Remembering I'm an Animal

We don't just evolve biologically. Culture also contributes to our evolution, but somewhere along the way we became stuck in Uncanny Valley, where our weird feels familiar and foreign at the same time, and with that comes unease. But don't worry, the boys have a solution. And it goes back to old Aristotle. Or something like that.

If you place the entire history of the cosmos, from the Big Bang until now, onto a single calendar year, the first humans don't arrive until 10:30 on Dec. 31. Everything we know about, everything in our history books, happens in the final 10 seconds, of the final minute, on the last day of the calendar. This show is about those 90 minutes.

Ol' Arty believed that every living thing has a specific potential, one dictated by its internal structure and fulfilled through vital activities. That's what this show is about. Also: We've swapped wonder for warning. Is anything invented or is it all discovered? And why the hell do horses let us ride them?

The answer is embarrassingly simple, which is to clean out your mind and body. Easy enough, right? Actually, yes, and Billy discusses how three weeks without a phone, and without putting crap into his body, has had such profound effects that he's just mad at the moron who took this long to do it. Also, Jody buys "barefoot" shoes that aren't hideous (finally); the boys present a d...

What happens to your brain, like immediately, when you just get rid of your phone? Billy reports back from his first week since dumping his iPhone for a cellular watch. Plus, Doc and Billy discuss whether we've abandoned survival of the fittest, plus Doc explains his recent off-air comment that he wasn't listening to Billy during the first 14 episodes.

The show took a hiatus, but Billy and Doc did not. We're back to catch you up on the evolution of our RIA project, which is deeper and more dynamic than ever. We have much to talk about!

In this very strange crossover episode of The Crowded Hour and Remembering I'm an Animal, Billy and Jody are back together. It will make sense if you listen. Probably.

It's been a little over a year since Jody and Billy decided to start documenting this journey they call "Remembering I'm an Animal." Thirty-seven episodes later, the boys take a look back, list their highs and lows, and look ahead to more species-appropriate behaviors. If you've been listening, thank you. If you haven't, it would be kinda weird if you were reading thi...

It's been a while since the boys have done an old-school, multi-topic episode, so settle in. And, once again, Billy announces his New Life Plan. Plus: the three (and a half) types of fun; the collapse of the metaverse; how "avid" hikers are the heavyweight champions of Mr. Outdoors behavior; lots of life lessons from Stephen King; the misnomer that substance abuse plays any positive...

In a very surreal turn of events, much of Billy's personal quest comes to a climax. Except it wasn't Billy doing it. It was Jody. F-ing Jody. (Speaking of F-ing Jody, he got Covid, which is why it has been so long since our last episode. But there's another one coming right behind this fella.)

Chris Borgatti was a high school science teacher at a prep school, until a challenging question from a student made him face a dilemma that is central to this podcast: Why didn't he hunt for his own food? Fast-forward nine years and Chris has become an acclaimed hunter and conservationist, and has left the classroom to become the New England and New York coordinator for Backcountry Hunters &a...

Following a disastrous assignment where he attempted to smoke his way through the tiny town that has become the Pot Capital of America, Billy is back and firing on all cylinders, with some insights about what it is we're chasing on this program, this algorithm to animal authenticity, and how hitting it 80 percent of the time is the goal. Plus: Jody gets the authorities called on him for legal...

This whole mess of a story started for Billy years ago at an agricultural fair, and a return visit this time around brings back all the questions about our relationship to food. This all goes down as another suburban hunting season gets going. How's it going? Nowhere. Plus: one of the boys finds out they need a new hip; the magical feeling of lateral momentum; more trash-talking from a 77-yea...

We humans are living in a time of evolutionary mismatch, asked to live a life we were not designed for. Our DNA demands better from us, so on this show we discuss how to listen to it, to take take dance lessons from it.  That plus the magic of knots, and the 77-year-old Maine woman who continues to challenge Billy to a swim race in 34-degree water.

The "llst" of the fundamental evolved abilities of the human species is long and impressive. But can you boil that list down to the fundamentals, the 9 abilities that showcase the best "magics" of the Homo sapiens? Plus: the toxicity of deadlines; why briefs are more primitive than boxers; and whether to dance or fight. 

Martha Wood is something of a myth on the North Shore of Massachusetts, a real-life mermaid who seems to thrive in water cold enough to kill. Today on the show, the 59-year-old Wood tells the story of how a botched colonoscopy led her into the winter ocean, beginning a journey that culminated a few weeks ago when she swam across the fabled English Channel. 

A few months ago, the boys asked themselves the question: What's the one thing you could change about yourself, that you would change, that you're not changing? For Billy, it was to stop poisoning himself each day with crappy food and drink. That effort has gone so-so, and it was incomplete, because it missed the third major self-poison of the modern world: crappy media. So a new effort...

Inspired by comedian Nikki Glaser, the boys discuss the problems living in a world where there is so much information about food and alcohol, so many experts, that you stop listening to yourself, the part that says "Have you tried moderation?" Billy pays a visit to the "Woodstock of hunting" to see what the new age hunters are up to. Jody tells the story of spending a night sle...

We came from the trees, and there remains deep inside of us a desire to return to them. On this episode, the boys are joined by Andrew Joslin, a legend in tree climbing who has scaled some of the largest trees on earth, and then spent the night in them. Joslin recounts his storied career, his side business rescuing cats, and his wild day trying to get Billy up into a tree canopy (which quickly goe...

Billy returns from a long vacation to rant about how misguided the modern idea of "vacation" has become. Or something like that. Jody leads a mindblowing explanation of the aquatic ape theory. Plus Billy explains the smart reason he declined the chance to give a TED Talk,  and the reason why he thinks instead he's going to write a great book.  That plus non-alcoholic beer, praise fo...

On this episode, the boys process all the things they've learned from freedive master Whitey Baun, and tell the story of the breathing exercise he put them through after the mics were turned off (which nearly tripled the amount of time each could hold their breath, instantly). They also take a deeper look into the mind-blowing science behind the Master Switch of Life (see link below). Plus, t...

When the human body takes a deep breath and dives down into the ocean, it reflexively sets off a series of physiological responses so magical that it has been called "The Master Switch of Life." To connect with that switch, the fellas connect with Whitey Baun, a freediving master who at age 72 has been called the dean of the underwater world in Massachusetts. A day after taking Billy for...

After a brief summer break, the boys are back, and Billy reveals he has been conducting an experiment for three weeks where he followed the diet of our ancestors, the ones who ate like Homo sapiens and consumed only two things: plants and animals. The results have been so positive that you'll probably want to skip this part of the podcast because no one wants to hear about how good he feels....

Gloucester, Massachusetts is America's oldest fishing port, and for generations, as part of a festival to celebrate St. Peter, the patron saint of fishermen, its young men have tested themselves in a dangerous contest known as "The Greasy Pole." At the young age of 47, our hero, Gloucester-native Dr. Jody Simoes, walked The Greasy Pole for the first time, connecting to the ancient l...

Mt. Washington delivers on its promise of being home to "The World's Worst Weather" when Jody tries to run up it, in a chaotic day on the highest mountain in New England. Elsewhere, Billy launches #shirtlesssolstice, sunscreen is the new margarine, and more discussion of the ultimate riddle of the conscious modern man -- What the hell should I eat? -- as the guys continue their atte...