Rusty Johnson: Surviving the Amazon, Healing with Nature, and Embracing the Wildlife (Motivational/Inspirational)

Step into the untamed world of wildlife with Reginald D as he interviews renowned explorer, wildlife expert, and author Rusty Johnson. From a challenging childhood battling dyslexia to captivating audiences at Princeton University, Rusty shares his incredible journey of resilience and passion. Discover his fascinating experiences guiding Amazon jungle tours, co-starring in Hotel Amazon on the Travel Channel, and learning shamanic healing with venom medicine. Rusty's tales of animal training, jungle survival, and connecting with indigenous tribes will inspire and leave you in awe. Don’t miss this unforgettable episode packed with adventure, life lessons, and wild wisdom.

Rusty has been exploring, filming, and guiding in the Peruvian Amazon for over 20 years. He was the main character and consulting producer of the Travel Channel's Hotel Amazon (currently on DiscoveryPLUS) and has consulted for National Geographic Television, the Discovery Channel, Animal Plants, A&E and Dateline.

Rusty shared his incredible journey from a young boy with a passion for animals to becoming an Amazon jungle guide and public speaker and recounted his early fascination with wildlife, struggling with dyslexia and ADD, and his solace and purpose in working with animals.

Rusty also shared his adventures in the Amazon rainforest and his insights into natural medicines derived from plants and wildlife, and shared information about the healing properties of these natural remedies and his company, Amazon Holistics, where he grows and provides you with Amazon Holistic plant products.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in wildlife, natural medicine, and the incredible journey of a man dedicated to understanding and protecting the natural world. You can book your own private Amazon tour with Rusty!

Rusty's Info:
Website: https://www.RustyJohnson.tv   
Rusty's Holistic Medicine: https://www.amazonholistics.com

00:00:00 - Introduction to Rusty Johnson
00:00:58 - Rusty's Early Fascination with Wildlife
00:01:30 - Overcoming Dyslexia and ADD
00:02:54 - Becoming a Falconer and Public Speaker
00:03:45 - Working with Jim Fowler and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom
00:04:15 -  Understanding and Training Wildlife
00:05:56 - Connection Between Field Work and Public Speaking
00:08:55 - Challenges in the Amazon Rainforest
00:12:53 -  Shamanic Practices and Viper Venom Medicine
00:17:08 -  Ayahuasca and Its Benefits
00:19:05

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D. On today's episode, I have Rusty Johnson. Rusty is a podcast host, puppet speaker, and author of The Twilight of the Wild and a renowned wildlife expert with decades of experience as an explorer and Amazon jungle guide. Rusty also co-starred in and helped develop the Travel Channel series Hotel Amazon. Thank you. Thank you, man. I'm Rachel Story. I'm like, man, this is something different right here. Everybody don't No. Hats off, man. Hats off. Hats off. It's very special, though, I believe. It's very special. So, Well, you know, it was a really lifelong commitment that started really young. I had just a passion for animals when I was really, really tiny. My first memory was I was about six years old. I found a dead rabbit in my front yard. Cat killed it. But at six years old, I didn't realize that things decompose. So I got my cat's collar and I put a leash on it and I dragged it around the yard until my mom found out and she made me bury it. But from then on I just always had a fascination with wildlife. I got my first snake when I was about seven years old. And then going through school, it became a crutch for me. I'm dyslexic and have ADD. And back then, it was just I wasn't applying myself. They had no real help for those issues. So although just absolutely terrible in school. But the teachers would push me along because I was a good kid. I wasn't flushing M80s down toilets. I wasn't starting fires. I just couldn't read. So they pushed me along and along. But at the same time, when I would get home, I'd work with the animals. And to me, that was something, because it wasn't book learning. I was hands-on experience with it, or being out in the forest. So kind of at the same time, those two parallels kind of, well, first really went away. I was dealing with school, and I was working with the wildlife, and graduated high school. I actually had a second grade reading level. But a couple years later, I was lecturing at Princeton University. But it was everything I learned from doing. And I graduated and swore I would never go back to a school again. But then I started lecturing at schools with my wildlife, and I did about 300 a year for 20 years almost. I was a falconer. Started falconry about 16 years old. So at first it was just to fly my hawks and to enjoy them. And people say, oh, can you bring some to the school? And that kind of snowballed to where I got pretty busy. What really gave me the break, though, was, if you remember back in the day, was Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. on Sundays. And Jim Fowler, one day I get a phone call from Jim Fowler, because I was breeding a pair of African eagle owls. They look like our great horned owl, but they're bigger. Instead of yellow eyes, they got orange eyes. And I hatched one out. And he was the environmental spokesperson for the Today Show. So he heard I had a baby owl. So he asked if I could come down to bring it on the show. So I did. And we hit it off. So then I started working with Jim Fowler for years, and that's kind of when everything snowballed into what I'm doing Yeah, that's amazing, man, because I feel like when you are dealing with wildlife and different animals of the wildlife, it's like they don't speak. You know, they don't do the stuff we do. It's like, how do you understand this and how you understand that about them and how the training process goes? You know, it's different with each one, but I think the common denominator is patience, understanding, and that you have to give them a reason to want to be around you. For some animals, that may be affection. It doesn't work with other animals. It's food. And then some animals, you're just not going to win over. So you've got to accept that and either deal with it or move on. But a lot of it is the patience. But after a while, you get to see the personality. And that's why I'm a huge advocate of zoos that were properly run, is to have especially children, but people in general, to be able to see that wild animal face to face. There's one thing is seeing it on television or seeing it in a book. But when you see that animal up close and face to face, you actually get to see the individual personality of that animal. And that's where the connection comes along. So really, even in the training aspect, you could take, say, five golden eagles and you're going to have the core personality of what a Golden Eagle is. But you're going to have individuals, you know, you're going to have some that are just going to flip you the bird and never want to be near you. And then you'll have some that are more open. And and you can read that, you know, you'll you know, you see it, you feel it. It takes lots of hours. I mean, for, you know, training a Golden Eagle, sometimes I'd have him on the fist for seven, eight hours at a time, sleep with him, you know, with my arm out on a stump. You know, just so they get that connection and they realize that you're not a threat. If they think you're a threat, the game's all over. And you're not going to be able to at least work with them in a mellow attitude, an accepting attitude, because they can obviously be extremely fierce. But a lot of it is the time So, Rusty, you had a fascinating career spanning the Amazon jungle, series on Travel Channel to public speaking stages and things like that. How would you describe the connection between your work in the field and sharing those You know, it's one preps you for the other and an opposite as well. Because actually, when I started public speaking, I was about 17 years old, and I would go from the American Museum of Natural History to Explorers Club, but also a lot of schools and high schools and universities throughout the country. That's where you kind of pick up your chops of being able to take these animals and, as I said, form that connection with people. But then I felt, at one point, I had to go off on the road. And actually, what kind of sparked me one time was I was doing some lectures with animals from the Amazon. But I haven't been to the Amazon at that point. And Jack Hanna, he was on David Letterman. one night and he was explaining about a three-toed sloth. And he says, well, if you see the three-toed sloth, if you're going through the rivers in the Amazon, they actually grow moss on their back. So they camouflage very good into the trees. So it's almost impossible to see him. And Letterman looks at Jack and says, you've never been to the Amazon. And he blushed and everything. And I'm like, oh my God, I never want that to happen to me. Yeah, so actually once I did that, I saw that, I'm like, all right, I gotta do something. So I did a 3,000-mile trek first through Southern Africa. That was totally mind-blowing and life-changing. That's what I wrote most of my book, Twilight of the Wild, about. Then went into the Amazon. And that was another sea change. But what I noticed, though, and which I brought back to the people that I lectured to, is that What I went to both places at first was for the animals, and then when, you know, particularly first was in Africa. But then when you get down there, you get to go see the tribes, see the culture. And you're like, wow, these people are cool. And you end up kind of living the wildlife thing through them. They're born and raised there. They know better than anybody. So you connect with the people there, and then they take you on that journey. And that just really helps you connect when you come back here. Really, the information that you can't get out of a textbook is really the goal. And you can only do that by being with the people who live it every day. whether it be African tribes or, or, uh, the Amazon tribes. So that's kind of the formula I really worked with That's awesome. That's awesome. So what are some of the biggest Ooh, yeah, there's a lot, man. It's something that I always say that I love against my better judgment. It's harsh. It's like a forever bootcamp. It is hot, humid, you sweat while you sleep. Nothing is soft. Everything seems to have a sharp edge on it. And you have to learn to give up all control. Because one thing I learned, gosh, it's about 20 years ago, when I first started going to the Amazon, was that take your plan and throw it out the window. You can have a plan, but realize it won't be the plan at the end of the day. But if it feels better for you to have something planned, you can go for it. But you have to be flexible, because you never know whether it be water level changes. Because that's the amazing part of the Amazon is to not get lost. And few people figure, okay, here's the Amazon. Yeah, it's a very confusing place with all the rivers and that, and you can get lost that way. But what few people take into consideration is that between the dry season and between the rainy season, there is an approximately 40 foot rise in water level or drop. So for example, there's some places where six months ago I was walking along a path and now 40 foot up in the trees in a canoe, in the treetops. So you have to... figure out what level you're at and try not to get lost at the same time. And then it's the danger of it. And I don't want to say that this is... I mean, you know what? The Amazon is really for anybody who wants to go there. I've given tours for years. In 2024, I'm giving private tours in the summer and through the spring. And I've taken children to people in their 80s. But it's all what you want to get into it. We can make a nice easy one where you're just in the boat, you're in the lodge, and you take your excursions by boat and that. And then you can go to the jungle survival mode to where you're living off the land. But most people think, oh, the jaguars and the piranhas and all that. But it's stuff you can't see that will kill you. Mosquitoes are the worst. And sometimes they're not bad, depending on the season, how much standing water there is. But there you're dealing with malaria, dengue, yellow fever. And it's something you don't want to get. I've never been vaccinated for it, because the amount of time I go down, that's like a lot of pokes. And so I kind of live with it. I got malaria once. but it and It was horrible. Sure. I'm not sure it was hard more horrible was the malaria or the cure? Because I was way way in the jungle. And this when I first met my wife, and she's a third generation shaman down there. And so when I got it, I got a was called Campbell medicine. Now Campbell medicine is actually the the mucus from a specific species of tree frog. And they actually burn your skin to take the top layer off. And then they put the the mucus on that. And at first you feel from like zero to the worst possible hangover you ever could have in your life at about 30 seconds. And your purge sometimes you're sweating everything out and then as soon as you knock it off and wash it off you come back But what it does it goes through the body and kills pathogens But we had to do it on a regular basis. But at the end of the month, I was malaria free but it was Definitely a drastic measure to to get rid of it Yeah, Your wife was a 3rd generation shaman. Yes, you know, and now here's some about the viper venom medicine. Oh yeah. Fascinating. Can you tell a bit about that? Yeah, the viper venom is pretty rare. You don't see many people that do it. Quite honestly, I taught her how to do it because very few know how to do it down there. But I learned from an older man, older shaman there on how to do it. And it's very much along the lines of the cambo of burning the skin and putting the venom there. But you got to catch the snake first. There's two species of snake there. The Bushmaster, which is a viper, the largest viper, one of the deadliest too. And then the Fertilans, which is very short, only three foot, full grown, but they're just like crazy. They're really bitey. And so You extract the venom from there, but then you mix it with some plants and dilute it. And I never tell anybody what that is, because if you're bad at math and you try it, you die. Yeah, we don't leave that alone. Yeah, exactly. But it's along the same lines. It kills pathogens, and it also expels deformed red blood cells, which entices your body to create more. kind of gives you strength and energy and I mean it's it's really amazing uh what it does it again it's very rare to get to because it's again you have to you got to catch the snakes and that's the whole catch it was you know I did that many times and um it can be it can be pretty pretty dangerous these But it's amazing how, you know, we never think about stuff like wildlife and actually do good to our bodies and stuff like that. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. You'd see that, that sometimes, you know, venoms in improper dosage are extremely beneficial. How you see with arthritis and bees. bee venom and getting stung by bees. I know people who have just colonies of bees for their rheumatoid arthritis and they get stung, you know, and of course it's excruciating for a few seconds, but afterwards it gives a lot of relief. And, you know, with the cambo and the snake venom, I've seen amazing things. I treated a woman who had hepatitis C, um, 150,000 viral load. And with two doses of the cambo, it would got down to zero. And even when the doctors looked at it, they're like, they thought it was wrong. Like the test was faulty. And, and then you have the young doctor that when they found out what she, that she did Cambo, you know, the young doctors, Oh my God, I got to study this more, you know, put me in connection with Rusty. And then you get the older doctors like, Oh, I don't know about that. And they did, you know, you know how that goes, but yeah, it's a, it's really, really incredible stuff. But all of it is there down there. That's it's Earth's pharmacy. And for me, I learned it kind of in a pure way. Some people are into the natural holistic medicine and they go to the Amazon. I wasn't. I was pure wildlife. It's just whenever I was down there and got bit, got sick, got something, I have white coat syndrome and do not like to be around doctors, no less in a third world country. And the hospitals there are bad. My wife, who was born and raised there, she had an epidectomy here in New York. And when she goes into the hospital room, she says, Oh my God, this place is beautiful. There's no blood on the walls. So I'd always go to the shamans. And they'd give me plants or some mixtures and, and they take it and it's nasty to drink or makes you feel terrible at first. And then afterwards, wow, you feel great or you you're healed. That's the difference in modern medicine makes you feel good at the moment, and then horrible later. Right. And then there Wow, man. That's amazing. That is amazing. I got to Yeah. Well, you see, ayahuasca is huge right now. The vine, well, it's a mixture of vine and leaf. Great for PTSD. And I've seen it do wonders. Unfortunately, it's getting so popular that people who really don't know what they're doing are doing it or providing it. And it's nothing to fool around with. You really want to be in the proper headspace, the proper physical space around people that you trust, and a healer or a shaman or ayahuasca hero who knows what to do. And I've seen people who come back from war, PTSD, or dealing with childhood traumas. Even people who got it going on and they want to learn what's the next stage of their life, this is a great medicine that would do it. It worked wonders for me. But now you see, for lack of a better term, more gringos getting into it. And for some reason, even though it's been around 2,000 years, they feel like they can change the process to make it better. And it doesn't work that way. So you see people that, you know, we have these groups of 2030 people, they're charging exorbitant amounts of money for. And first of all, if you're in that position, I mean, it's highly psychedelic. So I mean, I did it one time, and I spoke to a viper for three hours. But you don't want to be around a dozen people you don't know at the same time with it. And so that's what unfortunately has been happening here in the States. But down there, where at least the pure shamans really do it the way it should be, really, really fantastic. Matter of fact, I was going to do a TV series with Dr. Trupinski called Amazon Detox. where we were going to bring down people with either trauma issues, addiction issues, and bring them down, give them not only the ayahuasca, but all the other medicines down there. And then Dr. Drew was going to kind of be a fly on the wall and Oversee the process then return back to the states and do brain scans and everybody also do brain scans before and see the differences and see see what has happened because even dr. Drew at first he was kind of you know, not for this type of medicine, but as time Passed he's been seeing more and more evidence that something's happening here. So he wanted to to team up with me to dive into it more. Unfortunately, COVID came and Right, right. Well, that's awesome, Rusty. So let me ask you this question. What do you think some of the challenges that Well, there's a lot, because one thing, it's not normal, for lack of a better term. So you have to be kind of a loner in a way. thick skinned, because very few people understand it. I still this day, we'll still have people come up to me and be like, actually, what do you do? Yeah, and I'll have to pause and say, takes me a second or so to explain it and wonder myself. But it's the challenges is really is kind of being an island on your own. And that can be difficult. There's one thing if every day you go out and you're working with a team. And that's fantastic. But this isn't that way. You know, so really, it's just the, that, and that surely it isn't the only occupation that does that, you know, most people who want to do their own thing are on their own. So, you know, that's not unique to anything, but it's really important. And to realize that have an understanding when people don't understand. Yeah. I think that's the biggest thing. And a lot of times you can't convince them, you know, It's just, you are who you are, and that's it. But at the other end of that spectrum, then you have people that see what you do, and they're enthralled, and they want to dive into the experience with you. And that's what you really want to aim for, is those people that you can connect with. When I give my tours in the Amazon, I do not like large groups to have to bring around every, because the more people involved in it, the less of experience everybody else gets, because you've got to kind of accommodate every single person. But when you can connect with someone that really wants to experience what you do, it's nice to either them and just their family or one or two people come in and you take them along. But at the same token, if you just saw someone just out of whims that I want to go to the Amazon and they go down there, it can be difficult for them and for me. I mean, when you take someone to the Amazon, you're going to come out either best friends or mortal enemies. It's no in between with it. Because it's a harsh environment, you know, and it's stressful. So people, you know, after the first few days of, oh my God, look at this. And they all of a sudden the heat's come in and everything is either slow or unpredictable. Most people absolutely it's a venture of a lifetime. Some people are like, you know, when Yeah. You know, man, everybody ain't built for this. No. No. But it's all what they want, too. Because for instance, I have several areas in the Amazon where I take people, but it's all what they want. One thing that I had a passion for in the beginning was bringing in mosquito nets for children that live in the jungle. It's like five kids a day still die of malaria. And you can eliminate that by buying a mosquito net that goes over their bed at night. Wow. And it costs like $7. So I'd buy as many as I could and bring those out and also bring in medicine. And so if you get people who, well, I'd like to go and help people, and you give them a focus and a mission to be on, then they'll put up with anything that might not, you know, would be out of their realm because of what they're doing and the focus of what they have, of either bringing in nets or medicine or school supplies to the children. Some people, wonderful birders, they want to just see the birds. We have one property that has over 500 species of bird on it. So you want to definitely cater to what they want. Fishermen go nuts down there. You can catch parrots and nine-foot electric eels and stingrays. But the secret is to make sure you get them into their Got you. So Russell, let's talk about your book, The Twilight of the Wild. It takes readers into the untamed world Well, it's definitely a biographical. The book actually opens up with that dead rabbit I found as a kid and growing up with wildlife, working with just a huge array of animals. I was really lucky enough. I've had I've got a condor. It's three foot tall with a ten foot wingspan. Peregrine falcons, I've had dozens of them. Hawks, eagles, all that stuff. Some I raised by hand. So you have these different personalities and some stories that are very sad, some tragedies that happen. Then was that 3,000-mile trek through five countries in southern Africa. That was fantastic. And there, it's not so much of the wildlife. Of course, there's a lot to it, but a lot of it's due when I went into the Shanti villages. I was in South Africa, and some of these villages were, I mean, they're just plastic and corrugated metal, and that's their home. And I walked in feeling sorry for them, and then I walk out feeling sorry for myself. because there were so many things at that time in life that they had and I didn't, whether it be spiritually or just strength and all that. So I learned a lot from them, and that's what got me really pushed into the cultural part of Africa. And then I went into my time in the West Indies. In the West Indies, I went to an island called Montserrat, and it's an actively volcanic island. About three times a week, the volcano would erupt. And there was a species of bird down there that 80% of them was killed off because they lived in cloud forests along the side of the volcano. And that was getting wiped out. So what I was trying to do is I had a friend in Costa Rica who had a bird park and a breeding project there. And I wanted to talk to the government to see if I could capture what was left. It's called the Montserrat Oriole. ship them over to Costa Rica, get a captive breeding population going, and then when the Montserrat volcano calmed down, we'd bring them back. So that was my intention. So I went there a few times, and that was great. It ended up not happening because I didn't think of the politics of it, is that it's a British-owned island, and they're not going to have an American come down and save anything. You know, they're going to have a Brit do it. So then I just started having fun going down there. And again, hanging out with the people, whether playing guitar and singing along the beach and hiking and all that stuff. But it was quite an adventure, especially being next to a volcano as it erupts. I got caught in two eruptions. And the sulfuric acid went high in the sky, mixed with the clouds, and it started raining acid rain. But the acid rain was so bad that just the 15 minutes that I was running back to the house, by the end of the day my watch corroded off, the eye holes of my boots corroded off, just in one eruption. That's how bad the sulfuric acid is. And that's now creating acid rain that's killing all the vegetation there too. It was definitely a microcosm of So let me back up on something real quick. I heard you saying you playing a I didn't know that, you play guitar. Yeah, I play them, I make them. That's what I yeah, I make electric guitars that just as a hobby, you know, I saw a few here and there. You know, when I when I get bored with them, I think I have 35 of them now. So I got to I have to get selling them. But that you know, that was something that even though it's off the path of what I do, that's therapy. for me. I was, since my younger days, I was a Jimi Hendrix fanatic, Stevie Ray Vaughan fanatic, and just blues in general. So I've played that for years. And I've played classical guitar too, but nothing's like the blues and Jimi's and Stevie's, man. So I like the Stratocasters, my acts. But yeah, so I, and right now I'm so busy with everything, but what I, I don't play out too much, but what I do love is that the people who have bands that do play out, they always let me sit in. And that's the best job in the world. You could sit in, you could tear down the house, and then you can walk away and go home. You don't have to book the gig. You don't have to carry equipment. You Right. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And we got that one thing in common. I come from a generation of family that's, We can't read music, man. We play keyboard, guitars, and stuff like that. Oh, nice. The church environment and things like that. Oh, sure. But I'll let them have that. I'll stick to the motivational speaking side of it, because I'm like, man, I don't want to be at the church every Sunday playing the guitar. But music, man, like you say, man, it takes you to another place. Yeah. relaxes you, calms you down, at least for me. Like I said, I am a big guitar freak. Like you say, Hendrix and all these cats, man, love No, no, you can't. It's the root of it all. And I like it as well, because it does help me out in my production end of it, because few people really give enough credit to a soundtrack of a documentary or a movie. any visual experience is the music, how much it controls the mood, whether it be suspense, whether it be sadness, or whatever. And what I've learned playing guitar, now when I'm, you know, producing a documentary, I got that ear now that okay, well, this type of music will go here that you know, so I that the soundtrack to me is just as important as the visual. But I learned that by playing it and getting people's reactions of how I play and what I play and how they Right. Right. Man, that's crazy, man. Yeah. Actually, I made a guitar out of ayahuasca vine. Oh, did you? Yeah. I made a Stratocaster and it's like you see here on this necklace is this is a claw from a giant anteater. But right above here, this is a cutting of the ayahuasca vine. So I have a couple of Stratocasters that are inlaid this vine all in the front. There's no others in the world. I made about six of them. And Wow, man. Wow, Rusty. That's cool, man. So here's the crazy part about it. You say you had to manage dyslexia and all this kind of stuff. you know, have this lifestyle and then do the things you do, man. How did You know what, it's difficult. You can't have a fear of failure, because it's, especially when it comes to reading and the writing, I've coped pretty well with the dyslexia, but it's still time-consuming. For instance, if you wrote a piece that may take your normal person five minutes to write, it may take me 45 of re-reading, and then you'll see the obvious mistakes that you didn't see the last 10 times you read it, keeps on going. But the ADD, now I have ADD not ADHD, I don't have the hyperactivity part of it, which to me sometimes can be a curse because if you see people with ADHD, and they're really high, strong and hyper, and they're either disorganized, or they do the things that the HDA do, They could look at me like, oh yeah, he's got that. I understand. But when you don't have the hyperactivity and you kind of act and chill, but you make the same screw ups. Some people might think, oh, you're just being lazy. You're not caring. You're being aloof. And that's what I think has happened to me many times, to where you put everything into it. But because of the distractions, I remember as a child, and this is a room, I mean, nowadays, a relatively small room. A classroom maybe have 25 kids in it. Sometimes there's more in some places, but just one kid tap at a pencil, my mind would go blank. Couldn't even think. I have to get myself into almost like a mind deprivation chamber. I'm like the Unabomber when I'm writing. I got the little light over the head in a dark room, and that's how I go about it. I can't just come and go in a big office room and do that stuff. So that can reflect in ways that... Or if you get caught up with someone, perhaps you didn't give proper consideration to someone that you were talking to because you're distracted by something else, which is a totally innocent thing for these issues, but they might not receive it that way. And so it can be trying on relationships, very much so. And they might think you're being self-centered. Well, sometimes the self-centeredness is the only option to succeed in anything, as you have to just put your all into it. And everybody who's alongside you, if they're not extremely understanding of the issue can take offense to it, which has happened, I'm sure, more times than I realize. But I have a very, very tight-knit circle of people who get me. My wife, I've never seen anybody understand me more than her. And then I got just a couple of friends that know me like the back of their hand. So if I ever go into those realms, they don't take it personally. They know Yeah, that's the thing about it. I think we got a lot of comment on that. Because my wife, she gets me. I've got a small circle. for people who align with my purpose. And like I said, they understand, Exactly. And those people are priceless. And it's not easy to find. No. Not easy to find. It took me, as far as having a companion that understood me, it took me 40 years. and uh friends a little bit different friends you just go through your friends and then they either take off or you push them away till you find them you know but i'd say i only have two really that i'd say totally get me yeah absolutely absolutely so rusty all right let me let me ask this question i've been waiting to ask you this dealing with wildlife right one on what type of animal, you know, because when you deal with a multitude of It is. Wow. There's a lot, I think. Two come to mind in two totally places, two totally different venues. One was in the middle of the Amazon, and the other one was at Ron Howard's house. Opie? Yeah. Richie Cunningham? Yeah. Those are the two places. I'll tell you the Opie one first was there's a South African trust called the African Wildlife Trust. And they do a benefit every year in the United States to raise money. For instance, I'd speak there and I was raising money for freezers that would go on helicopters. So what they would do is say if a rhino got killed or just died, that law enforcement would get a phone call. They'd bring out this helicopter which would have the freezer on it. they would actually cut out the ovaries or the testes of the animal, freeze them in the helicopter, get them back to the lab, and then DHL, they actually had a deal with DHL that would ship anywhere in the world free for them to a lab to where they cryogenically freeze those gametes to where, when the technology caught up, one pair of ovaries could save an entire species of rhinos. with all the eggs that are in it. So I was doing the benefits for that. And one of the benefits was like this big, beautiful event in Greenwich, Connecticut. And it was a polo match. It was a polo field was the second best polo field in the country next to Palm Springs. And it's owned by five people. And one of them was Ron Howard. So they'd let us use the property for the benefit. So I had some friends bring in some animals, and one was a 300-pound tiger. And still young, but it's still a 300-pound tiger. So I started, I was lecturing with it, and these are, I mean, literally, I could look over to my left, and there was three or four cars that were worth over a million dollars each. This is the crowd that was in the audience. You know, the crystal, the silverware, the 1936 Delahaye roadsters sit next. I mean, it was so much money and a lot of people. And so the tiger out and have them on a leash, which I joke about because. A leash is just something from the drag you down the road with when they're 300 pounds, but she was, she's pretty good at the moment. And then she's laying there being nice and still. And while I'm talking to everybody about her. I just, and I knew better, but on the back of a tiger's ears, they have two white spots. And that's so they don't get jumped on. They look like eyes. So in the wild, another tiger won't jump on them. It looks like you're facing them, you know? And so I'm kind of just like, you know, dazing out and doing my talk, and those caught my eye. So I'm looking at them. But at the same time, the tiger turns around, and we lock on staring at each other. Which is the worst thing, because if you look away, that's when they're going to pounce on you. It's a weakness. So while I'm talking, she looks at me, and I realize that now I'm staring at her. And now I'm explaining to the audience the situation. And I said, well, this isn't good, because if I look away, she's going to come after me. So I'm staring, staring, and she wouldn't pull her stare, wouldn't pull her stare. So I said, well, I'm thinking in my head, maybe I'm overacting. So I pull away. And as soon as I pulled away, she stood up and strutted over and first just smashed me right in my stomach with her claws. And kind of when I went like this, she just boom, boom, boom, walked up on me and then bit me in the top of my head. And I was able to get my arm up underneath her and pull up on her collar. and then step out from under her and then we use her weight to pull her down. And then I just locked my arm on her collar so when she would turn to bite, I would just push off, you know, until she calmed down and got her in her big kennel. But it was bad. She got, look, she didn't, you know, and honestly, she was playing with me. They could have sent me home in an envelope if she really wanted to go to town on me. But it was a harsh play. And actually, one fang went into my ear and tore my eardrum. The other one actually went right in the corner of my eye, but my eyes swelled shut and everything. But the funny part, I guess, was she didn't draw blood on it, but I'm actually allergic to cats. So when her fang just got into the corner of my eye, my eyes swelled shut. But it was for being allergic to her, not because she actually injured me. So that was exciting. And it ended up on the front page of the Greenwich, Connecticut newspaper, just as it came to swat right at me on the front page. It was a good shot. I wish I could find it, actually. And then the second one was a Bushmaster in the Amazon. I had this when I was learning how to do the venom medicine. people would kill them and sell the heads in the markets, the local markets. And actually it's a, they say, Oh, if you get, you put one of these heads in your, your business, it'll attract customers. I mean, they're really into that stuff. And I didn't want to promote that. So I was just going to catch one, milk it and let it go. But they're really deep in the jungle. So I went on, it was my wife, myself, and a friend of mine. This guy was a hunter from the jungle, born and raised. All he did his whole life was he would go out at night, he would catch and trap deer, these small deer, and then carry them on his back like two miles to the market every day. And the guy was like 60 some years old, but was jacked, you know, in the best shape of his life, the way he lived, eating pure food, everything. So he takes me out. So we're going through, and it's nighttime, and we're going through the jungle, and I mean, it just envelops on you. You have to bushwhack everywhere. I was even getting second thoughts, you know, am I being selfish? Because if someone gets killed in this process, it's my fault. because I'm dragging everybody out here to do this. But now we're here. So let's do it. And so you know, one came out. And it was like nine foot long. I figured we'd come across much more common at three, four feet. So I had a big rice bag, and a snake stick that was only five foot long. And the next thing you know, there's nine footer comes out. And I'm like, God is Well, I ain't putting a nine-footer in a rice bag. Or he was in a five-foot pole. So with my machete, I had to cut down a sapling. And I was able to pin the head. And then she was strong, so I actually had to, and it was really muddy, so I had to walk up the pole, finally got her head, milked her, and then was gonna let her go. And as soon as I go to let her go, She loops around and goes right for me. And I slipped, but I went, I kind of fell back and I was ready to, I had to stick there, but it was getting too close. And I felt bad though. Next thing over my shoulder, boom, I hear a shotgun, which was the guy who lived on the property. He even told me ahead of time, he says, if we do find one, I'm killing it. Cause he had a Jaguar kill one dog the week before. And then two weeks prior Bushmaster killed his other dog. his hunting dogs. So, uh, unfortunately he killed it, which I felt bad about. So then that was terrifying, but I didn't want to waste her either. So bought her home and we ate her. Uh, my wife's a chef, a credible chef. And actually she left, she was born and raised in the Amazon. And then in her later teens, she went to Lima and became a professional chef. So she cooked it up. It was actually pretty good. Yeah and that's where when I the following day I did ayahuasca and that's when I said I had a conversation with a viper for three hours it was that one which terrified me more because it just showed up at the middle of the ceremony and I'm like I got I just killed basically was it I didn't kill her but kind of it was my fault in a way but it was a Wow man that is that's amazing Yeah, and with the ayahuasca too. And that's something that I wasn't into either. I was coming down for all the wildlife stuff. And I was in the Amazon for 10 years before I ever tried it. And man, it totally switched my thought process on so many things. I mean, it just brought you to a realm of, let's just say what would take you years to learn was just like downloaded right into your brain. real, real quickly. And, you know, there were some bad habits that I have that just changed on a drop of a dime. And even she told me I was going to have a daughter. My daughter was born four months ago. And it was amazing. Well, She's the best. Yeah. And Doris, man, Oh, and then and she can't she's just totally. like connected to me to where like, when I do a lot of my work or editing and stuff, she's right next to me. And there's some times that she just stands there like, like I'm a, I don't know, man. She just is amazed by me. And then we just stand there and stare each other half the time. But she's got that mystical stuff like her mother does, you know? Okay. Yeah. You So Russell, you've spoken to many venues of and had conversations about the importance of protected wildlife. What was one of your most rewarding, I guess, connections with You know, when doing the lectures, a lot of the times, I mean, you always get the crowd afterwards to come up that, you know, they're very appreciative of stuff. They have more questions and all that. And, you know, that happens every time. But what really really hits me is when several years go by with someone that you've spoken to at a lecture that you barely remember out of the hundreds you do every year and, you know, 10 years ago and suddenly you see them and they have some type of occupation or something that really was directly inspired by something you said to them. And they'll repeat it verbatim, exactly what I said to them, and it struck a note, and it took them on a path. And unfortunately, I think it happens more than you believe. You just don't hear about it, perhaps. But I'll come across some people, and they're like, oh, I remember you brought that owl in. Now I'm a wildlife biologist at Acadia National Park or something like that. It blew my mind. I take one of my 18-foot pythons and I line like 10, 15 people up and I drape it over them and they'll hold them. And even just the touching of it and having that connection and knowing it's not biting at you, knowing that it's a peaceful creature, as long as you don't smell like a chicken. And they'll repeat the words you spoke 20 years ago, but couldn't remember what they had for lunch last week. And that's something really that I enjoy, because if it was doing it just for me, I'd tell you a thousand other things I'd be rather doing. But doing it for the passion to enlighten people on how wonderful the natural world is, and it's really one of the few perfect things in the world. You know, a lot of people will ask me, too, with animals, are they bad? Are they good? And that's like a loaded question, you know, is a hawk bad because it's a mouse? You know, and really, it's the beauty of nature. It's not bad. And it ain't even good. It is. Yes, Exactly. We have we have those experiences here. We got a lot of rats running around. Oh, yeah. that hawk sitting on top of another neighbor's house and I'm looking at him and I'm like, oh, here he goes. You know, here he comes, boom. But like I say, it is. I Yeah. Yeah. And I'd have to say we've come a long way. You know, back in the days of people were just, if it was a predator, it was bad and you kill it. And I think we've really come a long way in realizing how important they are for the entire ecosystem. They actually help out animals. So I always try to get across. You wouldn't think of a hawk helping out a rabbit. you think they're archenemies and of course with the individual you would think that but you know this is an animal that is an expert at telling whether something is weak if it's sick and if it's dumb and they're hitting those first because you know what a perfectly healthy smart rabbit will outrun a hawk So what they're really doing is that they're eating the ones that might have the lesser effective genes and then letting the ones that are the best of the best to survive. So they actually are beneficial for the species. If they didn't have the culling of the weak and the sick or the not so bright, all those would be breeding and actually the species would be lesser for it. But weeding out that and the best of the best survive. And Yeah, right, right, right. So, Rusty, out of all the things you do, man, you know, how do you manage physical and emotional demands with work and That's tough, especially for an ADD person. And again, it's a balance that I'm actually always really working on. I do have a habit of once I get into something, that's really all I want to focus on. But there's the 20 other things I got to be doing at the same time. So it's like juggling ping pong balls. And for years, I always thought, well, just work harder. And that don't work. You just burn out. You burn out and you're not at your best. So. I've learned to lay back a little bit more and give as much as I can each part my time. And some things I just have to say, okay, I can't do that anymore for now. It's on the back burner. You know, I have to really make a list of the priorities and work it from that way. Because again, if you, and I've tried it for years just to steamroll through it, like I'm a machine and I'm not. and then you go good for a while and then you start, you know, losing the grip on things, you know, because you're only one person. And a lot of things I do, even if I had assistance, it's something that they can't do. You know, it's still something I need to do. It's like you can't have someone else play guitar for you and it'd be yours. So a lot of it is, is actually pulling up, pulling back on the throat a little bit. and try to find a steady pace where you can pay attention to each one. And then after a while, when something's going to where it needs a lot more time, then you have to make the decision of putting things on the back burner for the time being. Yeah, exactly. And if it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense. Let it go. So what's next for Rusty Johnson? You know, we got any kind of upcoming projects, Yeah, I got a couple of great ones. Right now, it's a beautiful time where I'm just laying back, spending time with the baby, my wife. And in about two months, we're heading down to Naples, Florida. I work with a buddy down there for years with wildlife. And what I'm doing is I'm going to be importing wildlife from the Amazon. into the United States for breeding projects for zoos. A lot of the breeding projects they have now, a lot of zoos will swap their animals for breeding projects, but after a time there's not enough genetics going around and breeding can start and you don't want that. So some of the animals have down in the Amazon, bring them up and put them in projects throughout the country, and in Europe as well, to put in some fresh stock for breeding facilities. Because, you know, the thing that I've seen through the years is that as much as we, to this day, save the rainforest, save the rainforest, save the rainforest, I constantly see this place burning down. You know, that's why I try to acquire as much property as I can down there. So at least I know that piece is going to be protected, you know, personally. But unfortunately, in a lot of areas, it's a lot of corruption down there. Money is a commodity more than here. They live hand to mouth. So if they can take a bribe from an Asian logging company, uh... to get logging rights they'll do it they've done it so As much as we want to save that, and obviously never stop fighting to save it, the animals need to be protected. One of the things that really has affected me to work hard at is protecting the wildlife. Because if you go into, for instance, there's a town called Belen, which is kind of like a wild west of the Amazon, one of the dangerous places to be. I've seen people killed for less than a dollar You know, it's bad. What it is, it's in the city of Iquitos, but it's the slum there. And what happens is that a lot of people who leave the jungle feel, and now it's worse because there's actually some of the closer villages that will have internet access or cell phones, but they see the rest of the world. and they wanna get out, I'm getting out of this jungle, and then they come to the city, but there's no work, so they end up in the slums, and then there's prostitution, drugs, drug dealing, robbery, violence, it's all there. But every morning you go there, as far as the eye can see, you are seeing the bushmeat, you're seeing monkeys, and anteaters, and caimans, fish you know all these animals dead they were just killed in the morning because there's no refrigeration so they were killed in the morning as far as the eye can see and it's 80 degrees out it flies everywhere by the end of the day the meat's no good it gets thrown away and then it happens again the following day and there's no i want to say there's no regulation there's no enforcement about it The police are underpaid and overworked. So, you know, you give them 10 bucks, they'll look the other way with anything. So I liked as much as I can get the animals out of there. At least I try to bypass when they sell it. Once the boats hit the water, they want to sell it to the markets. I try to get in before that and try to get as much as I can and then bring them to either my property where I'll just release them. And then other things that need special needs that we can keep in captivity. And then sometimes then bring them up to the states to where they can be in a proper breeding facility to protect the species. Then if they get a handle on things, then we can always bring them back, bring the young back. And that's what I try to do with everything. We sell supplements, Amazon plants, holistic plants as well. And the profits that go for that goes to protect the wildlife down Man, that's awesome, Rusty. That is awesome. Thank you. So lastly, find more about your podcast. You got a Patreon account, your book, Jungle Tours, Yeah, yeah. So well, the podcast right now, I'm still doing it, but on the back burner because of the baby in that. But that's called a Da Vinci life. And it's really not just with wildlife and that, but it's it's interviewing awesome people, basically. I've interviewed astronauts, you know, people have just taken a different path. Like Jose Hernandez I interviewed, he was actually a migrant worker who parents and himself picked strawberries as migrant workers and now he's a NASA astronaut. And even Robbie Madison, who has the longest motorcycle jump, like 350 yards. in every walk of life, from scientists to stunt people to anybody who has the Da Vinci mind, where they have their own path and have their genius in their own way. So I interviewed them and that's been fantastic. The book, Twilight of the Wild, just came out in audio. Uh, my website, rusty johnson.tv. You can see that there, the tours, as I said, I'm giving private tours this summer. So if anybody's interested, they can just throw their email to me at, at rusty Johnson TV. And, uh, I can send them the information of, you know, what, what some of the options are, if they want to come down and check the place out, we always have a good time. And, uh, yeah, Amazon holistics that's at Amazon holistics.com. And this is, I've really all learned from my wife, is all these plants that they have down there. It is just a wealth of knowledge and healing. So we put together products, like for instance, one is for kidney stones. It's a chunk of pedra is actually the plant, which in Spanish means stone breaker. Yeah, and so there's just so many holistic medicines that between high blood pressure. Another one I like too is called Bami Sana. And this is a beautiful plant that you could take in capsule or some drops under the tongue and it induces lucid dreaming. And it's not like a hallucinant. It's nothing like that. It's just when you dream, you can kind of know you're dreaming and either remember more and even control things in your dreams. It's also called a heart tonic. of it, it opens up your heart figuratively. And it takes that edge off, it makes you more, it sounds crazy, but it is true. It makes you more just thoughtful of people more sensitive. Sometimes when we get big orders, and my wife is filling the orders, and then like, by the end of the night, she's like crying for no reason. But it's from that it's like, you know, it's a heart opener. And it's a wonderful plant, but also helps with diabetes and high blood pressure. It's just everything. That entire rainforest has got, heals everything. There's one plant or another. My thing that I always want to study, no one's ever given me a straight answer, is actually who figured this all out? Who is a person to try these? Because there's plants you'll eat down there and die. So like who was trying this stuff? and figuring it out. But it's someone did many, many, many generations ago. And to this day, it's actually used a lot less than should be. I always kind of get a kick out of calling it alternative medicine, when really our modern medicine was the alternative. You know, this was the original medicine. So we have a line of that at Amazon Holistics to where if you don't want to get caught up in the medication, this is definitely something that you try. And if it don't work, then maybe try something else or go the medical route. But it's just an incredibly long list of healing properties. And I've seen some people you never thought would be healed. I mean, even cancer. I mean, it was mind-blowing. So, and then that's something, as I said, I went down as an animal guy. I was right. I couldn't tell you one plant from another when I got down there, but then especially learning from my wife. It I believe that too. Well, there you have it. Rusty Johnson. Rusty, thank you so much, man. And take your time with your business schedules. Hang Tip of the iceberg too, man. That's So we got to catch up again, man. So I can get deep with you. Hey, I'm here whenever, whenever you are, man, that'd be great. I I really do. I appreciate you. Keep up the great work. I, I've been listening to your episodes, man. They're fantastic. Keep up the great work and, and whenever you want to talk again, I'm here for you. No problem at Have a good one, Reginald. Right. Thank you for tuning in with Real Talk with Reginald D. If you enjoyed listening to Real Talk with Reginald D, please