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Mutiny on the Sex Raft

What It Was Like

Sun Mar 22 2026

Summary

What It Was Like

Episode: Mutiny on the Sex Raft

Host: Julian Morgans
Guest: Faye Seymour
Date: March 22, 2026

Brief Overview

This episode features Faye Seymour, a participant in the infamous 1973 “Akali raft experiment,” better known as the “sex raft.” Conceived by Mexican anthropologist Santiago Genovés, the experiment set 11 strangers adrift across the Atlantic to observe whether sexual tension and isolation would lead to violence. Instead, it became a story of unexpected solidarity, manipulation by the experimenter, and psychological extremes—including mutiny and brushes with death. Faye reflects on her experiences, the true nature of human conflict and cooperation, and the enduring impact of the journey on her life.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Introduction & Background [02:30–05:02]

Setting the Scene: The Akali raft experiment was designed to examine if sexual tension leads to aggression, war, and violence.
Experiment Details: 11 strangers (5 men, 6 women) from diverse backgrounds set adrift from the Canary Islands to Mexico.
Actual Outcome: Instead of chaos, the group formed a cohesive (almost tribal) unit. The main source of tension became Santiago himself.

Faye’s Early Life and Motivation [05:02–06:29]

Background: Faye discusses growing up with a strict father and a drive to prove herself; her love for science.
Path to the Raft: Married young, heard about the experiment through her husband’s workplace, and was recruited for her unique profile and scientific curiosity.

"I knew he would never meet anybody else like me… I was articulate. You know that old-fashioned trope, 'you speak so well for a black person.'" – Faye Seymour [07:08]

Selection and Initial Impressions [06:29–09:41]

First Meeting: Faye viewed Santiago as a serious scientist, though his methodology included manipulating communication via language barriers (French/Spanish/English).
Selection Criteria: Participants were chosen in part for attractiveness, unbeknownst to them at the time.

Life Aboard the Raft [09:41–14:43]

Language and Group Dynamics: Initial communication barriers led the group to invent a pidgin dialect, strengthening bonds.
Notable Event: All participants witnessed a UFO, which became a shared and bonding experience.

"Once you've confirmed that yes, it is a ufo, then you just go on about your business. Because what are you going to do?" – Faye Seymour [13:24]
Daily Life: The group adapted, forming camaraderie and resourcefulness, contrary to Santiago's expectations.

Santiago’s Methods and Breakdown [14:43–19:17]

Questionnaires: Santiago constantly probed participants about relationships, attraction, and conflict, escalating in invasiveness.
Affair with Participant: Santiago lost credibility by having an affair, becoming a “participant” rather than a neutral observer.

“After I saw the men, I said, no, no, no, no, no. It’s never going to happen. These are not men that attracted me. Not one of them.” – Faye Seymour [15:03]
Manipulation Attempts: Santiago began sharing private questionnaire answers to stir conflict, with limited success.

Rising Tensions, Mutiny, and the Hurricane [19:17–29:29]

Leadership Erodes: Santiago loses authority after a near-miss with a freighter reveals his panic and incompetence.
Disparaging Women: Santiago denies the female diver her role; becomes enraged when she outperforms him.
Dangerous Lies: Santiago attempts to control communication and fabricate crises to generate drama.
Murder Plots: The group openly discusses ways to "eliminate the threat" Santiago poses.

“Several of us were up top saying, what do we need to eliminate the threat?... There was a lot of ways it could have happened very easily. But the bottom line, yeah, we could do it, but we couldn’t get away with it.” – Faye Seymour [25:50]
The Hurricane: Santiago insists on sailing through a hurricane, resulting in harrowing hours and further alienating the group.

“He was so focused on his hypothesis... he didn’t care what he did to us or anybody or himself.” – Faye Seymour [29:23]

Transformative Moments & Reflections [30:22–38:33]

Perspective on Risk: Faye came to prefer the authenticity of facing nature over mundane or senseless dangers.
Profound Spiritual Experience: Passing over the transatlantic slave route, Faye has a deeply moving, spiritual encounter with the memory of those lost at sea.

“I felt this static energy come up from the ocean. I could feel these people reaching up to me... They lived again for a short time... It changed my life because it was true.” – Faye Seymour [33:33]
Cohesion, Not Conflict: Faye believes the real finding was the group’s ability to transcend language and culture to cooperate and survive—something Santiago never acknowledged.

“He missed the whole point… If you could just get them to learn to talk to each other, what you could build, what you could overcome, what you could survive.” – Faye Seymour [37:08]

Conclusion of the Journey [38:46–43:36]

Aftermath: The group experiences difficulty re-integrating, initially sticking together even after landing.
Santiago’s Fate: The experience torpedoed Santiago’s career. His book was criticized for falsification and perpetuating stereotypes; he blamed the participants for not providing enough “drama.”

“He basically falsified a lot of information. He reiterated all of the negative stereotypes about people. ...He should have taken some more. He needed more testosterone and less reason.” – Faye Seymour [42:25]
Lasting Connections: Crew members drifted apart over time; Faye kept occasional contact but noted how little public interest the story received—until recent documentaries revived attention.

“Most people don’t care about your adventures... They care about their adventures.” – Faye Seymour [44:26]
Lasting Impact: The experience remains vivid and foundational for Faye, shaping her resilience, parenting, and sense of responsibility to history and others.

“The most important thing… was going over the slave trade route and having been a conduit for dead souls to come through me... I carry that through my life like a talisman.” – Faye Seymour [45:44]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On her confidence in selection:
“I knew he would never meet anybody else like me… I was articulate... I didn’t mind expressing myself.” – Faye Seymour [07:08]
On Santiago’s flawed scientific approach:
“He did okay. Unfortunately, he had his results in his head before he left.” – Faye Seymour [12:09]
On the group’s adaptation and unity:
“We seamlessly fit together to make something very strong... He missed the whole point.” – Faye Seymour [37:08]
On the hurricane ordeal:
“It was terrifying. The swells were huge. Lightning, 360. There’s no way we were going to make it. But we did.” – Faye Seymour [29:23]
On post-raft closeness:
“We moved around like a clump. We never left each other’s sides...like an organism, you know, because we hadn’t been broken apart yet...” – Faye Seymour [38:46]
On the neglected real lesson:
“All he cared about was sex and guys hitting other guys for women... He missed the more important point of what we became.” – Faye Seymour [38:05]

Important Segment Timestamps

The Experiment’s Premise & Selection: [02:30–09:41]
First Days on the Raft & Language Barriers: [09:41–14:43]
Questionnaires, Sex, and Losing Faith in Santiago: [14:43–19:17]
Rising Tensions, Mutiny Talk, and The Hurricane: [19:17–29:29]
Transatlantic Slave Trade Reflection: [32:26–36:43]
Journey’s End; Aftereffects for Crew & Santiago: [38:46–43:36]

Tone & Style

Engaging, reflective, candid, and at times darkly humorous. Faye is analytical but warm; Julian plays the curious, empathetic interviewer, often highlighting the absurdities and ironies of both the experiment and its era.

This episode is a vivid, honest oral history of a bizarre social experiment that ultimately failed in its stated objective but triumphed in demonstrating human adaptability and the lasting power of genuine connection—even under the least likely circumstances.

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Transcript

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Faye Seymour (0:33)

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Faye Seymour (1:15)

Is it in you?

Gatorade Announcer (1:16)

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Faye Seymour (1:22)

Super real. And the captain said, I am not going to take these people through a hurricane. He said, then I will. So he decided we're going to go through this hurricane. And we did. And it was terrifying. The swells were huge. Lightning360. There's no way we were going to make it. But we did. And after that was over, we realized he was so focused on his hypothesis and his book and his results that he didn't care what he did to us or anybody or himself.

Podcast Host (Interviewer) (2:02)

What was your suggestion for murdering him?

Faye Seymour (2:04)

Inject him with something.

Podcast Host (Interviewer) (2:07)

Hey, I'm Julian Morgans, and you're listening to what It Was like, the show that asks people who have lived through big dramatic events what it was like.

Podcast Host (Interviewer) (2:30)

Hello and welcome back. So we've been doing a lot of oceanic stories recently. We did that thing last week about orcas attacking boats. We did that other thing a few weeks ago about people surviving on life rafts. And this week we're going to stay with the water, but we're going to swap out the whales for something even weirder. This is the story of the Akali raft experiment, sometimes also known as the sex raft. And the story goes like this. So in 1973, a Mexican anthropologist named Santiago Genoese set out to test a theory that human aggression, think war, violence, just all of it is driven by sexual tension. And he designed an experiment to test that hypothesis. He placed 11 strangers, five men and six women from different countries on a small raft, and he set them adrift across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands, just drifting on the currents all the way to Mexico. And his thinking was that in cramped, isolated conditions, sexual tension would build among the five men and the six women, and it would eventually build, boil over into conflict. And Santiago planned to sit back and to study what happened. But it didn't quite unfold that way. Instead, the group formed a kind of gang. And there was some romance, sure, but it wasn't anywhere near the Love island chaos that he predicted. And if anything, it was Santiago who actually became the source of the tension, leading basically to a mutiny after he forced them to sail through a hurricane. It's a wild story. It's. It's part 1970s whimsy with part freaky science. But I think what really makes it is today's guest, Faye Seymour, is an American woman, and she was in her early 20s when she joined the raft. And she actually looks back on that experience not as a disaster, but as one of the more meaningful adventures of her life. So she's going to tell us that story, and afterwards, stick around for the subscriber episode, because I'm going to speak with a filmmaker by the name of Marcus Lindeen. He's the one who actually found this story in the first place. To be honest, I'm just riding on his coattails, and he's telling me about what happened to all of the other crew. He actually went out and tracked them all down. Anyway, that is for subscribers only, but let's get on with this episode for everyone. So here is Faye Seymour. Hey, Faye. Welcome to the show.

Faye Seymour (32:33)

Oh, boy, did I. When I were sailing into the current, I hadn't really known about that, but somehow or another was mentioned, I think navigator. I don't know who mentioned it, but this is a transatlantic slave trade route. A little while later, I'm sitting on watching the same spot on the boat locker in front of the mast. I'm looking down. I realize we're 18 inches above the water. And so everybody who went over the boat, one of the 2 million who went over the boat, who was alive, this was their last moment alive before they went down. And I'm sitting right here where they were now. I know lots of us go across the ocean plains, but nobody's 18 inches above the surface of the ocean where these people went in. And I got this feeling like the aurora borealis in the north and the southern borealis, you know, how that you can see the whole planet is reacting. I felt this static energy come up from the ocean. I could feel these people reaching up to me. I could feel them. I knew it was happening. And they were, like, touching me, and I said, we're alive. It's like they knew we survived. And they were just going through me. And I let them. I just let them go through me. And the joy and like, the shock of my body receiving this, like, northern lights, you know, from these millions who were down there, just, you know, the gratitude that we survived. And, you know, here's one coming back, you know, to verify we made it. We made it. We made it. We made it. We made it. We made it. We made it. And that lasted for a long time. It was. I couldn't tell these people. These people. You can't tell these people this kind of stuff. They don't believe you. They think you're full of bullshit. But it was so powerful that it changed my life because it was true. They lived again for a short time. And I got to. I got to be. I got. My heart got to beat for them, you know, they got to feel it. Got to feel it, you know, their children, whoever they lost, whoever made it to the shore they made was one of the best things that's ever happened to me.

Summary

What It Was Like

Episode: Mutiny on the Sex Raft

Host: Julian Morgans
Guest: Faye Seymour
Date: March 22, 2026

Brief Overview

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Introduction & Background [02:30–05:02]

Setting the Scene: The Akali raft experiment was designed to examine if sexual tension leads to aggression, war, and violence.
Experiment Details: 11 strangers (5 men, 6 women) from diverse backgrounds set adrift from the Canary Islands to Mexico.
Actual Outcome: Instead of chaos, the group formed a cohesive (almost tribal) unit. The main source of tension became Santiago himself.

Faye’s Early Life and Motivation [05:02–06:29]

Background: Faye discusses growing up with a strict father and a drive to prove herself; her love for science.
Path to the Raft: Married young, heard about the experiment through her husband’s workplace, and was recruited for her unique profile and scientific curiosity.

"I knew he would never meet anybody else like me… I was articulate. You know that old-fashioned trope, 'you speak so well for a black person.'" – Faye Seymour [07:08]

Selection and Initial Impressions [06:29–09:41]

First Meeting: Faye viewed Santiago as a serious scientist, though his methodology included manipulating communication via language barriers (French/Spanish/English).
Selection Criteria: Participants were chosen in part for attractiveness, unbeknownst to them at the time.

Life Aboard the Raft [09:41–14:43]

Language and Group Dynamics: Initial communication barriers led the group to invent a pidgin dialect, strengthening bonds.
Notable Event: All participants witnessed a UFO, which became a shared and bonding experience.

"Once you've confirmed that yes, it is a ufo, then you just go on about your business. Because what are you going to do?" – Faye Seymour [13:24]
Daily Life: The group adapted, forming camaraderie and resourcefulness, contrary to Santiago's expectations.

Santiago’s Methods and Breakdown [14:43–19:17]

Questionnaires: Santiago constantly probed participants about relationships, attraction, and conflict, escalating in invasiveness.
Affair with Participant: Santiago lost credibility by having an affair, becoming a “participant” rather than a neutral observer.

“After I saw the men, I said, no, no, no, no, no. It’s never going to happen. These are not men that attracted me. Not one of them.” – Faye Seymour [15:03]
Manipulation Attempts: Santiago began sharing private questionnaire answers to stir conflict, with limited success.

Rising Tensions, Mutiny, and the Hurricane [19:17–29:29]

Leadership Erodes: Santiago loses authority after a near-miss with a freighter reveals his panic and incompetence.
Disparaging Women: Santiago denies the female diver her role; becomes enraged when she outperforms him.
Dangerous Lies: Santiago attempts to control communication and fabricate crises to generate drama.
Murder Plots: The group openly discusses ways to "eliminate the threat" Santiago poses.

“Several of us were up top saying, what do we need to eliminate the threat?... There was a lot of ways it could have happened very easily. But the bottom line, yeah, we could do it, but we couldn’t get away with it.” – Faye Seymour [25:50]
The Hurricane: Santiago insists on sailing through a hurricane, resulting in harrowing hours and further alienating the group.

“He was so focused on his hypothesis... he didn’t care what he did to us or anybody or himself.” – Faye Seymour [29:23]

Transformative Moments & Reflections [30:22–38:33]

Perspective on Risk: Faye came to prefer the authenticity of facing nature over mundane or senseless dangers.
Profound Spiritual Experience: Passing over the transatlantic slave route, Faye has a deeply moving, spiritual encounter with the memory of those lost at sea.

“I felt this static energy come up from the ocean. I could feel these people reaching up to me... They lived again for a short time... It changed my life because it was true.” – Faye Seymour [33:33]
Cohesion, Not Conflict: Faye believes the real finding was the group’s ability to transcend language and culture to cooperate and survive—something Santiago never acknowledged.

“He missed the whole point… If you could just get them to learn to talk to each other, what you could build, what you could overcome, what you could survive.” – Faye Seymour [37:08]

Conclusion of the Journey [38:46–43:36]

Aftermath: The group experiences difficulty re-integrating, initially sticking together even after landing.
Santiago’s Fate: The experience torpedoed Santiago’s career. His book was criticized for falsification and perpetuating stereotypes; he blamed the participants for not providing enough “drama.”

“He basically falsified a lot of information. He reiterated all of the negative stereotypes about people. ...He should have taken some more. He needed more testosterone and less reason.” – Faye Seymour [42:25]
Lasting Connections: Crew members drifted apart over time; Faye kept occasional contact but noted how little public interest the story received—until recent documentaries revived attention.

“Most people don’t care about your adventures... They care about their adventures.” – Faye Seymour [44:26]
Lasting Impact: The experience remains vivid and foundational for Faye, shaping her resilience, parenting, and sense of responsibility to history and others.

“The most important thing… was going over the slave trade route and having been a conduit for dead souls to come through me... I carry that through my life like a talisman.” – Faye Seymour [45:44]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On her confidence in selection:
“I knew he would never meet anybody else like me… I was articulate... I didn’t mind expressing myself.” – Faye Seymour [07:08]
On Santiago’s flawed scientific approach:
“He did okay. Unfortunately, he had his results in his head before he left.” – Faye Seymour [12:09]
On the group’s adaptation and unity:
“We seamlessly fit together to make something very strong... He missed the whole point.” – Faye Seymour [37:08]
On the hurricane ordeal:
“It was terrifying. The swells were huge. Lightning, 360. There’s no way we were going to make it. But we did.” – Faye Seymour [29:23]
On post-raft closeness:
“We moved around like a clump. We never left each other’s sides...like an organism, you know, because we hadn’t been broken apart yet...” – Faye Seymour [38:46]
On the neglected real lesson:
“All he cared about was sex and guys hitting other guys for women... He missed the more important point of what we became.” – Faye Seymour [38:05]

Important Segment Timestamps

The Experiment’s Premise & Selection: [02:30–09:41]
First Days on the Raft & Language Barriers: [09:41–14:43]
Questionnaires, Sex, and Losing Faith in Santiago: [14:43–19:17]
Rising Tensions, Mutiny Talk, and The Hurricane: [19:17–29:29]
Transatlantic Slave Trade Reflection: [32:26–36:43]
Journey’s End; Aftereffects for Crew & Santiago: [38:46–43:36]