Men’s Journal Everyday Warrior Podcast Episode 61: Dwayne Fields

Men’s Journal’s Everyday Warrior Podcast With Mike Sarraille is a podcast that inspires individuals to live more fulfilling lives by having conversations with disrupters and high performers from all walks of life. In episode 61, he spoke to Dwayne Fields, British polar explorer, television presenter, and speaker, about overcoming adversity. 

Fields is the first Black British explorer to reach the North Pole. His work with youth groups has led him to co-found the WeTwoFoundation, which provides adventure opportunities for underprivileged youth. The company's inaugural trip to Antarctica was November 2022.

Listen to the full episode above (scroll down for the transcript) and see more from this series below.

This interview has not been edited for length or clarity.

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Mike Sarraille [00:00:12]:

Welcome to the Men's Journal Everyday Warrior Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Sarraille. Today. We've got Dwayne Fields. I'm excited about this one because, Dwayne, we met this January of all places, Antarctica. I was about to say Jamaica just because I'd left you. I'd read your life story. Antarctica camp, goddamn it. Union Glacier Camp. We're sitting in the chow hall and this white dude and this black dude walk in and they're dressed like they're part of Shackleton's exploration team. So you're talking like, gear from the early 19 hundreds. And in Antarctica, everyone's in, like, artyx or outdoor research or Patagonia Gear outfitted to the hilt. And these two guys look like they're from a different age. And the other thing, too, is I'm like, Wait, I've seen these two dudes. I'm like, I swear to God. They're with, like, nat geo or exploration shows. And it turned out to be true. And actually, Dwayne, testament to your personality, you came up to us first and you're like, hey, man. Hey, guys, I'm dwayne Where are you from? And you just started asking questions. And even though we knew that you had some fame behind you, you were genuine, you were a nice man, and you gave us a lot of attention, even though we probably didn't deserve it, man. And I couldn't have thank you for that enough. But how did the rest of the trip in Antarctica go for you guys?

Dwayne Fields [00:01:44]:

Well, first of all, Mike, stop being so I don't know, don't be so humble. The truth is, you guys were looking pretty cool. Like, of all the people there, like you said, Art Terrace and everything else, you get a group of guys who clearly are passionate about something. And the truth is, when I first looked at you, I didn't know what it was you were passionate about. There was just an air of, I don't know, confidence and an air of capability about all of you. And I thought to myself, right, they clearly are not here to, I don't know, study the albedo of snow. So you know what I mean? There's definitely something interesting there. But, yeah, I came over to you because, I don't know, a spirit told me to something said, Go and talk to these guys, because they're doing something pretty cool. And it turns out you were you were there raising money, raising awareness for ex servicemen. And I think, bro, there are people out there who fight so I could sit on this podcast today. There are people out there who fight so I could go on a holiday, go kayaking, go surfing whenever I want. And you're one of those guys, and the guys out there with you are those guys as well. So I think as the most minimalistic show of appreciation that I could do is go and find out what you were up to. And I didn't know at the time, but, yeah, it was an interesting conversation, wasn't it? I've completely forgotten what your first question was, by the way, but no, honestly, Antarctica was something else. And if your question was how did I find it? Is that what your question was?

Mike Sarraille [00:03:14]:

No. Let me say this. It was such a strange and eclectic group of personalities. We loved Antarctica. It was fun. It was definitely fun, man. A lot of stories. You and Ben.

Dwayne Fields [00:03:34]:

Yeah.

Mike Sarraille [00:03:35]:

Oh, dude. Insane. Insane, that group. We had so much fun. We walked away with so many friendships. That was worth it alone. The jumps were pretty cool. So you and Ben were doing a reenactment of basically the equipment that Shackleton or that era utilized. Man.

Dwayne Fields [00:03:56]:

Give me a little context.

Mike Sarraille [00:03:57]:

Was it freaking miserable?

Dwayne Fields [00:04:00]:

Oh, gosh. There were times where it was absolutely unbearable. If you imagine. Like you said, we use modern kits. So we've got goretex and we've got layered gear and we've got thermal rests to sleep on. We've got microfibers, all these kind of merino wool gear, the best stuff available. And I've used that stuff now to get rid of something that you know and trust and work with to put on, I don't know, some boiled wool outers and some gabadine. Man, it was crazy. But the nuttiest thing was I was surprised at how well it worked, considering this stuff is 120 year old technology. Gabadine was invented at the turn of the century, of the 20th century. So it worked well enough to a certain point and then it just got absolutely miserable. It just stopped working. The cold got into you at night when we're sleeping in those reindeer skin sleeping bags after about -20 -15 thereabouts it's not helping you anymore. It stops helping you you're putting on every single layer you've got. But interestingly, I think it gives me a better platform to talk about adventure and exploration now because I've experienced what those guys would have experienced. I've always been grateful to them because they paved the way for people like me, people like Ben and everyone else who came in the world of exploration. And to be able to step back into the same kind of circumstances wearing the same gear as they wore it just gives me something more an extra edge than something else I can talk about when I'm talking to people about these things and say, oh, well, they had it hard back then. I can say I know because I did it exactly how they did it. I know because I wore the wooden skis and I pulled the wooden polk with the massive crates on it and because I pulled using, I don't know, twined ropes and everything else.

Mike Sarraille [00:06:01]:

But you guys were also remind me, you weren't eating dry freezed mountain houses, you were eating what they ate as well, right?

Dwayne Fields [00:06:11]:

Yeah, we were eating some good stuff, man. It's called pemmican. I say it was good stuff because if I don't think of it fondly, it's going to make me upset. Just man pemican isn't the greatest tasting thing for anyone who's ever been to, I don't know, a place like Spelbod, you can still get it pretty readily available, but back then it's basically boiled beef, boiled down till there's absolutely nothing in it. And then the fats are boiled and boiled and boiled, so it congeals. It's hard when it's cold, it's hard. So it's easy to carry, easy to store, and it will keep for months and months and months. And what they do is they tend to boil in some berries or some oats or something else in there to make it basically, it's a block of nutrition. It's meant to be, it's a block of energy. Now, it didn't taste good, is what I'm going to say. At times we were eating this stuff and it was just like oil. It was like eating oil. So what we do put butter in it to try and make it taste better. We put some seasoning in there, some salt, some pepper, some, I don't know, onion powder. And honestly, man, didn't make it taste any better. Of course, they didn't have ration packs and dehydrated meals back then, so they had to carry kilos and kilos of this stuff.

Mike Sarraille [00:07:29]:

So let me ask you this. Do you think it's a safe statement to say that generation by nature of their environment were harder than our generation? Because my answer is yes to that, but I'd be interested in yours, bro.

Dwayne Fields [00:07:46]:

You got to remember, look, these guys were going into the absolute unknown. They called it terror incognito the land unknown. They were going into a place where they didn't have the luxury of having maps or having satellite imagery or having great metadata in terms of Met Office data. Sorry. They were going into a place where they didn't know if it was 100 miles or 100 or two or three or 400 miles. So the mental strength it takes to go somewhere and take one step after the other, not knowing how long it's going to take you to get there to carry food and not be certain that it's enough to leave your loved one behind and not be certain of return. I mean, think back to shackleton's, Ad. I know there's arguments now that it was a fake ad and it's a kind of prank, but return, uncertain, death, possibility, all that kind of stuff. This is what they were going into. Mentally, you have to be in a very tough place to head off in a direction and not be sure you're coming back. Or at least not be sure you can get help when you need it. In the last 50, 60 years, we can just radio in for help. We can radio and bed down. In a couple of hours, someone will come get us, or maybe a few days at most. Back then, it wasn't that you were on these expeditions for months and months at a time you are out there for a minimum of six months. So you were doing things that we wouldn't dream of doing. Mike these guys were eating their ponies and eating their dogs. This is the reality of their expeditions. They were doing things and going places that we just didn't know what to expect. Were they tougher? Just to go back to your final question? Yeah, man, no doubt. I think those guys look, they'd have frost bitten toes and just be like, yeah, just wrap it up and put my boot back on. Let's keep going. Nowadays you get frost nipping. You start asking to evac me.

Mike Sarraille [00:09:50]:

It's like you don't have a choice but to layer it, dude. As we assume, they flew from London to Put to Reyna, got on another 757, flew to Antarctica and then took their dogs and their sleds. No, they had to endure, what, a four week transit from Great Britain to South Africa? I'm sorry, South America. And then brave Drake's Passage, which, if people don't know about Drake's Passage, it's the most treacherous set of stretch of sea, up to 40 foot seas. I think 20,000 sailors have been killed, over 800 boats lost, to our knowledge. So you had to brave that to even get to Antarctica and then start. So you're not exactly starting from 100% energy and sleep and rest.

Dwayne Fields [00:10:39]:

You're starting from a position where you're probably already your body's nutrient deficient already, vitamin C deficiency already. All these things are happening to you already. You've already put in the work to get there. So like you said, you're not going there rested, you're going there battling the conditions long before you ever see Antarctica. The Drake passage. Now, like you said, it's probably the most miserable stretch of water anywhere in the ocean. And for anyone wondering, it goes down the tip of South America and you get some horrible currents there. You get the Antarctic winds start there as well. And it's a massive even nowadays. It's a two day stretch, it's a two day crossing from there to the peninsula of Antarctica. So it's absolutely miserable. And that's with powered vessels now and the comforts of, I don't know, ocean liners. Back then it was an open top boat. Wood it wasn't steam, it wasn't coal driven. It was still wind powered for the most part. The odd ship had had coal engines. But, bro, it was bad. It was bad. Every time you see those pictures of men stood there looking sun burnt and weather beaten and they leave looking like a man, they come back looking like a mummy. This is what does it to them, that long journey down there. And then be expected to overwinter or spend some of your time there at one of the huts and then set out on this 1000 plus mile journey.

Mike Sarraille [00:12:09]:

It's insane, man. And when I read those books, my hat's off to them. But Dwayne Fields, let's talk about your story, man, because I love this one. Born in Jamaica. Family moved to the UK, to Great Britain. Hold on, because you told us your life story. You grew up in part of the inner city called was it Hackney?

Dwayne Fields [00:12:34]:

Yeah. Bro, your memory is good.

Mike Sarraille [00:12:36]:

Yeah, because you said, we're like, oh, you're like, hey, you guys are going to come out and visit? We're like, yeah, we'd love to go see where you grew up. And you're like, yeah, you guys are tough, but I'm not taking you there. That's all I remember.

Dwayne Fields [00:12:48]:

I'm like, oh, okay, no, you'd be all right. Do you know what it is? You know, sometimes you want to show people where you grew up because you're proud of certain parts. There's very few places. Hackney is a beautiful place in terms of you can go then if you throw a stone in any direction, you can hit someone from pretty much anywhere in the world. That's the best thing about Hackney, if you ask me. Everything else is pretty much downhill, in my opinion. Love the people in terms of the place. It's not my favorite place in the world, but I love the people there and I love the diversity. I love the fact that you can meet a person from every single corner of the planet there, which makes the place. But you're welcome to come anytime you're ready, man. Give me a shout.

Mike Sarraille [00:13:31]:

Well, dude, I don't want to name the name of the company, but we're trying to jump into the Highlands vehicle overland, little offroading for like, three to four days. I took liberties with your name. I'm like, we'll try to get Dwayne Fields on the trip as well. If we do that, we'll jump you in, man. But talk to me about your upgrading, because I remember you saying, hey, it wasn't and you don't dramatize, that's not who you are. No, you're like, yeah, it was rough at times. And I remember you saying something about you'd had a gun pointed at you. That malfunctioned.

Dwayne Fields [00:14:10]:

Yeah.

Mike Sarraille [00:14:10]:

And that was a wake up call for you.

Dwayne Fields [00:14:14]:

You're right, I don't need to dramatize it because as far as I'm concerned, it is what it was. I didn't have it easy, let's be honest, but at the same time, there's lots of people out there that didn't have it easy. In my case. Now I have two stab wounds on my body, one in my lower stomach, one just hair in my shoulder.

Mike Sarraille [00:14:36]:

What age did that happen at?

Dwayne Fields [00:14:37]:

That happened, I think I was about 19 or so that this happened. The one hair and the one in my stomach and a small scratch in my back as well from another blade that didn't quite get me. And the gun incident happened a couple of years later and I think this was the biggest catalyst to me changing and opting to get out of that kind of environment, because I was never the kind of person to carry a knife or to carry a gun. That was just never me. I never did it. Certainly not in malice to anyone. But I want to take you back just a minute. I was born in Jamaica, like you said. And you know, when you're born somewhere, especially when you're born in rural Jamaica like I was, you grow up thinking a certain way at age six, seven. Just before I turned seven. I grew up thinking the world is all like this place, like the place. I grew up in rural Jamaica. Woodlands, trees, forest, fields, everywhere. I moved to London to live with my mom. Now, bear in mind, this is a mum who I've met a couple of times since being born. We didn't grow up together. It just didn't work. And when I first got to London, I realized how different the world was. And I'll tell you, the moment I realized the world was different, I remember reaching out for a fruit and my mom tapping the back of my hand and saying, I don't have money for that. Bear in mind, where I came from, fruits grow on trees. If you want a fruit, you just pick it and that's it, you're good to go. And that's when I realized, whoa, this is different. I went to school, and I couldn't make friends because, you know, Mike, when you go to school, the first thing a kid next to you says is, mike, who's your favorite TV character or who's your favorite superhero? And you've got one chance to get it right. In my case, I didn't have a TV, I didn't have comic books, I didn't have even electricity running my house in Jamaica, it was just a breeze block building, and that was it. So I couldn't share that dialogue. I couldn't have conversations about superheroes, and that made it hard for me to make friends. And equally, I didn't know how things in the UK worked because, weirdly, in school in Jamaica, you had a bun, and you might have some cheese, and you'd have, like, a little plastic bag of milk. That's what we had. When I walked into the lunchroom here in the UK. I was seeing cake, and I was seeing custard, and I was seeing apple pies, and I was seeing cheeseburgers and chips and all these foreign foods to me. So everything was new. Everything made me anxious. I didn't know what choice was the right one. And of course, at lunchtimes, I got it wrong from time to time. So there was that level of anxiety, and I just didn't fit in. I just felt like I didn't fit in. My accent was different. I looked around the class. Every kid had friends, and every kid had toys, and every kid know how to read properly. And I just struggled with everything, and I carried on. I learned quite early on, Mike, that if you just smile and say yes, it would get you through most things. And I think I carried on that pattern of behavior all through my early years. And I just said yes to nonsense, even things that I knew I didn't want to do. For example, we'd be sitting on the benches for 4 hours. Now, I have a creative mind when it comes to tearing one thing apart and building something else. But that creative mind doesn't get you friends. And I didn't want to be alone. Nobody wants to be isolated. I didn't want to be alone. I wanted to have friends. I wanted to be able to laugh and play the games they played. So anyway, I carried on that pattern of smile and just say yes and go along with the crowd all through my teens, to the point where I've told you about the stabbing. But it goes a bit further. I carried on that same pattern of behavior of yes, yes, laugh at this, laugh at jokes that aren't even funny. And like I said, it was never about fear of anyone. It was just about fear of being isolated or fear of being alone or fear of being the outsider. And it all came to head one night when I secretly built a moped in the shed. I was indulging my own creativity. I built this moped up, scratching the shed, bought some parts, went to a scrap yard, got some other parts, and I rode this moped. And sure enough, I turned left, the wheel went right, I went down the middle, crashed, scraped off my skin, dragged it back home, rebuilt it. This time I sent my younger brother out to test ride it. And sure enough, it works perfectly. And equally sure enough, some boys see this moped, they pushed my brother off of it and they stole it. And this is where I lost my mind. Man, when I see my younger brother coming back and he's crying Mike, I remember thinking, that's it, I've had enough now. I've had enough of the status quo. I've had enough of people thinking they can do what they want when they want with other people's stuff. I've had enough. And I remember I walked onto this estate. So for anyone who's listening, who doesn't know what an estate is, it's like blocks. You've got different blocks or different areas with big building blocks on it. And generally what you find is young people of my age group at that time, we wouldn't go to somebody else's estate unless you were going there for a specific reason and you knew who you were going to. Generally, it's just it'll get you in trouble. But anyway, it's nighttime. I walk onto this estate and you know, when someone steals something in an area, you know generally where they're going to bring it to. So anyway, I walk onto this estate, walk round the back towards where these guys are, and I feel stupid. And I felt stupid after I'd done it. By the time I was so angry, I was blinded, man. It was stupid to walk onto the estate because I didn't belong there. Guaranteed I was going to be outnumbered. Guaranteed they'd be armed with knives or some implement. Guaranteed if I was unlucky, I'd be beaten up or worse. But I didn't think about that at the time. I just said, Enough, whatever, come with me, I'm going to get my bike back. And I remember bringing walking down towards this estate, walking onto the estate, walking around the back, and my brother was right there. And sure enough, there's eight or nine boys tearing this bike apart. And I saw red, man. I saw red. And I walked over and I grabbed hold of the bike in the middle of these guys, and I said, I'm taking my bike. Luckily, everyone kind of looked at me and just said, I'll take it. It's you know, it's crap anyway, we don't want it. And at that point, I won. I walked onto their estate. I was in their area, and they'd let me take my bike and go. And I looked over to the side and this is where I think I was peak stupid. There was one guy with a plastic panel about ten inches by two inches. Didn't mean a thing. I could have walked off and got another one for about a pound, maybe two, but I wanted it because it was mine. And I walked over and I snatched it out of his hand. And I remember as I turned to walk away, he pushed me. And again, I keep using the word stupid because I could have walked away at any point, but I don't know why. I turned around and I pushed this guy back. Anyway, as he stumbled backwards, I think I just walked off towards the bike, picking up the bits and pieces, trying to hurry, getting my brother to pick up the bits that he could. And all the while they're making their comments off to the side, but we're just focused on getting the bike. And within about a minute or two, this guy comes back and he walks to about three, 4 meters away from me, about 12ft, 13ft, and he starts to raise his hand up. And in his hand I can see a handgun. And at this point, I push my brother to the side and I stand up, I hold my hands up and I'm like, Bro, it doesn't need to go that far. And before I could finish the sentence, I hear a click and he cocked it back and he points at me and he pulls the trigger again. And I don't know if you have ever experienced this. Maybe it's my nerves, maybe whatever it was, but I remember this guy. I remember just looking at the gun and the sound of the gun made me feel like I had been shot. It made me feel like there was a bullet rushing towards it. Sounds really stupid to say it, but when I was staring at it is what I'm going to say. Any sound sounds like a bullet coming towards me. I don't know how to explain it other than that. And I remember just looking at my brother, pushing him to the side and just doing that. And when he cocked it back for the first 2nd time and pulled the trigger, I saw a bullet come out the side. I was like and I was holding my stomach thinking, that's it, I've been shot now. And while he was wrestling with the gun, trying to do it third time, some of the guys kind of grabbed him and said, it's not worth it, let's walk off. And they took him off. And at this point I grabbed my stuff, got my brother, and we just left. And I remember stopping it's about ten minute walk from there to my house. I remember stopping maybe three or four times and just lifting my shirt and checking because I can feel it's not pain, but I feel tightness where I thought maybe where I thought he was aiming. And I stopped maybe three or four times to check. Luckily there wasn't anything there. By the time I got my brother home, and I'm home now, I remember I checked my phone and I think this is probably the biggest part, biggest challenge for me, people saying, we heard what happened. What are you going to do? We know where to get this. We know where we can find that, we know where we can get him. And at that time, I remember I looked at my phone and I just put it down and I just held my head and I fell asleep. And I thought to myself, I don't want to get him because if I get him, I'm going to end up in prison. I'm going to end up dead, he's going to end up dead. None of those options or I'm going to end up on a runner. None of those options to me sounded appealing. So it was now less about me and this guy and more about me and my peer group and how I tell them that I don't want to do the thing that they all expect me to do now. And I think for me, that's where my journey from old Dwayne into new Dwayne or Rediscovering, the very first version of Dwayne, that little free kid that loved the outdoors came from.

Mike Sarraille [00:25:01]:

There's no way to go through that scenario where you're not forced to look inward to reflect and actually on the backside be grateful that it's a wake up call, man. The fact that kids and again, it's a life didn't live, man, I didn't have a rough childhood. I didn't I'm never going to lie about that, and I thank my parents for that. But the fact that kids are out there and they have to go through that shit that shouldn't be happening, dude, that fucking tears me up.

Dwayne Fields [00:25:42]:

There is nothing cool about there is nothing okay about it. Nothing at all. And you know, some people might want to play up and say, oh, I had it hard and I had it tough. And I look at me. If I could be me without that experience, if I could be bold enough, without that big push, if I was brave enough to do this off my own, I don't know, free will without that big catalyst, I would be. But it's weird because people are like, oh, you're so brave to do some of the things that you do. And I'm like, bro, it's not brave. I just feel free doing it. I'm grateful that I can do it. I do it because it's a world away from what I experienced. So I wish every kid in the world didn't have never went through it. I wish nobody went through anything like that. Because there are times now where this hurts. This stab wound hurts. It's healed. It's been healed for ages. There are times where I just find myself rubbing it because I feel pain there. There are times where I'll be sleeping and be like, oh, God. And there isn't anything there. There's nothing at all there. I don't know how. So I find talking to you right now about this really difficult because I have an idea of just an idea of some of the things that you might have gone through and done. And I know this pels in comparison.

Mike Sarraille [00:27:07]:

Let me shop you, because people say that, man, all the time. And there's a difference between being born into it and not having a choice and citing a dotted line and saying, I volunteer, knowing the potential outcomes or things that I'm going to be exposed to. There is a difference, man. I do appreciate that.

Dwayne Fields [00:27:29]:

Yeah. I have no ground to stand on to argue at all with something like that. But I'll just say this, bro. My experience is all I can say is I have to use it for good because I feel like I've had multiple shots. That one there, a guy reached into the car and went like that and managed to do it there. If he'd gone an inch or two higher, he would have been straight across to there. I've not seen a gun jam with two rounds or misfire with two rounds before, so bad pin, bad rounds, I don't know. But I got lucky. And if I'm not here to do some kind of good, then what the hell am I here for, man?

Mike Sarraille [00:28:11]:

So this is what I'm having trouble understanding. So you grew up in Jamaica, and it sounds like you clearly remember growing up in Jamaica and the ability to run into the wilderness wherever you want. Yeah. Then you end up in an inner city environment. I'm going to assume you weren't going into nature all. That often during your teen years. And you did say something that struck me, that you said that inner city black youth doesn't feel like the British countryside is for them. When you said that, is it? One, they don't feel like they're allowed or they belong or it's not their environment.

Dwayne Fields [00:28:53]:

So both of those things or all of those things. There was a study done by Defraud, department for Rural Affairs, food and Rural Affairs, department for Environmental Food and Rural Affairs and they found that ethnic minorities generally found that the countryside was not a place for them because, one, they didn't know enough about it to feel comfortable out there. Two, it wasn't as accessible as it could be, and three, if you grew up in an area where you are aware of everything, you grew up in the city. I take young people out now. When I take them to the woods and they hear a squirrel calling, they get scared, like, what the hell is that? I'm like, Bro, it's that squirrel over there. What? Squirrels make sounds. What have you ever heard of squirrel in a city making? So, for me, it's all of the above. It's the fact that it's a foreign environment, man. If you've never been into the woods, one, you don't know what the rules are, what the laws are, what the bylaws are, what you're allowed to do, what you're not allowed to do. And that could be daunting. If you come from the city where you get on the bus, you get to college or you go to school, you come back home, you know the rules of your area. I knew the rules of my area when I broke them. Do you know what I mean? There were different set of rules. It's a whole new book of rules. And you go into the countryside and.

Mike Sarraille [00:30:12]:

I'm laughing because I'm laughing at the kids because I automatically thought of Panama, the country, and the triple canopy jungle. And, bro, you put me in the desert, you put me in the ocean, you put me in the mountains, other terrain. You throw me in the jungle because it was so foreign. I remember we did two weeks straight in the jungle and it was the worst two weeks of my life. Because everything wants to eat you, bite you, or it was just yeah, it was awful, man. I know you've been in that environment, so you go through this life changing experience. You see an advertisement for Ben Fogel, who's now a good friend of yours, and James Crack saying they're going to the North Pole. And I know you don't make that trip, but, bro, that seems like a pretty gigantic leap to go from not having experience. Let's be honest. Antarctica and the North Pole are two of the most austere environment, unforgiving environments. You want to go from London and just throw yourself into that environment.

Dwayne Fields [00:31:18]:

All right, so first of all, Mike let me paint a picture for you. I am desperate to get out of the environment that I'm in. Yeah, if you came to me and said, dwayne, I'm going to take you to the ocean, I'd be like, Bro, I'm not a great swimmer, but okay, let's go. Dwayne, let's go up a man. Okay, let's go. I was desperate to get out of that. My life was nearly taken on multiple occasions. I wanted to get out, otherwise I'd be dead or be in jail. It's as simple as that. So when I saw Ben Fogler and James Carton, it was Antarctica they were talking about, which is a weird synergy.

Mike Sarraille [00:31:48]:

Yes, got you.

Dwayne Fields [00:31:49]:

They're talking about, oh, we've just rode across the Atlantic. We're now going to Antarctica. I thought, Whoa, I'm desperate for something to do. And these guys are shouting about something that they're offering to somebody else to join their team. Anyway, I got turned down from that. And the group that was running that expedition, when they wrote back to me telling me I'd been turned down, I wrote back again saying, Look, I really want to do it. How can I get in there now? And they said, look, we're doing an expedition to the North Pole. Do you want to go? At that point, I just said, Whatever. Bang. Yes, I want to go. And then they hit me with the two big bangers, man. They said, yeah, you need to find 23 grand, and how fit are you? And at the time I was thinking, Well, I can play a game of football, or I reckon I'm pretty fit. I can do this. But the biggest challenge was, where the hell do I get 23,000 pounds for? But on the flip side, you know when a door opens and you are desperate for it to open, you will find a way, man. And I remember I was going to uni at the time, and as soon as my university grant hit, I was like, bang, that's the money I'm using. I'm going to put that money down on there. I was working at a job at the time as well, part time. And I remember every single time I got paid, I'd split that money in half and I'll just put half of it would go into the Pole, the other half would go to living on, I don't know, pasta or something. What else did I do? Yeah, just lots of stuff like that. I started training more. I put a backpack on, stuff. It was like 1015 kilos, and just walk. I'd walk in any direction, four or 5 hours walk, four or 5 hours back, all of these kind of things, because I really wanted it. And the other thing that I remember doing was I did an extensive amount of research on the North Pole. Now, bear in mind, when I heard about it, I knew nothing other than what everyone else knew. It's at the top of the world. It's icy. Now, my extensive research amounted to about six or seven minutes on Google. And all I did was I typed in North Pole and I saw they bring up a map and a few images and animals and stuff. And I was like, yeah, I can do this. And then I typed in a few more and I kept clicking, clicking, clicking. And I saw Matthew Henson and I saw the training and I typed in, okay, how do I get uptick? Ready? How do I get up North Pole? Ready? I saw guys pulling tires and pulling sleds and doing all sorts of gym workouts. And I was like, right. What can I seriously manage? And I remember this was when the most embarrassing thing happened to me, man. And it nearly made me decided to just quit the whole idea. So anyway, again, I'm in Hackney, it's maybe 1011 o'clock at night. And I remember I go to a place called Hackney Marshes. It's a massive park, green area, green fields. And I get these tires, and I'm pulling these tires, and you know when you're working out and you start to sweat a little bit and your legs start to ache and you start feeling like you're doing something, man? I felt like I was building some muscles, all the right muscles. And I remember I went round this corner just by the canal and the scariest thing in the world, scariest thing remember, I'm in my 20s now, scariest thing in the world happened to me. I heard a laughter of young men and I'm like, there's seven or eight.

Mike Sarraille [00:35:11]:

Judgment, judgment.

Dwayne Fields [00:35:13]:

And I stopped. I remember as I came round and I could see them, I stopped and I thought, right, if I turn and go now, I might be able to get away. And the moment I had that thought, I heard someone say, who's that? And I was like, Damn, they've seen me. If I leave now, it looks weak, they might pursue me, it might be worse. Whereas if I put my chest up, hold my head up and walk straight past them, it'll be okay, bro. I started walking towards them, I'm six foot tall. And I walked and I had my arms out and I was pulling these tires and I felt low. And as I walked towards them, they were laughing at me because of the way I looked and because of the walk and because of pulling the thing. And they called me every name. I'm not going to say on here because you just bleep out the whole next they called me every name, man. And they talked about sexuality. They called me the B word, the this word, the that word. They called me, if you can imagine it right now, they called me and I remember when I by the time I got up to them and walked past, like I said, I'm six foot tall, bro. I felt like I was an inch and a half. And I just felt so small and so deflated. And I thought to myself, bro, I'm doing this because I want people like you guys specifically to look at me and say, that guy could be me. If that guy can do it, I can do it. If he can go and do the North Pole, I can go and do. And in my head, the whole way home, I just felt so deflated, man. I just felt like, what's the point? Is there any point? And I just felt so small to the point where I stopped training during sensible hours. I started to do my training after midnight in Clistel Park, which is a smaller park that they closed. They lock the gates. I thought, right, I'll climb over the fence, chop the tires open. I'll do my training there where nobody will see me. That's the kind of thing that I was facing. That's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me, man. And it happened while I was prepping to go walk to the North Pole.

Mike Sarraille [00:37:15]:

I do believe there are a few people that have that gene where they can completely block out other people dwayne. I am not one of them. Listen, hard external judgment affects a lot of people. It doesn't mean you're less tough. It just means you're freaking human. But, bro, you've done a ton of these expeditions. I have not. But planning for the triple seven, and I take something called, like, delta nine before I go to sleep. It's like a derivative of THC, and it makes you a little euphoric. I wake up at 231 morning, and it's a Friday into Saturday. And I wake up, my wife can sense me, like, just sort of, like, pop up out of bed, and I'm like, I'm a fucking phony. I'm an imposter. This whole thing is going to fail. And my wife is great. Dude, outside of my weight class, as we say in America, I'm batting outside of my weight class. She's like, hey. She's like, you're going to be okay. You've gotten this far. You've secured sponsorships. She's like, Just stay the path. But I know when you're talking about that. Yeah, it still affects me. And what people don't see is they see that you made it to the North Pole, which is insane. Would you walk 500, 400 miles?

Dwayne Fields [00:38:42]:

It was about 635, 640K.

Mike Sarraille [00:38:48]:

Okay. Yeah. It's about, I think, 450 in miles. That's insane. Was that all self powered sled behind you?

Dwayne Fields [00:38:56]:

Every inch of the way was self powered pulling a sled. I'm a rubbish skier, so 95% of it was just walking and dragging this thing through whatever snow I could find. Frozen ocean. Every now and then you'd be walking across stuff called ice rubble. It's basically just man, it's miserable stuff. It's where the ice compacts and bends and congeals and you're clambering over more than you are crossing this stuff it's miserable. But you're so right when you say stay the path, because there were so many times where I felt like, what's the point, man? I remember being laughed at when, you know, before you do something, you always imagine how people are going to react. You always think that one's going to laugh at me, so I won't tell them first because they'll laugh the idea out of me, that one's going to be more supportive, but they're not going to really buy into it or encourage anyone else. When I first came up with the idea to walk to the pond, I was so mindful of who my friends, how my friends would react, or the people I called friends at the time would react, that I didn't tell anyone. I didn't tell them. I told the local paper because I knew if it was right there in black and white, if it was printed, I'd have to go through and do it. And I remember the day it was published and I was thinking, Damn, they're going to publish it tomorrow. Is it too late to take it back? Is it too late to take it back? And the very next day, the very first phone call that came through, it was a guy that I know and he's like, Bro, are you climbing a North Pole? I was like, first of all, you idiot, there's no pole to climb there. It's a spot, it's a mental place. And I gave him all these excuses. I didn't even know to explain myself, but I was so defensive because I didn't want anyone to talk the idea out of me, because I knew I felt they had the power to do it. And that has been something that I've had to work hard to get over other people's power, over my ideas, and over what I want to achieve.

Mike Sarraille [00:40:59]:

Is it your personality or was it the fact that you just had to do something like so I use the word outlandish. And I'm not saying that in a disrespectful way, but it seems like the more sensible approach. Dude would have been like, hey, let me go climb some arctic mountain in South America, get some experience under my belt before I go for a 450 miles, 653 kilometer stretch to reach the North Pole. That had to weigh in your mind.

Dwayne Fields [00:41:33]:

No, I had to do something big and abstract to announce that the true Dwayne, the real version of myself, was here. And this is who I am. I think anything smaller than that, I think I did something in the UK to run up to it called Three Peaks. The three Peaks were at the highest mountain in England, Scotland and Wales. And the aims to do so. I did that and I was like, yeah, this feels good. But I wanted to announce that I was here. I wanted anyone, any doubter, to just be shut down by what was done rather than be trying to shut down or poo poo or ridicule the idea. I wanted to wipe out any doubters whatsoever in one foul sweep. And I thought to myself, arctic, North Pole, extreme conditions, distance, own equipment, gear under your own power. That's how you do it. Wipe them out. One time, they don't have anything to say. They want to doubt. They can doubt over there. They won't doubt you, they won't doubt the idea, they won't doubt what you're trying to achieve. They won't doubt that it's possible more than anything else, because the years and time that you spend doing the smaller mountains and doing the smaller peaks, now, I'd advise anyone, if they want to do this, start small. Because even though it was big, the success for this one was good. The potential for failure is as big as well, and a lot of people have tried and failed. I mean, the year after I went, I think, less than 10% completed. So the room for failure is there. And the truth is, when you fail at something like that, that you've yelled about and shouted about, everyone sees your failure, and sometimes that's hard to carry. Now, I know I could have handled that, but at the time, I decided it was all or nothing.

Mike Sarraille [00:43:21]:

You keep saying, and this is just me going into the semantics you keep saying, to prove them wrong, to just crush any doubt. Did you doubt yourself going into that one? There had to be self doubt.

Dwayne Fields [00:43:35]:

Remember, I come from a home life where there was no encouragement to do anything. I come from a place in Jamaica where among the poorest people live. When I looked around me in Jamaica, the most I could hope to achieve was maybe a little bit of farming, some local small farming, or a taxi driver. I didn't know buses existed until I got to London. I didn't know houses with two or three floors existed until I got to the UK. My school teacher in I think it was year nine, looked at me one day while he was kicking me out the class and said, dwayne, the best you can hope for is a short prison sentence. So were there doubters? Yeah, there were doubters. Were there people that laughed at me and told me I'd lose fingers and toes and other bits and pieces doing this? Yeah, there were lots of doubters. So I wanted to prove all of them wrong. I wanted to prove my maths teacher wrong. I wanted to prove everyone who supported me and thought, actually, they want more, but they don't know how to do it right as well. Sometimes we focus on the negatives. There were a lot of people that said, you know what? If you can do this, I'll think about what I can do. And people that said, oh, I can't do that, because and I'd say, well, bro, I bet you you could. And, you know, they say, no, I can't do something. I wanted to prove to them as well that they could do it if they doubted themselves, me, or just society generally. I wanted to prove that there's opportunities out there. You just have to go out there and grab them.

Mike Sarraille [00:44:59]:

You know what you're talking about when you talk like that. It's the fact that there's not enough positivity in the coaches and mentors towards these young kids that just puts a seed like, hey, when a kid says, yeah, I don't think I could ride that bike. Hey, I know you can. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you can. So I just had a guy named Stephen Kotler. Stephen Kotler has written, like, 14 books. Eleven have been bestsellers. He just wrote one called Gnar Country. G-N-A-R like gnarly. So at the age of 53, he taught himself to park ski. Park skiing is like, with all the obstacles and you could do tricks, which is unheard of. But he did research where positivity alone not only leads statistically to better outcomes, but positive people live 7.5 years longer than those in negativity. And I found that respectful. Five years, that's almost a decade.

Dwayne Fields [00:46:00]:

Yeah, the average person probably lives about 75, eight years. That's like 10% almost extra life that you're having, what they're about.

Mike Sarraille [00:46:10]:

So, you know, going in, if you walk and you hit that point, you officially become the second black person in history to to reach the the North Pole. But behind Matthew Hanson. Do you still remember that moment, or is it just a fucking blur?

Dwayne Fields [00:46:27]:

So here's the thing, bro. I didn't know that going in your.

Mike Sarraille [00:46:33]:

Research was really that shitty. It was seven or eight minutes on Google, and that was it rubbish.

Dwayne Fields [00:46:38]:

All I could tell you was that 100 years ago to the week of me arriving there, planning to arrive there, because I was originally I was planning to arrive in 2009, 100 years ago to that date, Matthew Henson got there. I eventually got there 101 years to the week or thereabouts in 2010. But at the time, I hadn't done any research into black people who'd done it before, or white people or green people. I just checked out the art. So for me, it was never about the color of my skin or his skin or whoever else's skin. It was just, I want to do this thing. Who else is out there that I can look at and say, right, that's the person that closest matches my skill level or my ability or my background that I can kind of latch onto and use their experience to better my experience or better my outcome. And I remember when I actually remember when I got there, one of the things I did was on the way there, I'd have all these images in my head, especially when it got really hard of I don't know, it was stupid. It was people throwing confetti and fireworks and all these kind of things. I kind of just gassed myself up to think this just keep going to it, there will be fireworks and keep going, keep going, head up. And when I got there, I looked at this patch of snow mic. It looked the exact same as the patch of snow. 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 km back that way. I was like, Bro, is this what it was all about? And we then had to what made it worse, we had to walk almost a day past it. So I think another 15 or so miles past it to a place called Isaacson Mine or Isaacson. And it was only on the way back from Isaacson that it occurred to me that, bro, you told everyone you're doing this thing. More importantly, you told yourself you're going to do it and you've just done it. You now have no excuses ever left in life. And the whole flight home from Canada back to the UK, I think it was like a seven hour flight, six and a half, seven hour flight, wherever it was. I remember sitting there thinking, gosh, what other excuses could I make? And I remember thinking, I actually have no excuses. Is it money? No, because I didn't have 23 grand when this started. Is it fitness? No, because you weren't fit enough when this started. Was it ability? No. Because when you first died, you couldn't ski. You didn't have this ability. You didn't have that ability. You couldn't camp on ice, you've never been in the ice. Is it the ability to push yourself? Well?

Mike Sarraille [00:49:05]:

No.

Dwayne Fields [00:49:06]:

Is it motivation? No. Is it drive? And all these things just started falling away. And I realized that actually, every single excuse that I've made up until that point was a construct. Every single excuse that I've made up to that point was a construct. I realized there were no excuses and I just didn't want to do the things that I didn't do. That was it.

Mike Sarraille [00:49:31]:

And everything changed when you got back. Now, not that this was your desired route, but you know, you've worked with the BBC, you've you've been on multiple shows, you have become and, and you know, the race, it doesn't fucking matter to me. The one thing about I loved about the US military, and I saw it with the British military as well. Nobody cares about the color of your skin or who you love. Nobody cares it's are you competent, are you good human, what's your character? But you come back and for everyone in the Hackney area or every other inner city, for all those young black kids, bro, it does matter to them. It matters to them?

Dwayne Fields [00:50:15]:

Yeah, it matters to them. So I do a lot of talks and presentations now as well, young people especially. And when I speak to them, I say, look, when you're out there, whether it's raining, shining, cold, wet, dry, whatever it is, the weather does not care. So if you think your skin color is the thing holding you back, you're making an excuse. Now, there are some assholes out there that will say, oh, that's a black guy. I'm not really sure about him. But if that person is your problem, well, actually, your mindset is the problem, because you should see through that person, past that person, beyond that person. And the one thing I always say is, look, nature is fair. If it rains on me, it rains on you. If it's cold for me, it's cold for you. The only difference only difference is mindset. And that's it. Now, yes, it matters to a degree, because they look at me and they say, oh, actually, that black guy did it. And if they take strength from that and it makes them a better person, then heck yeah, take that. But that's not what I want them to get. I want them to look at a person next to them and say, well, actually, would I care if that person yeah, who is that? Is that a decent human being? First and foremost, yeah. Okay, we can kick it. That's it? Nothing else you saw in that room? I think I was the only black person there was at one point. I think there was maybe 70, 80 people in that room. I think on the whole camp, I was one of maybe two relatively dark colored people. You will remember him. Eddie. Yeah, there's Eddie there. He's a guy from New Zealand and me. And at no point did I feel out of place, because the people are there. They were just free thinking, decent people trying to have a good experience, trying to have a good time, get something they can go tell a story about. And, bro, if the whole world was like that, imagine what it would be like. I've joked with a guy called Devin that was down there about how you will never get a collection of people like that together again. Never. You will not. It just will not happen.

Mike Sarraille [00:52:24]:

Devin was awesome. Wait, he's the influencer guy, right? Yeah, I remember him. He actually lives here in Austin.

Dwayne Fields [00:52:35]:

Yeah, he does. He's got a ranch out there as well. He does some really cool stuff.

Mike Sarraille [00:52:38]:

Yeah. You talk about positivity. That guy pisses positivity for a yeah, how funny. And then his buddy was Tyler, who basically Tyler was the space.

Dwayne Fields [00:52:52]:

He does starlink. Starlink.

Mike Sarraille [00:52:54]:

Starlink. They were testing the first starlink.

Dwayne Fields [00:52:56]:

Yeah.

Mike Sarraille [00:52:56]:

What a crew, man. But people didn't notice you for the colors get. Well, first off, when you and Ben walk in, like, shackleton, everyone's going to look, but it's because you smiled, man, and you were kind.

Dwayne Fields [00:53:09]:

Simple as that, bro, I'm happy. You know, what the world when you're in a place like that, how can you not be happy? Think about the privilege to be in a place like that. Think about what you went through to get there and everyone else must have gone through to get there. Think about the work they put in to get there. I don't care if they were a billionaire and, yes, there was one or two of them there. I don't care if they work a nine to five and have saved whatever they did. They went hard to get there. And I think when you appreciate the next person for their merits, for their character, it makes you happier about the environment you're in and it makes you a happier person within as well.

Mike Sarraille [00:53:50]:

No truer words, man. There was just a lot of gratitude for the fact that we were there. You know what? I don't think we enjoyed it as much as we could because we were so fixated on our goal of getting that skydiving because we were always reviewing the plan. But we're thankful because we met a lot of good people and a lot of those relationships are still alive. If you remember Chin. Do you remember Chin?

Dwayne Fields [00:54:17]:

Yes, Chin Wu.

Mike Sarraille [00:54:25]:

We saw him in New York. I'll connect you guys. So I want to cover two more things before we close this out. So, one, you've been recognized for the work, the Freedom of the City Award for London, but you stood up We Too Foundation, in which you're taking inner city youth into the wilderness. I know you set up an expedition in 2022 for them to go out to Antarctica. As many as you could take. Tell me about the impacts you see on those kids in terms of the change when you throw them into that environment. When they come back, explain to me how they're different.

Dwayne Fields [00:55:05]:

So let me paint this little picture really quickly for you. We put out the word here in the UK across all media, radio, TV, you name it, socials. We had over 700 people here nominate a young person. Now, every single charity was asking us, how did you do it? I was like, Bro, it's not how we did it. We just put the thing on the table and people are that desperate for it. We picked out ten young people from areas of the highest deprivation. So these are some of the poorest areas in the UK. We like to showcase ourselves as perfect. We are not perfect. There's areas of poverty in the UK. We picked ten young people and then we said to them, look, you're going to Antarctica. You need to pay for it. Not with money, but with some kind of local initiative to offset your carbon and to raise awareness of the need to be mindful of the environment. They all did something locally, which was wonderful because they got their communities behind them. We took these young people who were shy, who were scared. Some of them had left school for bullying. Some of them were so scared, they didn't talk to us even in our interviews. They'd answer. One word answers couldn't look you in the eye. Some of them were so anxious that they didn't actually show up for some of their initiative. Initially, their local initiatives. Initially, we got them to Antarctica. We got them doing things like collecting samples from real life citizen science. They were doing cloud observations that fed into research by NASA. We were doing things like whale and leopard seal observations, hen wing observations. They were collecting sea samples to use in research on board the vessel. They were out there collecting snow samples to check albedo. They were doing really cool stuff, using underwater drones. They even ended by doing a presentation to 350 or 400 crew on board the ship. Wow. Now I'm the proudest guy for every single person that we took, me and my teammate Phoebe. And when they came back, some of them went back onto radio and TV and went into the newspapers and told their stories that way. And the difference, if you put the two kids next to each other before and after, it's a world away from each other now. The best thing about that is they're going back into a community now, that holds them up. They have something to lose now. So when they go back, their behavior has changed. They have self respect, they have self belief, they have confidence. They now know they're capable, and they don't want to give that up. So we've seen that they're still doing things within their community. They become a pillar. People go to them and ask them questions about environmental issues. People go to them and ask them about how to offset certain amount of carbon. So in a way, it's not about the young person, it's about them, but it's also about their communities and doing it in the most effective way. Now, half of them have never even seen a proper documentary. And we've picked them up and taken them all the way down to the ends of the Earth. Antarctica the most inhospitable place on the planet. And we've said, Right, this place is real. This is the impact. Do some research, learn as much as you can. Bring it home with you. And they've completely changed. Confidence is up. They've got friends for life, they'll all tell you now. They've got friends for life. They've got that shared experience, they'll all tell you now they feel like an explorer. Even though I think out of the ten that we took, nine had never really flown before, never left their area, their local area before. So these are the kind of people I'm talking about. And to see them now having video calls and standing up for Women's Day and doing environmental what do you call it? Environmental conservatism. Yeah, they're just basically pushing the environmental angle, making sure they're getting other people involved and engaged. Man, so to see them standing up and being kind of a pillar, it's wonderful. And I'm doing it again this year. Me and my teammate, we're taking another group down to UG, so we're trying to raise money for that now and trying to get Mike and the team down there to get it all sorted out.

Mike Sarraille [00:59:05]:

Mike McDowell?

Dwayne Fields [00:59:07]:

Yeah.

Mike Sarraille [00:59:07]:

I love that guy.

Dwayne Fields [00:59:09]:

What a guy.

Mike Sarraille [00:59:11]:

The most interesting man in the world, without a doubt.

Dwayne Fields [00:59:17]:

You've never been somewhere that that man.

Mike Sarraille [00:59:19]:

Hasn'T his story everywhere.

Dwayne Fields [00:59:21]:

You met him, he knows someone there, and he's left something there.

Mike Sarraille [00:59:25]:

Yeah. And for everyone who's wondering who Dwayne and I are talking about, go to Andy Stumps podcast Cleared Hot. He did one in Antarctica with Mike McDowell, an Australian, owns Antarctica Logistics and Expeditions, one of the most interesting men in the world who has lived a very interesting life. And it's a four hour podcast, so prepare. You have your own series now. The seven toughest days on Nat Geo in Disney Plus. Yeah, that's big time, man. I know that the sky's the limit now. Tell us about the seven toughest days. Did you get to select the locations? Did you set the parameters, or was it a sort of collaboration with Nat Geo?

Dwayne Fields [01:00:13]:

It was a really good, interesting collaboration. So they kind of came to me and said, well, look, what's your bucket list of places? And we went through the list and we looked at what was feasible and what wasn't. And we eventually settled on Kyrgyzstan, which is one of the most mountainous countries in the world, gabon, which is one of the most forested countries in the world, and Oman, which is one of the most deserted countries in all the world. So there's a theme here. It's the most and in each one, we looked at and said, right, let's pick a route that's going to take you about seven days to do. It's going to be hard. You're going to do it using your own wits. You're going to do it using in whatever you've learned through life. And oftentimes when you hear these man v nature challenges, it's because this man has had some training, or some formal training, some skills. Whereas I'm saying, bro, I remember being a kid and doing this and it worked. Or, I remember being a kid in Jamaica and doing this and I tried it and it worked. And I told you a minute ago that I'm quite inventive. I'm creative when it comes to, I don't know, I could tear a video player apart and make something else oftentimes. And it calls on that skill quite a lot. The other thing it does as well is it calls on just that determination, man, that will to keep putting 1ft in front of the other. I don't know, throughout life, it's just been instilled in me more and more and more. And there are moments in it where I talk about my own experience, man, where I talk about being homeless and how a fire crackling away is comforting. And when I was walking the streets of London because when I say homeless, I mean I was homeless. I was sleeping on a train. I would walk all night so I wouldn't have to sleep because I was afraid I'd be beaten up or kicked or robbed or and it calls on all of those experiences, and it's it's a true journey. It's a journey I take through these environments, and it's it's my experience through these environments. It's tough. It's hard. It's the coldest, it's the harshest, it's the driest. There are moments where genuinely I make mistakes, and I think that's what I love most about the series. People get to see me get it wrong. They see me make mistakes. They get to see me when I actually come across something that's fun, and I laugh, and I can't help it, but be happy. I think the series are honest. It's an honest account of who I am as a person in terms of the joys I can get and the lows I can have. And we take you through some of the most beautiful places on the planet as well. So for no other reason, if you don't want to see my face, just watch it just for the beautiful shots, man.

Mike Sarraille [01:02:45]:

Dude, can I ask which one was the most challenging, or are you blocked right now from saying anything?

Dwayne Fields [01:02:54]:

Bro, they were all tough. They were all tough for different reasons. And, you know, when people talk about type two fun, yeah, there's a lot of type two fun in this. Looking back, Kyrgyzstan was so hard because it was hard on the crew. We had people dropping out because of altitude sickness, pneumonia, just sleep issues, just absolute misery. The desert was hot because it got up to 50 degrees Celsius plus on days. Gabon was harsh because, like you said, you hate the jungle. We were out there. It was miserable. There were snakes everywhere. Like, when I say snakes everywhere, I mean we put that perot, which is a dugout, a cutout boat. Soon as it touched the land, bam, snake drops into the boat. We're pulling away from the land. Bam, snake drops straight into the water by the boat. I'm walking through the jungle. I'm looking over there. Bam. Green snake sat there about to grab me. And after you've seen one or two, every vine, every root looks like a snake. It was tough. But you know what? Some of the best times of my life in this series, man, do you.

Mike Sarraille [01:04:05]:

Come out a different person every single time.

Dwayne Fields [01:04:08]:

I think you come out a better person. You come out feeling more capable. I think you come out loving the world a little bit more. I remember being in Gabon and having probably one of the most beautiful moments in my life. And I know I'm rattling on a lot now go. But the point it was one of the most beautiful moments. So I had this jungle guide. His name's jizz Lane. This guy, super cool guy, he said, dwayne and this is how it talks. Dwayne. When you're in the jungle and you come across people, if you see them, first you have to assess, are they poachers because they might want to harm you, or are they people that live in the jungle? And I said, okay. Cool. What do I do? He said, right? What you do is you make a whooping sound. Announce that you're there if you feel that they might be harmless. Because if they're a tribe and you try and sneak past, if they see you, they'll assume you're there for nefarious reasons. So make your presence known. So I'm in a jungle. Now, bear in mind, that's all we spoke about. I'm in a jungle. I'm walking, tired, trying to get to this cave system that I know exists. And I hear what sounds like women in the distance, and I'm like, Whoa, that's actually people. So I make a whooping sound. Nothing. Whoop. Nothing. Whoop. Somebody whoops back. And I'm like, Bro, somebody just wooped back. What do I do now? We didn't get that far. So then eventually, I make my way slowly over to these people. Don't speak my French. My French teacher will tell you how terrible my French is. Ingabond. Native language broken French. I go for these people nerves, heart pounding, wondering what they're going to do. Are they going to run me off? Chase me? And I'm like, Bonjour, jumapel monger. Now, for any French speakers out there, it means, my name is hungry. And those are the kind of genuine mistakes I make in the series. But the way these guys treated me, they literally figured out that I meant I wanted food. They gave me patience. They took me down to a little stream, damned this stream, and showed me how to fish for mud, for fishes in the mud. And we cooked the fish, and we had a moat. And it was just one of the most beautiful things I've experienced. And that in the deepest, darkest jungles in the world, man.

Mike Sarraille [01:06:18]:

That's freaking awesome, dude. That's to have a very human moment with other people from vastly different societies. One, thank you for the vulnerability in this discussion. And it sounds like you just displayed a lot of vulnerability in the seven toughest days. We're going to drop all the links where people can find that on Nat, Geo or Disney. Plus, if you've got a sense for who Dwayne is and his character, man, he was as authentic now as he was in Antarctica. Please go watch the show. Follow him on social media. You're going to learn as you learn during this podcast. But, Dwayne, we finish with really two questions. First question that we give all our guests, and then we chop it up into a video. Because we've had some amazing guests like you on the show that leave breadcrumbs for people to implement in their own lives. If there's three things that come to mind in terms of your keys to success that have led you to good outcomes the majority of the time, what are those three things? You would look to one of the kids within the We Two Foundation and tell them, do these three things and statistically you're going to be successful in life.

Dwayne Fields [01:07:29]:

Success isn't something that moves quickly. It's slow and requires patience. I'd say look outside the circle of people that you have around you all the time. Often they can propel you. Often they can hold you back as well. That doesn't mean they can't be your friends. That doesn't mean you can't still speak to them. It just means sometimes you have to look beyond them and think bigger. Man be bold enough to think big. Think of the world. Think of the goal that you want, but think, make it bigger. If you want to go to the end of the road, imagine you want to get to the end of the end of the street, if that makes sense. So if you want to get to the end of the road, think about getting to the edge of the city and you will make the end of the road and still have some left in the tank. So think big, be patient and think outside your circle.

Mike Sarraille [01:08:18]:

Those are three great ones and very unique from our past guests. Man I appreciate that last question. And some people aren't concerned about this. Man and I get it. To me, I am, because I think of my kids when I ask this question. But when all is said and done and let's say that's 50, 60 years from now and in your final days you're looking back, what would you hope your legacy is? What would you hope that your impact is on the world as you exit it?

Dwayne Fields [01:08:52]:

I talked to my behalf about this and you said it before that we're both punching above our weights. And I always say, you know what? On the day of my funeral, I just want everyone to say, you know what? That guy was all right. I'd be happy to share a dinner with that guy. I don't know. I want somebody else. When they're successful, I want them to just look back and just have a little moment where they nod and say, I remember the start of my journey. I saw that guy, that idiot guy, Dwayne Fields, do that thing. And that's what made me, whatever it is, just that's what made me I'd love to be just that tiniest part of everyone's storyline, nothing else. I don't need statues. I don't need books. And someone say, Spark, when I saw that idiot guy Dwayne do that, it made me think this. That's it.

Mike Sarraille [01:09:41]:

I think it was the Dalai Lama that said, be the candle that lights 1000 candles. Man just that one. Spark and I couldn't agree more. Well, Dwayne, I can't thank you enough, man. We are I know you stay in contact with Nick kush, who I think the world of, and Andy off. We are going to see you again, man. And we are going to figure out a way to collaborate, whether it's the Scottish highlands, we'll jump you in. We'll figure out something. But we are definitely doing an expedition with you on the other side, outside of sitting in a tent, drinking a little coffee and eating that all right, brother. I love you, and have a great day, bro.

Dwayne Fields [01:10:22]:

Take care. Bye.

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