Episode 6-Jordan Jonas

This week’s episode is with Jordan Jonas, winner of season 6 of the Alone show. Jordan was a pleasure to speak with. He is funny, humble, quick to laugh, and just overall a pleasant human being.

Jordan’s family comes from the Middle East where they survived a genocide and fled to France. After then surviving Nazi occupation of France Jordan’s grandparents made their way to the United States. These family histories are very important to Jordan and he drew strength and inspiration from his family while on Alone.

Jordan learned many “survival” skills (or just life skills) while he lived in Siberia, trapping with the Evenki people. By the time Jordan made it on to the Alone survival show he was already well versed in being alone for long periods of time in adverse situations.

Jordan, thank you for sharing your time, experience, and stories with us!

Find Jordan at:
Jordan's Website/Teaching Information
Jordan's Instagram
Jordan's Facebook
Jordan's YouTube

Transcript:

Sam 0:11

Hello, and welcome to episode six of the alone podcast. Once again, the same thing every week, I'm super excited for today's guest and actually really excited for today's guest. This is someone that I was planning on waiting, actually quite a while to reach out to until the show had been around a little bit. But I got, I don't know, crazy or bored or whatever one day and decided to just go for it. And so here we are so super excited to announce that today's guest is Jordan Jonas. I don't think Jordan needs much introduction to anybody. But Jordan was obviously a participant on season six of alone. So Jordan, I'm super excited to have you today. One thing though, is you did mention before we started hitting record that you've been on the Joe Rogan podcast. And so now I'm I'm all like uncomfortable and and nervous and self conscious.

Jordan Jonas 1:05

You're doing way better already.

Sam 1:06

Yeah. There you go. Take that, Joe. Maybe, maybe you can give me some tips afterwards. Or probably even just take over the show. Cuz you've got way more podcast cred than I have.

Jordan Jonas 1:20

No problem. No, yeah, I'm happy to be here. It's always fun to talk with people that are, you know, that enjoyed the show and similar things. And yeah, I hope it goes well for you doing the podcast. Thank you on and all that.

Sam 1:36

I appreciate that. You know, it's funny, as I was looking through your stuff as I was kind of I don't want to say stalking because that's kind of weird. But as I was looking through your as you do on the internet, yeah, right. We've all got a little bit of stock around us, I guess anymore. But as I was going through your stuff, I had noticed a post that you did a little while ago that really resonated with me and what I'm trying to do. And so again, thank you for taking the time to come on to this, you know, pretty small show at this point. But growing, you'd made a post and you were spending some time with clay and Nate both from season eight. And on your post, you'd introduce them as participants on Alone. And then you acknowledge that, you know, for clay and Nate that they're probably better defined by I think you call it their attributes and life experiences, then their time on Alone. And that really resonated with me, because that's, you know, that that idea that you put into that is what I'm going for with this show, right is that the people on Alone, obviously, their time on Alone was great, and, and we all love getting to see and hear what y'all were doing. But there really is a person behind that TV personality. So that just was something that really resonated with me.

Jordan Jonas 2:50

Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, totally. Got a lot more defines us all, you know, probably the show, although it was a, it was a fun and eventful. couple few months. Yeah. Well, it made for some good stories. But yeah,

Sam 3:07

I'm sure and maybe we'll we'll see where this goes today. But I really want to start actually not even talking about you. And so another, you know, another thing I found, as I was looking through your stuff is you'd made a post a while ago, and you were honoring your ancestors. And and you'd mentioned basically that it seems like your family had survived a genocide in the Middle East. And then they, you know, immigrated to France. And then, you know, at some point with Nazi occupation of France, I don't know if that was postwar or right at the beginning, your family again, left and picked up and came to the States. And here you all are today, I'm assuming, or I guess most of you are, who came? Can you talk about your family history a little bit and maybe shed some light on on what you're talking about in that post?

Jordan Jonas 3:53

Yeah, it's a big, you know, I think I probably think about my family and my ancestors probably every day. There's a, for whatever reason, my personality or whatever, it's something that I I think about I'm really grateful for we had my specifically I can go into both sides of my family, but specific on my dad's side of the family, they're Syrians from the Middle East, which is you know, that they're traditionally like a Christian minority group in northern Iraq and northwestern Iran and southern Turkey and so kind of in that general region, and they've, so they're kind of the indigenous people there. And in the, in the in 1915, basically, in around that time, when the Ottoman Empire was kind of falling apart. There was a big nationalist movement there that was basically like, you know, Turkey for the Turks type. They wanted to get rid of all the minorities and specifically, like religious as minorities, so they came in and, you know, it's known as the Armenian Genocide. But it wasn't just our minions. There's also a Assyrians and Greeks and everybody that pretty much got wiped out from what is modern day Turkey. And it was my own grandparents, my family lineages kind of spread out because my grandmother Grandmother was fairly old when she had my dad. And then my dad was the youngest of 11 kids. And so they, some it was actually although, but most people my age, it would probably be their great grandparents, it was actually just my grandparents that went through that Armenian Genocide. So they, my grandma was her dad, you know, and the Ottomans came in, they actually were all lived in northwestern Iran is where my family's from, but at the time, in the war, as World War One Turkestan came in there, and when, and, like, took my grandma, or, you know, my grandma's dad out to be shot and all the, like, kind of the men of the village who took out to be shot, and then the women and the children, they drove off into the desert, kind of on a death march, and my grandma had seven siblings, and her, you know, her mom, of course, and they got driven out into the desert, and only my grandma and one of her sisters. And her mom survived. So six, their six siblings all died. The end, it was brutal, you know, there's all the rape and pillage that goes along with that. And so they lived through something completely her in this and then

Sam 6:50

really, so I'm going to jump in where they were they taken out and left and then they had to kind of make somewhere or like a baton style to a place.

Jordan Jonas 6:59

It was kind of like a march to know where they kind of just took them out into the Syrian desert and marched him until they died, basically, hypothetically, there was an endpoint, but nobody ever got there, really. And when they did, there were no supplies or anything like that. So yeah, it was it was a pretty effective way to just kind of get rid of them. But to be able to say to the European powers, like, Oh, it's just an exile are not killing him. We're just, you know,

Sam 7:30

we were trying to take them out. Yeah, exactly. And,

Jordan Jonas 7:34

but with no water, no food, no nothing. And, and, you know, they had, it actually hired a bunch of the released to criminals to, to head up the operation. So you can imagine the anyway, the chaos and the but my so my great grandmother winter, last winter youngest child died. She like kind of fell down in the desert and was like, I can't go on any farther into her grandma and her sister. My grandma was 13 at the time, her sister was a little older, and they they kind of dragged the grandma to the feet, you know, left the baby. And then like kind of begged their mom to keep going and they did and kind of miraculously they stumbled off and stumbled onto a British military camp and, and were rescued. So they did somehow one of the few that survived today. Like, you know, I'm sure my great grandmother was traumatized the rest of her life, which I don't think lasted very much longer and, and so was grandma's sister. So practically, she was orphaned, you know, pretty much on her own. And my grandpa's story was real similar. He was in a village. The Turks are coming in and burdened down. The whole village in his dad was also in a wheelchair, there, you know, was in a wheelchair and basically shoved all the money they had in in my grandpa's coat and told him to run for it and don't look back. And so grandpa, like took off out the back door when they were coming in the front door. And then he turned around just to see his, you know, dad's house up in flames with his dad in it. And then he never did find his sister never knew what happened to her. And then, and he just ran and ran, and then eventually got to a refugee, kind of encampment and then was eventually taken in by some Jesuit priests and they kind of raised them as their own. So both of them were orphaned, basically, and pretty crazy situation. They eventually met in Baghdad and got married and then yeah, emigrated to France into Marsay. Right before world war two and then the Nazi invasion and all that and they, they have all kinds of crazy my aunt's and uncles all have crazy stories of that my dad was younger so he was born after the war, but you know, some my answer in the French Resistance and they have all the stories of getting, you know, breaking into some noodle factory and getting some food for your family and

Sam 10:17

maybe you and call your ants. Yeah,

Jordan Jonas 10:21

do what's more interesting anyway, crazy history, all that to say, when I finally come around, you know, after that in the 50s they immigrated to the US and loved it, because, you know, everywhere else had been from was pretty rough. And so they were you know that, you know, you My dad didn't teach me French and teach me languages, Aramaic or anything. They're like, you're American. You're an American as they Yeah, anyway, they, they love it here. And but anyway, I that history to me is really valuable. Because it does put so much into perspective. Anything that I'm going through, including alone or something,

nothing to complain about. And then not only that, but you know, my, I was never

a lot of that history, I had to kind of dig up from them and hear from them get them to talk about and what I was never taught was, Oh, we don't like the Turks or we don't like you know, like, I was never like, taught anything from an angle of hate. It was always they were always just my big happy and Uncle family, you know? Yeah, big happy family reunions, lots of fun. Like, I didn't need my grandparents, they died before I came around. But there's some old videos of them. And they're just seeing to see they're just happy people, like, no getting around, you know, eaten rabbit together with the family. You just see that joy in it translated down to my dad who endured his own degree of suffering. And it's like, man, but they all did it with a joy, which was really profound. And so that's a big lesson that I have taken from that. And then I remind myself of, you know,

Sam 12:18

yeah, you, you seem to be a little bit of a happy person. Pretty, pretty happy.

Jordan Jonas 12:26

Definitely, I think just focusing on what we're grateful for. You know, it's always things that can be improved, but I really, yeah, it's a big part of who I am and how I go through life, I guess, you know,

Sam 12:44

yeah, that's a I want to say it's a great spring. It's not a great story. But I mean, the

Jordan Jonas 12:50

palette isn't everybody, really. Most people have, at some point in their history. There's some really tough times and hard times. And I'm sure times when we were the good guys and Townsend here at the bank. everything in between.

Sam 13:04

Don't Don't think.

Jordan Jonas 13:06

Yeah, it's like, but But you know, so recent have a history for me that it's something that I'm really easily able to tap into and relate to. And and yeah, there's some real valuable lessons there that I think about often.

Sam 13:24

Yeah, that's pretty. I mean, that's really close for one to have that just be, you know, like a generation or two removed for you. Yeah, do you do you recall and you might have said this, and I just didn't didn't pick it up. I promise. I'm listening. How do you remember her recall how old your grandmother and grandfather were when they were, you know, simultaneously walking to the desert and running grandma

Jordan Jonas 13:46

was 13. And my grandpa born in 1898. So he must in my 17

Sam 13:53

Okay. Pretty young.

Jordan Jonas 13:56

Yeah. Yeah, they were both young. Yeah, pretty young.

Sam 14:00

Is that is wild thing. You know, you mentioned the the family history thing, and sometimes you're on the right or wrong side, I've got kind of a, a, a confusing one in my family. So I've got a American Revolution general from the British Army, in my family, and I won't name names, I don't want to, you know, either disgrace or because it's, it's like equally, it's like good, really. Yeah. But he effectively The story goes that in like the historical record goes that he couldn't give up his fine accoutrements of life from England. And so he made his men kind of carry a four poster bed and find China and all of these all of these niceties as they're literally traipsing through the you know, the forest in the revolution. Yeah. And because of that, they you know, kind of historical record shows that or blames basically his his need for nice things. As to why his army eventually had to surrender is because they were just to beat down, down on us to focus. So, so there you go. We don't

Jordan Jonas 15:08

Oh, we thank you for America. Right? Yeah,

Sam 15:11

I've often I've often wondered, there's actually grandpa. Yeah, right. There's actually a mural of that surrender in the United States capital. Yeah. So we went through the capital, I was kind of like, Man, I don't know if I should be like, excited right now. Like, that's my whatever. Or if I'm like, that kind of that's a good legacy.

Jordan Jonas 15:36

That's a tough one. Yeah. Winners, right. History. So you know.

Sam 15:40

Well, thank you for thank you for sharing that story about your family. I hope I mean, you mentioned obviously, your grandparents have passed on, but and you said, there's videos, and you had to kind of pry some of this out. But is your family? Do you have these stories recorded? And do you have them? Yes, I

Jordan Jonas 15:57

wrote them down at some point, you know, so I've got a big document with a lot of their stories and stuff. Yeah, I got to do a lot of that, you know, a little bit of that, myself, just trying to get these stories down on, you know, even recently, even as of like, last week, when, you know, one of my was my grandpa's brother had a son who was basically our only surviving family members left and it ran. And he and, and so he eventually became a Archbishop of, of northern Iran there for the, you know, a Syrian church or whatever, the Catholic church over there. And they and I've been hearing but I was in the 50s and 60s when he was alive. And I've just been meeting some a couple of random people online and the one in New York who, who knew him, you know, and have all these stories about him, which is really fascinating. So, I've been hearing, still gathering, you know, still learning some of that history, which is really kind of fun, stuff that would otherwise been lost, but pretty interesting stories.

Sam 17:11

Yeah, that's cool that you're, you're taking the time to track all that down. There was some family members of mine that had had homesteaded you know, in the early 1900s and and had some interesting stories that you know, their children so my grandparents and Uncle great uncle's, I guess, wouldn't been able to record and some really interesting stories about the West and I had all the intentions in the world to meet up with him and record those stories and get them down. And we lost him. Right. So yeah, a good reminder that yes, if it's there, go get it because it's not going to be there.

Jordan Jonas 17:48

Yet. My uncle and uncle that thought, you know, Jehan, Fansipan and all those Pacific landings that when I was like, a young kid, right, 14 or something he like, opened up to me like you hadn't anyone else and told me all these stories. And it's one of those things where you don't write it down at the time, but you don't know how special it is. Yeah, and then then you lose the champion, and then you forget half of it and they got man wrote that down. But yeah, we're just hanging on to the history is valuable.

Sam 18:20

Cool. I'm glad you're doing because it's yeah, I'm glad you're doing that because it's kind of a it's a it's obviously of interest to me. But those stories, I mean, for you, you've drawn a life's worth, or I guess half of a life a third of the life whatever, wherever you're at in life, you know, whatever percentage it ends up being a lot of strength from that and I'm sure that you're another

Jordan Jonas 18:43

motivation even on going on alone. You know, like I was like, Man, that's what I told the guy the casting people and they were you know, but I was just like, I would just be I've done so much of this stuff, you know, living in the woods and being in Siberia and all that but within there's just nobody there to record it or there's no remembrance of it, but it'd be awesome to have a record of of that only because like, man, what would I do to have a an hour long compilation of footage of Grandpa, you know, back in Iran before the whole genocide? Like, yeah, it was his life like who is he? You know, like that would have been fascinating. So being able to have something like that to hand down is pretty would be pretty cool.

Sam 19:29

Yeah, you know, it's it's interesting in talking to Britain not to not to put the History Channel on blast or anything like I totally understand the the copyright issues and everything. But, you know, for Britain, he was like, Man, I really want to get a, you know, my extra footage from the show I'm willing to pay. Because how many people have one of the most seminal experiences of their lives recorded in that level of detail that you can then look back on for yourself when you need strength or that you can give to your children and your grandchildren and you know, maybe in you know, 100 years Someone's looking at this going. Whoa. No that Jordan Yeah, it was pretty cool. Sam

Jordan Jonas 20:06

Yeah, it totally it's, it's an I'm amazed at how much footage do they have that they must just sit on? I don't know what they do. I can't imagine they'll ever use it. But she's all they would have to do is hire like a intern for 20 bucks an hour and just release all that on YouTube. Yeah. Maybe they're hanging on to it for something. I don't know what Yeah. Well, so it is true.

Sam 20:34

We've got your your family background. And again, thank you for those for sharing those stories. That was that was deeper. And I'm just super interesting. And so your family, you eventually ended up in northern Idaho. At least your parents did. Is that

Jordan Jonas 20:51

correct? Yeah, my parents met and everything. And that's where I grew up. Although I was born in Illinois. That dad was down there for work for a while, but I pretty much grew up in Idaho, and then on a farm out there, and kind of Yeah, you know, did normal Idaho thing we had a farm my dad actually wasn't a big hunter. And he thinks I didn't get into that early. But we have really enjoyed farming and all that. And he you know, when the outdoors and all that kind, but

Sam 21:25

and I know that someone, someone, I mean, in the future. In two weeks, when someone is listening to this, they're going to be at home screaming, where they farming potatoes. So I have to ask where you find potatoes.

Jordan Jonas 21:38

Now, we just had like a small, you know, cows and chickens and turkeys and, you know, more farm animals, and my mom has a crazy garden. But we didn't we didn't do like production level crops or anything we did. I did grow potatoes. So yes, I

Sam 21:56

guess that's part of the contract, I guess.

Jordan Jonas 21:59

Typically, yeah. But it was good. And then I you know, whatever, got a job picking raspberries. And I was 13. And then moving irrigation lines. And then at a concrete factory in a theme park, you know, just kind of doing all the different jobs. And I was young and then my brother at some point had, but that's

Sam 22:23

just say you went nomadic pretty quick, right?

Jordan Jonas 22:25

Yeah, I'd say my brother got a, when he was 17, I was probably 12 or something, he decided to hitchhike down to Nevada. And so he took off for summer. And then you know, and while he was traveling, he decided hitchhiking suck, because he had to wait on other people. He stumbled across riding freight trains, and ended up loving it. And so he basically got on a freight train at some time, I don't know how old he was exactly that, you know, he's probably 18 or 19. And just did that for the next seven or eight years, rode all over the country and stop and work when you needed money. And then just kind of a very, it's a very interesting path, because you get a taste of freedom that you don't really get. It's hard to get in modern life, because really, all you're doing is yes, you know, he invites. So he invited me to make a long story short, and I went out for, you know, a long summer with them. And how old were you at that point. I don't know if I was 18 or 19. But something like that, you know, a teenager and then I went out and it was my first taste of the type of freedom that you get that I would only then experience later in Siberia living with the natives where, you know, we're kind of in a way it feels like what how we're meant to live, we just wake up, what are your needs, you know, you need some food, try to procure food, if you need you know, just very, very free. There's no stressors about meetings you need to be at or, or, you know, going to work at this time, or that it's all very unscheduled, very free and it was pretty eye opening. So after having experienced that, I think he kind of catch the bug or something. Then I went back and worked a little longer at Lighthouse salad dressing than I then I quit that and went with my down into Virginia with my brother and you know, we started renovating houses but not long after that. I had heard about this. He's a missionary guy over in Russia that was building an orphanage and needed help and since I knew some construction stuff, I was like I felt like that was the right thing to do. So I went over there and spent basically got a visa for a year and had over there and then spend the better part of that year with, with that guy who's just an awesome dude. But I also wanted to live with, you know, with the Russians, not within Americans. So he sent me to a neighboring village, but this, you know, this guy, he's like, Well, let me call the neighborhood. I told them they justice, I'd like to live with the Russian family learning language faster. Let me call the neighbor, you know, in a different village, they did, and they got to say, oh, yeah, send them over. You know, my wife's in the hospital and I need I need somebody to watch the kids. I just showed up and I was like, 21 or 22. And never dealt with kids at all before but I didn't even know the language. Like, try to feed and clothe these kids. Well, your was off, you know, at his job. And basically, we spent the better part of a year just doing Russian village lice cutting hay with a sigh and you know, whatever they do milking the cow. Potatoes, there's where we really put Idaho to shame.

Sam 26:08

Idaho's faking it. You're saying?

Jordan Jonas 26:10

Yeah, they got tractors and stuff in Idaho. Do you know anyway, so then I kind of lived with that family. That guy had been to prison and and he had been prison with native nomadic, like, well, well, he'd been traveling with a native, and he's always telling me, Hey, you got to go meet my native buddy up north. Eventually, that guy came through to sell furs, and we got introduced and invited me to come live with them. And of course, by this time the Russian guy lived with, you know, he really liked me. And so he would really vouch for me. He's like, man, you got to take this guy up. He's, you know, the only good American kids. And so anyway, I went up north with the furred Trapper guys they have Venky guy and spent a season and he showed me the ropes bird trapping real similar to that documentary. Happy people. If you haven't seen it,

Sam 27:10

it's Yeah, I was gonna, I was gonna ask you what came first, Jordan and Siberia are happy people.

Jordan Jonas 27:17

I think well, that's a good question. Well, what actually came first was a Russian version of happy people, which is considerably better than the American version. What happened was that Werner Hertzog bought the rights to that from a Russian filmmaker and then chopped it down into whatever it is a two hour video but the original ones like for two hour sections and it's a lot goes into a lot deeper and I think they cut out a lot of good stuff so if you can find the

Sam 27:48

origin of the essays in Russian or is there an English version of the original

Jordan Jonas 27:52

other than English version and it's worth buying into this? It's better than the short one they cut out some cool stuff so anyway, I don't know which one came first so

Sam 28:05

needless to say, You didn't watch happy people and then did the

Jordan Jonas 28:09

thing that no no no definitely not. In even meeting the natives you know I didn't know people like that even moved like that until I basically got dropped off at their keeping you know but I but yeah with the third drafting it was it was real similar to that we were you know, relatively close to where they feel and happy to people in Siberia terms like 500 kilometers away up river neighbors they were neighbors basically anyway, I got a home you know, cool experience I was probably I'd done a little riding of the trains alone but not know for like a week but out there for dropping was the first time I spent a good long chunk of time alone or you know, relative to me, it was like five weeks out like were you running there? Yeah, setting up years old traps that had kind of degraded over the years so it was a lot of work in it been like a decade since anyone had trapped any of those lines. So it was like even finding the traps in the forest and stuff but yeah, basically spent five weeks out there living off the land. And whatever noodles we had stocked in our cabins a combination of both but it was awesome man it was it was a cool experience. And that was the first time I got you know you just when you're alone that long you really think about stuff and and I think and not to jump all around which I guess you're gonna do anyway but I think that's why I grew and I was on alone. I really appreciated having the cameras because I had done all that for trapping and didn't you know my camera batteries died within the first hour like man had some crazy experiences that they felt were you know some life and death this gnat falling through the eyes it just cool stuff happening and it's just all in your memory and you're like man it's such a poor conduit yeah especially my memory so anyway, when I was on alone I was like man is a cool opportunity to be able to share some of this stuff that I know that most people don't even know that I know.

Sam 30:33

For everyone else, we need more footage and for Jordan like hey, but we don't have that many batteries in cars but

Jordan Jonas 30:41

that's just the way you view it you know? Cuz you could I mean, I'm basically missed the first moose due to my own stupidity in combination with cameras, you know? But, but had I not had a camera? I'm sure I could have got it but it was a

Sam 31:00

you didn't watch enough for me. Or you went out

Jordan Jonas 31:05

shoot it Oh, no, I brush up on it. I was so out of this whole survival world. I didn't even know. I didn't know what any of that stuff was. But no, it was it was anyway I don't know where I'd go with that. Just that dirt while I was bird trapping in Siberia. You know, it's a really neat experience, but it allowed me to appreciate later on when I would be on Alone to the opportunity to record it as opposed to just having it all fizzle out of my memory

Sam 31:39

hours of recordings you know have exactly one hour of yourself one

Jordan Jonas 31:43

hour that's the big trick they have Yeah. Oh, man. This is gonna be great. And then you got an hour and me complaining about loose fat

Sam 31:58

and it was a Wolverine chlorines what it what was your was your nemesis there? I

Jordan Jonas 32:02

can't Oh, they do? Oh, I'm not alone. Round. Down alone. Not alone is a Wolverine. Yeah, it was a Wolverine Wolverine showing up. But they always told me about in Siberia like oh, man, you know, in a Wolverine shows up and ruin our whole trapping season. But in the five years I was there. You know, I never had a run in with one, sir. Hi. They must not be as many out there as there are in Canada. You know, I knew they were there. But you just don't expect it's not. It wasn't like in the top of my consciousness. I was. Well, I wasn't really expecting to have some bear run ins and was eagerly awaiting them. But I but they're, you know, surprisingly, no bear, but Wolverine

Sam 32:48

over on is infringing upon your livelihood of a trap line. They probably don't last very long, I would assume.

Jordan Jonas 32:55

Yeah. No, I think that's what happens over there. There's no, yeah, I think they get trapped out pretty fast. They are cool animals. It's unfortunate. But yeah, like you said, it's people definitely livelihood. Like the only time of year they make any money. So they got to make it happen.

Sam 33:15

Yeah, so you so you How long were you in Siberia for

Jordan Jonas 33:19

five years over the course of 10 years, you know, I'd go to Russia for a year. And then I'd come back and earn money, and then go back over and kind of do that, hey, sometimes I go for six months, come back for six months, you know, it's kind of over. I don't know how many trips I took. But I think it was about five years over the course of a tenure from basically when I was 22 to 32 years.

Sam 33:45

So when you were when you were in Siberia, and you're with I believe with Evenki people. But when you would when you would leave and come back stateside, or go back to Russia and then go back to Siberia. Were you always going back to the same group of people? Or were you kind of

Jordan Jonas 34:00

know more or less so the first time I went over, I went over to Guy justice and then he and then I would go over and to the neighboring village, you know, because I made connections there. So I'd always go there first and kind of visit then go north to You're the first trapper, and then basically, from his house go out to the natives in the forest. And yeah, I'd always go back to them, you know, usually the goal of where I was going, but I'd usually hop my way there from you got to go visit everybody, you know, yeah. And even the trip out there you can imagine, you know, a few days on the Trans Siberian Railway and then you know, plane ride and boat ride and a helicopter. Reindeer ride and you know, it's anyway, elaborate trip but

Sam 34:58

so when you say So when you would go from I think I'm trying to keep everybody straight here but from euro and then you pop off into the the more native I don't know if village counting winner there. Is it nomadic?

Jordan Jonas 35:10

Well, you know so they have a yeah there's a there's a probably about five or six groups of nomadic folks that that kind of circle around this one native village and and so they'll go back to that village occasionally but for the most part they're out in the forest being nomads.

Sam 35:31

So were you was it like was it hard to get? I guess the trust and I don't I don't know where respect is

Jordan Jonas 35:39

it was nice because it went really organically I guess because I you know lived with that Russian guy that had been in prison with your and he introduced me. We know what the full value of Ayahuasca is great, you know. And then I went up to the third trapper and did the same thing, you know, worked with him and lived with him. And you know, we really got along well and helped each other out. And then when he dropped me off, oh, there's a bunch of Turkeys right there.

Sam 36:09

If it's turkey season, and you need to put your phone down Turkey tag you can we can pick this up later if I need to.

Jordan Jonas 36:21

Anyway, lucky little fellers continue on. Anyway, yeah, so then it was just happened to get in where that first chapter of Anki guy took me out to his cousins who were all the room. Nomads, and it's basically like, hey, this guy's awesome. You know, they take him in. And so immediately, they just took me in kind of, like, you know, like you would if your, you know, your brother brought someone out and was like, is a good friend of mine. Take them in. And so then they, they became fast friends, and you know, and take them out on all their adventures and hunts. And I think I was they liked having me around, because there's a hard worker and did a lot of projects for him and stuff is mutually beneficial. And really good there, I consider him friends as vice versa. We're a crazy place over there, though,

Sam 37:21

where they speaking Russian or Venky are both like,

Jordan Jonas 37:25

mostly speak and mostly speak. Russian, the older people, there's still some older people that don't speak any Russian. And, but it's one of those things where like, between the old generation and the kid, like the old people speak mostly Venky people our age, you know, half and half and the young kids speak, just rushing. And so you know, it's kind of losing fat, it goes really fast. If they don't, actually, I heard Jose say this when you talk to him, but very true. Like, their language is really well suited for the forest and for reindeer husbandry and all that, but it doesn't work very well and village life so. So they end up just, you know, just gets replaced with Russian kids. Basically, if you go to a village and look at anything, like, there's no event keywords for any of this stuff, you know, it's all Russian word. So they just switch over to Russian. And if you're out in the forest, you know, that's where, I don't know Venky but I got familiar with it enough that I was like, Oh, that's really cool. Because you could was such a forest language that you can, you know, for example, tell your way, directions through the forest really accurately in a way you couldn't in English or Russian or something where it's like, they have a special word for a type of forest that has, you know, red red on the ground, and a lot of Tamarack trees. And so you can kind of and a different type of word for all these different types of forest and, and you can see accurately tell directions and stuff through the forest in a way you couldn't otherwise. Similarly with reindeer, you know, they have so many words for reindeer with every word, meaning some different variation. And this and that, and it's really quick and efficient and good in that context, but not as much outside of that context. So

Sam 39:19

how do you describe anyway? snowmobile Fast, fast reindeer loud reindeer fast and loud reindeer

Jordan Jonas 39:30

Boomstick you know you? Yeah. Lost in Translation.

Sam 39:34

That's funny. So I I speak Spanish. And this is nowhere near the proper correlation. But you know, I've noticed in Spanish, it's actually for me. I mean, not anymore, because I don't I haven't used it in a decade. But it was a lot easier for me to express feeling and emotion and describe certain things in Spanish even than English because it's interesting. It's so much more precision to the language than kind of the broad strokes. English throws on a lot of stuff.

Jordan Jonas 40:02

Yeah, well, I was. Similarly Russian was fascinating to learn that that's such a, you know, so, so foreign to English it has developed so differently. And it was interesting to learn a language that you feel like as well, that's actually richer, you can express things in a more ritually than you can in English, which is a weird thing to think about. If you're only if you only know one language, you know, it's hard to imagine. But yeah,

Sam 40:28

so for so for those listening, just go learn another language really quick, and then come back. And then this will all make way more sense.

Jordan Jonas 40:36

You gotta live in a coma that never learned Russia, the Russian from a book, you know, you have to be immersed. Unless you're really gifted in that. But yeah, it was it would have been, especially Russian, it would have been really tough out of just workbooks and stuff, and go over the air spend a few years I think that was learning the language was, you know, it was pretty miserable. Because I was in a remote Russian village, nobody spoke English. So I felt really isolated. Because I was, you know, for a year chunks of time. Basically, as long as it takes to learn the language. I remember laying in bed just think, man, I wouldn't wish this on anybody feel so like, isolated. You know, they're just tough. It really put it again into perspective going on alone. I, you know, I was I specifically remember them, I think it was a day 66 Or something that came out there. So it's been 66 days, you know, how do you feel? And I was like, man 66 days, that's only like two months. If I go home now, you know, it's like, if I go now ask everybody what's new? Nothing.

Sam 41:55

Producers realized a mistake, forever.

Jordan Jonas 42:02

I think that having that long, you know, year long perspectives and stuff, kind of go for a year. And now of course, I would miss my family and miss all the people that I love. And you'd have all the you know, anyway, I learned over time that yeah, those relationships can withstand that. And that, you know, you can go out, spend in time and bring in something back in that makes those relationships even richer and stuff is actually you can embrace that. Those periods of times, but yeah, I will say the, you know, I was, I was expecting it to go a lot longer. So I think it was a good perspective to have the good Lord prepared me, I guess.

Sam 42:49

So what? So with all the adventures and the fun you're having in Siberia, what I mean, not that your home permanently is I'm assuming you're not kind of whatever home is, I'm sure not not going to go back there at some point. But what was it that made you say, Alright, maybe it's time to focus more time stateside, or not be spending so much time in Siberia?

Jordan Jonas 43:09

Yeah, you know, kind of naturally, I've been busy, you know, so I got married, I met a one of my trips back from the states that a wedding and you know, met somebody that was pretty cool. ended up staying in touch and then went back to Russia, you know, that was again, one of those just little experiments, of course, right. When you, you know, you quote unquote, what I fall in love with somebody or just like, you want to be around him all the time. And, but then I went back to Russia, so it's like one of those good experiments in okay. We can delayed gratification, I guess. And then. So, you know, we met and it stayed in touch. Well, I was back in Russia and I came back and it was a really good way to get to know somebody because, you know, you over email and stuff, you just communicate a lot, talk about a lot of things. And so it's pretty clear when I got back pretty quickly that that, you know, we were gonna get married and then so we did and then my wife came back to Siberia with me that winter, so she came over with the natives and spent a winter with us. And that was actually the coldest winter that I had been in Russia. So props to her and in a teepee, almost, you know, got close to negative 60 out Fahrenheit. And she toughed it out but and it's also you know, cuz she didn't know the language that she had all that all those trials that I had gone through prior when you're isolated and learning the language and in somebody else's home and culture is difficult. And so she kind of went through all that while I was dollar out there also, you know, also could see that It is a traditional culture and traditional society, in that, you know, for me as a dude, it was just awesome. I just hunt and fish and, you know, go go out and catch reindeer and ride around and explore. But it's a little tougher for the women because they mostly, you know, there's exceptions, but a lot of times they're back at the teepee, and they're taking care of the kids, and they're, you know, cooking, and doing things that aren't quite as adventurous or whatever. So, not you know, my wife, you know, who just went in Rome. So we were, we were setting it was a little harder on her away. And we could, you know, and we thought about it, like, new, we came back, we went home and came back and spent another summer there, too. So, we spent a good amount of time there. But then when my wife was pregnant with our first kid, you know, we came back to the states and and then the, you know, life kind of takes over, we would we always we want to go back we did, we always have, but we had one kid, and you have another kid, and now we have three kids and

Sam 46:08

and then a 20 hour train ride into Siberia.

Jordan Jonas 46:12

You know, it's yeah, it's not like, a couple grand for me to go over anymore. Now. It's like 10, you're like, Oh, man. And so it kind of gets gets out of your control, it's still something I really want to do. And maybe in the future, there'll be a way to you know, that now that I have a following of some sort, that I could help offset some of the costs by maybe bringing some other people over or filming or, you know, whatever it might be. And so I still fully intend to go back over. We're gonna go this fall, actually, but COVID kind of stopped that

Sam 46:47

and did that. So I guess we could say 45 minutes in if people don't know that Jordan did when alone. So that might have allowed for at least one trip.

Jordan Jonas 47:01

I haven't blown it all yet. But we might be able to scrape up.

Sam 47:06

Is about that. 4045 minutes in and this is the first time we've mentioned winner or last man standing, whatever that whatever that is that a record for you, I guess. I'm sure that probably comes up pretty quick. Normally.

Jordan Jonas 47:18

Yeah, that's a record for sure. You're doing great.

Sam 47:22

So your wife, she, I mean, she obviously knew somewhat of what she was getting into. I saw another thing that, you know, you had neglected to mention that reindeer love people pee. And there's some stuff you might have left out. But did she definitely have did she come from? I mean, from an adventure. I mean, she just a trooper, or it's interesting, I didn't expect I should have expected this, I just didn't think about it. When you try and do a podcast about people that decide to live a certain lifestyle. You know, even if you even if it's someone that has a normal nine to five or whatever. So far to to a person, you all live a very specific type of lifestyle. And that has basically meant that either internet's good and sell services bad or sell services, good internet bad, or I don't have internet or you know, and so there's, it's a

Jordan Jonas 48:21

first thing you'll notice when you go spend a lot of time in the woods is that man, I don't miss the internet at all. Just doesn't become as much of a factor.

Sam 48:30

So I mean, thankfully, even with all the the interesting nature of how to get these podcasts to actually happen. This is the first time we've dropped something. And maybe that means that Jordan is living the most wild extreme out there. I don't know.

Jordan Jonas 48:49

I'm hanging off a cliff right now.

Sam 48:53

Either that or his iPhone just had a heart attack. So anyways, where we were as I was just asking, so your wife was she? I mean, did she come from a similar similarly adventurous background? I mean, did she did she start Is it true? That you know you seem like yeah, she's

Jordan Jonas 49:15

mostly. Yeah. Yeah. She's a trooper for sure. And that she grew up in New York. So just born in Japan then they came to the States and she's really young that she's a grew up in New York City kind of and yeah, I wasn't really exposed to the outdoors much she was adventurous. So when she was, you know, able to went to China and spent a couple years in China because you know, she's part Chinese. So her heritage you wanted to go meet like, who was left of her family over there and see what Chinese life was like and so she went over there for a couple of years to in backpacked across Europe, you know, She had did some adventure stuff, but never anything particularly outdoorsy. So that was all jumping in the deep end for sure. She did great. Although, you know, it does unquestionably hard. It's not like it's easy, but she did great. And, and you know, enjoys it. And we continue to have that big part of our life. So good. But

Sam 50:24

yeah, that's, that's neat. And how long had had you and your wife been together? I guess when? When you went on alone?

Jordan Jonas 50:34

That maybe about three years would be my guess. I haven't thought about that. Exactly. But yeah, yeah. Oh, no, it's a little more than that. It was like five years. So yeah.

Sam 50:44

You mean that joke? And ask you that question.

Jordan Jonas 50:53

real flower? Yeah, no, he didn't. And yeah, it was about five years. And that was good. You know, I heard, I think it was Brett or somebody talked about it, but when on your interview with them, but that you don't want any big skeletons in your closet when you're out there, and that everything is going to come up, which is indeed true. You know, I noticed that even for trapping, so if you just think about the most random people and situate anything that could have been a loosen that you could have tied, even if it wasn't a big deal, it's somewhere in your brain down there, and it'll pop back up and die, oh, man, I should have called that guy and told him I appreciated him or I should. So like, if even those little things are popping up, you know, like, if you have some serious issues that they will definitely come out, there's no avoiding it, no matter how busy you try to keep. And so it was good going out there that I had, you know, full trust in our relationship, we have a really good relationship. And you know, that makes a huge difference. And, and, you know, as I think they said, it's, you know, that it can be hard on people's relationships, probably I, I know, for generally, it was a really tough few months, because, but, you know, in for one, it was just a stress of not knowing how, you know, your husband's doing, if he's wasting away, if he's having major psychological changes. And then, on the other hand, at home, it's tough because his car breaks down and the kids are sick, you know, they're basically sick the whole time. And then, you know, the, we have all these nice furs that the Venky people had given us boots and things like that. And at one point, the mob got to him so of course, everything goes wrong. We joke now about you know, like that she lost more weight than I did, which actually is true. She really was like, yeah, like it was really tough for and but at the same time, you know, like on a deep level, I think she was worried about not knowing what I was going through and is he gonna change? Is it like an excuse, you know, that's something that happens. But there wasn't actually something that I was worried about that was also not a stressor that I had to deal with it that she did have to deal with. Because you know, you're out there you're experiencing it, so you know what you're going through? It's not an unknown and yeah, so I think just all those unknowns are tough in in conjunction with the day to day so no doubt that was hard for her but she, you know, made it through and then I could see fortunately for me, you know, and I don't mean that I don't mean this in any like, arrogant way at all. But it wasn't it wasn't like the hardest thing I've ever done or you know, wasn't like life changing the difficult I felt like it was it felt really similar to Russia honestly, I would I came back and it was this you know, a couple of days after I didn't have to wait after the show ended and stay I didn't have to stay at production and get healthy again or anything so just a couple days after the show was over I was back home and and it felt I literally just felt just like another trip back from Russia. So yeah, it sounds good friends around you get together you chat and hang out and you know, just get back right into life. Check the news. I think that was that's I think the right interval to check the news. It's the right news cycle about 80 days

Sam 54:45

90 days yeah.

Jordan Jonas 54:48

Instead of twice every couple you know, every hour Yeah. So I mean, no anyway, but

Sam 54:54

say for you. I mean, it was think it was you know, you knew what to expect of yourself right? Like you you'd

Jordan Jonas 54:59

I thought Known for me in a way, I mean, huge stressors and big unknowns. But they're not like existential but with for the people back home, it is like, man, you just don't know what that person is going through your mind is going to be going crazy, especially if you're, you know, inclined at all towards being stressed out. It's just like, Man, that is it was a lot to deal with. Yeah, I mean, had you a big deal?

Sam 55:25

Had you done any? I mean, I don't know, I don't know how to define major. So I'll just use the word and you can define it. Had you done any major, like solo trips or away from home trips? But you know, since you've been married before alone, was this kind of the first time that your family had gotten to experience that aspect? And

Jordan Jonas 55:45

nothing like that long at all? You know, like, I'd go away and do jobs for, you know, a week at a time or do this or that, you know, you definitely you leave for weeks at a time, but I don't think there's there wasn't anything I had done that would it wasn't such a big event, you know,

Sam 56:07

long term, no communication. Yeah, type of a deal. No communication

Jordan Jonas 56:11

at all. Yeah, so you don't really know, I hadn't done anything where there was just no communication, although my trips to Russia were like that. And when my wife had come with me to Russia, you know, there had been some hairy situations in the woods that were caused for lots of stress. I broke some ribs. And I was out there at one point, you know, wrestling some reindeer and, and I broken pretty bad to where, like, I wasn't sure if I as a man, if it gets any worse than this, I don't think I'm gonna be able to breathe, you know, I, and it was pretty borderline, you know, there's no helicopter, or anything we could call. So it was she had dealt with some stressors with me, and, you know, some injuries. I think she probably also her imagination ran wild on that, because that's definitely been a learned trait is to try to be careful out in the woods and stuff. It's not something that came naturally to me, I got, you know, gotten a bunch and had surgeries and this and that. And so she probably was, you know, he expect the worst in a way. I think all that just it just a level of underlying stress. And then on top of it, you've got the kids screaming and all the day to day, I think it's just pretty difficult, then, you know, that goes, like you said, largely unsung. So. So, yeah, especially for the people at home again, like we're talking about when you're out there, you kind of know, it's, you know, you're going through, so it's not really a concern. Back home, you're like just, I just kind of put my trust, you know, I know I can handle it. Things are gonna be fine. You know, and I kind of err on that side of things in my thought process generally. So for my own mental well being I guess that's an advantage, but doesn't necessarily mean that's the case.

Sam 58:07

Yeah, that's, that's kind of the Yeah, and yeah, it's a challenge, right? I think the, you know, I think for me, I tend to the same thing, whenever I'm going to go do X, Y, or Z. And thankfully, you know, now with modern technology, I can take my Garmin inReach and, you know, I can be in the middle of nowhere. And I have to wait 15 minutes to get a text in or out is just terrible. But you know, you can know, right? If something's going wrong, right. But, you know, for me, I'm the same way. I'm like, Oh, it'll be it'll work out. We find no big deal. Yeah, I think that tends to leave people feeling unheard or understood. And that's kind of a challenge to try and

Jordan Jonas 58:45

get back. I got thought about that when I got back. Like, I was really glad that I was, you know, I felt fine. I was normal. I actually think I weighed myself to the dead lighter now than I was when I get off the show. So it's just not totally fine. Normal mentally. The same person. Everything was fine except Oh, shoot, I've lost my train of thought right in the middle of that. Yeah, whoa, whoa.

Sam 59:09

Just talking about how like you know that how sometimes the other person doesn't feel for me I was seen other person doesn't maybe feel

Jordan Jonas 59:18

really thankful that you never know how it's gonna go. You know, there's no, no, you know, everybody that goes hunting, you go out there, you don't know if you're gonna get something or not. And all the more on a situation like alone. You can have all your skills, all your ducks in a row and all that, but there's still just a level of unknown out there. And so I'm really thankful that it you know, went well and then that I could come back and jump right back in and help support my wife because if I came back like a physical wreck, or like mentally, completely changed or something, and then your wife has to not only bear that burden while you're gone, but then somehow

Sam 1:00:00

Pick you up for six months after she's trying to scream.

Jordan Jonas 1:00:03

Yeah, like, that's just asking a little too much of one person and it's and that's the type of trial that she would have to go through to completely unsung you know, like, it's like, they're not the shows come out and you get all this attention and praise and this and that, and meanwhile, she's like, taking out your bedpan. Anyway, yeah, I

Sam 1:00:29

can charge me 50 bucks per bedpan. Honey, I love you. That's another 50

Jordan Jonas 1:00:39

So now, I can see that via real hard, not just while you're gone, but even route coming back if, if then she has a whole nother thing to pick up, you know?

Sam 1:00:49

Yeah. Well, and I mentioned this with with Britt too. And, and I told Britt, this wasn't a pitch, but, I mean, if this is a pitch, maybe you can take it that way. But another thing that, you know, early on, I think before I even recorded episode one with Justin, something that I was really interested in doing was was talking to, to that significant other, you know, for those that that had someone at home in that in that fashion and, and for those that have maintained having that person home in that fashion, you know, because there's, I mean, the stories, you know, from you are obviously interesting, but there's the same and equal, you know, for that person that stayed home. And I think that'd be such an interesting thing to hear and to understand and for people to kind of like oh, wow, you know, I didn't think about that aspect. You know of like for example, you mentioned the the Mavs getting to the the furs, right. So there's this stress of like, not only is Jordan gone and annoying, is all of this happening. And he could be half dead at this point in time. And who knows. But then he's gonna come home and these furs that he has prized in love forever have holes in them and are not. You know what I mean? And so yeah, like, that's the type of stuff that you would never think of, and that you would never Yeah, but that's like a real part of the show. Really, and a real part of of the existence for

Jordan Jonas 1:02:11

sure. Yeah, it's true. It makes me think of all that, you know, like, broader than the show, too. It's like, what makes me think of, you know, mothers and stuff. Now always go through that. Where is that home? The unsung work of dealing with the kids. That's what they're doing, or, or fathers that are at home, whatever it is, but then they get the like, I were talking about earlier than those native cultures where it's like, yeah, this is the kind of there is that whole unsung aspect of life, there is the day to day stuff that everyone has to do. But yeah,

Sam 1:02:46

like right now, right? There's, there's two spouses right now that are taking care of a bunch of unruly kids, while the two of us get to get to talk, right? So even even in this very conversation, we're creating that exact same dynamic, but you know, for you, you mentioned that you that you weren't a hunter at a young age, and now later in life, you've come to that, and certainly, you know, on your Facebook page, for those that have that are following your you know, your Jordan Jonas fan page. You know, we can see that you do hunt now. And it seems like you're probably doing, you know, more the bat country style hunting and so has that. How is that? Because it's kind of the same dynamic, right? I don't know if you have inreach, or something similar, like,

Jordan Jonas 1:03:31

what's good is so during the thing, you know, the great thing that's been allowed by by winning this shows, you know, that gave me freedom and you kind of get a it's an opportunity to assess your priorities everybody that goes on the show, of course, all they know that family and time with your family and your kids while they're little is all super valuable and and you know, getting a big chunk of money like that is really advantageous for that's what I felt like I was doing out there, like, but look, if I lose 60 or 90 or 140 days out here, that's all if I can pull it off. And when and it's like, it's all the time just buying time later with the kids. More than 100 days will be nothing. Yeah, already. You've already Exactly. Right. And so and that's what I tried to do is like use that as a as an opportunity to spend more time with my kids now, especially when they're young and stuff so so because I can do that. Then you know, it also helps support my wife and stuff. So she's not just on her own with the kids all the time. That way when when I do want to go like up in the woods for a week or something. It's not that big of a deal, cuz it's not like she's already been, you know, well, whatever. Anyway, it's helpful in that I think And that is how I like to hunt or you know, I got into hunting in Siberia just with the natives and then I you know, did a lot of it back you know, pretty much having bought meats in you know, just go back to Virginia and hunt a bunch of deer bear here, or whatever it is.

Sam 1:05:20

And then I've white tell limit whatever it is, yeah, it's amazing

Jordan Jonas 1:05:24

wonderful stuff and then it but I, I really enjoy like back country bow hunting and stuff that's that I get, you know, I don't like to run into other people. So if I have to go 10 miles back into the wilderness to start hunting. I'll do that. So yeah, I like that backcountry backcountry hunting and try to do a bunch of it. This has been the worst year because we moved right. During hunting.

Sam 1:06:01

Poor planning and I think that's

Jordan Jonas 1:06:03

called bad planning. Yeah, nobody to blame myself for that on these turkeys. They're just all over the almost grab one. Right? You go grab my book. I just

Sam 1:06:15

said we need to, we need to put this on pause and you need to go. Or we could have recorded turkey hunt. I guess we could do that. Yeah. Yeah. Another one. Take that Joe. never shot a turtle.

Jordan Jonas 1:06:33

I mean, knock on the window, make sure the kids are looking at you they leave the cars God. That's funny gun somewhere.

Sam 1:06:46

So when you're when you're doing back country stuff now do you? Have you purchased any technology that allows you to communicate with your family while you're out? Or do you

Jordan Jonas 1:06:54

have a Garmin inReach also, and that's totally helpful. And? Yeah, that's great. Yeah. And then that's just rain in the house really quick. And yeah, they're gone. Okay. But yeah, so I use the Garmin inReach. It's super helpful. And, yeah, it's just one of those things, you got to do those courses now in the summer. So that ends up being last couple years, I've spent a good portion of the summer up in the woods, you know, so that is, again, kind of putting it back on the wife. And this is nice to be able to be in touch,

Sam 1:07:40

it's a good time to kind of transition into that. So you said you're teaching in courses? And so what are you up to now? And you know, where can people find you? And are you teaching courses that people can sign up for and come hang out with Jordan for a little while?

Jordan Jonas 1:07:54

Yeah, I've got the I've been doing some backcountry courses out of, you know, out here out of Montana, sometimes we go up in Idaho sometimes here. And you can go on my website, Jordan jonas.com, I have more details up and also, you know, post a lot on Instagram and update there is an email list. And they've been awesome, they've been set such a good time. And I think it's been really valuable for people to you know, it's not very often that some people get to unplug for a week and go up in the wilderness and you know, fish and learn stuff that's real practical and just you know, get to know each other and and so this year I don't have the schedule out yet because there's like a lot of moving parts next year. And I'm gonna try to get that out as soon as possible but but that is the best way to to know when that schedule will come out just by following on Instagram probably or checking it out on my website, but

Sam 1:09:02

cool, and I'll link here their Instagram and your website, obviously in the show notes here. And then for those Yeah, so those are interesting go find those there. But what kind of courses do you teach? Or what kind of stuff are you teaching?

Jordan Jonas 1:09:17

Um, well, we go there high, like high mountain wilderness courses will either backpack or ride horses way back into the wilderness and you know, teach people how to make their own fishing gear on the spot out of, you know, junk we find are sticks and this and that kind of, we got to use a kind of like the follow the Alone. You know, like make what we can out of paracord and, and some basic items. And, basically, we'll you know, there's a high keep it open pretty open and cuz that's one of the things I appreciate the most about life in the wilderness is that it's not super scheduled. And it's not sorry, I get anyway, watching the turkeys, this dragon, but it's like it's not super scheduled, it's something like that, you know, like oh if you know, hypothetical we had a turkey tag or something it's like turkeys walked by we could Oh hunting process a turkey or, you know last year we had some elk come in and we called in the elk grill you know within bow shot of we have ourselves you know, so just show people how to do that or you know, definitely fishing those high mountain lakes is a big part of what we do and hiking, exploring learning the land learning the resources that are available up there and try to keep it simple, but not completely primitive I like I like to have, I just think the most practical, you know, living with the Venky kind of see what is really practical and what is kind of more like hobbyists, or more fun, and neither is better than the other. But in I like to kind of stick to the practical stuff like, what are you gonna really use? If you're in the back country, you need to make a go at it, you know, like?

Sam 1:11:22

So you're not teaching people how to say, one, like square mile and star for 90 days.

Jordan Jonas 1:11:28

Yeah, exactly. Show people that like, Hey, I do, there's a big part of what I want to show is that like, this can be rich land, if you like, when you get up there, do you actually get shocked at the start? Sometimes because like, I don't see as much wildlife as I thought we would or you know, like, and whether it be wolves everywhere, or whatever it is that I know, there's not that much game, but then once you like, start spending a few days there, it's like, oh, I'm noticing all these squirrels over here, I'm noticing, you know, or there's that lake that we didn't catch anything out of initially. But now we've built a raft and gone out there and found a hole and, you know, catching nice big fish now, or you know, just kind of teaching people to have an open mind be adaptable, and learn to view the wilderness as a, as a place where you can potentially thrive and live well and not just exactly start over. You know, you'll just get it, you can't you can't learn it all and it no five or six days, but you can you definitely can get a window into it. And hopefully for some people that sparks an interest that they can just carry on and build upon. And, and so much of it is just having the time to like, disconnect go up there and learn things while you're also in a beautiful wild place. You know, there's a lot of cool stuff that goes on.

Sam 1:12:58

Yeah, that's, that's a great kind of, you know, like Jose, he mentioned that, you know, it takes a couple of days to get into it. And once that's cool, your classes are a longer format, right? So people can have

Jordan Jonas 1:13:07

that opportunity as a big part. You can learn that. Exactly. You learn skills online and stuff, a lot of stuff, you know, some of them aren't that useful. And so just knowing what's good and what's not is valuable. But even more importantly, yeah, just how you need enough time up there to tap into something a little bit deeper, which definitely is there. And it's really cool. And when people do that, and I've been you know, I've been shocked. Not shocked, necessarily, but I've been really happy and pleased with how valuable it's been for people, you know, think it's necessary. You know, especially if you haven't found yourself with your without your phone for more than a week. In the last 10 years, it might might be the time to do something like that.

Sam 1:13:58

Yeah. Well, are you are you keeping your your YouTube channel up to date or is that there's that another place?

Jordan Jonas 1:14:05

I do. Sometimes I'd throw some stuff up there. I haven't hit it really hard. Just added in, haven't quite done one of those things, I have a lot of stuff that I feel like would be really cool to put up. But I also don't want to turn my life into like content making. You know, people are hanging out and all of a sudden it's like camera comes out one more time. Exactly. Yeah. And so I think you know might be something I pursue more a little bit in the future right now. It's pretty simple. But but you know, I didn't I don't want to do that yet. Especially with the we got you know, we've had a baby and stuff he's starting to get a little older to where we have more freedom, but we'll see what I do with it. I'm not sure but I do put out some videos you know The last stuff I was doing was just reviews of the episodes of this last season of alone but there's a you know old stuff on there that's actually pretty interesting with living with the Venky and I had a camera during a lot of that time so some poor quality footage but unique footage and I think that's all worth watching it for people that are interested and then yeah, I'll see you in the future I didn't do a big family trip this summer we went for a couple of weeks with the kids way up in the woods you know 20 miles back in basically and and that got some cool footage and did some lessons and I'll see if I put those out at some point when you know when they get them ready or something. Got some good footage somewhere.

Sam 1:15:45

That's a good thing. Doesn't give you all that footage because you wouldn't do anything with it. Like that and

Jordan Jonas 1:15:53

drive that would be great. Yeah, yeah, here I am.

Sam 1:15:59

All right. Well, Jordan, this is this has been super fun. I don't think I've heard another person laugh as much as I've heard you laugh. So I thank you for that. And before we wrap up, I guess do you have any last things you want to say anything you want to just kind of share and get out there anything that we need to correct or just anything else?

Jordan Jonas 1:16:22

That's not really fun, fun chatting and, uh, and everybody listening, appreciate it. And yeah, wish me luck. Okay. Get more people on here and stuff. And it's been fun. Appreciate it. Well,

Sam 1:16:37

I again, I really appreciate you and your willingness to, to spend time with me and to share your story. So just thank you so much and you have a great rest of your day.

Bye