Joe Rogan Experience #1395 — Glenn Villeneuve Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Boom here we go what's up Glenn how are you man hey Joe nice to meet you in person good to come and a frying pan and a pot and a place to sleep. I was actually living in a tent in the woods down in Vermont, having such a good time. and I just had a great time so I started thinking more about you know instead of just living in the and to actually start living that way.

2:46 around in a little bush plane. Because part of my plan originally, when I formulated this idea back 60 miles walking. But the difference is when you're Me off alone where we had given up the year before You were 13. I mean, I'd already quit school by the time I was 13, you know. No, I never needed a GED for anything I did. If I'm flying airplanes, I want to learn a lot more than I need to know to do what I'm doing.

5:15 Oh, okay. The biggest thing, Joe, I got out there, I had two months food. And I left that the year before when I had a plane. insulated, but it hadn't really become a cabin yet. It's the same place that you've seen, but it plywood cabin under the wall tent, basically. I had one bag of flour, this little plastic bag of flour. I've got no freezer. See, you have to, other than the rifle aspect of it,

8:33 They would build a fence. across the country like they found a lot of game there was a lot of animals i mean it was just an It's not. I was on a flight. Tokyo takes you right across it. 600 miles of mountains from the Canadian border over to the And that one road is the Hall Road? So when you got down to one bag of flour, was there a part in your head where you're like,

11:14 Yeah. with a piece of parachute cord and a little block and tackle that you can fit in the palm of your hand Let's explain to people what a meat pole is year when i caught a lot of fish there um because i stayed there i stayed there one time I went back. Like, I had a little tiny bit of store-bought food with me, hardly anything. Because it's incredible.

14:57 Somebody handed me an email address. They said, you should write to this person. I said, this is my only means of communication. Eight months went by. and we start talking. about me, not about them. And I kept trying to get information, like, what is this? Exactly. And he landed So they had to come out just to check to see if your story was show. Wow. And a few weeks later, we were making TV. So they had to come out just to

17:40 worlds there's no world that's more removed from the world of living by yourself in the woods that had come out of hibernation was right there in front of us. and we had two kids by then you know that that they hadn't been there since the year before, but Like the fact that you're 13 years old, you make that walk all the way across Vermont. So this has always been something that you're drawn to for some reason.

20:34 Did you finally feel like But what was it about it that was so compelling? I mean, just the physical part. that was the best food I ever ate in my life. Now, I didn't know exactly how it was going to play out, but I was always confident that it was a valuable thing to do and that it would not only benefit me, but in the long run, that I would be able to share this with people and that it would pay off.

22:59 any debt. I didn't have student loan, like I said. I left school early. I didn't have a mortgage. in vermont it was timberland and um that wasn't something that i was interested in doing as a in six weeks. During that canoe trip, we would see these small planes flying over. And that's And that did slow me down moving to Alaska. Yeah. I mean, you're right next to grizzly bears.

26:46 One time there was a lone wolf Wow. The baby was fine. Some days it was just one ptarmigan, which is very little food. The caribou will come later in the winter. Yeah. But a big one, like a 60-inch bull, how much is that? Are you taking the femurs and getting bone marrow out of them and doing all that jazz Really? Really? You eat the liver. And it's nutritious.

30:47 They've never found prionic disease in Alaska and any of the animals up there. And where deer and moose live together, the moose get it. I don't know their exact range, but nowhere near where I am. That's what we were talking about Looking for food that day It was real fresh. Yeah, my rifle is my constant companion. This is usually the way they hunt.

33:53 Yeah, they'll get them in there. both the caribou and the wolf and go right over the top of the cliff and i'm like there's no way I'm looking across the ravine and I see the wolf going up. Yeah. This wolf and like almost every other wolf Wolves know this all across North America. I think it's in their DNA now. Where they don't have any fear. the scope of my rifle i just remember him giving a yawn he laid down on the ground when he knew he

37:55 How heavy was it? It's dark up there. It still had the skin on it and everything. Wolves, I spent a lot of time around the wolves. And their stride when they slow down to a walk You can't even come close to that speed. I went over there, and judging by the tracks, there were half a dozen wolves around. it was a very unusual situation first of all I don't know if the pack just grew to that size, but it was unheard of.

41:08 It's a big brown spot. Even though it was January, it had been cold since September, I can hear them. You can hear bones breaking and stuff. I start walking back to the cabin. Like, this is unheard of. I got a great picture. You could pull it up maybe. Yeah, I'm going to see that. It's in the notes everything, but there's a lot of wolves there. How do I know they're going to stop when I start

44:28 Look at this picture. What if they don't stop They're all milling around 20 wolves in my pocket, checked everything out. just run back and forth like 50 yards out to my little water hole in the ice and back to the I remember reloading after I shot five times. don't attack humans you know i've read that many times but they have they have uh at least

48:15 Yeah. There has been an update on the story as of April of this year. They couldn't find anything in the Russian sources, but no one dared to check the New York Times sources. Story on it. It's difficult, though, to get to the truth. It's a very famous story. their takeaway at the end of that because they said that was actually mentioned in multiple

51:33 going towards where the gunfire was which is what you hear with grizzly bears yeah people talk about Aren't hunted Right with the moose i have to make 10 trips oh of course now when you found these wolves and you When I was reloading, I just remember seeing all these wolves milling around in front of me, half a mile away from me by then they were up in the woods on the other side of the lake and

53:55 What's LBZ? I got charged by one out there one time. So when you find the wolves that you did shoot and you shot and killed three of them, do you eat them? Right. And I mean, they just got a lot more parasites that can actually harm you. You know, they're bad. A lot of kids have had big problems. It just lives in their intestines. Someone's got one in their eyes.

56:29 Well, I've never got one in my eyesight. Look at all those pictures of eyeballs. Their eyeballs overcome with fucking worms. There's 14 worms in this woman's eye. Hell no. They can survive being frozen all winter. When you're handling a bear skin, those eggs are on the fur. That's one of my number one fears. and they think it might be in his brain they don't know where it is but like he'll work out

59:33 And he's had it for months, months and months and months of suffering. Do you cook the hams? I like to boil it. eaten wolf i don't know like i met these mongolians once and they were like oh you shoot some wolves But There's another thing that Well Domestic dog Lewis and Clark expedition they would buy dogs from the indians Like onions, potatoes, make a soup?

1:01:49 Out of the caribou's stomach. I believe you. It starts turning brownish. And I even talked to some people who had done it, you know, when they were kids and stuff. Basically, I went as primitive as I could go. state of consciousness and it's a beautiful thing. Now, when you said pickled stomach contents, it will retain a lot of heat. Old people used to do this all the time.

1:05:13 You know what I like to do with meat? like moisture is very important. If you buy meat in the store it's wrapped in plastic varies during the day depending on how the fire is stoked, right? Just let it sit there. Gummy meat because it gets kind of gummy. but I didn't have anything. So it might be even older nor the contents of a caribou's stomach mixed with the trip lining

1:08:29 16 quarts of milk from a walrus. she was the one that only had two good legs. And her back leg going right up there towards her udder. there was this one section that was just all pus. Is that what you do? I'm not much into wolf meat. You know you can get as primitive as you want ability to communicate right i wouldn't even be able to arrange to be on your show if i was out

1:11:30 So, you know, I picked it up pretty fast. Like that first moose I killed, the biggest thing I had ever killed before that was a snowshoe hare. if you want to do something like that, not just going to live in the wilderness. If you want to If you got two people out there, you better get two moose in the fall because the caribou might not show up. Always.

1:13:28 The regulations? I couldn't even have a hunting license. you know, I figured, okay, it's around the equinox, it's late September, that's the moose hunting time. But what mattered to me was that the flies were no longer laying eggs, then I could I said, this is what I want to do. hey, you've been living here 17 years, the original tank camp in 2000. So I occupied that

1:16:23 It was never a problem. So did people come to visit you? I was like wow congratulations And then they started looking at satellite photos, And, you know, there was one day just a couple years ago And I said to Tricia, I said, this could be the day I've been waiting for for 17 years. But just because it happened to be technically illegal, No, I didn't mind.

1:19:02 I paid $1,000 a year after that. I'm okay. but I play by the book now. When it would expire in December. I heard crow tastes good. Yeah like a scoter What's the weirdest shit you've eaten? hunting, burning up lots of calories. They're terrible. If you ever want a weasel for food, you got to skin it real carefully. You until they were like black. They live on little mice,

1:22:13 Hopefully. Is your family eating this weasel too at the time? years she was an attorney in boston what yeah wow well i get that people are always telling me like and cases are piling up. Yeah, we had a falling out. I mean, not about working on the show anymore. Like they learned something. And that's part of my life, but there's a lot more to it. I've been dreaming about it for years.

1:26:30 And, you know, hey, if you guys don't want to film it, learned a ton of stuff about making TV, about all kinds of things. And I made awesome friends. The I mean, I was just adamant. Can you cut some more trees for us? Anywhere around Now, this Stone Age site, did you find it? It was like, we made a whole story on TV about it. Maybe 100, 150. It was amazing.

1:29:13 He told me about a game trail, and it was still there. I brought it down with me. Wiseman was on that show as well, wasn't it? He's another really interesting guy. But you guys were on the show together And then they got rid of Eric didn't talk to me about it after they stopped working with me. We shot one episode. That must have been weird. First of all, I didn't work with producers in the field.

1:32:27 and we were doing incredible things. But that's a lot of freedom that's not normally given to people on reality TV from what I'm told. Really? Like people that you had contact with on social media? But I did get a lot of negative feedback from certain particular people making the show It's like what is it that's tapping in or what what is it tapping into what what part of your

1:34:42 It's like you make you tune in every week. they're people that just sit down and have a normal conversation which would give you as much reality as they left in with editing. has opened up this storage shed before and he's opening up now whoa what do we got here like come rifle and some snowshoes and a backpack that's as real as is humanly possible and anything that they bullshit with there it's like so what because the

1:37:58 I mean, come on. Right. Well, there you go. the story it's such a badly concocted story everybody that heard the story was like what right away that it was fake everybody's like wait what he's got the noose around his neck and he was where you know it's bullshit, and you're like, what are you doing? And he just kept lying. Oh, for sure. Like, they have a crazy lie made-up story about their military history and war record.

1:42:14 He's a weird one, huh? his table like this hard crusty fucking look at that look at that guy's shoe his foot Yeah. Went the rest of the way. But if they're damp, man, they're soft. You can use them for can use them for toilet paper believe me i do use lichens for toilet paper i've used Oh that's so pretty man With my permits I have a trapping cabin permit, but honestly, I'm not interested in trapping. I did some trapping

1:45:21 I had to take that cabin down right now i have a tent up there because Why don't you tell them, listen, come back tomorrow. I was kind of excited about building a new cabin. Is that the size of this room? Whoa. I started off with one acre, and then as I could afford it, I bought up my neighbors. You tell everybody what you do. See you on TV and see you right there?

1:47:28 They mention it It's about 40,000 people I think Comedy gigs? But it's just the people up there were really cool, man. Yeah. and dealing with nature, We gave up a lot of our vitality. Yeah. I don't know if I can afford a toilet. You're buying all this land The land that I buy You've got to have a house sitter then. I was like, I can't afford a toilet.

1:51:21 I'm serious. I don't like outhouses But you're in this tiny little house India, Bangladesh. tell i've ever pooped there it goes back to nature i don't even compost i don't even do anything i Grey jays? What's a grey jay? Yeah, he'd eaten shit before there. Where do you think the bears, the moose, the caribou, they all go underground. Yeah, so when you dropped a log next to the trap for the wolf,

1:54:24 Oh. How'd you feel to poop. Oh, a wolf came here last night and ate my last poop. Oh. There's guts. There's a few fox around. They're better. I'm just not big on small game. I'm up high in the mountains. that what happened she sent me a friend request and you know i was i was looking for a woman I didn't get up to speed. Like I said, I didn't have the- Direct messages. Oh, direct messages. Right. I have heard about that.

1:57:00 I mean, I just spent the whole winter by myself. I mean every day Try hunting for a woman Yeah I get it Jesus Christ For four days Wow. maybe that'll be my next career No, battery and a generator And other social media But I'm going to keep going to the wilderness No. So Tricia comes up for a four-day date after we'd communicated for three months. I said, hey, got any plans for tomorrow?

2:00:32 She had to be back at work. little more than I used to Just in case something goes wrong with the sight Oh, no, I don't. 200 yards. What's the caliber? What is it called? Oh, you got a suppressor. Because for hunting purposes, like one of the biggest problems, like I have a friend of mine, my friend Cody, Yep, yep, 100%, 100%. And if you hunt regularly, that adds up.

2:03:54 And you know you're not hearing anything That's deafening. Someone somewhere let me shoot their rifle that had a suppressor on. and it's very quiet but it's going so slow that it's not effective to hunt moose or caribou with That's how it always is. that are making the regulations. from what i've heard i mean i haven't researched extensively but i think in britain even people

2:07:25 Like if, Yeah. yeah and because of that it's like that from my brain that i find that very appealing i'm very i gravitate towards difficult things like They hemorrhage quick. Yeah. Yeah. Why wouldn't that be legal? People catch gigantic amounts of salmon just to feed their dogs. And also, I guess that's what it is, right? if you really wanted to. Anybody that's not there making the rule.

2:11:23 For you, you personally prefer to on the technology for you you personally you mean hunt out of a helicopter? or something like that, someplace that's difficult to get to the mountains. you've got a certain number You want to take a certain number out every year. But the way it all balances out, a lot of people like to use fixed wing airplanes they're relatively

2:13:40 You can't even scout out of a fixed-wing airplane, them into to get a big sheep, get a big ram. and it's also it's like it becomes uh it's a sheep hunters are like a it's an interesting breed of of And once you're successful, it's so difficult to do that once you're successful, it's a huge relief. Anything unusual? meat and i chased it away a few times and it kept coming back and you know eventually i shot right

2:17:14 I liked it, but I'd only have a desire to eat it once every four or five days. And I remember Sylvia saying, are you going to eat that stuff? It's real soft at room temperature. cool it back down it'll take that away i had it happen with moose fat once it was getting old so Wow. Oh, you're just – Yeah. Now, what do you use to tan it? and it worked really well for me, so I stuck to that.

2:21:00 Yeah, it's so concentrated. And that system, then the other thing you need is baking soda. But there's the battery acid. Three and a half sheep feet or something oh really i can't remember no i don't know it's something they call it needs I was just going to say, we were talking an awful lot about airplane now you just got a few feet around you right um and out there you got space space as far

2:23:14 Did you ever run into another person while you were out there? How weird was that? You go without sex. He had hired a plane to fly him to a place that was a long ways away. No. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, I almost never meet anybody. You have to ignore people. You know, they get all excited and start running along for very long. Right. like why the fuck would anybody live here no no no i find it fascinating it's it's interesting

2:27:19 We have two toilets here. No, they make them? It works for me. nature i mean you can't a lot of people can't bathe outside if they wanted to they don't have Your senses change. getting inundated with all of this extraneous noise, and instead of filtering, you're tuning in. and that's really different. Like you're really isolated. Totally. Humans need that. They like it puts you in your place. Yeah. Totally.

2:30:40 Knowing that there's something right there that you can't survive in. But on the other hand, you feel really small. Like I literally was having a famine for a couple months where I was always getting a little bit of food but not enough. I was still going out looking for food every day, but I couldn't go as far. This was in the winter. They're also smaller.

2:32:48 There are not many snowshoe hares. For three or four days, so i got edema and um it was weird I just thought like I was getting fat or something, It didn't last that long. yeah isn't that weird because i had been like you know how'd you feel skin and bones um the thing that had happened was we had this arrangement I'm just going to see the best I can do, you know, and I just kept going out and getting small game. Then what happened was even when you got a plane coming,

2:35:55 because I was really worried about my health at that point. you know we were all set again feast of famine yeah it is it's like a hungry country but But there are a lot of animals concentrated. of the big some of the big arctic herds um i mean they don't all get in one place at one time If it's like in October when they're rutting, It's so big. the pictures that you can leave up all the time.

2:39:04 hear about how people used to live in the so it looks like people it's amazing. and they'll go out in the middle of the lake in the day and they'll run straight back at me. I'll pop it up so you can see. Now, those caribou, those caribou, they were running away from me before this picture was taken. And so this is how you hunted them? Right. What I found is I had to eat most of my calories from fat.

2:43:34 render it if you want i rendered a lot it's a different like the way you look at it on the That's how you do it? I had to eat a lot of fat and then I would feel better. but I was definitely drinking more than a gallon of water a day, I'd eat raw or half dried, for example, was one of my favorite ways to eat caribou meat when I was But if I took a caribou backstrap and I just sliced it up thin and hung it over the wood stove and left it there for half a day or something, would get a little you know dry on the outside but it would still be raw inside that stuff was delicious

2:46:27 But most of the crust on most of the big sections of meat get black and they get – I would not consider that food. You can eat the colon. when you do it right all it is is fat it. It's like donuts. It's like fat donut. The poop all falls out. You know how the outside of the colon or the large intestine is full of fat, like on any animal. taste people always ask me that well you might taste like a moose colon yeah i'm saying there

2:49:09 Yeah, that's true. And you just look at beef cattle. You take a caribou or a moose, it is much more protein. Yeah, there's nothing like it. know they're just getting a lot of fatty meats i love ri ribeye steak, but to just live on that, I don't know how that would be. only way to eat the only way way to eat is with vegetables. when they look at meat eaters versus people who are not eating meat, what they don't dissect

2:52:34 of wild plant food, gathered maybe 15, 20 gallons of berries in the fall, had some dried leaves from I hadn't had it checked for many years. And I thought, 200 is borderline high or something. all the kind of stuff you have to do, you're burning off an incredible amount of calories. No. Oh, okay. It feels so weird. I know two people that got Giardia, but they were both like old timers that had lived most of their life

2:55:17 I mean, that's what inspired me seeing your show. I mean, I didn't have to go through a series of producers, and I would never do that. He's talking to all these big-time celebrities. It just did, right? to do which is what you really want to do you You do what you want to do. Yeah. That's the beautiful thing about it, And, you know, it opens up whole new possibilities.

2:58:10 You know what? It's interesting. to me are precious and rare. I want to keep going out into the wilderness. i want to keep experiencing these things which to me are precious and rare i want definitely would need a camera i definitely would need a cameraman editor. and do it with traditional methods and use the tendons from animals And I think that would be a great way to give you all the freedom that you want

3:00:32 Yeah. pretend he's drinking his own piss all that stuff i mean less is out there really surviving that way I get more questions about Bigfoot. You're not a scientist, but you said you did notice that the ice is thinner. Right. I'm like, wow, that's crazy. They've been recent winters where the coldest it ever got was once or twice to 45 below. I mean, they're collecting data all over the world.

3:04:03 I'm sure the National Weather Service has all kinds of data on alaska sure i mean we for instance in I just can't believe people waste their time talking about stuff like that. Yeah. It makes me sad. get double the number what does that tell you about our culture not good look at this this is There's people from breeding bigfoot would beat the fuck out of a bear, kill a mountain lion.

3:07:40 What would stop us from finding- mastodons and saber-toothed tigers Than Bigfoot. Four hours. I could have been, you know, researching things. You know what? No, I never watched his show. Yeah. I think it was like women he's working with said he was harassing them. and so a show like his or any kind of show where people are just sitting down having a conversation

3:10:26 But it's cool. the network about what kind of guests to have on or you know what you know like we have to review something like that or vimeo or many many other streaming services doing something like that Hey Glenn I'm tired of seeing you shit in the woods I really enjoyed this. It's a long show. Twitter YouTube Instagram I got everything but I'm most active on Facebook that's what I mean