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This is later with Lee Matthews the
Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what You

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Here Weekday Afternoon is on the Drive. Nate Boyer is described as a true

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renaissance man, if we can use
that word. He is a former active

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Green Beret, also a world traveler, philanthropist, community leader, and professional

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football player with the Seattle Seahawks.
He's featured in a new series that is

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seen on Discovery eight o'clock on Sundays, Surviving the Raft Nate Boyer. It

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looks like from the publicity shot they
lock you on an oil rig and don't

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let you out. Well that's not
true, but hey, if that's what

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that's you interested, you know,
I mean, I guess oil rigs rafts

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in some sets of the word or
still like that. Yeah, you know

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the show, The show is awesome. It was a really incredible, incredible

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journeys these folks went on, and
you know, I was there to help

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sort of facilitate that. And you
know, it's based on a social experiment

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in nineteen seventy three where an anthropologist
put ten people on this pretty large raft

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sixty by forty foot, but they
floated from the Canary Islands in Spain to

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Mexico, and this was ten people
from various walks of life, very different

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by Grantans and you know, people
that would normally not even have a conversation

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excuse me. And they were put
together on this raft and meant to survive

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together on this trip. And you
know, of course fifty years ago and

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also some very divisive times chaos and
sued and there was all kinds of wild

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stuff and ended up happening. So
we recreated this experiment fifty years later down

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in Panama with ten people from uh, you know, various walk to life.

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And these are you know, these
are Americans who you know, once

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again in device some times we nobly
not have a conversation. And we just

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thought, hey, we put these
folks together, and we put some you

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know, some stresses on them as
well, and and some challenges and some

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money. It's day, and see
how that works out, how these people

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can either come together as a team
or fall apart survive the raft. It

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follows those nine diverse contestants who set
sail on the is it the Akalige or

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the Asali two colleague to okay,
and so is this what was I was

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going to ask what the craft was
in a former life. This was this

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was built from the ground up and
it was built you know, it's it's

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a replica of the original Colleague,
which is the actual raft that they used.

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Yeah, when they floated made that
voyage across the Atlantic fifty years ago.

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Are they allowing it to drift or
is it anchored a good deal of

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the time. I mean, it's
it's it's drifting a good deal of time.

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There is, Uh, there's you
know, some moments where they're you

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know, kind of more stationary,
and a lot of that has to do

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with where we were. We were
shooting in the in the Pearl Islands down

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in Panama. So there's there is
there are islands you know around us quite

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a bit around i should say the
crew and so they do, you know,

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from time to time, have the
opportunity to leave the raft and they're

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going to you know, to to
go hunt and and you know, and

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collect supplies and make sure they got
what they need to sustain themselves for this

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twenty one days in the water.
But for the most part, there are

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they are on the on the raft
a good amount of time. And there

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was there's some wild weather h and
things they had to deal with in that

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regard to and then these people aren't
you know they some of them have skills

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and background on that on the water
like the absolume them don't. And so

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there was a lot of you know, for lack of a better term,

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fish out of water moments for these
folks is there, you know, just

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trying to trying to get through this
trip and not you know, not be

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at each other's throats the entire time. Was this on the on the Pacific

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side, Yes, okay, all
right, so yeah, I imagine the

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weather was pretty pretty odd, but
fishing, I mean, you you worked

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on a fishing boat for a while, I imagine the fishing wasn't bad if

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you had the equipment to fish with, it wasn't you know. And they

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there's as you could see in the
you know, in the first episode first,

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the two hour premiere that's out and
at it, there was quite a

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bit of of opportunity for some of
these folks to show off their skills because

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we had people that have spear fishing
backgrounds for instance, and stuff like that.

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So you know, there was there
was definitely food of plenty around them.

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It just wasn't necessarily easy to gather
or were given. I mean they

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had to go her and everything.
We're talking to Nate Boyer. He is

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a former Green Beret, also World
traveler professional football player. Uh what what

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which of yours? Because you've done
You've got a lot of survival skills.

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Which of your skills was challenged the
most? Oh Man, probably patience,

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you know, And and I gotta
be honest, like I didn't have to

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endure with so many of the well, the rest of the crew really did.

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I mean they're they're the ones living
it every day, every second on

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that boat. I didn't have to
stay on the raft with them, So

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I would come out and you know, be a part of their experience with

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them from from time to time and
kind of check in and make sure I

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was giving them information that I could
and setting up sort of some of the

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next challenges and as you know those
I did see a pilot, and I

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don't want to spoil it too much
because I do want people to have the

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opportunity to watch that. But you
know, there there's there's there's dangers out

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there beyond the water itself and and
everything like that. When you're on any

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type of sort of isolated journey like
that, you know, it's not easy

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to get to to those those those
comforts that we're accustomed to, and that

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that means more than just you know, being able to jump on social media

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or watch television stuff like that.
I mean there, you know, there's

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there's some scary moments out there too
for some of the folks, and it's

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just it's different. It's not not
what they're used to. And you know,

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one of our own survival skills are
challenged and kind of switched on and

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put to the test. It just
opened our eyes up to an includely a

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different world that we're just not used
to any to living anymore. We're talking

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to Nate Boyer. The name of
the show is Survive the Raft. You

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can see it on the Discovery Channel
Sundays at eight o'clock, but they rerun

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it all over the place. The
premiere was just the other night, and

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so it's it's available all over the
Discovery Channel as well as the fresh episodes

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are coming up. Water fresh water, getting it, keeping it. I

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imagine that's a challenge. Yeah,
absolutely, you know, water, food,

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I mean those are the sort of
the main the main thing that jumped

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out of me. But these are
the things that I hadn't. I think

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a lot of them hadn't really thought
of, And was something that was pretty

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clear and obvious as the days went
on. Was the weather. I mean,

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it get can get extremely hot down
there, and it's humid, and

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you there's not a lot of ways
to get out of the sun, you

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know, being on being on something
that's like that, and shou with ten

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people. If you want any alone
time, it's not going to be in

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the shade because for a little shade
for it is that's that's taken up by

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everybody else is trying to stay out
of it. But yeah, I mean

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that that was Those were all things
that obviously, you know, we are

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important to our everyday lives, but
just those type of things you sort of

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forget about the comforts of a you
know, maybe a room with a little

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bit of air conditioning and dry clothes
and you know, being able to take

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a shower and peace or whatever.
It is not an option. Did you

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have any trouble getting people to sign
up for this or were you turning a

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lot of people away? Yeah,
I know there was a lot of people

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that wanted to be a part of
this, and I think they're gonna want

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to do even more as to see
everything and fold we get to get the

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opportunity to continue to do this.
But yeah, no, I mean they

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had to make some tough choices on
who to bring out there. A lot

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of it went back to the experiment, you know, experiment conducted by Santiago

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Annabez who was an anthropologist, and
it was just making sure we had true

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diversity of thought more than anything else
out there. We want people that one

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of the people that just had completely
different opinions and as I said, normally

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wouldn't wouldn't be willing to work together
or even have a conversation. And then

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they have to you know, they
got to get out there and there's just

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there's no way to get through what
they're doing alone. So that was the

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most important kind of driving force.
But also yeah, you wanted people from

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different from different backgrounds and experiences and
you know, racist religions, beliefs,

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all that stuff. So that was
that I think that was the greatest challenge

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when you just get it was casting. This was making sure that they had

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that sort of complete array of folks
that bring a little something different to the

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table. And as I continue to
say, the most important thing is like

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normally would these people need to sit
down at that table and listen to one

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another. Nate Boyer, host of
Discoveries Surviving the Raft. Survived the Raft

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Sunday and it's at eight o'clock on
a Central Time plus reruns throughout the week.

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Nate, thanks for joining us.
Thank you so much, I really

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appreciated. Thanks for listening to Later
with Matthews, the Leigh Matthews Podcast,

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and remember to listen to The Drive
Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation