Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - It’s Kinda Cool… Guest: Allison Johnson, Nat Geo… | 10/24/23

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

Tinder brings in family and friends… UofM snakes in a jar… [e-mail] UAW strike expands again… Sag-Aftra strikers back at the table… Women in Iceland to strike… Tyler Perry and Squidgame… www.blazetv.com/jeffy Promo code: Jeffy… The All New Blaze… MLB Playoffs… Who Died Today: Tasha Butts 41 / Bobi the dog 31 / Sarah Katz 21 last year… Mary Lou back home… Off duty pilot charged with attempted murder x83?… Guest: Allison Johnson / Senior Editor Net Geo Books / ‘Best of The World’… Back pocket funny… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1866-3-3-1-2-600 or visit comexonterio.ca. Blaze Radio Network And now, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. I'm not sure this is such a good idea. So Tinder has announced that they are going to add a matchmaking feature that gives users friends and family members

the ability to handpick who you should date. Oh, okay. The feature speeds up to so-called friends. test. Now, according to Tinder, they did a survey of 2,500 people in the UK, US, and Australia to determine how people who are actively dating, you know, dating on Tinder, are using the app. The survey reportedly showed that more than 75% of surveyed users between the ages of 18 and 25 said they discussed their dating habits with their friends several times each month. Yeah, this is, I swiped right and, you know, he came over.

The, uh, this way, uh, you'll be able to, uh, let your friends, uh, have an idea of who you're dating up front. I don't know. That sounds, uh, that doesn't sound like a good thing to me. That's, just me. Uh, I want to swipe right and then I'll tell you who I swiped right on later, okay? But I don't want you saying, ooh, that's a good swipe right. or and you should swipe left on that don't worry about it anyway for those of you that are using tinder you can have your so-called friend test now on the tinder app so have fun and good luck out

there on your dating with tinder welcome welcome to chewing the fat congratulations are in order to the university of Michigan Museum of Zoology. They have just acquired this huge reptile and amphibian collection, believed to be the largest held by any research institution in the United States, thanks to a recent donation. Now, the University of Michigan obviously is in Ann Arbor, and as you can see on my hand, Ann Arbor is right there in the state of Michigan.

They acquired these tens of thousands of thousands of, reptile and amphibian specimens from Oregon State University, many of which are snakes. The development places the university in a unique position, according to Greg Schneider, who's the research museum's collections manager. That's a good gig. So he's got to go through and document all of it, although he believes now that they have the largest snake collection in the world. Awesome. Congratulations. numerous studies have been conducted in recent years about declining amphibian and reptile populations. And so those are apparently good biological indicators of the health of the environment and ecosystems,

especially the amphibians. So, you know, amphibians, unlike people, breathe at least partly through their skin, which is constantly exposed to everything in their environment. So they're able to test all these snakes in a jar. That's the new movie. coming out this fall, snakes in a jar. So boxes containing water snakes, garters, woodland salamanders, dusky salamanders,

other species have been at the University of Michigan for about a month now. They were euthanized and ultimately placed in a solution that is 75% ethanol. They represent the lifetime of work of two retired Oregon State professors and those two professors received a doctorate from the university. of Michigan back in the 70s, so they wanted to get it back to the University of Michigan.

So he's going through cataloging all this material. He estimates it contains around 30,000 snakes, which then will give Michigan a total of 65 to 70,000 snakes. Surpassing collections at the Smithsonian in Washington, the American Museum of Natural History, and New York, and the University of Kansas. Who knew the University of Kansas was such a big snake collector, but apparently they are. This museum in Oregon State started way before the Civil War. Wow. So kind of cool. Also, in this collection, it includes 30,000 associated frozen tissue samples, along with advances in molecular genetics and more sophisticated DNA analysis,

which could result in better understanding of inheritance, evolutionary relationships, and, you know, applications in medicine. So congratulations to the University of Michigan. They have jars, both snakes, and litters of newborns. I would like to actually go through that, but that is a lot of work to document all of that. they have a 153,375 square foot research museum center where all these species are going to be housed so have fun

wow that would seem to be a boring task but not really not if you're a researcher it wouldn't be a boring task at all but congratulations to the University of Michigan for now having the largest snake collection well, dead snake collection in the world. So I keep seeing all these stories referring back to the survey we talked about a week or so ago about whether adults, U.S. adults should shower or how often do they shower?

And, you know, it showed that 60% of the respondents said they shower at least once a day. And now we're getting experts that say, oh, hey, some people don't need to shower that frequently. there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to washing skin and hair. But actually, I know that it depends on your skin and hair type and how much your sweat and how dirty you get. All of that. I get all that. However, let me say this. No matter how many times you shower in a day, in a week, in a month, you need Quinn's goat soap to get you clean.

It's just that simple. Go to QP Goatsope.com. Use the offer code, Jeffie, get 10% off your total order. Look, most people who buy soap from the store don't realize what it's doing to their skin. Store bought soap will get you clean, but while it's doing that, it's also drying out your skin. Maybe you do. Maybe that's why you stopped showering so much. So give Quinn's goat soap a shot.

And then, you know, I mean, I know the companies do it on purpose so that, you know, your skin dries out and then you have to buy their other products to make your skin, uh, you know, not dry. Uh, that's, uh, that's a good business, actually, but it's not the way it's supposed to be, which is why my man Quinn Pittman started making Quinn's goat soap. So go to QPgoatsoop.com. Use the offer code Jeffie for 10% off your total order. QPgoatsoap.com.

I mean, my man Quinn, we're going to talk to him here. I have to talk to him on the show. I mean, he's living the American dream. No question about it. But, I mean, he started, he got his first milking goat at the age of nine. I don't know if he had goats before and before the age of nine and said, how come morning is, aren't there supposed to be milk? That's a different kind of goat.

So it's possible that he had goats before the age of nine. But at the age of nine, he got his first milking goat. And now he's 16, and that's when he started, I mean, he's been developing and working on his goat soap and goat soap business. Now, for seven years, awesome stuff. Quinn is the guy who's living the American dream. We have to talk to Quinn on chewing the fat, and we will very soon. So get yourself some goat soap, okay?

This is what's going to help. You're going to realize, why didn't I know about this before? I need to shower and leather up every day with Quinn's goat soap. QPgoatsoop.com. Offer code jeffy, get you 10% off the total order. QPgoatsoop.com. Offer Code, Jeffie. So the strikes are still ongoing.

We have more than 40,000 union members working at Ford, General Motors, and Stalantis that are now on strike, about 27% of the Detroit Three automakers' total workforce. So the UAW just keeps expanding the strike. There is no deal yet. The Actors Union, that strike is now more than 100 days. I guess we're supposed to be back at the table today to try to work out a deal, but the studios, you know, they walked away before saying, yeah, the demands are going to cause economic hardship, so we're not doing it.

We're walking away. So we'll see what happens with the actor strike. Then I see in Iceland tens of thousands of women in Iceland, and I'm guessing that's all the women in Iceland. I don't know that. I, including the prime minister, are walking out on their jobs to protest gender inequality. Now, Iceland, I know, is ranked as one of the world's most progressive countries when it comes to gender equality. But apparently, some women still earn 20% less than their male counterport. I find that very hard to believe doing the same job.

But, you know, we never want to talk about them doing the same exact job. We've got to talk about, you know, just the title about the money, but not the exact job. So as part of the protest, the women are being encouraged not to do any. household chores to show the importance of their contribution to society. Don't they realize that if they don't do any of their household chores today, that's just going to double the work for tomorrow? I don't understand. It doesn't make sense to me.

Let's get the dishes done today. Otherwise, they're just going to be piled up for you tomorrow. All right. just stop it it's just a joke you know kind of all right let's go to the breaker I need something cold to drink

desperately be sure to follow me on my social media platforms Twitter X at Jeffrey JFR Facebook and Instagram is Jeff Fisher Radio you can follow me at my YouTube channel Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher

you can email the show at any time Chewing the Fat at theblaze.com. I see your emails. I get them all. Thank you. I may not respond to them all, but I do get them.

You know, like the emails, I got several emails reminding me that I believe that the world needs more people from Ohio. No, that's not what I said. You know, I played Jim Jordan for you yesterday in his speech, and we need more Americans like that,

talking about how good America is. But that's just a coincidence that he's from Ohio and the story was out of Ohio. I didn't say that we need more people from Ohio. But I see your little emails and I get your little funnies. Okay, I got it.

You can order a cameo from me at any time at Jeffrey JFR on cameo. Just order, you know, what you want, happy, sad, glad, mad, mean. And I do it. That's the way the whole cameo thing works. It's not free, but that's the way it works. You type at Jeffrey JFR

into cameo, you order what you want, and then I do it. It's just that simple. Good news for Tyler Perry. It doesn't say how much the deal was worth, but he just signed a multi-year deal with Netflix. And I guess you could make the case that good news for us, because he usually, you know, makes some pretty good content. Apparently, he is going to direct and produce feature films under a multi-year first-look deal. Eight years over, wow. Eight pictures over four years. Not eight years. Eight pictures over four years.

And he's got a, I mean, he's a busy man at his own studios as well. So now he's going to be producing stuff for Netflix. I'm sure that that will be a nice paycheck for Tyler Perry. And so congratulations to Tyler and Netflix for that manner. Although I will say that Netflix keeps raising their prices. Maybe they better get some fresh content. And Tyler, you better prove what you can do, bro. because if not, my membership to Netflix is going to go, bye-bye.

I see where Netflix also dropped their trailer for Squid Game, The Challenge. So kind of looking forward to that. That first Squid game hit at a perfect opportunity, right? And so we'll see if this one can do just as well as the second one, or the first one, you know what I mean. If this one, the second one can do as well as the first one. I can't even spit it out when I'm thinking about it. November 22nd is what it's going to do.

debut on Netflix Squid Game, The Challenge. So I mentioned yesterday that news was coming on Theblaze.com and it's here. We've been talking to you about big tech censorship, telling you about a major step the Blaze Media is taking to declare independence from big tech and ensure we can keep bringing you the truth no matter what. Go to Blaze Media's website, theblaze.com right now and you'll see it's been totally overhauled. You'll see news articles, opinion, analysis, lifestyle and tech commentary. But what you will not see are those obnoxious ads that are on virtually every other website. And here's why it's such a big deal.

Most people don't realize that by having those ads on our website, Google was able to send bots to scour or for any content they deemed unsafe for advertisers. And after finding something they don't like, they demand we remove ads from that article or else have our entire website demonetized. and that is enough. So you can go to the website. It's really cool looking. I actually kind of like it with the black and white pictures. And then when you toggle over the story, it goes in color. Kind of cool.

I will say they stole my line when you go to an article and it says, hey, support Blaze News. And it says already a subscriber, sign in. I'll tell you a little bit more about that. If you're already a member of Blaze TV, you're good. No problem. but at the bottom it says you know select a plan support blaze news and then at the bottom it says or continue freeloading uh it's a line from chewing the fat i've told people all along that

uh subscribing to this podcast is free but if you're listening and you're not a subscriber then you're just freeloading and nobody likes a freeloader okay everybody wants free stuff nobody likes a freeloader using my line that's all i'm saying and i will say that uh that i went i went ahead and checked out all the different pages. And when you go to Blaze Radio, on the Blaze website, you end up, they took my name down.

And I'm a little hurt. I think I'm a little hurt. When you go back to the main page, let's do that right now, shall we? So you go to the radio page and it says Blaze Radio brings you the best news and entertainment

featuring content from top conservative hosts like Glenn Beck, Ellie Bell Stuckie, Pat Gray, Stu Breger, Steve Dase, and many more. I guess I'm under the many more. Okay, so the old page, mentioned my name, Jeff Fisher on there.

I'm a little hurt. I'm a little hurt on the new Blaze website. But, you know, I digress. That's fine. If you're already a member of Blaze TV, the deal's already done for you. Okay, it's a good deal. If you're not, now's the time to become a member. Sure, you're going to get paid a little bit more,

but if you go to blazTV.com slash Jeffie right now and use the promo code Jeffie, you can get a year for $84. And that is for, um, Blaze TV and the blaze.com. So apparently they took notes from other companies meetings, and it's going to be called Blaze TV Plus. So, I mean, you can't have a website with more on it without adding a plus. And so that's exactly what we did.

Blaze TV Plus. Again, if you're already a member of a Blaze TV, then you're good. I think it may ask you for your. email address to verify, but that's it. There's no password or anything that needs to happen. And if you are a member, you should have gotten an email from Blaze TV Plus and giving you all the details about Blaze TV and the monthly bills and the Blaze TV Plus annual, the annual deal. But be sure, I mean, if you want to, if you get the email here, it talks about how it went up $120 a year, previously $90.9.00.

a year for Blaze TV, but I will say this. If you go to blazTV.com slash jeffy, use the promo code Jeffie. It will be cheaper than that $99. That's the way it works for Blaze TV Plus. All right, so enjoy it. I do enjoy the black and white pictures and then scrolling over and having it go to color. Kind of cool. Really kind of cool.

And I do enjoy no ads. So take a look. at it, blaze.com. Go to the blaze.com right now and check it out. And if you're not a member, what are you waiting for? As I have said, for years, everybody wants a free stuff. Nobody likes a freeloader. Facts or facts. Hey, you know what I remembered last night? I was watching. I haven't watched, I've watched very little Major League Baseball this season. Very little. I've kept kind of up to date, you know, reading stories or you see the headlines. But I haven't watched hardly any baseball at all this year. And then, so I started watching a little bit of the

playoffs. And last night I watched almost the whole game of the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros. And I am reminded the Rangers won. The Rangers are going to the World Series. Tonight, the Philadelphia Phillies take on the Arizona Diamondbacks for the seventh game of the playoffs on their side. And the winner goes to the World Series to take on the Texas Rangers. I will say this. every time I started watching the games and I noticed the playoffs is not the regular season. But I love baseball. I love playing baseball. I always have.

I always did. You know, I played football too, and I love football, and I love watching football, and I loved playing football. But I never loved playing football as much as I loved playing baseball. I love baseball. And watching the playoffs reminds me so much of how much I loved playing football. baseball and how much I miss playing baseball. It's so much fun. And I will say this. Congratulations to the Rangers for defeating the Astros. I almost started rooting for the Astros. Because like I said, I've watched no baseball this year, very little. I think I watched a raise

game with my son early on in the season when they were busy setting the record for the most wins in a row early, very early in the season, right? And so the Astros have a patch on their shirt. So baseball is starting to become like NASCAR. So the uniforms have patches now from sponsorships, which I'm all for, whatever, that's fine. But it says oxy on it. And I thought for sure it was probably, it wasn't oxy.

It was probably, you know, DXY. Because they're not going to, you know, are they sponsoring like oxy clean? Is that what the sponsor is? is it the drug? I mean, I'm all for it if they're sponsors or an oxy. I'm all for it. But no, it's for Occidental Petroleum. And I know early in this season,

no, we don't know if they can get through that baseball in their patches. And, okay, shut up. They need to be wearing NASCAR suits. That's part of the deal in today's world. But I almost had a rooting for them. Any team that's wearing an oxy patch, It's tough not to be a fan of. So congratulations to the Rangers.

Anyway, we'll watch the Phillies and the Diamondbacks tonight. Probably going to be the Phillies winning. But you never know. You never know because everyone thought the Phillies were going to destroy the Diamondbacks. And no, it comes down to the game seven. And the winner take all going to the World Series. So good luck to both teams, although kind of rooting for the Phillies to have a Phillie. Rangers World Series, but that's just me.

Then we have that game going on tonight. Ed, this is kind of sad, actually. I'm supposed to be excited for the NBA season that's tipping off tonight. No, thank you. We're smack dab in the middle of college football. We're smack dab in the middle of NFL season. We're coming down to the World Series in Major League Baseball. And you want me to be excited about the NBA and the NHL starting out?

No, not going to happen. Easy. Take it easy. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no.

But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Who died today? Who died today? Tasha Butz. Tasha Butz, 41. Rest in peace, Tasha Bust. She died after her battle with breast cancer. Tasha was Georgetown women's basketball coach. She had been battling breast cancer for a couple of years. She was 41, rest in peace. Apparently she was diagnosed with breast cancer advance. stage breast cancer in 2021.

She stepped away from coaching last month. She inspired this Tasha Tough campaign, which brought awareness and raised money to bring quality care to women who can't afford it through the K. Yao Cancer Fund. Breast cancer is no fun. And I just rest in peace, Tasha Bonds. It's a battle I don't want anyone to go through whatsoever. also Bobby

the world's oldest dog dead in Portugal at the age of 31 I know sad so Bobby the world's oldest dog in Portugal he was 31 okay that was according to the Guinness

World Records so he lived his entire life in a village in central Portugal he lived for 31 years and 165 days breaking around record held since 1939 by an Australian cattle dog that died at 29 years and five months. Despite outliving every dog in history, his 11,478 days on Earth would never be enough for those who loved him.

Ah, well, that's true with any animal or any person, really. Well, most people. Any animal probably for sure. So rest in peace. Bobby, the world's... oldest dog. Then we have an Ivy League student dead at the age of 21. Okay, she died a year ago, almost a year ago in September of 2022, I

believe. And she without realizing it, according to this lawsuit now, she drank a drink Philadelphia Panera location and didn't really the charged lemonade.

And it contained 390 milligrams of caffeine, more than three times the 111 milligrams of caffeine found in a standard 12-ounce can of Red Bull. And I bet you that's charged, man. That's some serious charged lemonade. Now, she was a 21-year-old University of Pennsylvania student. She suffered cardiac arrest hours after drinking the lemony beverage. I don't know if she drank the whole thing. It says after the story says after she ordered.

the drink. So I'm not sure whether she drank the whole drink or not. She had a heart condition which she knew about called QT syndrome, heart signaling disorder where heartbeats can be fast

and chaotic. She avoided energy drinks per her doctor's recommendation. So now we're going to have a Ronville death lawsuit against Panera for serving her the charged lemonade. Okay.

You know, her college roommate said she was very, very vigilant about what she needed to do to keep herself safe. Yeah, except for the day she ordered charged lemonade at Panera. Okay, we'll see how this case works out. I'm sure it's Panera's fault. No way could the 21-year-old

university student take responsibility for herself, because she was very good about it, and she knew how to not drink stuff like that because she had a heart condition and she just thought it was regular lemonade and not charged lemonade like it said on the label

when she ordered it. Okay. All right. So anyway, rest in peace to Sarah Katz, who was 21 years old and now we'll see how the family makes out suing Panera

for her drinking charged lemonade. Good news as well for Olympic gymnastics icon Mary Louretton. She's about at the hospital. She is back home. Remember, we talked about her being on death's door with pneumonia. Apparently, she's in recovery mode now. She's back home. We have a long road to recovery. Family says, you know, baby steps. And of course they thanked all the doctors and nurses and fans for their support. They raised about $450,000 on GoFundMe to pay the hospital bill. So we'll see.

I'm guessing she was in the ICU for quite a while. I'm guessing that bill is going to be more than $450,000. But again, that's just me. I'm happy she's home. I'm happy she's recuperating. She'll write a book. She'll talk all about it and she'll be a time. It'll all be good.

Everybody has to write a book about their story, especially Mary Luce, since she needed the money to pay the bills, she will definitely need to sign a book deal that brings this out front. My battle with pneumonia, put my Olympic medals in perspective, something like that.

And just look for it on your local bookshelves. In a year, maybe two tops. This is kind of a weird story. You don't expect to hear this coming from a pilot, but I see we're an off-duty Alaska airline pilot has been charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after he allegedly attempted to shut down a plane's engine in the middle of its flight. Ah, yeah, that's the bad thing.

Joseph David Emerson was in the jub seat of the plane near the on-duty pilot, and he was you know, hop a hitch and a ride. The flight was going from Everett, Washington to San Francisco, California. Now, they diverted the plane to land in Portland because of the security. situation. The pilot was like, yeah, we got a guy here that tried to shut the engines down out of the cockpit. It doesn't sound like he's causing any issue

at the back right now. I think they've got him subdued. We go ahead and need we need some law enforcement as soon as we get down to the ground and parked, okay. And he was arrested at the Portland airport upon arrival. And he's

described as a 6-1 bald man. Eighty-three counts of reckless endangerment. One charge of endangering an aircraft. Wait, that's not attempted murder. This says 83 counts of attempted murder, but down here it says he has been charged with 83 counts of reckless endangerment and one charge of endangering an aircraft. There were 80 passengers and four crew members aboard the flight. Okay, so he's not attempted murder, although it wouldn't surprise me if that's the case. Now, he was in the jump seat and he attempted to deploy the fire suppression system that would have cut the plane's engine.

The crew members were able to stop Emerson and remove him from the cockpit before any serious damage was done. So we don't know what the deal is with Joseph David Emerson, the Alaska airline pilot, but he tried to put it down, attempted to deploy the fire suppression system. Now if he had deployed the fire suppression system, and the plane's engines were cut. I would hope that the pilots on duty would be able to override that in time after they, you know, gave Joseph David Emerson an ass-whip-in. But it sounds like he's got an ass-whip-in anyway. And then instead of, I mean, the flight from Everett, Washington to San Francisco isn't

that long of a flight, right? And yet we still, you know, put it down in Portland. And I would, you know, everybody got a flight back home, I guess. In the end, all passengers on board were able to travel on a later flight. Still, though, I would have been a little ticked. Because you're just going from Everett to San Francisco. You feel like that's just a hop, skip, and a jump. Not with Joseph David Emerson on board, it isn't, my friends.

So that'll be interesting to see what he actually ends up. He probably pleads out and get some serious mental help. Does that even happen in today's world? Nope, just send it to prison. Okay, never mind. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply.

Okay, so my stepfather once told me that people telling you how great places are around the world, Don't start talking to me unless you've gone to all the beautiful places in the United States. And, you know, I kind of believed them for that. But then I get a book from National Geographic talking about, well, this monster book, this beautiful book from National Geographic, the best of the world, a thousand destinations of a lifetime. And I start thumbing through it and I'm thinking, I don't think my stepdad knew what the heck he was talking about.

So I wanted to talk to Alison Johnson from the National Geographic about the new book, the best of the world. Allison, welcome to chewing the fat. How are you? Good. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. 100% happy to have you. So first of all, let's start with, you're going to tick me off and tell me you've been to every one of these places, haven't you? I wish I could say that. I have not been. Okay, well, I feel better. I was in destinations. No, I'm not. I feel better about my place. Where are you at? Five, six, hundred, eight hundred? I probably around 100, 200, but, you know, we are really lucky at National Geographic. We have a global network of travel writers, explorers, photographers who help curate these books. So a lot of my traveling within these pages is from behind my computer with them.

But I have been lucky to see a number of the places myself. Okay, so let's break it down. I want two from you, all right? I want the best of your 100 and then I want the best of the thousand. Are they the one of the same? Maybe. I will say my favorite that is I've done and I actually was fortunate to do it this past summer is I went on my first safari in Tanzania. And I will say I fully believe it should be in this best of the world book.

It was the trip of a lifetime. We saw all of the wildlife you expect to see on safari. lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, zebras, giraffes, you name it, we saw it. And it was just an amazing experience. We got to experience the Messiah culture while we were there, which was also fantastic to see. So I would say of the trips I've done with in the book, that definitely is my top. The one that I will say is the most far-flung in this book. I'll put it as far-flung as maybe not the best of the best, but far-flung.

and really high on my bucket list. We include a trip to Bhutan in this. And the reason I say it's the most far flung, one distance-wise it is, but it's really hard to get to Bhutan. First of all, the flight is really challenging. You're flying into the Himalayas, but they also really restrict tourism there

to preserve their culture and their traditions. And so there's a really high visa entrance fee. And so everyone at National Geographic, I know who's been to Bhutan says, you have to go. It's the best trip. I've never done. done it, but, you know, hopefully one day I can get my way onto that tourist visa.

It'd be wonderful to see it, but good luck. Yes. Man, you should take a look at the book first because you're probably never going to see it in real life. And you know what? That's the beauty of this book. Even if you don't get there, you'll have the beautiful imagery and storytelling to take you there. So I saw one of the destinations is cloud surfing in Ecuador. Now, I don't know if they have a fat guy cloud surfing because I'd like to do that.

but I'm doubting that they don't. But I just saw where they, that Uber is letting you Uber balloon rides in Turkey now. So could you Uber a cloud surfing event in Ecuador? So we use cloud surfing a little tongue in cheek. It's actually a cloud forest that's in the Andy Mountain. So you're actually above the clouds when you're there. So it's like you're surfing on them. So you don't have to be a surfer to do it.

And there's no weight limit. So I'm good. There's no weight limit. I don't expect that cloud surfing. Okay. Anyone can go. And there's an aerial tram that'll take you right up there. So you don't even have to do it the hiking way.

I know. It sounds beautiful, actually. I would love to be there and see that, no doubt about it. Okay. So you have, so this is the thousand best of the world, right? This particular book, which, I mean, it's beautiful. And whatever part you had to do in it, great job because it's wonderful. But so we still have the best of the world.

And we probably have, you know, best of each state, at best of each country, at best, I mean, National Geographic goes on and on with the best of. So this now is the definitive best of the world. I would say this is the best of the world from the past 10 years. So what we did to create this National Geographic every year comes out with our best of the world list and content. Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah. And we've been doing that since 2012. And so this book curated the best of from the past 10 years.

we went back, we fact-checked to make sure these places all still exist and also made sure they still met what we would consider Best of the World criteria. And then we curated it into this beautiful volume, but National Geographic is going to continue naming Best of the World. For years to come, the next list will come out in December, early January. And so maybe in the next five to 10 years, there will be a volume two of this book in collecting all of those. So we're always finding new pockets of the world that really fit the National Geographic lens of best out. How with some of the struggles of countries around the world in today's world? So, I mean, are we going to have like the National Geographic? Hey, 10 places to visit, but don't.

Yeah, we try to be mindful of what's happening in the world, obviously. We published these far, you know, this book is wrapped up eight months ago. We can't predict, but we do try to find spots that are evergreen that we do think will be safe to travel to, for the most part. And always a tricky balance. But, you know, there are places that, you know, there are travel advisories. And it's just you can go there, think carefully if you will feel comfortable being there. Of course. So how much, what does it show in?

this book and I've been thumbing my way through it. I haven't finished it yet. So I apologize. I haven't gone all the way through it. But does it give best ways to, you know, get your passport, get your travels? Because I was reading the other day where I did not know this, that I could go to Staples and get a passport. I could go to Staples and get a ream of paper and my passport. It's pretty incredible.

I love America. But so is there, I mean, as a show, helpful tips of how to, you know, create? your travel, obviously. Yeah, we don't have a lot of, like, the, how to create in that sense of going to get your passport and prepping that for in advance. But it's once you get off and going on your adventure, we tell you the best ways to experience each place. So is that a road trip?

Is it hopping on a train because that's the easiest way to get from here to there? So really, while you're in these destinations, what's the best way to plan and tackle the destinations in itself? I mean, that's great. If you can't get your own passport anyway, at Staples. That's no geographic. It's easy enough. All right.

So the, when you have done, so you've only been, you've only been to a little over a hundred of these places. So of the people that help put this together, does, do they all say, this is my favorite? And this is my favorite. And obviously, every person who is putting their work into the book. has to have, well, that's got to be in this book. It's my favorite. Yeah, you know, people come back with their favorites all the time. And what we do, it's kind of a group think about it.

What destinations do multiple people in our National Geographic Network keep talking about? Which ones do they go back to again and again? Why are they saying it's their favorite? Because it also has to come through that national and geographic lens. Is it because it's sustainable and eco-friendly? Is it because there's an amazing cultural or historical experience? Is it because there's a once in a lifetime adrenaline pumping adventure that you can have in this place? So finding out what is it that makes it a favorite?

Are multiple not geo-writers and explorers and photographers telling us about the same place again and again? Is it getting into this world because multiple people think it fits the national geographic lens of best of the world? And so it takes a big team to figure out the right balance for this list. No kidding. Okay, so now we've got the best of the world. And I know that you've got to some places in here that are, you know, to follow my stepdad's rules that the United States is number one. Don't even talk to me about going any place else until you've gone every place in the United States. What are a couple of the top places to enjoy in the United States that maybe people haven't done already?

Yeah, so we actually have a lot of domestic places in the book. One state as a whole that I think people often disregard as a great adventure capital is Utah. There's such diversity in Utah. Beautiful. So beautiful. We have a great road trip in the book around southern Utah to see all those national parks, which is really fantastic. In Minnesota, there's actually a dark sky sanctuary you can do in the canoe boundary waters area. And so if you like stargazing, that's a great place to go.

And I think some people don't realize you can have an amazing stargazing experience in the United States. What do you mean? They don't have a Walmart parking lot? Exactly. Just, you know, look to the sky. So that's a great one. And then we also have really fun city adventures. If you want to go see Manhattan, for instance, but you don't want to do the Empire State Building and Broadway, you want to eat your way through New York City.

There's a food. I worked there for several years. I've had enough of Manhattan. You've had enough of Manhattan. I've eaten my way through the city, too. by the way. So there you go. And that's how you should experience New York in my opinion.

And then some other great ones, you know, we have the Channel Islands in there, Everglades National Park. A lot of the national parks are featured. And I think that is. Deservably so. Most of them are beautiful. Yeah. I think to your stepdad's point, that's what makes America so beautiful is our national

park system. And so we have a lot of that throughout the book. That's awesome. So before I let you go, and I know you've got a busy day. today. Just tell me how I can get the book, where I can get it, what I can do, because I'm not giving mine away. Fair enough. So the book is sold. It goes on sale October 24th, which is tomorrow. And it's anywhere books are sold, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your favorite independent bookstore will have a copy. And you can always find out more on Instagram. We're at Nat Geo Books. And we are constantly

talking about best of the world and all the great content within. Awesome. Allison Johnson, senior editor for the National Geographic. Thank you so much for joining me on Chewing the Fath today. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. All right. I'll leave you with something I'm going to call, you know, back pocket advice or a back pocket joke or something.

Keep it in your back pocket. Use it when needed, okay? So I see this post and I have laughed about it because I wish I had done this in the past. The post is I was walking home last. night and I decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery. Let's pause there for a moment. I don't know that I've ever done that. I had to walk past the cemeteries before, but I take a shortcut through the cemetery. Maybe that's just where I lived or whatever, but I don't think I've ever taken a cemetery cut through a cemetery as a shortcut, but I digress. I was walking home last night

and decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery. Three girls walked up to me and said that they were scared to walk past the cemetery this late at night. So I agreed to let them walk along with me. See, this is the girls were walking past the cemetery. I think he was walking past the cemetery too. He wasn't cutting through. But anyway, I digress. So anyway, he agreed to let them walk along with him.

I told them, I understand. I used to get freaked out too when I was alive. Never seen anyone run so fast. So that's funny business. That's what I'm saying. Just keep that in your back pocket and use that when necessary. Really funny. Yeah, you can go ahead.

I'll walk with you. No problem. I used to get freaked out too when I was alive. It's just a back pocket funny. That's what we're going to call it. A back pocket funny. Stream and subscribe to more Blaze Media content at theblaze.com slash podcasts. Unwrap holiday magic at Holtraddle

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