An electric eel, a podcast host, and stories from around the block
And what they have in common with you
A few months after moving to São Paulo, I got an uber to the airport and started talking with the driver.
I usually start these conversations asking how long they’ve been driving, and if they have any interesting stories. They almost always do – some of the drivers have had tens of thousands of passengers over their years of work.
But sometimes the driver is the story.
If you’re new here, welcome! So nice to have you. I share video recommendations two times a month. I also am obsessed with spirals. If you have any suggestions for either, send them my way! E se você for brasileiro/a, sejam bem vindos 🇧🇷 !!
This driver in particular was a fisherman.
He told me that fishing was his passion, that every chance he got he takes off with his friends on an expedition.
“Where?” I asked him.
“The Amazon!”
He and his friends fly to Manaus, then take another plane further into the state of Amazonas, and spend a week fishing until the money ran out, then come back to São Paulo.
He showed me pictures on his phone holding giant fish, all smiles, his phone reflected in wraparound glasses.
“Want to join me? I can add you to our Whatsapp group!”
Unfortunately, then, I wasn’t bold enough to say yes. We had gotten to the airport, and I had to catch a flight.
Big mistake.
I should’ve at least gotten his number to talk and learn more about this crazy world.
But with the power of the internet, I can do just that.
The most challenging part of a place like THE AMAZON is for so many people, including me, it exists only in our imagination.
It’s incomprehensibly enormous, hosts the planet’s greatest biodiversity, and is notoriously under threat.
There are so many great videos of expeditions into the amazon, of foreigners staying at gorgeous ecolodges with their $15,000 cameras. Those stories are great! They bring us a little closer to understanding, but they’re still visitors.
We need their eyes and ears, but they can’t tell us the things you can only know from observing a place over a lifetime. So what’s it really like there?
For that I turned to Gil Trindade and her son Hyano who live on an island near a town called Balbina in the state of Amazonas (←of all the hyperlinks in this article, that’s the one to click on. Here it is again just in case you missed it).
In their videos they talk about life living off the land in the Amazon forest. Inevitably, part of that life is fishing.
Despite what the thumbnail looks like, this is a calm video.
They paddle an aluminum boat through the estuaries, first catching bait fish in a water bottle, then sitting patiently while bigger fish tug at the line. They spot wild Macaws, feel a powerful wind through the canopy, then, afraid as the pull from below gets stronger and stronger, they catch an enormous electric eel. The video is in Portuguese, but what they do is just as interesting as what they say. [the second half of this video is not for the squeamish...] (33 minutes)
This is the kind of thing that even my imagination could not cook up. An 11 kilo, 5ft + electric eel being caught with a simple line and hook in the Amazon.
The Puraquê (the fish’s name) can reach up to 2.5 meters long and can discharge 4x the electricity of a 220v outlet. Yes, the one for your washing machine.1
If you’re curious, yes they cook the fish in a later video and there are plenty more wild experiences like this.
But what I love most about this video, is that they are telling the story of what is around them.
It helps they happen to live in the kind of natural marvel billions of people around the world are curious about, but their videos are just them talking about their lives. Other than a nice camera and a drone, there is no big production, no story script, just a mother and son (and uncle, apparently) talking about what goes on in their neighborhood.
There is so much to be learned from our lives when we stop to look at it.
One of our generation’s greatest storytellers thinks the same.
A walk around the block
Jad Abumrad, founder and former host of RadioLab, creator of Dolly Parton’s America and Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, came to give a talk one morning in New York City. And I was there.
I remember it being a pivotal moment in my life. I had just arrived in journalism school without any idea whether or not I should really be a journalist. Despite choosing to specialize in audio, I had no idea who one of its most famous figures, Jad Abumrad, was.
But when he stood up on that stage, something clicked.
He begins his talk with a discovery he made by taking a new path around his work.
It was the kind of surprising find that happens all the time if you know where to look, but it sparked something different in him. Before this moment, he had been stuck in his own mind, digging, discovering, building, trying to understand – “I spent so much time trying to figure out how the world works where is my place in the world, but not enough time thinking about the fact – the staggering fact – that it exists at all.”
Fortunately for you, and for me, the talk was recorded. And you can listen to it here. (23 minutes)
“Surprise is always the first step of gratitude,” Jad says, early in the video.
It makes sense.
After visiting the sculpture store with human skulls, paints, werewolf sculptures, and building materials, there was a lot of surprise.
But there are surprises in the grocery store, the taxi cab / ride share, the walk to work, the lunch break, the internet, even your desk probably, if you take some time to look.
Both these videos, first the family living in the Amazon, and the New Yorker walking around the block, show how your story matters.
Maybe you ought to tell it.
📖 What I read:
Lost City Radio - Daniel Alarcón
This novel about a radio host in a country recently mending after a civil war is my dive into fiction this month. Last month was The Fault in Our Stars. The reason? John Green and Daniel Alarcón are hosting a wonderful soccer podcast I mentioned about the world cup so I figured I’d read their books.
I tricked 3 million people into believing in an evil fake polycule - danielle (𝓇𝒶𝓌 & 𝒻𝑒𝓇𝒶𝓁)
There are some substacks that make you think, others that make you cry, and some, like Danielle’s that make you question reality while you laugh incomprehensibly over your morning cereal. This was one of those posts. The title is pretty self explanatory.
📺 What I Watched:
Photos from the Artemis Mission
During, I’ll admit it, a particularly tedious bit of work, I scrolled through the entirety of the published photos from the Artemis moon mission, as organized by Youtuber and serial entrepreneur Hank Green. Turn on the audio to hear what the astronauts were talking about as each photo was taken.
You’ve seen the trailer probably and I can just tell you it’s an entertaining, albeit tense, movie. Would recommend. Also I’m always impressed with how absolutely packed the movie theaters have been whenever I go in São Paulo. A true nation of Cinema, I tell you!
🎧 What I listened to:
Dominguinho - João Gomes
Just watch / listen to this. Your day is gonna be better, I almost guarantee you. They have such a wholesome, chill vibe. I loved this album even more because I was surprised with tickets to the show at a massive stadium without knowing any of the songs and it was INCREDIBLE. 10/10. As my friend would say, the vibes were electric.
The Baby Huey Story - Baby Huey
I found out about this artist and album when I listened to City Cast Chicago last week. So good.
Brat - Charlie XCX
Yeah! I listened to Brat! Yes, the whole way through! Are you gonna judge me? Try cleaning the house while listening to brat and tell me you’re in a bad mood. It’s impossible. 🟩
Yours, spirally,
Francisco
For various reasons, the shock probably won’t kill you though, but the fish could!