This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what You
Here Weekday Afternoon is on the Drive. Nate Boyer is described as a true
renaissance man, if we can use that word. He is a former active
Green Beret, also a world traveler, philanthropist, community leader, and professional
football player with the Seattle Seahawks. He's featured in a new series that is
seen on Discovery eight o'clock on Sundays, Surviving the Raft Nate Boyer. It
looks like from the publicity shot they lock you on an oil rig and don't
let you out. Well that's not true, but hey, if that's what
that's you interested, you know, I mean, I guess oil rigs rafts
in some sets of the word or still like that. Yeah, you know
the show, The show is awesome. It was a really incredible, incredible
journeys these folks went on, and you know, I was there to help
sort of facilitate that. And you know, it's based on a social experiment
in nineteen seventy three where an anthropologist put ten people on this pretty large raft
sixty by forty foot, but they floated from the Canary Islands in Spain to
Mexico, and this was ten people from various walks of life, very different
by Grantans and you know, people that would normally not even have a conversation
excuse me. And they were put together on this raft and meant to survive
together on this trip. And you know, of course fifty years ago and
also some very divisive times chaos and sued and there was all kinds of wild
stuff and ended up happening. So we recreated this experiment fifty years later down
in Panama with ten people from uh, you know, various walk to life.
And these are you know, these are Americans who you know, once
again in device some times we nobly not have a conversation. And we just
thought, hey, we put these folks together, and we put some you
know, some stresses on them as well, and and some challenges and some
money. It's day, and see how that works out, how these people
can either come together as a team or fall apart survive the raft. It
follows those nine diverse contestants who set sail on the is it the Akalige or
the Asali two colleague to okay, and so is this what was I was
going to ask what the craft was in a former life. This was this
was built from the ground up and it was built you know, it's it's
a replica of the original Colleague, which is the actual raft that they used.
Yeah, when they floated made that voyage across the Atlantic fifty years ago.
Are they allowing it to drift or is it anchored a good deal of
the time. I mean, it's it's it's drifting a good deal of time.
There is, Uh, there's you know, some moments where they're you
know, kind of more stationary, and a lot of that has to do
with where we were. We were shooting in the in the Pearl Islands down
in Panama. So there's there is there are islands you know around us quite
a bit around i should say the crew and so they do, you know,
from time to time, have the opportunity to leave the raft and they're
going to you know, to to go hunt and and you know, and
collect supplies and make sure they got what they need to sustain themselves for this
twenty one days in the water. But for the most part, there are
they are on the on the raft a good amount of time. And there
was there's some wild weather h and things they had to deal with in that
regard to and then these people aren't you know they some of them have skills
and background on that on the water like the absolume them don't. And so
there was a lot of you know, for lack of a better term,
fish out of water moments for these folks is there, you know, just
trying to trying to get through this trip and not you know, not be
at each other's throats the entire time. Was this on the on the Pacific
side, Yes, okay, all right, so yeah, I imagine the
weather was pretty pretty odd, but fishing, I mean, you you worked
on a fishing boat for a while, I imagine the fishing wasn't bad if
you had the equipment to fish with, it wasn't you know. And they
there's as you could see in the you know, in the first episode first,
the two hour premiere that's out and at it, there was quite a
bit of of opportunity for some of these folks to show off their skills because
we had people that have spear fishing backgrounds for instance, and stuff like that.
So you know, there was there was definitely food of plenty around them.
It just wasn't necessarily easy to gather or were given. I mean they
had to go her and everything. We're talking to Nate Boyer. He is
a former Green Beret, also World traveler professional football player. Uh what what
which of yours? Because you've done You've got a lot of survival skills.
Which of your skills was challenged the most? Oh Man, probably patience,
you know, And and I gotta be honest, like I didn't have to
endure with so many of the well, the rest of the crew really did.
I mean they're they're the ones living it every day, every second on
that boat. I didn't have to stay on the raft with them, So
I would come out and you know, be a part of their experience with
them from from time to time and kind of check in and make sure I
was giving them information that I could and setting up sort of some of the
next challenges and as you know those I did see a pilot, and I
don't want to spoil it too much because I do want people to have the
opportunity to watch that. But you know, there there's there's there's dangers out
there beyond the water itself and and everything like that. When you're on any
type of sort of isolated journey like that, you know, it's not easy
to get to to those those those comforts that we're accustomed to, and that
that means more than just you know, being able to jump on social media
or watch television stuff like that. I mean there, you know, there's
there's some scary moments out there too for some of the folks, and it's
just it's different. It's not not what they're used to. And you know,
one of our own survival skills are challenged and kind of switched on and
put to the test. It just opened our eyes up to an includely a
different world that we're just not used to any to living anymore. We're talking
to Nate Boyer. The name of the show is Survive the Raft. You
can see it on the Discovery Channel Sundays at eight o'clock, but they rerun
it all over the place. The premiere was just the other night, and
so it's it's available all over the Discovery Channel as well as the fresh episodes
are coming up. Water fresh water, getting it, keeping it. I
imagine that's a challenge. Yeah, absolutely, you know, water, food,
I mean those are the sort of the main the main thing that jumped
out of me. But these are the things that I hadn't. I think
a lot of them hadn't really thought of, And was something that was pretty
clear and obvious as the days went on. Was the weather. I mean,
it get can get extremely hot down there, and it's humid, and
you there's not a lot of ways to get out of the sun, you
know, being on being on something that's like that, and shou with ten
people. If you want any alone time, it's not going to be in
the shade because for a little shade for it is that's that's taken up by
everybody else is trying to stay out of it. But yeah, I mean
that that was Those were all things that obviously, you know, we are
important to our everyday lives, but just those type of things you sort of
forget about the comforts of a you know, maybe a room with a little
bit of air conditioning and dry clothes and you know, being able to take
a shower and peace or whatever. It is not an option. Did you
have any trouble getting people to sign up for this or were you turning a
lot of people away? Yeah, I know there was a lot of people
that wanted to be a part of this, and I think they're gonna want
to do even more as to see everything and fold we get to get the
opportunity to continue to do this. But yeah, no, I mean they
had to make some tough choices on who to bring out there. A lot
of it went back to the experiment, you know, experiment conducted by Santiago
Annabez who was an anthropologist, and it was just making sure we had true
diversity of thought more than anything else out there. We want people that one
of the people that just had completely different opinions and as I said, normally
wouldn't wouldn't be willing to work together or even have a conversation. And then
they have to you know, they got to get out there and there's just
there's no way to get through what they're doing alone. So that was the
most important kind of driving force. But also yeah, you wanted people from
different from different backgrounds and experiences and you know, racist religions, beliefs,
all that stuff. So that was that I think that was the greatest challenge
when you just get it was casting. This was making sure that they had
that sort of complete array of folks that bring a little something different to the
table. And as I continue to say, the most important thing is like
normally would these people need to sit down at that table and listen to one
another. Nate Boyer, host of Discoveries Surviving the Raft. Survived the Raft
Sunday and it's at eight o'clock on a Central Time plus reruns throughout the week.
Nate, thanks for joining us. Thank you so much, I really
appreciated. Thanks for listening to Later with Matthews, the Leigh Matthews Podcast,
and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation