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The Tim Ferriss Show

#832: The Return of The Lion Tracker - Boyd Varty on The Wild Man Within, Nature's Hidden Wisdom, and How to Feel Fully Alive

with Boyd Varty

Published October 22, 2025
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About This Episode

Tim Ferriss speaks with lion tracker, storyteller, and retreat leader Boyd Varty about formative experiences in the African bush, including leading an "elite" firefighting team, assisting his wild filmmaker uncle, and close calls with dangerous animals. They explore what Boyd has learned from a decade of nature-based retreats, the power of silence and wordlessness, and how time in the wilderness reawakens innate capacities for awareness, healing, and meaning. The conversation also covers Bushmen persistence hunting, modern masculinity and men's groups, and comedic but revealing encounters with a notorious baboon named Lunch.

Topics Covered

Adventure travel Travel and tourism Personal development Meditation Mindfulness Masculinity Relationships Trauma Mental health Tracking and wildlife

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Quick Takeaways

  • Boyd's disastrous early experience leading a firefighting team taught him that real leadership in crisis requires bringing energy down when everything is escalating.
  • Time in wild nature, especially in silence and without technology, quickly shifts people toward a "natural state" where their own inner knowing and insights begin to surface.
  • On retreats, participants often experience highly specific, meaningful animal encounters that they interpret as directly related to their personal healing or questions.
  • Silent game drives help people drop the compulsive need to verbally label and understand, opening them to a deeper, nonverbal "first language" of energy and feeling.
  • Bushmen persistence hunting in the Kalahari is both a physical feat and a spiritual ceremony, involving tracking at a run in extreme heat and a felt transfer of energy from the animal to the hunters.
  • Modern people are far less resilient to basic disruptions, like power or water loss, than indigenous groups who still retain deep ecological knowledge and survival skills.
  • Male-only time in wild places, doing shared projects and enduring mild hardship, naturally opens space for honest feedback and deeper emotional access without forcing it.
  • Living closely with wildlife at Londolozi creates an extended sense of community that includes individual animals with distinct personalities, reinforcing a feeling of connection to the more-than-human world.
  • Following the subtle bodily sense of increased energy or expansion-rather than purely rational plans-has been a reliable guide for Boyd in finding meaningful work and relief from depression.
  • Humorous and chaotic encounters, like the saga of Lunch the baboon, often become the most memorable and formative stories rather than evidence one should avoid risk.

Podcast Notes

Introduction and guest background

Tim introduces Boyd Varty and his work

Tim identifies the show and reintroduces Boyd as a fan-favorite guest[0:04]
• Tim states this is another episode of "The Tim Ferriss Show" and notes many people cite Boyd's previous episode as especially impactful
Boyd's background and roles[0:20]
• Boyd is the founder of Track Your Life, which offers a limited number of premium retreats in South Africa's Bushveld
• He is the author of "The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life," which Tim describes as one of his favorite books of the last few years and an easy, fast read
• Boyd is a fourth-generation custodian of Londolozi Game Reserve and grew up around lions, leopards, snakes, and elephants
• He is described as a lion tracker, storyteller, and literacy and wildlife activist
• Boyd works at the intersection of tracking and personal transformation, using ancient wisdom to help people create purpose-driven, meaningful lives
Boyd's online presence and podcast[1:20]
• Tim notes Boyd is host of the Track Your Life podcast
• Tim gives Boyd's website (trackyourlife.co.za) and social handles on X and Instagram

Catching up and setting the tone of the conversation

Reunion and light banter

Tim and Boyd reconnect in person[0:59]
• They joke about Boyd commandeering Tim's recording office in Austin and how surreal that feels to Boyd
Shared past experiences[2:16]
• They recall last being together walking through a squall in the Cotswolds on a semi-wilderness adventure with many cows

Firefighting story and leadership lesson

Boyd leads an "elite" firefighting unit in his 20s

Taking over from a French Foreign Legionnaire[3:25]
• Boyd was head of an elite firefighting unit in his 20s and took over from a French Foreign Legionnaire named Chris who radiated intense personal power and confidence
• He describes Chris's aura as creating a 20-yard radius of perceived capability wherever he walked
Responsibilities of the habitat team[3:51]
• The team's duties included fixing roads, mending fences, ensuring animal safety, running controlled burns, and fighting runaway fires on the reserve
• At the same time, Boyd held family-business roles as part-time marketing and sales manager, flying to travel shows to sell safaris and then returning to firefighting duties
Imitating the Legionnaire's walk and early incident with Lucky[4:30]
• Boyd was so daunted by replacing Chris that he privately practiced Chris's walk in his room to try to capture his presence
• Soon after taking over, a small electrical fire broke out in the gym, and Boyd's team responded
• He sent team member Lucky Mkunzi-ironically named because he was very unlucky and had lost an eye-to shut off the main power in the bar area
• Lucky, who wore a beanie with a single eye-hole over his one good eye, entered the dark bar, cut the power, and then saw the paper-mache lion used to scare monkeys off the buffet, believing it was a real lion and fleeing for hours

Training drills and the failed practice fire

Creating elite drills on the soccer field[7:17]
• Boyd decided the team needed training to meet the legionnaire's standards, so he began staging surprise fire drills using debris and old thatch on a small soccer field behind camp
• He rehearsed radio calls like "station, station, stations" and "positions, positions, positions" as tractors rolled in, engines started, and hoses were ordered to "spray, spray, spray"
Drill goes wrong due to a kinked hose[7:57]
• On one drill, Boyd built a large bonfire of thatch that took off faster than expected, and a wind picked up, making the fire potentially dangerous
• When the team arrived and opened the hoses, only a trickle of water came out as the fire grew and Boyd responded by shouting his commands louder instead of changing tactics
• They discovered that Lucky had parked a tractor tire on the hose, building up pressure behind the kink; when he moved, the hose blew free, knocked the hoseman out, and flailed around uncontrollably like a "deadly anaconda"
• The headman, Isaac, lay injured, the fire was starting to run, and Boyd's practiced French Foreign Legion walk was useless in that chaotic reality

Leadership lesson: bringing energy down in crisis

Reframing disastrous moments as teachers[10:10]
• Boyd reflects that such spectacular failures can be devastating to ego and a sense of leadership, but he now sees them as positive because they force reflection
Learning to lower the energy when it spikes[10:26]
• He realized very few people know how to bring energy downward when everything is escalating upward, and that this is the key skill in crisis situations
• Beyond projecting an impressive walk, effective leadership for him became about creating slowness and steadiness in moments of rising chaos, a kind of energetic jujitsu
• Since that day, his focus in crises has been to slow things down when the energy climbs

Story hunting, nature as a story machine, and introducing JV

Tim's comment on leadership and idea for a Londolozi comedy

Tim connects Boyd's lesson to other leaders[11:22]
• Tim notes that Rich Barton, co-founder of Zillow and Expedia, also emphasized the importance for leaders of bringing energy back to calm
Idea of a scripted show based on Londolozi stories[11:32]
• Tim suggests someone should create a scripted comedy show called "Londo" based on the crazy stories from Londolozi

Nature as a story and meaning generator

Boyd's concept of story hunting[11:59]
• Boyd describes his body of work as "story hunting" and says any time in the natural world becomes a story-making machine
• He contrasts the dense variety of stories generated daily on safari with modern life, which can feel repetitive and static
Natural world as meaning and symbol[12:20]
• Boyd says the natural world is not just where meaning constellates, it is meaning, and it constantly produces incidents-ridiculous, sublime, or profound
• He suggests storytelling is a form of awareness, paying attention to these incidents
• He notes that even "very un-woo-woo" safari guests come back having seen archetypal energies in animal behavior, such as lionesses grooming or hunting, and feel themselves in relation to that

Uncle JV and formative wilderness filmmaking experiences

Introducing Uncle John Varty (JV)

JV's background and impact on Boyd[14:12]
• Boyd describes his uncle John Varty, known as JV, as a wildlife filmmaker with a strong streak of wildness who had a profound influence on him
• JV grew up in the hunting era, including lion hunting where outcomes were binary-either a lion or a human died-which reset his sense of danger
Becoming a child camera assistant[15:14]
• From about age six to fifteen, Boyd served as JV's camera assistant on wildlife documentaries
• JV would arrive at 4 a.m. dressed like "Africa's version of Texas Walker Ranger" with a .44 on his hip and cut-off-sleeve shirt, waking Boyd with "Hey buddy, let's go"
• Boyd had two main jobs: driving and carrying the camera

Driving dangers and JV's temper

Chasing a hyena with a giraffe leg[16:28]
• On one shoot, they chased a hyena carrying a giraffe leg while Boyd drove and JV, in the back, screamed contradictory instructions like "faster" and then "not so fast"
• Boyd mis-turned when JV yelled "cut left," sending JV off the back of the pickup and the camera into his head, triggering a brief rage in which JV chased Boyd around the vehicle before calming and resuming the chase
Close call filming elephants[18:14]
• JV had Boyd crawl with him to a low-angle position by a waterfall to film elephants, and he kept simply zooming out as a large bull elephant walked closer
• The elephant ended up about 5-6 meters away; JV looked up, realized how close it was, and they had a tense standoff while JV whispered that Boyd should crawl into a nearby warthog hole if the elephant charged

Zambia film camp and towing a dead elephant

Life in the Luangwa Valley[19:12]
• Boyd recalls living with JV in Zambia's Luangwa Valley, where they crossed the crocodile-dense Luangwa River in a tiny dinghy-like boat with a 2-horsepower engine
• JV would hit sandbanks and tell young Boyd to get out and push despite visible crocodiles, calling him a "nafta" if he hesitated
Attempting to tow a dead elephant for crocodile footage[20:41]
• JV found a young dead elephant washed downriver and wanted to tow it to the bank to film crocodiles feeding on it from a hidden position in the grass
• Boyd tied a rope around the elephant while JV revved the tiny engine at full throttle; for about 45 minutes they went nowhere while the boat planed in place against the drag
• They ran out of gas, fetched shovels to use as paddles, finally moved the elephant to shore, tied it, and then spent four days in the long grass while JV filmed crocodiles feeding

Psychological impact: capability and overexposure to danger

Mixed legacy of extreme childhood experiences[22:25]
• Boyd notes that as a child he often felt tremendously out of his depth and ill-prepared while JV expected him to be able to handle anything, even handing him a rifle to back him up in dangerous situations
• He says these experiences left him split: very apprehensive beforehand but calm and capable in actual high-octane situations
Enduring gift and current orientation to safety[24:46]
• From JV he gained a deep sense that whatever happens they will figure it out in a live, instinctive way, which still helps him in crises
• He also feels a residual nervousness and fear of being ill-prepared, and as a new father he thinks about building capability more gradually in his son by going slower and deliberately building confidence

Lessons from 10 years of wilderness retreats

Shifting from doing to allowing

Earlier approach: trying to rapidly fix blockages[28:55]
• Boyd explains that early in his retreat work he felt his job was to quickly identify where people were blocked and help them transform specific traumas or beliefs
Current focus: getting people into the "natural state"[30:14]
• He now aims to move people into what he calls the natural state as fast as possible, because once there, transformation accelerates on its own
• The first retreat day is spent in silence, inspired partly by Martha Beck's idea that the natural world is a "wordless environment" without animals thinking in past and future
• He believes that when people enter wordlessness, they naturally move toward a sense of oneness

Removing tech and honoring a different neurochemistry

Enforcing a strict no-tech rule[31:46]
• Boyd says they now absolutely will not allow any tech on retreats because even one HR email can pull someone back into their normal world and out of the retreat state
Physiological shift into parasympathetic and new awareness[32:37]
• As people become wordless and attuned to the soundscape and living things, their brains release different neurochemistry, their nervous systems move more parasympathetic, and a different state of awareness emerges
• He observes that within about 24 hours, participants' natural inner knowing begins to "spit out" insights without heavy intervention from facilitators

Inviting nature to respond to questions

Treating questions like koans[34:06]
• Boyd suggests that people can at home go into a garden or park with a specific written question, ask nature to help answer it, and hold the question like a Zen koan
• He says the psyche is very intelligent and will filter what you see in nature through that question, producing insight

Tim's reflections on subtraction, tech, and circadian rhythm

Subtractive approach to reaching the natural state

Removing obstacles instead of adding practices[34:51]
• Tim notes people often ask "what should I do" and default to adding more, but sometimes the path is to remove obstacles to an already available natural state
• He cites his Montana survival trip where leaving his phone behind and reducing modern light and tech radically changed his experience

Safari rhythm and time dilation

Game drives tied to wildlife activity[36:25]
• Tim explains that at Londolozi, guests wake roughly 30 minutes before sunrise to align with wildlife activity, have early drives, food and naps, and then evening drives, which stretches subjective time
• He notes that a week at Londolozi can feel like two weeks because of this full-spectrum day, similar to time in the Montana mountains or other wild places
Old faculties coming back online[37:38]
• Tim says that by removing tech, previously crucial evolutionary capacities-perception, awareness, attention-either come back online or have their volume turned up
• He finds these changes nurturing and recharging in a way that is hard to describe and notes you carry that state back into modern life

Mystical encounters on retreat and nature as healer

Nature responding to personal narratives

Lion staring at a woman who hides herself[38:35]
• Boyd recounts a woman who grew up amid alcoholism and learned to be invisible; on retreat, a male lion walked from sleeping, stood by the Land Rover, and stared directly into her eyes
• She initially looked away; Boyd told her she could look back, and he could feel it was the most profound revealing she had ever experienced, after which something shifted and she began stepping forward more in life
Bird visitation linked to a father's favorite species[42:38]
• Another man said he couldn't grieve after his father's death; while they sat on the deck, a bird flew in, perched above him, and began calling intensely
• He wept for about 10 minutes, then explained his father had been an avid bird watcher and that species, the Southern Boo-boo, was his father's favorite bird
Monkey reinforcing a woman's pattern of loss[42:55]
• Boyd describes a woman sharing that everything gets taken from her; as she spoke and ate toast at breakfast, a monkey jumped down and snatched the toast from her hand

Re-enchantment and nature's intent to heal

Field of sentience responding to intention[43:22]
• Boyd says such specific events happen so regularly he can't deny them, and believes the living field of nature senses intentional awareness and responds
Need for re-enchantment[43:30]
• He argues modern people are dulled and disconnected from magic, and that even non-mystical experiences like watching leopards and cubs in a marula tree can profoundly affect people
• Boyd concludes that nature wants humans to heal and knows when people come to her with a desire to mend their soul

Silent drives, wordlessness, and the first language of energy

Tim on fighting thinking with more thinking

Limits of mental effort and value of wordless paths[45:55]
• Tim observes that people often try to solve thought-created problems with more thinking or effort, and suggests considering paths to relief outside words and concepts, such as spending time in nature

Design of silent game drives

Switching from interpretive guiding to silence[47:48]
• Boyd explains that traditional safari guiding focuses on interpretation and biological facts, which can just become more information
• They now send guests out in silence and ask them to watch their minds, noticing the urge to know what is happening and gently releasing that impulse
Dropping "needing to know" and entering pure experience[50:06]
• Boyd notes Western culture is structured around needing to know, whereas Eastern traditions value "don't know mind"; silent drives invite guests into pure experience rather than constant explanation
• Some people initially feel frustrated and distracted by thoughts of home, but with enough time, they drop into a different layer of awareness

First language: energy and feeling states

Sensing animal nervous system states[51:07]
• Boyd says that beneath words there is a "first language" of energy, and by watching animals, you can feel their states-from relaxed to hyper-attuned to danger-through your own body
• He describes how a leopard's body shape and gaze convey specific energy, and prey animals' changing postures signal nervous system shifts that can be felt somatically
Example from a medicine teacher[51:56]
• Boyd recalls asking a teacher in a medicine space to train him; the teacher refused, saying he could feel Boyd's distrust despite Boyd's verbal request
• The teacher said he would only teach when the "feeling" between them changed, illustrating how energy and feeling override stated words in that context

Applying nature lessons to modern performance and life

Body-based decision-making and avoiding the simmering six

Whole-body "yes" and high performers' rhythms[53:17]
• Tim mentions Diana Chapman's work on tuning into bodily sensations-the whole-body yes-for decisions from menus to major business partnerships
• He also describes Josh Waitzkin's principle of avoiding the "simmering six," citing world-class performers who go from deep rest (e.g., Marcelo Garcia napping under bleachers) to a 10 out of 10 intensity at game time instead of living in constant moderate stress

Following non-rational energy as a compass

Boyd's London party and discovering writing[56:35]
• Boyd recalls attending a party in London while struggling with severe depression and, as a game, telling people he was a writer, though he had never written
• Each time he said "I'm a writer" he felt a small uptick of energy in his body, which led him to actually start writing stories when he returned home
• While writing, he noticed the depression lifting or becoming less dominant, and has since followed that kind of non-rational bodily energy in his career choices

Snake story with Toby and the appeal of adventure

Toby's integration into Londolozi life

From guest to camp helper[58:33]
• An Englishman named Toby visited Londolozi with his family, loved it, and convinced the team to let him stay on as a general hand around camp
• He took menial jobs like cleaning lanterns, painting ablution blocks, and running errands, integrating into the staff village

Black mamba in the guest room

Finding the snake and the three guides fleeing[59:00]
• After guests reported a snake in their room, Boyd, another ranger, and Toby went with a makeshift snake-catching stick nicknamed "50/50" and a dustbin
• Boyd gave the German guests a confident assurance, opened an empty suitcase, and a huge black mamba "levitated" out, prompting all three men to jam in the doorway trying to escape
• He clarifies a black mamba is extremely venomous, highly mobile, and dangerous in a confined space, with bites that can quickly be fatal
Chaotic catch and Toby's airborne leap[1:00:59]
• They re-entered, tossing cushions and duvets while the Germans watched items fly out; eventually they saw the snake under the bed and gripped it mid-body with the faulty snare
• The mamba whipped around violently, then climbed the stick until its head was within inches of the ranger's hand, so they decided to ride it out on the golf cart rather than try to bucket it
• As they drove out, the ranger pulled the stick in to clear a gate; Toby on the back suddenly found the mamba inches from his face and leapt so high his feet passed above the golf cart roof before disappearing over a bush

Aftermath and how adversity becomes adventure

Toby's reaction and life choice[1:03:57]
• After releasing the snake, they returned to find Toby standing in the road looking shocked; his first words were, "That was incredible"
• Toby later returned to South Africa, became a safari guide, and now runs a travel company (which Boyd names) sending people on trips to Africa
Lesson about things going "wrong"[1:06:00]
• Boyd reflects that experiences he thought would make people quit often become the adventures they were looking for, rather than deterrents

Bushmen tracking and persistence hunting expedition

Alex's mission to preserve tracking wisdom

Tracker Academy and initial Kalahari visit[1:07:01]
• Boyd describes his friend Alex van den Heever as one of the best trackers in the world and founder of the Tracker Academy, dedicated to preserving indigenous tracking wisdom
• Alex spent days with Bushmen in the Kalahari and was amazed by their ecological intelligence, like tracking a porcupine for 10 km and sleeping without a night watch because they believed they would feel any approaching animal
Assessing which skills are still alive[1:08:29]
• They organized a later expedition to assess what traditional skills were still functioning, because the Bushmen have been heavily persecuted and displaced
• On the surface, many live urbanized lives and receive small government stipends, yet about 70% of their food still comes from gathering in the desert

Bushmen relationship to the desert

Desert as storehouse and non-hoarding mentality[1:09:57]
• Boyd explains that unlike some groups who store food, the Bushmen view the desert itself as their storehouse and don't hoard, reflecting an abundance mindset
• He describes walking with women gatherers who dig tubers, cut sections for everyone to eat, and replant the rest to grow again
• Moving with them through the landscape felt to him like it could be 300 years in the past or future, indicating resilient continuity

Persistence hunting as "the Great Dance"

Spiritual and physical dimensions of the hunt[1:11:32]
• Boyd says persistence hunting-running an animal to exhaustion-is likely the oldest hunting practice on the planet and is called "the Great Dance" by Bushmen
• It is central to their mythology and spirituality because it involves engaging deeply with the animal's spirit and Great Spirit, ultimately receiving the animal's energy as it gives itself to the hunter
• Hunters avoid jumping over logs, believing that wastes energy and pushes energy back at the animal instead of drawing the animal's energy toward them
Conditions: heat, time, and animal health[1:13:46]
• Boyd notes an equation between heat and time: as heat increases, the time and distance needed to exhaust the animal decrease, but the animal's physical condition and seasonal droughts also significantly affect outcomes
• He mentions an example (from Craig Foster's filming) of a persistence hunt covering around 30 km over roughly five to six hours, while emphasizing variability
Starting the kudu hunt in extreme heat[1:15:49]
• On their hunt day it was 47°C at the start; initial energy was low until they found fresh tracks of a herd of kudu, after which the Bushmen instantly shifted into intense hunting mode
• Kudu, a tall antelope with spiraling horns not optimally adapted to desert heat, was chosen as a suitable target for such a hunt

Psychological and energetic experience of the hunt

Running, tracking, and navigation as an act of faith[1:17:37]
• Boyd emphasizes the hunt requires simultaneously tracking at a run, navigating, and fully committing into the desert away from water without knowing how far it will go
• He likens it to a peloton: if you fall out of the front group's energy, you'll never catch them again, but inside it you can ride the collective current
Moving from neurosis into trance-like flow[1:18:21]
• For the first hour Boyd's mind was filled with neurotic thoughts about dying of heatstroke or getting lost, but he eventually realized the only way through was to let go of those thoughts and let his body do what it knew
• He describes dropping into a state where energy seemed to come from the earth, the group, and the animal, running another roughly two and a half hours from that place
Closing in and the animal's surrender[1:20:21]
• They would glimpse the kudu briefly and then follow tracks for 40 minutes at a time; as they sensed gaining the upper hand, younger hunters accelerated, feeling energy transfer from the animal
• Eventually the kudu became so exhausted it simply stopped and gave itself to the hunters, a moment Boyd describes as impossible to witness without deep respect and awareness of taking life
• Hunters placed sand on the animal as a blessing and thanks, then butchered it rapidly, with every part of the animal taken and eaten
Bushmen skills simmering beneath the surface[1:22:00]
• Boyd concludes that although Bushmen culture appears diffuse on the surface, the underlying skills and ecological knowledge remain very alive and close to the surface
• He believes that if modern systems failed, Bushmen could simply walk back into the "storehouse" of the desert and live comfortably, unlike most modern people

Modern fragility, indigenous resilience, and water

City breakdown with small disruptions

Tim's San Francisco blackout observation[1:24:36]
• Tim recalls a two- to two-and-a-half-day power outage in San Francisco where people began civil and friendly, but as food threatened to spoil, agitation and aggression quickly increased
• He notes most people have no idea what to do when basic conveniences disappear, highlighting how close many are to primal wildness

Prepper basics and Bushmen's minimal water needs

Tim's prepper advice on water[1:25:30]
• Tim emphasizes that in any disruption, water is more urgent than food, and even dried foods generally require water, so water and simple heating tools should be prioritized
Bushman superiority in desert conditions[1:25:54]
• Boyd shares an anecdote tracking a cheetah with a 70-year-old Bushman who, by late morning heat, was walking them off their feet despite them having run out of water while he had drunk none
• He and his friends realized they had to turn back for water while the elder, still unfazed, underscored their comparative fragility

The wild man, men's groups, and relational practice

Defining the "wild man" as awareness and access

Wildness as life force plus presence[1:28:11]
• Boyd defines the wild man not as recklessness but as deep awareness of internal energies and having access to them, which creates a particular kind of presence
• Presence, in his definition, is access to the moment across a full spectrum-from assertive protection when needed to tenderness and softness when that is called for
Personal motivation as a father[1:28:53]
• As a new father, Boyd thinks about being available across that full spectrum of masculine expression for his son, wife, and family, and notices where he himself still feels blocked

Navigating armor in cities vs openness in nature

Tim's need for armor in New York[1:29:47]
• Tim describes living in New York City, where encounters with aggressive, unstable strangers and dense crowds lead him to adopt protective armor that would make full emotional openness feel unsafe
• He blocks out several weeks per year for all-male trips in wild places to exercise those more sensitive "muscles" so they don't atrophy in urban environments

Discernment, trauma as freezing, and more options

Being selectively armored and learning new responses[1:31:21]
• Boyd agrees that it is wise to be somewhat armored in contexts like New York but stresses the importance of knowing one can open more deeply in appropriate contexts
• He describes trauma as characterized by a reduction of options and a tendency to freeze, so development involves first noticing one is frozen and then cultivating alternative choices in those moments

Community, gender-specific spaces, and feedback

Importance of men with men and women with women[1:32:37]
• Boyd asserts that masculine essence needs time with other men and feminine essence with other women to fully liberate themselves, with those experiences then brought back into mixed relationships
Relationships as practice and service[1:33:35]
• He suggests moving beyond romantic ideals to view relationships as active practice spaces, where personal work (the "I") and relational work (the "we") happen together
• He envisions mature relationships evolving into service for others, where couples share something unique with the broader community
Fire as a social technology for men[1:35:15]
• Tim recounts a Montana trip where a friend observed that fire makes deep conversations between men easier because they can look at the fire instead of making direct eye contact, which can feel aggressive
• He contrasts asking a friend to "sit by the lake and talk for six hours" (likely refused) with "go fishing" (likely accepted), though the actual result can be similar prolonged conversation bundled with activity
Shared projects, mild suffering, and feedback[1:37:05]
• Tim notes many of his men's trips involve shared projects, physical exertion, and hardship paired with humor, which seem to do much of the developmental "lifting" without overt self-help framing
• Boyd adds that if a group includes a few men with more access and literacy, they can occasionally offer specific feedback after shared experiences, which others are more likely to hear because of the existing bond

Lunch the baboon and living among animals as community

Introducing Lunch and his escalating mischief

Origin of Lunch's name and kitchen raid[1:46:16]
• Lunch was a baboon named for appearing at lunchtime and causing havoc, including learning how to break into the kitchen
• Boyd describes being in the kitchen as Lunch forced open a barricaded door, entered, grabbed a cake from the counter, and walked out on his hind legs holding it
Cognitive cunning of Lunch[1:47:40]
• Boyd notes levels of animal awareness: knowing, knowing you know, and knowing that you know they know; Lunch often behaved as if aware he was being policed when caught in mischief
• He once saw meeting minutes that read like a normal operations list until the line "his troop needs to fear our troop," reflecting plans to scare Lunch out of camp

Royal visit nearly ruined by Lunch

Preparing for the prince[1:49:49]
• Boyd's sister took a call confirming that a prince was coming; months of preparation followed, including special satellite dishes, a chef, boutique items, and possibly extending a runway for a jet
Lunch devastates the prince's room[1:50:50]
• On arrival day, Boyd ran to place cold facecloths in the suite while radio updates counted down the prince's ETA; he found the bathroom door ajar and Lunch inside chugging papaya hand lotion
• Trapped, Lunch dropped the lotion, cut his feet on glass, ricocheted off mirrors and windows, barked, released his bowels everywhere, and then launched himself past Boyd through the bedroom and out the veranda, leaving blood, feces, hair, and lotion
• Boyd likens the scene to a horror film with bloody handprints and a turd on the pillow as radios announced the prince was only minutes away
Staff pantomime and hippo distraction[1:54:02]
• Housekeeping rushed in to clean while reception staff staged elaborate attempts to delay the prince with offers of wine tastings, immediate safaris, and a ladies' choir, all politely declined
• They were saved when a hippo unexpectedly walked onto rocks in front of camp in midday; staff feigned amazement and set up a spotting scope, buying about 15 minutes while the room was restored
• As the prince finally approached the suite, chambermaids slipped out the bathroom door into long grass, lying flat with mops and baboon residue in their hair as he entered a fresh-scented, orderly room
• He stepped onto the veranda, admired the solitude and hippo calls, then went back inside, at which point about twelve staff rose up from the grass around the suite

Lunch's other antics and animals as community members

Lunch's brazen sexuality[1:58:10]
• On another day, guides out for a casual drive saw Lunch silhouetted on rocks mating with a female baboon; when he saw them, he allegedly raised one hand in the air as if in a celebratory gesture
Recognizing intelligence and individuality in animals[1:58:26]
• Boyd describes watching a warthog grazing on the runway who clearly formed a thought, then walked two kilometers to a laundry area where dripping clothes created a patch of green grass, demonstrating learned knowledge
• He emphasizes that living among animals at Londolozi makes them feel like part of an extended community: not just generic baboons or leopards, but individuals like Lunch or a known leopard who "allows" herself to be seen

Closing remarks and where to find Boyd

Smell of leopard urine and Tim's observation

Leopard scent compared to burnt popcorn[1:59:01]
• Tim notes that burnt popcorn in a movie theater smells like leopard urine, and Boyd confirms that when leopards spray-mark territory, the scent is very similar to popcorn

Books, retreats, and website

How to learn more or visit[1:59:26]
• Boyd directs listeners to boydvarti.com to learn about retreats and his books, "Cathedral of the Wild" and "The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life"
• Tim reiterates the spelling of Boyd's name and says show notes with links will be available at tim.blog/podcast by searching "Boyd"

Lessons Learned

Actionable insights and wisdom you can apply to your business, career, and personal life.

1

In crises and high-stress situations, the most effective leaders are those who can consciously lower the energy-slowing themselves and others-rather than escalating with the chaos.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Where in my life do I tend to raise my intensity or volume when things start going wrong, and how does that usually affect the outcome?
  • • How could I practice deliberately slowing my speech, breathing, and movements the next time a stressful situation spikes at work or at home?
  • • What small ritual (a breath, a phrase, a posture) could I adopt this week to cue myself to bring the energy down instead of up when I feel pressure rising?
2

Extended time in silence and nature, without technology, allows innate inner knowing to surface in a way that effortful thinking and analysis often cannot.

Reflection Questions:

  • • When was the last time I spent a full day without my phone or computer, and what did I notice about my thoughts and emotions during that time?
  • • How might scheduling a regular tech-free walk or half-day in a nearby park change the kinds of insights I have about my current challenges?
  • • What is one concrete step I can take this month to create a wordless environment for myself, even briefly, so I can listen for what emerges from underneath my usual mental noise?
3

Following the subtle, non-rational sense of increased aliveness in your body-rather than just logical plans-can be a powerful compass for meaningful work and relief from stagnation.

Reflection Questions:

  • • What activities, people, or environments reliably give me that small uptick of energy or expansion in my body, even if they don't make obvious logical sense?
  • • How might my career or creative projects look different if I gave more weight to those energetic signals instead of purely intellectual pros and cons?
  • • What is one experiment I could run in the next two weeks where I follow that sense of aliveness a bit further than I normally would, just to see what happens?
4

Skillful access to a full range of states-assertive, tender, playful, and still-is built through practice in safe contexts, often with same-gender peers and shared challenges, not solely through abstract self-work.

Reflection Questions:

  • • In which emotional states (assertive, nurturing, vulnerable, etc.) do I feel least practiced or most frozen, especially around others of my own gender?
  • • How could spending intentional time with a small group of peers-doing something challenging or adventurous together-help me access parts of myself that feel unavailable in daily life?
  • • What is one specific gathering, trip, or recurring meetup I could initiate or join that would give me a more practical "training ground" for the kind of presence I want to embody?
5

Relationships and communities become powerful engines of growth when people are willing to offer and receive honest feedback, especially after shared real-world experiences rather than purely theoretical discussion.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Who in my life has earned enough trust that their candid observations about my behavior would actually help me, even if they're hard to hear?
  • • How might organizing a shared project or outing with close friends or colleagues create a more grounded context for giving and receiving useful feedback?
  • • What is one behavior pattern I suspect others see in me that I might be blind to, and how could I invite someone I trust to gently reflect what they notice?
6

Indigenous skills and ecological knowledge illustrate that human resilience and capability often lie dormant beneath modern habits, and reconnecting with these capacities can challenge our assumptions about comfort and risk.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Where have I unconsciously assumed that modern convenience is the only way to meet a need, and what older or simpler skills might offer a different option?
  • • How would my sense of vulnerability or security change if I learned even one basic survival or nature-based skill this year?
  • • What is one small, practical way I can expose myself to more self-reliance-such as navigation, foraging, or fire-making-so I better understand my true capabilities beyond my current environment?

Episode Summary - Notes by Casey

#832: The Return of The Lion Tracker - Boyd Varty on The Wild Man Within, Nature's Hidden Wisdom, and How to Feel Fully Alive
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