dive
at least down to eight feet and basically you also
(19:37):
had to be able to be happy to be suspended
in the water for sixty to ninety minutes touching the bottom,
no fins, no stuff like that, because if you touch
the bottom, the mud becomes like diving in a cup
of coffee and you can't see any trash. Yeah, so
we were surprised at first. The first tryout, we went
(19:59):
from five to twenty one people. There was a terrible shock,
but now we've got a really close knit band. And
it's interesting because when we talk to environmentalists, they say,
thank you, you're cleaning up the ponds, you're cleaning up
(20:19):
the planet. You're great environmentalists. But when we talk to women,
they say, oh my god, you're great feminists. You're just
great feminists. You inspire women of all ages, even young
ones say I want to be like that. Most of
us have kids, and many of us have daughters, and
they're very proud, proud of us. Of course, my daughter's
(20:40):
a little she gets tired of this, but are very good.
But then when we talk to other groups, they say,
you're community builders. That's really what you are. Because we
don't do it by ourselves. We involve the community. We
always involve the homeowners association, the pond association. We get
(21:03):
them to provide the kayaks and the trash bags, and
they get to pay us. Not in money, never money,
never take money. Our entire economy is cookies. Oh my god,
they ask in homemade cookies.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Now you're speaking our language. So this is what they get.
If you're thinking they work for free e noo, they don't.
They work for cookies, cookies, And maybe maybe a cup
of hot chocolate, yes.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Yes, yes, or a gallon.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
You might already know this, Susan, and I speak from experience,
but here's a little tip where you always get the
cookies up front.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
You get the cookies. Then you jump right in the pond.
Show me the cookies.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
So then logistically, walk us through this a little bit, Susan.
So when you partner up with these homeowners associations or
a community or whatever, and you bring out the ladies
and the and the volunteers, the whole thing, So how
does it kind of work logistically? Like you've got somebody
who's presumably in a boat of some sort, who is
there to sort of help you as you hit that
(22:08):
mother load and start bringing things up. Walk us through
a sort of a typical salvage effort.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Okay, the first thing we have to do is scout
the pond, because we're not going to jump in a
pond that we know nothing about. Sure, okay, two or
four people go and scout it. They count garbage, they
don't touch it. Very hard not to do that, but
you do that.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Are they also looking out for the turtles?
Speaker 2 (22:27):
The snapping, the snapping absolutely absolutely turtle job.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
And if they find some, do you are you directed?
Does the guide the first.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
I tell them not to get between the snapping turtle
and the deep water because that makes them uncomfortable, so
we go way around them, or we go way out
of their way.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
So then on the day of the dive, the Pond
Association is there and they provide the kayaks. We don't
have to haul kayaks nice and can provide some of
the paddlers so that we're involving and that can be
any age. Any So we've got let's say six kayaks
or maybe a double kayak, sometimes a Maui mat, just
(23:10):
anything paddleboard, anything that floats, and those become garbage scows.
And each garbage scow has two swimmers, okay, and they
set off and I have a map of the pond
and my good swimmers, I say, you swim across the
pond and they say, well, that's about a mile. I say, yeah,
that's about a mile. You swim a mile and then
you start diving for garbage on the way back. And
(23:34):
the medium swimmers they'll go half a mile and they'll
start diving for garbage on the way back, and the
other ones will start right at the beach, two to
the right, to the left with the garbage scows, and
in about an hour hour and a half, In about
an hour, the whistles blow and all the kayakers have
(23:54):
a whistle. The paddles go up, and it is time
to come back. And it's so hard. Everybody cheats, everybody. Yeah,
but there's one more can. I'm not swimming that can.
I'm leaving that can.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
I want to keep going.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
And so what happens, And this is really key, and
this is what's hard to explain, is that when we
are underwater, we are riveted to the present moment. We
are in the flow, in the zone. We are like
a surfer catching waves. We are stoked. We are not
(24:32):
excited at that moment because we are so focused on
how do I get those three garbage you know tops
that are down under the water. How do I do this?
How do I come up and not hit the kayak?
How close to the shore can I go? What do
I see here? There's a tree? Can I get the
(24:54):
lures that are under that tree? No? Not without getting
another swimmer over there. We're so focus that, blessedly we're
out of our own heads, were out of our own minds.
We aren't thinking about dinner, about the person we really
like or don't like. Sure, and when you get totally
(25:15):
out of your head, you see and you feel differently.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Of course, you.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Think I am in the perfect balance. I am challenged.
It's a demanding task, but I can do it. And
then when you come back, it's like shaking a bottle
of champagne and popping the cork. Yeah, flad with relief
and joy and happiness. And the people on shore watching
(25:41):
us wade out because you stagger. You know, you don't
have your land legs, flagger out of the water. The
kayaks are loaded with g I Joe's and bowling ball
and tennis balls and dog toys and chairs and rugs.
I like rugs, tires lift them up and skewer them
with with the kayak. And they watch us come ashore
(26:03):
and they say, what are they smoking? We want that happiness,
And that's what surprises everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I have to ask quickly for a heavy thing. You
mentioned a car battery. How do you dive down in
eight nine feet of water and pull up a heavy
car battery or a toilet?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
As I've read you well like all kinds.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Of things, that was our biggest thing.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
We're going to get to that in a sec.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
There's almost nothing that three women can't heave up off
the bottom. When you find something big, you usually go down,
give it a tug. Can you move it at all?
It's just no or it's obviously like a truck tire
with a rim.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Still in it, It's going to.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
Take four women. We know what we're doing, So we
gathered around. Our kayaker blows it whistle, We gather. We
come up there. On the count of three, down we go.
We know to push down on ones and pull on
the other to break the seal in the.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Mud, right right right, and then up.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
We come to the extent we can. And then we're
on the surface, you know, breathing through our snorkels. And
then if it's got a rim inute, we've got to
put it on a special like a Maui matt or
a special raff the toad behind a kayak. If it's
just a big tire, we puff and pant, get the
(27:28):
kayak in position. On the count of three, we raise
that sucker just about a foot two feet above the water,
and the kayak shoots through.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Hey, here here's an idea you yeah, go swim a mile,
yeah exactly, and then about halfway back, raise a car
battery from the bottom of the pond.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
This is what I keep thinking, is like you know,
you know me, like goal oriented overachiever, like when I
go exercise, will take a walk, like I do have
I have to have a goal in mind, right, so
it'll be like something I make up, like I'm going
to count all the different kinds of flowers in my neighborhood.
I've literally done nothing compared to this woman in an
amazing group. Listen, you are a general, no, actually admiral,
but would be the better term appropriate here? Sure you
(28:09):
were an admiral, I would follow into battle in any
pond in America, Susan.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
And let's go here, Susan. We have so many things
to ask you, the dangers you all faced.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Now.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
You mentioned the snapping turtles, the dark, murky water, and
I was wondering if you could share the story of
the commode that you ladies lifted and what came out
of that there commode when you when it started draining
outside the on top of the water.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
That was certainly the toughest dive I've ever been on,
and The danger really is the cold. It's always the cold,
even in the middle of summer. So this was the
end of July and we had oh yay, gotten the
Boston Globe to agree to come down and do a
photo essay on the dive. Nice and the only way
we could get him was that we've done this dive.
(28:58):
We scouted five or six ponds and we said, you're
gonna want the pond with the toilet. Oh yes, yeah,
unlocked in that does it? Well, anybody can come to Boston.
I'm coming to the toilet.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah nothing, nothing, Nothing draws the American media like a toilet.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
And it's always hard for the ladies to get into
the toilet.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, it's the longest line there.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
When you need a toilet, where is it you? So anyway,
so we it's raining, it's blowing twenty miles an hour,
and we think, what are we going to do with
this photographer. Luckily somebody volunteered a pontoon boat, so we
stick them on the pontoon boat and he's got a
camera that's you know, three feet long, so he can
(29:39):
do the do that. And we had everybody wanted to
be in the Boston Globe, so we had the whole team.
We had probably twenty people. Right, We've got kayakers, we've
got swimmers, and we swim and we swim and we
swim and we can't find the toilet and we can't
find anything else because the wind is whipped up the
(29:59):
w and we cannot see, you know what, not anything.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
This isn't Were you informed? Were you were?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
You told it's probably in this area, is where it's
been spotted, so you kind of knew what direction.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
I was among the people who found it. I was
with them when they found it, and we looked ashore
and we said, it's by the gray shed. It's right
off the gray shed. So there we were, and we
went out and we couldn't find it, and the rain
rained and we got colder and colder, and nothing good,
(30:32):
nothing good was happening. Finally, one of the very good
swimmers came to me and she said, you have to
tell people to go back. You have to call off
this dive. We are blue, we are getting cold. And
I that's I think the one time I have cried
through a snorkel, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
And you had press photography.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
We had blown it. We had just blown it, and
so I gave the call, and they went back, and
the fast ones went back fast, and the mediums went back.
And I was tag and I was going to be
the last. I was going to not let anybody get
left behind. Sure, And we'd been looking off the wrong shed,
(31:17):
And when we finally got to the right gray shed,
the woman who found it the first time found it
again and screamed toilet. Only five of us left, and
we went down on that sucker and we last sued it.
We knew how we'd made a plan. We last suited
the tank. We heaved it up so that a kayak
(31:40):
could then have it suspended below the kayak. Then, of
course the kayaker couldn't paddle. We got behind the kayak.
We pushed it into three feet four feet of water
and lifted it up. Not the picture, and then I said, guys,
tip it towards me. Get the water out before we
put it on the kayak. Okay, comes this full sized
eel who'd been oh my god, full sized, Oh my god, freud,
(32:04):
where are you.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Where he went? He was in? He went through your legs.
You said it was scorning.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Around, because I said, towards me. I could see right
out of the throat of the toilet came WOA.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
But that was a banter. That was a banner day
for that Boston Globe reporter and he was getting every
there and for the eel.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
It was a banner day for all of us that really,
we were so proud.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Of that, and that picture is worth a billion dollars.
We will up put that up absolutely for everyone to see,
if you're watching on YouTube or wherever you watch your podcast.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It is just it's inspiring.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
It's it's like, all right, it's like the Sands of
Evil GiMA, you know, it's kind of like that. Yeah,
that's how inspiring it can be.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Well, when you worked that hard for it, absolutely so.
Now exactly so, Susan, you mentioned, I think you mentioned
it was a guy that you originally came out to
that area for. Then you made another passing of some
dude with a laundry basket you stopped between his legs.
As a couple of knucklehead guys. Here where I'm beginning
to notice that there's not much mention of many, if
any male volunteers in this process. Is that the case, Oh,
(33:12):
it's only for women. It's good.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
It's old ladies against underwater garbage.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Thank god. I just want to make sure that there's
no idiots like us that are trying on the fringes
to get into this.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
But you say it's only women sixty four years and older,
and again you have to go through the tryouts and
show what you got in the water. But no men
are able to join because you say they are quote
too competitive.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
You know, it's not just that they're idiots.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Well one, where's the beer.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
I think women work really well together. And I think
that just the way and and men know this that
if you want a really intimate conversation with your with
your with the lads, with your buddies, it's going to
be in a place where there's isn't any women. It
becomes it becomes a different story. It becomes a distraction. Sure, sure,
(34:05):
same for women. You get a bunch of women in
a sauna, they're going to talk differently than if there's
one guy there or two guys there. Right, right, it
just works so well.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
But you do let the men volunteer for like the
garbage throws kayaking, okay, well, just so they know their place, yeah, exactly,
and they can make cookies.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
I'm assuming every once in a while we did a
pond clean up for a man who spent his entire
life as a chef.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
That was okay.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
He labeled each of the cookies.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
That chef does your pond cleaning? Again? No, it's fine.
Are you sure we can come over and clean? We
can throw a toilet in it? Okay? Well, Susan, you're
you're just extraordinary and and and regardless if if folks,
whether you're women, if you're living or swimming in the
Cape Cod area, you want to get involved or you're
just listening from Afar uh and you want to somehow
(35:00):
help this incredible mission of OLOG, but can't necessarily don
a wetsuit and dive in directly. Is there a way
that our listeners and our viewers can help OLOG from Afar, Susan?
Speaker 5 (35:10):
Sure, they can go to our website which is O
l A U g MA dot.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Com okay, olgahmod dot com and see some wonderful pictures
there as well fantastically.
Speaker 5 (35:21):
Wonderful videos, and there's there's a donate page, and that's
really useful because what we really want to do is
we don't want to get larger. You can't manage fifty
women on a dive.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, So we want.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
To start chapters in Rhode Island and Connecticut and Middle
Mass and maybe Elkie.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Yeah, get out west. Well j we need some help
out here. Well, Susan, what you're doing is not only
special for your community and the country and the environment
in general, but it also makes a smile. So thank
you for.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
That special for us. You know, scale up.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Joy, you call with the old lady energy and it's uh,
it's incredibly inspiring.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I do have a couple of questions.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
We'll call them clean up questions because I would just
be driving home from the show today going, oh man,
I chance to ask her. Have you or your lovely
volunteers ever kept anything you brought up that you found
maybe a personal treasure?
Speaker 5 (36:19):
Absolutely absolutely, everybody's got first DIBs on what they find. Personally.
I like toys, so I have a squirre gun collection.
Oh all ones. I have a squirre gun that looks
like a frog, another one that looks like an elephant
that squirts out its butt. It's wonderful. You know great.
Other people like signs, you know other people, Yeah, flags
(36:43):
and signs.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Uh yeah, I think I take the commode just because
you know, sands full size eel.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Someone offered, someone offered to buy it.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
Someone offered to buy it and said, we'll buy it.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Another question, is is it true, Susan, that some folks
have a real problem with the name old ladies against
underwater garbage.
Speaker 5 (37:08):
Yeah, and they suggest glitter, litter mermaids.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Oh god.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
Once in a while, you know, when we get comments
after a news article or something, they're amazingly positive, snarky
stuff that you sort of expect. But every once in
a while we will get a man who will go
off in a blind rage that he is God forbid
being excluded from something. Oh God, I doubt you could swim.
(37:37):
But and then the other thing is that women who
are aghast that we should call ourselves old never do that.
People will think you do that. Oh I'm eighty four.
This is what eighty four looks like. This is what
eighty four can do. I think one of the great
underutilized resources in the United States are women from sixty
(37:58):
four to eighty four.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Question, and we should all be so lucky as to
look and feel anything like you, Susan, when we're in
our eighties.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
So you aren't looking anything like her now, No, not
even that in that kind of shape a mile to
swim a mile in less than an hour.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I'm lucky if I can do a couple of laps
in my own pool. Really, we cannot thank you enough
for taking the time sitting out in the cold of
Cape Cod, interrupting your own holiday to join us today.
We really, really genuinely appreciate you and everything that OLAG
is doing for all of us.
Speaker 5 (38:28):
Thank you both.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Thank you, We love you very much, and keep up
the great work.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
Indeed, you can't stop us.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I wouldn't even trot on that note. We'll be back
right after this. We will take you suck welcome back
to be good humans. Oh my god, that woman's amazing.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Can't imagine hanging with her. I would you just want
to go have at a cookie and just sit and
listen to her stories and just have her yell at
me and tell me what to do.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Inspiring? Yes, she's truly amazing and truly inspiring, like you said.
But you know who else is amazing? Brian, that rocket
scientist and the astronaut that we spoke to who teach
kids how to reach for space and the stars. The
chefs that we have met to not only feed hungry kids,
but help families across the country get off the streets.
(39:28):
The big guy, the bee Grive the bee she mainly
saves bees, or the guy who ran across Canada for
CRYI for heart research. The truck driver, the female truck
driver exactly, the woman who who survived a terrible car
accident and then not only made a promise to herself
to go travel the world, has since taught women all
(39:51):
over the world how to travel solo themselves.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
And the incredible musician singer songwriter who shares what she's
learned for free people wanting to start their own musical career.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah. Look, the fact is we have gotten this unique
privilege of speaking with so many incredibly good humans this year,
and it has been such a genuine gift to be
able to share their stories with each of you. Now
you may not have realized this while listening, but this
podcast was kind of always intended for us to be
a limited series of sorts. But fortunately you know what's
(40:23):
not limited, Brian at all.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Is friendship are well that that absolutely yes, But what
is also thankfully not limited is the ability that each
and every one of us has to try, just like
Susan Bauer, to try and make some kind of uniquely
positive difference in this world.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
So look, we're gonna say goodbye for now. But if
Brian and I have accomplished anything with this podcast, I
hope and I know you feel the same way that
we've inspired each of you to try and find your
own ways to carry on being good humans yourselves.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
And if you're listening to this podcast, whether you've heard
all of them or not, the fact that just that
you you wanted to check it out kind of tells
us that, yeah, you are a good human. Yes, not
to watch us, but I mean just because you relate
to being a good human and love hearing the stories
of inspiring people.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
That is absolutely right and speaking to good humans. I
know that we have a number of good humans that
we want to speak to right now. I know we
both want to thank our fellow executive producer.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Grant Anderson. Ryan, if you can bring him up, we
want to thank you. Let's bring him up real quick
before we go on.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Yeah, yeah, Grant, we want to thank you for working
so tirelessly behind the scenes to make both of us
look and sound good. And he didn't even want cookies.
He didn't want to even ask for cookies. But the
truth is, Grant, and we've said this to you directly,
but we want to say it before our entire audience.
(41:49):
We absolutely could not have done any of this without you.
You are a dear friend and a godsend.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
And it was a joy to watch to see how
you work, to see how the Hollywood bigs do it.
You know, the problem solvers.
Speaker 5 (42:01):
Well, your bar is clearly very low, but that's okay.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Thank you, We thank you, Grant, We love you, Grant.
We also want to thank both of our associate producers,
Sean Fitzgerald. Let's get him up on camera if we can.
The hardest worker here, he's always right there behind the
scenes giving us thumbs up or laughing that it means
more than you'll ever.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Know any context of people we want to talk to.
That he's just an amazing guy.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
He's helped us do tons of research for every one
of these guys. He's even helped set up this set
every week. Sean, thank you for that. You are absolutely
the real deal. And although we couldn't have her join us, Ryan, Ryan,
if you could bring up the photo of my darling
daughter Clementine Callaway, who put her incredibly creative social media
marketing skills to work on our behalf every week helping
(42:49):
us get the word out about every episode. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
One of my favorite things Clem, and that's we just
first met when she came to my house. We were
going to do quick little promos and one of my
favorite things is she just looks at me, was Brian,
I'm going to be asking you to do things that
you're not going to understand.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Why, welcome to my world?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
All right?
Speaker 1 (43:09):
So thank you fle fantastic. We definitely want to thank you.
Can't see him on camera because we don't have an
angle on him, but we want to thank Ryan Tillotson
and all of our amazing partners at straw Hut Media
who have been just completely instrumental in getting us on
the air in literally every way imaginable. So if you listen, friends,
if you are going to make a podcast, do yourself
a big favor and.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Do it at straw Hut and Brian, yes, my friend,
more than anybody else, I want to thank you from
the bottom of my heart for inspiring this.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Show really over many many years, with all of the
love and the laughter that you gave me. I know
I've spoken about this so as Grant, you gave me
so many of your listeners in LA and around the country.
Making this show with you. Getting to hear my own
voice in conversation with one of my greatest radio heroes
(44:01):
has been not only a dream come true, but it
has really taught me all kinds of things. It is also,
I hope hopefully helped me be some kind of better
version of myself. But I just want you to know
I am deeply grateful for all of that. You are
the absolute og good human.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
I could say the same about you. I got a
chance to see how you work to the process of
being a showrunner, the process on a different level. Sure,
this is a podcast and you doing you know, major
TV shows and movies. But I got to see you
and Grant how how both of you how that level
of organization of of every little detail of that that
(44:41):
you know, that the structure that got to work. So
I experienced that, and I'm very thankful for that. But
I got to have fun with you and Grant and
Sean and Clement. I got to have fun and that that, uh,
that's more important than than anything is just enjoying what
you do, looking forward to cut coming in doing a show,
sometimes not even knowing you know how it's going to go.
(45:04):
But I told you all in our introduction episode many
many months ago that there will be times where we're
doing the show, we're doing the interview, and I'll just
stop talking forgetting there's a microphone in front of me,
just to hear you and your your eloquence. And you know,
you turn a phrase better than anybody I know. If
(45:27):
it can be said in two words, he'll take twenty
twenty minutes to say it, and they're beautiful. Grant has
to edit it up. But thank you for that, my friend,
Thank you for all of it in game. I was
an honor to work with you. I couldn't agree more.
We're going to keep the links up for o Log
and all of the other guests over this past teen
thousand episodes on our website, The beg Humans podcast dot com.
(45:50):
So please continue to support any or all of their
inspiring efforts, but most importantly, please do us a favor.
Keep right on doing what my partner, Brian Phelps, has
been asking all of you to do for so many
years in the past, and will hopefully continue to do
for so many years to come.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
And what would that be again?
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Mister Phelps, Well, that would be please be good humans
in whatever level or form or way you want to
be good humans. And I will also say that I'm
looking forward to our next venture, our next project. This
was a great It was almost kind of felt like,
especially the beginning, an experiment like, can you have fun
(46:33):
while talking about nine to eleven and you know, being respectful,
Can you have fun talking about these sometimes.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
Dark someone who lost a spouse, someone who was an accident,
whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sometimes sometimes not happy, but you can
be that way with it and still respect And I
think I'm very I'm very proud of us. I'm very
proud of the show.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
For well, a good time was had by all. And
that's because from the beginning to the end, we have
surrounded ourselves with good humans. So please be good humans.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
Good humans. Bye bye.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
Be good humans. Be good humans. Be good humans, or
we will thank you suck.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Be Good Humans is executive produced by Brian Phelps, Trey Callaway,
and Grant Anderson, with associate producers Sean Fitzgerald and Clementine
Callaway and partnership with straw Hut Media. Please like, follow,
and subscribe, and remember, be good humans.
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