#763: Margaret Atwood and Boyd Varty

This episode is a two-for-one, and that’s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I’ve curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited.

The episode features segments from episode #573 "Margaret Atwood — A Living Legend on Creative Process, The Handmaid’s Tale, Being a Mercenary Child, Resisting Labels, the Poet Rug Exchange, Liminal Beings, Burning Questions, Practical Utopias, and More" and #571 "Boyd Varty — The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life."

Please enjoy!

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Timestamps:

[00:00] Start

[05:11] Notes about this supercombo format.

[06:14] Enter Margaret Atwood.

[06:48] What drives Margaret's ability to craft engaging speculative fiction?

[10:52] The downsides of raising a family isolated in the woods.

[15:44] Factors that nudged young Margaret toward poetry.

[21:54] How limited options led Margaret to her current vocation.

[24:07] How long it took for writing to pay off, and its benefits in the meantime.

[30:34] Life lessons learned by teaching.

[34:18] Enter Boyd Varty.

[34:42] Setting the scene.

[37:00] Origins of Londolozi Game Reserve and Boyd's childhood influences.

[39:17] Why Boyd's family kept the seemingly useless property.

[41:23] Boyd's experiences with The White Knuckle Charter Company.

[50:00] Transforming scrubland into a safari business with help from Ken Tinley and Shangaan trackers.

[56:04] Shangaan trackers' lineage and wildlife trust in Londolozi's caretakers.

[59:46] Renias Mhlongo's supreme tracking skills and work ethic.

[1:05:18] Hardest animals to track at Londolozi.

[1:08:30] Safety measures in Londolozi's unpredictable environment.

[1:10:21] "I don't know where we're going, but I know exactly how to get there." —Renias Mhlongo

[1:12:26] Boyd's tracking evolution: from childhood to trauma recovery.

[1:30:30] Definition of Ubuntu.

[1:32:40] Boyd's 40-day tree-dwelling experience.

[1:45:47] Bees, birds, and hive algorithms.

[1:57:07] Interacting with lions in the wild.

[2:01:41] Death conversations, ancient myths, and inexplicable animal movements.

[2:07:30] Comparing trauma recovery paths within Boyd's family.

[2:11:08] Ceremony work for trauma healing.

[2:14:06] An authentic life as activism.

[2:19:27] The impact of Byron Katie's Work on Boyd and me.

[2:23:55] Boyd's first sweat lodge experience in Arizona.

[2:29:18] Feelings. Nothing more than feelings.

[2:31:48] What a close encounter with a beautiful predator taught Boyd about Ubuntu.

[2:40:53] The therapeutic value of spending time with animals.

[2:45:22] Contrasting lion roar descriptions: van der Post vs. Boyd.

[2:49:40] Invitation to Londolozi and parting thoughts.

*

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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.

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