January 15, 2025 • 36 mins
A ring of fire: Andrés Ruzo, geoscientist, conservationist, author, science communicator and educator, is the first scientist to be granted permission to study the Boiling River of the Amazon.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All of human history fits on the topmost line of
atoms of this thin black line. Where were you born?
Why were you born there? Why were you born to
those parents? What is in your DNA? What is in
(00:24):
the intrinsic.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
In the words of the great Jack Sparrow, you can
always trust the dishonest man to be dishonest.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Welcome to the journey. My name is Neville d'angelou. My
guest is geoscientist and National Geographic Young Explorer Andres Russol.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Along the journey, we stop at intriguing places and meet
fascinating people with novel solutions to some of life's tricky
little problems.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
We play a few games too, and attract the remarkable
characters of free classic books.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Sound Bite, Life, Flight of the Fused Monkeys, and Ill
Set A Time to Begin Again.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
All of which you can get in your favorite format
from Amazon or Barns and Nobles. What does geothermal energy
acting and the boys drawing of a whale on a
(01:47):
ranch in Nicaragua have in common? Well, that's what we're
about to discover as we travel around the Ring of
Fire with Andres thru So, exploring the issues of calling.
What is your true calling. Who are you called to be?
(02:10):
What are you called to do? How did you find
your calling? Let's meet the young man who will be
playing our game today, National Geographic Young Explorer and scientist,
my friend Andris Rousseau.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I'm very glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
As you said, I'm a National Geographic Young Explorer and
I'm also working on my PhD in geophysics at Southern
(02:51):
Methodist University here in Dallas. So my research focuses on
geo thermal studies, heat flow geology, earth studies, and specifically
for my dissertation, I'm looking at heat flow in Peru.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Okay, why would you choose Peru?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Well, first off, I am a tri citizen who was
born in political exile, and one of those citizenships is
from Peru, and I've spent large time of my life
in Peru. My father's Peruvian, have a great deal of family,
primarily in Kusko Lima and in the north. I've got
some family as well, and that, you know, the family
(03:30):
connection just draws you, to be honest with you, That's
what originally caught my imagination as far as going down there,
and then I realized that currently one of the biggest
geologic mysteries on the face of the Earth is right
there in Peru. Everyone's heard of the Ring of Fire,
you know, a ring of volcanoes looping around the Pacific Ocean.
(03:50):
But so f you realize that the world's largest volcanic gap,
as in no volcanoes, no active volcanism, is in Peru.
You've got one five hundred kilometers where there should be
active volcanism because there is active subduction, but there are none,
and there had not been for roughly somewhere between one
(04:10):
point six to two million years really, So it's a
really fascinating thing. And the way to get to the
bottom of that mystery will be through understanding the geothermal
characteristics of the country.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Now, when do you hope to finish your PhD?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Company, God and advisor Willing, I will be done exactly
a year from now, so hopefully December of twenty thirteen.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
How did the person become a National Geographic Young Explorer?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well, it's a really great process. I actually first found
out about it at SMU. They had some flyers that
they were giving a workshop. So every year the National
Geographic Society will pick schools and send representatives to go
there to teach students, both graduate and undergraduate, how to
(05:00):
tell the say their message if you will, how did
how did not preach? That word keeps coming up, preach,
you know, like now, how to how to tell their
scientific story to the world and in popular media. And
they have an application process. You can find it online
just National just google National Geographic Young Explorers Grants and
(05:21):
they are they're grants that are meant to be given
to someone under the age of twenty six, so twenty
five and below. There's other there's other grants for anybody
above above this. For me, yeah, there are more grants.
But they've got a really fantastic program that that is
a is a great way to get your foot in
(05:43):
the door with this fantastic institution and also great practice
on how to do science outside of academia.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Okay, what drew you on this lovely path to where
you are now?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well, as as I mentioned, I am in the sciences,
and as you mentioned, I was very much in the arts.
I was enacting both on screen and in theaters, right
on stage there's a right word, and also painting as well.
To be totally honest with you, I had forgotten that
(06:18):
as a kid science is what I originally wanted to do.
I didn't figure that out until preparing for a talk
that I recently gave in Kansas. I was trying, I
was looking for things to get connected with the audience,
which was third through fifth graders, and I found this
old book and I had totally forgotten about this. My
(06:38):
mom had kept it.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
It was something from when I was in first grade.
It said what do you want to be when you
grow up? And then on the next page in crayon,
I had drawn me swimming with whales and sharks and
things like that, and it said, when I grow up,
I want to be a scientist. And that really opened
up a Pandora's box of memories for me, and I remembered,
(07:01):
you know, it's funny. It's amazing how much you forget,
and coming from a twenty five year old, that's terrible.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
But hey, But so on that note, you know, as
a child, I loved science. I preferred watching documentaries on
animal documentaries to to cartoons any day. I loved exploring,
I loved wandering around, I loved asking questions.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
All of it.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I really enjoyed it. But the thing that that really
truncated that.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Was.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Math has not come naturally to me, I am, even
though I'm getting a PhD in geophysics to the I mean,
I still struggle with math, and I worked very hard
at it, and I'm I am. I feel very capable
with it these days, you know, but especially in my
younger days, it came more difficult. So in this case,
(07:59):
we live in a society that's very much oh, you're
either a math and science this guy, or you're an
English guy. You know, that kind of thing, And that
mentality really was detrimental, was toxic, if you want, because
even though I loved science, I had the passion for it.
You saw the passion for it. Everybody was just so
eager to say no, no, no, there's no hope for you
(08:21):
in that, Go look for something else, which in the
long run turned out great because I found that I
got to get in touch with that artistic side of me,
with that theatrical part of me. But at the same
time they were holding me back from being me. And
actually when I came at I got my undergraduate degree
(08:42):
degrees at SMU as well. And when I originally went
to SMU, my plan was theater and painting. Let's do it.
So I start off with that I'm at this point
in my life freshman year of undergraduate. Once again, I
am the head full of really committed into acting and
(09:03):
doing shows and things like that. Even had an it
was with an agency here in town. And there came
a point where I don't. One of my cousins calls
it the Jesus hears when they started when they start
to click. But it's the idea is that when you
start to figure out that you know what there's we're
on this earth for a reason, you me every single
(09:26):
person out there was placed here for a purpose. And
then I started with that in mind as a backdrop.
I started thinking, all right, I feel with acting and
I'm even going to describe all this geometrically, you know.
I felt that I was on a point. It was
just the point, and it was I am almost to
(09:50):
be all an end all of creation because I have
to get I have to get in good shape to
to do this properly. I have to take voice lessons,
I have to do this. I have to do that,
which is fantastic. But I ran into the issue that
I mean, you can even call it my personal demons
if you will, that it was too much me focus, if.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
That's the word I say it.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
So I said, if I really want to make an
impact the way that I can do it, other people
can do it this way. I'm not saying they can't,
right for me, for Andres russo that is that was
not the way. So I went from that point that
was acting, to the next thing, which I felt moved
me from a point to a line, which was political science.
(10:32):
But unfortunately in political science I ran into the same thing.
Instead of being with a group of people that was
focused on how can I be better? And focusing on
the individuals, the bl and end all, it was society today,
society today. Once again, society today, and it was, well,
there's a how many millions of today's have there been?
And how many more will there be? So once again
(10:55):
that very quickly was all right. Next, and I moved
into history, which and I'm and I enjoyed. I enjoyed
all of these tremendously wonderful people, truly enjoyed them. But
once again it was it was just one more step
on my path of what I of my mission. So
(11:17):
finally history, all of human history, all of human history. Yeah,
all right, humanity?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
And I thought.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That that was great, and I was actually on that track.
I was having a great time. It's funny that one
of my favorite classes was pre Columbian studies, so the
Maya of the Aztec, the Inca.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
It was.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
It was cool.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
But also in that time I had to fulfill a
general education credit a perspective, and I remember very perfectly
sitting with my with my advisor of the lady who
was helping me out as far as picking classes, and
I saw one that said earthquakes and volcanoes. And it's
funny because I guess in a movie it would be
(11:58):
one of those flashbacks to a youth. And actually some
of most of my early childhood was spent between Nicaragua
and Texas, and specifically in Nicaragua. My family's from northern
Nicaragua in Chinandea is the name of the town, and
(12:20):
that's I'm related to pretty much everyone in the entire state.
I'm number twelve of forty two first cousins and if
we were all grew up in the same neighborhood like
brothers and sisters, and I spent a lot of my
time on a family farm that's on a volcano, so
earthquakes in volcano is this one little thing. Immediately I thought,
(12:40):
oh my gosh, all of the time running around on
this volcano with my cousins. We've got fumeral fields on
our farm, so grabbing chicken eggs, you know, making your
hard boiled egg inside a fumerle, or or playing around
with how quickly things can melt or burn or whatever.
It's a it's a lot of fun. And as a kid,
(13:00):
that's it's like a time bomb.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
It's there, it's waiting for it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So I went into this class very eager to be like,
all right, let's see what this is all about, still
not considering geology as a major at all. Then I
had gotten my book. The professor hadn't shown up. I
take my book and I opened it the first page,
just the first page I opened to, you know, just
waiting for the professor, And to my surprise, the very
(13:26):
first page I opened to was our volcano, the Gasita
volcano and Hinanda Anikaawan And so there it was. And
the reason for it was in nineteen ninety eight, Hurricane
Mitch filled up a section of the volcano's crater and
caused a very, very catastrophic landslide which killed a number
(13:50):
of people, but it was there, and I recognized all
of the all of the paths, I recognized all of
the things in the funeral fields. Even our farm or
the farmhouse appeared in two of the pictures. So it
was an immediate connection. And I mean I felt like
I had been awoken from some dream. I was like, what,
(14:10):
you know, Like, how is it possible that this is there?
And if that wasn't enough, then the professor walks in
and he I'm still I'm not really paying attention to
what he's saying at this point. I'm just kind of like,
oh my gosh, freak out. But then he pulls out,
pulls down the I guess projector screen and puts up
(14:32):
the geologic timeline and he says, and this is the
part whey I tuned in. All of human history fits
on the topmost line of atoms of this thin black line.
And it was just a boom. That's where I was hooked,
(14:54):
because as weird as it is, I felt insignificant, and
I loved that feeling.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
For me.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
There is there's just so much of a world out there,
so much of a universe out there, and to get
caught up with the here and there little subtleties of
humanity sometimes distract and for me at least, distracts me
from a higher calling, a higher mission. And something's curiously
sometimes that mission is very much the humanity. But it's
(15:23):
what I needed. And I found geology and I loved it,
and then I quickly found out that, wow, for homework,
these guys have to go camping.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
You know, Well, where do we're back? Where We're going
to find out more about Andre's higher calling?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
What is your calling? Have you found your calling? You
might want to check out The Rat and the Alley Cat.
It is a digital quick read the true story of
a boy caught in fire and how this led to
the discovery of the seven Steps of spin. Yes, exactly
(16:08):
how to get from where you are to your highest calling,
to be your best at who your called to be
and what you are called to do. Check it out
The Rat and the Alley Cat by Neville The Angelou.
It is a digital quick read, and you want to
(16:29):
keep it handy. The Rat and the Alley Cat by
Neville The Angulou.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Well, I'm back with Andres, and I'm going to ask
Andres to continue telling us about his higher calling. You
mentioned that in the previous section, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Geology. At this point I had found geology. I found
something that make me feel insignificant. And that's before I
went on all the camping trips and a whole bunch
of camping trip translators that to add PUCI, sorry, the
whole bunch of camping. Yeah, English is a second language
learned to speak of today six selish perfectly working on that.
(17:22):
But camp geology and camping took me all over the place,
as far away as in Australia, Hawaii, all over South America, Europe.
It's been, it's been amazing, and the beauty of well
geology being at the end of the day, rocks and
rocks being everywhere. So but in that calling, you know,
(17:43):
there were a lot of subcallings, if you will. You know,
for a while, I thought, okay, it's to people, Okay,
it's to energy, Okay, it's to this. But I didn't
really put it all together until actually it was an
it was well, this will have to be another one.
But it was honestly an an Amazonian not ceremony, but
(18:05):
kind of retreat, an Amazonian retreat, just in silence, in
solitude and staying up all night, just kind of in meditation.
Really it was a meditational thing focusing on what you
were called to be, and it wasn't really a Okay,
how do you feel the day?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
How is this? How is that?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
It's no dig into who you are? Where were you born,
why were you born there? Why were you born to
those parents? What is in your DNA? What is in
the intrinsic.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
You?
Speaker 1 (18:42):
If you will? And it was looking at that and
being able to delve within myself and see that all
of these, all of these different strings, all of these
different submissions, really point to one, and for me it
was nature. So the way I see it, and especially
in context of going through history, going through Polycide, even
(19:04):
going through acting our surrounding, our environment, nature in itself,
even on a global scale, has such profound impacts on
our daily lives in many ways that we don't even
realize yet. Anything from the food that the water we drink,
the air that we breathe, those are all health issues,
(19:25):
not only health issues, but food can't get better than that.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Energy.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Where we get our energy from is we get it
from nature, be it from the sun, from fossil fuels,
from geothermal, from wind, from water. List goes on and well,
this is where the polycien historian side of me is
about to come out. But there's been a lot of
(19:52):
research into most of human conflicts come from a battle
for resources. So in light of that, you can I mean,
there's plenty of examples we can pull up from both
modern and recent case studies.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
But now, do you do you think that that we
are as you mentioned, a lot of our conflicts is
a battle of resources. Is it because there's a shortage
of resources that we battle over them? Is it because
there's a perceived shortage of resources we battle over them?
Or is it a selfishness selfish? Is I can't say
(20:29):
that's worried a selfishness that causes us to battle. I
want the resources. So you don't have, well you have
any opinion on any of that.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
I've got my opinion. I mean, I think, first off,
one by one, as far as in my travels, and
that's it, you know you mentioned and in all humility,
I say, I have traveled a lot. I personally do
not think humans are inherently selfish. I don't. I have
one story. The first story comes up. I was in
(20:59):
one of the poorest places in Nikaraijuan, and there was
an old woman, she was probably in her sixties. She
had her little lunch and she was walking to town,
which for her was a six hour walk. We were
headed that way and we offered me and my friends
back of a pickup truck and we said, hey, where
are you going, Come on, we'll give you a red
(21:22):
And she had her little lunch box. That was her
food for the day. And then she had to walk
back early the next day. And in spite of that,
she refused to go without giving us her food. She
wanted to give us her food to thank us so much.
There you go, There you go, There you go. I
had to slip in money secretly, like anti reverse pickpocketing.
(21:45):
I had a sneak in money so that she would
have something. I mean, I have similar stories in China,
in Europe, in the United States. I don't think people
are selfish at their core. I don't see it. I
think we all have a right to live. I think
that you know, if you need to get food, if
you need to get something just to hold you over.
(22:07):
I don't know if the need for I think a
lot of times the need for survival can be confused
with selfishness. And I mean even that's a huge philosophial.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
So what causes the conflict?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
What?
Speaker 4 (22:19):
What? What? What do you think there's this conflict?
Speaker 1 (22:22):
I wish I knew, and if I knew, I would probably,
I don't know, be rich and famous somewhere, but I'll
pres But just the fact that we are seven billion
people and growing and we do live on a finite
world with finite resources, and just knowing that we we
(22:46):
use our resources in a lot of them, at least
in a very inefficient way. Well, I think that's a
that's a big part of it. So that perception of
oh my gosh, things are running out and the actual
fact that in certain areas things are running out. I
mean I was I've been living in northern Peru for
the last year and a half and in a little
(23:06):
town called Manquare, so close to Talada of that area,
and I saw a documentary it just that came out
from this this group there was that's calling for protection
of Peru's oceans as due to the Humboldt Current in
Peru's blessed location. They according to this documentary, which is
(23:28):
called Malady Map Mother Ocean, you can it's ten minutes.
It's really great. Apparently Peru has if I remember correctly,
point one is either either point one or point oh
one percent of all of the world's oceans, but produced
ten percent of the world's seafood. So we have and
you can see the trawlers, you can see massive factory
(23:49):
ships if you're down there, and it's just this we
are we are really over fishing. And actually I read
a similar study from Australia that this issue of overs
because fish are a limited resource. I mean they are
they could be very easily sustainably harvested, but they are
a limited resource in the wild. And actually this Australian
(24:09):
report I read was even linking sharks that are normally pelagic,
they normally like to be out in the ocean coming
in closer to shore looking for food because it's just
not there anymore. Seven billion people, that's a lot of
mouths to feed. And without calling anyone selfish for wanting
(24:30):
to live, you know, I think that's we've got the
whole heap of issues that we need to sort out,
and I want to be a part of that.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
How he planned to be a part of the solution.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Well, here, the first thing is geothermal energy. When I
was looking at different energy sources even within geology, geo
thermal really stood out. Actually the International Business Times I
remember reading an article that called it the sleeping giant
of renewable energy resources because it was it is long
term sustainable and baseload. Baseload is the is a will
(25:05):
eventually become a buzzword because the finance community hasn't realized
it yet. But baseload energy is a power plant that's
producing constantly all the time. Intermittent power sources are when
the wind blows, when the sunshines.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
So just as a clarifying I haven't heard the term
based load before in terms of energy, but it's true.
But keep going. So I have a question that I'd
like to ask you later about this.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah, so what's the most intriguing thing about geothermal for me?
And this might be why. Well, Google recently last year
actually gave us a grant at the SMU Geothermal Lab
to do the geothermal map of the United States to
(25:52):
really highlight where there's areas of the potential so oil
and gas. They use gel, they use geophysicists, geochemists saw
that they drilled, they look to produce some sort of
fluid from the subsurface, but the hydrocarbons. Geothermal does the
same thing but with water, so it's not too much
(26:13):
of a paradigm shift. In fact, I was with a
meeting last week with a whole bunch of people here
in the Dallas area, top geologists from a really prominent
company here in the Fort Worth base and the Barnett shale,
and I was telling them, half jokingly, you know, all
you got to do is just look for water, hot water,
(26:33):
and they were all blown away. They were basically because
it's so easy to find, is what they were saying.
Then if you know where to look. So that's one
place where geothermal becomes very attractive right now. This is
part of that balance of power that we were talking about,
that struggle for resources even on an economic level companies. Unfortunately,
(26:56):
what I'm seeing in energy markets is a lot of
focus on new startups that that do some sort of
new technology, and a lot of pinning oil and gas
companies as the evil bad guys.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
Are they the evil dead guys?
Speaker 1 (27:13):
I don't think so. I don't think so, and I
honestly why because I've worked with a lot of them.
That that and a lot of people there that have
really great hopes for what can be accomplished. And I
feel that society and especially the government, they really should
be doing this more than anyone. It is my feeling.
(27:34):
But that's another topic. Yeah, sorry about that, Yeah exactly,
but we should harness visibility. Oil and gas companies have
this amazing ability to find to produce resources from the subsurface.
I am of the opinion that oil and gas companies
could totally dominate the geothermal the geothermal world. And it's
(27:58):
interesting because actually this was once a theory. Is is
coming true or a hypothesis. Anyway, it's coming true. So
Chevron is the world's largest producer of geothermal energy, and
actually this past year at a large geothermal conference, they
announced that they're going to be getting back into the
(28:19):
United States geothermal plays. So it's exciting. It just works
hand in hand with oil and gas. And if we
want to find a bridge, a permanent bridge, because it's
not just going to be there and go away, but
a way to get from a hydrocarbon based economy to
a renewable energy future. I really think geothermal is our
(28:43):
best shot. I really do. And I even though people
a lot of people say, well, it's too expensive.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
It's too difficult.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
But then I'll remind them. You know, recently, they just
drilled one of the deepest offshore wells in some of
the deepest water out there. I don't remember, I wish
I remember the exact figures, but it is ridiculous how
extreme the environment was and they were able to produce
oil and gas. That why because that's over one hundred
(29:13):
years of investment in the oil and gas sector. That's
a lot of hard work, that's a lot of money.
I mean, it goes back to even though we are
this insignificant little dot of humanity and the greater scheme
of things, we're able to accomplish some pretty amazing things.
And going back to it, it's reaching these things that
(29:36):
we thought were unattainable. We can do it. We just
have to harness our passion, harness our human energy and
focus on it. We can get there.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
I agree with you will have to have a conversation
on energy.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
As far as you know, oil and gas companies not
being the bad guy. And I just want to preface
this with I am very aware of the net if
things that have gone on in the Gulf was actually
just down there looking at some of the impacts two
weeks ago, but also in the Amazon across the world.
I'm very aware of that. I want to be sure
to let that out there. However, there's a twist to it.
(30:14):
As I mentioned at the beginning of the program. I
love animals, and whales actually have been some of my
favorite animals since I was a kid. You know, I've
been involved with just in the same way that I've
been involved with, oil and gas companies have been involved
with environmentalist movements. And I once actually gave a talk
at a green Piece event, and it was trying to
(30:39):
to get people to look at working together rather than
antagonizing each other. And one of the things that I said,
I got flat for it. But you know, it's true,
oil and gas companies have saved more whales than any
environmentalist movement will ever do.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Well. That surprises me that you say.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
That, why because they put whale oil companies out of business.
That's what they did. If you want to quote the
Dalai Lama, learn the rules so you can know how
to break them properly. Even though it wasn't meant to
be an environmentalist movement, it was going from whale oil
to fossil fuels particularly saved the sperm whale, blue whale,
a whole bunch of these these whale species that we
(31:22):
were decimating. So I mean I am I am grateful
to oil and Gas for that. I'm ready to move on.
I want to see I want to see a change.
I want to be a part of the change, and
I'm every day working to see it. But we we can't.
We can't go around antagonizing people. That's my point.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
I totally agree with you. Well, there is Andrews, ladies
and gentlemen. As I mentioned to you, he will be
with us again and again. I trust, I hope I
don't drive him off.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Don't worry about that.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Well, it's game time and we will begin our new
season with the game, you know, our sbl game. It
is called what the Sage said. The Sage said this,
Everyone living long enough will slip and fall into a
(32:25):
deep hole. Then look up for help. Three hands will appear,
the hand of a hustler, the hand of a riddler,
and the hand of a clown. Choose wisely, or you
(32:46):
will be buried there and race. What will you do? Yikes?
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Which hand to choose? Definitely not the riddler, Okay, I
think you're playing the.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Role of the Riddler.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Oh, I don't know that I'm playing the role of
the Riddler.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Before anything, I'd like to state, probably when I'm at
that point in my life, if I was in the
mood to stay in the hole, the last thing that
i'd want to assuming I was in the mood to
stay in the hole, the last person that I dosh
out to would be the first one would be the clown,
just so the last thing I could see before my
imminent death would be something funny and I could go
(33:35):
down laughing. Okay, that would be the first one, assuming
I wanted to get out of the hole right once again,
Forget the Riddler, I'd say the hustler, because in the
words of the great Jack Sparrow, you can always trust
the dishonest man to be dishonest, and he'd probably pull
me out looking for cash, and in that process I'd
(33:57):
try to escape as quickly as my advanced in yourself
could do. If not the clown, because I did a
workshop once with a clown teacher, and the entire purpose
of being a clown is, no matter what you do,
you're always have a single to have a single minded focus.
(34:19):
So if that clown was reaching out a hand to
me to help, I'll know that all of that clown,
assuming it's a properly trained clown's focus, would be to
pull me out.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Of the hole. And yet you would choose the hustler.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
It depends on It depends on whether or not I
want to get.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Out of the hole, and would you want to get
out of the hole.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
If I'm advanced enough in years, I'm happy with my life.
I don't know. But even in the way that you want,
life will live. There's a beautiful thing and there's a
time for all of us to go, I think, and
I don't know. That's a different point of view. However,
as you're playing, as you're clearly playing the riddlers, So.
Speaker 6 (35:04):
I'll let you let me play, and you're clearly playing
the riddler here, I'd say that when if I'm ever
in that time in life.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
But also I guess the way that I interpreted that,
you could either be a life or death. You said
you slip, you slip and fall. Can you slip into
a depression or a physical slip into a deep hole?
So if I'm slipping in the depression once again, I'd
probably choose a clown, so I'd have to go for
the clown.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
You change for the hustler to the clouds.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
That would never change you, guys.
Speaker 6 (35:40):
Vocally brainstorming you.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
You're cheating.
Speaker 6 (35:44):
That's cheating.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I go for the clowns.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Okay, you go for the cloud right.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Thanks so much, once again, thank you, it's been a
pleasure having been here. That's another well successfully lost.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Our standing question today is this what is your calling?
See you next week, Hm,
All of human history fits on the topmost line of
atoms of this thin black line. Where were you born?
Why were you born there? Why were you born to
those parents? What is in your DNA? What is in
(00:24):
the intrinsic.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
In the words of the great Jack Sparrow, you can
always trust the dishonest man to be dishonest.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Welcome to the journey. My name is Neville d'angelou. My
guest is geoscientist and National Geographic Young Explorer Andres Russol.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Along the journey, we stop at intriguing places and meet
fascinating people with novel solutions to some of life's tricky
little problems.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
We play a few games too, and attract the remarkable
characters of free classic books.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Sound Bite, Life, Flight of the Fused Monkeys, and Ill
Set A Time to Begin Again.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
All of which you can get in your favorite format
from Amazon or Barns and Nobles. What does geothermal energy
acting and the boys drawing of a whale on a
(01:47):
ranch in Nicaragua have in common? Well, that's what we're
about to discover as we travel around the Ring of
Fire with Andres thru So, exploring the issues of calling.
What is your true calling. Who are you called to be?
(02:10):
What are you called to do? How did you find
your calling? Let's meet the young man who will be
playing our game today, National Geographic Young Explorer and scientist,
my friend Andris Rousseau.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I'm very glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
As you said, I'm a National Geographic Young Explorer and
I'm also working on my PhD in geophysics at Southern
(02:51):
Methodist University here in Dallas. So my research focuses on
geo thermal studies, heat flow geology, earth studies, and specifically
for my dissertation, I'm looking at heat flow in Peru.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Okay, why would you choose Peru?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Well, first off, I am a tri citizen who was
born in political exile, and one of those citizenships is
from Peru, and I've spent large time of my life
in Peru. My father's Peruvian, have a great deal of family,
primarily in Kusko Lima and in the north. I've got
some family as well, and that, you know, the family
(03:30):
connection just draws you, to be honest with you, That's
what originally caught my imagination as far as going down there,
and then I realized that currently one of the biggest
geologic mysteries on the face of the Earth is right
there in Peru. Everyone's heard of the Ring of Fire,
you know, a ring of volcanoes looping around the Pacific Ocean.
(03:50):
But so f you realize that the world's largest volcanic gap,
as in no volcanoes, no active volcanism, is in Peru.
You've got one five hundred kilometers where there should be
active volcanism because there is active subduction, but there are none,
and there had not been for roughly somewhere between one
(04:10):
point six to two million years really, So it's a
really fascinating thing. And the way to get to the
bottom of that mystery will be through understanding the geothermal
characteristics of the country.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Now, when do you hope to finish your PhD?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Company, God and advisor Willing, I will be done exactly
a year from now, so hopefully December of twenty thirteen.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
How did the person become a National Geographic Young Explorer?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well, it's a really great process. I actually first found
out about it at SMU. They had some flyers that
they were giving a workshop. So every year the National
Geographic Society will pick schools and send representatives to go
there to teach students, both graduate and undergraduate, how to
(05:00):
tell the say their message if you will, how did
how did not preach? That word keeps coming up, preach,
you know, like now, how to how to tell their
scientific story to the world and in popular media. And
they have an application process. You can find it online
just National just google National Geographic Young Explorers Grants and
(05:21):
they are they're grants that are meant to be given
to someone under the age of twenty six, so twenty
five and below. There's other there's other grants for anybody
above above this. For me, yeah, there are more grants.
But they've got a really fantastic program that that is
a is a great way to get your foot in
(05:43):
the door with this fantastic institution and also great practice
on how to do science outside of academia.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Okay, what drew you on this lovely path to where
you are now?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well, as as I mentioned, I am in the sciences,
and as you mentioned, I was very much in the arts.
I was enacting both on screen and in theaters, right
on stage there's a right word, and also painting as well.
To be totally honest with you, I had forgotten that
(06:18):
as a kid science is what I originally wanted to do.
I didn't figure that out until preparing for a talk
that I recently gave in Kansas. I was trying, I
was looking for things to get connected with the audience,
which was third through fifth graders, and I found this
old book and I had totally forgotten about this. My
(06:38):
mom had kept it.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
It was something from when I was in first grade.
It said what do you want to be when you
grow up? And then on the next page in crayon,
I had drawn me swimming with whales and sharks and
things like that, and it said, when I grow up,
I want to be a scientist. And that really opened
up a Pandora's box of memories for me, and I remembered,
(07:01):
you know, it's funny. It's amazing how much you forget,
and coming from a twenty five year old, that's terrible.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
But hey, But so on that note, you know, as
a child, I loved science. I preferred watching documentaries on
animal documentaries to to cartoons any day. I loved exploring,
I loved wandering around, I loved asking questions.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
All of it.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I really enjoyed it. But the thing that that really
truncated that.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Was.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Math has not come naturally to me, I am, even
though I'm getting a PhD in geophysics to the I mean,
I still struggle with math, and I worked very hard
at it, and I'm I am. I feel very capable
with it these days, you know, but especially in my
younger days, it came more difficult. So in this case,
(07:59):
we live in a society that's very much oh, you're
either a math and science this guy, or you're an
English guy. You know, that kind of thing, And that
mentality really was detrimental, was toxic, if you want, because
even though I loved science, I had the passion for it.
You saw the passion for it. Everybody was just so
eager to say no, no, no, there's no hope for you
(08:21):
in that, Go look for something else, which in the
long run turned out great because I found that I
got to get in touch with that artistic side of me,
with that theatrical part of me. But at the same
time they were holding me back from being me. And
actually when I came at I got my undergraduate degree
(08:42):
degrees at SMU as well. And when I originally went
to SMU, my plan was theater and painting. Let's do it.
So I start off with that I'm at this point
in my life freshman year of undergraduate. Once again, I
am the head full of really committed into acting and
(09:03):
doing shows and things like that. Even had an it
was with an agency here in town. And there came
a point where I don't. One of my cousins calls
it the Jesus hears when they started when they start
to click. But it's the idea is that when you
start to figure out that you know what there's we're
on this earth for a reason, you me every single
(09:26):
person out there was placed here for a purpose. And
then I started with that in mind as a backdrop.
I started thinking, all right, I feel with acting and
I'm even going to describe all this geometrically, you know.
I felt that I was on a point. It was
just the point, and it was I am almost to
(09:50):
be all an end all of creation because I have
to get I have to get in good shape to
to do this properly. I have to take voice lessons,
I have to do this. I have to do that,
which is fantastic. But I ran into the issue that
I mean, you can even call it my personal demons
if you will, that it was too much me focus, if.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
That's the word I say it.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
So I said, if I really want to make an
impact the way that I can do it, other people
can do it this way. I'm not saying they can't,
right for me, for Andres russo that is that was
not the way. So I went from that point that
was acting, to the next thing, which I felt moved
me from a point to a line, which was political science.
(10:32):
But unfortunately in political science I ran into the same thing.
Instead of being with a group of people that was
focused on how can I be better? And focusing on
the individuals, the bl and end all, it was society today,
society today. Once again, society today, and it was, well,
there's a how many millions of today's have there been?
And how many more will there be? So once again
(10:55):
that very quickly was all right. Next, and I moved
into history, which and I'm and I enjoyed. I enjoyed
all of these tremendously wonderful people, truly enjoyed them. But
once again it was it was just one more step
on my path of what I of my mission. So
(11:17):
finally history, all of human history, all of human history. Yeah,
all right, humanity?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
And I thought.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That that was great, and I was actually on that track.
I was having a great time. It's funny that one
of my favorite classes was pre Columbian studies, so the
Maya of the Aztec, the Inca.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
It was.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
It was cool.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
But also in that time I had to fulfill a
general education credit a perspective, and I remember very perfectly
sitting with my with my advisor of the lady who
was helping me out as far as picking classes, and
I saw one that said earthquakes and volcanoes. And it's
funny because I guess in a movie it would be
(11:58):
one of those flashbacks to a youth. And actually some
of most of my early childhood was spent between Nicaragua
and Texas, and specifically in Nicaragua. My family's from northern
Nicaragua in Chinandea is the name of the town, and
(12:20):
that's I'm related to pretty much everyone in the entire state.
I'm number twelve of forty two first cousins and if
we were all grew up in the same neighborhood like
brothers and sisters, and I spent a lot of my
time on a family farm that's on a volcano, so
earthquakes in volcano is this one little thing. Immediately I thought,
(12:40):
oh my gosh, all of the time running around on
this volcano with my cousins. We've got fumeral fields on
our farm, so grabbing chicken eggs, you know, making your
hard boiled egg inside a fumerle, or or playing around
with how quickly things can melt or burn or whatever.
It's a it's a lot of fun. And as a kid,
(13:00):
that's it's like a time bomb.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
It's there, it's waiting for it.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So I went into this class very eager to be like,
all right, let's see what this is all about, still
not considering geology as a major at all. Then I
had gotten my book. The professor hadn't shown up. I
take my book and I opened it the first page,
just the first page I opened to, you know, just
waiting for the professor, And to my surprise, the very
(13:26):
first page I opened to was our volcano, the Gasita
volcano and Hinanda Anikaawan And so there it was. And
the reason for it was in nineteen ninety eight, Hurricane
Mitch filled up a section of the volcano's crater and
caused a very, very catastrophic landslide which killed a number
(13:50):
of people, but it was there, and I recognized all
of the all of the paths, I recognized all of
the things in the funeral fields. Even our farm or
the farmhouse appeared in two of the pictures. So it
was an immediate connection. And I mean I felt like
I had been awoken from some dream. I was like, what,
(14:10):
you know, Like, how is it possible that this is there?
And if that wasn't enough, then the professor walks in
and he I'm still I'm not really paying attention to
what he's saying at this point. I'm just kind of like,
oh my gosh, freak out. But then he pulls out,
pulls down the I guess projector screen and puts up
(14:32):
the geologic timeline and he says, and this is the
part whey I tuned in. All of human history fits
on the topmost line of atoms of this thin black line.
And it was just a boom. That's where I was hooked,
(14:54):
because as weird as it is, I felt insignificant, and
I loved that feeling.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
For me.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
There is there's just so much of a world out there,
so much of a universe out there, and to get
caught up with the here and there little subtleties of
humanity sometimes distract and for me at least, distracts me
from a higher calling, a higher mission. And something's curiously
sometimes that mission is very much the humanity. But it's
(15:23):
what I needed. And I found geology and I loved it,
and then I quickly found out that, wow, for homework,
these guys have to go camping.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
You know, Well, where do we're back? Where We're going
to find out more about Andre's higher calling?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
What is your calling? Have you found your calling? You
might want to check out The Rat and the Alley Cat.
It is a digital quick read the true story of
a boy caught in fire and how this led to
the discovery of the seven Steps of spin. Yes, exactly
(16:08):
how to get from where you are to your highest calling,
to be your best at who your called to be
and what you are called to do. Check it out
The Rat and the Alley Cat by Neville The Angelou.
It is a digital quick read, and you want to
(16:29):
keep it handy. The Rat and the Alley Cat by
Neville The Angulou.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Well, I'm back with Andres, and I'm going to ask
Andres to continue telling us about his higher calling. You
mentioned that in the previous section, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Geology. At this point I had found geology. I found
something that make me feel insignificant. And that's before I
went on all the camping trips and a whole bunch
of camping trip translators that to add PUCI, sorry, the
whole bunch of camping. Yeah, English is a second language
learned to speak of today six selish perfectly working on that.
(17:22):
But camp geology and camping took me all over the place,
as far away as in Australia, Hawaii, all over South America, Europe.
It's been, it's been amazing, and the beauty of well
geology being at the end of the day, rocks and
rocks being everywhere. So but in that calling, you know,
(17:43):
there were a lot of subcallings, if you will. You know,
for a while, I thought, okay, it's to people, Okay,
it's to energy, Okay, it's to this. But I didn't
really put it all together until actually it was an
it was well, this will have to be another one.
But it was honestly an an Amazonian not ceremony, but
(18:05):
kind of retreat, an Amazonian retreat, just in silence, in
solitude and staying up all night, just kind of in meditation.
Really it was a meditational thing focusing on what you
were called to be, and it wasn't really a Okay,
how do you feel the day?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
How is this? How is that?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
It's no dig into who you are? Where were you born,
why were you born there? Why were you born to
those parents? What is in your DNA? What is in
the intrinsic.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
You?
Speaker 1 (18:42):
If you will? And it was looking at that and
being able to delve within myself and see that all
of these, all of these different strings, all of these
different submissions, really point to one, and for me it
was nature. So the way I see it, and especially
in context of going through history, going through Polycide, even
(19:04):
going through acting our surrounding, our environment, nature in itself,
even on a global scale, has such profound impacts on
our daily lives in many ways that we don't even
realize yet. Anything from the food that the water we drink,
the air that we breathe, those are all health issues,
(19:25):
not only health issues, but food can't get better than that.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Energy.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Where we get our energy from is we get it
from nature, be it from the sun, from fossil fuels,
from geothermal, from wind, from water. List goes on and well,
this is where the polycien historian side of me is
about to come out. But there's been a lot of
(19:52):
research into most of human conflicts come from a battle
for resources. So in light of that, you can I mean,
there's plenty of examples we can pull up from both
modern and recent case studies.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
But now, do you do you think that that we
are as you mentioned, a lot of our conflicts is
a battle of resources. Is it because there's a shortage
of resources that we battle over them? Is it because
there's a perceived shortage of resources we battle over them?
Or is it a selfishness selfish? Is I can't say
(20:29):
that's worried a selfishness that causes us to battle. I
want the resources. So you don't have, well you have
any opinion on any of that.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
I've got my opinion. I mean, I think, first off,
one by one, as far as in my travels, and
that's it, you know you mentioned and in all humility,
I say, I have traveled a lot. I personally do
not think humans are inherently selfish. I don't. I have
one story. The first story comes up. I was in
(20:59):
one of the poorest places in Nikaraijuan, and there was
an old woman, she was probably in her sixties. She
had her little lunch and she was walking to town,
which for her was a six hour walk. We were
headed that way and we offered me and my friends
back of a pickup truck and we said, hey, where
are you going, Come on, we'll give you a red
(21:22):
And she had her little lunch box. That was her
food for the day. And then she had to walk
back early the next day. And in spite of that,
she refused to go without giving us her food. She
wanted to give us her food to thank us so much.
There you go, There you go, There you go. I
had to slip in money secretly, like anti reverse pickpocketing.
(21:45):
I had a sneak in money so that she would
have something. I mean, I have similar stories in China,
in Europe, in the United States. I don't think people
are selfish at their core. I don't see it. I
think we all have a right to live. I think
that you know, if you need to get food, if
you need to get something just to hold you over.
(22:07):
I don't know if the need for I think a
lot of times the need for survival can be confused
with selfishness. And I mean even that's a huge philosophial.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
So what causes the conflict?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
What?
Speaker 4 (22:19):
What? What? What do you think there's this conflict?
Speaker 1 (22:22):
I wish I knew, and if I knew, I would probably,
I don't know, be rich and famous somewhere, but I'll
pres But just the fact that we are seven billion
people and growing and we do live on a finite
world with finite resources, and just knowing that we we
(22:46):
use our resources in a lot of them, at least
in a very inefficient way. Well, I think that's a
that's a big part of it. So that perception of
oh my gosh, things are running out and the actual
fact that in certain areas things are running out. I
mean I was I've been living in northern Peru for
the last year and a half and in a little
(23:06):
town called Manquare, so close to Talada of that area,
and I saw a documentary it just that came out
from this this group there was that's calling for protection
of Peru's oceans as due to the Humboldt Current in
Peru's blessed location. They according to this documentary, which is
(23:28):
called Malady Map Mother Ocean, you can it's ten minutes.
It's really great. Apparently Peru has if I remember correctly,
point one is either either point one or point oh
one percent of all of the world's oceans, but produced
ten percent of the world's seafood. So we have and
you can see the trawlers, you can see massive factory
(23:49):
ships if you're down there, and it's just this we
are we are really over fishing. And actually I read
a similar study from Australia that this issue of overs
because fish are a limited resource. I mean they are
they could be very easily sustainably harvested, but they are
a limited resource in the wild. And actually this Australian
(24:09):
report I read was even linking sharks that are normally pelagic,
they normally like to be out in the ocean coming
in closer to shore looking for food because it's just
not there anymore. Seven billion people, that's a lot of
mouths to feed. And without calling anyone selfish for wanting
(24:30):
to live, you know, I think that's we've got the
whole heap of issues that we need to sort out,
and I want to be a part of that.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
How he planned to be a part of the solution.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Well, here, the first thing is geothermal energy. When I
was looking at different energy sources even within geology, geo
thermal really stood out. Actually the International Business Times I
remember reading an article that called it the sleeping giant
of renewable energy resources because it was it is long
term sustainable and baseload. Baseload is the is a will
(25:05):
eventually become a buzzword because the finance community hasn't realized
it yet. But baseload energy is a power plant that's
producing constantly all the time. Intermittent power sources are when
the wind blows, when the sunshines.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
So just as a clarifying I haven't heard the term
based load before in terms of energy, but it's true.
But keep going. So I have a question that I'd
like to ask you later about this.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah, so what's the most intriguing thing about geothermal for me?
And this might be why. Well, Google recently last year
actually gave us a grant at the SMU Geothermal Lab
to do the geothermal map of the United States to
(25:52):
really highlight where there's areas of the potential so oil
and gas. They use gel, they use geophysicists, geochemists saw
that they drilled, they look to produce some sort of
fluid from the subsurface, but the hydrocarbons. Geothermal does the
same thing but with water, so it's not too much
(26:13):
of a paradigm shift. In fact, I was with a
meeting last week with a whole bunch of people here
in the Dallas area, top geologists from a really prominent
company here in the Fort Worth base and the Barnett shale,
and I was telling them, half jokingly, you know, all
you got to do is just look for water, hot water,
(26:33):
and they were all blown away. They were basically because
it's so easy to find, is what they were saying.
Then if you know where to look. So that's one
place where geothermal becomes very attractive right now. This is
part of that balance of power that we were talking about,
that struggle for resources even on an economic level companies. Unfortunately,
(26:56):
what I'm seeing in energy markets is a lot of
focus on new startups that that do some sort of
new technology, and a lot of pinning oil and gas
companies as the evil bad guys.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
Are they the evil dead guys?
Speaker 1 (27:13):
I don't think so. I don't think so, and I
honestly why because I've worked with a lot of them.
That that and a lot of people there that have
really great hopes for what can be accomplished. And I
feel that society and especially the government, they really should
be doing this more than anyone. It is my feeling.
(27:34):
But that's another topic. Yeah, sorry about that, Yeah exactly,
but we should harness visibility. Oil and gas companies have
this amazing ability to find to produce resources from the subsurface.
I am of the opinion that oil and gas companies
could totally dominate the geothermal the geothermal world. And it's
(27:58):
interesting because actually this was once a theory. Is is
coming true or a hypothesis. Anyway, it's coming true. So
Chevron is the world's largest producer of geothermal energy, and
actually this past year at a large geothermal conference, they
announced that they're going to be getting back into the
(28:19):
United States geothermal plays. So it's exciting. It just works
hand in hand with oil and gas. And if we
want to find a bridge, a permanent bridge, because it's
not just going to be there and go away, but
a way to get from a hydrocarbon based economy to
a renewable energy future. I really think geothermal is our
(28:43):
best shot. I really do. And I even though people
a lot of people say, well, it's too expensive.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
It's too difficult.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
But then I'll remind them. You know, recently, they just
drilled one of the deepest offshore wells in some of
the deepest water out there. I don't remember, I wish
I remember the exact figures, but it is ridiculous how
extreme the environment was and they were able to produce
oil and gas. That why because that's over one hundred
(29:13):
years of investment in the oil and gas sector. That's
a lot of hard work, that's a lot of money.
I mean, it goes back to even though we are
this insignificant little dot of humanity and the greater scheme
of things, we're able to accomplish some pretty amazing things.
And going back to it, it's reaching these things that
(29:36):
we thought were unattainable. We can do it. We just
have to harness our passion, harness our human energy and
focus on it. We can get there.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
I agree with you will have to have a conversation
on energy.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
As far as you know, oil and gas companies not
being the bad guy. And I just want to preface
this with I am very aware of the net if
things that have gone on in the Gulf was actually
just down there looking at some of the impacts two
weeks ago, but also in the Amazon across the world.
I'm very aware of that. I want to be sure
to let that out there. However, there's a twist to it.
(30:14):
As I mentioned at the beginning of the program. I
love animals, and whales actually have been some of my
favorite animals since I was a kid. You know, I've
been involved with just in the same way that I've
been involved with, oil and gas companies have been involved
with environmentalist movements. And I once actually gave a talk
at a green Piece event, and it was trying to
(30:39):
to get people to look at working together rather than
antagonizing each other. And one of the things that I said,
I got flat for it. But you know, it's true,
oil and gas companies have saved more whales than any
environmentalist movement will ever do.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Well. That surprises me that you say.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
That, why because they put whale oil companies out of business.
That's what they did. If you want to quote the
Dalai Lama, learn the rules so you can know how
to break them properly. Even though it wasn't meant to
be an environmentalist movement, it was going from whale oil
to fossil fuels particularly saved the sperm whale, blue whale,
a whole bunch of these these whale species that we
(31:22):
were decimating. So I mean I am I am grateful
to oil and Gas for that. I'm ready to move on.
I want to see I want to see a change.
I want to be a part of the change, and
I'm every day working to see it. But we we can't.
We can't go around antagonizing people. That's my point.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
I totally agree with you. Well, there is Andrews, ladies
and gentlemen. As I mentioned to you, he will be
with us again and again. I trust, I hope I
don't drive him off.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Don't worry about that.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Well, it's game time and we will begin our new
season with the game, you know, our sbl game. It
is called what the Sage said. The Sage said this,
Everyone living long enough will slip and fall into a
(32:25):
deep hole. Then look up for help. Three hands will appear,
the hand of a hustler, the hand of a riddler,
and the hand of a clown. Choose wisely, or you
(32:46):
will be buried there and race. What will you do? Yikes?
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Which hand to choose? Definitely not the riddler, Okay, I
think you're playing the.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Role of the Riddler.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Oh, I don't know that I'm playing the role of
the Riddler.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Before anything, I'd like to state, probably when I'm at
that point in my life, if I was in the
mood to stay in the hole, the last thing that
i'd want to assuming I was in the mood to
stay in the hole, the last person that I dosh
out to would be the first one would be the clown,
just so the last thing I could see before my
imminent death would be something funny and I could go
(33:35):
down laughing. Okay, that would be the first one, assuming
I wanted to get out of the hole right once again,
Forget the Riddler, I'd say the hustler, because in the
words of the great Jack Sparrow, you can always trust
the dishonest man to be dishonest, and he'd probably pull
me out looking for cash, and in that process I'd
(33:57):
try to escape as quickly as my advanced in yourself
could do. If not the clown, because I did a
workshop once with a clown teacher, and the entire purpose
of being a clown is, no matter what you do,
you're always have a single to have a single minded focus.
(34:19):
So if that clown was reaching out a hand to
me to help, I'll know that all of that clown,
assuming it's a properly trained clown's focus, would be to
pull me out.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Of the hole. And yet you would choose the hustler.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
It depends on It depends on whether or not I
want to get.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Out of the hole, and would you want to get
out of the hole.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
If I'm advanced enough in years, I'm happy with my life.
I don't know. But even in the way that you want,
life will live. There's a beautiful thing and there's a
time for all of us to go, I think, and
I don't know. That's a different point of view. However,
as you're playing, as you're clearly playing the riddlers, So.
Speaker 6 (35:04):
I'll let you let me play, and you're clearly playing
the riddler here, I'd say that when if I'm ever
in that time in life.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
But also I guess the way that I interpreted that,
you could either be a life or death. You said
you slip, you slip and fall. Can you slip into
a depression or a physical slip into a deep hole?
So if I'm slipping in the depression once again, I'd
probably choose a clown, so I'd have to go for
the clown.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
You change for the hustler to the clouds.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
That would never change you, guys.
Speaker 6 (35:40):
Vocally brainstorming you.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
You're cheating.
Speaker 6 (35:44):
That's cheating.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I go for the clowns.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Okay, you go for the cloud right.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Thanks so much, once again, thank you, it's been a
pleasure having been here. That's another well successfully lost.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Our standing question today is this what is your calling?
See you next week, Hm,
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