[powerpress]
At odds with conventional life seemingly since birth, the future wasn’t looking so bright for Paul Rosolie.
A dyslexic kid from Brooklyn who could barely read, Paul was wired for one thing school couldn’t measure: a complete obsession with the natural world. At 16, he dropped out of high school. At 19, he walked into the Amazon barefoot. And he never really came back.
What followed was two decades of fumbling, failing, and figuring out how to turn that calling into a mission. A partnership with an indigenous mentor named JJ. A Discovery Channel disaster that nearly ended his career. Years of quiet work nobody was paying attention to.
Then the 2019 Amazon fires hit, his footage went viral, and the rest is history.
Today, Paul is the founder of Junglekeepers — an organization that has protected 150,000 acres of the wildest part of the Amazon and is halfway to creating a new national park. He’s also on a narco trafficking hit list. Such is the job.
His book, Junglekeeper: What It Takes to Change the World, is a New York Times bestseller and the chronicle of how a teenager’s passion became a movement.
Specific topics explored include:
- The Race Against Time in the Amazon
- Dropping Out & Meeting JJ
- Befriending Dharma the Elephant
- The Discovery Channel Disaster
- Encountering the Uncontacted Nomolé Tribe
- The Narco Threat & The Hit List
- Peter Beard & The New York Explorer Tradition
- Hopelessness as a Poison, Hope as a Discipline
- Meaning Through Responsibility
For those who prefer a visual experience, the conversation is available on YouTube. As always, the audio version streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Peace + Plants,
Listen, Watch, & Subscribe
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- Connect with Paul: Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | X
- New Book: Junglekeeper: What It Takes to Change the World
- Donate to saving the Amazon: JungleKeepers
- Book: Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon
- Book: The Girl and the Tiger
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