#971 - Steven Rinella

Joe Rogan (0:00)

We're going on a vacation, though.

Steven Rinella (0:00)

With your family.

Joe Rogan (0:01)

Yeah, we're going to Lanai.

Steven Rinella (0:02)

Oh, that'll be fun.

Joe Rogan (0:03)

Yeah.

Boom, and we're live. Speaking of vacations, tell me about Guyana.

Steven Rinella (0:10)

Yeah, that's a good segue.

Joe Rogan (0:11)

Dude, you've been there a bunch.

Steven Rinella (0:12)

You know, I've been there twice.

Joe Rogan (0:14)

I thought it was three.

Steven Rinella (0:15)

No, I was in, no, I've been to Guyana twice, but between there, I went to Bolivia.

Joe Rogan (0:21)

Oh.

Steven Rinella (0:21)

And did like very similar, very similar kind of trip. Like doing a river trip with Amerindians.

Joe Rogan (0:28)

Are those people weirded out by Americans because of the Jonestown massacre thing? Is there any?

Steven Rinella (0:34)

Dude, it's so funny you bring up Jonestown because there's a couple of things I've been surprised, like, so the main group I was with in Guyana is the Mukushi. And I was surprised one day when I was, they make a dish, they make a dish with cassava, which is a root like manioc.

They make a dish with that. They make a flower from it and make a dish. And I was one day saying that, hey, that looks like pizza. Right? No, right?

No comprehension, but no thought of what pizza is. And I remember thinking like, wow, man, something you take such a, you know, you just consider such a part of everyday life is pizza.

Joe Rogan (1:14)

And they didn't know what it was.

Steven Rinella (1:15)

Yeah, and they don't know about Georgetown.

Joe Rogan (1:17)

Whoa.

Steven Rinella (1:18)

Even though it was in their own country.

Joe Rogan (1:20)

They don't know about it at all?

Steven Rinella (1:21)

No, no, it's just not. But you gotta, we'll get into this, but you gotta realize sort of how insular the Amerindian communities are who live in the jungle in Guyana.

Joe Rogan (1:37)

Yeah, do they have communication on any cell phones?

Steven Rinella (1:40)

Yeah, more and more now. And there was a lot of, a lot changed the two times I went there were through five or six years apart.

They discovered sunglasses. And I remember the first time I was down there trying to turn them on, because, you know, they, they, they bow hunt for fish, right, which one of the main ways they get fish is bow hunting for fish. And when you're looking into the water, polarized lenses are invaluable. I feel lost without them, trying to spot fish underwater.

And I kept saying, man, you got to get on board with polarized sunglasses, not handing to him. He didn't like this guy roving. He didn't like anything about having them on his face. He just like couldn't do it. But then I go down there five years later and every one of those boys is rocking polarized glasses. So you see changes. But yeah, that's the thing. I've brought up Jonestown a number of times because in the US, if you say, hey, I'm going to Guyana, all anybody says is don't drink the Kool-Aid.

Joe Rogan (2:31)

Right. You know, it wasn't really Kool-Aid.

It was some like...

Steven Rinella (2:36)

Kool-Aid, no.

Joe Rogan (2:36)

It was a Kool-Aid-type drink, no?

Steven Rinella (2:39)

So when people look at...

We had this conversation, because there's a couple of things that are important here. What the poison was, right? So we had a conversation. All right, let me back up.

Joe Rogan (2:51)

The root.

Steven Rinella (2:51)

I mentioned earlier, they make a root.

Joe Rogan (2:52)

Cassava.

Steven Rinella (2:53)

Yeah, so there's a root cassava.

Joe Rogan (2:54)

Is that the poisonous stuff? Yeah.

Steven Rinella (2:55)

So it's the root that gives all life. They eat...

Joe Rogan (2:58)

That's what they call it?

Steven Rinella (2:59)

No. But I mean, they eat fish and game, okay, river fish and wild game, and then that's like a staple that they eat every day. And the other thing they eat every day is a half dozen things all produced from cassava, which is kind of like a yam, and it's cultivated with slash and burn agriculture. And nd they cultivate these yams, and from it they make a flour.

They make a type of grain that's like couscous. They make a syrup that's used as a coloring agent and a flavoring agent. They make a non-alcoholic drink. They make a somewhat alcoholic drink that would be like an equivalent to beer. And then they make a much more alcoholic drink, which would be an equivalent to like fortified wine.