August 25, 2025 • 56 mins
What if America’s greatest untold stories weren’t in Hollywood—but hidden in the swamps, deserts, and mountains all around us?
In this powerful episode of The David Rutherford Show, Navy SEAL David Rutherford sits down with Alexander “Xander” Joseph, founder of Xplorist.org, to discuss his mission of reconnecting Americans with their wild spaces. Joseph is the filmmaker behind the upcoming documentary series King of the Everglades, where he and his team track legendary crocodiles like Croczilla and spotlight the fight to preserve America’s ecosystems. He's recently partnered with Braxton McCoy and Sagebrush Institute to join the fight to preserve America's wilderness.
Key Takeaways:
How the Everglades is the only ecosystem like it in the world.
Alexander’s personal journey from loss to finding purpose in creation.
Why storytelling is the most powerful tool in the conservation fight.
The battle to protect America’s wilderness from political agendas.
Sneak peek into King of the Everglades and future projects like Beast of the Borderlands (Arizona jaguars).
The role of faith, family, and patriotism in Xander’s mission.
Links:
👉 Froglogic Courses: www.davidrutherford.com
👉 Follow David Rutherford on Socials: https://linktr.ee/davidrutherfordshow
👉 Support Alexander's mission: https://www.xplorist.org/
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - The Passion for the outdoors & God's Creation
11:15 - Falling in love with storytelling
13:20 - Filming in the Everglades
17:05 - Alex's start in storytelling
18:52 - Braxton McCoy & the Big Beautiful Bill
22:04 - Losing a friend & diving into art
33:00 - We need stories of exploration
45:26 - Conservation & The Sagebrush Institute
50:47 - Upcoming projects & how to support
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I love to tell stories, meaningful stories, impactful stories that
people can relate to, and the idea of eXplorist. The
reason why I founded it was that I wanted to
inspire the average Joe to kind of, you know, embrace
the outdoors more, don't get sucked into the nine to
five too much, and go on take your family on picnics.
I feel like that's something that's been lost on a
(00:21):
lot of Americans.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I understand that a lot of people come to my
show and they have this great expectation of some deep,
you know, geopolitical insight or my valuation on what's happening
in Ukraine and Russia or what's going on and that
type of stuff because of my background. But you also now,
after watching me on Sean Ryan, if you did, you
know you understand that I'm an artist at heart. And
(00:48):
so what I'm always doing is scouring x and Instagram
and the Internet looking for people that I believe are
true artists, people that have taken a passion for what
makes what stirs them and what gets them out of
bed in the morning, and turning it into something that
other people can consume and can connect to that can
(01:08):
transform their perceptions of their own reality. And so today
it is with great honor that I welcome Alexander Joseph
to the show. Now. Alexander is the founder of explorers
dot com and that's xp L O R I s
T dot org. I'm sorry, explorers dot org. And what
(01:29):
they do is they are documentary filmmakers that are really
out there to inspire you to connect with your local
environments to experience the thing that he has enjoyed throughout
his whole life. So, without further into Alexander, it is
a pleasure to have you on the show.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Man appreciate it, David, thank you for having me on here.
And really quick, just want to say, appreciate your service
to our country. Can you know my heart goes out
to veterans every time time I do meet them, So
I appreciate your service.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Oh I, well, let's just I appreciate that more than
you can know. That means a lot to me. But
let's just hold on because you just started working with
Brax and McCoy at the Sage Brush Institute. So you
might change your mind after a little bit here, because
it's the guys that have gotten blown up, those are
the guys that you really gotta you gotta pay attention
to all right, appreciate the introduction, Yeah, for sure. Man.
(02:28):
I just I saw your documentary, you know, King of
the Everglades on on X and man, I think I've
watched that thing probably ten times already. You know, growing up,
I mean growing up in South Florida like you, and
I can't wait to understand more about that. You know,
I grew up in the Everglades were a massive part
(02:50):
of our, uh you know, our existence down here, especially
when it was you know, it wasn't as built out
when I when I was born in nineteen seventy two.
It's a lot small, and they seem to be a
lot closer, right, But when I watched yours, you know,
it really was impactful, and I was like, that's a
(03:10):
person that really has respect for what that place is
and what many people don't know. It's the only ecosystem
like it in the world. You cannot find the Everglades
in any other place in the world, and so we
have this beautiful, pristine area, and so little people in
Southeast Florida or even around the country recognize that it's
(03:32):
available for them to experience in a deep, meaningful way.
So why don't we get into that, Like, tell me
about growing up in South Florida. Where did these passions
for the outdoors and for filmmaking begin?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
You know, Ever since I was a kid growing up,
there were two people I wanted to, you know, one
of two people I wanted to be, either Indiana Jones
or Steven Spielberg. So yes, So it's kind of funny
how life kind of worked out in its way that it's,
you know, on this sort of trend that I'm more
outdoors oriented right now. And I've always enjoyed filmmaking and
(04:09):
the process of it, as tedious as it as it is.
But I have a very creative mind in that sense
that I love to tell stories, meaningful stories, impactful stories
that people can relate to. And the idea of eXplorist.
The reason why I found it it was that I
wanted to inspire the average Joe to kind of, you know,
embrace the outdoors more, don't get sucked into the nine
(04:31):
to five too much, and go on take your family
on picnics. I feel like that's something that's been lost
on a lot of Americans.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
A hundred percent. I mean, you know, for me, my
passion place is the ocean, right, growing up going in
that ocean every day. I mean, we have these beautiful
beaches that have don't have, aren't inundated with condominiums on
you know, every five feet in between each other. And
I just remember going and just being in the water
(05:02):
and connecting to that ocean. And then you know, you
start surfing, you start understanding more about what's beneath the ocean,
more about you know, the ecological realities of the ocean,
and you know, and it just if you allow it
to seep into your heart, it really is transformative. Was
there a moment when you were a kid that you
(05:23):
went out into the Everglades or you went down to
the keys that really kind of began to capture or
maybe something out west? I saw you a snowboarder.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Too, Yeah, I am. I'm probably the only person in
Miami that owns more than one snowboard. So it's this
severe brain damage over here.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, anybody wants to be an outdoor conservationalist filmmaker, you
always got to be like what.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
So to you answer your question, there were two sort
of moments that kind of fed into this passion for
the outdoors.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
One, you know, my father has always been an adventurous person.
He's always told me stories about him and his grandfather
and how they would travel to exotic places. It almost
felt like he was Indiana Jones. He would tell me
about places in Japan or you know, other islands that
he would go in the Caribbean with his father and
growing up. He kind of wanted to instill that sort
(06:18):
of sense of wonder with my brother and I and
he would take us out to the Everglades at a
very young age. We would be walking there through the
many boardwalks that they had, and Hinga Trail is one
of them down south. And then he did, you know
the typical American experience where you take your family out
west and you start in San Francisco and drive down
the coast and hit all the major national parks out west.
(06:40):
So we have photos and I have vivid memories of
you know, seeing Bighorn, sheep old faithful, those those memories
that just were ingrained into my mind, and to this day,
I feel like I'm still chasing that wonder, that encapsulating
moment where you appreciate the art gallery that is creation.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's his most beautifully put explanation I've ever heard man,
that was poetic. I mean, that's that was beautiful. Oh
my gosh, Jeordie. I want to make sure we get
that one log and that's the one I want on
the clips that we promote this. This is that was
just absolutely perfectly put. You know, you talk about those
early memories. I mean, my earliest memory as a child
(07:24):
is my father carrying me on his shoulders on a
hike out in Yosemite. And and you're right, what does
it do? Is it? It? Regardless of where you come
from or what your circumstances are, when you when you
get to really allow what that that framework of consciousness
(07:48):
to broaden, to see the magnitude of God's creation that
is at our fingertips or at a drive distance anywhere
pretty much you live, you you really can be It's
it's almost like that, what is it? It's it's it's
it's that seed of wanderlust, that that that just can
(08:09):
get in your heart and if you have that, you
can you have so much more fulfillment throughout your whole life. Right.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I think people tend to forget one of two things.
Is that one. You know, mankind is part of the ecosystem, Right,
people think that the ecosystem is separated from man. And
the other thing too is scripture wise. You know, God
called us to be stewarts, good stewards of his creation.
So I think part of that, that urge of wonder,
that wanderlust, as you mentioned, is that part of it's
a calling to a lot of us to you know,
(08:39):
be good stewarts to creation, to the earth that we
were given man.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
That that's that's massive. I remember, I never understood it.
I felt it, but I never understood it in the
in the way that you just so poetically put it
until I was in college. And when I was in college,
I did this uh Native American studies class and we
had this Sioux Indian that had come in and talked
(09:04):
about growing up, his desire to leave. He made it
to Pittsburgh. He was a welder and like he got
in this welding accident felt like four stories, broke every
bone in his body, his back, and then as he
was recovering, his grandfather, who was a medicineman, made the trip,
drove out and prayed over him for a week, and
(09:27):
after a week he kind of just stood up and
he was healed. And so here I am this nineteen
year old kid. Impressionable kid. I hear this story and
then he goes back to South Dakota and he starts
telling the story of the Living Black Hills, right. And
he was able to articulate that the connection that he
(09:52):
had with his homeland in the connection of the legacy
of generations of his a Native American tribe and as
family members, and then on that deeper level as a
lineage of medicine men. You know, that hit me in
a way that was like, oh my god, there's there's
(10:13):
a there's another way to experience life, to be connected
to it. And it's like and then you like, well
what does this mean? Man? And I think that was
one of the big things. An underlying component of me
wanting to go into the service was to go see
the world. You know, many people ask me all the time,
you know, what's the greatest place you've ever been? You know,
(10:35):
and I say, you know, in the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan,
or out in Bamagne where they had you know, the
tal band blew up those giant Buddhist statues that were
fifteen hundred years or out in the desert of Death
by the you know, by Queta in the border of
Pakistan and and people like that's a war zone, wasn't it.
(10:57):
And I was like, no, it was raw. And when
you I think, when you can connect when there's no barriers, right,
I think that's what it is. There's a we we
have a propensity within within society to generate barriers between
our soul and the in creation. I love how you
put that. So you start experiencing this at a young age.
(11:19):
What what was the first moment that you on a
different note in the art, the art of storytelling? When?
How did that emerge in your in your childhood?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Well, I, you know, I saw a lot of films
growing up with my dad, and you know Jurassic Park, Jaws,
you name all the Spielberg classics, and you know, so
the so good epic. Epic is a good word to
use that. I try to always, I try to. I
try to use that in all my writing. Growing up
seeing these kind of movies. I didn't want the fame.
(11:54):
I didn't want any of the Hollywood stigma and I
didn't want any of that stuff or the fortune that
came with it. I wanted the ability to share stories,
impactful stories, captivating stories that would inspire the next generation
of adventurers so to speak. And it started an early
age and then it finally kind of crystallized into a
YouTube channel, so awesome.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
When can I ask you one quick question? What do
you remember some of the first stories other than Spielberg movies?
Was because obviously your your documentary filmmaker, so that's a
different type of storytelling. But what were some of the
real stories that you remember as a kid, whether it
was movies or TV shows or documentaries that hit you
(12:37):
Because like for me, I remember with documentaries is when
Ken Burns came out with the Civil War and that,
and I was just like, oh my god, Like that
changes everyhow I look at it. So what were some
for you.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
For me growing up? Steve Irwin is probably the number one.
May he rest in peace. He was a man of
influence on who I am today, as well as people
like Jeremy Wade and River Monsters. You know, I can
tell you right now, I just finish binge washing River
Monsters again for maybe like the thirteenth time.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah. Yeah, but it's crazy because now you're like, oh,
where do you put the camera on that? And how
did he set that shot up?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
And you know, it's so funny that you mentioned that
I lose sleep over this because we're not in the
ever so the Irregulades isn't exactly a production friendly environment.
So and full disclosure, we are a two man team
at the moment. It's myself and my partner Garrett, and
we are out there and it's a logistics nightmare.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yes, yes, And people who haven't had to do anything
technical in the wilderness or jungle or deserts or mountains
or anything like that, they don't get the logistics involved right.
They're casually interacting with it, whereas you're trying to operate,
and it's a whole different animal.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It's you know, I'm sure you can speak on this
rucking with thirty pounds of gear in one hundred and
eight degree humidity, it's not a good time, dude.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
We did a jungle survival course my first platoon over
in the Philippines, and I'll tell you what, you can
stick me in one hundred and thirty degree weather in
the desert any day of the week and twice on
Tuesdays more than I want to be in any jungle,
mosquito infested wet you know, everything that grabs you once
to tear your skin environment.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Right, That's one thing I always tell people, like, Hey,
if there's ever God forbid is an invasion to the
United States, nobody's invading Florida.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
No, Well, do you know the history of the Seminoles
and Andrew Jackson and the fight that they put up
in resistance.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I'm not so familiar with it. I know that there
are a lot of short stories in grilla warfare, like
pockets of girrilla warfare throughout Florida and the wet lands
that we have here. Yeah, to tell it. Tell me
about Andrew Jackson.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
When they started the Indian campaigns to you know, really
recaptured territory and expand right. Uh, you know, the manifest
Destiny and that was later I forget what he called it,
but you know, they sent these troops down into Florida
to get rid of this little tribe because they had
just been they'd been waylaying what the Cherokee they pushed
(15:24):
out of North Carolina, right, and then they pushed them
down in Oklahoma the Trail of Tears, and then they
sent people, you know, try to send people up in
uh to the Dakotas, and they pushed the what was
it the up in New England. It was the last
of the Mohicans, the Mohicans, and and they came down
(15:44):
here and they thought it was just gonna be easy
because the terrain was pretty easy. But then they hit
the wetlands and they got waylaid man. The Seminoles were
voracious fighters, and they could just disappear is easier than
these these northern troops. And they're you know, heavy wool
(16:06):
pants and heavy boots and their rocks and their low
and these and they just got lit up for a
while and it was this great resistance.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Yeah, don't even mention the mosquitoes.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Oh my god, I don't know if they're more like
terdactyls than mosquitoes.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Right, So funny enough, everyone has told me that the
Alaskan mosquito. Alaska has like thirty something species of mosquito,
but they do have a very aggressive species. But ours,
the Salt Marsh mosquito, is actually the most aggressive species
that we have, and I can personally attest to it.
(16:44):
I have a photo on X from one of our
shoots and this previous June May, I just smacked my
arm over here and I got some blood splatter on
my shirt, and I kid you not, you could barely
see the blood. It was just covered in black from
the amount of sea.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Know, my gosh, that's awesome for the week. That's dedication,
not for the week. Haarted right, Okay, So you you
see Steve Irwin, you see these other people, you begin
to you know, fall in love with the idea of
storytelling and then I'll you're like, all right, well, if
this is what it is, I'm going to start a
YouTube channel. Tell me what that was like?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
And and what was it like the first time? Like
you picked up that camera and you you told your
first story. Can you walk us through that a little bit? Oh?
Speaker 1 (17:32):
It was nerve wracking because I didn't know how to
talk to a camera.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
That does suck.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
There was that, but I got it sucks, but you know,
I got used to it, and you know, I was
part of that. I was riding the wave that I
don't know if you remember that trend where travel v
logs were all the rage on YouTube, and I was like, oh,
I could do that, you know, I get I snowboard,
I do this and that, and I'm going to do
a cinematic flair to it. And but then I just
(17:58):
started feeling like, it's I want to make something that's impactful. Vlogs.
Don't get me wrong, there are impactful creators out there,
and there are vlogs that are not deporting. Yeah, yeah,
their informative and m and to me, I felt like, no, no,
you're fine. To me, I felt like it wasn't fulfilling
(18:19):
enough for me. I felt like telling stories and inspiring
even if it meant one person saw this video and
that weekend they were already looking at hiking with their
family and taking a photo with their phone. That to me,
was the only w that mattered to me, I didn't
care so much about the number of subscribers. So then
I started to pivot away from the travel content and
(18:39):
I really sat down and dedicated to writing out stories
and really honing in on American wilderness. And I feel
like American wilderness is significantly underappreciated and underrated to the
point where we just had that bill standoff with the
whole big beautiful American bill where they wanted to sell
off how many millions of acres said that would have
(19:02):
been disastrous.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
David Rutherford, my best friend. Welcome to the show. Sean
Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here.
What's Up? Team? I recently had the incredible honor of
joining my best friend Sean Ryan on his show, and
as a token of my appreciation for him and his audience,
I want to do something special for you. For thirty years,
(19:26):
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(19:51):
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That's three courses for the price of one. Please go
(20:13):
to David Rutherford dot com or click the link in
the description to get the bundle. Thank you very much.
Who yah and God speed, well, thank God for you know,
Braxton and courage. He had to you know, start the
ball rolling and then you know, thank God, you know,
(20:35):
Sean was able to get him on and get that
thing going. And you know, I was just up there
and they showed me the Washington Post article where you know,
they dropped the trailer and that night they pulled it
out of the bill. So you know, I think that
I think those are the stories also for me that
(20:56):
really confirm the magnitude of great storytelling, honest sincere storytelling,
like when you hear an individual's personal affiliation or not
not that's not strong enough, infatuation maybe with with a
particular idea, incident, place, whatever it is. And then if
(21:19):
they can if they can demonstrate through like all these
beautiful mediums of art that we have, you know it,
you know, it captures us, it captures the soul. And
we saw that happen with that, that that endeavor that
they went on. You know, there were millions of people
around the country banging on their congressman, their senators, the
(21:42):
federal government, I mean banging on them. I mean it
got so intense that you know, there was a pretty
high ranking member in the Trump's administration that was trying
to get Sean not to to you know, play that
episode with Braxton, and so you know that that's the
power of great storytelling right there. I just I love it.
(22:05):
So when did you When did you decide, all right,
I'm passionate about the outdoors. The outdoors isn't a creation. Sorry,
I'm going to use the appropriate word that you brought in.
I apologize for for not keeping that up where it
should be. So your your your measment. You're infatuated, you're moved,
You're called to action by creation itself and our relationship.
(22:27):
You discover there's ways to do it with telling stories.
When was the moment that you said, all right, this
is what I'm going to focus on. And then and
then how did you pick your first big project?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
The moment that kind of it was a It was
a pretty pretty big moment in life. I haven't really
shared this anywhere else except with my inner circle, So
I guess it's a good time to talk about where
we came from a little over a year ago, close
to two years ago, I lost someone pretty close to
me to suicide. And yeah, it was, uh, it was yeah,
(23:05):
it was. It was tough. He you know, I grew
up with him, you were good friends and childhood friends,
and I kind of was not in a good spot
in my life as well. I just went out into
the Everglades by myself, raw dogget as people say, you know,
I just went right out there and I was in
the middle of the Everglades in knee high water with
(23:25):
a brand new lens that I wanted to try out,
and I just sat there and David. It was probably,
you know, one of two most peaceful moments in my
life where you couldn't hear anything but your thoughts, and
I just like I felt like I surrendered myself to God.
I spoke to him. We had a very personal one
on one, it felt like. And at that moment, it
felt like, you know, I want to do more with
(23:46):
my life. I want to not just tell stories. I
want to show my appreciation to your work, God, your creation,
and still the same respect that we have that I
grew up with with my with my family too. So
that kind of kickstarted everything from there. I kind of
it was sort of like a mental refresher of really
(24:07):
pivoting and focusing on what matters most in life, everyone
kind of gets so caught up with their nine to fives,
their responsibilities at home. And I'm not saying disregard to
any of that. I'm just saying that sometimes something happens
in life, maybe too late unfortunately, but for me, it
felt sooner than later where my life kind of recalibrated
(24:29):
and I started to see what mattered more, you know, family,
my relationships to my father and my mother, my brother,
my friends, my immediate friends as well, and then just
finding that piece again every weekend. I just started to
build off of that. Every weekend I would go out
into the Everglades with a buddy of mine or by
myself and kind of share the passion and share, you know,
(24:50):
this is something that we wouldn't have seen if we
weren't out here. And then from then on it kind
of just it was a stepping stone to something greater,
where I was like, I want to found in organization
because I feel like National Geographic Discovery Channel and a
lot of these big names, these household names, I feel
like the magic with these organizations has kind of been
(25:12):
lost on us. And I say that because most of
their work, unfortunately feels like it gets too preachy. It
feels like they guilt trip people into certain agendas and narratives,
and as a result, that pushes away maybe more than
half your audience. And I feel like, you know, growing up,
we didn't have that. We had more of the appreciation
(25:33):
for the wonder, the appreciation for creation, the appreciation for
the blade of grass right next to us that has
a dragonfly that is eating the mosquitoes and saving our skin.
So you know, those little things where to the granular
level and then to the macro we we don't really
have stories that tell us the things that matter, it
(25:54):
feels like. And from that point on, then I started
doing some research. The crocodile thing came up that same
year where I photographed a rather large seventeen footer in
the Flamingo Marina. Yeah. Wow, And and I would learn
about him and he had a specific name, his name
(26:17):
is Fred. And I was just sorry I went down
this rabbit hole because I was at the time. I
always knew that we had crocodiles, but I had never
seen one until that day. And I thought to myself, Wow,
do we have giant crocodiles like this in the Everglades?
And then yeah, there's crocsilla. There's Freddy, There's fred Freddie's
(26:38):
from Black Marina, the other side of the coast there,
and that kind of I was like, Wow, this this
is a story that nobody talks about. And you tell
you talk to other Floridians and they'll be like, we
don't have crocodiles, we have alligators. I'm like, actually, we're
the only place on Earth that has both alligators and crocodiles.
And I have the photo.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
So we have caans too in someplace.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Now they're popping up. They are invasive, they have been
popping up. I haven't seen them yet, but there are
records of them popping up in the Everglades.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Now.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Okay, but that kind of like kickstarted the whole chasing
these stories, these American wilderness stories where I started picking
up rumors here and there. Another project that we have
in the works too with the University of Arizona is
that Arizona has jaguars. And I had no idea that
we had native American, like American native jaguars. And they
(27:32):
just recently picked yeah, yeah, they just recently picked up
a couple on their game trail cameras out west, and
I'm like, that's a great story, you know, that's tracking
a big cat that belonged to America. And we're already
you know, I'm sure you're well aware that our Florida
panthers knocking on extinction store right now.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah, I do know that. Yeah. I remember when I
was a kid growing up, there was a a you know,
a scrub area just on the other side of ninety five,
and there was regular, regular cats in there that they'd find,
you know, and and that Florida puma was just always around.
And it's just you know, I think, man, it's almost
(28:15):
as if it's like I think, you know, like for
me when I hear a story, because I've always been
infatuated with great storytelling as well too, from early on
my dad was a very adamant about discovery and curiosity,
(28:36):
but through great storytelling. And I'm trying to forget what
it was, but you know, this this essence of allowing
the story of something outside of the norm to catch
you and pull you in. Right. So whatever it might be,
whether it's the the fall from grace story, or the
(28:59):
hero or the saving the damsel or defeating the dragon,
whatever archetypical story, you know that we we traditionally are
exposed to. You know, it's those ones in nature that
give the closest proximity to it, right, And you're like, whoa,
Like that's real, that could happen in real time. It's
not mythagological that's in your backyard. It's it's like, oh
(29:23):
my god, I can go access the magnificence of what creation,
the stories, the millions, the billions of different stories that
Creation tells us on this planet alone, every single day.
And for us when it was it used to come
on on Sunday nights before Disney used to have a show,
(29:46):
and it was this guy and and you know, he
had this great voice, and it'd be you know, filmed
over in Africa, or it'd be down in the Islands,
or you know, he'd go diving with Jacques Cousteau or
you know whatever it was. Member it was like they
were on another planet. And and my dad was the one
who always was like, you can access that if you
(30:08):
are adventurous and you're courageous and you you recognize what
is it. It's as soon as we can reshift, uh,
the relative interpretation of our own size in creation to
where we're not always monumentally bigger or more important than
(30:31):
these other things, right, the jaguar out in Arizona, or
you know, Croczilla in the Everglades. Like, once we realize,
oh man, those things are every bit as important and
as every bit as big as we are, then then
you have the like people just get sucked into it.
(30:52):
I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
No, No, that's fine. That's the purpose too, is that
you know not I say that we're trying to inspire
the next generation. But like you said, it's accessible. It's
in our backyard. Me every weekend, you know, I'm working.
I have an army job too. I work nine to five,
and then every day off, anytime off I have, I'm
out there and tracking Crocxilla and I keep missing him,
and it's become this sort of obsession of mine. And
(31:15):
I'm like the fact that I'm doing this. Anyone could
really do this. That's why we tell these stories that
we want to tell you guys like, hey, you don't
need you don't need to be a biologist, you don't
need to be an expert in this field. You can
go out and enjoy creation too. You don't need anyone's permission.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I think that's true in all art, right, I mean,
I mean one of my favorite stories is Rey La Montaigne, right,
a beautiful, beautiful balladero, you know who with his guitar
and sings these beautiful songs. He was a carpenter and
tell he was like forty two years old, you know.
Or you look at some you know, great painters or whatever.
(31:56):
You know that all of a sudden they're just like
they're overwhelmed by their passion and it forces their action
to get out there and and share what they see
with the rest of you know, Initially it's it's through
your friends and family, and then you know, it starts
to now with the Internet. I mean, everybody can be
a creator, thank god, I mean it. I you know,
(32:19):
as as much as there are aspects of social media,
uh in particular you know, uh, some of the hater
comments I got for you know this this past week,
but but you know, the overwhelming majority of people that
tap into the stories that I was trying to tell
about resilience, it was positive. And when I look and
(32:40):
I see the comments on your pieces, in particular this this,
you know, this the King of the Everglades man, Like,
I'm so moved by Hey, this. There's something happening right.
People are are seeking out these stories because because I
think there's so many more opportunities to do them, Like
(33:02):
when you first started, or are you worried about competing
with anybody else in the space? Are you? Are you
worried about getting funding or getting it bought, you know,
having your project bought by Netflix or whomever. It's like,
is that an issue for you?
Speaker 1 (33:17):
You know, it's We did start a crowd funding campaign
several months ago, back in April, and it concluded I
believe it may and you know, I had a bare
bones budget of like just give me one more camera,
a couple pieces of equipment, and let's see what we
can do here. And we were able to We were
(33:39):
able to pull together a little over ten thousand dollars,
which was that that exceeded my express awesome, that's awesome.
That exceeded our expectations, and I was truly grateful and blessed.
We had a massive support from our friend's family and
then the X following to the Goopers as you will
I call them. They're great group of guys there that
just like they they these are individuals who really do
(34:02):
care about storytelling. They care, they care about wholesomeness, they
care about what matters American history, integrity, the constitution, things
that matter and what makes America great right And to
see that sort of support and validation from others, it
gave us all the momentum you could have asked for.
And so to go back to your initial question, you know,
(34:25):
everyone in this space, you know, the dream is like, Oh,
I'm going to get the Netflix deal, right, my stuff
is going to get on Netflix and I'm going to
get paid forty quadrillion dollars. It's like, uh, you know,
we we had we had a couple of windows into
the into the industry, and it was actually pretty interesting
(34:47):
that we got pulled in when we start getting a
little bit of traction. I sent out emails to producers
that were on IMDb or producers that were on documentaries
I enjoyed, especially recently on Netflix, BBC, and I just
I just drafted emails. I can I cannot tell you
how many emails I sent out. It blew to the
(35:08):
the face and sent out emails and then finally I
got maybe two people responded back, and they were producers.
And I'm not going to disclose his name, but this
individual was one of the producers on the documentaries I loved,
and he absolutely loves our work where we are pitching
our trailer and the initial photography we've done, and we
(35:31):
actually got on a on a sort of webcam discussion
with him and he was actually, yeah, he had worked
for BBC National Geographic and he was in works with
another National Geographic project, and he said, do you boys
want me to tell National Geographic about your your project?
And my buddy and I look at each other like, yeah, yeah, yeah, question,
(35:55):
that'd be nice. So unfortunately they didn't not go go
go ahead and select us. They the industry right now
is a little bit in shambles with how everything is
the economic landscape. You know, the whole production industry is
facing close to seventy percent unemployment rate, and they're very
selective with where they want to throw their money because
(36:17):
at the end of the day, you know, you can
you can only you can always waste so many you
can always you can only waste so much money on
so many projects. And you know, with Disney, Disney owns
National Geographic, they wanted to be very selective with what
project they want to put money towards. So they said
that there isn't really a demand for expedition content, is
(36:40):
what was told to us, so to which I said,
I don't know, because I look over on X and
I talk to a lot of people, and like, expedition
content is something that's that's missing today.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
I feel, oh absolutely, look at how well what's his
name his show on on Netflix that came out just
where he's the parks cop. Uh oh, yes, yeah, And
it's like and you're like, wait a minute, the cops
(37:13):
in a national park. But like there's an edginess because
the shooting this stuff, the photography of it is immaculate,
and so like it sucked me in and or you
look at Chris Hemsworth or I mean, obviously there's all
these people out there that have really done it. Well,
you know, I think it's a lot like chasing down
the Pyramids and where they were, you know, some of
(37:34):
that stuff. So I think, but I I believe that
you know, you guys, and what you saw gave me
that sensation that I had grown up with watching the
National Geographic stuff, watching the Disney shows, watching it Planet
or stuff like I had that sensation, but was even
cooler is that you gave it something specific right there
(37:57):
was the mission of finding Crozilla, and and you know,
I just thought it was incredible. That's why I was
just like, I gotta talk to this guy and how
he came up with it.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
So it's just a little bit of a spoiler, a
little bit of a spoil alert. We recently discovered that
there is another super croc that is potentially larger than Crocsilla,
and he has only been photographed by two photographers so far,
and he is well over eighteen feet long and he
use a pond. Yeah, yeah, he's a monster. The photographer
(38:29):
who So this crocodile is nicknamed King. It's just it's
so funny that we discovered this crocodile after I had
named the documentary King of the Everglades. So I was
just like, cool, this is like the Lord was a
nice plot twist. So I bumped into the only photographer
(38:51):
that was able to get two photos of him, and
over the span of the last six years, he photographed
him twice and once was two ones was a couple
of years ago, and I believe the other instance was
twenty eighteen, and both times at three in the morning.
This crocodile is out there and We're like, we got
to get out there somehow, some way, And oddly enough,
(39:14):
I discovered the pond that he lives in is closed
off to the public currently because it's gotten a mass,
a mass migration of spoon bills and storks now setting
up a nursery and the pond, and they wanted to
protect the nursery, you know, from tourists and anyone else
out there from human intervention. So we're like, this is
(39:36):
a perfect We're fighting to get permits, We're talking to you.
I'm exhausting every contact I can find to try to
get on this pond, and it's just proving very, very difficult.
A lot of red tape involved. But it was a
revelation because like, no wonder, this crocodile is as giant
as he is because he's got a all you can
eat buffet set up now with the nursery of spoon
(39:57):
bills and storks there.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Oh my god, it makes total sense, man, total sense. Wow,
what's up?
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Team?
Speaker 2 (40:05):
I've been writing for over forty years. Finally I've decided
to bring to life a character that has been on
my heart since my experiences of carrying a gun for
a living. If you recently watched my episode with my
best friend on his show, The Sean Ryan Show. You
heard some of my real world experiences that shape this
character and the story of The Poet Warrior. Can a
(40:28):
poet's soul survive the crucible of war? The Poet Warrior
follows Adam Ferguson, a reclusive teenage artist haunted by his
father's early death, as he transforms into a battle scarred
Navy seal. Through the chaos of combat. In the shadow
of nine to eleven, Adam grapples with the raw truth
of mortality. His journey is a searing odyssey of heartbreak, failure,
(40:53):
and the relentless search for identity amidst the ruins of
lost loved ones, set against the turbulent dawn of the
global War on Terror. This is a story of a
young man torn between his poetic heart and the hardened
warrior he's become. If this sounds like a story that
might pull you in, please visit my website at David
(41:13):
Rutherford dot com or click the link in the description below,
and if you pre order now, your signed copy will
be delivered before the holidays. Thank you very much. In godspeed, Well,
let me just I want to read something to everybody
who's listening. And if you've ever you know, been on
(41:36):
a nature walk or actually put on a rock and
gone camping, or gotten in a canoe or you know,
a raft or something and gotten out there and immersed
yourself into creation, this will this will have an impact
on you. And this is what you wrote about, and
this is in your about us on explorers dot org.
You go. Explore Us is a nonprofit organization dedicated to
(42:00):
reconnecting people with the wild spaces around them. We believe
that exploration begins in your own backyard and extends to
the vast, untamed wilderness of North America. Our mission is
to inspire curiosity, foster respect for natural environments, and cultivate
(42:22):
a new generation of explorers. Through immersive storytelling, educational programs,
and community initiatives. We showcase the breath taking beauty and
vital importance of our continence wild places. Man, that's about
as beautifully written as anything I've ever read. And I
(42:44):
just what I'd love for you to do is is
you know, give people kind of what they can expect
in the future from your content, Like what you're gonna
when you show people what are they saying as you
show them these reels, what are they saying to you?
(43:05):
And then you know, how are you shaping the narrative
to really translate those beautiful words into that sensation that
people are gonna feel when they watch your stuff.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
I think the main thing is, you know, that reconnection,
reconnecting with untamed wilderness and showcasing what we want to
start off with is American wilderness. I feel like there's
more than enough stories to go around and showcase. We
put together a tensative slate of ideas. One of them
is the American Jaguar. I was going to premiere the
(43:40):
title of it next week, but it is a Beast
of the Borderlands and that is that is tracking the
big cats of the North American jaguar and their place
in Arizona and showcasing their resiliency, the history. And we're
not trying to beat people over the head with an
agenda or a sort of guilt tripped message, right. This
(44:02):
is about like, hey, I had no idea we had jaguars.
I want to see that, like so, And the idea
is that we're going to go on this mission. We're
going to show you and we're going to inspire you
to do the same because you can do it too.
So gatekeeping is something I keep running into a lot
in the production realm, in conservation. It's just it's it
(44:24):
is a bit of a problem. I mean, gatekeeping is everywhere,
and all all walks of life expend.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Gatekeeping if you could.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Uh, it's it's almost this self absorption idea of this realm,
this this piece of information belongs to me and only me,
and I don't want to share it with anyone else. Yeah,
and they monopolize it, and they monopolize and they pick
and choose who gets access to it. And to me,
(44:52):
isn't that what made science great is that we can
all challenge the science. We can all run our own
experiments like we did growing up in middle school, right
going to the science fare and that's and you know,
we run into a bit of that and we kind
of have to like we're walking a little bit on
eggshells because unfortunately, I don't want to get political about it,
but it is left dominate, dominating, left leaning politics dominates
(45:15):
that landscape for the most part, and we kind of
want to break away with we kind of want to
recalibrate to the center. If we can on a lot
of these issues and show people that nature's for everyone.
It's not just for activists, it's not just for intellectuals
who think that they're bigger than life.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
For sure. One of my closest friends has been a
hunter his whole life. He manages a ten thousand acre
hunting lease up at just north on the edge of
like Okachobe, and you know, and he is probably the
most significant conservationalists I've ever met in my life. His
(45:56):
family's very politically connected up in DC and even here
in Florida. You know, his his his sister was very
high up in the elections. She was a Senate approved
elections person, you know, for the Republican Party. His brother
as a conservationalist lobby for FP and l lobbyists, and
(46:18):
you know, he he is a firm believer in conservationalism.
And you know, he's hunted all over the place, and
he's actually you know, like you said, he's the one
who's like, I don't give a damn what your politics are,
but you know, if you love the outdoors, it's on
you to take that that to take up the mantle
(46:40):
of supporting it, protecting it, and working together regardless of
what your core political beliefs of if you love the outdoors,
you love the outdoors. I have seen that taking place
now more than I've ever seen it as a result
of what we just saw with Braxton in the establishment
(47:02):
of the Sage Brush Institute. Uh, can you explain your
relationship with them and and what your position with them
and how you came about being volunteer volunteered for that.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
So it all started with a discussion over wolves. I'm sure,
I don't know if you know the backstort with Braxton
being the wolf appreciator because he got so much flak
for calling out the Colorado policy of reintroducing gray wolves,
which that's a separate topic altogether, but right right, h
we we befriended each other over that issue. Uh, I
(47:37):
think over a year ago now, and we both have
an appreciate for the appreciation for the great outdoors. And
he kind of took point on the whole on the whole, uh,
you know, the whole public land sale bill that was
going to be pushed through, and we just all fell
in line and you know, cooked together as many means
as we could and bully politicians into into telling him like, no,
(48:00):
this is not right, this is not what we voted
for in terms of sage Brush Institute. You know, they
they had put together a great board of individuals and
they are putting together you know, it sounds like I'm
quoting the Avengers. I'm putting together a team. And they
got all these they got all these sort of you know,
(48:20):
big name influencers on X and different platforms that are
gonna are gonna do some wonderful work for Sagebrush. And
I remember I was coming back from the Everglades and
I got a DM notification for Braxton and he's just like, hey,
you're gonna be the Florida like chairman or president for
the for the Florida Chapter. I'm valling telling you, and
(48:42):
he like, he shows me the meme of like pointing
a gun at me, Like all.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Right, all right, all.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Right, if you say so. He went ahead and said like, hey,
I think you do. You do great work as a
as leader of the chapter. He went ahead and made
the announcement a couple of weeks ago. And I've had
a bunch of people flood the DMS and reach out
to me, which has been amazing. And I have all
(49:12):
this responsibility announce to try to pick a spot somewhere
where everyone could drive to in South Florida, maybe where
we can all meet up and discuss some potential you know,
you know hot topics that we want to tackle for
a sagebrush.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
You know, Hot Springs is a beautiful place You've got.
I mean all kinds of amazing places around Lake Okachobee
that are incredible. I mean up in the Panhandle that's beautiful.
I mean there's a lot of spots. But I think
a lot of people just think that you know, Florida's
strip malls and in highway, right, but they have no
(49:50):
idea how diverse our ecosystem is, right, And and I
just I love that you have joined that organization as
you I can already tell I'm a massive supporter of Braxton's,
I'm a massive supporter of sage Brush, and and you know,
I just think you're going to make a tremendous, tremendous
(50:12):
addition to to that.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
So congratulations, Thank you. It was an honor, it's a privilege.
It's something that I will take very seriously. And the
big thing is too, I don't want to be the
focal point. I want to empower Floridians I want everyone
to show up voice or opinion. No one's going to
get silenced. That's all discuss like you know, at the
dinner table, almost like it's an open discussion. That's it's
(50:35):
it's not a bad thing to share ideas, right. We
don't want just one or two people to lead point
and tell everyone how to think.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
So absolutely absolutely I love that. Okay, So let's talk
about the release of this what the next six months
year looks like for you? What what what are the
next big steps and hurdles, and just explain what the
roadmap looks for you and your organization over the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1 (51:06):
So we are filming. We're in the midst of filming
King of the Everglades. It is going to be a
seasonal documentary series. We have seven chapters mapped out. We're
trying to hit twenty minutes per chapter because worst case scenario,
we're looking at putting this thing out on YouTube and
X maybe ex original it remains to be seen. So
(51:28):
that's what's the next year and a half looks like.
In terms of the King of the Everglades production. We
are working with FPL, their crocodile expert. I just sent
over a proposal over to them, so I'm waiting for
feedback from them so we can get access to their
cooling canals where they have a crocodile sanctuary there, and
that's part of the over incompanying the overarching story of
King of the Everglades is to showcase the conservation, right.
(51:51):
I did get invited by a biologist out west for
gray Wolf project out in Lassen National Park, last in
Volcanic National Park out west in northern California, where this
biologist and his team have been tracking the reintroduction of
the almost or once extinct, sorry once extinct gray wolf
in northern California, and they live in a shadow of
(52:13):
a volcano. So it sounded very interesting and he invited me.
So I'll be heading out there next year just to
work on that story as well while I'm working on
King of the Everglades, And then we're just gearing up
hopefully in the next year or two, once we pick
up maybe a little bit more financial support more of
a following two, we're going to be working on some
other projects we have lined up, like the Arizona Jaguar
(52:35):
Beast of the Borderlands. So that's what we have on
our plate right now, just a newsletter, working with Sagebrush
on a couple of things as well, and taking up
the mantle of Florida. Man, it feels like. And then
we'll see, we'll see where we go. We're going to
try to shoot to get the first chapter of King
of the Everglades out by fall next year.
Speaker 2 (52:58):
Okay, that sounds beautiful, all right? So how can people
support you? How can people support the effort? How can
they not only support what you're doing at explorers dot
org but also sagebrus support.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
My caffeine addiction, Buy me a coffee. I don't want to.
I don't want to really ask for anything, but you know, all.
Speaker 2 (53:20):
Right, I'm gonna do it. Listen, everybody, it's very difficult
to do this work. It's very difficult to meet young
people that are inspired to take on these monumental hurdles.
You know, the the industry itself, like he said, is
very insulated and what they're choosing to get behind financially.
(53:40):
And so I'm here to tell you this, This young
man is the real deal. His organization's real deal, and
more importantly, his art is the real deal. That's what
got me to him. I watched his trailer. He meant
it moved me and so that's what made me do it.
So go to their website that's explorers dot org. And
and you know it's it's fifty dollars, it's one hundred dollars.
(54:03):
We're not asking for twenty thousand or fifty thousand dollars.
That's ridiculous. What these young men, what they need is
to tell beautiful stories for you and your children. Is
they need just a little bit of help here and there.
You know, don't go to Starbucks for a month and
give them a hundred bucks, you know, so I'll ask.
Don't worry. It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (54:24):
I appreciate that, truly, you know, every dollar goes a
long way. And I'm incredibly grateful and blessed to have
the support that we have and for many years to come.
So I'm excited to get these stories out to you guys.
And who knows, maybe I'll be in one of my
followers backyards next year.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
Oh man, I love that. I love that all right?
So where can people follow you where you are?
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Yeah? I have an Instagram action Xander, just the same
as my ex handle or username action Xander, and then
eXplorist Society is our username as well on Instagram. You
can find us on Facebook and Instagram. Twitter both explores
society and myself action Xander.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Well, Alexander, I'm just truly honored that you shared your passion,
your your your love of creation and what's available. I'm
also very honored that you would talk a little bit
about losing your friend. You know the way I look
at that. You know, I've lost a lot of friends
over the last you know, ten years to suicide, and
(55:28):
and you know, each one of them, they inspire me
to do what I do every day, to try and
bring some goodness to the world, to try and help
people when they're down. And so you know, at the
end of the day, I'm sure he's smiling down on you,
moved by who what you are. And then also he's
he's that little inspiration to keep walking through that that
(55:51):
thunderstorm of mosquitoes that's coming down on you out there,
and pretty soon jaguars, jaguars hunch you down out you
go out to Arizona. So thank you so much, God
bless you, and we wish you all the luck. And
when you're ready to release anything, just hit us up.
We'll have you back on and we'll play a little
(56:13):
bit of the clip and we'll just keep keep going
helping you there.
Speaker 1 (56:16):
I appreciate that a lot, David, and shout out to Jordy.
You guys are doing wonderful work. Thank you so much,
and God bless you both.
Speaker 2 (56:22):
Thank you.
I love to tell stories, meaningful stories, impactful stories that
people can relate to, and the idea of eXplorist. The
reason why I founded it was that I wanted to
inspire the average Joe to kind of, you know, embrace
the outdoors more, don't get sucked into the nine to
five too much, and go on take your family on picnics.
I feel like that's something that's been lost on a
(00:21):
lot of Americans.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I understand that a lot of people come to my
show and they have this great expectation of some deep,
you know, geopolitical insight or my valuation on what's happening
in Ukraine and Russia or what's going on and that
type of stuff because of my background. But you also now,
after watching me on Sean Ryan, if you did, you
know you understand that I'm an artist at heart. And
(00:48):
so what I'm always doing is scouring x and Instagram
and the Internet looking for people that I believe are
true artists, people that have taken a passion for what
makes what stirs them and what gets them out of
bed in the morning, and turning it into something that
other people can consume and can connect to that can
(01:08):
transform their perceptions of their own reality. And so today
it is with great honor that I welcome Alexander Joseph
to the show. Now. Alexander is the founder of explorers
dot com and that's xp L O R I s
T dot org. I'm sorry, explorers dot org. And what
(01:29):
they do is they are documentary filmmakers that are really
out there to inspire you to connect with your local
environments to experience the thing that he has enjoyed throughout
his whole life. So, without further into Alexander, it is
a pleasure to have you on the show.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Man appreciate it, David, thank you for having me on here.
And really quick, just want to say, appreciate your service
to our country. Can you know my heart goes out
to veterans every time time I do meet them, So
I appreciate your service.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Oh I, well, let's just I appreciate that more than
you can know. That means a lot to me. But
let's just hold on because you just started working with
Brax and McCoy at the Sage Brush Institute. So you
might change your mind after a little bit here, because
it's the guys that have gotten blown up, those are
the guys that you really gotta you gotta pay attention
to all right, appreciate the introduction, Yeah, for sure. Man.
(02:28):
I just I saw your documentary, you know, King of
the Everglades on on X and man, I think I've
watched that thing probably ten times already. You know, growing up,
I mean growing up in South Florida like you, and
I can't wait to understand more about that. You know,
I grew up in the Everglades were a massive part
(02:50):
of our, uh you know, our existence down here, especially
when it was you know, it wasn't as built out
when I when I was born in nineteen seventy two.
It's a lot small, and they seem to be a
lot closer, right, But when I watched yours, you know,
it really was impactful, and I was like, that's a
(03:10):
person that really has respect for what that place is
and what many people don't know. It's the only ecosystem
like it in the world. You cannot find the Everglades
in any other place in the world, and so we
have this beautiful, pristine area, and so little people in
Southeast Florida or even around the country recognize that it's
(03:32):
available for them to experience in a deep, meaningful way.
So why don't we get into that, Like, tell me
about growing up in South Florida. Where did these passions
for the outdoors and for filmmaking begin?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
You know, Ever since I was a kid growing up,
there were two people I wanted to, you know, one
of two people I wanted to be, either Indiana Jones
or Steven Spielberg. So yes, So it's kind of funny
how life kind of worked out in its way that it's,
you know, on this sort of trend that I'm more
outdoors oriented right now. And I've always enjoyed filmmaking and
(04:09):
the process of it, as tedious as it as it is.
But I have a very creative mind in that sense
that I love to tell stories, meaningful stories, impactful stories
that people can relate to. And the idea of eXplorist.
The reason why I found it it was that I
wanted to inspire the average Joe to kind of, you know,
embrace the outdoors more, don't get sucked into the nine
(04:31):
to five too much, and go on take your family
on picnics. I feel like that's something that's been lost
on a lot of Americans.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
A hundred percent. I mean, you know, for me, my
passion place is the ocean, right, growing up going in
that ocean every day. I mean, we have these beautiful
beaches that have don't have, aren't inundated with condominiums on
you know, every five feet in between each other. And
I just remember going and just being in the water
(05:02):
and connecting to that ocean. And then you know, you
start surfing, you start understanding more about what's beneath the ocean,
more about you know, the ecological realities of the ocean,
and you know, and it just if you allow it
to seep into your heart, it really is transformative. Was
there a moment when you were a kid that you
(05:23):
went out into the Everglades or you went down to
the keys that really kind of began to capture or
maybe something out west? I saw you a snowboarder.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Too, Yeah, I am. I'm probably the only person in
Miami that owns more than one snowboard. So it's this
severe brain damage over here.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, anybody wants to be an outdoor conservationalist filmmaker, you
always got to be like what.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
So to you answer your question, there were two sort
of moments that kind of fed into this passion for
the outdoors.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
One, you know, my father has always been an adventurous person.
He's always told me stories about him and his grandfather
and how they would travel to exotic places. It almost
felt like he was Indiana Jones. He would tell me
about places in Japan or you know, other islands that
he would go in the Caribbean with his father and
growing up. He kind of wanted to instill that sort
(06:18):
of sense of wonder with my brother and I and
he would take us out to the Everglades at a
very young age. We would be walking there through the
many boardwalks that they had, and Hinga Trail is one
of them down south. And then he did, you know
the typical American experience where you take your family out
west and you start in San Francisco and drive down
the coast and hit all the major national parks out west.
(06:40):
So we have photos and I have vivid memories of
you know, seeing Bighorn, sheep old faithful, those those memories
that just were ingrained into my mind, and to this day,
I feel like I'm still chasing that wonder, that encapsulating
moment where you appreciate the art gallery that is creation.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's his most beautifully put explanation I've ever heard man,
that was poetic. I mean, that's that was beautiful. Oh
my gosh, Jeordie. I want to make sure we get
that one log and that's the one I want on
the clips that we promote this. This is that was
just absolutely perfectly put. You know, you talk about those
early memories. I mean, my earliest memory as a child
(07:24):
is my father carrying me on his shoulders on a
hike out in Yosemite. And and you're right, what does
it do? Is it? It? Regardless of where you come
from or what your circumstances are, when you when you
get to really allow what that that framework of consciousness
(07:48):
to broaden, to see the magnitude of God's creation that
is at our fingertips or at a drive distance anywhere
pretty much you live, you you really can be It's
it's almost like that, what is it? It's it's it's
it's that seed of wanderlust, that that that just can
(08:09):
get in your heart and if you have that, you
can you have so much more fulfillment throughout your whole life. Right.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I think people tend to forget one of two things.
Is that one. You know, mankind is part of the ecosystem, Right,
people think that the ecosystem is separated from man. And
the other thing too is scripture wise. You know, God
called us to be stewarts, good stewards of his creation.
So I think part of that, that urge of wonder,
that wanderlust, as you mentioned, is that part of it's
a calling to a lot of us to you know,
(08:39):
be good stewarts to creation, to the earth that we
were given man.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
That that's that's massive. I remember, I never understood it.
I felt it, but I never understood it in the
in the way that you just so poetically put it
until I was in college. And when I was in college,
I did this uh Native American studies class and we
had this Sioux Indian that had come in and talked
(09:04):
about growing up, his desire to leave. He made it
to Pittsburgh. He was a welder and like he got
in this welding accident felt like four stories, broke every
bone in his body, his back, and then as he
was recovering, his grandfather, who was a medicineman, made the trip,
drove out and prayed over him for a week, and
(09:27):
after a week he kind of just stood up and
he was healed. And so here I am this nineteen
year old kid. Impressionable kid. I hear this story and
then he goes back to South Dakota and he starts
telling the story of the Living Black Hills, right. And
he was able to articulate that the connection that he
(09:52):
had with his homeland in the connection of the legacy
of generations of his a Native American tribe and as
family members, and then on that deeper level as a
lineage of medicine men. You know, that hit me in
a way that was like, oh my god, there's there's
(10:13):
a there's another way to experience life, to be connected
to it. And it's like and then you like, well
what does this mean? Man? And I think that was
one of the big things. An underlying component of me
wanting to go into the service was to go see
the world. You know, many people ask me all the time,
you know, what's the greatest place you've ever been? You know,
(10:35):
and I say, you know, in the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan,
or out in Bamagne where they had you know, the
tal band blew up those giant Buddhist statues that were
fifteen hundred years or out in the desert of Death
by the you know, by Queta in the border of
Pakistan and and people like that's a war zone, wasn't it.
(10:57):
And I was like, no, it was raw. And when
you I think, when you can connect when there's no barriers, right,
I think that's what it is. There's a we we
have a propensity within within society to generate barriers between
our soul and the in creation. I love how you
put that. So you start experiencing this at a young age.
(11:19):
What what was the first moment that you on a
different note in the art, the art of storytelling? When?
How did that emerge in your in your childhood?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Well, I, you know, I saw a lot of films
growing up with my dad, and you know Jurassic Park, Jaws,
you name all the Spielberg classics, and you know, so
the so good epic. Epic is a good word to
use that. I try to always, I try to. I
try to use that in all my writing. Growing up
seeing these kind of movies. I didn't want the fame.
(11:54):
I didn't want any of the Hollywood stigma and I
didn't want any of that stuff or the fortune that
came with it. I wanted the ability to share stories,
impactful stories, captivating stories that would inspire the next generation
of adventurers so to speak. And it started an early
age and then it finally kind of crystallized into a
YouTube channel, so awesome.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
When can I ask you one quick question? What do
you remember some of the first stories other than Spielberg movies?
Was because obviously your your documentary filmmaker, so that's a
different type of storytelling. But what were some of the
real stories that you remember as a kid, whether it
was movies or TV shows or documentaries that hit you
(12:37):
Because like for me, I remember with documentaries is when
Ken Burns came out with the Civil War and that,
and I was just like, oh my god, Like that
changes everyhow I look at it. So what were some
for you.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
For me growing up? Steve Irwin is probably the number one.
May he rest in peace. He was a man of
influence on who I am today, as well as people
like Jeremy Wade and River Monsters. You know, I can
tell you right now, I just finish binge washing River
Monsters again for maybe like the thirteenth time.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah. Yeah, but it's crazy because now you're like, oh,
where do you put the camera on that? And how
did he set that shot up?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
And you know, it's so funny that you mentioned that
I lose sleep over this because we're not in the
ever so the Irregulades isn't exactly a production friendly environment.
So and full disclosure, we are a two man team
at the moment. It's myself and my partner Garrett, and
we are out there and it's a logistics nightmare.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yes, yes, And people who haven't had to do anything
technical in the wilderness or jungle or deserts or mountains
or anything like that, they don't get the logistics involved right.
They're casually interacting with it, whereas you're trying to operate,
and it's a whole different animal.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It's you know, I'm sure you can speak on this
rucking with thirty pounds of gear in one hundred and
eight degree humidity, it's not a good time, dude.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
We did a jungle survival course my first platoon over
in the Philippines, and I'll tell you what, you can
stick me in one hundred and thirty degree weather in
the desert any day of the week and twice on
Tuesdays more than I want to be in any jungle,
mosquito infested wet you know, everything that grabs you once
to tear your skin environment.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Right, That's one thing I always tell people, like, Hey,
if there's ever God forbid is an invasion to the
United States, nobody's invading Florida.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
No, Well, do you know the history of the Seminoles
and Andrew Jackson and the fight that they put up
in resistance.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I'm not so familiar with it. I know that there
are a lot of short stories in grilla warfare, like
pockets of girrilla warfare throughout Florida and the wet lands
that we have here. Yeah, to tell it. Tell me
about Andrew Jackson.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
When they started the Indian campaigns to you know, really
recaptured territory and expand right. Uh, you know, the manifest
Destiny and that was later I forget what he called it,
but you know, they sent these troops down into Florida
to get rid of this little tribe because they had
just been they'd been waylaying what the Cherokee they pushed
(15:24):
out of North Carolina, right, and then they pushed them
down in Oklahoma the Trail of Tears, and then they
sent people, you know, try to send people up in
uh to the Dakotas, and they pushed the what was
it the up in New England. It was the last
of the Mohicans, the Mohicans, and and they came down
(15:44):
here and they thought it was just gonna be easy
because the terrain was pretty easy. But then they hit
the wetlands and they got waylaid man. The Seminoles were
voracious fighters, and they could just disappear is easier than
these these northern troops. And they're you know, heavy wool
(16:06):
pants and heavy boots and their rocks and their low
and these and they just got lit up for a
while and it was this great resistance.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Yeah, don't even mention the mosquitoes.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Oh my god, I don't know if they're more like
terdactyls than mosquitoes.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Right, So funny enough, everyone has told me that the
Alaskan mosquito. Alaska has like thirty something species of mosquito,
but they do have a very aggressive species. But ours,
the Salt Marsh mosquito, is actually the most aggressive species
that we have, and I can personally attest to it.
(16:44):
I have a photo on X from one of our
shoots and this previous June May, I just smacked my
arm over here and I got some blood splatter on
my shirt, and I kid you not, you could barely
see the blood. It was just covered in black from
the amount of sea.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Know, my gosh, that's awesome for the week. That's dedication,
not for the week. Haarted right, Okay, So you you
see Steve Irwin, you see these other people, you begin
to you know, fall in love with the idea of
storytelling and then I'll you're like, all right, well, if
this is what it is, I'm going to start a
YouTube channel. Tell me what that was like?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
And and what was it like the first time? Like
you picked up that camera and you you told your
first story. Can you walk us through that a little bit? Oh?
Speaker 1 (17:32):
It was nerve wracking because I didn't know how to
talk to a camera.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
That does suck.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
There was that, but I got it sucks, but you know,
I got used to it, and you know, I was
part of that. I was riding the wave that I
don't know if you remember that trend where travel v
logs were all the rage on YouTube, and I was like, oh,
I could do that, you know, I get I snowboard,
I do this and that, and I'm going to do
a cinematic flair to it. And but then I just
(17:58):
started feeling like, it's I want to make something that's impactful. Vlogs.
Don't get me wrong, there are impactful creators out there,
and there are vlogs that are not deporting. Yeah, yeah,
their informative and m and to me, I felt like, no, no,
you're fine. To me, I felt like it wasn't fulfilling
(18:19):
enough for me. I felt like telling stories and inspiring
even if it meant one person saw this video and
that weekend they were already looking at hiking with their
family and taking a photo with their phone. That to me,
was the only w that mattered to me, I didn't
care so much about the number of subscribers. So then
I started to pivot away from the travel content and
(18:39):
I really sat down and dedicated to writing out stories
and really honing in on American wilderness. And I feel
like American wilderness is significantly underappreciated and underrated to the
point where we just had that bill standoff with the
whole big beautiful American bill where they wanted to sell
off how many millions of acres said that would have
(19:02):
been disastrous.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
David Rutherford, my best friend. Welcome to the show. Sean
Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here.
What's Up? Team? I recently had the incredible honor of
joining my best friend Sean Ryan on his show, and
as a token of my appreciation for him and his audience,
I want to do something special for you. For thirty years,
(19:26):
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first three foundational frog Logic courses that I've been developing
for the past decade. Embrace Fear, Forging, self Confidence, and
(19:51):
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they also emerged from the thousands of people I've instructed. Normally,
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That's three courses for the price of one. Please go
(20:13):
to David Rutherford dot com or click the link in
the description to get the bundle. Thank you very much.
Who yah and God speed, well, thank God for you know,
Braxton and courage. He had to you know, start the
ball rolling and then you know, thank God, you know,
(20:35):
Sean was able to get him on and get that
thing going. And you know, I was just up there
and they showed me the Washington Post article where you know,
they dropped the trailer and that night they pulled it
out of the bill. So you know, I think that
I think those are the stories also for me that
(20:56):
really confirm the magnitude of great storytelling, honest sincere storytelling,
like when you hear an individual's personal affiliation or not
not that's not strong enough, infatuation maybe with with a
particular idea, incident, place, whatever it is. And then if
(21:19):
they can if they can demonstrate through like all these
beautiful mediums of art that we have, you know it,
you know, it captures us, it captures the soul. And
we saw that happen with that, that that endeavor that
they went on. You know, there were millions of people
around the country banging on their congressman, their senators, the
(21:42):
federal government, I mean banging on them. I mean it
got so intense that you know, there was a pretty
high ranking member in the Trump's administration that was trying
to get Sean not to to you know, play that
episode with Braxton, and so you know that that's the
power of great storytelling right there. I just I love it.
(22:05):
So when did you When did you decide, all right,
I'm passionate about the outdoors. The outdoors isn't a creation. Sorry,
I'm going to use the appropriate word that you brought in.
I apologize for for not keeping that up where it
should be. So your your your measment. You're infatuated, you're moved,
You're called to action by creation itself and our relationship.
(22:27):
You discover there's ways to do it with telling stories.
When was the moment that you said, all right, this
is what I'm going to focus on. And then and
then how did you pick your first big project?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
The moment that kind of it was a It was
a pretty pretty big moment in life. I haven't really
shared this anywhere else except with my inner circle, So
I guess it's a good time to talk about where
we came from a little over a year ago, close
to two years ago, I lost someone pretty close to
me to suicide. And yeah, it was, uh, it was yeah,
(23:05):
it was. It was tough. He you know, I grew
up with him, you were good friends and childhood friends,
and I kind of was not in a good spot
in my life as well. I just went out into
the Everglades by myself, raw dogget as people say, you know,
I just went right out there and I was in
the middle of the Everglades in knee high water with
(23:25):
a brand new lens that I wanted to try out,
and I just sat there and David. It was probably,
you know, one of two most peaceful moments in my
life where you couldn't hear anything but your thoughts, and
I just like I felt like I surrendered myself to God.
I spoke to him. We had a very personal one
on one, it felt like. And at that moment, it
felt like, you know, I want to do more with
(23:46):
my life. I want to not just tell stories. I
want to show my appreciation to your work, God, your creation,
and still the same respect that we have that I
grew up with with my with my family too. So
that kind of kickstarted everything from there. I kind of
it was sort of like a mental refresher of really
(24:07):
pivoting and focusing on what matters most in life, everyone
kind of gets so caught up with their nine to fives,
their responsibilities at home. And I'm not saying disregard to
any of that. I'm just saying that sometimes something happens
in life, maybe too late unfortunately, but for me, it
felt sooner than later where my life kind of recalibrated
(24:29):
and I started to see what mattered more, you know, family,
my relationships to my father and my mother, my brother,
my friends, my immediate friends as well, and then just
finding that piece again every weekend. I just started to
build off of that. Every weekend I would go out
into the Everglades with a buddy of mine or by
myself and kind of share the passion and share, you know,
(24:50):
this is something that we wouldn't have seen if we
weren't out here. And then from then on it kind
of just it was a stepping stone to something greater,
where I was like, I want to found in organization
because I feel like National Geographic Discovery Channel and a
lot of these big names, these household names, I feel
like the magic with these organizations has kind of been
(25:12):
lost on us. And I say that because most of
their work, unfortunately feels like it gets too preachy. It
feels like they guilt trip people into certain agendas and narratives,
and as a result, that pushes away maybe more than
half your audience. And I feel like, you know, growing up,
we didn't have that. We had more of the appreciation
(25:33):
for the wonder, the appreciation for creation, the appreciation for
the blade of grass right next to us that has
a dragonfly that is eating the mosquitoes and saving our skin.
So you know, those little things where to the granular
level and then to the macro we we don't really
have stories that tell us the things that matter, it
(25:54):
feels like. And from that point on, then I started
doing some research. The crocodile thing came up that same
year where I photographed a rather large seventeen footer in
the Flamingo Marina. Yeah. Wow, And and I would learn
about him and he had a specific name, his name
(26:17):
is Fred. And I was just sorry I went down
this rabbit hole because I was at the time. I
always knew that we had crocodiles, but I had never
seen one until that day. And I thought to myself, Wow,
do we have giant crocodiles like this in the Everglades?
And then yeah, there's crocsilla. There's Freddy, There's fred Freddie's
(26:38):
from Black Marina, the other side of the coast there,
and that kind of I was like, Wow, this this
is a story that nobody talks about. And you tell
you talk to other Floridians and they'll be like, we
don't have crocodiles, we have alligators. I'm like, actually, we're
the only place on Earth that has both alligators and crocodiles.
And I have the photo.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
So we have caans too in someplace.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Now they're popping up. They are invasive, they have been
popping up. I haven't seen them yet, but there are
records of them popping up in the Everglades.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Now.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Okay, but that kind of like kickstarted the whole chasing
these stories, these American wilderness stories where I started picking
up rumors here and there. Another project that we have
in the works too with the University of Arizona is
that Arizona has jaguars. And I had no idea that
we had native American, like American native jaguars. And they
(27:32):
just recently picked yeah, yeah, they just recently picked up
a couple on their game trail cameras out west, and
I'm like, that's a great story, you know, that's tracking
a big cat that belonged to America. And we're already
you know, I'm sure you're well aware that our Florida
panthers knocking on extinction store right now.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah, I do know that. Yeah. I remember when I
was a kid growing up, there was a a you know,
a scrub area just on the other side of ninety five,
and there was regular, regular cats in there that they'd find,
you know, and and that Florida puma was just always around.
And it's just you know, I think, man, it's almost
(28:15):
as if it's like I think, you know, like for
me when I hear a story, because I've always been
infatuated with great storytelling as well too, from early on
my dad was a very adamant about discovery and curiosity,
(28:36):
but through great storytelling. And I'm trying to forget what
it was, but you know, this this essence of allowing
the story of something outside of the norm to catch
you and pull you in. Right. So whatever it might be,
whether it's the the fall from grace story, or the
(28:59):
hero or the saving the damsel or defeating the dragon,
whatever archetypical story, you know that we we traditionally are
exposed to. You know, it's those ones in nature that
give the closest proximity to it, right, And you're like, whoa,
Like that's real, that could happen in real time. It's
not mythagological that's in your backyard. It's it's like, oh
(29:23):
my god, I can go access the magnificence of what creation,
the stories, the millions, the billions of different stories that
Creation tells us on this planet alone, every single day.
And for us when it was it used to come
on on Sunday nights before Disney used to have a show,
(29:46):
and it was this guy and and you know, he
had this great voice, and it'd be you know, filmed
over in Africa, or it'd be down in the Islands,
or you know, he'd go diving with Jacques Cousteau or
you know whatever it was. Member it was like they
were on another planet. And and my dad was the one
who always was like, you can access that if you
(30:08):
are adventurous and you're courageous and you you recognize what
is it. It's as soon as we can reshift, uh,
the relative interpretation of our own size in creation to
where we're not always monumentally bigger or more important than
(30:31):
these other things, right, the jaguar out in Arizona, or
you know, Croczilla in the Everglades. Like, once we realize,
oh man, those things are every bit as important and
as every bit as big as we are, then then
you have the like people just get sucked into it.
(30:52):
I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
No, No, that's fine. That's the purpose too, is that
you know not I say that we're trying to inspire
the next generation. But like you said, it's accessible. It's
in our backyard. Me every weekend, you know, I'm working.
I have an army job too. I work nine to five,
and then every day off, anytime off I have, I'm
out there and tracking Crocxilla and I keep missing him,
and it's become this sort of obsession of mine. And
(31:15):
I'm like the fact that I'm doing this. Anyone could
really do this. That's why we tell these stories that
we want to tell you guys like, hey, you don't
need you don't need to be a biologist, you don't
need to be an expert in this field. You can
go out and enjoy creation too. You don't need anyone's permission.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I think that's true in all art, right, I mean,
I mean one of my favorite stories is Rey La Montaigne, right,
a beautiful, beautiful balladero, you know who with his guitar
and sings these beautiful songs. He was a carpenter and
tell he was like forty two years old, you know.
Or you look at some you know, great painters or whatever.
(31:56):
You know that all of a sudden they're just like
they're overwhelmed by their passion and it forces their action
to get out there and and share what they see
with the rest of you know, Initially it's it's through
your friends and family, and then you know, it starts
to now with the Internet. I mean, everybody can be
a creator, thank god, I mean it. I you know,
(32:19):
as as much as there are aspects of social media,
uh in particular you know, uh, some of the hater
comments I got for you know this this past week,
but but you know, the overwhelming majority of people that
tap into the stories that I was trying to tell
about resilience, it was positive. And when I look and
(32:40):
I see the comments on your pieces, in particular this this,
you know, this the King of the Everglades man, Like,
I'm so moved by Hey, this. There's something happening right.
People are are seeking out these stories because because I
think there's so many more opportunities to do them, Like
(33:02):
when you first started, or are you worried about competing
with anybody else in the space? Are you? Are you
worried about getting funding or getting it bought, you know,
having your project bought by Netflix or whomever. It's like,
is that an issue for you?
Speaker 1 (33:17):
You know, it's We did start a crowd funding campaign
several months ago, back in April, and it concluded I
believe it may and you know, I had a bare
bones budget of like just give me one more camera,
a couple pieces of equipment, and let's see what we
can do here. And we were able to We were
(33:39):
able to pull together a little over ten thousand dollars,
which was that that exceeded my express awesome, that's awesome.
That exceeded our expectations, and I was truly grateful and blessed.
We had a massive support from our friend's family and
then the X following to the Goopers as you will
I call them. They're great group of guys there that
just like they they these are individuals who really do
(34:02):
care about storytelling. They care, they care about wholesomeness, they
care about what matters American history, integrity, the constitution, things
that matter and what makes America great right And to
see that sort of support and validation from others, it
gave us all the momentum you could have asked for.
And so to go back to your initial question, you know,
(34:25):
everyone in this space, you know, the dream is like, Oh,
I'm going to get the Netflix deal, right, my stuff
is going to get on Netflix and I'm going to
get paid forty quadrillion dollars. It's like, uh, you know,
we we had we had a couple of windows into
the into the industry, and it was actually pretty interesting
(34:47):
that we got pulled in when we start getting a
little bit of traction. I sent out emails to producers
that were on IMDb or producers that were on documentaries
I enjoyed, especially recently on Netflix, BBC, and I just
I just drafted emails. I can I cannot tell you
how many emails I sent out. It blew to the
(35:08):
the face and sent out emails and then finally I
got maybe two people responded back, and they were producers.
And I'm not going to disclose his name, but this
individual was one of the producers on the documentaries I loved,
and he absolutely loves our work where we are pitching
our trailer and the initial photography we've done, and we
(35:31):
actually got on a on a sort of webcam discussion
with him and he was actually, yeah, he had worked
for BBC National Geographic and he was in works with
another National Geographic project, and he said, do you boys
want me to tell National Geographic about your your project?
And my buddy and I look at each other like, yeah, yeah, yeah, question,
(35:55):
that'd be nice. So unfortunately they didn't not go go
go ahead and select us. They the industry right now
is a little bit in shambles with how everything is
the economic landscape. You know, the whole production industry is
facing close to seventy percent unemployment rate, and they're very
selective with where they want to throw their money because
(36:17):
at the end of the day, you know, you can
you can only you can always waste so many you
can always you can only waste so much money on
so many projects. And you know, with Disney, Disney owns
National Geographic, they wanted to be very selective with what
project they want to put money towards. So they said
that there isn't really a demand for expedition content, is
(36:40):
what was told to us, so to which I said,
I don't know, because I look over on X and
I talk to a lot of people, and like, expedition
content is something that's that's missing today.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
I feel, oh absolutely, look at how well what's his
name his show on on Netflix that came out just
where he's the parks cop. Uh oh, yes, yeah, And
it's like and you're like, wait a minute, the cops
(37:13):
in a national park. But like there's an edginess because
the shooting this stuff, the photography of it is immaculate,
and so like it sucked me in and or you
look at Chris Hemsworth or I mean, obviously there's all
these people out there that have really done it. Well,
you know, I think it's a lot like chasing down
the Pyramids and where they were, you know, some of
(37:34):
that stuff. So I think, but I I believe that
you know, you guys, and what you saw gave me
that sensation that I had grown up with watching the
National Geographic stuff, watching the Disney shows, watching it Planet
or stuff like I had that sensation, but was even
cooler is that you gave it something specific right there
(37:57):
was the mission of finding Crozilla, and and you know,
I just thought it was incredible. That's why I was
just like, I gotta talk to this guy and how
he came up with it.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
So it's just a little bit of a spoiler, a
little bit of a spoil alert. We recently discovered that
there is another super croc that is potentially larger than Crocsilla,
and he has only been photographed by two photographers so far,
and he is well over eighteen feet long and he
use a pond. Yeah, yeah, he's a monster. The photographer
(38:29):
who So this crocodile is nicknamed King. It's just it's
so funny that we discovered this crocodile after I had
named the documentary King of the Everglades. So I was
just like, cool, this is like the Lord was a
nice plot twist. So I bumped into the only photographer
(38:51):
that was able to get two photos of him, and
over the span of the last six years, he photographed
him twice and once was two ones was a couple
of years ago, and I believe the other instance was
twenty eighteen, and both times at three in the morning.
This crocodile is out there and We're like, we got
to get out there somehow, some way, And oddly enough,
(39:14):
I discovered the pond that he lives in is closed
off to the public currently because it's gotten a mass,
a mass migration of spoon bills and storks now setting
up a nursery and the pond, and they wanted to
protect the nursery, you know, from tourists and anyone else
out there from human intervention. So we're like, this is
(39:36):
a perfect We're fighting to get permits, We're talking to you.
I'm exhausting every contact I can find to try to
get on this pond, and it's just proving very, very difficult.
A lot of red tape involved. But it was a
revelation because like, no wonder, this crocodile is as giant
as he is because he's got a all you can
eat buffet set up now with the nursery of spoon
(39:57):
bills and storks there.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Oh my god, it makes total sense, man, total sense. Wow,
what's up?
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Team?
Speaker 2 (40:05):
I've been writing for over forty years. Finally I've decided
to bring to life a character that has been on
my heart since my experiences of carrying a gun for
a living. If you recently watched my episode with my
best friend on his show, The Sean Ryan Show. You
heard some of my real world experiences that shape this
character and the story of The Poet Warrior. Can a
(40:28):
poet's soul survive the crucible of war? The Poet Warrior
follows Adam Ferguson, a reclusive teenage artist haunted by his
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might pull you in, please visit my website at David
(41:13):
Rutherford dot com or click the link in the description below,
and if you pre order now, your signed copy will
be delivered before the holidays. Thank you very much. In godspeed, Well,
let me just I want to read something to everybody
who's listening. And if you've ever you know, been on
(41:36):
a nature walk or actually put on a rock and
gone camping, or gotten in a canoe or you know,
a raft or something and gotten out there and immersed
yourself into creation, this will this will have an impact
on you. And this is what you wrote about, and
this is in your about us on explorers dot org.
You go. Explore Us is a nonprofit organization dedicated to
(42:00):
reconnecting people with the wild spaces around them. We believe
that exploration begins in your own backyard and extends to
the vast, untamed wilderness of North America. Our mission is
to inspire curiosity, foster respect for natural environments, and cultivate
(42:22):
a new generation of explorers. Through immersive storytelling, educational programs,
and community initiatives. We showcase the breath taking beauty and
vital importance of our continence wild places. Man, that's about
as beautifully written as anything I've ever read. And I
(42:44):
just what I'd love for you to do is is
you know, give people kind of what they can expect
in the future from your content, Like what you're gonna
when you show people what are they saying as you
show them these reels, what are they saying to you?
(43:05):
And then you know, how are you shaping the narrative
to really translate those beautiful words into that sensation that
people are gonna feel when they watch your stuff.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
I think the main thing is, you know, that reconnection,
reconnecting with untamed wilderness and showcasing what we want to
start off with is American wilderness. I feel like there's
more than enough stories to go around and showcase. We
put together a tensative slate of ideas. One of them
is the American Jaguar. I was going to premiere the
(43:40):
title of it next week, but it is a Beast
of the Borderlands and that is that is tracking the
big cats of the North American jaguar and their place
in Arizona and showcasing their resiliency, the history. And we're
not trying to beat people over the head with an
agenda or a sort of guilt tripped message, right. This
(44:02):
is about like, hey, I had no idea we had jaguars.
I want to see that, like so, And the idea
is that we're going to go on this mission. We're
going to show you and we're going to inspire you
to do the same because you can do it too.
So gatekeeping is something I keep running into a lot
in the production realm, in conservation. It's just it's it
(44:24):
is a bit of a problem. I mean, gatekeeping is everywhere,
and all all walks of life expend.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Gatekeeping if you could.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Uh, it's it's almost this self absorption idea of this realm,
this this piece of information belongs to me and only me,
and I don't want to share it with anyone else. Yeah,
and they monopolize it, and they monopolize and they pick
and choose who gets access to it. And to me,
(44:52):
isn't that what made science great is that we can
all challenge the science. We can all run our own
experiments like we did growing up in middle school, right
going to the science fare and that's and you know,
we run into a bit of that and we kind
of have to like we're walking a little bit on
eggshells because unfortunately, I don't want to get political about it,
but it is left dominate, dominating, left leaning politics dominates
(45:15):
that landscape for the most part, and we kind of
want to break away with we kind of want to
recalibrate to the center. If we can on a lot
of these issues and show people that nature's for everyone.
It's not just for activists, it's not just for intellectuals
who think that they're bigger than life.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
For sure. One of my closest friends has been a
hunter his whole life. He manages a ten thousand acre
hunting lease up at just north on the edge of
like Okachobe, and you know, and he is probably the
most significant conservationalists I've ever met in my life. His
(45:56):
family's very politically connected up in DC and even here
in Florida. You know, his his his sister was very
high up in the elections. She was a Senate approved
elections person, you know, for the Republican Party. His brother
as a conservationalist lobby for FP and l lobbyists, and
(46:18):
you know, he he is a firm believer in conservationalism.
And you know, he's hunted all over the place, and
he's actually you know, like you said, he's the one
who's like, I don't give a damn what your politics are,
but you know, if you love the outdoors, it's on
you to take that that to take up the mantle
(46:40):
of supporting it, protecting it, and working together regardless of
what your core political beliefs of if you love the outdoors,
you love the outdoors. I have seen that taking place
now more than I've ever seen it as a result
of what we just saw with Braxton in the establishment
(47:02):
of the Sage Brush Institute. Uh, can you explain your
relationship with them and and what your position with them
and how you came about being volunteer volunteered for that.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
So it all started with a discussion over wolves. I'm sure,
I don't know if you know the backstort with Braxton
being the wolf appreciator because he got so much flak
for calling out the Colorado policy of reintroducing gray wolves,
which that's a separate topic altogether, but right right, h
we we befriended each other over that issue. Uh, I
(47:37):
think over a year ago now, and we both have
an appreciate for the appreciation for the great outdoors. And
he kind of took point on the whole on the whole, uh,
you know, the whole public land sale bill that was
going to be pushed through, and we just all fell
in line and you know, cooked together as many means
as we could and bully politicians into into telling him like, no,
(48:00):
this is not right, this is not what we voted
for in terms of sage Brush Institute. You know, they
they had put together a great board of individuals and
they are putting together you know, it sounds like I'm
quoting the Avengers. I'm putting together a team. And they
got all these they got all these sort of you know,
(48:20):
big name influencers on X and different platforms that are
gonna are gonna do some wonderful work for Sagebrush. And
I remember I was coming back from the Everglades and
I got a DM notification for Braxton and he's just like, hey,
you're gonna be the Florida like chairman or president for
the for the Florida Chapter. I'm valling telling you, and
(48:42):
he like, he shows me the meme of like pointing
a gun at me, Like all.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Right, all right, all.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Right, if you say so. He went ahead and said like, hey,
I think you do. You do great work as a
as leader of the chapter. He went ahead and made
the announcement a couple of weeks ago. And I've had
a bunch of people flood the DMS and reach out
to me, which has been amazing. And I have all
(49:12):
this responsibility announce to try to pick a spot somewhere
where everyone could drive to in South Florida, maybe where
we can all meet up and discuss some potential you know,
you know hot topics that we want to tackle for
a sagebrush.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
You know, Hot Springs is a beautiful place You've got.
I mean all kinds of amazing places around Lake Okachobee
that are incredible. I mean up in the Panhandle that's beautiful.
I mean there's a lot of spots. But I think
a lot of people just think that you know, Florida's
strip malls and in highway, right, but they have no
(49:50):
idea how diverse our ecosystem is, right, And and I
just I love that you have joined that organization as
you I can already tell I'm a massive supporter of Braxton's,
I'm a massive supporter of sage Brush, and and you know,
I just think you're going to make a tremendous, tremendous
(50:12):
addition to to that.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
So congratulations, Thank you. It was an honor, it's a privilege.
It's something that I will take very seriously. And the
big thing is too, I don't want to be the
focal point. I want to empower Floridians I want everyone
to show up voice or opinion. No one's going to
get silenced. That's all discuss like you know, at the
dinner table, almost like it's an open discussion. That's it's
(50:35):
it's not a bad thing to share ideas, right. We
don't want just one or two people to lead point
and tell everyone how to think.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
So absolutely absolutely I love that. Okay, So let's talk
about the release of this what the next six months
year looks like for you? What what what are the
next big steps and hurdles, and just explain what the
roadmap looks for you and your organization over the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1 (51:06):
So we are filming. We're in the midst of filming
King of the Everglades. It is going to be a
seasonal documentary series. We have seven chapters mapped out. We're
trying to hit twenty minutes per chapter because worst case scenario,
we're looking at putting this thing out on YouTube and
X maybe ex original it remains to be seen. So
(51:28):
that's what's the next year and a half looks like.
In terms of the King of the Everglades production. We
are working with FPL, their crocodile expert. I just sent
over a proposal over to them, so I'm waiting for
feedback from them so we can get access to their
cooling canals where they have a crocodile sanctuary there, and
that's part of the over incompanying the overarching story of
King of the Everglades is to showcase the conservation, right.
(51:51):
I did get invited by a biologist out west for
gray Wolf project out in Lassen National Park, last in
Volcanic National Park out west in northern California, where this
biologist and his team have been tracking the reintroduction of
the almost or once extinct, sorry once extinct gray wolf
in northern California, and they live in a shadow of
(52:13):
a volcano. So it sounded very interesting and he invited me.
So I'll be heading out there next year just to
work on that story as well while I'm working on
King of the Everglades, And then we're just gearing up
hopefully in the next year or two, once we pick
up maybe a little bit more financial support more of
a following two, we're going to be working on some
other projects we have lined up, like the Arizona Jaguar
(52:35):
Beast of the Borderlands. So that's what we have on
our plate right now, just a newsletter, working with Sagebrush
on a couple of things as well, and taking up
the mantle of Florida. Man, it feels like. And then
we'll see, we'll see where we go. We're going to
try to shoot to get the first chapter of King
of the Everglades out by fall next year.
Speaker 2 (52:58):
Okay, that sounds beautiful, all right? So how can people
support you? How can people support the effort? How can
they not only support what you're doing at explorers dot
org but also sagebrus support.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
My caffeine addiction, Buy me a coffee. I don't want to.
I don't want to really ask for anything, but you know, all.
Speaker 2 (53:20):
Right, I'm gonna do it. Listen, everybody, it's very difficult
to do this work. It's very difficult to meet young
people that are inspired to take on these monumental hurdles.
You know, the the industry itself, like he said, is
very insulated and what they're choosing to get behind financially.
(53:40):
And so I'm here to tell you this, This young
man is the real deal. His organization's real deal, and
more importantly, his art is the real deal. That's what
got me to him. I watched his trailer. He meant
it moved me and so that's what made me do it.
So go to their website that's explorers dot org. And
and you know it's it's fifty dollars, it's one hundred dollars.
(54:03):
We're not asking for twenty thousand or fifty thousand dollars.
That's ridiculous. What these young men, what they need is
to tell beautiful stories for you and your children. Is
they need just a little bit of help here and there.
You know, don't go to Starbucks for a month and
give them a hundred bucks, you know, so I'll ask.
Don't worry. It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (54:24):
I appreciate that, truly, you know, every dollar goes a
long way. And I'm incredibly grateful and blessed to have
the support that we have and for many years to come.
So I'm excited to get these stories out to you guys.
And who knows, maybe I'll be in one of my
followers backyards next year.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
Oh man, I love that. I love that all right?
So where can people follow you where you are?
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Yeah? I have an Instagram action Xander, just the same
as my ex handle or username action Xander, and then
eXplorist Society is our username as well on Instagram. You
can find us on Facebook and Instagram. Twitter both explores
society and myself action Xander.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Well, Alexander, I'm just truly honored that you shared your passion,
your your your love of creation and what's available. I'm
also very honored that you would talk a little bit
about losing your friend. You know the way I look
at that. You know, I've lost a lot of friends
over the last you know, ten years to suicide, and
(55:28):
and you know, each one of them, they inspire me
to do what I do every day, to try and
bring some goodness to the world, to try and help
people when they're down. And so you know, at the
end of the day, I'm sure he's smiling down on you,
moved by who what you are. And then also he's
he's that little inspiration to keep walking through that that
(55:51):
thunderstorm of mosquitoes that's coming down on you out there,
and pretty soon jaguars, jaguars hunch you down out you
go out to Arizona. So thank you so much, God
bless you, and we wish you all the luck. And
when you're ready to release anything, just hit us up.
We'll have you back on and we'll play a little
(56:13):
bit of the clip and we'll just keep keep going
helping you there.
Speaker 1 (56:16):
I appreciate that a lot, David, and shout out to Jordy.
You guys are doing wonderful work. Thank you so much,
and God bless you both.
Speaker 2 (56:22):
Thank you.
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Buck Sexton
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