0:01
Yeah, unusual that it the first thing it hits from here is your eyeball.
Search this video
0:05
You know, that's a bad sign. Wow.
0:14
Hey, what's going on everybody?
0:14
From First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans and you're watching Hot Ones.
0:17
It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.
0:20
And today we're joined by Bear Grylls.
0:22
He's an adventurer, best-selling author, and the battle-tested host of a number of hit shows including Running Wild with Bear Grylls, which returns for its July 25th premiere on National Geographic.
0:31
Today though, the man who's feasted his way through live scorpions and a yak's eyeball tries his hand at the wings of death.
0:36
Bear Grylls, welcome to the show.
0:39
Hey, nice to be with you.
0:41
Little apprehensive when they lifted that. That was like, how?
0:45
Oh, it cuts through the air. Yeah.
0:45
But don't psych yourself out just yet.
0:47
I know that you're an adventurous eater.
0:50
How are you around spicy food? Probably not brilliant.
0:51
It's kind of similar dynamic that we have on Running Wild, really.
0:55
In the sense that you know what you're doing. I'm the rookie.
1:01
A little apprehensive, but ready to go. Yeah.
1:23
And look, we've got beef as well.
1:25
A Hot Ones first just for you, Bear Grylls. Thank you. I I don't know. I love I love beef. Yeah, this is great. This is new for me.
1:40
Yeah, I mean, this is how I eat.
1:40
Good steak, little bit of something hot, but I definitely hang around this side of the Not today, though. Not so good.
1:50
So, Running Wild isn't an interview show at its heart, but there's no denying that you get these very real moments with your celebrity guest that you'd never see on a late-night talk show.
1:57
How do you intellectualize how these extreme environments open people up and perhaps make them more relatable?
2:05
You look at a chat show, it's it's always a performance, isn't it?
2:08
Somebody's got 3 minutes to be funny and tell a kind of great story or whatever.
2:11
And and I always struggle with that cuz it's never feels real, you know?
2:17
And I think as you know, you go out with someone, a buddy, and you hike a trail and you know, get involved in in nature in the outdoors for a bit, you have you have conversations that are much more real.
2:28
And Running Wild is just an extreme version of that.
2:30
You know, I think after you face a few fears and you've, you know, that you've got a trust between each other, people open up.
2:37
That's why I always say I think the wild is the star of the show, really. Does my job for me.
2:47
You're double lucky here. Mhm. So good.
2:55
That one's really good with the steak.
2:56
That sort of tropical vibe with that. Mhm.
2:59
Well, my wife says, she goes, "You're going to be terrible at that show.
3:02
You hate really spicy stuff."
3:02
And I'm probably not great really spicy stuff, but right here, it's dreamy. It's very nice.
3:10
You might be onto something here, yeah.
3:11
Note to self, don't wipe my eye or scratch my balls.
3:16
Scratch your balls after you've been messing around with the dabom. Right.
3:20
You might not live to tell the tale. Yeah, it's game over.
3:25
So, I understand that Will Ferrell legitimately struggled after eating a caribou's eye, and I've heard Deion Sanders tell his story of clinging to the mesa rock wall 1,000 ft up.
3:35
When you think of the celebrities who've impressed you the most with the size of their adventure bug, is there a name that stands out?
3:41
You know, sometimes guests arrive and they they want the whole nine yards, you know, they say, "Give it give it all."
3:46
And there's a little part of me that's always like, "Be careful what you wish for."
3:51
cuz the wild, again, tends to do it anyway, you know, somebody is you know, it's unpredictable.
3:54
You're going to get some bad weather or the water level's higher than you expect and you always got to improvise a little bit.
4:01
So, for Will Ferrell, I mean, I will always be indebted and love that man, you know, he was our first ever guest.
4:08
We took him to the Arctic.
4:08
You know, in those days we'd go for days and days, you know, now it's much shorter and tighter and you know, we've learned otherwise.
4:16
You break people, you don't get anything out of them after all.
4:18
But Will, we didn't know that at this stage.
4:22
So, Will was in at the deep end and still to this day if I see him, he goes, first of all, people still talk to me about that show.
4:30
And secondly, he goes, it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.
4:33
And I go, Will, you're a truly amazing man.
4:35
On the shoulders of giants we all stand.
4:38
Will Ferrell is one of them for me.
4:44
Wow, somebody's put a lot of sauce on this one. This is like marinated.
4:50
We thought you wanted the whole 12 yards, you know.
4:51
I Did I ever ask for the whole 12 yards in a row? No. Mhm. Mhm.
4:58
Getting a little punchy, team. Yeah, this one. Mhm.
5:03
So, what you do is lure it in with the first two, then cover the third.
5:04
You guys going to have a slick pattern to this.
5:10
Yeah, lure you into a false sense of security and then Mhm. bring it. Saving the milk. Yeah, there we go.
5:19
So, in 2019, Nirmal Purja posted a viral photo of a traffic jam of climbers at the top of Mount Everest.
5:24
How does that photo compare to your memories of being one of the youngest people to climb the summit when you did it back in 1988?
5:32
Yeah, that photo was amazing.
5:32
Nim Nims is a good buddy of mine.
5:34
He's you know, an incredible high altitude mountaineer.
5:39
But you know, I think you got to kind of roll with the times and you know, part of me thinks that's amazing, you know, and and people way younger and way older and without limbs and you know, and and I would never want to take anything away from those guys cuz at the end of the day you got to climb it.
5:53
You know, the the weather forecasting has got better, the gear has got better, and the oxygen has got way lighter, you know.
5:59
Why so many people would die is you're so slow, you're carrying so much weight.
6:04
Those progressions are great and I don't stand in the way of progress.
6:08
So, um I look back on those times super lucky to have got the chance to do it and grateful to have got away with my life where others hadn't at that stage and ever grateful for the friendships with the guys I was with out there.
6:27
This one's green as well, which makes me suspicious.
6:31
Definitely getting into harder territory for Your eyes are watering.
6:33
If your eyes are watering, I'm dead.
6:37
I'm trying to put up a calm front, you know. Thank you.
6:39
Almost like you would do on your show, you know.
6:40
I'm trying to be that support system.
6:46
I loved it when Gordon Gordon was such a good episode with you. So fun, wasn't it?
6:52
I love him going, "You motherfucker." Brilliant.
6:56
We'll never forget that here in the studio.
6:59
I was feeling much more boring guest, sorry.
7:03
Off the top of your head without thinking about it too much, what would you say is the seminal or all-time greatest adventure novel? Huh, interesting.
7:12
Unbroken, an incredible story.
7:12
You know, the Louis Zamperini.
7:15
They made it into a film, which kind of lost so much really cuz the book is insane, you know.
7:20
He was an American soldier in the Second World War.
7:22
His plane crashed in the Pacific, ended up in one of the longest survival life raft stories in history whilst being strafed by Japanese, you know, enemy aircraft and shark attacks and most of them died, a couple eventually you it and you think you finally make it onto this island, but the island was one of the most horrific Japanese prisoner of war camps, and uh and his journey was only just beginning, and he survived Nagasaki nuclear bombs.
7:51
I mean, you know, the transport ships from hell, you know, his story is amazing.
7:57
He was broken in so many ways afterwards, but he found healing, and he he found a faith in his life, and a great family, and he set up these amazing, you know, youth programs, and um true hero.
8:15
I'm breaking into the milk. We're halfway.
8:18
You know it's bad when there's a the devil on board back.
8:21
We're at that point in the lineup. Reaper, yeah.
8:24
They start threatening you through the marketing.
8:27
Trying not to get it on the lips. Smart. Mhm.
8:31
All right, Bear, in the meantime though, we have a recurring segment on our show called Explain That Gram, where we do a deep dive on our guest's Instagram, pull interesting pictures that need more context.
8:37
So, we'll pull the picture up over here on the monitor.
8:39
You just tell us the bigger story.
8:42
I love this quote of yours.
8:42
"Life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of showing up in an attractive and well-preserved body."
8:47
Do you have an injury or scar that holds the most meaning to you?
8:53
Yeah, uh but I got a private one.
8:53
I'm going to keep that one private. All right.
8:57
Um I think, you know, my back my back accident, you know, break my back in three places was a was a life-changing journey for me, you know, it's a freefall accident. Jump went wrong.
9:09
I spent best part of a year in and out of army rehabilitation, struggling to be able to reach a bathroom, you know, it's just strapped up in braces, and my back never lets me forget it.
9:21
And I think the thing that's not letting me forget is a number one, don't be an idiot.
9:25
You only get it wrong once. Be smart.
9:29
And always be grateful for life, you know, because I should there'd be so many times I should have died, and I'm still going, and I'm, you know, so grateful for that.
9:36
So only grateful for whether it's sitting eating crazy, you know, stuff with you or whatever.
9:42
It's life's a great privilege and and I think that's what the pain in the back always reminds me of every day.
9:54
I'm really enjoying this.
9:58
Yeah, the clue is on the scale of how how hot it is.
10:00
There's a lot of chilies down the bottom there, you know. I'm hanging on in there. I can see it. Trying to pace myself.
10:11
The determination, I see it. Come on. Never give up. We're going to get it.
10:14
The training, it's all it's led to this moment.
10:16
We're going to be all It's led to this moment, Bear.
10:18
The brain's going a little foggy.
10:20
I'm in your hands, you'll guide me. I got you. I've got you. I've got you.
10:26
So besides obvious exceptions like David Attenborough, there aren't that many people who've been making television out in remote areas of the world long enough to see the effects of climate change.
10:36
Are there obvious changes that you've noticed in your decades of doing expeditions that give you pause?
10:41
Climate change is undeniable.
10:43
And the other thing about climate change is that it always affects the vulnerable, you know, in terms of not just in terms of wildlife, which I've seen some horrific consequences of of climate change upon you know, animals
10:54
and you know, when you see 50 elephants fighting in a mud hole with so that much mud in it that you know, for hundreds of years has been a full up and you see these elephants starving to death and so yeah, it's it's it's hard to come away unaffected. But the other
11:11
But the other side of it is that climate change affects vulnerable people.
11:14
Coastal communities, the poorest people in the world.
11:17
Rising sea levels, extreme droughts, extreme rainfalls, flash floods, you know, and this is the one thing we all share together, the same planet.
11:23
And I come from the position of if you love something, you protect it.
11:30
And uh and that's how I see climate change. Oh, wow.
11:37
I've just found the knife and fork. Yeah. Yeah, here's to you. Yeah. Mhm. Wow. Mhm. Mhm. Is it a bomb worse? A lot worse. Yeah.
11:50
I'm not going to lie to you. Mhm. Mhm.
11:54
I I I I appreciate the fact you're honest. I am.
11:57
I'm struggling a little bit with this one. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Come on, Bear. There we go. Let's go, Bear. You got it. You got it. it, Bear. You've got it, Bear. There we go. Save the milk.
12:10
It's like It's like anti-venom. Yeah.
12:14
I've never heard this analogy before, but I'm all ears.
12:16
Well, with you know, we're in jungles all the time. Mhm. A lot of snakes.
12:20
One of One of our guys got bitten by a horrific snake, and that's a whole another story.
12:25
I'll send you the I'll send you the photo of Steve's foot after that snake bite. I see Steve's foot.
12:31
But, um this is Hot Ones anti-venom.
12:34
That's taking me closer to the wire, team. Mhm. Mhm. Good. There we go. There we go. The anti-venom.
12:44
I'm really feeling the urge to scratch my balls. Don't.
12:47
Yeah, but I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Yeah.
12:50
Like dive on that like secret service. Across the table. Okay.
12:57
So, there's a recurring question that we've asked before on Hot Ones to anyone who can give a credible answer, and I think that we can add you to the list alongside Padma Lakshmi and Andrew Zimmern.
13:05
Of all the animal testicles that you've eaten in your life, which ones do you think have the best shot at becoming a mainstream menu item if people gave them a chance?
13:15
Well, first of all, none of them, cuz they were pretty terrible.
13:19
And there have been a few testicles over the years, you know.
13:22
I mean, the worst testicle was the goat testicle in the Sahara that uh this Berber tribesman cut off.
13:29
And and I saw the goat before and it was quite a small goat.
13:31
I thought this is going to be okay until I saw the size of the testicles.
13:34
I thought that is out of all proportion.
13:39
Anyway, I tried to eat this thing.
13:41
Uh thought I'd try and swallow it cuz I didn't want to bite into this massive testicle.
13:45
That was just going to get ugly.
13:48
So, I tried to swallow this thing and it got halfway down, but it was too big. So, then I threw it up.
13:51
Now I have a mouthful of it and then bit down.
13:53
So, now I've got testicle sacks, burn, and vomit in my mouth.
13:59
You know, but I didn't want to be rude.
14:01
So, I tried to hold it there.
14:03
And then eventually kind of got it down.
14:05
Yeah, that was a bad day. Yeah. Wow.
14:08
I'm I'm suddenly getting a lot of kick from a build-up of the seven layers. effect.
14:13
Yeah, yeah, I'm getting that.
14:15
Well, wait till this happens.
14:15
And I haven't even done the Wait till this happens.
14:18
So, once that bomb goes down, there's no going back. We're in it. We're in it.
14:22
Before we do the bomb, is there anything sensibly you'd like to ask me because there's a potential that the answers might get a slightly Well, listen, I don't know if you've been following along so far, but nothing I ask is sensible, you know. Mhm.
14:40
Yeah, unusual that the first thing it hits from here is your eyeball. Yeah, that's a bad sign. Wow. Mhm. Mother love. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Woo. Come on, team. Never give up. Get the milk. Get more milk ready.
15:11
We should Yeah, maybe it's payback over like so many so many so many guests we've had have been so so many moments of kind of raw terror and raw. This is payback.
15:21
This is a long time coming.
15:21
I'm going to have a lot of Oh, buddy is watching this guy. You mother lover.
15:26
This This has been long overdue. Yeah.
15:32
In all of your years of shooting, what would you say was the most inopportune time to experience diarrhea? Mhm. Halfway up a rock face.
15:38
I've had that on a on a big cliff and I'd eaten a dodgy snake the day before. And um Wow.
15:49
And anyway, I felt it's halfway up this rock face.
15:52
And I felt it coming, you know.
15:53
And as you know, when it come, you can't There's nowhere to nowhere to hide.
15:57
And I said to the camera guy, I said, "Look, turn the camera off.
16:02
This ain't waiting for no one, you know."
16:06
I said I had a hand up here on this thing, you know.
16:08
One hand on the rock, the other one trying to get my trousers down.
16:14
Did the business into free air, you know.
16:17
Crew underneath going, "Oh god." Oh, no.
16:20
And uh And I told him to tell the camera to turn the camera off.
16:23
And eventually got it sorted and you know, holding on and tied my trousers.
16:26
Look Looks over there and there's camera still blinking, you know.
16:29
And I said, you know, I thought There's nothing secret. Oh, wow. I know.
16:35
No, but the other thing I've learned on this journey with you respect.
16:39
Respect for you, you know. Good for you.
16:41
I mean, you do this day in day out.
16:44
You know, I'm a debomb virgin.
16:48
And it's probably going to be a one-time one-time relationship, you know. Good for you. Wow.
16:58
When it doesn't get any better, does it? You got it. You got it there. Yeah. You got it.
17:13
What's the What's the What's the politically correct word for man up? Step up. Human up. Yeah, human up. Human up. Come on, Bear. And no fun. No fun at all.
17:29
But after the last one, a little bit nicer.
17:32
Yeah, although that hurt the teeth. Right.
17:35
They kind of all feel a little bit different though.
17:38
a new experience trying to hurt the teeth.
17:42
You know, you'd never call that. No.
17:42
If you If you're a viewer watching this at home, you think hot things, mouth, you know, lips.
17:51
But something to hurt your teeth. Different level.
17:57
So, I imagine there have been times in your life where fans will approach you on the street to tell you how something they saw you do on TV actually saved them in a potentially life-threatening, real-life situation.
18:07
What is a story that stands out when you think about those stranded and lost stories that you've heard from fans over the years? Mhm.
18:16
Well, oh, there have been some great There have been some good stories, you know. I don't know.
18:22
I can't You know, great ones are like snow balls getting lost and, you know, get a few few of drinking urine. Ah.
18:30
You know, kids falling through the ice.
18:32
There have been some pretty hardcore serious incidents of that.
18:34
And then kids have been amazing and remembered something and you know, fall through the ice.
18:39
You're not going to remember complicated, difficult things.
18:42
But simple things like turn around and go back out the way you came rather than panicking and trying to, you know, Simple things.
18:51
Uh rolling in the snow, you know, so snow can absorb the water off you.
18:53
You know, obviously cuz dry snow is going to take the take the water away.
18:57
It's the water ultimately with wind chill that's going to make you cold.
19:02
So, great stories out there.
19:02
I love I love hearing them.
19:04
We get them the whole time and never tire of it.
19:06
So many heroes out there.
19:11
[ __ ] my mouth is on fire. Wow.
19:20
I'm not entirely sure where we go from here. All right.
19:23
So, this is the last dab.
19:23
We call it the last dab cuz it's tradition around here to put a little extra on the last wing or the last steak. Oh, lick my lips. Such an error.
19:34
Such an error licking the lips.
19:35
It's been such a day of firsts Yeah.
19:38
that I think we should do a first here on Wing Titan with the dab. Yeah.
19:43
that you brought some snacks and you're not the only one.
19:44
We kind of had the same idea here.
19:46
Ali coming through from Bug appétit.
19:49
You're not the only one Okay, well. bug plug over here. Well, it's good. It's good.
19:53
I mean, I was always told never turn up for a party empty-handed. So, You're so kind. Thank you.
20:01
So, I bought a little present for you. Yeah.
20:02
So, we should bought some maggots here. Here we go. Here you go. You got that?
20:09
All these go cuz these are the only ones.
20:13
I got some worms over here. So, that what? There we go. So, Yep. You have the maggots.
20:17
I'll have your I'll have your worms.
20:20
I'll just do a little bit of both.
20:22
Guys, these are These are not Are they are worms? Yeah.
20:23
Yeah, like Well, they're grubs, you know.
20:27
These look like these have been marinating in something already.
20:31
Well, Ali seasons over here. Oh.
20:37
Oh, [ __ ] That's not a dab. That's a marinade. Yeah, yeah. Be careful over there. Hold on. Let's go again on this. So, that's a dab. Here we go. Cheers, Bear.
20:48
Hey, it's been a privilege.
20:48
If we don't come out the other end of this experience It was all worth it.
20:53
It's been an honor, brother. It's been an honor. Here we go. Here's to you. To you. Mhm. Woo. Okay.
21:08
There's a reason you save it for the last. Yeah. Yeah.
21:11
I don't imagine you have many recurring guests.
21:15
You know, we have a handful, but we probably have similar problems, similar things going on. so funny, isn't it? It's true. There's so much of it.
21:23
Like when I was reading your book, everything that I was hit everything was like I was like, yes, yes.
21:28
I I never felt more seen than reading the same sort of challenges and then the same sort of effects that you guys have doing your show where it does open people up or you have this thing celebrity that is by definition unobtainable, but there's no artifice.
21:43
There's nowhere to hide in the wild and there's nowhere to hide with the hot sauce.
21:47
Yeah, well, I I I love that and and you create connections as you say, you go through kind of hot scary things again, you know, you're going to create some connections, but um but yeah, you you do you do an amazing job, you know, wow, good for you.
22:02
But no, like you were saying, you know, probably not many recurring guests.
22:03
We have a few on Running Wild.
22:04
Channing Tatum's come back a couple of times and a few others, but but yeah, mostly it's like an experience. It's like Hot Ones.
22:11
It's amazing, epic, but we're done.
22:16
After the dab, we're done, you know.
22:16
And it's a bit like that.
22:19
Day two of Running Wild, they go, "Bear, this is epic. It's been unbelievable.
22:22
You blow my mind, but we're out of here."
22:25
Never want to see you again.
22:27
But you know what, Bear Grylls, we saw the challenge, we took it on, and we climbed to the summit of Mount Scoville, and now there's nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you.
22:36
This camera, this camera, this camera, let the people know what you have going on in your life.
22:43
Oh, well, I have to I like enjoy the thing to then plug the show.
22:46
You got you guys will figure it out.
22:48
You'll figure it out, you know.
22:48
Hey, for me, more importantly than plugging anything, you know, it's just um I love it.
22:53
It's been a been a privilege to do it with you and I'm honored you read the book.
22:57
First of all, you're so kind.
22:59
That'd be a good one to plug, Never Give Up, buy the I'm running wild.
23:02
Running wild, that's why we're here. It's like brain fog.
23:05
Running wild, new season out now and amazing guests. Wow, that dad. Epic. Such a pleasure.
23:22
I would actually out class out as a household hazard. Yeah, yeah. I think so.
23:26
that goes along with bleach.
23:28
You know, sulfuric acid, the machetes, the axes. The bat.
23:34
You know, if you don't need it in your house, don't have it. Anyway, so fun. So fun.
23:42
Hey, what's going on, Hot Ones fans?
23:42
We brought the heat to the freezer aisle with our Hot Ones boneless chicken bites, and you smashed sales records and all of our wildest expectations. So, what did we do? We made more. That's right.
23:54
We are in with five new flavors of Hot Ones boneless chicken bites and five new ways for you to bring Hot Ones home.
24:01
From the classic to the classic garlic fresno edition to the Los Calientes trio of flavor, verde, rojo, barbacoa. Visit hotoneschallenge.
24:10
com for more information and to find a store near you.
24:15
Hot Ones boneless chicken bites, you're in the hot seat now.