← The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast
The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast
1KHO 445: From Ninja Warrior to Nature | Anthony Porter, Outdoor Anthony
00:50:44
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- [00:00]
Andrew Hawk
Do you want your teenager to go on the adventure of a lifetime, all the while learning the ability to know God's truth, discern wisely, and take godly action in the world? My name is Andrew Hawk and I'm the camp director at the Excel Summer Leadership Camp. Every summer we take teenagers on two week adventures to help them grow in their leadership, discernment and Christlike character. Between camping, rock climbing, hiking and whitewater rafting, campers build lifelong friendships while also training in Excel College's game changing critical thinking method. They'll learn to filter through the cultural messages of the day with godly wisdom and to learn how to apply those in the method in real life context through wilderness first aid and CPR training. A few months ago, I received a message from Melissa, one of our past campers. When her mom and her were overseas, her mother got injured and she used her training to make a huge difference, according to doctors, to be able to get help when it was needed. We love to hear stories like this. Not only do campers lead with practical skills, but also with a deeper faith in Jesus and lifelong community. I want to personally invite your teenager to join us this summer by going to the excelcamp.org to learn more. That's theexcelcamp.org welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast.
- [01:06]
Jenny Urch
My name is Jenny Urch. I have the coolest, coolest guest today. So cool. He has won American Ninja Warrior four times. What in the world? He has an epic nature journal, a nature adventure for kids, an awesome book. He is the newest online heartthrob. Anthony Porter.
- [01:26]
Anthony Porter
What an introduction. I did. I did. I didn't win American Ninja Warrior, but I've been on it four times and I've gotten pretty close to one. But I haven't won.
- [01:34]
Jenny Urch
In my mind. You've won.
- [01:35]
Anthony Porter
No. You should just. We should just rewrite history.
- [01:37]
Jenny Urch
I love that in addition to doing all that, you create really cool environmental education videos for all ages. And they're very funny. You know, it's like some people are funny and then some people. I watched one really quick video when you were on a horse.
- [01:52]
Anthony Porter
Gosh.
- [01:54]
Jenny Urch
How to ride a horse. So this is like outdoor education content. It's super fun. How to start a fire, how to deal with a wound. It's practical content. But I like snickered, I guess would be the word through the whole thing because you keep seeing things that you're like, horses can run only hours after birth. How long did it take you, you loser? I mean, it's just kind of like all over the place. Yeah, it does a phenomenal job of keeping your attention and being entertaining. But also, you're going through really cool things about getting outside. You're an expert in outdoor survival, wild animals, nature conservation, and science exploration. And you're this done American Ninja Warrior. I mean, which is just bananas. I watch those things and I'm like, how do people do that? Let's start with that.
- [02:40]
Anthony Porter
Honestly, it's easy because it's all tying together. I mean, like, the outdoor lifestyle, I think, is super, like, just in my bones. And so when you want to go outside and, like, adventure, you want to feel as capable as possible. And so for me, that is, if anytime somebody goes, hey, do you want to go rock climbing? Like, or, hey, do you want to do hiking or snowboarding? One of my friends came up to me, and they're like, you're not like, a friend that I go to for a certain thing. You're a friend that I go to for anything. So I want to be that capable person. And so I really got into, like, a lot of alternative sports where it got most my body moving, and it hit rock climbing. And then I decided to do parkour a little bit in college, and then the next logical step was like, yeah, see how I can test my mettle on American Ninja Warrior. And first year, I did awfully. I fell almost immediately. And then the year after that, I almost won the show. And then it's just kind of been middling between then to get to, like, the National Finals, where there's about 450 people that start off at the start of each season. And then by the end of, like, stage two, there's a bunch of stages before it's stage two. They call them different names, but at the end of stage two, there's probably three to five people left. And I've been hitting that stage two mark. So it's been pretty fun. I mean, I've been, like, pretty top in the country. I've had to back off a little bit just for my own sense of health, because one of the last seasons, I actually fell on the show and got a huge concussion, and I had to get, like, ambulanced out. I woke up at the hospital. I thought I was doing the course, and then I woke up in the hospital. I'm like, oh, I'm guessing I didn't win. But, yeah, so that actually, like, it all stemmed from me just wanting to feel capable outdoors. And I made these, like, educational video in the meantime to just kind of supplement my Ninja Warrior feed on my Instagram. And stuff. And people really liked my outdoor education content. My philosophy is if you didn't learn something from my videos, at least you laughed. And if you didn't laughed, well, at least you learned something. So kind of a, kind of a dual sided blade there. But yeah, no, it's just been really fun, fun trip. And Ninja Warrior really helped me figure out how capable and like give me the confidence to do more and more things. Like, heck, I just read a kid's book. Like, what's going on? I don't know, but I'm trying. So it's fun.
- [04:56]
Jenny Urch
It was a behind the scenes there. So you make the decision. You know, it's like, it's interesting when you watch something on TV and then you like, well, I'm going to try. So somehow you have to contact somebody and then you have to. Is there like a lot of training? What do you even do?
- [05:12]
Anthony Porter
Yeah, great question. When a show like Ninja Warrior first started off, it was in Japan and it was like a bunch of weekend warriors, like dads that decided to try out the show or moms that like worked out a lot in the afternoons and wanted to like go and test their strength on the course. And a lot of them came from rock climbing backgrounds. A lot of them came from, I think there was like parkour, pole vaulting as well, which I also did pole vaulting and gymnastics. And nowadays we're on season like 17 of the show now. There are dedicated gyms around the country you could take your kids to and try these obstacles at. So it's less of like a, hey, if you're good at this, might as well try Ninja Warrior. It's. You have to be good at Ninja Warrior. And these kids that are now winning the show are younger than the American TV show. So these kids are 16, they're 15. It's a bit of a dynamic shift. It's not the, the cool weekend dads that are super fit. It's like, whoa, this is going to be. Actually, they said officially it's going to be an Olympic sport coming up soon. So it's, it's nuts. It's crazy. And now they're having us race against each other. I'm fine taking a step back and being like, all right, the arms race. I haven't kept up. I've been doing other things. But yeah, how do you get started in Ninja War? That's a great question. I thought I was too good for it. My dad's like, dude, you got to go on the show. Because I was swinging from trees in the backyard. I put up all these ropes after watching Planet of the Apes, and I was like, I want to do that. And so I, like, swung from rope to rope and had all these obstacles. And my dad's like, you're literally doing what the show is like, just go try the show. I'm like, no, I don't want to, like, exploit my athleticism for, like, benefit and fame. Turns out, exploiting my athleticism for benefit and fame is fantastic. It worked out well. I mean, heck, if you're good at something, might as well get celebrated doing it if you're not compromising yourself at all. It's a good avenue to do. And for me, like I said, it got me good confidence. So there's an open casting call every year, and I just hit it at the right time. I think it's open for, like, two months or so, this casting call, and you plop your name in, and they don't let you even see the course until the day of. You can't practice it. You basically send them a video of you exercising and your backstory, and then they'll call you and be like, hey, man, yeah, no, you're good. Come on, whatever, March 3rd and try it out. And then the first time. So, I mean, it's kind of like American Idol. The first time that you see somebody, like, auditioning or trying out, it's like in the fire, like, you're already there, so it's kind of funny.
- [07:40]
Jenny Urch
Okay. I mean, that is so brave.
- [07:42]
Anthony Porter
Oh, it's fun. It's really fun, Jenny.
- [07:44]
Jenny Urch
Wow. Just go for it. Okay, let's talk about this. There's kids that listen in, so a lot of parents, grandparents, and their kids sometimes listening with them. I just talked to this lady who wrote a book called Love to Learn, and she was talking about hikikomori, which is sort of. It was, like, in Japan, and it's. It's spreading across the world. These are people that don't leave their house, and they don't leave. They spend their whole life, and in some cases, they don't even leave their bedrooms. Now, there's a phrase, double hikikomori, which is like, two people in the house never leave. And it's become such a problem that this lady. And it wasn't in her book. It's like a newer thing that just came out that she had learned about. She said that in South Korea, they are paying people a stipend, and I think maybe it's younger people to leave their home.
- [08:29]
Anthony Porter
Wow.
- [08:29]
Jenny Urch
That's it. You know, it's like, you know, this is. They need encouragement to leave their home, so they will pay. So you are out doing incredible things with your life, making these really fun videos, riding horses, backpacking. You've gone to 20 countries.
- [08:44]
Anthony Porter
I think we had 26 this year, actually. 26.
- [08:47]
Jenny Urch
26 countries. Can you please encourage those who are listening, and especially if they're young people, to do things honestly?
- [08:55]
Anthony Porter
I mean, if they're listening to your podcast, I feel like they're already in the next step. Yeah, I don't think anything I can say can help people get outside. My biggest thing, though, is if you do want to get outside, you don't feel that call. Maybe you liked hiking when you were younger. If you're a parent or if you're a kiddo and you're just. You don't know where to start, it's okay to do an activity that you would do inside, outside, just for a little bit. If you're a parent and you're trying to get your kiddos outside, don't try to do a we're going to go survive outside for the weekends, like, camping trip, cush it, pat it, go glamping. Like, it's a very slow process. Anything that is worth doing for your kiddo is worth taking plenty of time for. And so for me growing up, my totem I like to call, like, what you have to bring you outside as a totem. It's actually, if you're watching the video, it's hanging behind me right here. It's a bow and arrow. I love shooting arrows. It is super hard to do that in your house. I have lost security deposits because of that. So I found something that I really, truly identify with. Whether, I mean, if you want to go whittling, if you want to go shoot some arrows in the backyard, if you want to try parkour, I have a video about how to do parkour out in nature. There's a lot of different totems or proxies that you can use to get yourself or your kids outside. But find your adventure. For me, I love. This is going to sound really weird, but I love malls. I love arcades almost as much as nature. Not really, but the idea of adventure and wonder and just like free roaming, that's what got my brain as a kid to be like, yes, outside is like, basically, like, if you're in a video game, like, you get to glitch off the map. Like, you're just out there and it's adventurous. And so for me, nature is just adventure. So those would Be my tips. Number one, find a totem. If your kid really likes a certain thing, dive into it and see if they want to do it outside. Number two, video games are addicting. And I gotta say, I played video games for like three hours yesterday. I love video games. I play adventure video games. So I play like games like Skyrim where I play games where I'm literally just hiking. To be honest, I'm just outside adventuring when I can't adventure outside because it's dark.
- [10:59]
Jenny Urch
Wait, there are video games where you can just be hiking?
- [11:02]
Anthony Porter
Yes, with certain quests and adventures and swords and stuff. But there's a lot of open world concept games, whether that's Zelda or Skyrim. I mean, Minecraft maybe, but that's more crafty. But there are games that allow kids to expand their mind and wander. And then once I think when they get older, they can make that decision to be like, wow, I can do this in real life and go outside. I think that for me was the biggest next step. There's a lot of intermediary steps between the shut in child that can't get outside. To me who took a nap in the woods yesterday and woke up because coyotes are screaming at me.
- [11:38]
Jenny Urch
Okay, all right, so do you have any insight into. Because if it's primarily like parents are listening and what they're trying to do is to structure a childhood. Like I would look at you and be like, I would love to structure a childhood that produces a child that's fine to do that kind of stuff, to sleep in the woods and to go to a casting call for American Ninja Warrior and show up and not know what, you know, the course looks like and just does it. And you know, who is traveling to 26 countries. Do you have any insight into what elements of a childhood produce that?
- [12:12]
Anthony Porter
I mean, it is like the weird twists of fate, man, that, that just leads you to certain things. I grew up doing a lot of performances and acting and stuff just like plays. And I think that just led me understand that my parents fully were pushing for me to become whoever I wanted who, who I was like trying to, trying to be. And my dad is an enthusiastic super performer. Like he, he works like behind a desk, but like he's always the emcee for every event. He's the one that volunteers for bingo night at all the festivals. He was like my scout leader growing up that took care of all these kids while we went out camping. So I think seeing his enthusiasm and seeing my mom's also huge support of all of this And I think about this all the time. Like, when I have a kid, I'm going to be so stoked with them to go out and adventure. It needs to come from the parent of like, wow, I can't believe this is real. And we're going to do this together. And you can look up a lot of areas have, like, nature phenomenon that are super specific to your area. And once your kid can get attached to that. So I'm up here in Lake Tahoe, and every time there's a salmon run every year, so these salmon swim upstream and then they just get murdered by all the bears. And it's beautiful. It's so cool to see. But I see every year families bringing infants, toddlers, adolescents, and they always go to the spot because no matter how old you are, you want to see bears, you want to see this cool stuff and whatever that is for your area, get excited about it. So your kids get excited about it. It's a familial experience. And yeah, I think that's the biggest thing I got from my family. Just be stoked. And your kids are gonna get stoked.
- [13:51]
Jenny Urch
Yeah, they modeled it. They modeled it. They went and did stuff. And so now you go and do stuff. Okay, so you. You have all these different videos, and they're about all sorts of different banana things. It's like, about chinchilla, and then there's one about a porcupine and then lichen and exothermic reactions. And, you know, there's 350,000 species of beetles. How do you pick what you're going to focus on?
- [14:15]
Anthony Porter
Oh, man, it's tough. I got my MBA a few years ago in marketing, and so I'm trying to use that to, like, curtail audiences. My pride and joy is like, I don't follow trends. Like, I just want to make fun videos that if you watch them in 50 years from now, they'll still be super applicable. I'm posting a video today about bananas and how you can use banana peels as a bandage if you get cut or scraped or burned or anything. Like, it's opportunistic. And when I first started all this, I've been making environmental education curriculum and teaching at environmental learning centers for the last, like, 10 years. And so I have this curriculum. I have this naturalist knowledge base. And so I've been pulling from that. But, man, once that well run ran dry. I'm like, I need to start researching. So I have textbooks, like all my nature textbooks, all these survival books, how to harvest water. I have all these I mean, you have. I can see all the books behind you. I have the exact same thing full of, like, survival manuals, tracking manuals, and all this stuff. So it really helps me. It helps me really learn so much through making sure that I have to teach somebody something every week and make it fun to educate.
- [15:19]
Jenny Urch
So talking about bananas. Okay, there was a really cool one actually about. So they're educated, they are educational. Like, you come when you're like, oh, I wouldn't have thought of that. So an example would be. And so people can find you at outdoor Anthony on YouTube. Outdoor Anthony kids. Also on YouTube. There's TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. I already said that. I'll put a link to the website. And you have this, my epic nature journal that we're going to talk about. And you put. This was your wording because I am married. So when I called you a heartthrob, I want to make sure that everybody knows that this is your wording. It says, new online Heartthrob creates children's books. So that's great. That's good wording.
- [16:00]
Anthony Porter
So I'm. I actually told Chat GPT to write that, and that's what it came up with. And I'm like, you know what? It's obviously an objective source, so I'm just gonna let run. There's two blogs on my website that are run by Ch GPT, and I think it's hilarious.
- [16:20]
Jenny Urch
All right, so that's where you can find these videos. But the one, because you were talking about bananas, There was one about bananas where you were talking about what if you get a cut. Now this is actually really applicable because if you're out with kids, I mean, they are falling, you know, they're learning their balance and they're learning their body. So you end up with a lot of scrapes and cuts and bruises and things like that. So you talk. You have this, the video. I'm pretty sure it's like someone throws like a. One of those stars.
- [16:47]
Anthony Porter
Oh, throwing star at me. Yeah, yeah.
- [16:51]
Jenny Urch
Like, wait.
- [16:52]
Anthony Porter
Yeah. So.
- [16:53]
Jenny Urch
But then it ends up in the banana and you're teaching about how to clean out a wound.
- [16:58]
Anthony Porter
Yeah. So I got training as a wilderness first responder, and part of that training was learning how to clean out wounds and dress it properly when, yeah, you're. You're in the middle of a hike, you know, you don't have the full smorgasbord of things that you can use when you're at home. And I actually use this on my dad when he fell like 20ft from this cliff one time. But we practice on oranges, we practice on bananas, we make a little slit and these fruits. And then after that, if you're just home and you want to practice stuff like this, this is, that's how you use it without, you know, finding out in, in the fire and you know when you're in it.
- [17:29]
Unknown
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- [21:22]
Anthony Porter
1000Hours if you have a water bottle and you want to clean out a wound, let's say your kid's scraped and that that knee is all scraped up, which is what happened to me constantly still does. What you can do is poke a hole in the top of your water bottle and in the lid itself and that creates a pressurized water stream. And that is what we call irrigating a wound. And that is 10 times better than just slapping Neosporin on it or anything like that. Is if you really pressurize that wound and get all that stuff out of there. It is going to be a fantastically clean wound that you can. You can wrap up or cover with just any kind of material to get out of the area that you're in. But my dad fell really, really far and ended up smashing his whole body. He broke both of his arms and he got huge cuts on his face. He was following me up a cliffside and he didn't want to get his leather jacket dirty. When I was like scooting my butt down this one area that I told him like, be careful, he's like, no, no, I'm just going to hop from this rock to that rock, then I'll be good. And of course, my grandma was there, my uncle was there, my mom was there. I was getting. I was graduating college. This was a few years ago. And he jumped. And I just remember seeing him super overshoot and then fall. And this was an area with a lot of aspen trees. So luckily he hit an aspen tree that was dead and it broke his fall. He bounced and hit the rock again. Then he hit and he smashed his head on another dead aspen tree on the ground, which just like disintegrated. So it was like the super fortuitous thing, but everyone was screaming. My dad was bloody, barely conscious. And yeah, it was perfect. I just had a water bottle and I started to scrape out all these wounds with this pressurized water. And actually I used chapstick in order to make sure that none of, like, the petroleum jelly helped with keeping all of, like, the. The wounds packed until I got him. We had to hike about a mile out to get back to the car. And then of course, we dropped him off at the urgent care. And then my mom dropped me off at the graduation ceremony. And then he came with like sunglasses and a hat and two. Two casts up to me at my graduation. He's like, congratulations, Anthony. It's like, I felt so bad. But then again, he blames himself because he didn't want to scratch his jacket.
- [23:26]
Jenny Urch
So, I mean, these are things. These are then really good things to know because you don't know what's going to happen. And maybe I'll even try and link to this specific video so people can get a sense for it. But you have the banana and it's cut. And I actually feel like this would be. A kid would like to do this. Yeah, they would love to slice a banana. And you put some dirt in there and would pour the bottle of water. It's like a plastic Water bottle and you dumped the water on top, which I think is what most people innately, you know, intuitively, I guess that's what I would do. I'm like, oh, you got a bunch of junk on your leg. I'm just going to dump this water on there. And you just show how basically all of the dirt just sits in that slit. You can completely see it. And then when you poke the hole in and you squeeze with the pressure, it clears it right out.
- [24:07]
Anthony Porter
Yeah.
- [24:07]
Jenny Urch
And I, you know, I think the visual there is really great. And it's a neat thing that you could do that with a kid. If you were to give a couple pieces of advice of having gone through like a survival program to people who are going out into the wilderness, like, these are a couple things that you should know besides the how to clean out a wound. Do you have a couple top pieces of advice?
- [24:28]
Anthony Porter
Yeah. People always say the number one thing, no matter what is know where you're going, be over prepared with your landscape and just the knowledge base of your time frame, how long the walk is just front loading that information. Number one. I mean, that's like the first lesson of everything. Be prepared. Right. That's Boy Scouts. I think Leave no Trace is also that. That is the number one thing. I mean, you could be naked with no supplies, and if you know about your area, you could do okay. Yeah. Number one is be prepared. And then on top of that. So number two would be making sure the people with you are comfortable outside. The mentality of feeling prepared is fantastic when you're going outdoors. So, yeah, I mean, physical, physical things that you should have with you is water. Absolutely. A snack, a shell, or an extra layer to make sure that you're warm. Because when people start hiking, they're like, oh, it's warm. I'm gonna leave my jacket at home. But weather has been known to change. That is a very big constant across the entire planet. So pack another layer, even if you don't think so. My thing that I like to do is because I don't. Not a lot of people hike behind here with me. I will leave my scarf on a branch if I don't want it, or I'll leave my hoodie somewhere and I'll come back and get it over. Prepare when you go out with layers. And then on top of that, make sure your kids are comfortable. If you're going outside with people, it is way more important to have a good experience than a nature experience. So go outside if you want to play a little bit of music. Or like, you need to break the rules a little bit, you know, just be silly. Outside in nature, you can. You can do what you want to do. But the takeaway is these kids will be happy coming outside with you again once you identify their interests in the backcountry. Whether that's, I want to be outside because I love running around and adventuring, or I love looking at bugs, which I went on a trip with my buddy, and I was the adventurer and he was the bug guy. And he's like, oh, yeah, I'll send you all the photos from our trip. 99 of them were bugs. And I'm like, dude, I don't know what to do with this. But that's his thing. That's how you get outside. But finding out why your kiddo or why the person with you is getting outside is so important. And then, yeah, in terms of just overall survival, it doesn't hurt to take a class, whether it's a community college class or a wilderness first aid class. Those wilderness first aid classes are, I think, a weekend class. And they technically ask you to recertify every two years, but they'll give you the packets, they'll give you the book, and you just have that for the rest of your life. And it is valuable information. Things that you never even thought about for first aid, for taking care of people, for doing searches, even just having that knowledge makes you so calm in any kind of variable emergency. It's amazing for you to be that person that people go to to help fix things in an emergency. 10 out of 10, when my dad fell off that cliff, I was actually peeing on. On another rock a little bit further down. And I didn't see it happen. I just heard my mom scream, like a death scream. And, I mean, everyone thought he was like that. And I went over very calmly. And what I, like, learned from the wilderness first responder is like, you don't run to a scene if the authority, the person that everyone believes is the most experienced is running.
- [27:39]
Jenny Urch
For those listening, our Internet is consistently an issue. We live out in the country. It's an issue. And it's also. It's also like a marital family issue, too, because we always, Me and the kids are always like, the Internet isn't working. And then Josh is like, the Internet is fine. And it's like this rigmarole that's constantly happening. So I was telling Anthony we just got Starlink, but it doesn't matter because we haven't set it up yet, and we have been kicked out of this Conversation completely kicked out. Like, the whole screen just disappears. And then we come back and so it's really tricky to sort of.
- [28:15]
Anthony Porter
Well, I just think you're being a very, very good listener, but you're just completely still just talking to nobody. But it's funny, I had the same problem last week because I would have Internet for 12 hours out of the day and then would just shut off. And I'm like, why is this happening? I called Spectrum and they're like, we don't. We're not turning it off. We don't know. Turns out my wire went to a tree that went to my. Whatever the poles were, and the tree grew over the wire, and the heat swelled up during the daytime to cut off the Internet. So the tree was actually eating my Internet and becoming a super intelligent tree probably during the daytime. And then in the nighttime, it cooled off, so it. It receded and I got Internet again. It was a very forced problem.
- [28:55]
Jenny Urch
So wild and even. Pretty amazing that you were able to figure that out. That's so interesting. Okay, so I'm hoping that this sticks for the rest of the time. But you were talking about in. I'm going to lead back into it, because I just had a quick thought. I just think this is a phenomenal idea. I've literally never in my life even considered Anthony taking a wilderness survival class or. Or something like that, because people mainly do that for certifications. And so you're. I mean, I guess I would think, like, well, I don't need the certification for that. But to take it, just to take it so that you have the knowledge is a phenomenal idea. My goodness, what an amazing takeaway. Okay, so you were saying before it cut out, you were talking about, you know, your mom screams and you don't go running because if the authority is running and then I disappear.
- [29:37]
Anthony Porter
Yeah, if the authority is running, everyone else is going to panic. You want to be. If. If people know that you're the. You're the biggest authority on somebody on something, it's. It's paramount that you are the person that is calm, collected, and executes things, finally. And in order to do that, you do need to have that experience. There was a doctor that took this wilderness first responder class with me, and she's been actually. She was a nurse. And she was a nurse for, like, 15 years. And she learned all these new things because when you get outside in the backcountry, you used to improvise. I mean, you can make, like, slinging swathes out of shirts. Like, you don't have this hospital full of things to fix. Like, sometimes you got to use sticks as a. As a splint. Like, it's a completely different paradigm shift. So, yeah, I would recommend that. I know you're listening to a podcast right now and somebody's telling you to go join a program. I do it every two years just because I think it's fantastic. But you'll feel very empowered to make that change in your life, which is great for kids and great for the people that are around you.
- [30:34]
Jenny Urch
Yeah, I mean, I literally have never considered it. And now I'm immediately going to be like, well, where could I take one by me? I think that's a great idea. And you're just. You would learn all sorts of different new things that you haven't considered. And it does. It just makes you more valuable to your community that you're out with because you've got this knowledge and can be helpful in the different situations and stuff does happen. Kids do fall and they trip and different types of things happen. And often you're. You're. Maybe you're far from your car, you're a mile away, you're two miles away. Whatever the situation, I. We use all trails. I'm not affiliated with them at all, but it's an app on the phone, and I really like it. It will, in terms of location and knowing where you're going, because it will show you on the map and you can download it so that even if you're out of a cell service range, which you often are, I think when you're adventuring, it will show you where you are. And there have been many times where I would have gone the wrong direction or there's been many times when the hike feels really long and everyone is fussy or you're fussy, and it just shows you, like, how much longer you have to go as opposed to sort of being out there. I mean, I guess maybe that feels a little bit like cheating. But as I like to know, I did this hike, Anthony, with my daughter. She was, I think, 14, and we were in Colorado just for one day, and we did this hike, and it was in the mountains in the snow. I was like, no problem. And then I walked a tenth of a mile, and I was like, this is a big problem. I was like, I can't. I'm dying. Like, I couldn't catch my full breath. And she so wanted to do this hike to Emerald Lake, it was called. And I just. I, like, depended on the app as, like, my lifeline. I was Like, I've got another tenth of a mile, another tenth of a mile. And it just, it was really helpful. So I like that front loading the info. Know as much as you can before you go. Really, really important stuff. And you'll find all sorts of other survival ideas. Making fire, all of that that is on your YouTube and TikTok and Instagram.
- [32:27]
Anthony Porter
Yeah. And you know what? My, my main Instagram account I've been trying to experiment with, you know, like, I know adults mainly watch Instagram. It's a, it's now a millennial app. And kids nowadays only they're on TikTok. And so I've been trying to, I'm making more mature, fun videos that have a fun adult twist to it every once in a while. So I would, I would just send a disclaimer for, for any kiddos watching. But I, but I do have, I think they're all funny. They're nothing. That's like insane. But I think that that's worth mentioning. And then I have a YouTube kids specifically for some of the activities that I put in my, in my kids book that allows kids to just explore outside. My book is like for ages 3 to 11. So these videos go along really well with that age group.
- [33:12]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. And I think like, you do really hit that millennial audience really well. I mean, the, because the one, the horse one, like I said, I mean, they're short. I mean, Instagram videos are so short. And I was like, I have like laughed out loud six different times in this short video. Was like, I stole it from a princess themed birthday party. I mean, it's so spot on. Anyway, I love those videos. Okay, let's talk about your journal. So, oh yeah, you're the ninja warrior. You are making all this outdoor content. You have traveled 26 countries. I love people that do all sorts of things. And you created my epic nature journal, a nature adventure with outdoor Anthony. Where did the idea come from?
- [33:49]
Anthony Porter
Yeah, you know, I got pretty viral and I got a lot of reach outs from like survival shows and all these people that like just glob on and people like, oh, you have an audience. Like, it's easier for us to make a show with you. Please, let's do this. And I had a full time job at the time, so I'm like, I'm sorry, I can't. But one of these people was working for a publishing company and they said, hey, let's make a book together. And that really caught my attention. I've always wanted to, to write. I love writing. I got like creative writing awards as a kid. And that was just the creativeness inside of me just, like, boiled at the thought. Like, oh, boy. So I told them, yeah. And they're like, all right, let's make a survival book. And I'm like, no, I don't. I don't want that. Survival books are for people that are already in the circle of adventuring and outside time. I want to get people involved in sitting on, like, people that are sitting on the couch, people that are sitting in the rooms, a prompt to get them outside, and specifically kids. And so this. This book, my epic nature journal is what it's called, is basically that their reflection pages, their activities, you don't have to do them every day. You don't have to do them. You could do them over the course of three years. There. There's no timetable for them. But their activities, their crafts, anything to get kiddos outside in a very minor capacity. Whether you want to do these on your front porch, whether you want to go out in the woods and do this, whether you want to go to the local park or the zoo, there's a lot of different opportunities. Even if you're in an apartment complex, you can do this, like, from the balcony. It's really very entry level nature education, and I think a lot of people do need that. And honestly, the people that have bought the book are also parents that love the outdoors and bring the kids hiking all the time anyways. And there's. There's drawing pages and stuff like that. So it really just became like, what do I want my impact to be? And my impact is to encourage people to get outside. You can't conserve the planet and help the world if you're not comfortable in it. So this is. This is the first step.
- [35:47]
Jenny Urch
Oh, isn't that the truth? I just talked to Douglas Tallamy, who has a book called Nature's Best Hope, and that was one of the things he was saying. He was like, the kids, they don't even know. They don't even know what's up there. He said someone sent him.
- [36:02]
Anthony Porter
Okay.
- [36:03]
Jenny Urch
He's an older guy, and he's written a lot of books about conservation. His whole premise, Anthony, is like, if you could use any part of your yard as, like, like use it, you have native plants so that birds can have seeds and insects can have homes. Use your yard. He calls it Homegrown National Park. He's like, if people took half their yard space and dedicated it to habitats for animals, it would be bigger than all of the national parks combined.
- [36:26]
Anthony Porter
Yeah.
- [36:27]
Jenny Urch
So It's a cool premise. But he in at the end, he has these people that send in frequently asked questions. And one of the questions was something like, why should we care about birds? I don't even like birds.
- [36:37]
Anthony Porter
Yeah, great, great question, great question. And he's Exactly. So he's talking to people that have already got in. Like there's, he's already circling the drain of like being interested in nature. So many people are so on the periphery where it's, it's not even in their brain. And you know, when you got to deal with, with bills, when you got to deal with family, when you have a crazy job, taking care of nature is like the last thing on your mind. And it makes sense. I mean, we deal with that problem across the entire planet. I mean, that's why poaching is so big. That's why, that's why we're slashing agriculture. Like burn slash agriculture happens because people just need to pay their rent. That's. They're not worried about environmental causes. So figuring out how to make those symbiotic to where they both can benefit at the same time. Instead of bringing your kid to soccer practice four times a week, which I mean, some parents do, like.
- [37:26]
Jenny Urch
Yeah.
- [37:26]
Anthony Porter
Just take them on a walk one day. And even if that's one time a month, having that kid grow up with new opportunities, that's something that every parent can get behind. They don't need to care about nature, they just need to care about their kid. That's where I'm trying to get at.
- [37:39]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. And there's something you're going to find the thing that entices you because this guy was an entomologist. So he's the, he's a bug guy. And something, you know, you're going to find your thing that you find fascinating. Obviously that one person didn't like birds. And I was like, who even says that? I can't ever even imagine sending a letter to a published author. He's like a college professor and being like, I don't like birds.
- [38:02]
Anthony Porter
But it's a super, super important thing. It's the challenge. It is the challenge. I mean, how are you going to care? How do you get people to care?
- [38:13]
Jenny Urch
I can say to my new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, hey, find a keto friendly restaurant nearby and text it to Beth and Steve. And it does without me lifting a finger so I can get in more squats anywhere I can.
- [38:25]
Anthony Porter
1, 2, 3.
- [38:28]
Andrew Hawk
Will that be cash or credit?
- [38:30]
Anthony Porter
Credit.
- [38:30]
Andrew Hawk
4 Galaxy S25 Ultra.
- [38:33]
Jenny Urch
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- [39:31]
Andrew Hawk
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- [39:52]
Jenny Urch
Don't use if you're allergic to Epglis.
- [39:54]
Andrew Hawk
Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglis. Before starting Epglis, tell your doctor if.
- [40:03]
Jenny Urch
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- [40:14]
Anthony Porter
And you know, there's so many causes and this is the era of there is 15 causes a day that will be screaming at your face. How? Why, why should you care about this? And it's. I think it's, it's not about that. It's block all that and just explore who you want to be and if you want to go outside at all, which is what the entire world is, I can help. I don't know.
- [40:38]
Jenny Urch
It's true. It is true. It is definitely true. I think that you know the kids. The kids relate. You're funny. And that maybe the. Maybe survival is the thing. Or, you know, you talk about just different ways to store your tent poles. I mean, all those different things when you learn them, and they're like, oh, this is kind of interesting. Like, what are all the things I could do? One of the ones was at the tennis ball, and it was like, these are all the things I can do with a tennis ball on a trip, you know, on an outdoor trip. And. And I think that those things are enticing to kids and really enticing to anybody. Because you're like, oh, I never would have considered. The Nature journal is interesting, Anthony. I thought, because, you know, it's kind of tricky. Like, you're going to make a nature journal for kids. What are you going to include? And it includes a lot of spaces to fill things out. It includes a lot of different activity ideas like tracking and building things with sticks or whatever. But then you also include. It's like, basically you can see your. Your sort of like all of your interests combined into this book because then you have these brain surges.
- [41:34]
Anthony Porter
Yeah. Yeah. And I think I always. I'm trying to really not steal from Bill Nye, but, like, I love Bill Nye. He's great. And every once in a while in his episodes, like, he would get. He would do like, the baseline educational content. And then after that he'd be like, but if you want to learn more about this, like, here's some extra information. And I think that's where the kids that were really interested in science and nature and astronomy, whatever it was, that's when they're like, oh, then that was like their fact. And like, people still remember those, like, one off, like, extra, extra credit facts kind of thing. And it's. That's where I identify with, like, pushing it a little bit further. And I think a lot of people do, too. And, like, it goes hand in hand with media. Like, what was it? The Hunger Games came out. I went to the local archery store because I knew the pros and I was getting arrows. And the second that Hunger Games came out, every bow was sold off the shelf immediately. Or.
- [42:28]
Unknown
I mean, I love it because everybody.
- [42:30]
Jenny Urch
Wants to be Katniss Everdeen.
- [42:32]
Anthony Porter
Yeah. I mean, same thing with, like, swords in Lord of the Rings. Like, like, there are so many more blacksmiths now because the Lord of the Rings came out. Those movies. I mean, even Queen's Gambit, when that one came out, the one about the chess player, Chess stocks rose, like, whatever. It was like 500% because people buying it. So we need to see it. Choosing the media that you consume is vastly important. Anyways. Yeah, rant over.
- [42:59]
Jenny Urch
Yeah, I even noticed that like, you know, when there's a couple key people that put out different. I noticed that around the holidays there's a couple people that put out this shopping. Different shopping guides. Right. Like, have you heard of this? And all of those things got sold out. And I'm like, people just, they need to see it and they just kind of want to follow. This is nature. And that's good. So you see it, you see the banana and you clean it out with the water bottle. And I'm like a 7 year old would think that's the coolest thing if you let them work on that. And I just think all of these ideas, they entice people outdoors. That's why I'm saying this is a really interesting nature journal because I think most people would think like, oh yeah, nature journal includes like what's in the weather and not what's in the weather. What is the weather and what did you see today and what did you sense? And, and you have all of that, but then you also have like information about snakes. And if snakes had arms and legs, they wouldn't fit in the burrows they live. And did you know that snakes have unique organs that allow them to sense animals in the other areas?
- [43:54]
Anthony Porter
Yeah, pit organs of a viper. Not all, not all snakes have them, but they're basically a sixth sense, sixth sense that allow heat sensing abilities. And so we don't have that as humans. But I was thinking of an activity that kids can understand that sense of, of like sensing heat. And so the activity for this area is, or for this page is lay underneath a tree that has like broken up sunlight, birth, shade, and then close your eyes and see if you can feel where the sun's hitting you, where it's not hitting you, and then move. And then based off of where you're moving, can you feel where you are in the tree in its shade? And so that's kind of how these snakes can feel, but it's a very concentrated experience right in the front of their face. And instead of the sunlight, it's actually body heat from other animals. So breaking it down into digestible things that they can understand. That's where I'm at.
- [44:46]
Jenny Urch
So we do feel heat, but only through our skin. We feel heat only through our skin.
- [44:50]
Anthony Porter
Yeah.
- [44:50]
Jenny Urch
But they recognize the heat of animals because they have organs, unique organs that allow them to sense animals. This is fascinating. I Don't know any of this.
- [45:01]
Anthony Porter
So if you ever look at a snake, next time you look at them, or you can just Google pit organs. But basically, it's like a hole. They're a bunch of holes in the middle of their. In the front of their face that look like a mustache a little bit. And they're basically just like very sensitive organs that can feel heat of things very close by. So the way that we feel that with our entire skin. I mean, our skin is an organ, right?
- [45:21]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. Right.
- [45:22]
Anthony Porter
Think about all of that. Sense all the senses of the sun hitting you at all points of your body concentrated into a couple dots in your face and, like, pushing that out. And it'll be so sensitive that you can. You can feel like the heat from moles that are going through the ground or other snakes. It's nuts. It's really cool.
- [45:43]
Jenny Urch
Okay, so in this epic nature journal, which you can just get anywhere you buy books. My Epic Nature Journal by outdoor Anthony. There's a picture of it. So you've got a picture of, like, here's the nostril, but here's the pit organ, and then at the bottom, there's the brain surge. On this particular page, Snakes are great for the environment because they eat small animals that carry diseases harmful to other animals, like humans. So just great, like, little encouragements because I know people can be really scared of snakes. Obviously you have to be careful depending on where you live, but great information there. I liked this one a lot, too. The tale of tales. We were just at the zoo the other day, and the zoo is a great place to go in the winter. There's never anybody there, and a lot of times the animals are pretty active. But we saw these tamarind monkeys, I think is what they were, and their tails were so long.
- [46:23]
Anthony Porter
Yeah.
- [46:23]
Jenny Urch
We stood there and watched for forever. I mean, the tails, I think, were like, they looked almost twice as long as the length of their body.
- [46:30]
Anthony Porter
It's amazing.
- [46:31]
Jenny Urch
So you have this whole page about tails and then going to the creativity, like, what kind of tail would you want? You're trying to make a tail out of what you can find in your house. Talk to us about the different types of tails that animals have and what they use them for.
- [46:44]
Anthony Porter
Yeah, totally. And basically all these different animals, they have tails for different reasons. So tails, let's see. So cows, for example, on that page, it shows a cow tail. And cow tails are really great for flicking away bugs and for expelling heat with that giant, giant body. Right. Think about how much heat that creates when it has longer appendages that are off to the side. Like, think about a giant ears of a fox, right? Those ears are so big because partly they need to expel heat from their body if they're warming up too much. And tails are a fantastic way to let off that heat. Um, so that covering up those private parts are actually really good just for hygiene purposes. So tails are good for that. And then if we talk about something like a stegosaurus, right? Those dinosaurs that have those big old swinging tails, that would be good for defense, getting other dinosaurs away so they could be used for defense. Or like those tamarind monkeys you were talking about, they're used, number one, for balance. Think of that as like a giant, like, balance pole. If you think about those guys that do the high wiring with the giant poles, it's like that. But sometimes they'll put the weight underneath them, so it's like most of the weights underneath the pole instead of on top. It's. It's really fascinating. Or to actually use it as a prehensile tail, which is a fancy word for an extra arm, so they can hang from it, they can swing from it. I mean, heck, kangaroos use their tails as a third leg. And some scientists actually consider that a leg at this point. They're their tail. Tripedal movement is what it's called. And kangaroos don't technically use it all the time because they could stand on their own without it. But a little fun fact is, tripedal movement is found in no animal other than parrots, actually. So using three appendages, they use their beak as well on the ground in order to move up, like, different kind of terrains. It's really interesting. But, yeah, a bunch of different tails, a whole different reason for each one. And so I call it the tale of tails. And then at the very end, yeah, make your own tail. What do you want? And I put that activity in there because when I was younger, I made my own tails because I wanted to be Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.
- [48:47]
Jenny Urch
It's so fun. And the brain surge is there where it talks about the prehensile tale. And so if you're out and about, you're going to experience a lot of these things because you're going to see a lot of these different types of things, and all of those connections are going to happen. I think what you've done in this amazing episode where we've been cut off twice and you have been so gracious about it, is that you have given a Picture of someone who has, like, a whole lot of interests and who is using their life to, like, go after it. Go try. I'm going to try this, I'm going to try that, and I'm going to make decisions about what I want to do and what I don't want to do. And the breadth of information that you have is remarkable. And so I think that's really inspiring. I love that. I hope that kids listening in find that as well and go outside, find your totem, find what you're interested in and learn more about it and pursue that. Anthony, we always end our show with the same question. The question is, what's a favorite memory from your childhood? That was outside.
- [49:38]
Anthony Porter
Oh, man. I would have to go with. When I was younger, I went to Boy Scout camps all the time. And having that camaraderie with just people my age to go out and adventure and whittling sticks and coming home with just a cut on every finger just because we just ruined our hands. But knowing how fun it was. And I would say whittling with friends, growing up and making huge mistakes and learning from it, that. That would be my. My anecdote.
- [50:08]
Jenny Urch
There's a lot of takeaways here because I bet you there's a lot of families listening that don't whittle. I mean, here and there, we've done it a little bit with our kids, but not consistently. I think that's a fun thing you could keep in your bag. You know, if you're not carrying a million diapers or whatever and you've got older kids, you know, bring. Bring that. Or bring a nature journal or. The whittling stuff is actually a really cool activity. Taking the survival class, I think is a phenomenal, phenomenal idea. So lots of things to take away from this. Anthony Porter, online heartthrob. Thank you for being here.
- [50:38]
Anthony Porter
Jenny, you rock. Thank you so much. Thank you, folks.