Paul Rosolie, Jungle Keeper

[Johnnycomelately]

This is the third interview Paul has had with Lex Fridman, done in NYC. First one was in NYC, second was sitting at a table in the Amazon jungle at night.

Paul is an advocate for, and an activist in, an area of rainforest in the eastern Amazon watershed. From New York City, on a lark he went to the Amazon, and stayed. No formal higher education, he learned as he went, and now his group owns 130,000 acres of mostly pristine jungle. The protection they can provide is dependant on the ownership, because owners tend to sell rights to companies whose activities destroy the land. Loggers, miners, agriculture that first burns everything down.

He has an immediate goal, within a year or two, to buy another 200,000 acres. Part of that goal is to protect a wild tribe that live at least partly within that area.

Besides his success in fundraising and in facilitating on location, the big news here is the Uncontacted Tribes of the vid title. Turns out this tribe has had plenty of contact with regular indigenous jungle folk, have stolen rope and machetes and food and other stuff. Since at least the last three or four decades, having been killed by aggressive commercial interests, they have only been combative. And they are fierceom warriors, that seems to be the males only job.

To hunt and fight, they use quite long bows, 7 or 8 ft by my eye in some vid clips. Arrows 6 or 7 ft. One clip showed an arrow lengthwise from the back end, and the three feathers are mounted in a helix, which Paul says gets the arrow spinning and stabilizes it. Like how the rifling grooves in a gun barrel spin the bullet so it doesn’t flop around and degrade accuracy like the old smooth bore muskets and canon.

This is the first video of this tribe, and from what I heard the first non-combative encounter on record. I wish them well.

L = 3:06:18. Tribe contact is in the first hour, then they go elsewhere with topics, as they do. Please see list of timestamps in description. I watched it all, in one sitting+standing. This guy is only ever interesting, has written two books and Lex got him to describe his writing process (thoughts bandied and checked with others, much written logs of feelings and facts, and only then bring it digital) and read from the 2nd book Junglekeeper a couple times.

Paul Rosolie: Uncontacted Tribes in the Amazon Jungle | Lex Fridman Podcast #489

Lex Fridman
4.9M subscribers

Jan 13, 2026

Paul Rosolie is a naturalist, explorer, author of a new book titled Junglekeeper, and is someone who has dedicated his life to protecting the Amazon rainforest.

EPISODE LINKS:
Junglekeeper (new book): https://amzn.to/4q7vpAp
Paul's Instagram: / paulrosolie
Junglekeepers Website: https://junglekeepers.org
Paul's Website: https://paulrosolie.com
Mother of God (book): https://amzn.to/3ww2ob1

OUTLINE:
0:00 - Episode highlight
1:08 - Introduction
3:59 - Uncontacted tribes in the Amazon Jungle
11:45 - Intense new encounter
34:51 - Never-before-seen footage of tribe warriors
48:07 - The mysteries of the jungle
1:02:42 - Tribe's diet: Monkeys, turtles, and turtle eggs
1:12:18 - Jane Goodall
1:18:30 - Advice for young people
1:27:44 - Cartel, Narco-traffickers & assassination attempts
1:49:44 - Climbing the giant tree
2:00:42 - Giant anaconda
2:18:00 - Rescuing a spider monkey
2:24:04 - Dangerous animal encounters
2:34:12 - Writing, journaling, and great writer inspirations

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z-FRe5AKmCU