Tooth & Claw: True Stories of Animal Attacks - Tooth & Claw Year-End Wrap Up: 2024 Edition

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

Jeff takes a look back with the guys to talk about some of the more memorable moments of Tooth & Claw in 2024. They talk about the "Biggest Ouchy" of the year, some animal news that wasn't covered by ...the show, and then venture out into some more general pop-culture interests. ~~ To advertise on the show, contact us! ~~ Tooth & Claw is brought to you by QCODE. Support the show and get access to an extensive library of exclusive episodes like this by supporting the show on Patreon or joining the Grizzly Club on Apple Podcasts. For the latest updates on the show and all things wildlife, follow us at toothandclawpod.com and social:  Instagram: @ToothandClawPodcast Twitter: @ToothandClawPod Wes: @GrizKid Jeff: @jefe_larson Mike: @mikey3ds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:26 Register today at Richfield, Utah.com. Welcome everyone to the end of the year, tooth and claw episode. As always, we got our CEO of Bears, Wes Larson, with us. I don't want to be a CEO. Wes. Watch your back. Yeah. You're the CEO.
Starting point is 00:01:00 We got Mike Smith, who famously hates children. And I'm Jeff Larson, Wes's little brother. Is that true, Mike? Do you not like kids? I like him just fine as long as they're not within like a, uh, I was going to make like a radius kind of joke, but that makes me sound like a predator, so I won't say that. I like him just fine.
Starting point is 00:01:20 Let's go with that. You like self-impose have those laws that you can't be within a certain distance of a school or something. No one else has ever told me I can't. But yeah. Right. I like kids. Yeah. And I can be around there.
Starting point is 00:01:37 That's. That's out there. Yeah. We have some fun nephew. It's fun to hang out with our nephews and nieces. Nephew and nieces. We have one nephew and two nieces. I like in Spanish where you can just say the one word and that covers it.
Starting point is 00:01:54 I know. There's a word that people use in the U.S. that just sounds so dumb. I forget what it's called. Oh, niblets. People call them niblets. No. Yeah, it sounds like some like word that some millennial influencer came up with.
Starting point is 00:02:10 It's awful. Oh, that's bad. I don't like that. So don't use that word. Let's come up with a better word than that. But I agree with you, Jeff. In Latin America. I just say nephew and nieces.
Starting point is 00:02:23 Yeah. But in Spanish, what? It's sobrinos and sobrinas. And it's like you can just say subrinos and cover it all. And then say Sabrina's if it's like for. But you got to draw the line somewhere. If you start combining too many words, then you got like. In a word language.
Starting point is 00:02:45 That's true. That doesn't work to me. You can't combine everything. Well, I put together a little 24 tooth and claw recap, recrap. It's funny. I just kind of want to, yeah, recrap be here with you guys. Keep going. It's funny.
Starting point is 00:03:03 All right, let's do it. So, let's do the most memorable news story that we shared this year. Honestly, the one that just stuck out to me when you asked me this was the RFK Jr. story. Like him hitting a bear with his car, taking it to Central Park and ditching it there because he was like late for dinner or whatever. It's just when that came out, I just couldn't believe it. Well, and that it was like kind of a big story in New York when it happened. Right. And then like for it to turn out that it was in.
Starting point is 00:03:40 Yeah. And he's like 10 years ago. I did this. And I love the memes now of whenever something crazy happens with an animal. It shows like RFK saying, now listen, I was like 10 years ago, you know, like everything is a joke about that. And I really, I don't know. That one for me is the one that stood out. So that's the one I'm going to go with.
Starting point is 00:04:02 That was it for me too, honestly. It's kind of the most acceptable. one that happened all year, at least as far as like human interest. But I also, I think it was from that same episode. The one I look back on the, with the most biggest emotional response is the monkeys that saved that kid from getting assaulted. I think it was in India. You shared this story, Jeff. And I just thought that was really, it was one of those stand up and cheer moments that they have at the Oscars now, you know, like with a part of the movie where you stood up and cheered. That was me, but for tooth and claw podcast. I think you did. stand up when I told the story. I did. Wiping my tears. Yeah. No, it was great.
Starting point is 00:04:45 And who knows what those monkeys' motivation was really at the end of the day, but it's just like a fun thing that fun's a weird word to use in this scenario, but it's great that it happened. It's awesome. It's kind of like if monkeys attack people enough sooner or later, they'll stop a sexual.
Starting point is 00:05:00 That's true. Yeah. It's like the monkeys and Shakespeare on typewriters. Yeah. Exactly. But this is for assault and stopping it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:11 You done with your fun story? Yeah, that was a riot. A barrel of monkeys is some might call it. Mine I went with Shane, who was like kind of our first person we ever interviewed. A recent one. Well, I guess we had Claire. The Rattlesnake. We had Clara and we had Lindsay Bull with the alligator.
Starting point is 00:05:30 But for like a, oh yeah, Lindsay was the first. So like a national story. Yeah. He was our first bearer. attack though that we interviewed the victim and then it got like even more interesting where 399 died this year and we kind of think it might have been 399 that got him and it's been like fun keeping in touch with him we when you did the 399 episode about like it eating that guy's ass yeah they like rode in and said like oh yeah it's like after it shade's ass too and it's like
Starting point is 00:06:06 They're just very funny and there's like crazy story. One that I just remember a lot. Yeah. Him and his wife, both great. Chloe. Yeah. They are great. So next category, we're going to do our best story we could find from the news this year,
Starting point is 00:06:24 2004, that we didn't share in one of our news episodes. I got a pretty good one that I was pretty excited to learn about. So it actually involves a Nile Crock. I think we brought them up a few times in news episodes, but we've never done a fully devoted episode to them. And it was a pretty good story. This happened in 2024. Anthony Jobert, who's 37 years old, was fishing with his son, J.P., who's 12.
Starting point is 00:06:55 They're at a dam in South Africa. And as he was fishing, his line got caught in a tree, and he had a bass on. And you guys know, you don't want to lose a bass when you got a bass on. You gotta keep that pass. No, do whatever you can. Do whatever you have. So his son was like, oh, I'll go untangle it. And he's like, no, no, I'll do it.
Starting point is 00:07:13 And he walked out and he was only in an inch of water where it was tangled over this tree when suddenly a crocodile exploded from the water, clamped its jaws around his leg, and knocked him over. And he says he just remembers there being water everywhere. And then the crocodile adjusted its grip and it had his second leg in its mouth. this was about a 13-foot Nile crocodile.
Starting point is 00:07:36 And it had him just below the belt around his thighs, started thrashing him back and forth. And he, because the crocodile was so up high, couldn't see his legs anymore. He could just see teeth and eyes looking at him. And the crocodile had him locked in, started backing up toward deeper water. And he knew enough to know,
Starting point is 00:07:55 oh, if it gets me in this water, it's going to pull me under and drown me. So he starts fighting back. He's gouging at its eyes. He's forcing its thumbs into, its eyes and it just keeps shaking him doesn't really even feel it and his boss johan who he's fishing with runs in and grabs him by his trousers like his belt and they're kind of doing this tug-of-war between the crocodile and he remembers thinking like my legs are going to get ripped off
Starting point is 00:08:21 and i'm going to die and suddenly his wife uh who's very heroic annelize appears and she has a log that she had grabbed and she just starts smashing this crocodile over the head with the lock just over and over and over again. Meanwhile, they're like combined children are watching from the shore and they're just losing their minds. Like one of them is on the ground praying. They're all screaming. The story started out like just him and his son and now it's like a family.
Starting point is 00:08:50 There's a whole party going in. Yeah. And he's just getting shaken all over. But after about five or six really hard bashes with this log, the crocodile finally released its grip and slides away. And his boss, who still had him by the belt and his wife, drag him up on the shore, blood soaked, and they're realizing, like, he's in pretty bad shape. He's in severe shock.
Starting point is 00:09:14 His wife is in shock. And Johan's wife, his boss's wife, was there. She's also there. She grabs some towels and bandages in antiseptic and starts applying first aid. And when she's cleaning his wound, she actually finds three teeth that are, like, stuck in holes in his stomach. And they're really scared. They're thinking he might bleed to death or die from infection. So they take him to a local public hospital. And the next morning they went to visit him and his wounds were just like filthy and still covered in mud. And so they're like,
Starting point is 00:09:45 okay, we got to get him to a different hospital. And they took him to a private one nearby, which I guess in South Africa, there's public and private. So you can go to public for free healthcare where you can go to a private one and pay a little bit more. And they took him there. I think it ended up being like 4,000 something pounds in Rans. It was like 100,000 Rans. And he made a recovery from
Starting point is 00:10:08 what I understand. He did say he was really happy that he went out in the water and not his son because his son was only 12 and probably would have been dragged away a lot quicker. He still has some trauma every time he closes his eyes, he still sees the crocodile. And he does admit that he's very lucky
Starting point is 00:10:24 that it missed his private parts. The doctor said an inch to the side. and they would have been gone. And they also just barely missed his femoral artery by like one millimeter. That's one of those rare occasions where you're like, I'm glad my privates aren't bigger, you know?
Starting point is 00:10:41 Yeah. Because they would have gotten them if they were bigger. That's a good point. You would have been told. Or longer or whatever. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:48 Yeah. All right. Well, that's my story. I thought was a pretty good one. I found a couple others that I really liked, but that was the one I decided. I was just trying to like help you. and get to this fish.
Starting point is 00:11:00 Yeah. It's like, hey, I'll give you a hand. And, you know, all they have is their teeth to really work with. Yeah. There was that strange detail that the crocodile. It exploded at him. What do you think that was all? Was there like a landmine?
Starting point is 00:11:13 Is that another element of the story? No, I just mean it like shot out of the water. Shot? So like out of a cannon. No. What word could I use? It moved quickly out of the water toward him. That's what Jeff.
Starting point is 00:11:26 That's Jeff's linguistic preference. if you just keep it simple. Hey, you always get mad at me for what you just did. Yeah, that's true. I'm a hypocrite. I'll admit it. Two crazy things about this one for me is that he was only in an inch of water when it shot out at him.
Starting point is 00:11:43 And obviously, it was in deeper water nearby. You would think that if you weighed it out into an inch of water, you'd probably be okay. But I'm guessing there was like a drop off right past that. I don't know. I saw a video of a warthog drinking water the other day. and he was so scared and it just barely put its nose in there for a second and this crocodile can and out of the water and tried to buy it.
Starting point is 00:12:09 I think they're the coolest ambush predators of any ambush predator out there. But the other thing that I thought was really cool was typically with a crocodile that big, no amount of punishment is going to get it to let go. I mean, these are animals that take down Cape Buffalo. They take down really big prey. And the fact that his wife hit it that many times and it did release its grip is pretty impressive. And the fact that she was brave enough to run out there
Starting point is 00:12:39 and do that is amazing. So it was a cool story. I thought I had a little bit of everything. His wife could maybe take a Cape Buffalo. Yeah, possibly. Lots of places can expose you to identity theft. Oh, no. That's why LifeLock monitors high.
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Starting point is 00:13:21 Yeah. Do it. Okay, so this is, I actually cheated a little bit because I did. share this news story with you two, but we ended up cutting it out of the episode just for like pacing. And I didn't do a very good job of telling the story. I'm probably not going to do much better this time. But I really want to talk about it because I just thought it was really fun. Actually fun, not like the last news story I was talking about. But there was a jogger. I think this is up in New Jersey.
Starting point is 00:13:45 There was a jogger out in the forest, just out on her run. and she was having a really loud public, like a speaker phone call while she was out. And for whatever reason, well, I can understand this groundhog got really aggravated with her speaking or just with her presence in general. And I can totally relate because I feel like doing the same thing when I see people having speaker phone calls in public too. Especially when you're out in like a forest or a park, especially don't. Stop. Don't do that. If you're in your car, whatever.
Starting point is 00:14:18 I can't make you live your life to that extent. See, I would, to me, like a forest or park, at least you can, like, get away from them. Yeah, that's true. To me, the worst was when we were in Switzerland and there's the lady on the train right next to us, just full speakerphone. It's just like, we have nowhere we can go. Right. We're just stuck with this. Especially when it's in another language, you can't even, like, listen in, you know?
Starting point is 00:14:45 Yeah, it was tough. But whatever the case, this groundhog got super mad and just ran up on her and started chewing on her legs. And she freaked out. She threw her phone out so she had no way to call or contact anyone for help. I don't know how serious or like how big this groundhog was, but she was indisposed on the ground being attacked by this groundhog. And this really sent me down a rabbit hole of learning a lot about groundhogs that I didn't know. Like the noises done me when they get all riled up. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:15 Do they burrow? I'm not sure. I didn't dig that deep into groundhog. Groundhog? Yeah. What's the other name for that? Whistlepig? So deep that sometimes, like, they get to the magma layer of the earth and it burns.
Starting point is 00:15:32 They definitely don't do that. Okay. That's interesting. Whistlepigs is another name. That's mostly what my research led me to learn. That was great. But anyway, so a middle school on his cross-country team, he was all. also out on a run in the forest.
Starting point is 00:15:47 And he came across the scene. He heard the commotion because groundhogs, they make crazy loud, squealing screech sounds when they're all riled up like this. And what he ended up doing was he told Siri to call 911 for him and get them dispatched out to the scene so that they could come help. But it's just like a really fun scenario
Starting point is 00:16:06 wherein this kid just happened to be close enough to help this lady who was having a tough time with a groundhog. The police came by. Everything was resolved peacefully. She got her phone back. Oh, that's another detail of the story. The Groundhog kind of disconnected from her legs at one point and started chewing on her phone. You know, that's tough.
Starting point is 00:16:26 It really was just mad that she was on the phone. I think that's really what it was. Yeah. I do. I love that this story resonated so much with you that you, like, decided to re-rack it. Bring it back. Because it's just like, it is the fact that she was on speaker on her phone. in a public setting that connected with you.
Starting point is 00:16:48 Yeah, it really did. And the detail that he asked Siri to call 911. That's great. It makes me wonder if he forgot what the number was and he's like, oh, maybe Siri knows. That's great. Jeff, what do you got? I got one for you.
Starting point is 00:17:05 Okay. All right. Awesome. Charlie Hayjack, he's 62 years old. and he had gone 148 days in a row surfing. He just loves surfing, right? Yeah, and he wanted to keep this street going, but something happened to break a streak,
Starting point is 00:17:27 and he was pretty mad about it on September 24th. So he's the owner of Narlie Charlie Surf Series, by the way, which is a great name. Yeah. Wes, what are some things humans can do to provoke a shark bite? Like a lot of splashing Being near some sort of prey source Being out early in the morning
Starting point is 00:17:49 Late in the evening Murky water Having exposed flesh too Because like the bright flashing of your skin If you're white especially Can look like a fish that's struggling in the water So you don't think women should be able to wear bikinis That's not what I'm saying
Starting point is 00:18:05 But it's just like it's one extra tiny thing That can contribute But it's still not It's not likely to be to a shark attack. According to Wes, Charlie did nothing to provoke this attack, but he stepped on the shark. Yeah, that'll do it too. Well, you didn't list that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:25 Well, most shark attacks are unprovoked. He stepped on the shark and it immediately turned and bid him twice pretty good on the leg and then swam off. So he goes to the beach, which you guys know. get sand in it, that's like, to me, oh. And he's looking at his foot and he said that it opened up like a flower, which I thought was like a really unique description. He could see all the slice marks in his foot and then blood just started viewing out of each of the holes. So he grabs his surfboard leash to make a tourniquet on his foot.
Starting point is 00:19:04 And then he drives himself to the hospital, gets stitched up. and was just dying in the hospital because he broke his surf streak by it and he was just itching to get back out there. That was like the main headline of his whole attack, though, was that he was mad that he couldn't go surfing. I love a good streak, you know? Yeah, a good streak is fun to keep. All right.
Starting point is 00:19:29 So now I got some more categories. So let's do Favorite Animal Fact Learned this year. Wes, you can't go first. you've been doing that too much. That's why I'm waiting. Our listeners get pissed when you keep going first. We did get a review about that one. I'll go then.
Starting point is 00:19:47 So this may be a little self-aggrandizing. I don't know. I always remember the stuff I talk about a lot more than I remember the stuff you guys talk about. I think that's human nature. But during the mating season, I learned when I was preparing the deer episode that male deer necks, they can expand in size two or sometimes even up to three times. Jeff's doing the deer neck face again. Popular.
Starting point is 00:20:11 That's a meme on Discord. Our Discord, yeah. People like that. But I was just shocked like how seasonally how much an animal's physiology can change and then just go back and just cycle over and over again. That's a huge change that they undergo every year. Yeah. It's really cool.
Starting point is 00:20:29 I mean, they look like a completely different animal in the fall, not completely, but very different animal in the fall than they do in the summer. Like in the summer, they're all tan and kind of tawny and life and just like dainty. And then in the fall, they're jacked out. Like burly and rough. Every year without fail in the fall, West is like, what is that? Yeah. I'm like, it's a deer.
Starting point is 00:20:54 No way. That's right. Good one. Yeah, thanks. A great one. I'll go next. So this one, I don't even know if it works. So I have a backup if you guys say it doesn't work.
Starting point is 00:21:06 But I was thinking of our HBO partnership with like chimp crazy. Yeah. And just that that one chimp was strong, it was Travis, that Travis was strong enough to rip a cop car door off of his car. Yeah, that counts. Sure. Right. He was like, I didn't realize chimps were that strong.
Starting point is 00:21:32 That one counts. Yeah. I've done a real kind of roller coaster in chimp. strength over the year too because we got in like a heated argument in Australia about whether or not you could beat one in a fight and then I was like so convinced you couldn't and then some of our chip experts on that were kind of like yeah like Jeff couldn't but there's a possibility of like the strongest man ever beat one Alex Pereira and I didn't think there was any shot so it was a bit of a roller coaster Travis was like the Alex Pereira of chimps too he's a big that's what they say
Starting point is 00:22:05 200, pat. Yeah, right. He was kind of obese, though. Police cruiser doors. Amazing. All right. I'm going to pick one from a jeffisode, the cockroach one. I hadn't ever really cared enough to learn much about cockroaches, and I was really shocked
Starting point is 00:22:22 by how social they were. I didn't really understand just how, like, intelligent and social and cooperative cockroaches could be, and that episode really made me think about them a lot differently. So that's the one that I pick. Thanks, Jeff. You're welcome. My backup was going to be the lobsters peeing on each other before they have sex. Hell yeah, dude.
Starting point is 00:22:44 Hell yeah. Made you feel seen. All right. So next one, best animal experience of the year, like your personal experience with an animal this year. I'm going to go last this time. Okay, okay. I'll go first again then. I know mine off the top of my head.
Starting point is 00:23:03 I had a lot of really good animal experiences this year. Between our tooth and claw trips, my guiding trips, and just being in Montana, I do feel very lucky to have the experiences I had this year. But one that stood out was in Borneo, where we saw the orangutan come down with her baby in the morning. I just, it was like so quiet and beautiful. And no one was like impatient in the group. We all just sat there and waited.
Starting point is 00:23:33 and I thought we'd be lucky to see an orangutan, like a fully wild orangutan, and then seeing one with her baby and just like how gentle that whole process was. And it did seem like they were kind of just enjoying the sunrise before they came down. It was my first great apes in the wild, and it really affected me. Like it really is something I think about all the time. So that was one that stood out, and that's the one I'm going to pick. Yeah, that was great. I'm going to go with the great white shark dive.
Starting point is 00:24:02 All three of us were in the same cage, I think. That was unbelievable to me. That was pretty easily the most special encounter that I've had with wildlife in my lifetime. Kind of everything I thought. I mean, I knew I've always loved great white sharks, but having seen them, a lot of my thoughts about them kind of flipped all the way entirely around instead of seeming scary to me. I'm sure without the bars in the way they would have been. But I saw more of kind of like an innocent, almost a childlike nature about them. They're just animals doing their thing.
Starting point is 00:24:36 And they're like so almost curious, the dead eyes that some people refer to them as having. I just didn't see that at all with them. I saw just like a really curious and intelligent, powerful animal doing its thing. It was just I felt really privileged to have experience that. Yeah, that's a great one. Yeah. That actually made me want to audible when I wrote down. So I'm going to.
Starting point is 00:24:59 I'm going to choose koalas. We like went to an island in Australia that was like known for its koalas called magnetic island. Not known for magnets, I don't think, even despite the name. I didn't see a single one. Yeah. But it was a real koala magnet because we saw a bunch of them. And I like had really gotten my expectations low for koalas. They're one of my favorite animals.
Starting point is 00:25:28 They're like, I think I have them like eighth overall. But I thought that they wouldn't be that cool to see in the wild because I know they sleep all day and I thought they'd just be super far away. They're just right next to the trail that we saw them on. Even though they're sleepy, they still move and stuff. And we saw them even like at the hostel that West chose. So just running around the boardwalk a little bit. So that was really fun for me.
Starting point is 00:25:55 Yeah. Do I want to do honorable mentions at all on this? Yeah, I almost picked the Cassuary, which was also in Australia. Like, that was one of the ones I had to work for the hardest this year that we all worked for. And, like, the payoff was worth it. That was such an amazing bird. And it was my bucketless bird. So now I think it's Harpy Eagle, which I'm going to try and see this year.
Starting point is 00:26:16 But Caswary was my honorable mention. I had Boogie Boy written down, the ring tan that raided our hotel fridge. be like walked up right as is making us escape and it's just so funny. We had looked for orangutans for two or three full days and then just to have one at our hotel breaking in to the fridge was so fun. It's really funny. And then I also wanted to just mention the Hogle Zoo. It's been like fun going there a lot.
Starting point is 00:26:45 I don't think it has to always be some huge adventure to connect you to animals. Definitely. We're pretty pro zoos. I'm very pro-zos. Yeah. And there's a baby gorilla there right now. There's two baby snow leop birds. So.
Starting point is 00:26:59 That new exhibit with the Utah animals. Yeah, it's been fun. Just kind of look. Do you know something you taught me this year, Wes, is I can go outside of my house, wherever I'm living, wherever I am. And there's going to be probably some cool birds to see. You don't have to go anywhere to have a meaningful and cool experience with wildlife. Birding really opens up a whole new world of wildlife to you.
Starting point is 00:27:23 And like, it took me a while to get into birding. And now that I am, it's part of what I look forward to the most on our trips is what I'm going to see as far as bird life is concerned. So that's cool. I'm glad you're catching the bug a little bit. And I know Jeff is too. The bird bug. Yeah. Just a lot of castle area outside the other day.
Starting point is 00:27:43 Yeah. That was so sick. Nice. This episode is brought to you by Netflix. Most valuable promotions in Netflix are hosting a blockbuster. triple headliner Saturday, May 16th. Rhonda Rousey returns to face fellow woman's MMA pioneer Gina Carano
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Starting point is 00:28:16 Did you guys watch Wonka? Did you like Wonka? I did. Yeah. Wonka was great. Yeah. It was directed by the same guys, The Paddington movies, Paul King. Right.
Starting point is 00:28:26 That's why I think that's the same sense of whimsy that I got from those movies, you know? I like Timothy Shaliman. Yeah. What can't that guy do, you know? He couldn't win his own lookalike contest in New York City. Fair enough. Someone else won it. All right.
Starting point is 00:28:44 Biggest ouchy of the year. You meant from our stories, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm going whalen. Whaling the Warthog ripping Austin's throat out, and then there was some testicle stuff going on.
Starting point is 00:28:57 That's the one that stuck in my brain. Like, there's other people died from some attacks, and that's a bigger ouchy, technically speaking. I don't know if ouchy's a technical term in any way, but that's the one I just couldn't stop thinking about is while Jeff and I were in France and I just walked around the streets of France during the Olympics,
Starting point is 00:29:16 and all this cool stuff was happening around us. The supreme athletes of the world were competing and I was like, man, wailing the war hog, huh? Gross. Welcome to my world, man. Yeah, I can go next. I went with Matt Dyer, the polar bear attack that we told. It's just crazy to me, like, how much damage a polar bear can do right away.
Starting point is 00:29:42 Yeah, and then it's always bad when you're out somewhere super far away from help because you just got to wait such a long time with like your wounds and everything I think a lot of our attacks at least they get brought to help quickly and this one they just he had to wait a long time it was like super cold like if I bump my knuckle and it's cold
Starting point is 00:30:08 it's like times 10 pain so I can't even imagine what a polar bear attack would be like I um I went with Timothy tried well and Amy Huguenard Yeah. I think for me, again, and I know I keep bringing this up, but like the fact that I had access for so long to their autopsy stuff, it like really clarified how bad that was for them. You know, and I know that's like such a like diminutive word to use for that, like bad. But it's just horrific to see that kind of devastation that's done to a body. Yeah. And just kind of. And just kind of. kind of having to dive into that one at the level that I did. It made me think about them a lot. And so that one is the one that felt like the biggest ouchy for me.
Starting point is 00:30:59 Plus bears always have like smelly breath. Yeah. So you got to deal with that. Yeah. I stick to it. I just think getting killed by a bear or eaten by a bear is as far as wildlife goes. I think it's as bad as it gets. All right.
Starting point is 00:31:15 Favorite pop culture animal of 2024? I got anything for this? I'll go first. I'm going to go with Tonka. I didn't know anything about Tonka until our HBO thing, but Tonka was a cool chimp. And I love a chimp that dresses up like a person, you know, even though we kind of learned that we shouldn't be doing that. You took mine. So I'm going to go with just a layup, and I'm going to say Mudang.
Starting point is 00:31:42 Oh, man. That should be a job. That's what I thought you were going to pick. I know. Moodang was all over the news. Very cute little pygmy hippopotamus. No, I actually am glad that you chose Moodang, though, because everyone knows I love Mudang, so it means more coming from you, you know?
Starting point is 00:32:00 Yeah. I was thinking, as far as real animals go, the bear, dead bear in RFK is trunk. It's just still the most mind-boggling thing. But I wanted to bring this up because it didn't quite make my favorite movie of the year. But have you guys heard of the movie Hundreds of Beavers? Yes. I haven't seen it, but I heard about it. It was incredible. It's like a really a love it or hate it kind of a movie. It really worked for me. It's just because I love old Buster Keaton, black and white slapstick stuff. It's a lot of stupid, funny beavers. They're really humans in beaver costumes in the movie, but man, it's had such a great time watching that. Cool. I like it. I'll have to watch it. My backup was Gladiator 2 and he kills the primate. Yeah, the Beakers. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:47 Yeah, because I was like, well, there's my proof that I could take one. All you got to is bite it. I think you can kill a baboon. Gladiator 2 is so weird with its animal stuff. There's so much. You guys like that movie a lot more than I did. I wasn't a big thing. Sure.
Starting point is 00:33:05 Mike doesn't seem like he, Mike's like complaining about it. I'll give it a C plus. Yeah, that's where I'm at too. Like I had fun because I went with you guys. Well, I mean, the costume was pretty. pretty famous for having a bunch of animals in it. Yeah, and that's cool. That's true. I just, the first Gladiator with the tigers, I thought they did it so well.
Starting point is 00:33:27 And this one, it just kind of felt like they're like, let's just throw some baboons in there. Let's do a rhino, you know. It didn't feel very thought out to me. It's a tough area for us because we love movies. And like, I don't think any of us love CGI animals. I know. But then we like know that it's a lot more humane. like what should be happening.
Starting point is 00:33:49 It's such a weird balance for me. The first gladiator he like almost got slashed up by a tiger. And it's like that's way cooler. Yeah. We're gonna at some point probably this year we'll do an episode on the movie Roar, which a lot of people have sent us. It's been on my list since day one. But it's just a crazy movie where there was a lot of real animals used that were not very trained.
Starting point is 00:34:13 And it's going to be a fun episode. Wes, do you have any concert? observations from 2024? I do. And I really, I want to stress that this isn't like a complete list, but these are some of the ones that kind of stuck out for me as I was doing some research. And I think they're interesting ones. But one is that there is an approved plan for reintroducing grizzly bears to the North Cascades in Washington,
Starting point is 00:34:37 which I'm really excited about. It's great habitat for them. And it'll open up some new pathways for their movement. and I think it opens up discussions for new reintroductions with grizzly bears too, which I would love to see them move to different places in the country. Tigers seem to be rebounding a bit in Thailand, which is the only country in Southeast Asia now with a growing tiger population. Oh, cool.
Starting point is 00:35:01 India has a growing tiger population, but in Southeast Asia, Thailand's the only one where they seem to be doing better than they were previous years. A big one in the U.S. is four large dams were removed from, the Klamath River, which is kind of along the California Oregon border. It gave salmon access to natal streams that they didn't have access to before, and they're starting to run up that river again. And it's restoring a river to its wild nature. It's creating salmon habitat. And the cool thing about that one is indigenous groups really led the charge to get those dams removed. And it's the biggest dam removal project ever in U.S. history. So really cool. Spain introduced seven new
Starting point is 00:35:43 marine protected areas. Przwalski's horses were reintroduced to Kazakhstan. They're the only wilds... That's the Monsters ain't guy, right? Yeah, Mike Griswalsky. No, they're the only wild species of horse, though. So that's kind of cool that they're trying to spread them around. Get those out of there.
Starting point is 00:36:03 Blue whales are coming back, especially in Antarctica. Their numbers are really rebounding. I didn't even know they left. And then two that are kind of a little bit more vague, more ranchers across the world are adopting sustainable ranching practices, so like rotational grazing, things that actually improve the soil and prairie habitat, and that is something that will actually have really wide-scale changes for conservation. And then another one that I just wanted to bring up, we kind of touched on it already.
Starting point is 00:36:30 A lot of conservation groups are really seeing the value of involving indigenous communities in decision-making around conservation. and there are a lot of laws that are being passed that return wildlife control to tribes. A big one is bison in the U.S. through this thing called the tribal Buffalo Lifeways Collaboration. They're trying to return buffalo to a lot of these tribal lands and give the tribes ownership over how those buffalo are managed or bison, American bison. And I think that's great. History shows that people that are indigenous to a place tend to treat the wildlife and the land, better than the colonizers.
Starting point is 00:37:11 And I think when we give those people a big voice and those kind of decisions tends to lead to the best case scenario for the wildlife. And I love seeing that happen more and more. For bison hunts, you got to dress up like wolves and chase them off a cliff. Yeah, you've got to chase them off cliffs. No. No. But I do think that's really cool.
Starting point is 00:37:33 I think. No, that's great. Yeah. These are all like wins that. Those are all good ones. Yeah, that are very like centered on certain things. And I think those developments for those ranchers. Not to make them jolly.
Starting point is 00:37:47 Yeah. Jolly ranchers. Thanks. Yeah. Perfect. All right. We'll end on that with the conservation stuff. All right.
Starting point is 00:37:56 So that's it for the tooth and claw themed review. But I also prepped a review that's non-tooth and claw stuff. Perfect. So what was your favorite movie of 2024? I'll go first. Oh, it's so tough. Yeah, do it. For me, it ended up being Furiosa.
Starting point is 00:38:18 I like that. Oh, yeah. Which I didn't plan on, but I just absolutely loved it. Yeah, it's in my honorable mentions. Yeah. We had a real interesting. There's a backstory to that one. Our first watch of Furiosa wasn't great.
Starting point is 00:38:32 There's no audio. There's like a whole audio track was missing. There's no music. Yeah. It's amazing. That's a great pick. Yeah, you go, West. I want to see what you do before I give my answer.
Starting point is 00:38:41 I settled on Dune 2. I just think both of those movies are perfect movies, like the audio engineering, the cinematographer, Greg Fraser, he's like my favorite cinematographer. I just think it was a perfect movie and sequel. So I had to pick it. And yeah, I'm going to stick by it. And I'll do my honorable mentions afterward. Sure.
Starting point is 00:39:05 Did you like it more than part one? I can't pick between the two. Like, I think I liked them the same. I really do. And I know that's, like, not a great answer. But I like them for different reasons. I thought part two had more action, but part one had more story devices. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:39:21 I just, I love them both. That was definitely, that's top five for me. I think I'm going to pick Conclave, which is ridiculous. I like, I had such a fun time. And it was, like, barely edged out. And Jeff and I went and saw Inora, which is an amazing film. If you're going to see one of those. too, see, Nora. But for some reason, I was like one of two people in the theater when we were
Starting point is 00:39:42 watching Conclave. And Ray Fines, of course, is just a master actor. He's always, he's one of the best to ever do it. And I just, I was kind of, for his dumb, kind of Dan Brownie as it is, there's a lot of like weird twists and turns. And it's a little bit ridiculous if you really are analyzing it on, um, a plot level. But I also think there's a lot of really interesting and important messages to be learned from the dialogue, the speechifying, a couple of speeches by a few different characters. It just really touched me. I thought it was a really fun, but also a profound experience.
Starting point is 00:40:17 It was like shot beautifully too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was great. Can I do my honorable mentions? It wasn't even on my radar. You guys have any? Sound off. I had four movies that I thought I liked pretty much the exact same that would all be like my number two movie.
Starting point is 00:40:33 challengers, which I just loved. The first Omen, which is probably the best horror movie I saw this year. Furiosa, which we talked about already. And then Alien Romulus, which I think was the movie I had the most fun with this year. Like the first time I saw it, I just had so much fun. So those are my four that are honorable mentions. Yeah, I'll shout out again. Oh, trap.
Starting point is 00:40:57 I like trap. Trap was fun. Not quite best of the year status then for you. No. But really fun. I'll definitely rewatch it. I just want to shout out again inora real quick. Jeff and I had like a really fun time watching that together. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:12 Dune 2, of course, hundreds of beavers. Again, if you're into that kind of thing, it's really fun. Just endlessly creative. And I actually would have picked this movie. It's a horror film out of South Korea called Exuma. And that would have probably won it if Wes hadn't shown me the movie The Whaling, which is also a horror movie out of South Korea. I was like, this is kind of the same thing but better in every way slightly.
Starting point is 00:41:37 Yeah. So, like, I don't know. There's just a weird kind of split in my mind about how much I should and do like exuma. It's still great. I love that movie, but just wanted to shout that one out. All right. Yeah. I mean, you guys covered my shoutouts, I think.
Starting point is 00:41:51 Right. Doom 2 would probably be my second favorite. And that's the movie I was the most. Well, I'll get to that. Get ready to ride. The Rocky Mountain Jamboree returns to Richfield, Utah, September 4th. through the 18th, 2026. Join hundreds of OHV enthusiasts for five days of guided rides
Starting point is 00:42:10 through Utah's legendary Paiute, Gooseberry, and Great Western Trail Systems. Enjoy daily breakfast. Prize raffles, a light parade, and a closing dinner with fellow riders. Experience Utah's trail country at the Rocky Mountain Jamboree. Register today at richfield, Utah.com. Favorite just media outside of movies, I guess. is what I'm trying to say. So mine's recency bias right now,
Starting point is 00:42:38 but the new Astrobot has been so fun for me. I've been playing it. And I don't know. It's just like, I don't know PlayStation 5's controller. Like it just taught me all this stuff that other games don't utilize about the controller. You can like blow on the controller and it registers it and stuff.
Starting point is 00:43:00 Yeah, that's cool. Mine is something that came out at the end of 2023, but I saw it in 2024. So I'm going to count it. And it's Scavenger's Rain, which I think is maybe my favorite series, like TV series that I can remember since like The Simpsons. It's so good. It's so beautifully done and thoughtful and tense and just good. I like can't recommend that show high enough. So Scavenger's Rain is definitely it for me.
Starting point is 00:43:34 I'll second that opinion. I'm going to take things back to... I'm kind of sad you decided to not include movies because my favorite single moment in media this year was Godzilla suplex and King Kong. Yeah. That's fine. You can take that.
Starting point is 00:43:51 But I'm also, in reality, my answer, it's a video game as well. It's Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. It's a remake of my favorite game ever made. and it delivered on every promise that the first part of the remake trilogy didn't quite reach, and I was just overjoyed by it. Do you have to play all six previous Final Fantasy's to be able to play Final Fantasy 7? You don't, but I would highly encourage it at least six and four and five in that order.
Starting point is 00:44:21 Well, me, I don't know. Don't do you do whatever you want. Those games are amazing, though. All right. So there's not like a law? No, there's no law you won't get arrested. I have to play one through six first. I'll make the law right now.
Starting point is 00:44:35 If you don't, I'll beat you up. I'm a busy guy. I know. Favorite new song. This is kind of, I'm breaking a rule again here because my two, my number one also came out in 2023, but I discovered it in 2024. And it's the song Slugs by Slow Pulp. That's like, it was my number one song in the year.
Starting point is 00:44:56 I listened to it a ton. I listened to it when we were losing Bryce, so it kind of has some sentimental value to me. And my number two is after midnight by Chapel Rhone, which also came out last year. But I just love that song. I think it's so fun. You keep cheating, dude.
Starting point is 00:45:13 Yeah. But they're both songs that I discovered in 2024. So I won't do any more of that. I'm done with that. I'm going to go, I also need to pick two because they're very different, and I like them for very different reasons. but Tipsy, the cover by Clipping.
Starting point is 00:45:30 You know the song of like the old clubbanger, Tipsy by J-Quan. Clipping covered it, and it's so good, man. It goes so hard. But then also Sleepy Time Guerrilla Museum, first album in like 15 years, they haven't missed a beat.
Starting point is 00:45:43 They're incredible. And my favorite song off their new album is El Evil, and it's just like very experimental art rock, but not so weird that it's inaccessible to the casual listener. I just, I love them. I love them. and I'm glad they're back.
Starting point is 00:45:57 It's like such a weird, unexpected pleasure to hear them again. Wes and Mike are like, get way deeper into music than I do. But I just love when drama or like there's backstory with music. So I actually went with Not Like Us by Kendrick. Oh, nice. I really like the Drake and Kendrick beef. I wasn't really even taking sides,
Starting point is 00:46:23 but whenever someone just like ends the whole, beef with a song, it's just got to respect it. It's a, dude, it's an amazing song, and it really did kind of like final nail in the coffin for Drake for the whole beef. But I think Meat the Grams is even more scathing.
Starting point is 00:46:40 It kills Drake. He was dead long before. Kendrick is much better, but not like us was such a fun, like two weeks. They're like on whole different levels. Oh, man. It's not even close. Drake's son's pretty good, though. All right? he's next up
Starting point is 00:46:57 oh man when Kendrick wrote a letter to his son and meet the grams brutal oh crazy uh Rizzler has a pretty good
Starting point is 00:47:08 song too good to know I'll write that one down black check that out yeah all right so
Starting point is 00:47:16 when we eventually die if we were like to drop down a note to like ask God a question about 2024, what would we ask him? I can start us off. Actually, I have a few. I'll do my favorite one, though.
Starting point is 00:47:34 I really want to know how Reagan qualified for the Parasolimbus. There's a lot of, like, her husband was a judge type of stuff, but there's still three judges, and, like, the other person was just so obviously better than her. And just to get to the finals to go to. Paris is like there's just no chance that she should have ever been there. So I'd just like the whole backstory to all that. I like that. That's a great answer. Yeah. I want to ask him if truly I have the power that whenever I turn the TV on to watch the Chargers game, whenever I am watching it, the Chargers play badly. In the moment I turn it off, they start playing well. If that's a real
Starting point is 00:48:20 phenomenon in a power that I possess or if that's just in my head. But it's always been a thing for me, but 2024 has been like a pretty amazing streak of that being the case. Don't you think though, like you always turn it off when they're most frustrating? Well, that's the thing. Like the, well, we don't need to get too deep into this. You control it a little bit, right? A little bit. But that doesn't change the fact that the second I turn it on after I see they're doing well again, I turn it on at the exact moment that the chiefs kick the game-winning field goal? Like, I don't need to see that. Why do, why does this happen to me?
Starting point is 00:48:56 It's so painful and I can't help. I can't help but come crawling back every Sunday. Gosh, I hate them so much. I love him, I, I feel like this was a year, and I think this is, like, I'm going to put on my tinfoil hat here for a second. I feel like whenever there's kind of like some movements in the people that scare the government a little bit, they release stuff about UFOs to distract us. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:22 Oh, the Jersey drones. Yeah. And I feel like that's happened a few times this year where suddenly we get these crazy admissions by the FBI that it's like, oh yeah, we've seen aliens and we have no idea what they are. And now there's these orbs in New Jersey and stuff. They're like, everyone's talking about killing the CEO. Let's release the drones.
Starting point is 00:49:43 Yeah, exactly. Seriously. And I would love to just. ask God, like, about aliens. I want to know about UFOs and aliens and stuff and just, and clear that up. That's a great. I would love to know more about like the shady shit our government does too, but I'm more just want to know about aliens. That's what I thought you're going is like, how much cover up did the government do? No, I think I've kind of accepted that whatever I kind of think they might do, they're probably doing a lot worse than that. And that's just
Starting point is 00:50:16 kind of the new reality for me. I had the drones as a backup if one of you stole Reagan. Yeah. I also want to ask him just like how come the cutest animals have like the hardest time surviving. You know, like koalas, they are like what, like 70, 80% have chlamydia. Pandas. It's like what you think is cute, you know? Only freaking bamboo and like.
Starting point is 00:50:46 can't hardly survive at all anywhere, but like one tiny little spot or something. Yeah, sure. You think squirrels are cute, though, and they're doing great. That's true. There's a little wrinkle in there. But they're not the cutest.
Starting point is 00:51:00 Foxes. Foxes are really cute. Red pandas? Great. I don't think red pandas are doing very good. Nah, they're not. Well, there you go. Some more ammunition.
Starting point is 00:51:11 Yeah. Raccoons. Raccoons are doing pretty good. Yeah. All right. So if you could give yourself advice at the start of the year, January, and it's not investment advice, advice, what would you tell yourself? I'm going to something pretty dorky here. It was, I was due. I think I already have dipped into that a little bit here. But I would tell myself, my hero academia, it's already bad. Just cut your losses now. Don't follow it through to the end. It's terrible. It will end badly and you'll regret ever wasting your time. time and emotional bandwidth on it.
Starting point is 00:51:47 And screw it. Screw that. Screw that stupid manga. I like that answer. And I feel like you would probably still ignore yourself. Probably would. Mine's kind of a sad one, but I would just like tell myself to cherish every minute with Bryce. So that would definitely be the thing that I would say to myself.
Starting point is 00:52:10 Maybe like get out of Africa a day earlier. Yeah. I mean, I thought of like, oh, you know, look into the thing that ultimately killed her and figure all that out. But I kind of just think she was going to leave regardless. So I just would have wanted to really cherish every minute. Yeah. Yeah. That's nice.
Starting point is 00:52:30 Or like give your past self technology to like turn Bryce into a robot. I don't want to turn her into a robot. But is that? Yeah. You probably couldn't give yourself that. Yeah. from the distant future. Well, if you could write it on the note, like the, you know, algebra.
Starting point is 00:52:52 You lost me even more there. Mine would be to go to physical therapy because I've been, I actually haven't been still. I had to wait like three months to go to it, but I finally got diagnosed that a sports hernia, and I've been like Googling YouTube. tutorials of physical therapy because my doctor finally, after all these four years of doctors telling me different things, like he's pretty confident physical therapy would help
Starting point is 00:53:27 me. And honestly, like my first day of just YouTube at home physical therapy gave me so much relief from the chronic back pain I've had. So like, I wish I would have done that earlier. I even think, like, subscriber and friend JJ, a year ago told me I should try physical therapy. And I was like, well, I go to a chiropractor. Maybe you should try a chiropractor. And he was right. Next one.
Starting point is 00:53:59 A new story you want to share unrelated to animals. So I'm pretty excited about my answer for this one. I just think 2024, what I'll always remember about the here is the Haley Welsh, the Hawk Tua girl. That was what I picked, too. Unbelievable. No way. I picked her meme coin thing and just, yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:24 Well, mine's like her whole, her whole ride. We can, we can combine on it because I mean, people know her story. Yeah. But it was like one joke that was like kind of funny from like a girl who was like attractive, but wasn't, I don't know. It's just like very interesting that she became as famous as she did from just like one drunken joke. She capitalized better than anyone ever has. It's amazing.
Starting point is 00:54:56 There's so many people that have had moments like that. Right. I got to give her credit for that much. Me too. Yeah. I don't even know if I do though because I think it all fell in her lap a lot. Sure. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:55:09 Like, I went to a fight, I think it was PFL in Salt Lake. And it was like a week after it happened. And people were just yelling like, give them the Haktua. And the whole audience would just laugh. And it just kept going on like throughout the country like that. Haktua was just like, you could get laughs out of everyone if you gave the Hocktura joke. Some real idiocracy stuff happening. And like she was working as hard as she.
Starting point is 00:55:39 could actually to get it off the internet she was embarrassed she was concerned and then like was going to sue the guy who made the video so that's where i don't give her full credit but then i think people started inviting her to like parties and stuff and then like she was very likable and she's a funny girl so then like i think that it kept building and then people are like oh i actually kind of like her well she sounds like one of the country bears to She has the biggest cartoon voice ever. She starts a podcast that like, I mean, we've been working hard. West does like a ton.
Starting point is 00:56:18 We all do a lot of research, especially Wes. Wes has like master's degree in animals. We tell interesting stories. Hock Tua comes on the scene of podcasting and is like the number one podcast in the world. Her first three weeks of like doing podcasts. And it's just insane. What a run. And then just to have this meme coin come out where she just like rug pulls all of the people who bought it.
Starting point is 00:56:46 I'm positive. It wasn't like her planning. And then when they like hold the Twitter space to correct it, she's just like, okay, y'all. Well, I'm going to go to bed. Tootles. And then like she's like five days of silence after that. No, she's like people like hadn't heard from her in weeks. And then the other day she posted something from her lawyers.
Starting point is 00:57:09 For me, her rise to fame makes me kind of want to die, to be honest. Like, it makes me feel so empty. Yeah. But the hawk coin is what I wanted to talk about because the fact that there are people out there that invested tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars into a cryptocurrency that is started. Well, she was going to do it the right way. Right.
Starting point is 00:57:33 It was started by the hawk to a girl. And they then were, like, upset when it turned into a rugpole. they lost all their money, that couldn't happen to people that are bigger rubs, in my opinion. I'm sorry if someone out there lost money to this, but like, don't invest in this stuff. It's fake, you know? It's so stupid. So that was mine. But tooth and claw coin, like, we actually have it.
Starting point is 00:58:02 Clock coin, like, it's dialed in. So don't worry about it. I did want to say before I said mine, this was at. really heavy year for me as far as news goes. And we tend to keep it pretty light on this podcast, so we don't talk about a lot of that. And I tend to keep my opinions away from it. So if you ever want to know more about kind of the things that impacted me the most, just follow my personal Instagram, because I do talk about it a lot there. But as far as the podcast is concerned, we kind of have an agreement between the three of us to keep it light.
Starting point is 00:58:35 You just reminded me to unfollow you. Hold on. Not really. What I always try to remind Wes, because he is like very glued in on like a lot of very important things. Yeah. But like our message on animals is very important. So that should always be our number one thing is like conservation and animals. And it is. And how do we help animals?
Starting point is 00:59:03 And we don't want to like distance that message by getting in the weeds with too many other things. I get that. And like, I didn't need a, like, a reminder for that. I know that's like my message. No, I'm just explaining to the listeners. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I, things happen this year that seemed a lot more important to me than wildlife. And for someone who's entire life is revolving around wildlife, that was a real wake-up call for me. And again, follow me if you want to hear me talk more about that. All right. Most overrated thing of 2024. I'm going to go first on this one because I feel strongly about this one. AI. I hate AI. I hate how much it's being worked into everything that we do. I hate especially when it comes to art, how cheap it makes things and like weird looking and uncanny valley. And then the biggest thing that I hate about it is how ecologically terrible it is. Like the amount of water that these processors use is ungodly just to cool them off. And I just want to
Starting point is 01:00:08 want people to think carefully about how you use AI because it can be really destructive for our planet and I think it can be destructive to the human condition because when we take away art and we allow you know computers to make art based off what they've learned from us we're getting a cheap inversion of art and and I think that affects us in ways that we don't fully comprehend should we commit to never turning our podcast AI we're not using I'm committing right now. I'm not using it for anything. For art, for research. I, like, I even have disabled it as much as I can for searches, everything. I don't like AI. So it's overrated, in my opinion. It's a good shout out. I like that. I'm going to go with the Terrifier
Starting point is 01:00:56 movies, the Terrifier 3, but just as a whole, those movies. They're not scary enough to be horror films, not funny enough to be comedy. The body horror in them is, like, so stupid and over the top that it stops meaning anything to me. So it's like what am I left with? And they're overly long too. There's like two and three are like two and a half hours long. It's crazy. I don't know what we're doing here.
Starting point is 01:01:17 I know. All right. My most overrated thing is celebrities and commercials. Yeah. I think that like commercials have stopped trying. You see the same commercial way more often than we used to too. And then like I think that they just feel like if they get a celebrity. They don't need actual jokes
Starting point is 01:01:39 There's one with two really funny people Martin Short and what's his name? Is it Luke Wilson? Steve Martin. From like Steve Martin. Oh, yeah. And no one is funnier than Martin Short too. Martin Short's so funny.
Starting point is 01:01:54 I love that guy. And it's like being about a parasitical relationship with whales and he's like I know all about paracical. It's like not a real joke. It's so, I don't know. Yeah. And I just feel like. I agree with you fully.
Starting point is 01:02:08 Commercials, Snoop dogs in every single freaking commercial now. Like, I'm just a little tired of it. Movies just drop cameos in. And it's just that whole thing of people being like, oh, I know that guy. Remember berries?
Starting point is 01:02:23 Yeah, it gives you like a little shot of serotonin. And it's not real. I agree with you, Jeff. Most underrated thing of 2024. I can start. I think it's pretty. highly rated but it's still underrated is the sphere. This fear is so cool.
Starting point is 01:02:44 It changed your life. UFC at the sphere was like the coolest event I've ever been to. I wish I would have gone to. I want to go to a concert now. Yeah. Any invite from you guys to like, let's go see this at the sphere, it's like an immediate yes from me. Yeah, I want to go to. Mike, you want to go next?
Starting point is 01:03:03 I do. I'm going to go with, uh, I think the Willy Wonka experience, do you remember that whole fiasco? Yeah. It's a little underrated. It was like $30 to get in. And like I think I would have gotten my money's worth out of that. It just looked like such a fun disaster to walk through.
Starting point is 01:03:20 I don't know. Like people were on the internet, you would have thought that like someone had shot their dog or something, how offended they were at how bad it was. And it's like, come on. It's a stupid thing for kids. Sure, they overpromised. There was AI involved. and that was kind of sick and stupid. But like, I don't know.
Starting point is 01:03:39 It seems ridiculous the way we all responded to. What was like the character that had like nothing to do with Willy Wonka? Wasn't there like a silver guy? There's like a weird shadow guy. Yeah. And then there's like a kind of destitute looking umpalumpa standing at a meth lab or something. It was amazing.
Starting point is 01:03:58 I would love it. They like go on social media to explain themselves. Yeah, it was great. An underrated thing I picked is I feel like, and this is kind of a big issue thing again, but like I feel like there's this growing class consciousness that's happening in America right now that is like kind of an upswell that I'm really excited about. I kind of feel like people on both sides of our political divide that we have in this country are kind of saying like enough is enough with some of the shit. that we have to deal with. And it's kind of exciting to see that happening. And I'm like, we tend to stay out of politics.
Starting point is 01:04:42 But like for me, the thing that I've realized more and more is it's kind of the ruling class versus everyone else in our country. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. I feel like it's kind of unifying because we were like so. It is. We've been so divisive. But like ultra conservative and all.
Starting point is 01:05:03 Ultra left, they agree on a lot of that. Yeah, and I think that's always been the case, but I think we've been fed this kind of message that it's not, that like our fellow man is our enemy when it's not. Like our enemy are these billionaires and these corporations and these people that are making life worse for everyone. And people are catching on to that. And that is exciting to me. It's invigorating and it's underrated.
Starting point is 01:05:31 So I'm excited to see it happen more and more. Yeah, I've loved seeing people coming. I'm not talking about any specific story, but when I see people agree that are on opposite ends of the spectrum, it's really heartwarming. I really, I love seeing that. Well, you were saying that the day, Mike, that you wouldn't mind getting nuked by Russia. If we got nuked by Russia, you're kind of in for that. Did I? I don't remember saying that.
Starting point is 01:05:57 I'll think about that. You want to mix things up a bit. Shake it up. I could be kind of relieving. I could see myself saying something like that. We could pick a new system of not capitalism afterwards. Yeah. No, I watched Oppenheimer.
Starting point is 01:06:14 I don't want anyone to get nuked. That looked bad. That looked like it hurt. Bad stuff there. Even if you don't get blown up, there's still like stuff gets in the air, you know? Radiation. Radiation.
Starting point is 01:06:28 Is that probably what you're referring to, yeah? Yeah. I think there's even other stuff in there too. Probably. Something to be optimistic about for 2025 in the world. Mine is Hoagel Zoo again. One of the zookeepers thinks that polar bear might be pregnant. And like, man, baby gorilla is so cute.
Starting point is 01:06:53 Baby snow leopards are so cute, but like a baby polar bear will top both of those pretty easily. Yeah, I think so. That is exciting. They'll probably ship it off right when it's boring, though. Sure. That'd be sad. I don't want that to happen. Let's pick it.
Starting point is 01:07:08 Let's go up with some signs and gather up a crowd of people in protest. I don't want that. I'm going to go with blood testing for Alzheimer's, having made some pretty significant leaps forward this past year, and it looks like even more clinical trials and applications even in 2025 are on the slate. And that's like a really big deal to me. I yeah there's just family history Russia cured cancer right did you see that oh that I did see that that's right
Starting point is 01:07:37 Cuba has I'm going with that actually never mind too yeah Russia cured cancer thanks thanks Putin I I kind of I picked one that's a little sentimental but it's I'm just really excited for tooth and glove like I'm excited for us to go weekly I'm excited to see our community grow. I think for me with the Treadwell episodes, it really hit like how much our little podcast means to people. And like that was really nice to see it. Like it made me feel really good. And I think we've kind of gotten a taste of that on these trips that we lead to. And I'm excited for those trips this year. I'm really excited for you guys to see your first Jaguar, Indiana. So that's, yeah, that's kind of my, my big one. My kind of stupid one off.
Starting point is 01:08:27 It's a throwaway is I'm actually really excited for the new Jurassic movie. Yeah. Because Garrett Edwards is directing it and he's done all these interviews where he says he wants to take it back. He's real. He's using real dinosaurs. He's not, but he's using real locations, which to me really matters. And he said that he wants it to be like tense and suspense-filled like the original. So I'm excited for it.
Starting point is 01:08:50 I can't help myself. Don't you think Tooth and Claw, we can't really go up anymore, though? Yeah, we peaked. It's all downhill. We did Trela. And like, what? Two years ago, we won the best road trip award. And now we won Best Podcast Award.
Starting point is 01:09:06 Best Outdoor. Best Outdoor podcast. Yeah. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. Best podcast. Yeah. Cool.
Starting point is 01:09:13 No, it's Best Podcast. I don't think it's best outdoor. For the Outdoor Media Awards. Right. But they gave us best podcast. Right. Exactly. Like in the category of outdoor podcasts.
Starting point is 01:09:23 No, you're all. Yeah. Okay. They don't short sales. put it in there. They did not say that. All right. They said best podcast tooth and awe.
Starting point is 01:09:32 Yeah, you're right. So I don't know what we win next. Yeah, it's all downhill. It really is. But I mean, that's what I'm excited for is to see this crash in Burma this year. With our toothies. You know? You're part of the best podcast award that we got this year.
Starting point is 01:09:50 Yeah. Not good enough to get you to the Christmas party on Discord though, Wes, huh? I know. I honestly like. At six, it started at seven and at 630, I was like, oh, Discord thing is starting soon. And then I just completely forgot after that. I know. I feel stupid.
Starting point is 01:10:05 It's fair. They forgave you. But if anyone is curious or looking for maybe a little bit bigger chunk of the community to be a part of, hop on Discord. Subscribe to us. They put on all kinds of fun events. There's movie nights. We.
Starting point is 01:10:19 All kinds of stuff. The Discord is like only subscribers, right? Or can anyone go? on there. It's only open our subscribers right now. Yeah, right now that's the case. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a perk of subscribing. You know, we got to keep those perks up there. How should they get on there, Mike?
Starting point is 01:10:37 Well, once you subscribe, especially to Patreon, you'll automatically be sent a link to join. If somehow you missed that, just let us know in an email or something. Or if you're part of the Grizz Club, email us, and we can send you a link that'll get you right in there. Pretty quick and easy. Or you can DM me on Instagram, and I'll give it to you.
Starting point is 01:10:57 That's it. If you DM tooth and claw, I might get it to you, but we get a lot of DMs on there. And I get sensory overload sometimes. Yeah. That's probably something good to bring up for 2025. As this thing grows, we get a lot of contacts from a lot of people, a lot of DMs, emails, everything. And it's really just the three of us and mine and Jeff's mom.
Starting point is 01:11:21 And then my friend Imogen, who's helping out with this kind of stuff, Imogene. So there's just really, if your stuff doesn't get answered, we're sorry, is what I'm trying to say. But it might not. There's a decent chance it won't. There's like, it's hard for us to stay on top of it. We almost missed messages from HBO looking to partner with us. And that was like a big opportunity for us. Who knows what we've missed at this point?
Starting point is 01:11:44 Like on our main email. Yeah. So if you've sent us something important, like really important that we've missed, do send it back in. Yeah, please. Just so you know. like we miss a lot of stuff I was like hey this HBO guy says that
Starting point is 01:12:00 like he wants something about like giving us money to like do stuff for them I don't know does that sound legit all right should we wrap it up all right well thank you everyone for
Starting point is 01:12:14 sticking with us for another year and tell your friends about tooth and claw if you want to or don't or don't if you don't want too if you want to give it to yourself that's fine if i had friends i wouldn't tell him i'm pretty
Starting point is 01:12:30 sure mike tells people not to listen when i do find out i did just yesterday so yeah you could go either approach i guess but we appreciate it all of you who do talk about us and tag us thank you so much and uh we're excited for 2025 yep thanks everyone right do you love them We love you. We love you. We love you. All right. Bye, see you. Yeah.

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