Do Go On - 391 - Chris McCandless ; 'Into The Wild'

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

In the early 90's, having just graduated from College, Chris McCandless packed a bag and took off on a roadtrip. He spent the next couple of years travelling, and his story has become something of a modern legend, particuarly in the USA.This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 05:00 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodSubmit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/Check out our new merch! : https://do-go-on-podcast.creator-spring.com/ Check out our AACTA nominated web series: http://bit.ly/DGOWebSeries​ Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present.  REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-epic-journey-of-chris-mccandlesshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_McCandlesshttps://www.christophermccandless.info/bio.htmlhttps://www.britannica.com/topic/Emory-Universityhttps://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-chris-mccandless-diedhttps://sites.google.com/a/sdst.org/chris-mccandless/timeline Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just jumping in really quickly at the start of today's episode to tell you about some upcoming opportunities to see us live in the flesh. And you can see us live at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2024. We are doing three live podcasts on Sundays at 3.30 at Basement Comedy Club, April 7, 14 and 21. You can get tickets at dogo1pod.com. Matt, you're also doing some shows around the country. That's right. I'm doing shows with Saren Jayamana, who's been on the show before. We're going to be in Perth in January, Adelaide in February, Melbourne through the festival in April, and then Brisbane after that. I'm also doing Who Knew It's in Perth and Adelaide. Details for all that stuff at mattstuartcomedy.com.

We can wait for clean water solutions. Or we can engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge indigenous cultures. Or we can learn from indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On.

My name is Dave Warnke and as always I'm here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. Hello! Hello, so good to be here. It is so great to be alive. That's a question. Is it? It is so good to be alive. But you've got an inflection on the end.

Good to be alive? It's so good to be alive. But you've got an inflection on the end. Good to be alive. It's so good to be alive. Someone losing confidence? Very quickly, yeah. It's so good to be here. On the podcast, Do Go On, I believe. Yeah, that is correct. Yeah, the podcast of dreams.

Yep. And this one's coming out maybe towards the end of the comedy festival, and we're probably losing our minds at this point. At this point in real life, but not at the time of recording. We are sharp. We are well rested. That's right. We are eloquent. We feel fantastic.

This one's straight from the vault. We recorded this in 2018. Yeah. So, we've got a good few years ahead of us. We're still young. We don't even know what's coming. No. Probably millions of us. We're still young. We don't even know what's coming. No. Probably millions of dollars.

Well, I assume the show is still the same, Matt. How does it work? So, the way it works is one of the three of us goes away and learns about a subject, a topic normally suggested by a listener, often voted on by the Patreons, and then they bring that knowledge back in the form of a sort of a school report almost. And then they do like an oral presentation, almost like we're in year nine English. And they've taken their topic of choice and they're going to tell it to their peers, the other kids. This week.

Hello, peers. Hello, other kids. I feel like at some point during that, I felt like I was on track and then I lost it. Yeah, it felt great until, yeah, you fell off. But get back on there. Yeah. And this week Jess is doing the report. Dave and I are her peers.

We are the peers. Our fellow children. Yes, my fellow children. What's up, fellow kids? And normally- Want to hit the skate park later? I would love to do some ollies. I'd love to drop in.

How are you so old. We normally start with a question. Yep. Jess, do you have a question this week to get us on topic? I do. My question is, who was the subject of the book and film both called Into the Wild? Ooh, Walter Mitty. It was not Walter Mitty.

I don't know who that is, but I love that name. So good. Is it Sean Penn? It's not Sean Penn. He I don't know who that is, but I love that name. So good. Is it Sean Penn? It's not Sean Penn. He was the director of the film. I knew he had something to do with it. Is it one of those monsters that Angus Sampson played in the movie that sounds kind of like that?

Where the Wild Things Are. Where the Wild Things Are, yes. It has nothing to do with Angus Sampson, unfortunately. Unfortunately. Anyone from Recovery at all? Any of the cast? No. Let's go through them all now just in case.

Dylan Lewis. Absolutely not. Jane Gazzo. No. I'm out. The director of Saw. There's a couple of names that would both be correct. Oh, a couple of names.

I can give you the first names and see if you can finish it off. Right. Chris? Christopherson. Not Chris Christopherson. I'm going to have a crack here. Chris Parker. Not Chris Parker.

The New Zealand comedian. That's what's in my mind. Yeah, because he's here for the Comedy Festival. Yes, yes. In five years' time because this is 2018. Yeah, great, great, great. He's going to be big. He's going to be huge.

Little up-and-comer. Okay, so not Chris or Alexander. Or Graham Bell. Is it Chris Alexander? It is neither of those. Okay, I'll give you the first name. If you don't get it, then I'll give you the last name. Steve Ivor.

Would we have heard of these people? Potentially. I mean, it's been suggested by a lot of people. Christoph Waltz. I won't give away the actual name because I'll tell you in the first few sentences. Okay, fantastic. But firstly, I'll- So, that's a point for both me and David.

Absolutely not. No points awarded there. Maybe a point for me for my patience. I'm going to start asking brutally hard questions, if that's your attitude. Name this very specific person. Did you know the name before you did the report? Yeah. Really?

You would have got this question. And that's not Walter Mitty. It's not Walter Mitty. Is it Alexander Mitty? It's not Alexander Mitty. Is it Chris Mitty? Is it Sean Penn Mitty? It's not Sean Penn Mitty.

Hmm. Gosh. Walter Mitty has nothing to do with this, if I can be honest. Who is Walter Mitty? Why do you keep mentioning him? A character from a film. Okay. And probably, I think, a book also. Right. keep mentioning him? A character from a film. Okay. And probably I think a book also.

Right. Which also, this is a book and film. That's what I was thinking. Yes. Yeah, yeah. That's the connection. So, this has been suggested by Mac Shildroth from Canada, Vinnie Policastro from New Jersey, Jemisin D from Virginia, Aidan Whalen from Connecticut, Louis Angel from Wales, and Nick Slater from Cambridge in the UK.

And this is how we'll start. In early 1992, a man named Wayne Westerberg received a postcard from his friend and former employee, Alex. The postcard read, This is the last you should hear from me, Wayne. Arrived here two days ago. It's very difficult to catch rides in the Yukon Territory, but I finally got here.

Please return all mail I received to the sender. It might be a very long time before I return south. If this adventure proves fatal and you don't ever hear from me again, I want you to know you're a great man. I now walk into the wild. Whoa, that's sick. What a sign-off. Yeah.

What's on the other side of the postcard is it like you know a picture of like a couple of beers or something it's like that's very poetic for him it didn't really match the tone of the postcard you turned over it's a very risque postcard oh my god i now walk into the wild and i imagine that the guy who received the postcard went, Chris who? Yeah. Chris Mitty? Well, it actually was from Alex. So, he would have been super confused then. Opening sentence. He got a postcard from his friend and former employee, Alex. Alex, yeah.

I can see why he'd be confused. But Alex was actually Christopher Johnson McCandless. Chris McCandless. Okay. Why is he called Alex? This is confusing. You'll find out. He was born in Inglewood, California in February 1968,

the eldest child of Walt. See, Matt, I knew you'd done your research on this before. Walt and Mitty's son. No, Walt McCandless and Billy McCandless. He had a younger sister named Corrine, who he was very, very close to. Corrine Aduljaba? No, Corrine McCandless. Oh, okay.

Interesting. This is one of those families where they've all got the same surname. Is there any relation? To Corrine... McCandless. McCandless. Yes. Yeah, yeah yeah she is her oh my god this is a nightmare episode earlier sorry jess no i think it's fine because the episode gets real sad and grim so it's good to keep it nice and light here it's a great name mccandless isn't it

because i thought you'd say it and it would like like, you know, trigger a memory of it. Oh, maybe I have heard that, but I haven't. And I can say I've never heard that name because I love it. And are you aware- And I've never heard anything I love before. Yeah. I mean, you're obviously aware that Sean Penn was attached to the film. Yes, I know the vague concept of the movie.

I've never seen it, though. Yeah, okay, great. How old's the film? 2007. Yeah, I think I vaguely- You might recognize- Into the Wild is a name I've heard of, but beyond that, I don't know. Yeah, cool.

Well, in the mid 1970s, when Chris was around eight, the family moved to Virginia, where Walt had secured a job as an antenna specialist with NASA. Billy worked for Hughes Aircraft Company, a major American aerospace and defence contractor founded in the 30s by previous report topic, Howard Hughes. What a guy. What a wild, wild guy. Now, Chris's life story was largely made famous by the book Into the Wild, which was first published in 1996 and written by John Krakauer.

Incredible name. Also a fantastic name. John Krakauer. I'll talk a bit more about John's book later, but I think it's worth mentioning early that there were very important details left out of Krakauer's book on purpose. So, Krakauer spoke extensively to Chris's sister, Corrine, who gave really important and insightful information into their childhoods and upbringing. And she told John about their father's alcoholism, the verbal and physical

abuse that their parents inflicted on each other and on the children, and the blame they placed on Chris for being the reason they were stuck in the marriage. So Corrine asked John not to include her and her brother's difficult childhood in his book. At the time, there was hope for her to have a healthy relationship with their parents and didn't want the story to ruin any chance of that. So Krakauer honoured her request, although some people commented later that they had picked up on the subtle implications he'd made to allude to this abuse. But why is this worth mentioning at this point? Because the story of what Chris McCandless did and what happens to him was hugely divisive

and a polarising story. And for the first two decades that people were telling the story of Chris McCandless, they weren't fully informed about some of the reasons and motivations that he had to live a nomadic lifestyle. So we have a bit more of that context now as we learn a little bit more. Gotcha. So Chris graduated high school in 1986. And while he excelled academically, a number of teachers and fellow students observed that he marched to the beat of a different drummer. McCandless also served as captain of the cross-country team, where he would urge

teammates to treat running as a spiritual exercise in which they were running against the force of darkness, all the evil in the world, all the hatred. So he was a pretty intense teenager. The other people were like, I just like running real fast. And far. And he's like, no, we run against darkness. During the summer before college, Chris took his Datsun. He bought a secondhand yellow Datsun that he absolutely loved. And he took it on a road trip, something he was sort of known to do during school breaks. He'd just go on adventures. He drove from their home in Virginia back to Southern California, which is a big trip.

It's like 2,600 miles, 4,000 Ks, and visited family who still lived there. And it was during this trip that he learnt of a family secret. His mother, Billie, was not Walt's first wife. In fact, his father, Walt McCandless, had been married when Chris's parents had met at work and started an affair. Billie had become pregnant with Chris, and for a time Walt had split his time between two separate families. Secretly?

No, both women knew of each other. Okay. He even fathered another child with his first wife after Chris was born, and Chris discovered that he had six half-siblings from his father's first marriage. And the author, John Krakauer, speculated that this discovery had a profound impact on Chris's outlook on life. So he comes back from the road trip,

and I believe it didn't tell his parents that he knew the truth about his half-siblings, but he did tell his sister, and he left Virginia for Emory College in Atlanta. How did he discover the secret? Yeah, the secret. He went home. He went back to California and visited family. Right, and they were just like, Oh, have you seen your secret heart i've said too much yeah

wow yeah without checking in with the parents or anything yeah i think uh yeah yeah i think that i think the i don't know the relationship between that family and his parents wasn't great right potentially yeah i don't i don't know exactly how it came about. Well, maybe because he had a second family. Yeah, second family and maybe some of that family had witnessed some of the not so great treatment of the kids. So, maybe we're just like, hey, you need to know. Your dad's not great. So, despite his scruffier appearance than that of his classmates, Chris was a really

bright student, got great grades all through college. Despite his scruffiness. Well, he just sort of didn't fit in. Right. A few sources kind of mentioned that, like- That he's scruffy. Well, just because, like, it's- I'm picturing a beard.

You're going off to, like, a fancy college and everybody's very straight-laced and, like- He's slightly undone. He's running from class to class, escaping the darkness, yelling about it. They're like, this guy is a bit different. This guy's wild. But, yeah, he was very bright. He graduated in 1990 with a double major in history and anthropology. But he saw titles and honours as immaterial and irrelevant.

Right. What's anthropology again? Study of people. Yes, that's what I thought as well. Yeah. Anthropods. That's us. We're people.

We're anthropods. We're anthropods. Anthropology. Or people's apologies. Sorry to all people. Yeah, so he's like, he's got a double major and he's like, I don't care. Degrees, it's all bullshit.

It's all made up. Later he would say that- But I have finished it and I cannot take that away from me. He would say that university is a 20th century fad and not something to aspire to. 20th century fad. There's only a couple of years left in the century and it's been here the whole time, but I reckon it's going to die out by the end of the century. Don't worry about it.

We haven't been doing education that long and we won't. He'd always had a bit of a restless spirit, but it was really coming into its own at this time in his life when his parents announced they were going to buy chris a new car as a graduation present he became furious he was really angry um because he already had a perfectly good car why did he need a new car he had a datsun 120b all the material shit he's like i got a car velvet Velvet interior. Velvet. And yellow. Yeah. Beautiful. That's some good stuff.

But, I mean, it's funny that he gets mad about it. Couldn't he just be like, I'm okay. Thank you, though. Yeah, but I think, like, you know, it's that sort of young teen angst sort of thing of, like, oh, you, these parents are the man, you know, and they're like. They're always trying to give me free expensive new cars. Yeah. You disgust me. Yeah.

I heard his parents were bad news and didn't treat their kids well, but I didn't know they were buying them cars. That's awful. Terrible stuff. That's horrible stuff. They really crossed a line in my mind too. He had a college fund, which was apparently like a gift from a family friend. Oh, God.

The family friends are awful as well. I think childless family friend had sort of given um chris and kareen money towards college and um chris still had about 24 000 in his college fund and he's um you know discussion with his parents was um that he'd use that to attend law school and they're obviously delighted but chris had an entirely different plan not long after he graduated, Chris donated the entire $24,000 to Oxfam America, got rid of all his stuff, packed up his car with a few essentials and left. It was the summer of 1990 and Chris drove west in a cross-country trip to California. By the end of the summer, he was in Lake Mead, Arizona. He drove his car down into a dry riverbed to camp He took out what little money he had with him

About $120 And set it on fire Oxam could have had that He set it on fire For warmth? Was this the middle of winter? No, summer You hearing much?

He could have saved that for the winter time to burn Yeah, that's right Or saved it for performing a magic show for other people. That's true. I'm sure it would have been a nice warm fire, $120 worth. Or $1 bills. Well, these days, $120 wouldn't get you much warmth, would it? The way the bloody gas bills are.

So, while he's in Lake Mead, he's kind of parked his car like in a dry riverbed, but Lake Mead was hit with flash flooding and he sort of had just enough time to get out a few bits and pieces out of his car. He was sort of camping in his car at the time. He had time to get out a few bits and pieces and get away. And then set those on fire as well. Good girl. Is that true?

Did he just, was he a pyro? He was not a pyro. But the car was like being flooded. Yeah, the car's. He would have hated that. Hit by a flash flood. Much harder to burn. Wet car.

Why do I smell a wet car? So, but he's got the bare essentials. Yeah. And his car's been hit by a flash flood. Okay. And he's got no cash because he's burnt it. He's burnt it all. He doesn't need it.

He doesn't want it. He doesn't need it. Are there many shops out in the wild? I mean, he's like in and out of towns. He could have kept the cash. Yeah. But he didn't want it. He didn't want to have a safety net.

Yeah. That's right. I get it. He's burned his bridges on purpose. Yeah. He loves burning stuff. He loves to burn. That's like when Dave quit his last job in TV and he said,

he looked at his boss in the eyes and he said, if I ever see you again, I will fuck you in the face. Yeah. And then he did like fists up. Yeah. He said, check one, two. Uh-huh. You know?

Which is really not very intimidating with Dave's tiny little arms. Oh, you're laughing. Okay. See you in the car park. But he had the crazy eyes. He said, if I see you again. So, don't even think about giving me this job back. That's why I love burning bridges, you're right. Yeah.

Please take me back. Please. I'm so sorry about that. No, no. That was a really bad choice. It's too late, Dave. Shouldn't have set my wallet on fire in the middle of the office either. That was dumb.

It set the sprinklers off and it ruined a lot of very expensive television equipment. And the ability to burn them because they're all damp now. Which is all I want to do. I just want to burn it. So, Chris figured he may as well ditch the car. It wasn't insured. His driver's license and license plates had expired. So, even just driving it around was a little bit of a ticking time bomb of when he was going to get in trouble for that anyway. So, he removed the plates. He buried them somewhere like nearby, left a note on the car saying that the car was abandoned and up for grabs, took what he could carry and continued on foot.

Right. And a little fun fact, his car was later found, repaired and put into service as an undercover vehicle for local police department. Wow. He probably wouldn't have liked that. His car has become like a narc car. Yeah, his car was involved in a lot of drug busts.

He'd probably be quite upset by that. The man got my car. God damn it. Meanwhile, back home. I said free to a good home, not a narc home. Meanwhile, back home, his parents hadn't heard from him for a while. He had his final college transcripts and grades mailed to his parents' house and they'd arrived in June and his parents were like,

oh, he's got great grades, good. And the instructions were to burn them. Burn them. But they didn't hear from him for a couple of months. And by August, they were a little concerned. He didn't have a phone in his apartment either, so they couldn't call him. So, they drove to visit him in Atlanta only to find his apartment empty and a full rent sign out the front. And when they returned home to Virginia, they found that all the letters that they'd sent to Chris over the summer had been returned.

He had asked the post office to hold the letters until August before returning them to their sender. And this was done so that it would be a while before his parents realized that Chris was missing. He was basically giving himself a head start. Okay. Clever. How old is he again, sorry? He's like 19. Right.

He's probably a little bit, he's like 21, sorry. Right. While on the road, Chris also took on a new identity. He introduced himself to fellow travellers as Alex. Alexander Graham Bell. Would write his name as Alexander Super Tramp. Oh, that's fantastic. Fantastic cover.

That is a good name. No one will question that. Nobody's questioning Super Tramp. So, he's now travelling northwest and he hitchhiked into the Sierra Nevada mountains. For a couple of months, he's travelling all over the place, sometimes on trains but mostly hitchhiking. And while hitchhiking, he met a man known as Crazy Ernie

who offered him work at a rundown ranch in Northern California. After working the ranch for 11 days, however, McCandless realised that Crazy Ernie was never going to pay him so he left the ranch and resumed hitchhiking apparently he like the ranch that crazy ernie had just had like piles of junk and stuff around so and there was plenty of other like vagabonds or people who were just traveling working there for him as well and chris is like this guy's never gonna pay us so he took a bike that was like just in one of the many junk piles and rode it to a town. Fuck you, Ernie.

I'm let go of the fire thing. He does that once. No, this guy's a pirate. And Crazy Ernie, yet another example of nominative determinism. Yes, that's right. Someone's named him that. Soon after, he started running a telephone shop. Crazy Ernie's deals.

If they're on the floor, they're out the door. If this man is known as Crazy Ernie, does that mean he's introducing himself as Crazy Ernie? And the other guy said, hi, I'm Alexander Supertramp. He said, hello, I'm Crazy Ernie. I've got a job for you, Supertramp. It's interesting that he is now looking for cash again, because he did, I far and recall, right, right he had some but then he set it on fire.

Yep. Wow. There you go. Now he just wants a little bit and then he'll set that on fire. You're obsessed with him being a pyro. Obviously he's looking for things to burn. Right. Okay.

And money is the most flammable thing. Most flammable thing. He had money to burn. Now he's burnt it. Now he's got no money to burn. Name something more flammable than money. I can't. You can't.

I can't. I've thought about it. Like lighter fluid? No. Money is more flammable. It's pretty dangerous. No. Money is more flammable than fire.

Fire will put out money. It's that flammable than fire. Fire will put out money. It's that flammable. I guess fire is probably the least flammable thing. Yeah. You can't set fire to fire, can you? You can fight fire with fire. You can. That is the stupidest thing we've ever said.

I don't know if that's true. It'd be up there. Yeah, it'd definitely be up there, but we've said some pretty dumb shit. All you have to do is look through that Do Go On Wisdom Twitter account. You're like, God, we said some stupid stuff. Yeah, that's going on there. And we'll read it and go, I have no idea the context of that. So he's left Crazy Ernie's ranch.

But at least he's got a bike now. That's pretty good. Well, yeah, he rides the bike to like a town and then hitchhikes out of there. So, he's bouncing all over the place. He's picking up jobs here and there for short periods of time. And he's living the nomadic vagabond lifestyle that he had dreamt of. Apparently, at one point, he like worked in a McDonald's for a couple of months. He worked in like a sort of bar in Vegas or something.

Like he's just kind of, he's picking up a little bit of work to stock up on supplies and then he takes off again. It does sound like the Poker Face show, except he's not solving mysteries on the road. Or is he? Or is he? Oh. Nah.

In the autumn of 1990, Chris is picked up hitchhiking by a man named Wayne Westerberg, who I mentioned at the very top. Postcard man. The two got chatting. Chris told Wayne that it was his plan to go to Seiko Hot Springs, a place he'd heard about from some rubber tramps. And rubber tramps are people who are like traveling around just wandering, but they

have a car, they have a vehicle. Leather tramps are the ones who are on foot. So, he'd heard from some rubber tramps about these hot springs. He's like, I'm going to go there. I get the rubber tramps are the ones who are on foot. So, he'd heard from some rubber tramps. Gotcha. About these hot springs. He's like, I'm going to go there. I get the rubber tramps is the tyres. Yeah.

It's the leather. They're wearing leather shoes. Gotcha. I would guess so, yeah. Dress shoes. Yeah. Yep. Leather soles.

Cuban. Ooh. Lovely heel. What? You can't look nice on the road? No, I would hope you would. You can't be dressed for any occasion on the road? I'd rather be overdressed than underdressed, mate. Let me tell you that much.

I've learned that. I'm out on, I'm hiking in high heels. Yes, just in case. Because I don't know if there's maybe a fancy soiree at the top of that hill. I can't see, it's really high up. I can't see, it's quite high, a tall mountain. Champagne on arrival. And I don't want to look a fool. Yeah. You know, full face

makeup, ball gown heels, any occasion. Yeah. Ready to go. And if somebody's like, what are you doing? It's just casual. In that case, I'm like, this is a bit. Yeah. You know what I mean?

But it's always better to be overdressed than undressed. And you can always take off a dress. Exactly right. But yeah, it's very hard to put on a dress. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. It is. He gets it.

I get trapped in them. Where's the head hole? There's a hole either side. Yeah. Is trapped in them. Where's the head hole? There's a hole either side. Yeah. Is this on right? Where's the head hole? There's a hole either side. What do I do?

Dave's always got his head stuck out the arm hole. Yeah. He looks great, though. He does make it work. So, when they're driving along, they get to the spot where Chris wants wants to be dropped off and the weather is horrendous it's really wet um and wayne's like hey why don't i've got a trailer like a i've got a place to stay you can come and crash with me i'll give you a lift back here tomorrow but like it's horrendous don't head off right now chris is like all right so he stays with it wayne for three days And when he's finally ready to move on, Wayne told Alex, as he knew him, to look him up in

Carthage, South Dakota, if he was ever passing by and wanted some work. Because Wayne owned and operated a grain elevator and could offer Alex some work if he wanted it. Don't ask me what a grain elevator is. I think it's like a silo kind of thing. Like it's storing grain. A few weeks later, Alex turned up in Carthage and Wayne was true to his word. He later said that Alex was the hardest worker he'd ever seen. He said, didn't matter what it was, he would do it. Hard physical labor, mucking rotten grain and dead rats out of the bottom of the hole. If he started a job, he'd finish it. He described this work ethic to almost be a moral thing for Alex and also described him as someone who read a lot and also thought too much. He would get stuck on things, needing to find the absolute right answer before

he could move on in his brain. The two were quite fond of each other and it seemed Chris enjoyed time working for Wayne. I'm going to use Chris and Alex fairly interchangeably sometimes here because most people know him as Alex. We know him as Alex or Chris, but his name is Chris. Unfortunately, police arrived and arrested Wayne W his name is Chris. Okay. Unfortunately, police arrived and arrested Wayne Westerberg for selling black boxes. Essentially, it was like pirated satellite TV. And with Westerberg jailed, work dried up and Chris was feeling a little restless anyway. So, he decided to move on and head back out on the road. He'd been there for, I think, a couple of months. And some people kind of theorize that if wayne hadn't been hadn't got arrested then maybe chris would have stayed there a bit longer and like headed off in

better weather later who knows but he's moving on before leaving carthage mccandless gave westerberg a 1942 edition of leo tolstoy's novel war and peace and later sent him a postcard this is quite a long postcard but it's quite nice yeah it makes sense war and peace is later send him a postcard. This is quite a long postcard, but it's quite nice. Yeah, that makes sense. War and peace is a long postcard too. He writes, hey, Wayne, how's it going? I hope that your situation has improved since the time we last spoke. I've been tramping around Arizona for about a month now. This is a good state. There is all kinds of fantastic scenery and the climate is wonderful. But apart from sending greetings, the main purpose of this card is to thank you once again for all your hospitality. It's rare to find a man as generous

and good-natured as you are. Sometimes I wish I hadn't met you though. Tramping is too easy with all this money. My days were more exciting when I was penniless and had to forage around for my next meal. I couldn't make it now without money, however, as there is very little fruiting agriculture down here at this time.

Please thank Kevin again for all the clothes he gave me. I would have froze to death without them. I hope that he got that book to you. Wayne, you really should read War and Peace. I meant it when I said you had one of the highest characters of any man I've met. This is a very powerful and symbolic book. It has things in it that I think you will understand, things that escape most people. As for me, I've decided that I'm going to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up. One day, I'll get back to you, Wayne, and repay some of your kindness. A case of Jack Daniels, maybe?

Till then, I'll always think of you as a friend. God bless you, Alexander. That's a lovely postcard. Isn't that really nice? And I think it's cool because it kind of gives you a bit of an insight into why he's why he's burning money why he's living this lifestyle he enjoys the freedom he enjoys the challenge i guess doesn't he likes the challenge yeah of having to sort of think on his feet to figure stuff out to rough it a little bit anyway from uh this fascinating website

wikipedia.org, which I think is like an outdoorsman kind of site. Right. That's why I've never heard of it. Yeah. W would be for wood, woods. Yeah. I for into the.

Into the. K for. Come on. Let's go into the woods. I for. Into the woods again. Into the woods. I went home for a bit, but I'm back in the woods. P for. People who go into the woods. I for... Into the woods again. Into the woods.

I went home for a bit, but I'm back in the woods. P for... People who go into the woods. E for... E, I'm having a great time in the woods. D is obviously the woods. The woods, yeah, is where I'm at. I, as we've established, is into the woods. Into the woods again.

Sorry, I had to go home a little bit, but I'm back into the woods. And A is Alexander Supertrap. Alexander Supertrap. I'm having a great time in the woods. Dot org. So, from that wonderful dot org website, McCandless then headed to Colorado where he used money from his job to buy kayak supplies as well as a handgun.

He then navigated the Colorado River without a permit and was occasionally pursued by wildlife and park rangers who had heard of his exploits from other river travellers, several of whom had been concerned that McCandless had been seen whitewater rafting in dangerous areas of the river with no safety equipment. It's also worth noting that Chris McCandless was scared of water. Wow, he's really not.

Because it puts out fires. He's being pursued by both the authorities and the animals. Were they in cahoots to take him out? Old life rangers. I don't think he was- Seeking some sort of furry vengeance. A classic Brendan Fraser film, recently covered on Phrasing the Bar, our Patreon-only podcast.

An absolute beauty. We loved it. The authorities attempted but never succeeded in locating McCandless, who was wanted due to his lack of proper river training as well as kayaking on the river without a valid boating license. McCandless eventually followed the Colorado River all the way to Mexico, where he crossed the international border through a spillway at a dam. After encountering waterfalls through which he could no longer navigate in a

canoe, McCandless abandoned his river journey and spent a few days alone in a village in Mexico. With no way to support himself, he attempted to re-enter the US and was arrested for carrying a firearm at a border checkpoint. McCandless was briefly held in custody but released without charges after his gun was confiscated. Following this experience in Mexico, McCandless began hitchhiking north, eventually winding up back in South Dakota. The trouble with him is, because he loves starting, like, burning stuff so much,

both of his arms would be firearms, you know, because they're always... So, how do you cross through without... Yeah, without firearms. Yeah, I was like, both of these. The government have got them on a list, two of the most deadliest firearms. Yeah. I was like, both of these. The government have got them on a list. Two of the most deadliest firearms. Yeah.

Now, that might be the stupidest thing we've ever said. Again. I don't know. You regretted it instantly, which was fun to watch. Oh, yeah. We're pushing hard today. It's coming naturally today. Honestly honestly this sounds like the best i'm so um envious of this trip i'm envious of him enjoying this trip because i would never do this yeah i do not see myself doing any any of this kind of stuff i don't see why you would want to do it but i also

see the fun and adventure if you are enjoying that kind of thing yeah i wish i was a free spirit enough to do this but i would overthink it at every point and i'll talk about this later as well but i think a lot of people feel a bit that way or people who are slightly more inclined to that sort of adventure than we are really romanticized his whole trip his whole sort of journey and kind of admire him for it and other people are like you're an idiot you've gone into things with like no experience you could have killed yourself on the river because you don't have kayaking experience you don't have the permit nobody knows you're out that you know oh i'd be dead by now for sure 100 i'd be so bored for starters i'd be like where's netflix god following a river all the way

down america and mexico yeah sick i think pretty amazing i mean the picture in my head is amazing and also the the like you should check out the picture in my head sometime, Jess. Could you show me? Yeah. Oh, my God, that's beautiful. How did we do that? You also think, like, the miles that he's covering, hitchhiking and walking, is insane as well. And I also feel like I'm sort of surprised that early 90s hitchhiking is still, like, happening and so prevalent and he's fine, you know.

Like, he's meeting nice people, making great connections with people. Yeah, I must say when Wayne was like, hey, come back to my trailer, I was like, oh, dear. This happens a few times for him. He, like, I haven't even mentioned a few of the people that he- that really made an impact on him and he on them. Like, he made friends along the way. There was this woman, Jan, and her boyfriend, Bob,

who were like they were rubber tramps. They had like a van kind of thing. And they just kind of stumbled upon him one day. He was like foraging for berries where they'd stopped. And she just sort of looked at him and was like, he looks hungry. Or, you know, like he's around the same age as my son. I'll take him in. And they- and he stayed with them for a little bit and they fed him and they became good friends.

At one point, he gets picked up by this like 80-year-old man who- and they just click, get along really well. He like stays with him for a few days, wanders off. A few weeks later, he like calls him to come pick him up from somewhere and they just have this really lovely friendship. And I just think that's wild because- It's really interesting as well because he obviously- he wanted to get away from people in a certain way, but he's also clearly so good with people.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's very- he seems to be very endearing. People who meet him are really drawn to him. Nobody in, like, telling this story is like, I don't know, that guy gave me a bad vibe. Like they all think maybe he's a little eccentric, but he's friendly and they really like him. So it's strange, isn't it?

Because I can't imagine hitchhiking. Or if I was in strife and I'm walking along, I would be so suspicious of anybody who's stopping to offer help as well. But this is the early 90s. That's right. And True Crime Podcast hadn't come out yet. That's right. We didn't know.

They weren't aware. We didn't know. No one knew about the concept of murder. There is something a bit sad about that, right? That we don't trust people as much as we used to, like because of a couple of bad apples. Yeah. But like those bad apples. They're pretty bad. They're not just mean to you. They of bad apples. Yeah. But like those bad apples. They're pretty bad.

They're not just mean to you. They'll kill you. There's nothing meaner than that. Nothing. There isn't though, is there? I can't think of anything. So, from the very beginning though, Chris had always dreamt of Alaska. He'd made a few short trips to Alaska before, but now that he was out fulfilling his dream

of this nomadic lifestyle, Alaska was his goal. In early 1992, he hitchhiked from South Dakota all the way to Fairbanks, Alaska. That is a huge trip. Alaska is so far away and it's so fucking big. It's huge, as we've discussed very recently. Yeah, one-fifth of the entire continent, right? It's massive. Entire country.

Do you have to go through Canada to get to Alaska? Yeah, you have to go, yeah, west through. Hmm. Makes you think. Hmm, does. Because the US bought it off someone, Russia or something. Yeah, we talked about that a couple of weeks ago. Bought it from Russia.

You'd think Canada- Sue Woods Foley Would have made more sense For Canada To have bought it Seeing as it was Touching them Yeah

So now we've got to Buy everything we touch Your shop is a nightmare To go to You touch it You buy it Yeah That's my rule

You think about it You buy it You're in my shop You've bought it If you look at it It's yours I need to get out of here Please help me.

Make me an offer. This is your shop now. I accept. Congratulations. I'll take everything in your wallet. So, he's made it all the way to Fairbanks in Alaska. On the 28th of April, he's hitchhiking just outside Fairbanks and he was picked up by a local electrician named Jim Galleon.

Chris explained he was heading to the Stampede Trail, a very remote trail, apparently about 37 miles or 60 k's around trip that has two major river crossings along it as well. So it's a pretty, parts of it are sort of paved roads, but only small parts. It's a pretty, pretty tough trail. And they've obviously got a fair way to drive because it's Alaska and everything's so spread out. So as the two are driving along and chatting, Jim Galleon made a few observations about the boy he'd picked up, who had introduced himself as Alex. First, his pack seemed too light for the type of hiking he was setting out to do.

It didn't appear that he had enough or the right kind of equipment. He had very few rations with him. He had about a 10 pound bag of rice and that seemed to sort of be the staple, but he had very little else with him. He had a rifle, but it became pretty clear to Galleon that this kid didn't have much of the relevant experience. So Galleon later said he had deep doubts about Alex's ability to survive the harsh and unforgiving Alaskan bush. He tried repeatedly to persuade Alex to delay his trip.

At one point, he even offered to detour to Anchorage to buy him some supplies and equipment. He was like, don't, I don't think you're set up for this. I can get you more stuff. Yeah, I'll pay for more stuff. But Alex politely refused and seemed content to go on his way. Galleon managed to convince Alex to take a pair of extra tough boots. They were waterproof, really tough boots.

Much better option than Chris's shoes, which weren't waterproof. Flip flops. He's like, I'm good. Galleon also had a couple of sandwiches and a packet of corn chips and he gave those to Alex as well. He's like, just take some food, please. Take some corn chips. With that, Galleon dropped Chris off and thought to himself that this kid would probably wander back towards the highway in a couple of days and hitchhike out of there. He's like, he's not going to last too long. It'll be right. We can wait for clean water solutions. Or we can

engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge Indigenous cultures. Or we can learn from Indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. After a couple of days of hiking, Chris came upon an old abandoned bus. It was originally one of the buses used by the U-Turn Construction Company to provide site accommodation for the construction crew from Fairbanks that were working on road upgrades in

1960. And inside it had a couple of beds and a wood-burning stove. And the other buses had been removed after they were no longer needed. But this particular bus, bus 142, had a broken rear axle, so it was just left behind. They just didn't bother moving it, which was great because it kind of meant that other people had, as they were doing this track, they'd use it for shelter. Originally, Chris attempted to continue heading west until he hit the Bering Sea. However, he was deterred by the thick Alaskan bush and returned to the bus where he set up camp. In his journal, he marked his arrival at the bus as magic bus,

which it would affectionately be referred to from then on. He had four and a half kilos or 10 pounds of rice, a Remington automatic rifle with 400 rounds of ammunition, a number of books, including one on local plant life, some personal effects and a few items of camping equipment. He took quite a lot of photos along the way and he wrote in his journal and self-portrait photos and journal entries indicate that he foraged for edible plants and hunted game including porcupines, squirrels and birds.

On the 9th of June he managed to stalk and shoot a moose. He noted this down in his journal in big capital bubble writing with several exclamation marks. Like his journal sort of has like, it'll just sort of say Davis and just like a few little notes. And this one's just in much bigger writing than everything else. It just says moose. Moose and the S is like one of those stussy S's. That's a lot of meat, I imagine.

Isn't it? Yeah. And so like if you can preserve it, that's going to set him up for ages. Rice and mousse. Great combo. Sounds like a great combo. Beautiful stew. I assume he's got, like, some spices and stuff.

When I say personal effects, he's got a little kitchen set up. Personal spice rack. Oregano. That's probably in there. Yeah. What else? Basil. Yep.

Cumin. Pepper. Pepper. Pepper. Paprika. Cumin. Pepper. Pepper. Pepper. Paprika. Paprika. What else is in there? Trader Joe's bagel mix.

Everything bagel seasoning from Trader Joe's. God, I love Trader Joe's. When I was in LA, I loved it too. Great. So good. What is Trader Joe's. God, I love Trader Joe's. When I was in LA, I loved it too. Great. So good. What is Trader Joe's? It's like a chain of supermarket. Right.

But they've got their own brand of everything. Ah, okay. You see it a lot on TikTok. People are like, I got this from Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's. Which is kind of funny because we don't have that same relationship with supermarkets. Not really.

It's not like- I got this from Coles. Yeah, there's Coles brand everything, but I don't really see people being like holding it up to the camera, their other hand behind to show you their Coles oregano, you know. That is funny. Trader Jazz. Okay.

Anyway, so he's shot a moose, but he didn't have a lot of experience in preserving the meat and his attempts failed. So, the meat was spoiled. Oh, poor moose. So, yeah, it was a waste of moose. Waste of a big animal. And not super helpful for him either. What were his attempts at doing that?

I don't know. I think they talk about it in, I think Krakow talks about it a little bit in his book. I didn't really note much of it down. I have no idea how you would preserve. You've got to salt it or keep it really cold or something. Because it feels like it would be pretty cold already. Yeah, being Alaska. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how you would. I don't think the bus had a freezer in it. Certainly not a moose size one. We didn't mention salt as one of the seasonings. I don't think he has it. He tried to put the bagel mix on it. Certainly not a moose size one. We didn't mention salt as one of the seasonings. He has it. He tried to put the bagel mix on it. It might have it does have salt in it, but not

enough. Not enough. You know a bit about this bagel mix, Bob. Yeah. Garlic, onion, salt. How do you know this? Because it's everything seasoning. You know the everything bagel you have? Uh-huh. That's the seasoning. Right. From Trader Joe's. From Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's You know the everything bagel you have? Uh-huh. That's the seasoning. Right.

From Trader Joe's. From Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's came up with everything bagels. No. But that's the seasoning you can get. To bake your own bagels. It's really good in avocado. So, yeah, we brought some back from Trader Joe's.

Yeah. Good stuff. You didn't bring any for me? Absolutely not. And you can't get everything. I'll bring back some from Coles. I think the only place you can get it in Australia is like Costco. Oh, yeah.

Or I found a company that called it avocado toast stuff, and you sprinkle that in your avocado, mash it all up. Oh, that's good stuff. Heaven. Yeah, right. Absolute heaven. I'm also a fan of dukkah. Oh, yeah, yep.

Dukkah delicious. Don't mind a bit of dukkah. None of this will help preserve a moose, though. Sorry, that's dukkah. Yeah, sorry. bit of dukkah none of this will help preserve a moose though sorry that's dukkah yeah sorry nothing so we say something so you have it for a couple of days and then it's it's gone yeah and you probably could have had it for months yeah exactly ah crap so that's pretty just that's upsetting this is from wikipedia again in july after living in the bus for a little over two months he decided to head back to civilization but the trail was blocked by the impassable Teklanika River,

swollen with late summer runoff from the Cantwell Glacier. The watercourse by that stage was considerably higher and swifter than when he'd crossed in April. McCandless didn't have a detailed map of the region and was unaware that there was an abandoned hand-operated cable car that crossed the river about a half a mile downstream from where he had previously crossed. Oh, no. You're kidding. Half a mile. 800 meters. Like, it's not far. And there's a podcast that only came out earlier this year,

You're Wrong About, where they talk about Chris McCandless. And they're sort of mentioning that, if you've got a lot of kind of wilderness experience you would continue up up or down the river to find another sort of crossing there's got to be something but he doesn't have a heap of that experience i'm gonna remember he doesn't have a man follow a river i mean didn't we learn that who was the woman who fell out of the sky juliana kubka that's right you follow she followed the river eventually we'll hit hit sea. Yeah. Or people. Yeah, or people. Or civilization because people use it as a water source.

Yeah. We build near rivers. You follow it and you get to the top of a mountain. Yeah, you've got to follow the right direction. You're like, ah. And you get there and there's a swarrow. You're not wearing your high heels or your ball gown. It's embarrassing. I'm so embarrassed, but also I really need help.

I fell from the sky. Well, the other thing is a small river will usually run into a large river, which might run into a large river. More likely to see people or it'll hit the ocean. Right. But, yeah, it must be tough to sort of know which direction to go in because you could follow the river downstream for ages and ages and ages and ages and maybe find people,

or there could have been people right behind you, you know. I know, yeah. And with that, so a hand-operated cable car, so that would have worked. I think so, yeah. He would have been able to cross the river. Hate that. Hate that for him. At this point, he headed back to the bus and re-established his camp.

And in total, his journal documents over 100 days, around four months, living in this area and using the bus as shelter, which is a really long time. The bag of rice had pretty much run out, food was scarce, and Chris was unwell. Day 107 simply read, beautiful blueberries. Day 108 through 112 contained no words and were marked only with slashes. And on day 113, there was no entry. On September 6, 1992, a couple from Anchorage who were out hiking arrived at the bus. Upon entering, they were hit immediately with a strong and awful smell

and were also spooked by what looked like a lump on one of the beds. They see a note taped to the bus's rear exit door which reads, SOS, I need your help. I am injured, near death and too weak to hike out. I am all alone. This is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening.

Thank you, Chris McCandless. And then it says August with a question mark because he has no idea what month, date. Oh, right. He's sort of lost track of all sort of time. And that was sort of the appeal for him was not knowing what day, date. Oh, right. He sort of lost track of all sort of time. And that was sort of the appeal for him, was not knowing what day it was. Not long after, another group, this time hunters, also arrived. So, this bus hasn't seen anybody in ages, and now on one day, five people have turned up.

Wow. The couple explained what they'd come across, and one of the hunters went inside to investigate. And there he found Chris McCandless's body tucked into his sleeping bag. Police were radioed and arrived the next day and his body was removed from the bus. An autopsy on Chris McCandless found no broken bones or internal injuries, but because his remains weighed a mere 67 pounds or 30 kilos. Oh, that's so little. Starvation was recorded as the cause of death. In discussing the story of Chris McCandless, some people find it kind of interesting that

he chose to sign off that SOS note with his real name, given that he'd been going by Alexander Supertramp for so long. But I kind of wonder if he did that in case he didn't live and then it would be easier to identify who it was. Who he actually is, yeah. You know, if he writes Alexander Supertramp, there's no record of Alexander Supertramp being anywhere or anybody, so maybe, but I don't know.

Or at the end you're kind of going, oh, this is like sort of fun adventure, it's over. Yeah. I really need help now. Yeah, I need help. Sort of, yeah, the whole dream he had is. And the line, this ain't no joke. Yeah.

Probably works better if the name isn't Alexander Superman. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, because you would read that and go, ha, super dream. Yeah. Great name. That's funny. Great name, great joke. I'll keep going.

I'll keep walking. Good stuff. Hope I run into him. Yeah. What a fun guy. And are we thinking that those delicious blueberries were in fact not blueberries? No, they probably were blueberries. Oh, okay.

But there are some theories. A few days later, the scratching is like, I thought the next century was going to be like, they probably were blueberries. Oh, okay. But there are some theories. A few days later, the scratching is like, I thought the next century was going to be like, those weren't blueberries. Oh, God. So, the story was covered in the Anchorage Daily News, picked up by the New York Times. Jim Gallion, the last person that's seen him,

the guy who gave him the boots, he thinks this dead hiker they're talking about is probably Alex, as does Chris's former employer and friend, Wayne Westerberg. They're like, fuck, I think that's Alex. His oldest half-brother, Sam, is contacted by the Fairbank police and shown a photo of a gaunt man with a beard and long hair, the opposite of the shorn, clean-shaven sibling that Sam remembered.

The exact date and time of his death are unknown. Near the time of his death, McCandless took a picture of himself waving while holding a written note, which read, I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all. They think he'd probably been dead for a couple of weeks before they found him. Jeez, that's still so close.

Isn't it? Considering he was there for months. And like, yeah, just a couple of weeks. Yeah. It's still so close. Isn't it? Considering he was there for months. And like, yeah, just a couple of weeks. Yeah. It's always the way, isn't it? And also the fact that they were able to radio police and they could have come the next day. Yeah. If you'd had a radio or something like that, you could communicate, you'd be saved pretty

instantly. Yeah. It's awful, isn't it? I think, yeah, I think the, oh, I don't remember. isn't it i think yeah i think the i don't remember i think the hunters they had like atvs and worked at a local oh i don't remember one of them he had a radio on him for some reason and he kind of radioed back to his work and then they called police so that was just lucky that he had it as well and since his death chris mccandless has become something of a legend to some and a warning to others so like i was saying before he's very polarizing. People have very strong opinions about him and how and why he

died. Some aspire to live more like him and admire his views on life and on living simply, while others think that he was arrogant to put himself in a situation he wasn't prepared for and died as a result, which is pretty brutal, but I understand. But also, I think it seems like he made peace with that. It's like he's taking his own life in his hands. Yep. So, I don't really understand why people are, like, having a go at him for that. Yeah, who are angry at him.

Yeah. Like, was, you know, left by being like, I'm going to go into the wild and live there and I'm going to do it. I'll definitely do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was no arrogance.

There was no family out there or something who were in his care. It was just him. Yeah. And in the last – that note he said, you know, it sounds like he made peace with it. Yeah. And it sounds, you know. I agree.

It seems strange to be angry at somebody for – it didn't harm anybody else. Yeah, I don't see any real arrogance. If he'd made different decisions, if he'd had different equipment, if he'd had a radio on him, if he had told people where he was going to be, whatever, he might have lived, but he didn't endanger anybody else. No, he just sounds like he was maybe slightly naive to the conditions and also it's not really surprising that he was because he'd travelled for all over and had gone fine.

Why wouldn't this be fine too? Yeah, totally. And I think he was about 24 or something, you know, like you are kind of a bit sort of young and you feel a bit bulletproof at that age. There's also been several theories as to how he died. Some say that it was a bit more complicated than just starvation. In Into the Wild, John Krakow speculates that Chris could have been poisoned by a toxic alkaloid after eating a certain type of seed containing the toxin or possibly by a mold that can grow on them when he put them in a plastic bag. So, it's sort of like he's collected these seeds and that's okay, but if you put them in the bag can create a mold.

Right. And it's been looked into a lot. And essentially, the alkaloid or the toxin inhibits the metabolism of glycoproteins, which leads to starvation despite ample food consumption. Right. So, that's awful. That's something similar to what happened to Burke and Wills. Oh.

They ate these berries that weren't, if they weren't, or, yeah, I think it was fruit or berries or nuts or something, and if they weren't prepared correctly, the grains maybe they were, they had the opposite effect. They basically, you could keep eating it, but you'd get hungrier and hungrier because it would. That's right. Yeah. I'd forgotten that.

And, yeah, there's another one as well, but in an article from the September 2007 issue of Men's Journal, correspondent Matthew Power states that extensive laboratory testing showed there were no toxins or alkaloids present in the seeds McCandless had been eating. The head of chemistry and biochemistry department at University of Alaska in Fairbanks, his name was Thomas Clausen, said, I tore that plant apart. There were no toxins, no alkaloids. I'd eat it myself. So, they kind of ruled that one out. Another theory is that Chris had suffered from paralysis in his legs induced by

latherism, which prevented him from gathering food and hiking. This is again caused by consuming a certain type of seed, which would be relatively harmless to someone who was well-nourished with access to a normal diet. So, as part of a balanced diet, fine, but would be toxic to someone who was malnourished, physically stressed, and on an irregular and insufficient diet, just like he was. And the guy from the university was like, no, I tore that plant apart. I tore it apart. I had a bit of it. I would eat it. It's fine.

And I've had a balanced meal today and my entire life. Stop having a go at the plants around this area. They're fine. The plants are lovely. Thank you. You should visit. Eat anything and everything. As Crackow points out,

McCandless's field guide, that book he had about plants and stuff, didn't warn of any dangers of eating the seeds because they weren't known to be toxic when the guide was published. And Krakow suspects this is the meaning of McCandless's journal entry in July 30, which states, extremely weak, fault of potato seed, much trouble just to stand up starving great jeopardy oh yeah but again that hasn't been proven but that's just another sort of theory yeah that does sound like that makes some sense based on that journal entry so essentially because he wasn't eating enough or like enough of a varied diet and he was malnourished. Eating that then meant that he was paralysed or his legs were – he couldn't move so he couldn't go and hunt more. Horrendous.

So what kind of happened was when the New York Times picked up this story, the story of what happened to Chris McCandless sort of was widespread and John Krakow was asked to write an article for Outside magazine, which he did. It was a 9,000-word article entitled Death of an Innocent and it was published in January of 1993 and it would then be the basis of his book Into the Wild, which was published a couple of years later in 1996.

And the article and book were hits. Chris McCandless' story was very well known. The magic bus became a well-known destination for hikers, sort of like a pilgrimage destination. They all sort of, people wanted to go and see where he had been living and walk that trail. But the bus was in a really harsh and dangerous part of the wilderness and several people experienced difficulties in trying to visit the bus where McCandless died. At least 15 people were injured and required rescuing, and at least two people died while attempting to cross the river to reach the bus. So, in 2020, various government agencies coordinated with an Alaskan Army National Guard.

It was like a training mission to finally remove the bus. They, like, choppered it out. a training mission to finally remove the bus. They, like, choppered it out. I just thought you said chopped it out wrong. They choppered it out. No, they used a chopper. They choppered the bus.

They choppered the bus out. And you were wondering why I didn't start again. No, it was just my brain slowly putting- No, she said choppered. Yeah, sorry. It was a weird way to say it. She choppered it out. She choppered it out. So, they removed the bus.

And in September of 2020, the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks announced it became the permanent home of McCandless' magic bus, where it'll be restored and used as an exhibit. Is that the same bus that shrinks down and goes on journeys through bodies? That's the one, yes. You've heard of it. That's cool. That's the magic school bus.

This is just magic bus. Oh, sorry. Okay. With a frizz? No way. And so, I've mentioned a couple of times how polarising Chris's story is. And while John Krakow's book is probably viewed as- it's very sympathetic towards Chris, others have expressed negative views about McCandless and those who romanticised his

fate. And again, we've already said, like, that seems silly. Alaskan park ranger Peter Christian wrote, When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn't even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area.

If he'd had a good map, he could have walked his way out of his predicament. But Sherry Simpson writing in the Anchorage Press described her trips to the bus with a friend and their reaction upon reading the comments that tourists had left, lauding McCandless as an insightful, Thoreau-like figure. And she wrote, the he had a death wish camp because I don't know how else to reconcile what we know of his ordeal. Now and then I venture into the what a dumb shit territory, tempered by brief alliances with the he was just another romantic boy on an all-American quest partisans. Mostly I'm puzzled by the way he's emerged as a hero, which is kind of interesting. As for his family, his sister Corrine wrote a book in, I want to say 2014, but I think it was earlier than that. And she sort of, that's kind of where most of the conversation around his early life

came up because she wrote about it in her book, which I think just gave people a little bit more context as to why he kind of had that urge to run away. But anyway, she wrote, from the time we were small, still unaware of how children came to be, I remember Chris being consistently told through our mother's tears that the family struggles began with his birth, when she became stuck with our dad. Chris carried this unfounded guilt with him until the wisdom that comes with age resulted in feelings of betrayal and eventually anger. This mislaid blame was never rescinded, only ignored. Seeing no alternative but to completely remove himself from the pain he could not manage, Chris had just which I think is quite nice. Yeah.

But I really like what Krakauer wrote in defense of Chris, claiming that what critics point to as arrogance was merely McCandless's desire for being the first to explore a blank spot on the map. He continues, in 1992, however, there were no more blank spots on the map. Not in Alaska, not anywhere. But Chris, with his idiosyncratic logic, came up with the elegant solution to this dilemma. He simply got rid of the map. In his own mind, if nowhere else, the terror would thereby remain incognito. So he's like, if there's no map, then I'm discovering everything.

Yeah. But he could have just done that at the local shopping mall then. Just ignored them. Ignored the directory. I'll find Sports Girl myself. Thanks. But yeah, there you go. That's the pretty tragic story of Chris McCandless.

It is tragic. I wonder, obviously we'll never be able to answer this question, but what he would make of the fact that, you know, a best-selling book, a massive Hollywood movie, all this stuff was made about his life. Yeah. We were talking about it on the podcast. Obviously, down the list of those three massive things, but the other two massive things.

But it's amazing that he's become, yeah, like a folklore hero. And I wonder how he would feel about that. Yeah. He definitely has, particularly in the States, and I think definitely in Alaska. He's sort of that modern myth folklore kind of character that everybody sort of knows the story of and has opinions on. Sort of like a Walter Mitty type.

Oh, my God, yes. Thank you. This whole time I was like, who is this reminding me of? This reminds me of someone. And I can't put my finger on it. Yeah, so a pretty tragic story. It's fascinating though, isn't it? It's really interesting and just a different kind of perspective on life.

But we've done done similar-ish. He's often compared to Carl McCann as well, which we've done that story as well. And, yeah, a lot of people have suggested it. The Patreons voted for it. They wanted to hear this story. So there we go. Yeah, I don't know.

I kind of admire what he did, I think. But I understand. I guess they're nervous about it inspiring other people to be a bit reckless and maybe that's why they're like he's it's not worth admiring he's it was um stupid and he had a death wish but it's sort of at no point has he written anything or or written anything being like you gotta come out and do this he hasn't really even said that to people as he's traveling along surely Surely people are allowed to do that. Yeah.

I just don't understand why. He doesn't know anyone or anything. Yeah. Do whatever you like with your life. He didn't harm anybody else. Yeah, I agree with that. Why? Like, if he had dependence or there was some other thing,

but it's just him. Yeah. I don't understand the issue yeah and when i say he didn't harm anybody else i mean obviously it caused grief for his family but sounds like his siblings yeah are okay with it yeah which i think they understand which was a nice sort of i think a really nice note from his sister and um yeah they kind of respect his his decisions there i don't think they kind of respect his decisions there. I don't think they necessarily believe he went out there

with the intention of that happening to him, but you're right, he seemed to have made peace with his choices. And honestly, even if he did, it's his life. Yeah. Do you like? Yeah, and he seemed to, you know, until he was quite unwell, he seemed to enjoy the life he was living. He felt free.

I'm jealous of the freedom that he probably felt. Yeah, totally. He just kind of, he was winging it. He was just like, well, see where this takes me. And I think that's kind of admirable. But, yeah, it's a pretty, I don't know, this is it. This is why people have so many strong opinions about it. It's kind of interesting.

But, yeah, great podcast of You're Wrong About that you can go listen to. They kind of talk about a lot of the wilderness side of things too, which is quite interesting. What's the idea of that podcast? They tell you things that are like common misconceptions or something? I think so. Yeah, right. I haven't listened to heaps of it, but I did enjoy that episode.

Well, that brings us to everyone's favourite section of the show, I believe, where we get to thank a few of our fantastic Patreon supporters. And the first thing we like to do, actually, before we get into that, Jess, what are some of the things that people can do if they get involved? They get to vote on topics that we do, like a bunch of people voted for this topic today. They get early access to tickets to live shows. They get three bonus episodes a month and they get to be in the Facebook group,

which we like to call the friendliest corner of the internet. Because it is. It's true. It's not an ironic nickname. No, you don't go in there and it's like the octagon or something. Yeah, yeah, all big bullies. Yeah, like they have in the octagon. Yeah.

They're all bullies. So, the first thing we like to do is a section called the fact, quote, or question segment. It has a little jingle, actually. It goes something like this. Fact, quote, or question. Ding. He always remembers the ding. Oh, she always remembers the thing.

And the way this one works is if you are signed up on the Sydney Scharnberg level or above, you get to give us a fact, a quote, or a question, or a brag, or a suggestion, or really anything at all. Some people have started giving us recipes even and jokes. The first one this week comes from Justin McCain, or as we like to call him, a Mr. Justin McCain. He plays a silly game. Or as we like to call him, I miss the Justin McCain.

He plays a silly game. And Justin McCain has given himself the title of the official union agitator of the podcast. Brackets. Down with management. Oh, no. Are we management? I guess. Oh, no.

There's nobody else. Oh, God. We're the top and bottom of the chain. Yeah, really, really are. I'm in the middle. of the chain. Yeah, really are. I'm in the middle. Of the chain. Yeah. Justin is giving us a quote writing, In honour of Brendan Fraser winning an Oscar,

I'd like to offer up an amazing quote for everybody. And here it is. How'd you like to eat my shit? Yes. That is beautiful, yes. Cinematic history. Sailor number two. What a role.

He should have got the Oscar for that. Yeah. I thought he nailed that line. Did you see somebody posted in their Patreon group that he, like, on a talk show, they were like, do you remember your first line in a movie? And he said it live on TV. And we were like, oh, my God. He still got it. He did it.

He's still sailor number two. He did it almost as good as Dave does it. Yeah. He did it. He's still sailing on a tube. He did it almost as good as Dave does it. Yeah. So that's for the people who aren't in the Patreon level, we get three bonus episodes a month,

including our monthly Brendan Fraser podcast, where we go through his movies in order, phrasing the bar. His first ever movie was called Dogfight, and that was his first ever line in cinematic history. Only line in that movie. That was a beautiful line too. Thank you so much, Justin McCain. I really appreciate you bringing that to

our attention once again. The next one comes from Gary J from the UK who's got the title of Wait no, I'm not saying that. That's crook. If he thinks I'm going to say that, he can think again. What a sick dog. I think that's some sort of racial slur oh no it just says sir what so that's quite a wordy title but i appreciate that gaddy jay it's like a stitch oh no it was a stitch up of what of gary up. Makes him sound real bad. It does. Gary, think about it.

Never say that. Gary, baby. Gary, come on. Gary, baby. Gary J, what did I say what he's giving us? He's giving us a question. Gary's question goes a little something like this. It's a bit of a random question, but I like doing quizzes for mates.

What is the best way to format it? I like to do... This feels like a real Dave question. I like to do different types of rounds, but how many is too many? And how's best to give out points? If this is a crap question, could I just hear a snippet of a song from you all? Ta-ta for now. Ta-ta.

How do you structure a quiz? I reckon. You've come to the right place, Gaddy. Yeah. More smaller rounds are good with little breaks in between. I reckon maybe. And I reckon you captured about 10 questions in a round, I reckon. And maybe four.

Yeah. Some quizzes you go to, they have about eight rounds. I reckon that's too many. And then also sometimes they do two rounds and they're super duper long. Yes. I think that it's probably best. And then that way you can structure and be like, I like round two or three to be like a music round or something

where it's just 10 songs. Name these artists, name this decade, whatever. So I reckon, yeah. And then by the end of the night, you've had had 40 questions that seems like pretty good plenty but also you don't want to drag on too long i reckon two hours max and part of his question was like how do you give out points i would say if people get the answer right correct answers get points yeah that's how i prefer to do it i i'd think yeah, I'm with Jess on this one, and I'd say one correct answer, one point. Yes.

Okay, but how many points do you get for an incorrect answer? One incorrect answer, is that one point? No. See, this is where I differ from Jess. I don't think you should get a point for an incorrect answer. Whereas I think you should get more for trying. Yeah, you really do. Points for character.

Points for enthusiasm. People who accidentally get one right in your quizzes are furious. Thank you so much, Gaddy J. Do you have a bit of a song to sing, Jess? My baby takes a morning train. He works from nine till five in the night. He takes another home again to find me waiting for him. And the next one comes from Angelo Delgaduch. I wish I could remember how to say your name right, Angelo.

You need to write the phonetic one every time. I'm so sorry. If that's not right, I don't want to be wrong. I don't want to be wrong is what I said. Damn it. And what's because he said if that was wrong. I don't want to be right. I know, I fucked it.

So, honestly, Jess, that's not on you. Thank you. Well, and if I was wrong, I admit to being wrong. That was wrong. As Angelo's title is Lyndon B Askin. That's good. Which is fantastic. And Angelo, okay, Lyndon B, is asking a question writing,

how hot are women? Oh, my God. Finally, someone brave enough to say it. I honestly think they're so hot. Let's get a scale going. What are we talking out of? Women, 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10.

The hottest. What about on the Perennaise scale? Is that the one where about shit? No. It's. That's the Nando's. The Nando's one. Like mild lemon and herb.

They're definitely not lemon and herb. They're not lemon and herb. I think they're extra hot. Oh, yeah. Extra hot for sure. Extra hot for sure. How extra hot are women? Oh, they are extra.

Women are a bit extra. But Angela also says not their value, and I agree with that too. Oh, 100% agree. Oh, not their value. Absolutely not their value. Just their hotness. We admire women for so many things. Their hotness.

And it's really their hotness. That's down the list. Yeah. Obviously, it's their brains. Their brawn. Their lemon and herb. Their lemon and herb. Lemon handle. Their ability to just, you know, their brawn. Their lemon and herb. Their lemon and herb. Lemon handle.

Their ability to just, you know, get it done. Totally. Be boss bitches. That's right. Can do attitude. Thank you for that beautiful question, Angela. And they smell quite nice. Sometimes.

Oh, that's too far, is it? that somehow felt like that was too far well you draw a weird line but all right well i'm just picturing you going around smelling people without their consent but oh there's consent i have a little sniff have you ever smelled me yeah well we'd remember because I asked you for permission. Of course. Yeah. May I smell you?

Thank you, Angelo. The final one this week comes from Chloe Warren, a.k.a. Wait, no. And Chloe's- I love it. My grandmother, who we called Nanny, had a best friend called Barbara who moved overseas in her early 20s. Around the time Nanny was pregnant with my mum,

thus my Nanny, not mum, as written in my original submission. Oh, my God. I think this is a callback to an earlier fact quote or question. Right. It's ringing bells. Yeah, it is. This is a correction. Yes, this is a correction.

We don't get many corrections. No. This is a correction. Yes, this is a correction. We don't get many corrections. No. Fact, quote, or correction. So, thus my nanny, not my mum, as written in my original submission, decided to name my mum Barbara in honour of her best pal who she had just been separated from. I hope this isn't too confusing, as I know Matt only reads these when he reads them.

Thank you so much for taking that in, Chloe. And thank you so much for that correction. I think now we can correct the official, what do they call it in Parliament? Oh, the Hansard. The Hansard. The Hansard. We can have the Hansard corrected. The fuck is a Hansard?

Everything you say in Parliament is written down. What? Like a sonographer's taking notes of everything. I did not know that. And then it's kept, it's called Hansard, it's kept forever. So, like, even when they say, like, outrageous stuff, like, you're a fucking idiot, like, someone mutters that, they're like, I'm going to write that in.

Into Hansard. It's in Hansard forever. Wow. And you can go check it, it's on the public record. That's your right to go read what they said. Oh, God, that would be so boring. That's your responsibility. Oh, no.

You've got to read it all. It's part of my job. Yes. I'm sorry. As a citizen, thank you to our great fact quotes and questions there, Chloe, Angelo, Gaddy, and Mr. Justin McCain. And the next thing we'd like to do is shout out to a few of our other fantastic supporters. Now, Bob, you normally come up with a bit of a game based on the topic at hand.

Yeah, look, a pretty grim topic. So, I'm thinking, Chris McCandless had the magic bus. What's their magic mode of transportation? Oh, I love it. All right. Well, if I can kick us off, I'd love to go all the way over to Clovis in California and thank Jamie Horio. Jamie Horio. The magic drone.

Oh, yeah. On top or being sort of picked up like on suspenders. Don't overthink it. It's just a magic drone. The magic bus was like a broken down bus. Yeah. So I assume this drone is just like a dead drone. So thank you so much, Jamie, and your magic dead drone.

Next up, I'd love to thank from Narrabeen in New South Wales in Australia, Peter. Peter with the magic snowmobile. Which would have come in very handy. Yeah, that would have been good actually. Unfortunately, it is also broken down. But you can sleep inside it. Yeah.

Or on top of it. Yeah, yeah. And it has a stove. Yeah. It's a small platform. You can set fires in a stove. Oh, my God. Now we're talking.

Now we're cooking. It's a stove. Is P-E-T-A Peter or Petter? Peter. Peter. Great. Thanks soter? Peter. Peter. Great. Thanks so much, Peter. And finally from me, I'd love to thank from Waterloo in New South Wales, Australia.

It's Cam. Waterloo. Oh, I can stop the Nihonawo. Dancing queen. Young and free. Should we do a karaoke night? We really should. ABBA only.

Oh, my God. Don't tease me. Super Trooper. Super Trooper. I'm doing the backups. Oh, thank you so much. Cam. From Waterloo.

The Magic. Razor Scooter. Whoa. Sweet. That's actually fucking sick, Cam. Love it. Can I have a go? Unfortunately, it's broken down.

What? Yeah, man. They're hard to break down. So disappointing. Can I have a go? Unfortunately, it's broken down. What? Yeah, man. They're hard to break down. So disappointing. Could I thank some people as well? I'd love it if you did. Well, I would love to thank, from Address Unknown, we can only assume Deeper in the Fortress of the Moles.

Oh, my God. I would love to thank Paloma. Paloma. Great name. Love that name. Beautiful name. Is that a style of horse? Maybe.

Maybe. Beautiful name either way. Well, it's not a horse that are on. They're travelling on the magic Penny Farthing. Oh. Broken down. Oh, no. That is unfortunate.

What are the odds? Damn. I think you're thinking, I don't know, Paloma. It might be Palomino. Palomino is probably what I'm thinking of. Also, great name, Palomino. Better Paloma? Paloma looks like it's a cocktail, a tequila-based cocktail.

There's also the Paloma Equestrian Centre in Queensland has come up. That's probably what I was thinking of. I'm sure you were thinking of that. Thank you, Paloma. I'd also love to thank also from Address Unknown. Oh, my gosh. What are they doing down there? Kate Elliott. Kate Elliott. Also from Address Unknown, you can only see them deep within the Fortress of the Moles. What are they doing down there?

Kate Elliott. Kate Elliott. Obviously, Kate Elliott, for some reason, is making me think of the Magic Tap Shoes. Billy Elliott. Billy Elliott, okay. The Magic Tap Shoes are a fantastic mode of transport. You can tap a tap all the way to the bank. Unfortunately, though, they are broken down. Oh, they are not tap-a-tap-a-tapping.

A tap-a-tap-a-tap-a. So, sorry about that, Kate, but you look beautiful. And your feet, you've got, you know, no one can take your feet away from you. No one can take your feet away from you. They still tap, they just, you can't move in them. So, you can tap on the spot. Stationery. Yeah, stationary tap-a-tap-a-tap-a.

This all sounds beautiful. Oh, that's nice then. And finally, for me, I would love to thank, from Leicester in Great Britain, Emily Hall. Emily Hall in the Magic Semi Trailer. Ooh, that's a good one. You can sleep inside those. Oh, yeah, yeah.

They've got that little cabin out back. I've never seen what it looks like in there, but I imagine it would be nice and cosy. I've been in there. It's nice. Really? When have you been in there? Wait, what are we talking about about like a big rig sort of yeah one of those big rig trucks like the road trainee type we're just a big truck you know and they have that little little sort of

porthole cabinet like door that you go inside and i think you can sleep in there is that where you've been yeah so where i uh used to live as a kid in charlton Our friends, Mick O'Brien, was a truckie. So I used to get to drive around with him a few times, get to hang out in the back there. That's fun. Yeah, so cool. That's cool. I'm doing a bit of a Google now.

I'm obsessed. You're looking up O'Brien's Transport? Yeah, I'm on there. Great reviews. Dave, we are not buying a Dugo on semi-trailer. Oh, it would be so cool. We already have the combi van. They're all good for branding.

I don't know if the semi is going to help us that much, mate. Come on. Because we've got to just park it in Brunswick. Do you want to thank some people? I would love to thank some people as I close my tab on semi-trailer cabin beds. Actually, I'm going to keep it open for later. I'm obsessed with it. I watch videos of people doing up vans and turning them into places they'd sleep.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have no interest in ever actually doing that myself. I have a bit of a Chris McCandless about that. In terms of I would like to do it for a long weekend. Oh, yeah, yeah. I think I like the idea of it, but actually doing it, I'd be like, oh, fuck that. Same with, like, I see a lot of videos of, like,

families who live in their RV the entire, like, year round in America and they'll stop at a site and just watching their process of how to, like, connect sewage and power and this, I'm like, fuck, I'm already over it. Oh, right, yeah. It's too much work, isn't it? So, it's fun for a long weekend if someone's already set up the sewage in power.

Yeah, yeah. We had a rule on the last Beer Pioneer shoot that we're not hooking up the sewage. If you need a go, you go in a building somewhere. Yeah. I think that's reasonable. Because what we were sleeping in was a caravan-y type. Yeah, it was. It was a van, like a camper van.

We're not hooking up in the sewerage, so it's going to stay in there. And we're fine with that. You don't shit where you sleep. It's going to stay in your butt. As a gentleman, I don't do that anyway. So, the rule didn't apply. Hey, I would like to thank from Eglinton in New South Wales. Eglinton sounds like a fun spot.

I've never heard of that before. Eglinton. It a fun spot. I've never heard of that before. Eglinton. It's Rebecca Patterson. Oh, the magic ride on mower. Oh, that's fun. Unfortunately, it is broken down. So, does it still mow but in one spot? In one spot.

So, that spot hasn't had grass forever. No. You can't say it because the mower's covering it, but still it's beautifully shorn. Perfectly trim. Eglid's in the northern suburb of Bathurst. Might have a big block out there with a... Holy moly. Near, what, under the shade of Mount Panorama?

Yeah, absolutely. So close. Do you know Brockie, Rebecca? Have you ever met Brockie? And could Brockie maybe get under the hood of your lawnmower and get it going again Tinker away If he was still alive I reckon he could but you know you should call Rebecca

Dick Johnson Dick Johnson Get on the dick Dick will definitely be around Dick or Dick's son They'll be up there At least around October time Dick Johnson Jr

Around Bathurst 1000 time. Good on you, Rebecca. I'd like to thank from Skeens Creek in Victoria. I know it well. Really? Where's that? Yeah, it's just like Apollo Bay. It is that way, isn't it?

Yeah, near Wire River. Fantastic, beautiful part of the world. I would like to thank from Skeens Creek, Louise Falls. A lot of waterfalls around there too. That feels like a fitting name. Would you think this could be a waterfall? Oh, my God, imagine. Are we being supported here by a waterfall?

Keeping it water-based. Magic tugboat. The magic tugboat. Toot, toot. Is it? I love a little tugboat. Is it going or is it broken down? It is actually going.

But the ship it's trying to tug is broken down. Okay, that makes sense. That's when it comes to its own. Yeah. Tugboat says, I'll take it. I'll tug you the whole way. Don't you worry about that. Where do you want to go?

Done. I'm a tugboat. I'm a tugboat. That's what I do. I'll give you a tug. A tug all night, tug all day. Thank you so much, Louise Falls. Finally, from me, I'd like to thank from King's Meadows in Tasmania.

That's a beautiful sounding place. Lots of Aussies today, too from king's meadows in tasmania that's a beautiful sounding place lots of aussies today too king's meadows in tasmania it's monica coca a mule a magic mule magic mule yeah and unfortunately But it's still like it'll still pull, but just on the spot. It's still a beast of burden. It will still mule coke for you or whatever. Or whatever. Yeah, yeah. But it's on wheels now.

I don't want to read it out in case you don't want people to know, but Monica's email is at a website.com.au. I was like, oh, that's interesting. I'll look up what that is. And you go to the website and it takes you to this homepage where it says, press any key to begin. And then you can just play Pong on their homepage of their website. Oh, my God.

I love Pong. Okay, that's sick. All right. Well, can you two finish this episode? I'm going to go Pong. Oh, and then you control it with your... Oh, Monica, this is very cool. Don't know to go pong. Oh, and then you control it with your- Oh, Monica. This is very cool.

Don't know what your website's for, but I love it. Oh, the paddles are so small. Oh, yeah. This is difficult. I've been- I'm being smashed here. Oh, I got one in. Oh, we're playing pong. We're playing pong here.

Pong on. Jessie, you ponging on? I'm not ponging on. Oh, getting flogged here. Yeah, it's difficult. Monica, thanks, but you've really distracted the podcast this week. You've ruined our lives. Pong, bing, pong.

Oh, when do I lose? Okay, there. Five nil. Thank you so much to our great supporters, Monica, Louise, Rebecca, Emily, Kate, Paloma, Cam, Peter, and Jamie. And the last thing we need to do is welcome a few people into our Triptych Club.

We've got the half D coming in today, half dozen. And Jess, how does this work? Basically, if you've supported us over a patreon for three consecutive years on the which level is it again shout out level or above shout out level or above um you get to be brought in welcomed in oh yeah with open arms you better believe it's an open heart open hearts open butts open pants open pants if you want um and we have a bar and we have music and we have all sorts of amazing stuff. So, it's a really fun place. Once you're in, you cannot leave.

It's the Hotel California. But in a good way. In a good way, yes. And Jess, you normally have cooked up some sort of a dish or a cocktail? Well, here's the problem. Are you making Palomas today? I'm making Palomas, absolutely, yes. Fantastic.

I just lost 5-0 again. I was wondering why you weren't looking me in the eye. But here's the problem. Like, I was meal prepping before I wrote this report, and I do have a lot of those potato seeds. Oh, no. So... All right.

The one set. Are we still going to use them, or...? Well, I'm going to... I don't like things to go to waste here. I'm going to serve them with, like, lots of veggies and... And just only if you've got a balanced diet should you have these. Exactly right. I'll interview everybody as they come through Double Check.

Everyone, present your food diary for the last month and I'll assess on a case by case. We'll see. Sip on this Paloma while we're waiting. Yeah, that's nice. All right. And Dave, you've booked a band for the after party? You're never going to believe this.

What have you done? I've booked this act four years in advance because they're so busy. And we've got none other than Eddie Vedder coming in, who also happens to have performed the soundtrack to the Into the Wild movie. His debut solo album was this movie. That's how I've heard of it. I reckon I've heard that soundtrack. I was really hoping it was going to be Supertramp, but okay.

Well, I mean, he's booked it so far in advance. This coincidence in itself is incredible. I mean, I'm just saying, can we add Supertramp to the list? Let's get him in. I would love to get him in. Yeah, give him a bell. I'll call him up maybe, but they might, a couple of years from now, probably get him in because it takes a long time with these people.

But Eddie Vedder's here, guys. Amazing. Doing the Into the Wild soundtrack as well as a few Pearl Jam classics. Awesome. Do elderly woman behind a counter in a small town. That's my favourite. Love that tune. Me too.

I see he played that when I saw him solo at the Palais because I think that's one of his and it is like just an acoustic-y sort of. Anyway, let's welcome in these fantastic six people. I'm standing on the door. I've got the clipboard with these six names. I'm about to lift the velvet rope. If you hear your name, please run into the room. If you don't hear your name, stay where you are.

Stay where you are. We're not ready. But if you hear your name, jog in. Dave's about to hop you up. He's on stage. He's the MC. Jess is also hopping up Dave. Here we go.

And I'll probably punch up their work a little bit if need be. I'm not sure why you would need B because it won't need B. Okay. Well, we'll see. Just in case. First up from Ballarat in Victoria, Australia, it's Justin Rayburn. This Justin Rayburn. He ain't no Ballarat.

No, no. It's next up from Burnage in Great Britain, maybe in Manchester. It's Matt King. Give it up for the King. We bow down to the King. We bow down. Woo-woo. On the throne.

Get in there. From Corinda in Queensland, Australia, it is Bruce Kelso. Well, first hop in the spruce, Bruce, and then hop into the club, Bruce. Yes, Bruce. I said hop in. Oxford in Great Britain, it's Nick Fidian. There once was a man called Nick Fidian. Gruishkas on his chin again.

Get in there, Nick. get in there nick from wildwood crest in new jersey in the united states it's brady mcdonough i don't want to i don't want to throw no shady because we've got brady oh mcdonough and finally from darwin in the northern territory in australia it's bernard murray hey i was in a hurry but I'm going to slow things down as I introduce you to B-E-R-N-A-R-D, Bernard Murray. Welcome into the club, Bernard, Brady, Nick, Bruce, Matt, and Justin. Yeah, Matt, you kept your mouth shut that time, didn't you? Well, no, Dave was doing great work. Exactly right.

I think the first time I could say that. When you give him the space to fly. Exactly. Give him space. Hey, Dave, sometimes you've got to take space. As a feminist, I can say that. How did you slip this in? I don't get it.

Hey, Dave, do you check everyone's website, by the way? Because that was- It was only because- It didn't strike me as weird until just then i'm like hang on a second are you it just it was because i was reading out the name and then i don't want to give away too much about the email but the it caught your attention it looks like a family website and i was wondering oh i wonder if it's a family business or something so i just happened to google it and then the bomb game came up and here we are here we are

i'm uh nil three at the moment. Jess, while you're telling people anything we need to tell them before we go? Just that if they would like to suggest a topic, there's a link in the show notes. There's also a link on our website, which is DoGoOnPod, where you can find merch and live show information and all sorts of fun stuff. And you can find us on social media at DoGoOnPod as well.

So good. You've nailed that, Pop. Now, Davey boy, boot this baby home. Hey, we'll be back next week with another episode. But until then, we'll say thank you so much for listening. And until then, goodbye. Later. Bye.

Bye. I just lost again. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future.