Aldo Kane: Doctor’s Kitchen. Recipes, health, lifestyle. I had been so used to over the years of being on expedition and being a sniper and always just being connected to the environment. Knowing, noticing when the leaves are turning, noticing buds on on on trees after the winter that you know that we're just about to pop into spring, literally pop, like noticing these things, having that taken away being outside and interacting with people. So those three things, exercising, being outside, and interacting with people, it seemed like were the cornerstones of good mental health.
Presenter: Welcome to the Doctor's Kitchen podcast. The show about food, lifestyle, medicine and how to improve your health today. I'm Dr Rupy, your host. I'm a medical doctor, I study nutrition and I'm a firm believer in the power of food and lifestyle as medicine. Join me and my expert guests while we discuss the multiple determinants of what allows you to lead your best life.
Dr Rupy: What can we learn that's relatable from a modern day action man? Someone who's trained as a marine commando and sniper, who runs into active volcanoes, risks his life interviewing Mexican narcos, survived Ebola and broke the Guinness World Record for rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. Well, as it turns out, quite an incredible amount. Aldo Kane is my guest today, and he is an adventurer, explorer, a fellow at the Royal Geographic Society, a producer, author and TV presenter with a penchant for the world's most dangerous and extreme remote locations. Aldo was recently the onscreen expedition leader for National Geographic's latest flagship feature length natural history series called One Strange Rock, hosted by none other than Hollywood star Will Smith. And this saw Aldo lead a prominent American scientist deep into one of Africa's most dangerous volcanoes, whilst it was erupting. And the description of this in his book Lessons on the Edge is absolutely riveting. I highly recommend you listen to that bit. And over the last seven years, Aldo has worked on many groundbreaking and, as he describes them, fairly tasty TV shows. He's been held at gunpoint, charged by black rhino, abseiled into the active volcano multiple times, actually, escaped Ebola and dived on Captain Kidd's pirate ship. And that's just in the last couple of years. Aldo has appeared with other Hollywood A listers like Tom Hardy, Adrian Brody and Henry Cavill in some of the most extreme environments on earth. And today, we talk about so many themes. We talk about mental fitness, compartmentalising, something I still struggle to pronounce, flow states, consistency over skill as the secret to success, stoicism and grounding. And a bit of background, if you haven't seen him on one of his many TV shows, Aldo joined the Royal Marine Commandos at the age of just 16. And he went on to become one of the youngest elite commando reconnaissance snipers in the UK armed forces, which is no mean feat with the hardest and longest infantry training in the world. He also saw active military service from Northern Ireland to the Middle East and became a survival expert in many environments. And as you'll hear today, he's probably one of the humblest and nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of interviewing. He's calm, collected, jovial, chatty and altogether grounded, as I would describe it. I could have easily chatted to him for hours, but instead, I recommend you either read or listen to his book that he narrates himself, Lessons from the Edge, that you can find in all good bookstores. It's a fantastic book for Christmas and it is perfect escapism. Just a bit of warning, the language on today's episode is a little bit salty or tasty on this episode, so just take care if any kids are listening in. And remember, check out the doctorskitchen.com newsletter where I share weekly mindset tips, many of which Aldo puts into practice when he's in extreme environments, such as breathwork and reframing. Onto the pod. I've had you I've had you in my ears the whole week, right? And and it and throughout the week, it it kind of feels like I'm listening to like 10 different books in one, because you've had so many life experiences, so many different parts of the world that you've worked in, different elements of your life and stuff. And um, the one thing that kind of struck me is um, your you've been able to like uh curate this incredible life that by your own admission, is quite selfish because you can just do things around the world and stuff. And obviously your your priorities are changing now. But the one thing that that made me um, what it made me think about was this uh this quote from Naval Ravikant. I'm not too sure if you're aware of him. He's a he's a tech billionaire in um Silicon Valley. He's uh the founder of Angel list. And he's written this book, uh which is all about the guide to work and happiness. So it's it's geared towards people like in the tech industry and in people who work in office jobs. But he he there's this one thing, it's like, find work that feels like play. And and listening to your your experiences, it just sounds like you've nailed it. It sounds like you've found like the perfect balance that makes other people see what you do and think like, oh my god, I can never do that. But for you, it's like the most incredible way to live your life and it feels like you just wake up every single day and you're like, I'm smashing life. Is that is that fair to say?
Aldo Kane: Yeah, my my wife wouldn't agree with that sometimes. She thinks I’m a grumpy old git. But um, you you you mentioned it sort of when you, when you first um started there was curated and, you know, it's hard to say this without sounding arrogant, so that's not the way that I'm trying to come across. But what I'm trying to say is is that, um it's it's been planned. I have planned it that way. I uh discovered very early on that that life is incredibly fragile and brief. Even if we live to a hundred years, it's it's just such a flash in the pan, a speck of of it's it's almost like it doesn't matter. But yet for us, you know, that's such a long period of time, inverted commas. Um I think I sort of found out early on, um that that life was incredibly short, but it there was there was hacks to it. Um and and the hacks were, first of all, the biggest life hack that I, that I can probably try and communicate is the fact that you you can literally be, do, have whatever you want. Now that sounds ridiculous, but most people, in my experience of talking to them, don't really know what it is that they want. You know, we're so busy and maybe you do for a bit when you're at university because you have to choose what you want to go and study. And then you come out and then there's all of this decision again and all of these things to do. So I feel lucky that early on, I I found that passion. That passion for me was was adventure. Being outside, um and working with other like-minded people and testing myself physically, mentally and emotionally. And I think since I found that and discovered that everything that I've been doing has been with purpose. Um and and short periods of my life and time that I haven't had purpose has been the times that I've been the most sad and the most lost. Um and so so for me personally, that that purpose gives me the drive that pushes me to do all of these things that I do. And maybe that's the biggest thing. If if the why isn't big enough then then it's very hard to to get out of bed and smash the day.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, yeah. It sounds like you've had that drive from quite an an early part of your you know, your life. I mean, maybe we could talk a bit about your upbringing because it's it sounds to me that you had like real ambition as a kid. Like you saw that marine who came into the the cafe and you were like, that's exactly what I want to do. Like and that's you had that focus. Like what what did that come from your your parents or certain elements of your of your early life?
Aldo Kane: Um I'm not entirely sure looking back, you know, my I I kind of just always thought that it's normal and feel like it's normal and I joined the Marines at 16, um and and was then in in a unit of um let's say a thousand men who are all high achievers by default. So I found that it was kind of easy, it was a norm to be an overachiever in in certain respects, it was a norm to to just be continually pushing and driving. Um so I don't know, I'm not entirely sure whether that's nature or nurture on that fact. You know, maybe maybe the seeds were there from just the upbringing that I had being outside, being in the scouts. Kind of, I don't know that I kind of realised early on that everyone is just muddling through life. My my parents, I remember them sort of losing the plot at me and shouting and and me thinking that's bizarre, you know, I've just made them lose their temper and they're shouting at me. It doesn't affect me. I literally couldn't care if they screamed at my face or or hit me, which they didn't, but I didn't care because I knew it was a process. So I think it was maybe I don't know if that's a sort of enlightened way of thinking or or a stupid way of thinking, but it just kind of made everything very clear to me that if you want something, first of all, you have to know what it is that you want. And then you just work out what the steps are to get there. And and at that point, I suppose everything became crystal clear that you know, there was no there's no black magic, there's no sort of witchcraft in in any of it. It was just process and graft. You know what it is that you want to do and then you work to get it. Um and if you don't work hard enough to get that thing, then you obviously don't want it enough. It's not that important to you. So um I would say, yeah, a bit of nature and uh nurture.
Dr Rupy: Yeah. And you I mean, you give like talks to kids and you've had interactions with people uh you know at at various transitions of their their early life. A lot of people that I come across are confused about what they want. So if somebody was to ask you maybe they're a teen, you know, how do you get clarity? How how do you wait through the confusion of what what you really want to do and and instead of getting pulled into what other people are doing? What kind of advice do you give them?
Aldo Kane: Um it's it's difficult now for me to, you know, when I go into school, people want to be in into schools, people want to be influencers, they want to be social media um sort of gurus or they want to be a YouTube influencer. But but when you dig down into it and say, well, what are you going to what value are you going to add? You know, they they don't really know what they want to influence people about. So that is the clearest example is how can you have a massive following if you've got nothing to say? If you've got nothing good to say about the subject. So what I sort of tend to say to people at that point is work out what it is that interests you um or that you value or that is a big part of your life and then become an expert in that thing and everything else will follow. You know, when you find your passion, it's almost a cliche because it's it's been said for millennium, but people you know, more often than not get caught up in the everyday life of before you know it you're sort of strung down by mortgages and kids and the house and you haven't done all the things that you said you were going to do. When really it's it's about understanding what it is that motivates you as a person. Is it money that motivates you? Is it helping other people? Um and so for me personally, I feel like adding value to someone else's life is helpful and that's what pushes me and I've never looked for fame, I've never looked for riches. In fact, when I was chasing that in early days in in sort of like business and work, like I was A unhappy and B unsuccessful, you know, I didn't make any money doing it. And I I switch into what I'm passionate about and you know before you know it, there's there's opportunity everywhere. This sort of like the blinkers are off and and you can see these opportunities. But I would say in a nutshell, people, if they are lost, need to find the thing that they think interests them. And the funny thing that becomes apparent over years is that no matter how much you think money is important and a good motivator from the positive, it generally isn't. You know, and you only need to speak to bankers or people that are making lots and lots of money um more than you could imagine was feasible and and they're not happy with their life um or their lot. So I think it it goes back to a lot of a lot of the basics of what makes you as a person happy. And then we've got to remember that we live in an exponential age where you know, we've you know the kids that are coming out of school now having so much choice, so much you know, you can earn your money by doing a normal job or you could earn your money by doing something where you don't even need to leave your house or pyjamas and you can make more money than I've ever made or more money than my dad has ever made doing his job. Um and so there is so much choice now. Um but I guess it comes back down to what's important to you, what motivates you, um and I always think if you go out to do something to add value to the community that you're in or to the country or to the world, by default, you become successful.
Dr Rupy: I'm really interested in your opinion on this, right? Because you know, you're someone who's been to all corners of the world, you've rode across the ocean, you know, you you've gone through marine training, sniper training. And we're moving towards a meta world, right? So Facebook is rebranding to meta for example. A lot more of us are spending more time on our screens. We are essentially cyborgs as like Elon Musk has said because we always have a phone next to us and we have access to the information. It's going to be a very small amount of time before we are actually going to have devices inside us as well. And we're going to be spending less proportion of our time in real life having those genuine experiences. What do you think now that you have a child, okay? What what do you think about the next 10, 20 years and how do you feel if you do feel that you need to protect them from the downside of of excess conductivity?
Aldo Kane: I think it's I mean, this is super interesting. And it's something I don't get to talk about or think in depth enough about because when I speak to people on a podcast, they want to know about abseiling into a volcano, you know, like I don't know, being chased by a rhino or something. But you know what what is interesting is, you know, you travel to 100 odd countries, you see, you know, let's say I'm in the Amazon or I'm in Suriname and I'm paddling down the river that you know, that no one's ever paddled down before. And there's a a big blossom tree that's just come into blossom and the flowers are falling down, spiralling down the seeds into the river. You know, like that is something that is incredibly difficult to recreate, you know, being there. But having said that, you know, the age that we live in now, you said about Facebook talking about the metaverse. We already live in a connected digital world where you and I are in the pub, you know imagine 15 years ago, 20 years ago, you asked me a question, how far is it across the Atlantic? I'm like, no idea. Now I can go well, it's this far. You know, I could go to the toilet and be sneaky and and pull it up and then come back and you know like we have we have all of this information at our hands and at our fingertips. And I think it's incredibly incredibly exciting times. You know, and we live in the metaverse anyway, you know, my phone, I can jump into several different worlds in a second. You know, I can email, I can be in Instagram and I think when people talk about this sort of interconnectedness of the metaverse it's it's just the you know, it's web three, it's the interconnectedness, the internet of things. Everything is is just seamlessly linked. And and it's the same now. You know, I jump in my car, I've got um an electric Ford, jump in the car. I don't connect my phone, I don't have to go through all this stuff to make sure it's talking. And you know, my phone, the last tune that I was listening to comes up. It knows where my home is, it knows how I drive. And you know thinking, you know I was I was thinking uh we were away camping a couple of weeks ago and Atlas was sat he was in my van and he was sat in the front and he's like playing with the gear stick and he's and I was thinking he'll he'll probably never be taught to drive. And he'll not need to learn to drive because at some point very soon, there will be there will be is it stage five autonomous vehicles? either way, you know, he'll call a car, a car will come with no one in it. It'll pick him up and it'll take him somewhere else. And that'll be it. You know, he he won't need to drive. And you know and and in a way you think a lot of people that I speak to in my line of work think, it's shit, it's really bad, it's wrong, you know, everyone's going to you know turn into a lazy couch potatoes. But I wonder, I wonder, you know, does getting rid of all the things that that we need to do now, um does that give us more time to enjoy real environments to get outside. I'm not sure. And maybe maybe it's just everyone becomes a better or worse version of themselves already. And and and maybe the other side is, you know, I can't get to Val d'Isere skiing this week, but I can jump into the metaverse and have a morning of it and then still be in the office in London on in the afternoon. I don't know what happens when it starts becoming better than real life. That's probably That's that's the the scary bit I think. If it becomes better than real life, because right now I I guess, you know, there is a degree of separation. Like the fact that we're having a conversation through some pretty good high definition screens is is great, but it can't compare to if you were right in front of me and we were like chatting over coffee or a pint or whatever. Um you know, but when it becomes as good or better, that's where it's like, oh okay, that that's where it becomes a bit scary. I mean,
Aldo Kane: It's it's already happening. So there is technology now that we can zoom but we can be in the same room and it's you know, it's in early stages, but it's almost as good as being in the room with you. You know, I can see round you in three dimension, you can see me and then you know and and maybe, you know, maybe the pandemic already showed that is that people either don't want to or don't have to be in city hubs. Um you know, we can we can move out to the country and you know, maybe we get a surf in the morning, then we're in the meeting in London. It's not time travel, but it's as good as it's going to get. You know, you you can be surfing in the morning and actually sat in what feels like a real office in London, New York, somewhere else by the afternoon and then you can be back out walking the dog along the beach, you know, that night. I maybe it's just got to do with how people already see life now and what they make use of in their life already.
Dr Rupy: I'm I'm an eternal optimist about this kind of stuff, right? So I see the positive. So yeah, I think you even mentioned it in your book where you've become more of a conservationist uh throughout your travels because you want to protect everything you've seen and you you live in a bit of a, you know, you got two opinions about talking about this stuff in a book versus encouraging people to go out and jump on planes and go and see it for themselves, because you want to, you know, try and so if we can have experiences where you're the one jumping down a volcano, you're the one like swimming down the Amazon river and I can experience that and then still have a rich experience of going for a walk through hills close to home in the UK and having that, you know, connection with nature, then that's kind of like the best of both worlds. And and also from a from a living perspective, you know, it means that I don't have to be cooped up in the middle of London breathing all the uh the uh polluted air. I could live further outside and still attend meetings or still, you know, practice medicine remotely.
Aldo Kane: Yeah, exactly. and I you know, yeah, I I think I'm the same and in a way it's it's you know whether it's positive or negative, you you kind of as a human, we can't change the path of the adventurous path of, you know, exponential growth and continually um exploring. You know, we you know we did it with countries and then we're doing it with space and then we're doing it with planets. Um yeah, I yeah, it's it's interesting. I haven't fully got my my head around it yet. I feel positive in that respect. Um and you know, it seems like, you know, we sort of came from, you know, a hunter gatherer age and then we, we then work out how to grow um and farm crops and animals, um sort of agricultural, then we went into industrial and it seems like the next stage that we're pushing into is, you know, information and and you know, I guess being being a fully connected um world and yeah, you know, going back to your question with Atlas, I'm excited, but I, you know, I'm also, I would like to instil in him that he can still get out and see these places. But you know, like you say with with with encouraging people to travel is is going against, you know, this sort of what's happening with the planet, air travel, um and and yeah, all of these things that end up being digitised in the metaverse and in these worlds have to someone still has to have that in their head. Like is it Pixar with Up? And you you see them on top of Angel Falls. you know, and and it it looks like what it was like up there. And that you know, they had to be people to go and see that and to have it in their head and then to to film it. Yeah, yeah. It's so that's super exciting. I I think you know we're in a unique situation where we can, we haven't grown up with uh with devices throughout our I mean you're six about six years older than me, so when I went to school I didn't get my first mobile phone until I was like 14 or 15. You didn't have mobile phones through your your schooling. So you've developed uh almost like the in real life skills to be able to deal with technology in an appropriate way. Whereas I think right now we're what we're seeing with children is you know, they they've they've always had screens in front of them. And I and I think one of the things that that spoke to me in your book is you have this unique ability to visualise and picture yourself and almost compartmentalise as well. And and I wonder if that was through your marine training because I think that will serve people in the future when we have to deal with multiple um devices that are grabbing our attention. Is is that something that you you developed during your your training or is that something you've always had?
Aldo Kane: Compartmentalising a situation and and dealing with, you know, being being calm in chaos, finding comfort in chaos is is you know it's it's not taught in a lesson in the Marines per se. They don't say we're going to teach you uh you know comfort and chaos today, you know, it's not that but what they do is they train you so much, you know, train hard, fight easy. They train you so much that when a situation unfolds wherever it is in the world, you're not only ready, but you're ready for the curveball. And I think that's you know that's what that compartmentalising does is that um it allows you breathing space. You know, when when the proverbial does hit the fan, it's you know a lot of people just get bogged down into, I mean you know a lot of people in any situation that that might not even be life threatening will be straight into a a sort of denial phase and then deliberate, what do we do now? Don't do anything. Stumble around, not make decisions, and then eventually get to decision making. Whereas, you know, in in the Marines in the military and certainly in the expedition life that I lead, you can you can, another life hack is you just make a decision straight away. you know, think about all of the options you've got, make a decision. And and by doing that, you're compartmentalising that situation, um and and you're dealing with it. So even if that is out of your control, let's say a situation that you get thrown into, bang, Tuesday morning, there you go, you're in this situation. You didn't choose it, it's not of you're doing, but you do have the option as to A how you act and B how you think. Um and you know, the the denial phase in a trauma situation or the denial phase in a um a situation that's I don't know that could be happening on the tube for example or deliberating. All of this is just using up valuable time. And so so for me it's much more about and this is true in any life situation, it doesn't need to be extreme, is to just gather the facts, deal with facts. Try and remove it's an important part emotion, but try and understand where that's coming from. Then remove it, deal with facts, often write it down and then make a decision. And and more often than not, I find I'm not a psychologist, but I find that is directly transferable from, you know, having to come up with a a quick fix in the jungle to a situation that could potentially unravel and and someone ends up dead. You know, that's you know the the same process is available in everyday life to everyone about things that are keeping them awake at night, financial issues, family issues, relationships. And a lot of it, I think you find is that you end up being hemmed in by your own imagination or by you know, even worse than your own opinion is someone else's opinion. Um so yeah, that compartmentalising a situation and dealing with the fact in that situation, um and then making a decision is is quite it's a liberating process and it you know it allows you to move on regardless of whether that decision was right or wrong. If it was the wrong decision, it opens other doors and other opportunities. Um but I always feel that gives you control of that situation that that you're in.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I I'll be honest in the spirit of vulnerability, I really struggle with this and I'm someone who has meditated most of their life, right? So I was taught how to meditate when I was a teenager before my GCSEs. my parents taught me that. I meditate before I go to clinic and stuff. I do meditations in the morning. During my 10 minutes of meditation every day, which is kind of a formalised process, I'm not too sure if you do something that's formal as that, but I get tons of thoughts in my head. I struggle really hard to to really uh focus my thoughts on even just deep breathing. And there's there's a bit of the the start of the book as well as later on in the book where you're in the middle of your um sniper recce I think in Iraq and you go into what sounds and and is described like a flow state. Is that something you can can still do now? Is that something that is is something something that you formally practice or something that just comes quite naturally to you?
Aldo Kane: Um I would say that it's it's not natural. Um I've never, you know, I've I've as much as I love to the thought of sitting with the sun rising and and just being like in a state of zen and you know like doing yoga and breathing and you know, it's it's never been formal like that for me as much as I would love that to be. You know, I've just never been taught. But for me, the the sniping part of my early life, it wasn't ever about pulling a trigger or or doing anything violent, which is strange. It was much more about being able to connect with the environment that I'm in. Um and it sounds really cheeseball but being at one in that environment, understanding that I can move from A to B and be completely self-sufficient and no one will see me, jungle, desert, arctic, mountains, wherever that is. That supreme confidence of being able to to move and operate in those situations and by default, one the confidence and two the ability or the necessity to control fear. You know, you don't we don't not feel it, but the ability to control fear, internal voices, nagging voices in your head, all of these things that we all suffer from, it's it's just a much um you know, the the shooting part of like if you're on the range and you're doing shooting practice, you kind of you've got two or three things which are incredibly important right at that very space in time in your life to make that shot hit the target, the bullseye. Um everything else is noise. So it's it's focus. Um you know, I'm I'm not very good at multitasking. I can do five or six things at once and not all of them will be done very well. Um but when you focus on one specific task, it's it is amazing what you can achieve just by focusing on one thing or two things and doing them to the best of your ability. And I suppose that is, you know, that is a state of flow when you come, you know, when you're breathing and and actually if you, I think if you bring break um all states of meditation and and states of flow back to the basics, it's breath work and and, you know I don't formally practice it, but because I free dive and because, you know, by free diving by definition, you need to A remain calm and and B, be, you know, you're under the water, there's physiological changes happening to your body, you become in a very natural state of of chill. But I also get the same from running and I get the same from exercising. So if you know if I'm being a pain in the backside, my wife will tell me to go for a run. Or like yesterday I had um a big big corporate talk to do last night and I just the whole morning just couldn't concentrate on anything. So I just did a very long run and in the run, I had broken everything down that I needed to be doing in the evening into these chunks that all just becomes clear and that is that state of flow, is that state of focus for me and that's probably my my meditation.
Dr Rupy: Definitely. Cause I think most people's idea of sniper training is quite different from your description of it. I I'll be honest, my idea of sniper training was like all about the gear and the gadgets and you know the the the scope and all that kind of stuff. But your description of it made so much sense. Um can you give us a window into to how how a sniper would operate?
Aldo Kane: I mean, if you speak to any kid or up to up to the age of probably 25, they're going to know more about sniper rifles, technology than than me because they play Call of Duty, right? So I remember I I did a talk at Manchester United um a while ago and you know that was that was the hook that got them interested in listening to me talking was the fact that they played Call of Duty and I was a sniper. Um but yeah, you know you it you can spend a lot of time digging into the tech and ballistics and the weapons and the sight systems. But all of that doesn't matter if you one can't move from A to B, you know, on your own, unsupported, without being seen when people are looking for you. You know, that is fundamental basics, camouflage and concealment. That is the basics of understanding the environment that you're moving through to the, you know, to the absolute micro detail of when I'm looking at that branch, you know, the top side of of leaves are usually shiny and the underside are dull and and I can see dull and it's on the top. So I'm, you know, it's it's about seeing and understanding the environment, talking about ground sign, all of these basics. Why have the birds stopped? Most people in lockdown became aware of bird chorus. Yeah, I remember that, yeah. But but because it's it's a a primary precursor to my day starting in the jungle is chorus or my day ending in the jungle is the um the evening chorus. Um you know, I'm very aware of these things and you know, they're always there, these signs, these cues are always there but it's about reading them. So so for me, being a sniper was much more about the the mental state. So one I need to be reliant on myself, I need supreme confidence in my abilities but without the ego because the ego will get you killed. Um I need to understand um each and every single environment and the nuances of that environment. Um and so it's much more about that than, you know the the technical. Anyone really, it could be argued, could be taught on a range with a very high powered rifle and all the right bits of kit could be taught how to shoot and get you know the bullet onto the target most people. Not the same majority of people could be taught over a week or two weeks how to actually stalk to map read, to to understand air photography. You know, so like all of the other bits and pieces. Um so it's much it was much more about that to me than than the tech.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, I guess there's a parallel with marine training in general, right? Because I think most people will look at the hard feats, like the the marching, the climbing, the early starts and all that kind of stuff. But it's it it it sounds like it's a lot more about the mental toughness as much as it is the physical toughness, which is why it's so hard to complete that training and it almost sounds like it's a physical manifestation of training in stoicism. And you you mentioned you you started reading a lot about stoics um did that help you through that that process?
Aldo Kane: I think, you know, the reading that I have done of of stoics and stoicism has been more of a ah, that's what I am, that's how I am. Um it it hasn't like I haven't read it and used it as a textbook to say, right, I need to practice this more. You know, I've got shelves of books up there that I have read of things like meditation and I think I'm going to do that and I'm going to do that. But with the um stoicism, it it it was more like a, ah that's I understand that because that's the way I am. Um and I don't know whether being a soldier makes you like that or not. Um but I find that that I use a mix of it. You know, I'm I'm not far from it, a military machine of, you know, physically fit, you know, unbreakable, um and and 110% dialled mentally resilient. You know, that's that's not the case and actually it's not the case for for almost everyone that I know that that have been elite or special forces. Um it's very opposite to what someone who sat at home playing Call of Duty thinks a soldier is. You know, there's there's a a big sort of paradox there, I guess. Um but yeah, you know, that that I guess it is stoicism, but you know, there's a lot of buzz words that get thrown around now like resilience and mental fitness and all of these things are are, you know, they're all practisable if you understand A the benefits of them and and also to understand what the opposite number of that is as well because you know by building the walls to keep the world out does exactly that. You know it keeps good and bad out. Um so so it's everything's a a balancing act, I think.
Dr Rupy: Yeah. I think a lot of people came to stoicism over the last couple of years because of the scenarios that we found ourselves in. So where we couldn't change our external uh environment, but we could change our internal state. Um and I mean I I've been reading stoics uh for the last few years and meditations is one of my favourite books. I kind of listen to it every now and then, just like 20 minutes and I like and I have that same sort of thought process of like ah, that's that's uh what how I should uh process this information or how I should process this uh a situation I find myself in. Um whereas I guess one pushback is a lot of people might find it quite hard to practice. It's like, oh it's good for you because you've had that experience. So how do you bring that relation to people perhaps you know who you're doing a corporate talk with or kids in school? Like how do you how do you make it a lot more relatable to them?
Aldo Kane: Yeah it's I I suppose that that you know, it's a huge subject but an example might be if you ask someone, you know, have you ever had road rage? screamed at someone, lost your temper, um which you know, most people have at some point or something's happened. You know and you got really angry and you lost your temper and then you look back on it a week later, a year later and you you're just mortified that that you've done that. That is an example of, you know, being able to in the moment think in the future I'm going to I'm going to hate the fact that I've you know done this so just breathe. And actually we go back to breathing. Everything can be sorted by breathing and and distance. You know, time, time is probably the biggest thing. You know, that there is the I mean there's been some fairly horrendous things done on planet earth and over a very short space of time, one generation, two generations, it it's almost forgotten. So so if we can if that can happen around the world with with horrendous big things, you know, we can in our everyday life, we can take a step, we can pause, we can give it a bit of time and space, um and then and then not react. But it's, you know, stoicism is one of those things as well that it doesn't help. Again, using my wife as an example, it doesn't help to be stoney cold and and say, well, this doesn't affect me because I'm stoic. Um and I'm sure, I'm sure back in the day, 2000 years ago, Marcus Aurelius would have been affected and lost his temper by certain things. Um and so it's it's I think it's a a balance, um and it's about I think it's probably about teaching, if I was trying to explain it to kids, would be about effectively you have control over your thoughts and your actions. You know, you can't say that someone forced you to do something really, um and to take ownership of it.
Dr Rupy: Yeah. I and I think you know, we run the risk of sounding puritanical on this. So I'm glad that you know, you're uh you talk about how your wife still uh thinks you're a git sometimes and tells you to go and run because you know, it's it's always like a work in progress. Like I I always, I still have discussions with my partner where she's like, no, you just you just need to hear me uh feel angry rather than try and provide a solution the whole time or try and tell me that I should be thinking in this way. And like, I get it. Sometimes you just need to like catch yourself. I'm like okay, we're not you know, machines here. We are humans with emotions and it's all a work in progress.
Aldo Kane: My wife would definitely agree with that. Um I mean it's it's helpful, it's helpful to a point. But then sometimes you know showing your emotion and vulnerability and, you know actually more often than not like yesterday, you know worrying about doing a talk, you know it comes across in the way that I am and what I'm doing and what I'm saying and and you know that's exactly Anna would be the first person that says go for a run, go and clear your head, do something.
Dr Rupy: Yeah. And I guess like, you know, particularly for someone like yourself, um people see the trophies of experiences that you've you've had right up to this point. They just see the highlight reel, but they don't really understand the graft, the the constant uh uh pushing, you know, the chicken dance that you had to do when you were an energy sales people. No one sees that, you know, as a foundation to everything that you're pushing yourself to do now, right?
Aldo Kane: Yeah it's I mean it's social media, you know, we we all get a glimpse into this, you know, this world and you put up the best bits and it's edited and you know even even writing a book really is is edited um you know to to a certain point you're getting the story out there um from your point of view. And it's you know if someone else was to write the book about you who knew you well, would it be the same, would it be different? I don't know. But um, yeah it's, you know, it it's taken a long time to get to where I am now. And I certainly would never say that, you know, I'm at the peak of what I'm doing because I feel like if you're at that point then you're on the way down. Um so so for me fundamentally my job now is is looking after television and film crews in extreme remote hostile places from a technical level. So I can get a film crew into the canopy of the jungle to film um a sort of a primate sequence or I can um or I can uh get a film crew into a war zone or into um I don't know sort of like narco territory and and to do interviews there. Um or you know it can be environmental mountains or it can be chasing down drug traffickers or or tiger traffickers in an investigation. So so really, you know what what I'm doing is is the I wouldn't say combination, but it's it's like it's years of all of these different experiences and what I'm doing now is different to four years ago, different to eight years ago, and different to four years in the future. But for me personally, I've always just flexed and when this when this stops or if it stops for whatever reason, then I then I'll just, you know, I'll just bail into another direction and find something else within my bounds of the passion that that drives me, I I will look for another opportunity um if that makes sense.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, yeah no no it definitely does. And you know, for someone who's who's read the book and and listened to it as well, uh it definitely makes sense because it it feels like you've built on your experiences on this foundation that has kept you grounded. Um on on the subject of things that keep you grounded actually, apart from your wife, it sounds like hoovering does as well. What tell me a bit about the hoovering obsession.
Aldo Kane: I mean like the the old adage in the Marines is is join the Marines, clean the world and you know you you you would go somewhere to do an exercise or something and the accommodation you would move into the first thing you would do is clean it. So I would say not every marine is the same as me, but I would venture to suggest that the majority of them are are quite OCD and cleanly. Um so but I don't know it's just like you know when I let's say I was over in Columbia doing narco work with Foxy and I come back, you know like the first thing I do is top to toe the house, you know like hoover it. You know and that you know that is grounded like I don't have cleaners doing all my stuff like one because I know that they're not going to do as good a job as me. Um and and two that's what I do to decompress. You know I come back and and you know and it's it's just a whirlwind for two days of me decompressing and doing all the things where I'm like I'm going to clean the house, I'm going to hoover, I'm going to do that and and actually what that is is is me decompressing from the trip. You know it's it's, you know it's probably very classical if if a psychologist was to look at it of coming back from an intense situation to normality and and also a way of sort of tempering, you know let's say you're you're living in the jungle sort of in a hammock and you're travelling every day and it's it's easy like that is easy and then you then come back to everyday life where, you know you have the big shop and you know you got to like where am I filling up the car, we're going to see this person next week. You know like all the normal life stuff is is hard. And I get to see that when I'm when I'm away because when you're on expedition you have like basics, food, water, shelter, like old school, old school what what humans really just had to worry about. Um and then maybe security, protection, you know if you're, you know, from dinosaurs or from whatever. Yeah, from narcos. Um so so that's like really easy. Some people will think that that's hard, you know, you're on expedition and it's but actually it's as easy as life gets because you have only got to eat, drink and sleep like. you know you're doing lots of hard things but you know that's the basics. Whereas you come back and in a way you can see why people are so bound by anxiety and fraught because everyday life is just hectic. Um and anyway so so when I come back from these trips, you know then I go into my sort of couple of days of decompression like doing the house. Anna now knows that it's not because she hasn't been tidying when I've been away. She just she just knows it's what I do to get my head in order.
Dr Rupy: That's such an interesting insight. Honestly, I've had like a revelation there because the fact that you describe what most people's lives are as hard compared to the kind of stuff that you do when you're on shoots or or travelling or doing expeditions, that's the easy side of things. Like that that's completely different to how I would think about it and most people I guess.
Aldo Kane: Well that's I mean expeditions, so I wasn't saying that expeditions are easy but of course not. But but but they are so let's say the expedition is hard hard physically, right? As a human being, hard physical graft is kind of what our heritage is up to a very recent point in time where we didn't need to run after things, we didn't need to um you know survival, we didn't we didn't, you know, we we are internally comfortable. You know when was the last time someone was so cold or so warm or so wet, you know that they just had to ride it out for 12 hours and think, well, tomorrow the sun will come up so I'll be fine. Whereas, you know our our lives now are hectic, you know they are utterly hectic and I get the fear like two or three days before coming back from a trip I get the fear because I'm like, I've been off comms now for, in fact I was just up in the arctic circle doing a a job, um and we were diving under the ice sort of um on the sea ice. Um and we were up there for two months and had no comms, uh no no comms at all, no WhatsApp, no social media, nothing. And then in the last like two or three days when the ship's starting to move back down you start getting sporadic bits of comms and you get your emails and that's when the that's when the sort of like anxiety starts to kick in again because you're like oh god, I've got to do that, I've got to do that. Then you're into everyday life of, you know one kid, I've only got one kid now and I'm just you know I'm like how do people do it with three, four, five kids? Football training, climbing club, weekend stuff, family, friends, money worries, no job, you know two many jobs. It's just like, I mean it's hectic. So I have this like decompression after a trip and regardless of how hard it is physically, um you know I'm I'm doing the basics of food, water, shelter, hard graft, and then come back into this maelstrom of information of hecticness where it's yeah, it's funny.
Dr Rupy: That is yeah that's so funny. I wouldn't have I wouldn't have thought about that. It sounds like you've got your like your routine of decompressing. I mean what I mean you mentioned at the start that Anna does a lot of the work obviously for for uh Atlas. Um what what are your coping mechanisms for regular life then? I didn't think I was going to ask you this question but how do you cope given that you know you got to go and see that person, do the shopping, all that kind of stuff?
Aldo Kane: I think you, I'm I'm not an expert at it by by far and Anna will you know and I will definitely say that I can be a complete ass. Um I I think it it's coping is is about again doing the things that matter. You know like not getting caught up in all the other bullocks that's going on because the majority of stuff actually is just noise. Like I don't I don't sit down at night and watch television, you know because it's I'm I'm almost too busy up to the point where I'm kind of like is that the time it's like 11 o'clock and and I'm going to bed and I've got 10% of what I had on my list to do for that day. So um I I think A coping mechanism is is just to get rid of the noise. Um we we take actually both of us, we take on a lot of things. You know like we're active, we know we're every weekend almost is something on or we're doing something. And we could say no to a lot of that, but that's the stuff that makes us us. It's going away surfing for the weekend or climbing or up to Scotland, um on a on a whim. You know like the night before we'll decide that we're going to go and climb Ben Nevis or you know from Bristol. Um so so that that can feel hectic but also I would imagine getting to 60 and you know being caught up in just not making these decisions and not making these plans, you would still be as equally busy. They just wouldn't be your plans. In fact, it's like almost like if you don't have a plan, you'll become part of someone else's. That's that's probably probably what I mean.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, yeah definitely. I mean I I'd be honest, in the spirit of vulnerability, I really struggle with this and I'm someone who has meditated most of their life, right? So I was taught how to meditate when I was a teenager before my GCSEs. my parents taught me that. I meditate before I go to clinic and stuff. I do meditations in the morning. During my 10 minutes of meditation every day, which is kind of a formalised process, I'm not too sure if you do something that's formal as that, but I get tons of thoughts in my head. I struggle really hard to to really uh focus my thoughts on even just deep breathing. And there's there's a bit of the the start of the book as well as later on in the book where you're in the middle of your um sniper recce I think in Iraq and you go into what sounds and and is described like a flow state. Is that something you can can still do now? Is that something that is is something something that you formally practice or something that just comes quite naturally to you?
Aldo Kane: I've always just flexed and when this when this stops or if it stops for whatever reason, then I then I'll just, you know, I'll just bail into another direction and find something else within my bounds of the passion that that drives me, I I will look for another opportunity um if that makes sense.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, yeah no no it definitely does. And you know, for someone who's who's read the book and and listened to it as well, uh it definitely makes sense because it it feels like you've built on your experiences on this foundation that has kept you grounded. Um on on the subject of things that keep you grounded actually, apart from your wife, it sounds like hoovering does as well. What tell me a bit about the hoovering obsession.
Aldo Kane: I mean like the the old adage in the Marines is is join the Marines, clean the world and you know you you you would go somewhere to do an exercise or something and the accommodation you would move into the first thing you would do is clean it. So I would say not every marine is the same as me, but I would venture to suggest that the majority of them are are quite OCD and cleanly. Um so but I don't know it's just like you know when I let's say I was over in Columbia doing narco work with Foxy and I come back, you know like the first thing I do is top to toe the house, you know like hoover it. You know and that you know that is grounded like I don't have cleaners doing all my stuff like one because I know that they're not going to do as good a job as me. Um and and two that's what I do to decompress. You know I come back and and you know and it's it's just a whirlwind for two days of me decompressing and doing all the things where I'm like I'm going to clean the house, I'm going to hoover, I'm going to do that and and actually what that is is is me decompressing from the trip. You know it's it's, you know it's probably very classical if if a psychologist was to look at it of coming back from an intense situation to normality and and also a way of sort of tempering, you know let's say you're you're living in the jungle sort of in a hammock and you're travelling every day and it's it's easy like that is easy and then you then come back to everyday life where, you know you have the big shop and you know you got to like where am I filling up the car, we're going to see this person next week. You know like all the normal life stuff is is hard. And I get to see that when I'm when I'm away because when you're on expedition you have like basics, food, water, shelter, like old school, old school what what humans really just had to worry about. Um and then maybe security, protection, you know if you're, you know, from dinosaurs or from whatever. Yeah, from narcos. Um so so that's like really easy. Some people will think that that's hard, you know, you're on expedition and it's but actually it's as easy as life gets because you have only got to eat, drink and sleep like. you know you're doing lots of hard things but you know that's the basics. Whereas you come back and in a way you can see why people are so bound by anxiety and fraught because everyday life is just hectic. Um and anyway so so when I come back from these trips, you know then I go into my sort of couple of days of decompression like doing the house. Anna now knows that it's not because she hasn't been tidying when I've been away. She just she just knows it's what I do to get my head in order.
Dr Rupy: That's such an interesting insight. Honestly, I've had like a revelation there because the fact that you describe what most people's lives are as hard compared to the kind of stuff that you do when you're on shoots or or travelling or doing expeditions, that's the easy side of things. Like that that's completely different to how I would think about it and most people I guess.
Aldo Kane: I think you, I'm I'm not an expert at it by by far and Anna will you know and I will definitely say that I can be a complete ass. Um I I think it it's coping is is about again doing the things that matter. You know like not getting caught up in all the other bullocks that's going on because the majority of stuff actually is just noise. Like I don't I don't sit down at night and watch television, you know because it's I'm I'm almost too busy up to the point where I'm kind of like is that the time it's like 11 o'clock and and I'm going to bed and I've got 10% of what I had on my list to do for that day. So um I I think A coping mechanism is is just to get rid of the noise. Um we we take actually both of us, we take on a lot of things. You know like we're active, we know we're every weekend almost is something on or we're doing something. And we could say no to a lot of that, but that's the stuff that makes us us. It's going away surfing for the weekend or climbing or up to Scotland, um on a on a whim. You know like the night before we'll decide that we're going to go and climb Ben Nevis or you know from Bristol. Um so so that that can feel hectic but also I would imagine getting to 60 and you know being caught up in just not making these decisions and not making these plans, you would still be as equally busy. They just wouldn't be your plans. In fact, it's like almost like if you don't have a plan, you'll become part of someone else's. That's that's probably probably what I mean.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, yeah definitely. I mean I I'd be honest, in the spirit of vulnerability, I really struggle with this and I'm someone who has meditated most of their life, right? So I was taught how to meditate when I was a teenager before my GCSEs. my parents taught me that. I meditate before I go to clinic and stuff. I do meditations in the morning. During my 10 minutes of meditation every day, which is kind of a formalised process, I'm not too sure if you do something that's formal as that, but I get tons of thoughts in my head. I struggle really hard to to really uh focus my thoughts on even just deep breathing. And there's there's a bit of the the start of the book as well as later on in the book where you're in the middle of your um sniper recce I think in Iraq and you go into what sounds and and is described like a flow state. Is that something you can can still do now? Is that something that is is something something that you formally practice or something that just comes quite naturally to you?
Aldo Kane: So the um it was um it was a BBC Horizon um experiment called Body Clock and it was it was really a sort of deep dive into I was just a guinea pig um but it was it was just a a deep dive into sleep. You know, they I didn't realise this. Um you know because I I train fairly hard during the day and I'm knackered by the time I go to bed so I sleep all the way through until Atlas came. Um and and I didn't realise you know sleep was this the thing that that people really really struggle with and I know from from years of expedition work and being in the military that sleep deprivation is a killer. Um not only shortening your your life really if you're doing it a lot. Um but you know it just makes decision making really bad, bad life choices, um bad health choices. Like it it's just not good for you. You know I know that bit so much from from but I thought that was you know it came with the territory of the job. And um anyway it was a horizon experiment on uh sleep deprivation, um circadian rhythm and they wanted to see that if if you put someone in the dark um for 10 days what what happens to their sleep pattern. Um and no reference to time, no technology, nothing. So it was supposed to be a cave um which would have been I would have preferred that because it would have been harder. Um but the the the the cave had um the cave had radon gas or something in there. It would have been a disaster for me if I'd spent 10 days in there. So we we we moved it to um a nuclear bunker. So nuclear bunker, one story above the ground, three or four down underneath. Um so I I kind of get walked down there. There's there's a soundproof booth room um down there that's enough to get a single bed in. Um I get walked down, let's say on Monday morning. Um and then they sort of it's all rigged up in cameras and then then they the film crew head outside and lock the doors and that's it. I'm in there for 10 days on my own. So no laptops, no phones, no watch, zero um you know reference to time. And obviously you can't then see the daylight um anyway. Um and so at that point I I kind of realised that I needed to have structure to my I was going to say day, but you can't call it a day because you, it's a a wake cycle or a sleep cycle which is then what I called it. So I drew 10 squares on the wall and each one of those was going to be my day or my wake cycle and then I'd sort of write in there like exercise. Obviously I don't have time, so I'll be like exercise for an hour.
Dr Rupy: Did you did you have like a torch or like a light when you were in there?
Aldo Kane: Yeah, yeah so the the the room had like 10 watt bulbs in it or something so you you're very low light but that was to allow the cameras to work so that obviously you could see it. Um so on the film it looks kind of like it's quite bright but you you know you have to put a head torch on if you wanted to read something. Um so it's and after a while anyway, I found it very difficult to read because I you know like my mind was just unravelled and all over the place. So I you know I would read the same paragraph over and over again. And I know you know people go on retreats where they don't talk um or you know and and they go on a retreat where where they meditate for 10 days or longer. But for what I tell there's there's not a lot of people that go into solitary confinement. Um you know because if if you're seeing other things, though, let's say you're on a no talking retreat for 10 days but you're outside an environment, you know I could I could do that for indefinitely. Um but when you're in in a square box and there's no stimulation so visually from your environment that then becomes quite different. Um and so I, you know the the thought process behind it when they asked me if I would do it was that sure, like I haven't, I couldn't remember the last time that really I I'd been completely off comms from everything. And was heading over to Brazil to do a sort of illegal logging film um in the Amazon there and so so she was away and so I wouldn't have had comms with her anyway and and I was like, right fine, you know we'll we'll do it. Um and yeah it was it was everything that I expected it to be and and and also everything that I didn't expect it to be just sort of like mentally and emotionally and didn't realise that I was such a a people person and needed, you know I'm very, I've always been very good at operating on my own. You know, as a sniper with confidence in my own ability. I don't need other people to work with for the last 15 years or so I've I've been self-employed doing what I do so I spend a lot of time on my own at home. But but to be you know but I obviously interact with people as much as I can when I can. And to have that taken away was was very strange. And this was all before lockdown. So this was three years ago I did this.
Dr Rupy: Right, yeah yeah. I mean what I mean what did you learn about mental fitness and mental nourishment from that experience because it sounds like torture. It is a form of torture I think. Um what what did what what kind of things have you done since that experiment um that that taught you uh everything?
Aldo Kane: So the um it is used solitary confinement um is is you know proven to cause um mental stress and and long lasting um mental illness. Um in prisoners. So so most prisoners that have been in solitary confinement, I can't remember the stats, um have have mental illness from it. because as a human, we you know, we're almost programmed to, this is this is my take on it, we're programmed to interact with people. We always have been, we're social social animals. Um but I the main takeout that I took away from it was one, I can deal with it. I knew I was getting out in 10 days. I knew that I could deal with it and and I didn't unravel too much by the end of it so I was I was happy with with that respect. Um but the big things that I took away from it were that I didn't, I didn't have a a queue on because I'd always just done them, was that without exercising properly daily, without that routine that exercise formed a sort of cornerstones of, without being outside and I don't mean just like sat in a room looking outside, but I mean outside feeling the wind in my face, you know smelling the air, whatever that type of air is. The the stuff that I had been so used to over the years of being on expedition and being a sniper and always just being connected to the environment, you know noticing when the leaves are turning, you know noticing buds on trees after the winter that you know that we're just about to pop into spring, literally pop like noticing these things, you know having that taken away being outside and then interacting with people. So those three things, exercising, being outside and interacting with people, um seem to be the foundation blocks of good mental health and by taking one or all of those away, um it it was it was amazing how how blue I started to feel and it made me then think you know how how many people are dealing with anxiety, mental health issues that aren't necessarily giving themselves the best foundation or the best start to then build everything else on top of. Um and I guess it kind of, you know fast forward a year and a half, um we we get thrown as a as a world into a lockdown situation where people now no longer can have the life they used to have. Um you know they're not interacting with people in the same way they were. They took maybe being outside for granted and and exercising. But then there's a lot of people who don't do any of those things, you know and then started to think about, you know my gran, um who who died 10, 12 years ago, but she in the latter years of her life sat in a flat in Glasgow, didn't see anyone, smoked 40 fags a day. Um you know so so in a way also lonely, also not exercising, also not getting outside, also not interacting with people. Um and so I mean these these are probably very basic a basic understanding of it and not being a psychologist, you know it it, you know on a personal level, those are the things that seem to matter for my mental health. And just you know I dealt with it in a 10 day period because I I had a flight that night to Greenland to do an expedition. I knew it. I went from I went from 10 days in in a nuclear bunker in the dark on my own to flying to Greenland on the on the last night for an expedition with Steve Backshall into 24 hour daylight for the next five weeks on this expedition. But um yeah, I you know it seems like, you know from a layman's point of view, as a guinea pig that that if I didn't know that I was getting out on day 10, I I think I would have unravelled in half the time that that it would have taken me, you know to get to that 10 days. Maybe three or four days I I would have found it incredibly difficult. Do you remember do you remember the the moment that you left that bunker? Like what what was that like when you you went out and you saw like, you know, grass and trees and people and
Aldo Kane: It it was was one of the most like amazing experiences that that I've had because in lots of ways from a from a what I was seeing, feeling and smelling at that time, but also from knowing that I'm in this environment the whole time. I I I'm lucky in a way that with my job, you know I get that. You know when you go into a cave system for example for five, six days in Venezuela, when you start coming, so you're in the dark the whole time but you're doing stuff, you know, you're exploring. When you come back out, you start to smell like the rotten vegetation. You get that in caves. I was in a cave last week in um in near Bristol. And uh when you come out, you can smell the rotten vegetation, you know all the stuff that we are fairly used to smelling here. But when I got out of the bunker, I like because I've been in lots of caves, I knew that you know I would I would see all my senses would would come alive. So I was I was like geeing myself up to remember it and I can just honestly, it's like the matrix, you know because it was a damp cell effectively that I was in in the the dark. And I just came out and it was almost like you could, you know you could smell these, you know I could smell individual plants and trees. It was in Devon, so it's beautiful and it was in the middle of summer. Um the wind, the warm wind on my face, just everything being in like glorious technicolor. Um you know like as if someone had gone on Snapseed and turned the saturation up. Um and and you know for the for the short amount of time, I only had about an hour and 20 minutes to finish off the interview, um do a bit of science monitoring and then I was on the train and taxi heading back to London to go to um Greenland that night. Um but that bit of time was like utterly amazing. But it's also in a strange way looking back even just because of this conversation, we can have that every day. You can go and go to a local forest or the park and then just be, close your eyes for five seconds and open them and be like wow. Um which yeah, enlightened maybe.
Dr Rupy: Isn't it it isn't it incredible that we forget just how amazing just every second, every moment is and it takes that bunker experience to bring that to full life. But you can practice that every single day by just reminding yourself just how incredible each moment is.
Aldo Kane: And you know lockdown proved that where people started to notice the nature and their garden, people slowed down. You know the the dawn chorus, the evening chorus, no planes flying above. Um you know but we can't you can just like you say you can go and find these things to do and and it this goes back to the very start of our conversation is that if that was a thing that made you feel better when it when it happened and you started to notice it, then make a point, like you now know that that's something that you want to do. You found that thing, one of the things that you want to do. So make a point of once a week, once a month, whatever that time scale is to go and leave your normal place and go and the big one is to go and see the sunrise like. You know like it it's so basic, you know but can you imagine being eventually getting your head round thousands of years ago that it might not come back up again. You know and that was it was going to be dark forever. And then it comes up. Like it's such a free basic thing that that that I try and do it maybe once a month, maybe once every two or three weeks is to get all the way through, you know it's easy through the winter but through the summer as well. Um it's yeah.
Dr Rupy: That's incredible. It's amazing. That's a that's an amazing uh tip for people to uh to sort of reconnect. Um I mean what what other, I want to bring our conversation to a to a nice close here but uh what what what other activities do you recommend people uh engage in? Uh you know if if they're listening to this and they're work in an office or they work in um you know at home or or they work in in hospitals, you know everyone has their sort of routines in terms of work. But how do we how do we reconnect and actually uh grasp that appreciation for nature and just how lucky we are?
Aldo Kane: I think it's um yeah, I I I think in the military they use the term adventurous training because it you know going and doing a a climb or something hard and arduous is um analogous to to being at war, right? So you can see the traits and someone by putting them under pressure on a climb or kayaking or something. So and when you look at social media, it can be quite worrying and scary that there's so much elitism out there in the outdoors and you know which is off putting to most people, but the simple part of it is is that you, anyone can do it. You generally don't need a lot of money to do it. Um but it's much more about again, making the decision to do it because you could get up early one morning, leave your house and just go for a walk when before all the noise starts and the hubbub of town wakes up. Um or do it through the night if it's safe to do it somewhere. Or just get on the train um and and go somewhere that you've never been before. And all of these things, going somewhere you've never been before, seeing things that you've never seen before can all happen within probably an hour of your house. Um you know we get set up in all these um like rat runs of the things that we do in a routine of getting to work and you know get off the tube two stops early, get on you know walk two stops to the next tube that you wouldn't normally get. I used to do that in Tooting was I would walk, you know the northern line. And some days you know if I didn't have if I didn't have to you know any more meetings in the afternoon, I would walk back along the northern line, you know back to where where I lived. And I would see places that I would never have normally seen. Um so I think again it's that awareness. It's really easy to do. That's what I sussed coming out of the bunker that for my mental health and to have a good cornerstone and foundation. It was weird because the things that made the most difference to me were free. You know all the other trappings that I had and the things I wanted and the nice to haves didn't actually make me happy. What made me happy was interacting with people, exercising and being outside. And and actually whether whether you I I I once probably go out on a limb here but you know a venture to suggest that even if you don't like being outside or exercising or interacting with people, if you did it, you would probably be in a better head space and you then you were before. I don't know. Um but yeah that's I would say just you know is is get get outside. Get outside.
Dr Rupy: Yeah I I to to go back on a point that you were talking about earlier about how we've evolved. I I certainly think we are um tribal people that have evolved to live in communities, we have connection, we share food, we share stories, we, you know walk together. Our mental uh um meditation practice is walking and stillness and and being um cognisant of of everything that's going on in the environment. The the two things that I um planning, well one I'm planning to do, one I do fairly often, uh the thing I'm planning to do is doing a foraging course because I I love cooking obviously, that's that's my gig, like writing cookbooks and stuff but I don't think I know that much about uh growing and and finding stuff in nature and that would be an excuse to go out on the wild as well. And the second thing I do for anyone that's living in cities is I found the best time to get that quiet is Sunday morning. So instead of doing something late on a Saturday night or like going out or whatever, go to bed early, wake up early on Sunday. Honestly, it's like there is no one else in the city and walk around, go to some of the sites. It's incredible. It is absolutely amazing. So definitely try and do that because you'll be you'll be amazed at how still the city can be.
Aldo Kane: Yeah that's yeah that's super true. And it and that's not walking back from your Saturday night. But um yeah no that and the foraging course as well, that's that's something that's you know once once you start to look around and see what's available for eating just you know in in your local park or in your local forest it's it's it has that more gives you that confidence again, you know basics, food, water, shelter.
Dr Rupy: Yeah. I haven't asked you about lions, narcos, uh abseiling down volcanoes, anything like that. But hopefully you found this conversation enriching anyway. We've talked about butterflies and grass and smelling decomposing vegetation. So Yeah no I I've loved it. It's it's quite um it's quite refreshing because you do I do end up you know talking to lots of people about all the adventurous parts of it but you know that's that's one part of that that's what I do but you know there's there's a whole other side of what I'm interested in and it's much more about mental wellbeing, about physical health and um yeah that's everything that we've talked about there has been bang on. Yeah. Thank you.
Aldo Kane: Definitely no no thank you. And I think you know, my sort of role I guess as a doctor who likes playing around with vegetables and talking about like mindfulness, is to sort of extract the rich experiences that you've had for an audience that probably will never get, I mean I personally will never get to do some of the amazing things that you've done. Uh purely because I don't think I've got it in me, but also because I don't think I I just won't ever get to that point where I'm abseiling down, you know looking at lava rivers and stuff. I'm more than happy to watch you do it on TV and feel inspired. But you know I think there are things that you've done through your experiences that can enrich the lives of people listening to this and um honestly the book's fantastic. It's full of wonderful stories and uh yeah I wish you the best with it. It's uh it's amazing. What what are you going to do next actually? What where's the next expedition? I I'm sure you you've got to like run after this and grab a train and go to Heathrow or something, I don't know.
Dr Rupy: Um no no I'm uh I'm here. I just just got back from the Arctic so I've been home for about a month. Um and I'm not away again until January. So oh fab. Uh heading over to the States and then down to Ecuador so I've got a huge amount of time at home. Amazing which is great.
Aldo Kane: Oh you get to see uh Atlas grow. Uh that's that's amazing. Amazing. Good on you dude. Alright man, thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate that.
Dr Rupy: No, thank you. Honestly, that was uh that was brilliant. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode with Aldo Kane. His book is fantastic. You need to go check it out. It is called Lessons on the Edge. And if you go to Aldo's website, he's also got a fitness program that I'm currently doing right now. And yes it is fairly tasty. So it's definitely not for the faint hearted, but I am absolutely loving it right now. So do go check that out. It's only 30 quid or something. Um and thank you so much for for listening in. I will see you here next time.
