#2209 - Paul Rosolie

Joe Rogan (0:03)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

SPEAKER_2 (0:06)

Trained by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

Paul Rosolie (0:13)

You taking a selfie? No, I'm just making sure that there's nothing completely retarded looking about myself right now.

SPEAKER_4 (0:21)

What could possibly be different than the way when you walked in here?

Paul Rosolie (0:25)

I have no idea. Dude, I'll tell you what, it's so much fun walking in here and not be ready to throw up out of nerves. The first time I walked out of here and I went, holy shit, I was actually nervous. I don't get nervous, but the first time I was.

SPEAKER_4 (0:38)

I'm not nervous now though.

Paul Rosolie (0:39)

No.

SPEAKER_4 (0:39)

Good, beautiful.

Paul Rosolie (0:40)

No, no.

SPEAKER_4 (0:41)

It's good to see you again.

Paul Rosolie (0:42)

Good to see you.

SPEAKER_4 (0:43)

Every time I see him, I'm glad he's still alive. It's like where you live is so crazy.

Paul Rosolie (0:48)

Let me tell you, man.

SPEAKER_4 (0:49)

I don't understand why you continue to do it, but I guess you love it.

Paul Rosolie (0:53)

I have to do it. Nothing else I can do at this point.

SPEAKER_4 (0:56)

How long do you think you're going to stay out there for?

Paul Rosolie (0:58)

Until the mission is complete. Until the mission is complete. My whole life has been based around one goal. It's been protecting this river. And this year, we've just been experiencing miracles. What's happened in the last few months has been life changing on a level that I didn't understand these things could happen. When Lex came down and everything that happened, we didn't think, you go out and you don't think that miraculous things are going to happen and we've actually been making strides towards notching winds in protecting this river, saving the Amazon.

It's wild.

SPEAKER_4 (1:34)

So have you become more high profile, you've got more support? What has been the change?

Paul Rosolie (1:41)

Well, coming on here helped a lot. First of all, just coming over here, three different people stopped me in the airport and were like, are you that guy from Joe Rogan? And I was like, are you serious? I'm not used to this.

I live in the jungle, so I don't know. And then I come back here and then people are like, dude, I know you, you're the jungle guy. And I'm like, oh shit, that's new for me. But, so really the thing that happened recently was that, so I went on Lex's show a year and a half ago and he said, I'm gonna come down to the Amazon, which everybody says.

SPEAKER_4 (2:12)

You went on Lex's show, but Lex actually went on your show. He did it in the Amazon. And to see Lex with his suit, his customary suit on, how hot was it?

Paul Rosolie (2:23)

It was hot. If you watch that carefully, you can see him.

SPEAKER_4 (2:26)

Yeah, he looks glistening.

Paul Rosolie (2:26)

I was doing fine. But we both covered ourselves in bug spray and we sat down and we said, okay, we're just gonna try it out. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. It's fine. But yeah, he came, when he said he was coming down, I was like, yeah, you and everybody else, everybody says they're gonna come down. I didn't think he would actually do it. And then how long is the flight?

It's not long to get to Lima from New York is eight hours. So from here, it's even shorter. I'm sure.

SPEAKER_4 (2:50)

Oh, wow.

Paul Rosolie (2:51)

Yeah, it's really not bad. And he came down for two weeks, the first day that he was, I was like, I wanna show you the start of the Amazon rainforest, which starts in the Andes Mountains. So we're in the western edge of the Amazon rainforest. And so you have these glacial peaks up at 17,000 feet. So I was like, Lex, I wanna take you up to 17,000 feet. I wanna go from source to river. And so his first day, he arrived, and then we drove five hours, got to the base of this mountain, then we met up with these dudes that are experts, and they brought us up to the glacier, where we can't breathe.

SPEAKER_4 (3:23)

Wow.

Paul Rosolie (3:24)

Yeah, it was, you're driving on roads where the cliff goes down 1,000 feet. Yeah, fuck all that.

SPEAKER_4 (3:31)

I've seen those roads. Fuck all that.

Paul Rosolie (3:33)

And I was, I opened the car door to try and goof around with Lex, to be like, oh, I'm with Lex Riemer right now in the thing. And I look over and I see the wheel go over the fucking edge and skid back on.