April 23, 2025 • 47 mins
In this episode, Gandhi talks to Emmy Winner, Bertie Gregory, about his new show, Secrets of the Penguins. They also talk about how life has changed since winning the awards, what it’s like trying to assimilate back to real life, and what the future holds.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Sauce on the side. What's up, It's Gandhi with my
lovely producer Diamond Heather. Hi, we have someone on this
show today. I'm super excited about because one, I'm always
excited about every guests that we have on. But two,
he was the first guest on my podcast. He kicked
it off Bertie Gregory.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
What great?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well were you confused? Did you not think he was
a first guest?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, I think he was a first Okay, who did
you think it was?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I thought it was the guy who shouit it on
me about my dating profile because he has face but
I can't see real haird Freed.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, no, that was like way down the long whoa.
Oh yeah, Bertie came in first. We did the whole
can I touch it? Thing? Oh, and that's where everything
sort of started. But now that you are saying this,
you're making me want to go check all of the episodes.
But since Bertie came in, because he came in to
talk about a series called Animals up Close, which I
was fascinated by. He talked about elephants and the Galapagus Islands,
(00:59):
all kinds of stuff, and he won at least one
Emmy If not more for that specific show. So I'm
so excited. I was so proud of him. He was
really hoping that a season two would come out, so
I would love to see if that's actually happening. But
he's here to talk about something called The Secrets of
the Penguins. I believe Secrets of the Penguins it's a
three part, really fascinating little series. I know that you're
(01:22):
not really a big penguin person because you hate animals
for whatever reason, but I think there's some really fun
stuff to talk about. If you had to talk to
him by yourself when I wasn't here, what would you
to say?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I would ask the most interesting thing he saw on
his adventures, okay, and probably try to get him outside
of talking about animals, like, you know, okay, actually saw
the sky light up in a specific way, and then
show me a picture maybe, or tell me a good
story about why he doesn't take his phone to a
(01:54):
specific point and he just wants to enjoy of you.
Well blah blah blah. Okay, I don't want to know
about animals because I'm terrified.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Okay, So you want to find out more about Bertie
the person?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, the first episode, Can I Touch It? Welcome to
Sauce on the Side. On this week's episode, Condy talks
with wildlife photographer Bertie Gregory about what it's really like
to create something. Huh interesting.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
What was the date?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
That was? February twelfth? Wow, of Year of Our Lord
Jesus Christ. I think twenty twenty four. Yeah, yeah, time's
just flying, man, I didn't know it was February twelfth.
I thought we released in April either or in uh January.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I think the promos started running in January.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Huh. And here we are a whole year later and
now we're going to have a spinoff podcast. Let me
ask you this. Do you think the spinoff podcast that
we recorded should be a spinoff? Like that's the first spinoff?
Or should we introduce it as a Sauce on the
Side episode so everybody listens to it and then tell
them it's a spinoff. No, we could cross promote, we
could do it twice, we could release it in both places.
(02:59):
We just really need to come up with a name
for it.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
That's the hardest thing ever. Like, I don't understand how
people even come up with names for their children, because
you like start like how is it that you just
come up with a name and you stick with it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I don't know. I don't understand how people name their
kids before they meet them. I don't think I could
ever do that. Like, you just pick diamond, but you've
never met Diamond. I mean, obviously you are a diamond.
I'm very used to you being Diamond. But I just
couldn't imagine, like, before a child is on this planet,
being like, this is the name this person's gonna have.
Oh my parents did that, though I think most parents
do that. I think I'm the only freak that would
(03:33):
be like, let's leave that birth certificate on unfilled, uncompleted, well,
you know, incomplete.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I heard that, and this could be not this could
just be this person's story. But I heard a few
years ago that someone I knew their community, the Jewish
community that she specifically was a part of, they don't
name their child until they meet them. Oh, so, I'm
like to me, I don't know if all Jewish people
(04:01):
do that, but I think it has something to do
with like the way they view life. So maybe, but also, yeah, no,
what if my parents met me and they were like,
her name isn't diamond?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, my name I thought you were a diamond, but
now I meet you and you look more like a
snack's I don't know, Okay, Well, I just feel like
that's how it would work. Though.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well, Henry thought my name was gonna be PEPSI.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I wish you would have been a.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Diamond.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
That's fine, okay, I wonder if no. You just said
you don't know if all, I'm sure there are other
cultures that do the same thing. I'll tell you what.
I have a tough time with baby showers because in
my culture, it's bad luck to give a gift to
something that has not yet been born, because just what
if something bad happens and then you have all of
these things to just remind you of that all the time.
(04:47):
So in my dream world, I wouldn't give you a
gift until the baby is born. But people get really
offended by that. Yeah, it doesn't matter if I explain
it or not. So I'm like, fine, here have your graft,
good luck. I hope everything's fine.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, I just give a gift card. Go by diapers
when the time is right, you know, if you go.
I'm not good at gifts anyway.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So you want to know what else, baby showers are
my least favorite event to attend.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Oh I love it because I get to get drunk
while the mom camp so cheers to that.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
No, I'm like, I have to watch you open all
these presents. I don't care. People still do this. Oh
my god. The last one I went to, they opened
every guest.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
No, don't stop doing that. Guys, go home, go home
and do it.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I was like at birthday parties when you were little
and they would open all the guests. I don't care.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, I didn't care. I want a cake, right, give.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Me the cake, give me pizza. Let me get back
on this roller skating rink. Shit was good. Remember when
we were all gonna go roller skating as a show.
Did it ever happen? He did?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I didn't go on my birthday? Oh, how was it
so much fun? We should do that again?
Speaker 1 (05:41):
That was so much fell down.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I think Josh fell. Josh definitely fell. I think I
have a video of him. And then COVID was spread.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Do you know No, I wasn't there.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, and that was another instance of scary spreading COVID
without actually getting tested to prove that he had it.
Remember Deanna and I?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, oh yeah, that was from Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Oh actually I spread it. Sorry okay, but he never
got tested, even though Dianna, he and Diana were in
the same car and Deanna ended up having it. I
had it, he didn't have it.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
It's also just really fun to blame him for all
the COVID.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, it's his fault because he.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Won't He will never get tested. And let's never forget
the time that we all told him he had COVID
because he was hacking and gagging and sniffing and you know,
licking his finger and touching all the papers and doing whatever.
And he said, no, I don't and ten days later
he sent us a COVID test. I just want to
know what happened in his brain that he thought that
was appropriate ten days later, be like, see you guys,
(06:40):
I don't have it. Well, du you don't have it.
You've cycled through and now everyone else has it. What
that was crazy?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You need to sit him down. That is probably the
most anticipated episode of Sauce on the Side for me
at least.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Oh you mean have him on the podcast?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Absolutely? Okay, maybe please, I'm begging you, Okay, it's possible.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Let's see what this text message is that Bertie's here? No, Andrew,
did I leave my water in the studio? No?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You did not.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Don't even reply to him. But I'm excited for Bertie,
so I say, let's just bring him in.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Sure, Mary had little lamb, her fleece was white to
snow Everett.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, and I'm good. Hello, Hello, Okay, all right, Bertie Gregory,
welcome back. I am so excited because one you were
the first guest on my podcast ever and it's been
going really well ever since you came here. So I'm
gonna consider you my good luck charm, and I'm really
happy that you decided to circle back because there's a
lot to talk about since you were here last. So
(07:41):
last time you were here, we spoke about your series
that was coming out at the time, Animals Up Close.
How has that gone because I saw you on a
few Emmys.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, it's gone pretty good. Uh Yeah, the reception from
people that's just been epic and very grateful. And Nagio
greenlit a second season of the show, so that's always
a good sign. So yeah, we've been working on that,
which has been a lot of fun, and I'm excited
for people to see that new season.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
How long because I know we talked about how long
it took you to film some of these other episodes
for the first season, and that was a year ago,
So how long is this going to take you to
complete season two?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yeah? So we typically spend about a month to one
and a half months per episode in the field for
Animals up Close. So we have done half the episodes
and we've got half to go. But you'll see the
role that's going to be a little bit different to
last time. So yeah, even though we're only halfway to
(08:43):
the episodes, you'll be saying it sooner than you think.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Okay, so we're not going to get them all at once.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I can't give you too many specifics. Mickey Mouse will
hand me down, but yeah, I'm sure you can use
your imagination and join.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
The dots fair enough. So are you able to say
what the first episode, which animal you'll be focusing on.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No, no, I'm not no. No. Sadly they've said I'm
here and can chat freely about about about the new
show's secrets of the penguins, but Animals up Close is
forbidden ground for now. Wowkay, which just means I have
to come back again, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Open door anytime. You want to come in, I would
love to have you. So let's talk about animals up
close winning these Emmys. First of all, did you ever
expect that to happen? Because when I saw it, I
was like, oh, this is amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
No, yeah, it was pretty It's pretty epic. I mean, yeah,
it was very surreal being there. And I was actually
sat next to Cake Boss if you're if you're familiar
with his work, which was around here, Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly.
He's from across the river, right, yeah, yeah, her broken guy. Yeah,
(09:45):
he was good, fun, told me all about his cake
vending machines, which was cool, but just yeah, be uh.
I guess awarded on on. I guess it's such a
broad spectrum of shows, like I'm used to going to
like awards ceremonies for animal animal shows where you sort
of know everyone and you're all sort of on the
(10:06):
same playing field, whereas, yeah, it's cool to be I
guess in a very mainstream awards ceremony and it was
great to come away with the award.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
So you've got to go to the actual ceremony. Did
you get to get up on stage or was this
the ones that they announced before? Like, how does that work,
because I know these shows are kind of crazy.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Yeah no, so yeah, yeah, they announced both the episodes, sorry,
both awards there and yeah we went up on stage
and ye had to give a little little pow wow
and yeah it was. It was great to celebrate it
with some of the team and yeah, cool boost for
this new season.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Okay, so how does that work as far as the
actual award goes. Does each member of your team get
an award? Do you have to get you get a
few and then you have to buy the rest?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah? Yeah, all good and very specific questions. Yeah, so
how it works is depending on the category you are,
you name some names. So, for example, in the cinematography category,
I think you could name four or five of the
people that shot on the series. And yeah, so we
(11:17):
came away on the day with one for that category.
But then then they make you up a bunch of
budget trophies. So we all we all got one.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That's crazy, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Do whatever with at home, put in a private place.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
What did you do with it?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Well, because I got two probably shouldn't be admitting this,
but the first one is in like a like a
you know, a course, a cool spot, and the second
one is actually like a toilet roll holder. It is not, yeah,
because that's like if you've got you've got to spare one,
you've got to do something cool with it.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
It is going to see that. Wow, that's crazy. Well, congratulations,
that's awesome. And it has opened.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
And that is the last time I ever win one,
because I've just admitted that.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
No, I'm sure people have.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I'm very happy to take a third.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I have absolutely no doubt that there is someone in
Hollywood somewhere who has pawned that thing in a pawn shop,
which is a far worse fate than the toilet area.
That's great. So now it's opened the door for a
lot more cool stuff for you. And you're working on
Secrets of the Penguins. When did you start filming this?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Secrets of the Penguins. So we were filming that over
a two year period. So we started filming that I
pretty much finished and the last season of Animals Up
Close and then we went straight onto to Secrets of
So that was that was awesome, And you know, I
was pretty nervous starting on it because the Secret Soft
(12:39):
franchise is a massive brand for National Geographic. It's it's
I think the most successful nature series executive produced by
James Cameron. You know this, the last season wasn't arrated
by Paul Rudd, pretty squorny weaver before that. You know,
it's a it's a big thing to be part of.
And I was worried because penguins, I think people are
(13:00):
pretty familiar with, and they've been filmed a lot before,
you know, March of the Penguins, loads of iconic documentaries,
and also I know firsthand, having filmed them a lot,
that they live in really hard places to film. Yeah,
so if you call a series Secrets of the Penguins,
you're kind of setting expectations pretty higher high, but incredibly
(13:20):
I mean, we had a lot of time in the field,
and that is always the key to filming new crazy behavior.
Every shot we went on. You know, I thought I
knew penguins. I was so wrong. They just every time
I thought they'd hit their limit, they just do something crazy.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So, okay, a couple questions based on that. First of all,
what is it like to get to the penguins, because
they do live in very difficult terrain? How did you
navigate that and how long does it take?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Completely depends on the species. So the first episode is
all about emperor penguins, which is kind of the most
iconic species, the biggest one it can be, you know,
four feet tall and yeah, it's a big animal. So
we film them in a place called Atkoba and Antarctica,
which is yeah, pretty much the middle of nowhere, and
we were camping next to the colony. We were about
(14:09):
a mile from the colony, and so a typical day
would be wake up, makes some We had like dehydrated food,
you know that you add water too. We had awesome
like ca camp manager called Nick who would do that
boil the snow to get water, and then we'd take
our snowmobills over to the penguin colony and just like
(14:29):
hang out with penguins and then come home and repeat that.
And you know, at the time of year that we
were filming it, it was twenty four hour daylight, so
we were actually filming at night because that's when the
(14:51):
sun just kind of hovers around the horizon. So you
know like golden hour that you get as sunset, you
get like golden eight hours. Oh wow, it's just like
imagine sunset, but for hours and hours an hour, So
it's kind of the filmmaker's dream and then we'd sleep
in the in the daytime when the sun's high and
the light's really harsh.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
How cold is it?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
It got pretty cold, so on our shoot we had
around minus thirty. But my colleagues who did another shoot
which was two hundred and seventy four days long. By
the way, the shoot they did, they were in Antarctica
with the emperors for two hundred and seventy four days.
Didn't see their friends and family for that amount of time.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Food.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
No, they were actually working with a German research based
down there, so they were on a on a station,
which was cool. But they had a film day when
it was minus fifty four degrees celsius, so I don't
know what that is in fahrenheit. Also very cold. I
think minus minus forty celsius is minus forty fahrenheit. That's
when the scales overlaps, so it's cold.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It's very cold. And do you prepare your body for
this before you go? Is there any type of conditioning
that you have to do or you just say I'm
gonna wing this.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Here we go.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, you don't want to wing it? Good pay England
pun though that's the first one of many, I hope,
So it kind of depends. I mean, really the preparation
mainly is in your clothing, but certainly for the underwater stuff,
the underwater part of the film, that's the stuff that
you really need to train for because the water is very,
(16:20):
very cold, and you know, in the case of our shoot,
because we were camping and diving, you know, under the ice,
you don't really have a place to warm up, so
you need to be a lot more conservative than you
would be normally. You know, if you get really cold,
it's going to take you a really long time to
warm up. So I did a lot of cold water training,
so everything from you know, swimming and swimming and the
(16:43):
sea and stuff. But the easiest way that idea is
with just a cold shower. So put the shower on
like full cold, stick my head under it, and then
try do my times tables, because it's a good way
of kind of training your brain to like do stuff
and kind of block out the cold, which is what
you need to do when you're when you're underwater filming,
you need to block out the cold, focus on what
(17:04):
the penguins are doing and holding the holding the camera.
So I'd like start with a couple of minutes, and
then every day add you know, fifteen to twenty seconds,
and then by the end could do I don't know,
several minutes without getting too cold.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
How long were you underwater while you were shooting, So yeah,
that was in the preparation.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
When we're actually underwater, probably you do like an hour
in the water and then and then and then you're
starting to get really cold. It also depends what you're doing.
If you're sat waiting in the water, you're not preoccupied,
you get cold really quick. But like in the third episode,
we were filming the leopard seals hunting the penguins, and
(17:43):
that's like being underwater with like a sea dragon and
you're adrenalines pumping and they're really bold and curious. So
so yeah, time time flies when you're having fun having.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
A heart attack. Were you nervous with the leopard seals,
because that is quite.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well the animals. It's fun watching people's reactions to that
scene in the show because the leopard seal is coming
to check me out, and you know, if you or
I want to know what a new object, you know,
feels like we use our hands. Well, leopard seals don't
have hands. They use their teeth right, and they they
literally look like dragons underwater. The way they move is
(18:19):
very serpentine and they're huge lots of teeth. Yeah, grizzly
bear mouth and so yeah, the knee jet reaction is
that's really scary. But I've actually spent quite a lot
of time in the water now in Antarctica with leopard seals,
and you know, you're scared of what you don't know,
and so the more time you spend doing something that
the kind of easier it gets. And I love diving
(18:43):
with leopard seals because it's you know, it's it's like
every each of them are different. You know, saying, oh,
I've dive with leopard zeals is wrong, Like you've dived
with individuals, and they all have different personalities. Not only
when you when you first get into they respond to
you differently, but they all kind of evolved differently during
that dive. Some of them get more shy, some of
(19:03):
them get more curious, some of them get more excited,
and you just have to read their body language. It's
like walking into a bar, like just down the road hill.
It's yeah, it is it is you walk into when
you walk into a bar. The first thing you're doing
when you're trying to find a place to you know,
stand or sit or whatever, you're scanning everyone in the
bar's body language, and subconsciously, you know, I'm not going
(19:24):
to go sinics to those guys. They look pretty angry.
I'm not gonna go sinic to those people. They look weird. Okay,
the way those people are behaving, they're you know, they're smiling,
they're they're happy or whatever. They're the you know, that's
the body language you you know is good. So when
you spend enough time with leopard seals, you learn that
they have body language and they can tell you a
(19:46):
lot about how they're feeling.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I think the key is spending a lot of time
with leopard seals to be able to figure that out. Yeah,
to me, I can't tell you the difference between a
happy one and an angry one. All I see is
a sea dragon with teeth coming at me and I
would have a heart attack.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Which which is totally I think that's reasonable. And the
key thing really with the leopard seals, to continue with
the bar analogy, is you know, when you're in the
water with them, they will often get more and more excited,
more and more inquisitive, more and more confident. And so
it's all about you know, whilst I'm saying they're not scary,
they are potentially a very dangerous animal and you know
(20:21):
they might just be playing with you, but they could
still you take your arm off whatever. So it's all
about kind of you know, when you're in a bar
and everyone's getting more and more rowdy, and you know
at some point, like you feel like a bar fight's
going to break out. Yes, So it's all about knowing
I'm going to leave just five minutes before the bar
fight breaks out. That's what you need to do. With
(20:41):
the Leopard seal. You're like, yeah, something, the mood has
changed here. I think it's time to leave.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
You say that so casually, so you didn't have any
rough encounters with them, because you say, I can sense, okay,
about five minutes it's going to get bad here.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
What is that like?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Is that environment?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
There was one level steal actually that was that was
like bar fight mode before we even got in the water,
which has never happened to me actually, And it was
really funny because Neil and James who I was diving with.
Neil was driving the little rubber you know, ten foot
rubber boat we were in and James was in the
water with me, and they'd never been in you know,
(21:18):
they'd never seen it was their first time in Antarctica.
They've never seen leopard seal. So I was kind of
talking them through what to expect, and I was saying,
like the bitey ones that are like you need to
get out of the water. They will get more and more,
they will like increase up to that level of bitiness,
and that's when we need to get out. But this,
the very first leopard seal we saw, was bitey from
(21:40):
like minute one it came. We were still on the
boat and it came flying over to us, zooming over
to us, and it went around one side of the boat,
bit down on the rubber tube. Immediately the tube goes punched.
It swims around the other side of the boat, and
now we're sinking because it's an inflatable boat.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
So yeah, I remember saying to Neil, like, you see
there's rocks over there. You just need to beat us
on those rocks or we're got to sink. So he
kind of went over and beached us on the rocks
and we're We're sat there now with no boat and
this lepond seal is like in the water, just like,
come on, guys, come on, come in. That was really fun.
Let's go, let's go. And we did actually while we
were waiting for our other boat to come help us,
(22:22):
me and James did actually just get in the water
with it because we're like, well, we've got to kill time.
We think it'll be all right.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And that is crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
That's crazier than me. I told you last time year here,
I'm always on the can I touch it thing? I
would want to touch it.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
You don't want to touch leapond seals.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
You want to get in the water and play with them?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yeah, yeah, they're good fun. Yeah. And the other thing
is they the key thing is I think as well
as interpreting their body language, they mirror your your mood.
If you're really nervous and jumpy and on edge, it
freaks them out. I mean they you know, our body
language transcends species in the same way with humans. You know,
(22:58):
if you want to put someone in the ease, you
need to be at ease. And so I really feel
like because I'm chill, they're they're way.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
More relaxed was your partner that you were with.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Well, that's an interesting said James. Understandably, it was his
first first time in the water with the with the
leopard seals. He was kind of on edge and you
could really see the leopard seal behaving differently as it
went between us to check us both out. It was
much more relaxed with me, much more kind of on
edge and kind of pokey with with James, and of
course that makes you more more nervous. And what was
(23:30):
great was after that James was then like, okay, I
learned a lot from that dive. The next seal we
got in the water with he was much more chill
with And interestingly, I don't think it's a coincidence that
seal was much more chill with us. Interesting, so they
really mirror your body language, which is cool that you
can have like a body language conversation with an underwater
(23:52):
sea dragon.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah. So let me tell you this, You're the reason
that I'm probably gonna some day get bitten by something
because you're sitting here telling me. Something that I've convince
myself in my head is they can read the vibes.
I'll be cool, they'll be cool. It's fine, what.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
I would say is I hope I don't. I haven't
encouraged you to go get a bit, because I think
part part of the job of filming animals and being
around them is how do you make sure that they
are comfortable? And you know, the media will have you
believe that many wild animals are just out to eat you, right,
And there's only a couple of animals that actually actively
(24:26):
hunt humans, and that takes very specific situation, which if
you do things correctly, you can avoid. So when you
see a human attacked by a wild animal, ninety nine
percent of the time, maybe even higher, the human has
done something wrong, or the humans that interacted with that
animal before that human who got bit did something wrong.
(24:48):
Try to feed it, So really or yeah, exactly, I
mean that's the classic one. You know, food conditioning is
a death wish for many large predators. And so really,
when we talk about, you know, coexistence of humans and wildlife,
it's not about changing the behavior of the wildlife. It's about,
you know, managing the behavior of the people. They're the
(25:08):
they're the problem.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Always. I always say it's people every single time. But
you say, there are a couple of animals that will
actually hunt humans. What are they?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Polar bears?
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Bears are one of them, yeah, and and tigers as well.
Oh really yeah, and there are a couple others which
in the right circumstances will or the wrong circumstances depending
on your perspective. Uh, but but yeah, yeah, polar bears
live in this fairly featureless environment and their survival is
based on you know, curiosity. Investigating anything is a meal
(25:39):
for them. And but there are also ways to manage
that based on interpreting their body language. So you know,
it's it's all about understanding. Really, you know, we're we're
we're scared of what we don't know. So you learn
enough about animals and and there's there's usually a way
to manage manage what you manage your own behavior to
manage theirs.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So when you're in that water with the leopard seal
that is the sea dragon, and there are all these
penguins around, and they are probably actively hunting those penguins
because they want food, you're not nervous in any capacity
that you might get caught up in the middle of that.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
No, they're super smart animals. The other thing is as well,
like it's a bit like sharks. You know, leopard seal
is an ambush predator. You know, when you see them
hunting penguins, they come out of nowhere. Yeah, leopidzeals don't
show themselves to the penguins. The penguins see they're there
and then they attack them. You know, they need the
(26:31):
element of surprise. And so if a leopard seal really
wanted to eat you or attack you, it would come
out of nowhere and you know nothing about it. So
anytime a leopidzeel is kind of presenting itself to you
and being all curious and playful, that's exactly what it is.
It's curiosity. It's not it's not, you know, the precursor
to predation.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
It's still terrifying. Good for you for knowing all of that.
What about other predators in the water, I mean, I
assume there are orcas down there?
Speaker 3 (26:54):
No, yeah, yeah, half of the world's killer whales. Orcas
live in the waters around Antarctica. There are lots and
lots of them.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Did you see any.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah, yeah, we saw saw lots of them. Yeah, they're
they're amazing. Been lucky enough to film them several times.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
One of the episodes was on animals up close.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, and yeah, I mean they're they're incredible, incredible predators.
But you know, interestingly with them, there's a whole other
thing going on in that. You know, we humans are
not on the menu. That's just not what they do.
And you know, humans don't get attacked by killer welles
or at least today have not been attacked by kill
(27:29):
ol in the wild, only ever in captivity, you know,
when the animals are incredibly stressed. So yeah, I think
our relationship with animals, with wild animals, we are animals,
is fascinating because the way that we treat different animals,
you know, culturally, and and the way that they respond
(27:50):
to us. I think there's there's you know, why is
it that you know, on the one hand, we you know,
many of us love dogs and have pet dogs in
our home. Yeah, you know, across North America, their closest relative,
the gray wolf, is is so aggressively persecuted. Yeah. Yeah,
(28:12):
it's it's it's so odd. It's fascinating our relationship with animals, truly.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
So when you're this is going to sound like a
super super question, it is a dumb question. Are polar
bears down there?
Speaker 3 (28:25):
No, So polar bears in the Arctic.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Yeah, okay, so you didn't have to worry about that.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
No, no, And that's the really lovely thing about filming
penguins is, yeah, they don't really have any terrestrial predators
land based predators. Yeah, so when they're on land with you,
on the ice with you, they're they're curious and kind
of Yeah, they're chill, which is you know, the if
you're filming, if you want to capture the you know,
the emotion and the drama of a human family, human
(28:53):
story a documentary, well you wouldn't sit in a bush,
you know, a couple hundred feet away with a big, long,
powerful lens and you know, one of those sniper Gillie
suits on and expect to catch the emotion. Well, that's
how we have to fill most wildlife documentaries with secrets
of the penguins. Because the penguins are chill, we can
be much close to them and use much much less
(29:15):
zoom lenses, less zoom lenses, that's terrible English, much much
wider lenses. And that's why this series feels so intimate
and really an emotional rollercoaster is because of that proximity
to them.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
So without giving too much of it away because I
want people to watch so that they can figure out
what the secrets of the penguins are.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
I feel like we can give lots away, and I
would hope people are still going to watch because it's. Yeah,
penguins are such cool animals, so charismatic, so hilarious. But
this animal of contrasts, like, on the one and they're
really funny and goofy and awkward, and then on the
other hand, you know, can deal with conditions that no
other animal on earth can deal with. I mean, that's
that seems so bizarre to me.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
It is, and they look so goofy, yet apparently they
don't have a bird brain.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
The very smart Yeah, well, I mean what's really cool
is that kind of collective intelligence. Like I feel like
the relationships between them have often been talked about, at
least with with the emperors, like the bond between the
mother and the father or between the parent and the chick.
But the coolest bond that I haven't really seen kind
of documented much, And that's what we really focused on
(30:21):
is the friendships that the chicks have. So unrelated chicks
from a really early age, the parents encourage chicks that
aren't related to kind of be friends, and they form
these little these little groups, these little gangs, and they
grow up together and then they kind of feed off
each other, not not literally, I mean they they their energy.
(30:42):
You know that they look for each other for confidence
and guidance, just like we do of our friends. And
I love that and that's a real big part of
the first episode is the teenage years of these emperor penguins.
And just like human teenagers, these penguin teenagers, their lives
are full of awkward moments and kind of experimental haircuts,
(31:02):
which is just hilarious.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
That's so funny. So that was in the Antarctic, but
I also saw you filming in a much warmer, more
temperate climate.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Oh yeah, it was sweet. I mean I've kind of
been pigeonholed professionally into filming in cold places. I spend about,
i don't know, eight nine months a year freezing my
butt off. So any opportunity to go to a hot place,
sign me up. So yeah, there are eighteen species of penguins,
and many of them don't live where we think penguins live, like,
you know, next to icebergs in Antarctica. I call them
(31:34):
the hot penguins. So there's some that live in the desert,
some that live in caves, some that lives in live
in cities. And my favorite of the hot penguins, I
need to get a T shirt with hot penguins right now. Yeah,
my favorite is the Glappagut penguin. So it's one of
the smallest and one of the rarest there's only two
thousand of them. And uh yeah, I mean you imagine, yeah,
(31:57):
you think of penguins, they live on icebergs and stuff. Well,
the ancestors of these penguins got swept north on a
crazy ocean current, ended up at the equator and got
out of the water on the side of a volcano,
covered in cactuses, looking at sea turtles, just being like,
we really took a wrong turn. Guys, I'm not sure
about this, but they're amazing survivors and they've figured it out.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
They made it work. Where do they exist in the desert?
Speaker 3 (32:34):
So we filmed them on the off the cost of
Namibia in Africa. Yeah, and yeah, there's a really cool
I mean, it's one of my favorite secrets. There's a
population of African penguins that live in this massive cave
and getting into that cave. You can only get in
(32:54):
on certain tides, so a couple times a month. So yeah,
our team were abs sailing down into the cave to
find these penguins that no one actually what's sailing? Ab
sailing like repelling I think is the American American term. Yeah,
using a rope to go down off a cliff and yeah,
it's yeah. No, So this colony has was kind of
(33:18):
reported on, but no one had been there for many years,
and so as part of the project, work with scientists
to go see if they were still there, and they are.
They just a bunch of penguins hanging out in a
cave in the desert.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
That's crazy. And again you're talking about abs sailing. This
is just something a tool that you have in your backpack.
You know how to do this or do you have
to train before you go down there and figure out.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
How to do it?
Speaker 3 (33:39):
So there's a lot of training involved. Ball. So you know,
one of the best parts about my job is that,
as well as getting to hang out with all animals,
get to hang out with cool people. Yeah, and our
teams are wicked. So in Antarctica, I was working with
this Scotsman called Scott Webster. He's like a polar specialist.
You know, I've spent quite a bit of time around ice,
but when you spend time with a real ice expert,
(34:02):
you realize that you know nothing. And his job was
basically to focus on kind of polar safety. And it
meant that I could focus all my effort on the
camera work and interpreting what the penguins were doing, and
he could occasionally come over and whisper, pack up your stuff,
We need to go in one minute because the piece
of ice were on has broken off of the main
(34:23):
piece of ice and is floating out into the Southern Ocean.
And that did actually.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Happen, and does it all calmly like that, And you're
like sure.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Yeah, he gave me a thirty minute warning. And then
I was like looking around, being like this looks very benign.
It was a lovely sunny day. And then yeah, he
came over and was like, you have one minute, let's go,
And I put my stuff on the snowmobile and turned
to drive kind of inland on the ice and I
had to dry. This crack was opening up in front
of me, and I drove over it and it was
(34:51):
about two feet wide. By the time Scott crossed it,
it was about three feet he like hopped over it,
and then we watched literally that piece of ice that
we'd spend the day on drift out into the sun
an ocean and disappear.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Well, that's terrifying. What's the insurance policy?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Like on the show, Well, I need to remember, on
the risk assessment it said, like worst case scenario, what
was it, catastrophic ice breakaway. Basically there's no like, there's
no like coastguard or or you know, helicopters they are
going to come rescue you. Certainly not in any you know,
(35:26):
quick time frame. So you just can't afford you know,
you can't break off on a piece of ice and
float away. That'd be really bad. Yeah, so we'd yeah,
behind our snowmobil is so funny, I mean sort of
half funny in a retrospect.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Yeah. So we basically had this like a life raft
that we dragged around behind our snowmobils. And I always
found that so ridiculous that we were just tearing around
this life raft despite being on like solid ice, And
it was because there was a chance that the piece
of ice were on could break off and just drift
out into the ocean, and we need this life raft.
(36:01):
It was ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Does your family when you go out to do these shit,
these shoots, worry about you?
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Oh yeah, yeah for sure. But I don't know. I
think walking down the street here and New York's far
more dangerous statistically.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Ah, yeah, I think so. I think there's something like,
you're more likely to get bitten by a New Yorker
than a shark at any given moment.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
I think it's far more likely. Yeah, I think it's
only Yeah, how many shark fatalities is a six or
seven or something? Yeah, yeah, compared to.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
New York City fatalities much higher?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Absolutely. So when you're doing these shoots back to back
to back, what does that leave you as far as
time for your personal life? Do you have one? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Yeah, I mean sure. Yeah. It makes it challenging. I
find the like the re entry process, you know, like
astronaut re entry difficult because you're Yeah, I mean it's
like coming back from another world, you know, of icebergs
and minus thirty in tents and penguins to then you know,
(36:58):
fast forward a few days and you're in the supermarket
deciding what type of lettuce to buy. You're like, what
is what is going on here?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
It would be wild ye home for you.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
I live in Bristol, which is in the southwest of England.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, so do you just look around and you're like,
I'm bored here. I got to get back out. Or
do you enjoy a little bit of time?
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Yeah it's nice, you know, it's nice. It's nice to
mix it up. But yeah, after being at home for
a little while, I get pretty itchy to get back
out in the world.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
You know.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
I think modern day society have become so disconnected from nature,
and I think that's part of the reason that, you know,
the planet and humanity, because we rely on a healthy planet,
is in so much trouble because we've kind of distanced
ourselves from from nature. Was sort of forgotten that we're
part of it. And yeah, so I struggle with that,
(37:46):
you know, coming back to a different, different world.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Yeah, So how long can you be at home before
that it starts and you're like, I gotta get out.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
A couple of days? No, no, no, I don't know. Yeah,
sort of sort of depends. I think. Actually, the nice
thing about filming in Antarctica is it takes a very
long time to get there and come back, which is
kind of annoying in some ways. You know, the journey
can be quite boring, as many days quite sea sicky
as well, but it does mean you've kind of got
(38:16):
your brain has time to like process that this is
a really far away place from where you live. I
think with like you know, plains, it's it's I mean
it's almost like teleporting, Like you get from one place
to a completely different place very very quickly, and I
think my brain, I think many human brains struggle with
that concept that like how am I? How am I here?
(38:40):
Whereas you could sort of have this long period of acclimatization.
And I find when you go to Antarctica, just the
emotion that you experience when you see the icy wall
of mountains appear out of the mist on the horizon,
Like I mean, sure it might be because I'm like, yeah,
maybe high on sea sickness medication and like deliriously tired,
(39:03):
but you really feel something. And I find when I
go to other places where you might have got there
on a plane, it's very different. You don't feel as
much when you first see it, and then it takes
a while to kind of get into it.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
When you do these incredible, amazing things that are not
just visually beautiful and spectacular and things that most people
aren't going to see, but you're also physically experiencing things
that most people are not going to do. You ever
have a hard time relating to normal everyday people when
you come back when you talk to them about the Kardashians,
No way, why not?
Speaker 3 (39:36):
It's good to catch up on Kim's gossip.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
I think it sort of depends. I think it's recognizing
that everyone's lives are different and they're exciting in different ways.
I wouldn't say that. Yeah, people often say, oh, yeah,
your life's so much more exciting than my. I was
just you know, we get kicks out of doing different things.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Admit it is much more exciting than most people.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
It's just different.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
That's a very humble way to look at.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
It is different. Yeah, And I mean if you live
in New York, yeah, a different kind of wildlife here.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
It is wild here.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Yeah. So so yeah, it's it's different. And I think,
you know, life's about enjoying the passage of time. And
I had a really interesting idea that, you know, the
best way to enjoy the passage of time is to
get in a flow state, you know, where you're kind
of you're so focused on the thing you're doing, you're
not aware of time going past. And so if if
(40:36):
enjoying the passage of time is the meaning of life, wow,
we got deep quick, don't we. If enjoying the passage
of time is the meaning of life, and then a
flow state is a great way of you know, being
happy and enjoying the passage of time. Figure out how
you get in a flow state, and then try to
do that thing as much as possible. And for me,
that's hanging out with cool animals. So that's that's that's
(40:58):
what I try and do.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
So what's your favorite normal person thing to do your home?
How do you find your flow state at home? Do
you find your Yeah?
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Yeah, for sure, you know, hanging out with friends and
family is awesome. I mean, I'm not sure this is
a normal personal activity, but it just sprung and popped
into my mind. A big fan of frisbee golf at
the moment.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
I think that's normal.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Familiar with frisbee golf. I love it. It's sweet. Yeah,
and it's where I lived. There's like a couple of courses,
the run through this cool bit of forest. Nice way
to spend time out in nature and get competitive with
your friends, which is always a good thing. And yeah,
I got a lot of time for Frisbee golf. Whether
or not I hit full flow state on the Frisbee
golf course, I'm not sure. I'd have to think about that,
(41:40):
but it's certainly a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
You're having a good time doing it, and then two
days later you got to get back out and do
something else. Do you have a dream, destination or animal
that you are trying to go after.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Next Yes, And to find out what those are, you'll
have to watch the next season of Animals up Close,
which sounds like which sounds like a shameless plug, but
it's true. I mean, that's why I love working I
seek yourself also love working on Animals up Close because, yeah,
I have a hand in where we go and what
we film, and they're usually stories, well they're always stories
(42:12):
that kind of I'm passionate about and want to tell.
So yeah, excited to see what people think about the
new season.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Okay, are you in a position to call your shots
now where you say this is the animal I want
send me there or other people still saying, hey, maybe
we want you to check this on.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Well.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
The cool thing about Animals up Close, you know, and
epic adventures, it's kind of early evolution is that that's
kind of always been the way. That's why it feels,
you know, very very real and kind of raw, is
because you know, it's following me and my team on
our adventures, like we want to go to these places
and this you know, we chose to go there. We
(42:47):
haven't just been kind of slapped onto a project going
to a place. And that's really cool.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
What a life? How amazing You just get to decide
this is something that I want to pursue, and then
you have a team of people backing you up saying, yeah,
you're really good at this.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
You should go. It's not quite that simple, are There's
a little more back and forth, but sure we can
leave it at that.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
That's all okay.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
So people want to watch Secrets of the Penguins, where
are they going to find it?
Speaker 3 (43:08):
So Animals up Close the current season is streaming on
Disney Plus, and yeah, we'll be announcing the date when
new seasoned.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
See I would ask you what you thought of the interview,
but I know you don't care about animals, so I
will just say, what do you think of Bertie as
a person?
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Very nice guy. Yeah, cheers to Bertie and all his exploration.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I just wanted to be my friend and like take
me on one expedition.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
No, you would get Bertie killed. So how would I
do that?
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (43:47):
I don't know. Maybe hearing that a beer is near
and running towards the beer.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
No. No, see, if I'm not in charge, I will
follow the leader and he would be the leader on that.
Is there a possibility that a penguin would get smuggled
a backpack? Yes? Actually too, because you can't just have one,
that's me to have one by itself, you have to
have two.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Didn't you learn your lessons with penguins a long time ago?
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (44:10):
I got it. It was worse by in my life. Okay,
worse by serrated beak so they can crush fish. Ah
on my foot. It was terrible. That's okay. I still
love them and they have lovely little bellies and all
I want to do.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Is touch a little belly or No, so you have like.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
No affection toward any type of creature. You're not like,
oh my god, that's so cute.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
I like dogs. Okay, that I like. Okay. I keep
telling people this. It's like someone who doesn't like kids,
but then they have a kid, or they have a
niece or a nephew that they love so much. My
family members that have dogs, I love them. Yeah, if
it's a random dog on the street, unless they remind
(44:48):
me of a dog in my family, I'm like, get
that thing away from me, so I'll see a dog.
You're so cute, don't get a bye, don't touch me,
you know.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
So Scottie dog Sawyer not a fan.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
No, No, I'm allergic, so I am too. Yeah, I
don't every time he brings him in my eyes.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Itch, no, let me tell you hear this. No Clareton, baby,
no no, I offer everybody my allergy meds so that
they can all go play with Slawyer because he said
a good boy. What about Ali and Max?
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Oh they're cute.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Oh they're cute.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
They're cute. There, they're cute, And I like the difference
between them. Max is like he used to come and
Elvis used to bring him in all the time. So
I was used to Max and he was chill, And
then I loved when he turned up on this one
person once and I was like, oh, Max, you're my guy.
I get it. Ali, The verdict is still out on him.
But because he's always with Max, I'm like, okay. And
he's a little older now, so I'm hoping he's not
(45:37):
doing the crazy shit he used to do. So like whatever,
who that.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Guy kicks down gates, Well, good for him, I love him.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Who else is Taz? You don't like Taz?
Speaker 2 (45:47):
No, because Taz tries to attack me literally every time
he sees he's trying to play with you. No, but okay.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
And what about Oscar? Who's Oscars? Rachel's Bessenji?
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Hell no, that dog looks like he would bite a
chunk out of my cat. I say it all the time.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
It's so cut all right, I love all of those dogs.
What about D'Angelo?
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Who is that? Oh that dog? No, he bit up
the carpet he did.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
That's because Andrew wasn't watching him.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Yeah, well, why do we always have to watch animals
because he's a puppy. Back in the day, they used
to just let dogs run free in their back.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Talking about like the organ trail days.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Sure, I wasn't there for it. I don't really know,
but you don't lie.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Okay, So no dogs for Diamond unless they're a familial
dog and then she'll like it and pay. So that's
how I feel about babies. Yeah, I'm like, if they're
babies in my family, I think you're so cute and
I will, you know, be patient with you other people's kids.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Please back up, please, A random baby crying on a plane,
I'm like.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Shut the crump, all right. So if you want to
find Diamond on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
She is at Diamond Sincere.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
And I am at Baby Hot Sauce and we're going
to figure out what to do with this episode of
our thoughts on things and what to name it. If
you have a suggestion, please push a little red talk
back button and tell us what the spinoff episode of
Sauce on the Side should be where we just discussed
current events and our thoughts on those. Okay, until next time,
say bye bye.
Sauce on the side. What's up, It's Gandhi with my
lovely producer Diamond Heather. Hi, we have someone on this
show today. I'm super excited about because one, I'm always
excited about every guests that we have on. But two,
he was the first guest on my podcast. He kicked
it off Bertie Gregory.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
What great?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well were you confused? Did you not think he was
a first guest?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, I think he was a first Okay, who did
you think it was?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I thought it was the guy who shouit it on
me about my dating profile because he has face but
I can't see real haird Freed.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, no, that was like way down the long whoa.
Oh yeah, Bertie came in first. We did the whole
can I touch it? Thing? Oh, and that's where everything
sort of started. But now that you are saying this,
you're making me want to go check all of the episodes.
But since Bertie came in, because he came in to
talk about a series called Animals up Close, which I
was fascinated by. He talked about elephants and the Galapagus Islands,
(00:59):
all kinds of stuff, and he won at least one
Emmy If not more for that specific show. So I'm
so excited. I was so proud of him. He was
really hoping that a season two would come out, so
I would love to see if that's actually happening. But
he's here to talk about something called The Secrets of
the Penguins. I believe Secrets of the Penguins it's a
three part, really fascinating little series. I know that you're
(01:22):
not really a big penguin person because you hate animals
for whatever reason, but I think there's some really fun
stuff to talk about. If you had to talk to
him by yourself when I wasn't here, what would you
to say?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I would ask the most interesting thing he saw on
his adventures, okay, and probably try to get him outside
of talking about animals, like, you know, okay, actually saw
the sky light up in a specific way, and then
show me a picture maybe, or tell me a good
story about why he doesn't take his phone to a
(01:54):
specific point and he just wants to enjoy of you.
Well blah blah blah. Okay, I don't want to know
about animals because I'm terrified.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Okay, So you want to find out more about Bertie
the person?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, the first episode, Can I Touch It? Welcome to
Sauce on the Side. On this week's episode, Condy talks
with wildlife photographer Bertie Gregory about what it's really like
to create something. Huh interesting.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
What was the date?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
That was? February twelfth? Wow, of Year of Our Lord
Jesus Christ. I think twenty twenty four. Yeah, yeah, time's
just flying, man, I didn't know it was February twelfth.
I thought we released in April either or in uh January.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I think the promos started running in January.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Huh. And here we are a whole year later and
now we're going to have a spinoff podcast. Let me
ask you this. Do you think the spinoff podcast that
we recorded should be a spinoff? Like that's the first spinoff?
Or should we introduce it as a Sauce on the
Side episode so everybody listens to it and then tell
them it's a spinoff. No, we could cross promote, we
could do it twice, we could release it in both places.
(02:59):
We just really need to come up with a name
for it.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
That's the hardest thing ever. Like, I don't understand how
people even come up with names for their children, because
you like start like how is it that you just
come up with a name and you stick with it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I don't know. I don't understand how people name their
kids before they meet them. I don't think I could
ever do that. Like, you just pick diamond, but you've
never met Diamond. I mean, obviously you are a diamond.
I'm very used to you being Diamond. But I just
couldn't imagine, like, before a child is on this planet,
being like, this is the name this person's gonna have.
Oh my parents did that, though I think most parents
do that. I think I'm the only freak that would
(03:33):
be like, let's leave that birth certificate on unfilled, uncompleted, well,
you know, incomplete.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I heard that, and this could be not this could
just be this person's story. But I heard a few
years ago that someone I knew their community, the Jewish
community that she specifically was a part of, they don't
name their child until they meet them. Oh, so, I'm
like to me, I don't know if all Jewish people
(04:01):
do that, but I think it has something to do
with like the way they view life. So maybe, but also, yeah, no,
what if my parents met me and they were like,
her name isn't diamond?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, my name I thought you were a diamond, but
now I meet you and you look more like a
snack's I don't know, Okay, Well, I just feel like
that's how it would work. Though.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well, Henry thought my name was gonna be PEPSI.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I wish you would have been a.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Diamond.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
That's fine, okay, I wonder if no. You just said
you don't know if all, I'm sure there are other
cultures that do the same thing. I'll tell you what.
I have a tough time with baby showers because in
my culture, it's bad luck to give a gift to
something that has not yet been born, because just what
if something bad happens and then you have all of
these things to just remind you of that all the time.
(04:47):
So in my dream world, I wouldn't give you a
gift until the baby is born. But people get really
offended by that. Yeah, it doesn't matter if I explain
it or not. So I'm like, fine, here have your graft,
good luck. I hope everything's fine.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, I just give a gift card. Go by diapers
when the time is right, you know, if you go.
I'm not good at gifts anyway.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So you want to know what else, baby showers are
my least favorite event to attend.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Oh I love it because I get to get drunk
while the mom camp so cheers to that.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
No, I'm like, I have to watch you open all
these presents. I don't care. People still do this. Oh
my god. The last one I went to, they opened
every guest.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
No, don't stop doing that. Guys, go home, go home
and do it.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I was like at birthday parties when you were little
and they would open all the guests. I don't care.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, I didn't care. I want a cake, right, give.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Me the cake, give me pizza. Let me get back
on this roller skating rink. Shit was good. Remember when
we were all gonna go roller skating as a show.
Did it ever happen? He did?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I didn't go on my birthday? Oh, how was it
so much fun? We should do that again?
Speaker 1 (05:41):
That was so much fell down.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I think Josh fell. Josh definitely fell. I think I
have a video of him. And then COVID was spread.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Do you know No, I wasn't there.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, and that was another instance of scary spreading COVID
without actually getting tested to prove that he had it.
Remember Deanna and I?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, oh yeah, that was from Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Oh actually I spread it. Sorry okay, but he never
got tested, even though Dianna, he and Diana were in
the same car and Deanna ended up having it. I
had it, he didn't have it.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
It's also just really fun to blame him for all
the COVID.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, it's his fault because he.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Won't He will never get tested. And let's never forget
the time that we all told him he had COVID
because he was hacking and gagging and sniffing and you know,
licking his finger and touching all the papers and doing whatever.
And he said, no, I don't and ten days later
he sent us a COVID test. I just want to
know what happened in his brain that he thought that
was appropriate ten days later, be like, see you guys,
(06:40):
I don't have it. Well, du you don't have it.
You've cycled through and now everyone else has it. What
that was crazy?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You need to sit him down. That is probably the
most anticipated episode of Sauce on the Side for me
at least.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Oh you mean have him on the podcast?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Absolutely? Okay, maybe please, I'm begging you, Okay, it's possible.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Let's see what this text message is that Bertie's here? No, Andrew,
did I leave my water in the studio? No?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
You did not.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Don't even reply to him. But I'm excited for Bertie,
so I say, let's just bring him in.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Sure, Mary had little lamb, her fleece was white to
snow Everett.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, and I'm good. Hello, Hello, Okay, all right, Bertie Gregory,
welcome back. I am so excited because one you were
the first guest on my podcast ever and it's been
going really well ever since you came here. So I'm
gonna consider you my good luck charm, and I'm really
happy that you decided to circle back because there's a
lot to talk about since you were here last. So
(07:41):
last time you were here, we spoke about your series
that was coming out at the time, Animals Up Close.
How has that gone because I saw you on a
few Emmys.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, it's gone pretty good. Uh Yeah, the reception from
people that's just been epic and very grateful. And Nagio
greenlit a second season of the show, so that's always
a good sign. So yeah, we've been working on that,
which has been a lot of fun, and I'm excited
for people to see that new season.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
How long because I know we talked about how long
it took you to film some of these other episodes
for the first season, and that was a year ago,
So how long is this going to take you to
complete season two?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yeah? So we typically spend about a month to one
and a half months per episode in the field for
Animals up Close. So we have done half the episodes
and we've got half to go. But you'll see the
role that's going to be a little bit different to
last time. So yeah, even though we're only halfway to
(08:43):
the episodes, you'll be saying it sooner than you think.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Okay, so we're not going to get them all at once.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I can't give you too many specifics. Mickey Mouse will
hand me down, but yeah, I'm sure you can use
your imagination and join.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
The dots fair enough. So are you able to say
what the first episode, which animal you'll be focusing on.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
No, no, I'm not no. No. Sadly they've said I'm
here and can chat freely about about about the new
show's secrets of the penguins, but Animals up Close is
forbidden ground for now. Wowkay, which just means I have
to come back again, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Open door anytime. You want to come in, I would
love to have you. So let's talk about animals up
close winning these Emmys. First of all, did you ever
expect that to happen? Because when I saw it, I
was like, oh, this is amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
No, yeah, it was pretty It's pretty epic. I mean, yeah,
it was very surreal being there. And I was actually
sat next to Cake Boss if you're if you're familiar
with his work, which was around here, Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly.
He's from across the river, right, yeah, yeah, her broken guy. Yeah,
(09:45):
he was good, fun, told me all about his cake
vending machines, which was cool, but just yeah, be uh.
I guess awarded on on. I guess it's such a
broad spectrum of shows, like I'm used to going to
like awards ceremonies for animal animal shows where you sort
of know everyone and you're all sort of on the
(10:06):
same playing field, whereas, yeah, it's cool to be I
guess in a very mainstream awards ceremony and it was
great to come away with the award.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
So you've got to go to the actual ceremony. Did
you get to get up on stage or was this
the ones that they announced before? Like, how does that work,
because I know these shows are kind of crazy.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Yeah no, so yeah, yeah, they announced both the episodes, sorry,
both awards there and yeah we went up on stage
and ye had to give a little little pow wow
and yeah it was. It was great to celebrate it
with some of the team and yeah, cool boost for
this new season.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Okay, so how does that work as far as the
actual award goes. Does each member of your team get
an award? Do you have to get you get a
few and then you have to buy the rest?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah? Yeah, all good and very specific questions. Yeah, so
how it works is depending on the category you are,
you name some names. So, for example, in the cinematography category,
I think you could name four or five of the
people that shot on the series. And yeah, so we
(11:17):
came away on the day with one for that category.
But then then they make you up a bunch of
budget trophies. So we all we all got one.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That's crazy, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Do whatever with at home, put in a private place.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
What did you do with it?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Well, because I got two probably shouldn't be admitting this,
but the first one is in like a like a
you know, a course, a cool spot, and the second
one is actually like a toilet roll holder. It is not, yeah,
because that's like if you've got you've got to spare one,
you've got to do something cool with it.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
It is going to see that. Wow, that's crazy. Well, congratulations,
that's awesome. And it has opened.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
And that is the last time I ever win one,
because I've just admitted that.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
No, I'm sure people have.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I'm very happy to take a third.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I have absolutely no doubt that there is someone in
Hollywood somewhere who has pawned that thing in a pawn shop,
which is a far worse fate than the toilet area.
That's great. So now it's opened the door for a
lot more cool stuff for you. And you're working on
Secrets of the Penguins. When did you start filming this?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Secrets of the Penguins. So we were filming that over
a two year period. So we started filming that I
pretty much finished and the last season of Animals Up
Close and then we went straight onto to Secrets of
So that was that was awesome, And you know, I
was pretty nervous starting on it because the Secret Soft
(12:39):
franchise is a massive brand for National Geographic. It's it's
I think the most successful nature series executive produced by
James Cameron. You know this, the last season wasn't arrated
by Paul Rudd, pretty squorny weaver before that. You know,
it's a it's a big thing to be part of.
And I was worried because penguins, I think people are
(13:00):
pretty familiar with, and they've been filmed a lot before,
you know, March of the Penguins, loads of iconic documentaries,
and also I know firsthand, having filmed them a lot,
that they live in really hard places to film. Yeah,
so if you call a series Secrets of the Penguins,
you're kind of setting expectations pretty higher high, but incredibly
(13:20):
I mean, we had a lot of time in the field,
and that is always the key to filming new crazy behavior.
Every shot we went on. You know, I thought I
knew penguins. I was so wrong. They just every time
I thought they'd hit their limit, they just do something crazy.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So, okay, a couple questions based on that. First of all,
what is it like to get to the penguins, because
they do live in very difficult terrain? How did you
navigate that and how long does it take?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Completely depends on the species. So the first episode is
all about emperor penguins, which is kind of the most
iconic species, the biggest one it can be, you know,
four feet tall and yeah, it's a big animal. So
we film them in a place called Atkoba and Antarctica,
which is yeah, pretty much the middle of nowhere, and
we were camping next to the colony. We were about
(14:09):
a mile from the colony, and so a typical day
would be wake up, makes some We had like dehydrated food,
you know that you add water too. We had awesome
like ca camp manager called Nick who would do that
boil the snow to get water, and then we'd take
our snowmobills over to the penguin colony and just like
(14:29):
hang out with penguins and then come home and repeat that.
And you know, at the time of year that we
were filming it, it was twenty four hour daylight, so
we were actually filming at night because that's when the
(14:51):
sun just kind of hovers around the horizon. So you
know like golden hour that you get as sunset, you
get like golden eight hours. Oh wow, it's just like
imagine sunset, but for hours and hours an hour, So
it's kind of the filmmaker's dream and then we'd sleep
in the in the daytime when the sun's high and
the light's really harsh.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
How cold is it?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
It got pretty cold, so on our shoot we had
around minus thirty. But my colleagues who did another shoot
which was two hundred and seventy four days long. By
the way, the shoot they did, they were in Antarctica
with the emperors for two hundred and seventy four days.
Didn't see their friends and family for that amount of time.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Food.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
No, they were actually working with a German research based
down there, so they were on a on a station,
which was cool. But they had a film day when
it was minus fifty four degrees celsius, so I don't
know what that is in fahrenheit. Also very cold. I
think minus minus forty celsius is minus forty fahrenheit. That's
when the scales overlaps, so it's cold.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It's very cold. And do you prepare your body for
this before you go? Is there any type of conditioning
that you have to do or you just say I'm
gonna wing this.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Here we go.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, you don't want to wing it? Good pay England
pun though that's the first one of many, I hope,
So it kind of depends. I mean, really the preparation
mainly is in your clothing, but certainly for the underwater stuff,
the underwater part of the film, that's the stuff that
you really need to train for because the water is very,
(16:20):
very cold, and you know, in the case of our shoot,
because we were camping and diving, you know, under the ice,
you don't really have a place to warm up, so
you need to be a lot more conservative than you
would be normally. You know, if you get really cold,
it's going to take you a really long time to
warm up. So I did a lot of cold water training,
so everything from you know, swimming and swimming and the
(16:43):
sea and stuff. But the easiest way that idea is
with just a cold shower. So put the shower on
like full cold, stick my head under it, and then
try do my times tables, because it's a good way
of kind of training your brain to like do stuff
and kind of block out the cold, which is what
you need to do when you're when you're underwater filming,
you need to block out the cold, focus on what
(17:04):
the penguins are doing and holding the holding the camera.
So I'd like start with a couple of minutes, and
then every day add you know, fifteen to twenty seconds,
and then by the end could do I don't know,
several minutes without getting too cold.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
How long were you underwater while you were shooting, So yeah,
that was in the preparation.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
When we're actually underwater, probably you do like an hour
in the water and then and then and then you're
starting to get really cold. It also depends what you're doing.
If you're sat waiting in the water, you're not preoccupied,
you get cold really quick. But like in the third episode,
we were filming the leopard seals hunting the penguins, and
(17:43):
that's like being underwater with like a sea dragon and
you're adrenalines pumping and they're really bold and curious. So
so yeah, time time flies when you're having fun having.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
A heart attack. Were you nervous with the leopard seals,
because that is quite.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well the animals. It's fun watching people's reactions to that
scene in the show because the leopard seal is coming
to check me out, and you know, if you or
I want to know what a new object, you know,
feels like we use our hands. Well, leopard seals don't
have hands. They use their teeth right, and they they
literally look like dragons underwater. The way they move is
(18:19):
very serpentine and they're huge lots of teeth. Yeah, grizzly
bear mouth and so yeah, the knee jet reaction is
that's really scary. But I've actually spent quite a lot
of time in the water now in Antarctica with leopard seals,
and you know, you're scared of what you don't know,
and so the more time you spend doing something that
the kind of easier it gets. And I love diving
(18:43):
with leopard seals because it's you know, it's it's like
every each of them are different. You know, saying, oh,
I've dive with leopard zeals is wrong, Like you've dived
with individuals, and they all have different personalities. Not only
when you when you first get into they respond to
you differently, but they all kind of evolved differently during
that dive. Some of them get more shy, some of
(19:03):
them get more curious, some of them get more excited,
and you just have to read their body language. It's
like walking into a bar, like just down the road hill.
It's yeah, it is it is you walk into when
you walk into a bar. The first thing you're doing
when you're trying to find a place to you know,
stand or sit or whatever, you're scanning everyone in the
bar's body language, and subconsciously, you know, I'm not going
(19:24):
to go sinics to those guys. They look pretty angry.
I'm not gonna go sinic to those people. They look weird. Okay,
the way those people are behaving, they're you know, they're smiling,
they're they're happy or whatever. They're the you know, that's
the body language you you know is good. So when
you spend enough time with leopard seals, you learn that
they have body language and they can tell you a
(19:46):
lot about how they're feeling.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I think the key is spending a lot of time
with leopard seals to be able to figure that out. Yeah,
to me, I can't tell you the difference between a
happy one and an angry one. All I see is
a sea dragon with teeth coming at me and I
would have a heart attack.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Which which is totally I think that's reasonable. And the
key thing really with the leopard seals, to continue with
the bar analogy, is you know, when you're in the
water with them, they will often get more and more excited,
more and more inquisitive, more and more confident. And so
it's all about you know, whilst I'm saying they're not scary,
they are potentially a very dangerous animal and you know
(20:21):
they might just be playing with you, but they could
still you take your arm off whatever. So it's all
about kind of you know, when you're in a bar
and everyone's getting more and more rowdy, and you know
at some point, like you feel like a bar fight's
going to break out. Yes, So it's all about knowing
I'm going to leave just five minutes before the bar
fight breaks out. That's what you need to do. With
(20:41):
the Leopard seal. You're like, yeah, something, the mood has
changed here. I think it's time to leave.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
You say that so casually, so you didn't have any
rough encounters with them, because you say, I can sense, okay,
about five minutes it's going to get bad here.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
What is that like?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Is that environment?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
There was one level steal actually that was that was
like bar fight mode before we even got in the water,
which has never happened to me actually, And it was
really funny because Neil and James who I was diving with.
Neil was driving the little rubber you know, ten foot
rubber boat we were in and James was in the
water with me, and they'd never been in you know,
(21:18):
they'd never seen it was their first time in Antarctica.
They've never seen leopard seal. So I was kind of
talking them through what to expect, and I was saying,
like the bitey ones that are like you need to
get out of the water. They will get more and more,
they will like increase up to that level of bitiness,
and that's when we need to get out. But this,
the very first leopard seal we saw, was bitey from
(21:40):
like minute one it came. We were still on the
boat and it came flying over to us, zooming over
to us, and it went around one side of the boat,
bit down on the rubber tube. Immediately the tube goes punched.
It swims around the other side of the boat, and
now we're sinking because it's an inflatable boat.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
So yeah, I remember saying to Neil, like, you see
there's rocks over there. You just need to beat us
on those rocks or we're got to sink. So he
kind of went over and beached us on the rocks
and we're We're sat there now with no boat and
this lepond seal is like in the water, just like,
come on, guys, come on, come in. That was really fun.
Let's go, let's go. And we did actually while we
were waiting for our other boat to come help us,
(22:22):
me and James did actually just get in the water
with it because we're like, well, we've got to kill time.
We think it'll be all right.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And that is crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
That's crazier than me. I told you last time year here,
I'm always on the can I touch it thing? I
would want to touch it.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
You don't want to touch leapond seals.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
You want to get in the water and play with them?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yeah, yeah, they're good fun. Yeah. And the other thing
is they the key thing is I think as well
as interpreting their body language, they mirror your your mood.
If you're really nervous and jumpy and on edge, it
freaks them out. I mean they you know, our body
language transcends species in the same way with humans. You know,
(22:58):
if you want to put someone in the ease, you
need to be at ease. And so I really feel
like because I'm chill, they're they're way.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
More relaxed was your partner that you were with.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Well, that's an interesting said James. Understandably, it was his
first first time in the water with the with the
leopard seals. He was kind of on edge and you
could really see the leopard seal behaving differently as it
went between us to check us both out. It was
much more relaxed with me, much more kind of on
edge and kind of pokey with with James, and of
course that makes you more more nervous. And what was
(23:30):
great was after that James was then like, okay, I
learned a lot from that dive. The next seal we
got in the water with he was much more chill
with And interestingly, I don't think it's a coincidence that
seal was much more chill with us. Interesting, so they
really mirror your body language, which is cool that you
can have like a body language conversation with an underwater
(23:52):
sea dragon.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah. So let me tell you this, You're the reason
that I'm probably gonna some day get bitten by something
because you're sitting here telling me. Something that I've convince
myself in my head is they can read the vibes.
I'll be cool, they'll be cool. It's fine, what.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
I would say is I hope I don't. I haven't
encouraged you to go get a bit, because I think
part part of the job of filming animals and being
around them is how do you make sure that they
are comfortable? And you know, the media will have you
believe that many wild animals are just out to eat you, right,
And there's only a couple of animals that actually actively
(24:26):
hunt humans, and that takes very specific situation, which if
you do things correctly, you can avoid. So when you
see a human attacked by a wild animal, ninety nine
percent of the time, maybe even higher, the human has
done something wrong, or the humans that interacted with that
animal before that human who got bit did something wrong.
(24:48):
Try to feed it, So really or yeah, exactly, I
mean that's the classic one. You know, food conditioning is
a death wish for many large predators. And so really,
when we talk about, you know, coexistence of humans and wildlife,
it's not about changing the behavior of the wildlife. It's about,
you know, managing the behavior of the people. They're the
(25:08):
they're the problem.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Always. I always say it's people every single time. But
you say, there are a couple of animals that will
actually hunt humans. What are they?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Polar bears?
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Bears are one of them, yeah, and and tigers as well.
Oh really yeah, and there are a couple others which
in the right circumstances will or the wrong circumstances depending
on your perspective. Uh, but but yeah, yeah, polar bears
live in this fairly featureless environment and their survival is
based on you know, curiosity. Investigating anything is a meal
(25:39):
for them. And but there are also ways to manage
that based on interpreting their body language. So you know,
it's it's all about understanding. Really, you know, we're we're
we're scared of what we don't know. So you learn
enough about animals and and there's there's usually a way
to manage manage what you manage your own behavior to
manage theirs.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So when you're in that water with the leopard seal
that is the sea dragon, and there are all these
penguins around, and they are probably actively hunting those penguins
because they want food, you're not nervous in any capacity
that you might get caught up in the middle of that.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
No, they're super smart animals. The other thing is as well,
like it's a bit like sharks. You know, leopard seal
is an ambush predator. You know, when you see them
hunting penguins, they come out of nowhere. Yeah, leopidzeals don't
show themselves to the penguins. The penguins see they're there
and then they attack them. You know, they need the
(26:31):
element of surprise. And so if a leopard seal really
wanted to eat you or attack you, it would come
out of nowhere and you know nothing about it. So
anytime a leopidzeel is kind of presenting itself to you
and being all curious and playful, that's exactly what it is.
It's curiosity. It's not it's not, you know, the precursor
to predation.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
It's still terrifying. Good for you for knowing all of that.
What about other predators in the water, I mean, I
assume there are orcas down there?
Speaker 3 (26:54):
No, yeah, yeah, half of the world's killer whales. Orcas
live in the waters around Antarctica. There are lots and
lots of them.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Did you see any.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah, yeah, we saw saw lots of them. Yeah, they're
they're amazing. Been lucky enough to film them several times.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
One of the episodes was on animals up close.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, and yeah, I mean they're they're incredible, incredible predators.
But you know, interestingly with them, there's a whole other
thing going on in that. You know, we humans are
not on the menu. That's just not what they do.
And you know, humans don't get attacked by killer welles
or at least today have not been attacked by kill
(27:29):
ol in the wild, only ever in captivity, you know,
when the animals are incredibly stressed. So yeah, I think
our relationship with animals, with wild animals, we are animals,
is fascinating because the way that we treat different animals,
you know, culturally, and and the way that they respond
(27:50):
to us. I think there's there's you know, why is
it that you know, on the one hand, we you know,
many of us love dogs and have pet dogs in
our home. Yeah, you know, across North America, their closest relative,
the gray wolf, is is so aggressively persecuted. Yeah. Yeah,
(28:12):
it's it's it's so odd. It's fascinating our relationship with animals, truly.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
So when you're this is going to sound like a
super super question, it is a dumb question. Are polar
bears down there?
Speaker 3 (28:25):
No, So polar bears in the Arctic.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Yeah, okay, so you didn't have to worry about that.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
No, no, And that's the really lovely thing about filming
penguins is, yeah, they don't really have any terrestrial predators
land based predators. Yeah, so when they're on land with you,
on the ice with you, they're they're curious and kind
of Yeah, they're chill, which is you know, the if
you're filming, if you want to capture the you know,
the emotion and the drama of a human family, human
(28:53):
story a documentary, well you wouldn't sit in a bush,
you know, a couple hundred feet away with a big, long,
powerful lens and you know, one of those sniper Gillie
suits on and expect to catch the emotion. Well, that's
how we have to fill most wildlife documentaries with secrets
of the penguins. Because the penguins are chill, we can
be much close to them and use much much less
(29:15):
zoom lenses, less zoom lenses, that's terrible English, much much
wider lenses. And that's why this series feels so intimate
and really an emotional rollercoaster is because of that proximity
to them.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
So without giving too much of it away because I
want people to watch so that they can figure out
what the secrets of the penguins are.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
I feel like we can give lots away, and I
would hope people are still going to watch because it's. Yeah,
penguins are such cool animals, so charismatic, so hilarious. But
this animal of contrasts, like, on the one and they're
really funny and goofy and awkward, and then on the
other hand, you know, can deal with conditions that no
other animal on earth can deal with. I mean, that's
that seems so bizarre to me.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
It is, and they look so goofy, yet apparently they
don't have a bird brain.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
The very smart Yeah, well, I mean what's really cool
is that kind of collective intelligence. Like I feel like
the relationships between them have often been talked about, at
least with with the emperors, like the bond between the
mother and the father or between the parent and the chick.
But the coolest bond that I haven't really seen kind
of documented much, And that's what we really focused on
(30:21):
is the friendships that the chicks have. So unrelated chicks
from a really early age, the parents encourage chicks that
aren't related to kind of be friends, and they form
these little these little groups, these little gangs, and they
grow up together and then they kind of feed off
each other, not not literally, I mean they they their energy.
(30:42):
You know that they look for each other for confidence
and guidance, just like we do of our friends. And
I love that and that's a real big part of
the first episode is the teenage years of these emperor penguins.
And just like human teenagers, these penguin teenagers, their lives
are full of awkward moments and kind of experimental haircuts,
(31:02):
which is just hilarious.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
That's so funny. So that was in the Antarctic, but
I also saw you filming in a much warmer, more
temperate climate.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Oh yeah, it was sweet. I mean I've kind of
been pigeonholed professionally into filming in cold places. I spend about,
i don't know, eight nine months a year freezing my
butt off. So any opportunity to go to a hot place,
sign me up. So yeah, there are eighteen species of penguins,
and many of them don't live where we think penguins live, like,
you know, next to icebergs in Antarctica. I call them
(31:34):
the hot penguins. So there's some that live in the desert,
some that live in caves, some that lives in live
in cities. And my favorite of the hot penguins, I
need to get a T shirt with hot penguins right now. Yeah,
my favorite is the Glappagut penguin. So it's one of
the smallest and one of the rarest there's only two
thousand of them. And uh yeah, I mean you imagine, yeah,
(31:57):
you think of penguins, they live on icebergs and stuff. Well,
the ancestors of these penguins got swept north on a
crazy ocean current, ended up at the equator and got
out of the water on the side of a volcano,
covered in cactuses, looking at sea turtles, just being like,
we really took a wrong turn. Guys, I'm not sure
about this, but they're amazing survivors and they've figured it out.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
They made it work. Where do they exist in the desert?
Speaker 3 (32:34):
So we filmed them on the off the cost of
Namibia in Africa. Yeah, and yeah, there's a really cool
I mean, it's one of my favorite secrets. There's a
population of African penguins that live in this massive cave
and getting into that cave. You can only get in
(32:54):
on certain tides, so a couple times a month. So yeah,
our team were abs sailing down into the cave to
find these penguins that no one actually what's sailing? Ab
sailing like repelling I think is the American American term. Yeah,
using a rope to go down off a cliff and yeah,
it's yeah. No, So this colony has was kind of
(33:18):
reported on, but no one had been there for many years,
and so as part of the project, work with scientists
to go see if they were still there, and they are.
They just a bunch of penguins hanging out in a
cave in the desert.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
That's crazy. And again you're talking about abs sailing. This
is just something a tool that you have in your backpack.
You know how to do this or do you have
to train before you go down there and figure out.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
How to do it?
Speaker 3 (33:39):
So there's a lot of training involved. Ball. So you know,
one of the best parts about my job is that,
as well as getting to hang out with all animals,
get to hang out with cool people. Yeah, and our
teams are wicked. So in Antarctica, I was working with
this Scotsman called Scott Webster. He's like a polar specialist.
You know, I've spent quite a bit of time around ice,
but when you spend time with a real ice expert,
(34:02):
you realize that you know nothing. And his job was
basically to focus on kind of polar safety. And it
meant that I could focus all my effort on the
camera work and interpreting what the penguins were doing, and
he could occasionally come over and whisper, pack up your stuff,
We need to go in one minute because the piece
of ice were on has broken off of the main
(34:23):
piece of ice and is floating out into the Southern Ocean.
And that did actually.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Happen, and does it all calmly like that, And you're
like sure.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Yeah, he gave me a thirty minute warning. And then
I was like looking around, being like this looks very benign.
It was a lovely sunny day. And then yeah, he
came over and was like, you have one minute, let's go,
And I put my stuff on the snowmobile and turned
to drive kind of inland on the ice and I
had to dry. This crack was opening up in front
of me, and I drove over it and it was
(34:51):
about two feet wide. By the time Scott crossed it,
it was about three feet he like hopped over it,
and then we watched literally that piece of ice that
we'd spend the day on drift out into the sun
an ocean and disappear.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Well, that's terrifying. What's the insurance policy?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Like on the show, Well, I need to remember, on
the risk assessment it said, like worst case scenario, what
was it, catastrophic ice breakaway. Basically there's no like, there's
no like coastguard or or you know, helicopters they are
going to come rescue you. Certainly not in any you know,
(35:26):
quick time frame. So you just can't afford you know,
you can't break off on a piece of ice and
float away. That'd be really bad. Yeah, so we'd yeah,
behind our snowmobil is so funny, I mean sort of
half funny in a retrospect.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Yeah. So we basically had this like a life raft
that we dragged around behind our snowmobils. And I always
found that so ridiculous that we were just tearing around
this life raft despite being on like solid ice, And
it was because there was a chance that the piece
of ice were on could break off and just drift
out into the ocean, and we need this life raft.
(36:01):
It was ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Does your family when you go out to do these shit,
these shoots, worry about you?
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Oh yeah, yeah for sure. But I don't know. I
think walking down the street here and New York's far
more dangerous statistically.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Ah, yeah, I think so. I think there's something like,
you're more likely to get bitten by a New Yorker
than a shark at any given moment.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
I think it's far more likely. Yeah, I think it's
only Yeah, how many shark fatalities is a six or
seven or something? Yeah, yeah, compared to.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
New York City fatalities much higher?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Absolutely. So when you're doing these shoots back to back
to back, what does that leave you as far as
time for your personal life? Do you have one? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Yeah, I mean sure. Yeah. It makes it challenging. I
find the like the re entry process, you know, like
astronaut re entry difficult because you're Yeah, I mean it's
like coming back from another world, you know, of icebergs
and minus thirty in tents and penguins to then you know,
(36:58):
fast forward a few days and you're in the supermarket
deciding what type of lettuce to buy. You're like, what
is what is going on here?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
It would be wild ye home for you.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
I live in Bristol, which is in the southwest of England.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, so do you just look around and you're like,
I'm bored here. I got to get back out. Or
do you enjoy a little bit of time?
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Yeah it's nice, you know, it's nice. It's nice to
mix it up. But yeah, after being at home for
a little while, I get pretty itchy to get back
out in the world.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
You know.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
I think modern day society have become so disconnected from nature,
and I think that's part of the reason that, you know,
the planet and humanity, because we rely on a healthy planet,
is in so much trouble because we've kind of distanced
ourselves from from nature. Was sort of forgotten that we're
part of it. And yeah, so I struggle with that,
(37:46):
you know, coming back to a different, different world.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Yeah, So how long can you be at home before
that it starts and you're like, I gotta get out.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
A couple of days? No, no, no, I don't know. Yeah,
sort of sort of depends. I think. Actually, the nice
thing about filming in Antarctica is it takes a very
long time to get there and come back, which is
kind of annoying in some ways. You know, the journey
can be quite boring, as many days quite sea sicky
as well, but it does mean you've kind of got
(38:16):
your brain has time to like process that this is
a really far away place from where you live. I
think with like you know, plains, it's it's I mean
it's almost like teleporting, Like you get from one place
to a completely different place very very quickly, and I
think my brain, I think many human brains struggle with
that concept that like how am I? How am I here?
(38:40):
Whereas you could sort of have this long period of acclimatization.
And I find when you go to Antarctica, just the
emotion that you experience when you see the icy wall
of mountains appear out of the mist on the horizon,
Like I mean, sure it might be because I'm like, yeah,
maybe high on sea sickness medication and like deliriously tired,
(39:03):
but you really feel something. And I find when I
go to other places where you might have got there
on a plane, it's very different. You don't feel as
much when you first see it, and then it takes
a while to kind of get into it.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
When you do these incredible, amazing things that are not
just visually beautiful and spectacular and things that most people
aren't going to see, but you're also physically experiencing things
that most people are not going to do. You ever
have a hard time relating to normal everyday people when
you come back when you talk to them about the Kardashians,
No way, why not?
Speaker 3 (39:36):
It's good to catch up on Kim's gossip.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
I think it sort of depends. I think it's recognizing
that everyone's lives are different and they're exciting in different ways.
I wouldn't say that. Yeah, people often say, oh, yeah,
your life's so much more exciting than my. I was
just you know, we get kicks out of doing different things.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Admit it is much more exciting than most people.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
It's just different.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
That's a very humble way to look at.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
It is different. Yeah, And I mean if you live
in New York, yeah, a different kind of wildlife here.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
It is wild here.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Yeah. So so yeah, it's it's different. And I think,
you know, life's about enjoying the passage of time. And
I had a really interesting idea that, you know, the
best way to enjoy the passage of time is to
get in a flow state, you know, where you're kind
of you're so focused on the thing you're doing, you're
not aware of time going past. And so if if
(40:36):
enjoying the passage of time is the meaning of life, wow,
we got deep quick, don't we. If enjoying the passage
of time is the meaning of life, and then a
flow state is a great way of you know, being
happy and enjoying the passage of time. Figure out how
you get in a flow state, and then try to
do that thing as much as possible. And for me,
that's hanging out with cool animals. So that's that's that's
(40:58):
what I try and do.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
So what's your favorite normal person thing to do your home?
How do you find your flow state at home? Do
you find your Yeah?
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Yeah, for sure, you know, hanging out with friends and
family is awesome. I mean, I'm not sure this is
a normal personal activity, but it just sprung and popped
into my mind. A big fan of frisbee golf at
the moment.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
I think that's normal.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Familiar with frisbee golf. I love it. It's sweet. Yeah,
and it's where I lived. There's like a couple of courses,
the run through this cool bit of forest. Nice way
to spend time out in nature and get competitive with
your friends, which is always a good thing. And yeah,
I got a lot of time for Frisbee golf. Whether
or not I hit full flow state on the Frisbee
golf course, I'm not sure. I'd have to think about that,
(41:40):
but it's certainly a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
You're having a good time doing it, and then two
days later you got to get back out and do
something else. Do you have a dream, destination or animal
that you are trying to go after.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Next Yes, And to find out what those are, you'll
have to watch the next season of Animals up Close,
which sounds like which sounds like a shameless plug, but
it's true. I mean, that's why I love working I
seek yourself also love working on Animals up Close because, yeah,
I have a hand in where we go and what
we film, and they're usually stories, well they're always stories
(42:12):
that kind of I'm passionate about and want to tell.
So yeah, excited to see what people think about the
new season.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Okay, are you in a position to call your shots
now where you say this is the animal I want
send me there or other people still saying, hey, maybe
we want you to check this on.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Well.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
The cool thing about Animals up Close, you know, and
epic adventures, it's kind of early evolution is that that's
kind of always been the way. That's why it feels,
you know, very very real and kind of raw, is
because you know, it's following me and my team on
our adventures, like we want to go to these places
and this you know, we chose to go there. We
(42:47):
haven't just been kind of slapped onto a project going
to a place. And that's really cool.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
What a life? How amazing You just get to decide
this is something that I want to pursue, and then
you have a team of people backing you up saying, yeah,
you're really good at this.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
You should go. It's not quite that simple, are There's
a little more back and forth, but sure we can
leave it at that.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
That's all okay.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
So people want to watch Secrets of the Penguins, where
are they going to find it?
Speaker 3 (43:08):
So Animals up Close the current season is streaming on
Disney Plus, and yeah, we'll be announcing the date when
new seasoned.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
See I would ask you what you thought of the interview,
but I know you don't care about animals, so I
will just say, what do you think of Bertie as
a person?
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Very nice guy. Yeah, cheers to Bertie and all his exploration.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I just wanted to be my friend and like take
me on one expedition.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
No, you would get Bertie killed. So how would I
do that?
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (43:47):
I don't know. Maybe hearing that a beer is near
and running towards the beer.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
No. No, see, if I'm not in charge, I will
follow the leader and he would be the leader on that.
Is there a possibility that a penguin would get smuggled
a backpack? Yes? Actually too, because you can't just have one,
that's me to have one by itself, you have to
have two.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Didn't you learn your lessons with penguins a long time ago?
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (44:10):
I got it. It was worse by in my life. Okay,
worse by serrated beak so they can crush fish. Ah
on my foot. It was terrible. That's okay. I still
love them and they have lovely little bellies and all
I want to do.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Is touch a little belly or No, so you have like.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
No affection toward any type of creature. You're not like,
oh my god, that's so cute.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
I like dogs. Okay, that I like. Okay. I keep
telling people this. It's like someone who doesn't like kids,
but then they have a kid, or they have a
niece or a nephew that they love so much. My
family members that have dogs, I love them. Yeah, if
it's a random dog on the street, unless they remind
(44:48):
me of a dog in my family, I'm like, get
that thing away from me, so I'll see a dog.
You're so cute, don't get a bye, don't touch me,
you know.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
So Scottie dog Sawyer not a fan.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
No, No, I'm allergic, so I am too. Yeah, I
don't every time he brings him in my eyes.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Itch, no, let me tell you hear this. No Clareton, baby,
no no, I offer everybody my allergy meds so that
they can all go play with Slawyer because he said
a good boy. What about Ali and Max?
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Oh they're cute.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
Oh they're cute.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
They're cute. There, they're cute, And I like the difference
between them. Max is like he used to come and
Elvis used to bring him in all the time. So
I was used to Max and he was chill, And
then I loved when he turned up on this one
person once and I was like, oh, Max, you're my guy.
I get it. Ali, The verdict is still out on him.
But because he's always with Max, I'm like, okay. And
he's a little older now, so I'm hoping he's not
(45:37):
doing the crazy shit he used to do. So like whatever,
who that.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Guy kicks down gates, Well, good for him, I love him.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Who else is Taz? You don't like Taz?
Speaker 2 (45:47):
No, because Taz tries to attack me literally every time
he sees he's trying to play with you. No, but okay.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
And what about Oscar? Who's Oscars? Rachel's Bessenji?
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Hell no, that dog looks like he would bite a
chunk out of my cat. I say it all the time.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
It's so cut all right, I love all of those dogs.
What about D'Angelo?
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Who is that? Oh that dog? No, he bit up
the carpet he did.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
That's because Andrew wasn't watching him.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Yeah, well, why do we always have to watch animals
because he's a puppy. Back in the day, they used
to just let dogs run free in their back.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Talking about like the organ trail days.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Sure, I wasn't there for it. I don't really know,
but you don't lie.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Okay, So no dogs for Diamond unless they're a familial
dog and then she'll like it and pay. So that's
how I feel about babies. Yeah, I'm like, if they're
babies in my family, I think you're so cute and
I will, you know, be patient with you other people's kids.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Please back up, please, A random baby crying on a plane,
I'm like.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Shut the crump, all right. So if you want to
find Diamond on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
She is at Diamond Sincere.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
And I am at Baby Hot Sauce and we're going
to figure out what to do with this episode of
our thoughts on things and what to name it. If
you have a suggestion, please push a little red talk
back button and tell us what the spinoff episode of
Sauce on the Side should be where we just discussed
current events and our thoughts on those. Okay, until next time,
say bye bye.
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