Sibling Revelry with Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson - Revel In It: Roberto Canessa

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

Hollywood has captured the events of the 1972 Andes plane crash in several iterations, but never like this. Roberto Canessa was one of the survivors and shares his experience like never before. He recalls spending 72 days on a snow-capped mountain surrounded by death and suffering.  Forced to live off the flesh of the passengers who didn't make it is only one part of the nightmare. And yet- his darkest moments were met with glimmers of hope, awakened spirituality, and appreciation for what it means to be human.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. September is a great time to travel, especially because it's my birthday in September, especially internationally. Because in the past, we've stayed in some pretty awesome Airbnbs in Europe. Did we've one in France, we've one in Greece,

we've actually won in Italy a couple of years ago. Anyway, it just made our trip feel extra special. So if you're heading out this month, consider hosting your home on Airbnb. With the co-host feature, you can hire someone local to help manage everything. Find a co-host at Airbnb.ca slash host.

I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time, as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians, artists, and activists to bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. The Moment is a space for the conversations

we've been having us father and daughter for years. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos on the I-Heart Radio app, podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name.

Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2. Proof of Life, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Kate Hudson. And my name is Oliver Hudson. We wanted to do something that highlighted our relationship. And what it's like to be siblings. We are a sibling rivalry.

No, no. Sibling revelry. Don't do that with your mouth. Sibling revelry. That's good. Oliver, I am so excited about this next guest. I'm actually like, I have like a little bit of anxiety about the questions I'm going to ask. I know.

I know. Or what you're going to ask. Well, I know. I want to ask this guest. here's a little hint of who we're talking to about actually consuming human flesh and having to eat their friends

in order to survive so that should give you a hint as to who are talking to if you have seen the older flick movie called Alive called Alive so we are interviewing Dr. Roberto Canessa who still lives in Uruguay

and he is one of the survivors of the plane crash. Actually the one who ended up hiking out with Nando. Right. With Nando. Right.

And they trekked 43 miles, not really knowing where they were going, sort of knowing that Chile was west, following the sun west. Yeah. 100,000 steps. I'm a little anxious to talk about, I don't know what to ask.

I don't, you know, when you're in these situations, I feel a little bit of anxiety. I want to ask the right questions. But you also don't want to affect. or bring back any sort of haunting memory. I don't know how he feels about these. I know. I have a feeling he's going to be pretty cool.

So, but I can't wait to. Yeah. Why don't we let him in? And by the way, this is also one of our favorite movies growing up. Oh my God. But there's a new one on Netflix.

Society of the Snow. Right. And that's what. So apparently. It's amazing. And it's done in the native languages. And I'm excited to see it. I haven't seen it yet.

But I'm going to watch it. Me too. I'm going to watch it. And let's bring on Dr. Roberto Canessa. Open the door. So terrible. Hello. Hello.

Finally, finally. I thought you were big. I'm so sorry. Roberto. We're so, we are so, we are so, we are so, So excited to talk to you about your amazing story that we are very familiar with. So long ago, I forgot about it. No, I know. Not a possibility.

I'm a grandpa now. Are you? Where are you living? I'm living in Uruguay, Montevideo, the bottom of South America there, between Brazil and Argentina. Oh, my. And so now, for those who, for those who don't know your, story. I mean, I know it's a long one. It's an amazing book about amazing film alive.

But do you mind sharing a little bit about what happened in 1972? Well, we're a rugby team, the Christian's Club, and we were heading to Chile to play a friendship match. We are in Atlantic Coast, and we had to play to the Pacific, so we had to fly it over the Antis, and the weather conditions were not appropriate, so it was very clouded. And so the plane decided to descend before he had crossed the Andes, and it crashed against the mountains. Human mistake. It was pilot error. Pilot error, yeah.

Stranded there for two, almost over two, yeah, 10 weeks, over two months. Yeah, 22 days, yeah, 20 days. Faced with starvation, freezing temperatures, two avalanches that almost killed everyone, but it did, I think it did take eight people, those avalanches. is correct correct and then at some point you had to make the decision because your rescue was called off to hike out and to find help and you are one of those people who actually hiked out do I have that correct yeah there were many teams that tried to hide and they failed this was October which is winter in South America so they were caught by thunderstorms and everything so I thought

we had to wait so the final expedition was in December 11th and then we were out the 22nd of December. Yeah. I think we were the poorest manifestation of human beings. I've been reading a very good book called Factfulness about how poor people can be.

And then the first level is the humans that gather for eating. But they have water. I have to go two hours with a bucket to get water, but it wouldn't have any water. So we were the most

poor manifestation of human beings. So let's start from the beginning a little bit. I'd like to understand about your career for rugby. So when you were younger, I mean, was this something where this team and like being on this team was a huge deal, I would assume, for you, and to travel like that at that age? Well, I was 19 years old. And in the previous year, I played for the national team, Uruguayan national team, which is not huge, I mean, rugby, but we played against the Chileans and we were very even.

The Argentinians used to beat us strongly in Paraguay was very weak. So we became friends with the Chileans and say, why don't you come and with your team instead of coming with the national team, so we don't have to wait for two years. So there was the way it began the project. And before we had a plane crash, the previous year, we had done the same trip. It was spectacular. I mean, the mountains were great, the weather was great, so the next year we just were fascinated to go back there to play. Was there a lot of camaraderie on the team?

You know, did you guys know each other very, very well, and you were all best friends? Well, we, they come from a school called the Irish Christian brothers. The Irish Christian brothers went to South America to teach religion and English. And it was a very incredible mixture between different cultures. I mean, we have lots of cow meat, lots of stuff. sunshine and the Irish people have to eat potatoes all the time and they were very poor but very educated so there was a different civilization especially we came to sports that they say you're not playing soccer because soccer is a game that

doesn't doesn't educate people you go to the soccer courts and they insult the referee they insult the other people you play rugby there is a sport where the judge is always right brother because they were Christian brothers this unfair because what happened if he makes a mistake? And then he told us, who told you life is fair? Life is unfair. So they will be good for teaching you. And after we finished the school, we decided to make our own rugby team.

It was an amateur team. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And so here you are, you know, flying. And when did you know something was wrong? Was it clear? Like, and did it happen fast or did it feel like forever? No, no. We had a couple of air bumps between the clouds, and we begin fooling around. And then someone said, look at the mountains. They are very close to the wing.

And in that moment, the engine went full power. The plane was shaking and trying to climb. And then it hit the mountain. And when it hit the mountain, I said, Roberto, you're going to die. I don't know what death is like. But this is the only thing you look forward is dying. What happens is the plane lost the tail in both wings, and the fuselage began sliding on the side of the mountain. And I remember very vividly this moment because a guy was praying the Hail Mary. The other was saying, Jesus, Jesus, I don't want to die, and I grabbed to my seat with all my strength. And when the fuselage hit the bottom of the valley, all the seat got this lodge, I was thrown to the fort part of the plane with incredible force. I got a huge blow on my head.

And as I was fainting, I felt it had stopped and say, I'm alive. My arms are here. My legs are there. I cannot believe. I made it. I mean, this is a plane crash, of course. But if I must get out of the way, because there were lots of dead people and injured people. And when I went to the back part of the plane where the door was at the tail,

this all had been broken and were in the middle of the mountains was snowing very peacefully around no help no nothing no ambulances and a mess with my friends injured and blondes in the head other were delirious and I got a guy had an iron bar stuck into the stomach the other one had a broken leg so we had to put everything in place another guy coming towards the plane and when he was like 10 meters apart he was literally swallowed by the snow so we thought This is dementia. This is crazy. This is not true. This is a nightmare. I must push a button and reverse what I'm going through. This cannot be real that we crashed against the mountain. I'm alive and all these people are dead. But that was a real thing. And someone said, the pilot is alive. He was the key man. The pilot knew about where we were. So we rushed into the cabin and the guy was bleeding and saying we passed Curricot. And Curricot is in the middle of the valley of Chile. and we're in the middle of the mountains.

So he was making a huge mistake. He was the keyman, but he was the man that crashed the plane. So I learned further on in life that when you have an advisor, if he makes mistakes, you better change your advisor because that doesn't mean that he set the authority. And then the night came on and we had to get all together into the fuselage and people were crying, were dying, were different circumstances. And so when the next day came on, your mind gets resetted. And I was feeling very, very happy that the most injured people weren't suffering anymore and was not shouting.

I think that the changes your mind can make. And what happened there is the society of the snow. We had to develop a different society from the everyday society because it was impossible to survive. to survive. And as everyone knows, the food was the dead people. So there were lots of changes that abruptly we had to assume in order to keep alive. Did someone, did someone assume the role of the leader? Like, how did that happen? How did the leader, how did the leaders emerge from a situation like this? Well, our natural leader was the captain of the team. I mean, we went towards him, but he was devastated. I mean, he was a rugby team.

leader and of course no one wants to be the leader when there's titanic is sinking what happens in those moments that merges the the leadership of ideas the ideas they come up more strongly are the ones that go around i believe that this is a uh an experiment about human behavior and and that i were like guinea pigs that were submitted to a terrible circumstances And it's very interesting that the leadership part that people theoretically can go on. But there wasn't time to leadership. And as you know, you know, leadership changes according to circumstances. Winston Churchill was an incredible leader.

He won the war, but he lost the president to England. So the leadership is a changing motion. And I think there's something that should be reviewed among how leadership goes around into groups, because the leadership was there, the leadership of ideas. So it shifted. As these two months progressed and you're trying to survive and you're using all of your capabilities as humans

to sort of just stay breathing and stay alive, those roles shifted and changed, huh? Yes, leadership changes according to the man's, according to what is needed. Another very interesting aspect is that we came very close to God. I mean, we're a rugby player, we're enjoying dating girls and drinking beer and everything. And when you found yourself there and your friend that is the same as you is dead, and the line between life and death is very, very slim, you get towards your problem next boss, which is God. And you begin to think, hey, God, I'm going to meet you, where I'm going to go, where you're going to put me.

And this is something I have found when you would rugby at people in jail. People in jail come very devout and very Catholic. And this is a kind of human behavior. I mean, I think we are programmed in a way that in face of death, the religion comes and the need of God comes around. When we cannot cope with a situation is when God comes around and emerging as the force that would give you the chances that naturally you wouldn't have. Now, in that moment, what were the sort of,

most critical decisions that had to be made, you know, were there, were there sort of moments where it's like, well, we're either going to stay here? Like, do you remember exactly the time when you're shifting all those ideas around with your teammates and survivors? Like, what were the most critical decisions? Well, a couple of very clever and strong guys tried to get out and they were called by snowstorms and they came back with their teeth. They were loose. They were loose. they were freezing they were blind so it was very difficult to to walk out and especially the pilots say we passed currico but the tallest mountains were towards Chile and a friend of mine Nando had brought her mother and her sister and that

both us died at the plane crash so he was committed that he wanted to go out and he wanted me to go with him but I wasn't very convinced so other friends were come around and say, go and convince Roberto to walk with you. And he would come around and tell me feet or says that I have to convince you. Is he coming? No, he wants me to convince you. So it's a kind of manipulation I felt that was going around. You know, these are the kind of human decisions that you must face.

Until one day, a guy with his broken legs was making waters because we have water machines. There were the back parts of the seats that were in metal and you put the snow and then drop by drop you would do the water and the guy tells me I look at you Roberto and I think that you must feel great I feel as bad as you do say no no no I have my both legs broken and I'm a parasite and really rely on people like you they would have the energy and the legs to get out of here and in that moment my mind completely switched I came out from being there in the comfort zone or whatever you want to mention it

as an heroic person that could save my friends. And I had the best legs for the team. And he said, look at the map. We are lost here. But to Chile, the most would be 70 kilometers. And 70 kilometers, 100,000 steps. We know that to the west is Chile and the sun sets to the west. So if you can walk out, 100,000 steps, we will be saved.

And that for me was like a key decision. Every step, you're getting closer. I didn't want to die in the fuselage because it was full of the dead bodies and people were peeing there and was completely depressive to die there. I wanted to die in the virgin snow. So that was the way my brain got programmed. So you almost accepted your fate one way or another when you decided to take those 100,000 steps. Of course we were going to die. I have seen lots of people dying.

so we were taking challenges and climbing mountains you cannot imagine and when we were sliding on the other side we slided for 200 300 meters and the avalanches were around and I thought this is dimensional I want to go home but home was ahead I couldn't go back so there are lots of of of a ways your men your mind gets programmed they were triggered at those mountains September always feels like the start of something new, whether it's back to school, new projects, or just a fresh season. It's the perfect time to start dreaming about your next adventure. I love that feeling of possibility, thinking about where to go next, what kind of place we'll stay in, and how to make it feel like home. I'm already imagining the kind of Airbnb that would make the trip unforgettable, somewhere with charm character and a little local flavor. If you're planning to be away this September, why not consider hosting your home on Airbnb while you're gone? Your home could be the highlight of someone else's trip, a cozy place to land, a space that helps them feel like a local.

And with Airbnb's co-host feature, you can hire a local co-host to help with everything from managing bookings to making sure your home is guest ready. Find a co-host at Airbnb.ca slash host. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time, as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians. I would be the first immigrant mayor in generations, but 40% of New Yorkers were born outside of this country. Artists and activists, I mean, do you ever feel demoralized?

I might personally lose hope. This individual might lose the faith. But there's an institution that doesn't lose faith. And that's what I believe in. to bring you depth and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. There's not a single day that Paola and I don't call or text each other, sharing news and thoughts about what's happening in the country. This new podcast will be a way to make that ongoing intergenerational conversation public. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos

as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I started trying to get pregnant about four years ago now. We're getting a little bit older, and it just kind of felt like the window could be closing. Bloomberg and IHeard podcast present. IVF disrupted, the Kind Body story. A podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility care. Introducing Kind Body, a new generation of women's health and fertility care.

Backed by millions in venture capital. and private equity, it grew like a tech startup. While Kind Body did help women start families, it also left behind a stream of disillusioned and angry patients. You think you're finally like with the right people in the right hands, and then to find out again that you're just not. Don't be fooled. By what?

All the bright and shiny. Listen to IVF disrupted, the Kind Body story, starting September 19 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. this is kind of a funny question but in the midst of all this you know two weeks three weeks in whenever was there a moment when you looked around and thought man this is really beautiful here yeah yeah because as you know when I was thinking that we couldn't be in the worst moments of our lives and that I was the most miserable person an avalanche

came into the plane. I was completely stuck into the snow and I was dying and a person took me out of the avalanche and we're three days there and at the third day we're able to come out and was a gorgeous day with the blue of the sky and the whiteness of the mountain and I thought this is spectacular. Who can help me to get out of here because I search had been called off And then I thought, but this was made by God. It was made by the creator. And I used to be a friend of God. So I would ask my friend to get out of here.

So these are the kind of things that happens when you are completely broken and when you're completely, you don't have any faith in the future. But those kind of things that happen, I think that it's a very good lesson for to know what to do when you're playing crashes in life. life because people say they have problems. I don't think they have problems. They have obstacles in life. Problems are if they say you have leukemia and you will die in two months. These are real.

They are problems or problems are when you're stranded in the mountains and you see all your friends dying. And when someone dies, you're not sad for him. You're set for you because you're the next guy on the queue. So there is a kind of redistribution of ideas that in the society of the snow, that we made there were made and this is something i think is worthy sharing i think that the film portrays them in a in a magnificent way it's a kind of film that you should go into there and let yourself go into the film and go with it if you stay out out of it you will completely paralyze and see whom with the survivors would you think that you were i think it's an incredible

experience and when the finish it you're completely on shock people ask you how was the film and say, what, what, what, what happened? Where are me? What am I, you know? And this, I think, is a very good job. What an amazing feeling, though, that what's such a, such an incredible story was that you feel was represented so well, you know? Did you write the book that the film was made from?

No, they was done by a friend of mine from the school, Pablo Viersi. Okay. And then I mean the Society of the Snow and in Bayjona, this film, this film, that he was a he did the impossible the possible is that film that a family was split in the tsunami in Thailand Naomi Watts was in that yeah what another amazing amazing movie yeah yeah by Jonah jota is an incredible film the director when he was doing the movie he was looking for tragedy films and he saw the society of the snow and he said i want to do this book and in one of all the chapters i'm saying it was impossible to

impossible to survive a plane crash. It was impossible to survive an avalanche. It was impossible to walk a trek out of the mountains. And that's the reason why he calls the film The Impossible. So it took him about 10 years. He had to do a couple of... How did you feel about the Americans playing the role? Did you care that it was in English, it was all American accented?

There was alive. The new film is completely in Spanish. It's spoken in Uruguayan Spanish, not even in Argentinian Spanish. So it's a kind of completely down-to-earth version. And he goes very in deep into the personality of the different persons. I think that at that time that Frank Marshall and Kathy Kennedy did alive was an incredible version of what happened in that moment. But now this is a more in-depth version. and I'm very happy because there are lots of people around the world

that are waiting for the story because it's a story that is in the families you know your grandma knows about it you heard about it you saw the film and I think it's a very good story for for the kids my my grandson four years old comes around and tells me hey grandpa I want to climb mountains like you and safe my friends this is this is a good message of of how to share things in life oh no I know My kids have seen the other movie, you know, years ago alive, you know, he's 16. I said, we're interviewing Roberto, who was in the thing.

He's like, no way. I mean, he couldn't believe that I was even going to be able to talk to you today. So he's seen that version as well. But I do love what you said, which is, it's relatable. It's not just a movie about sort of a plane crash and survival. It's finding, you know, the relatability within the characters. Who are you? You know what I mean?

Which character are you? how would you have reacted in that situation, you know? Yeah. And also, I also love what you're saying to your, Bertha, about the sort of shift of ideas that what happens when you're in a situation like that is that everything you knew changes, that you don't really understand it until you're sitting there and facing it. And if only we had the wherewithal to understand that moment,

would we all be living very differently? Yeah, exactly. Live your life as if you had just been in a plane crash. Well, no, but just as that kind of being more grateful, being more realistic. Living life, I mean, life is about eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work, real work, not to complain about your problems at work. And eight hours about personal growth. I mean, your grandparents are going to die, go and visit them.

your kids are going to be five years old, only once. And we don't realize, could we go chasing phantoms of life and vanity plays a huge problem in yourself. And vanity is a form of being insecure. I mean, I believe that life is about sharing, it's about helping someone. The other way I was speaking with the prisoners on jail, and I asked him, what is to be rich and to be poor?

Of course, they say, to reach is to have money. No, my friend, to be rich is to be. be able to help someone and to be poor is needing help needing someone to help you so that's about it it's a lot more nicer to be helpful than to need help and to be around needing uh and so i think we have to to go on a different aspect of life in a different way of living and we're going to be lots happier than than we are nowadays because you are always complaining the more we have the more sad we are there's something something wrong happening there And do you think, so obviously this situation completely changed the trajectory of your life

as far as how you think and feel about existing on this earth, but you were still so young, you know what I mean? You were 19 yet. You were just 19. So it's interesting. When you were 19 years old, you felt that you were grown up. Yeah. See someone 19 years old being so young is a perspective of older people. So I think 19 years old, it's probably, is what you're going to be for the rest of your life. So it's true, true. But I guess reversing the question instead of saying, how did it change your life? Who do you think you would have been if you hadn't been through this experience, you know?

Do you ever think about that? Like, obviously it changed you. It shifted you. Do you think you would have been a different human? Obviously, a less important person. Because I say something, people say, wow. When I say what everyone says to life. but something very important is that I came out of the Andes to live my life I didn't come

out of the Andes to be famous I didn't come to to the Anders to be famous I didn't come to the Anders to talk to to the Hudson brothers 50 years later I can talk to but but Roberto so I want to know what it felt like like that moment when you saw civilization when you reached, when you realized that you actually reached safety, what was that like for you? That's a very good question, Kate. And let me tell you, when I saw the shepherd, the society of the snow vanished in that moment, and I realized that I was back. And I look at my rugby socks. They were full of flesh and full of fat. And I thought, this is over. I must bury these parts of my friends because they are no longer food they now belong to someone that should be

buried so this possibility of dominating your mind and resweaching your mind is something that we must learn a lot and in every circumstance how we we should play the best the best role we should have and this is something we are not doing we're being pushed around by circumstances and not we are not guiding our lives we're and ruling our life. Life is lots more fun than to be pushed around by drugs, by alcohol, but what ever seen one. Yeah. So when you say your rugby socks, meaning you filled your socks with food, essentially. Yeah. Our friends used to put into the rugby socks, the flesh and the fat that during when we're walking through the snow, they were kept frozen. But as soon as we

crossed the line of life and death that for me is when we found the grass. And I thought I was going to be alive. And I saw on the other side of the grass a lizard that was looking at me and saying, what did you did? Where are you guys from? Come on. And I thought we're coming from the ancient and the most primitive aspect of life, of glaciers and snow and everything. And we're going back into the real world. And then slowly we found a horseshoe. We found cows, but the man was missing. And then when I saw the shepherd, I just said, we have done it. Nando, I won't walk anymore. I am into peace, and I had also a colossal diarrhea because I was chewing toothpaste that has magnesium milk. So I don't know, in that moment, if I was completely weakened or that I had reached my objective of seeing that great shepherd that helped us without knowing us did you was there was there a letting go of sorts i mean was there just a release you know was there emotion or was it just holy we just we did it we've accomplished our mission so to speak yes i i thought we accomplished our mission and when i see the helicopters

going for my friends there and i believe that we came out walking on a very humble and fragile situation And 10 years later, we are sending helicopters to rescue them. It's like a miracle. It's something that still puts here tears into my eyes that's seeing how capable we are doing of great things in life and how a so low-profile life we are living instead of that. And do you know how far you actually had to walk? What did you say? 70 kilometers?

Was that easy? 70 kilometers. And of course, when we went to the top of the top of. the mountain and we thought there was going to be a way down it was not that that it was very tortuous we had to go southeast and southwest because when you make plans in life most of the problems they are not where you think they're going to be they come up with you so i think it's a we should hack changes in life people are not realistic on doing that and not and not think about success and failure you just try

your way and success or failure is going to come out later on September always feels like the start of something new, whether it's back to school, new projects, or just a fresh season. It's the perfect time to start dreaming about your next adventure. I love that feeling of possibility, thinking about where to go next, what kind of place will stay in, and how to make it feel like home. I'm already imagining the kind of Airbnb that would make the trip unforgettable, somewhere with charm character and a little local flavor. If you're planning to be away this September, why not consider hosting your home on Airbnb while you're gone? Your home could be the highlight of someone else's trip, a cozy place to land, a space that helps them feel like a local.

And with Airbnb's co-host feature, you can hire a local co-host to help with everything from managing bookings to making sure your home is guest ready. Find a co-host at Airbnb.ca slash host. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time, as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians. I would be the first immigrant mayor in generations, but 40% of New Yorkers were born outside of this country. Artists and activists, I mean, do you ever feel demoralized?

I might personally lose hope. This individual might lose the faith, but there's an institution that doesn't lose faith, and that's what I believe in. to bring you depth and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. There's not a single day that Paola and I don't call or text each other, sharing news and thoughts about what's happening in the country. This new podcast will be a way to make that ongoing intergenerational conversation public. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I started trying to get pregnant about four years ago now. We're getting a little bit older, and it just kind of felt like the window could be closing. Bloomberg and IHeart Podcasts present. IVF disrupted, the Kind Body Story, a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility care. Introducing Kind Body, a new generation of women's health and fertility care. Backed by millions in venture capital. and private equity, it grew like a tech startup.

While Kind Body did help women start families, it also left behind a stream of disillusioned and angry patients. You think you're finally like with the right people in the right hands, and then to find out again that you're just not. Don't be fooled. By what? All the bright and shiny. Listen to IVF disrupted, the Kind Body story,

starting September 19 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. because of this did that make your sort of reintroduction after the 72 days actually more more I guess easier or simple than than complicated just because you had sort of faced all of this and or was there a transition back into the of just life life well when I was back the club was devastated we had to rebuild the club I had to visit the the parents of my friends that were into pieces and I thought I was so lucky that I had all these chances of of coming

back that I had a lot of homework to do we we bought some houses for people that had died in in the plane garage and the family was left so we I had the feeling of reconstruction i i felt that i had to go back and that i have achieved what i wanted i mean there was no time for for psychologists or for thinking about it of i mean i felt very happy at those moments and i remember very vividly that they said that the team wouldn't go back to championship for five years and at that year we won we won the championship and one of the parents that his son had died in the crack the crash came around and had had to me and say my son has died but you are here and i found this gratefulness of the soul of this man

that has lost his son but he's happy that i am and i'm alive and i was given life by by the body of his son that there are people that have a mental that the dimension that are of greatness that we don't see them around and then those are the people that make a better world for sure how soon after did you get on an airplane well we thought about coming back in train and not climbing on an airplane but all the press was there and they were pushing us and we had the problem about what we had eaten and we had to tell them all together and I wanted to go back and tell the people the parents of my friends what had happened so they just put us on an airplane in Chile and when I go into the airplane and I smell this the the plastic of the plane was the

same smell and say wow we are going to crash again but i thought roberto planes don't crash so you have very slim chances of crashing twice so we went back on on that plane and then from then you were okay i mean you never had really much of a fear of flying after that no no really i'm not going to fault twice for sure yeah it's so true um so going going Going back to when you had to make the decision to sort of consume a friend and actually eat flesh, you know, who made that decision? Was it a collective decision? And, you know, how was, what was the psychology behind that? Just pure survival? Yes, you begin to starve. Your belt goes one hole every day. You have to build new house. And you're shrinking and there's nothing, nothing to eat. And then you begin chewing the belts of, of, and. and the shoes because they have leather. And then someone said, I'm thinking

that we should eat the dead bodies. And someone said, that's crazy. We're not going to do that. We are not cannibals. We are not going to go that down. And in my mind, this is a good thing I was there. So I can tell you what happened. I don't know if it was good or bad,

but I thought flesh proteins, fat lipids, we need carbohydrates. But I had studied in biochemistry at the CREPS that you can build a glycogen or carbohydrates from from protein so the substrate was okay so was something we had to do and I thought if I had died I would be very proud that my friends who use my body to survive that would be part of that I mean there was 1970 there wasn't any kind of transplants or any kind of of this kind of of survival techniques but it was

It was quite very humiliating, but very simple. Do you, are you still in touch with, how many survivors were there? 16. 16. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And how many people were on the aircraft? 35. 35.

35, 29 survived. 8 died in the avalanche and 16 made it. We live in the same neighborhood. My sons go to the school with a grand sons of, of, of guys that had died in the mountains. We are a community. I think it's very helpful to be a community in order to overcome this kind of situations.

And do you connect with each other? Do you have like reunions and... I was reading about that. It keeps growing and growing because there's grandkids, kids and grandkids. So great. Yeah. Yeah, at the first 22nd of December

was the day we were out. And at the first celebration, we're 32 and now we're 180. And we are, and the family's, of the ones that came also are very close. And this film that was made on the point of view of one that the guys that had died has united all kind of difference between the ones that survived and the ones that died. And what about your family? Like, seeing your parents when you came, when, like, what was that experience?

Well, my father and the father of my girlfriend used to organize search and to go and look for us. And I told my girlfriend, some find someone else. But you cannot tell your mother, find someone else because your mother is loving you all the time. So I was telling my mother, I'm alive, I'm alive, look for me. And she was saying, I feel him alive. I know that she will be back. And so my girlfriend would go and visit my mother, and she would go home and say, Robert, he's alive.

And the father would say, this girl is crazy. She's 19 years old. Her boyfriend has been stranded in the mountain for two months. It's impossible that he is alive. And one day, my father-in-law had to wake her, and she was in bed and understand, and felt someone crying and telling him, you are right, he's alive. I'm going to look for him tomorrow. And she was very happy to see his rugby player.

When she came to me, I was into pieces. My mother said, you look like an old man. I had lost like 30 kilograms. I was, my lips were bleeding. I was completely destroyed. And my mother grabbed my hand and say, I knew what you were back. Everything is over. Mama, we had to eat the dead people.

Who cares? You are okay. I knew that you were coming back. Wow. Are there moments that you look fondly upon this experience? You know what I mean? Like the camaraderie of being together, of survival, now that you're through it. No, of course.

This is a story about friendship. It's a story about passion. It's a story about teamwork. It's a story about people's success. And it's a story that is worth you of being sharing. And that's the reason I think civilization now nowadays that is so spoiled, needs more stories. I mean, we are completely, the people are going to look this program,

have in life more than what they need, and they do less what they can. If you have watered a thing, if a place to sleep, if there's something to eat, come on, guy, it's upon you. Don't wait for your airplane to crash to realize how good you were. I love it. Thank you, Roberto. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for telling this story.

It's really great to talk to you. Nice to meet you. Bye. And hopefully we'll see you down the road. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm very fun of your films. I enjoy them very much.

Keep on going. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. We'll see you soon. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. That's nutty.

Wow. I'm like, what a, what a man, like his perspective on everything. I know. And I can't wait for everyone to hear this. And I know it's a story that a lot of people know because it. of the 93 film. Right. What we just learned is there's a new film, which you didn't know.

No, I didn't. I knew it. Yeah, sure. But it's, I'm excited to watch it. I'm going to watch it tonight. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I was fascinated with the film itself, like, alive when it came out.

Well, and he was just so, so happy with this film because it sounds like it's very honest. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, my God. I'm excited to watch it. I think it's because. we didn't realize that we're interviewing him because we were just so excited to interview.

Right, but he's promoting this movie. I think that's what's happening. We had no idea. Great. We're on top of our game. Anyway, it was incredible to talk to him regardless, and I'm glad we get to promote his show. He had a great sense of humor.

He got a Hudson Brothers hit out on that, meaning like he must have known. I guess so. He must be our dad's age. He reminded me of like Ellie. our therapist I almost started telling my deep dark secrets

I'm like you're like well what should I do about anxiety he's like I don't know just get in the plane crash Oliver and if our list readers if our listeners knew about Ellie

he he's he's literally looks and kind of sounds just like Roberto. And he also has this swagger. That same feeling, Nevada. Like, Roberto has like swag to him too. Yeah, I have the same thing.

I found my face actually turning into what my face like kind of does when I'm in my therapy session. I know, totally. But he had such amazing wisdom. Yes, he did. And, you know, you do, you realize that so many people, so many people who have come in the face of death, he talks about finding God or the, the, the, the introduction. to the relationship of God, or to your spirituality or to what motivates you to survive.

Yeah. It's very interesting. Yeah. Very cool. That that is in those moments, like you, and you asked such a good question, which I'm not going to ruin. But I loved that question that you asked. This is the outro, so you can say. Is this the outro?

Yeah, because you're speaking as if we've already talked to him. Okay. So this outro, I can say this. So, no, but when you said, was there any moment where you looked and said, oh, my God, it's so beautiful? Right. And he said, yes. I mean, what an amazing. I love.

Yeah, when he came out of the avalanche. Yeah. Snow, snow, snow, bang. And then it was beautiful blue sky. And that's when God. Yeah. That's when he was like, I'm either going to move and get out of this or I'm going to stay here. die. And he's like, I'm not going to die with a bunch of rotting corpses, essentially.

Yeah. He goes, I want to die in the fresh, in the fresh powder and the pow-pow. I loved that. I hope everybody enjoyed that episode. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians, artists, and actors. activists to bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. The moment is a space for the conversations we've been having us father and daughter for years. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paula Ramos on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name. Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Introducing IVF disrupted, the Kind Body Story, a podcast.

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