Episode 111 : Saving The Ocean with Artificial Coral and Sustainable Energy From Duck Weed - Garrett Stuart
As an environmental consultant, biologist, and marine scientist, Garrett Stuart uses his diverse background and love of story-telling to drive a change in our future generations. His passions lie in bridging the gap between Nature and our youth to teach families sustainability and safe farming and gardening techniques.
Audio Title: Ep111 - Garrett Stuart aka Captain Planet
Audio Duration: 01:04:04
Number of Speakers: 2
[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to the Heroes of Reality Podcast, a podcast about the game of life and the hero's journey we all experience. Let's jump in with our host, Dylan Watkins, as he introduces today's guest.
[00:00:16] Dylan Watkins: Welcome, young adventurers. And this is going to be an episode with Garrett Stuart, Captain Planet, an environmentalist, consultant, biologist, marine scientist. Garrett uses his diverse background and love of storytelling to drive change in the future generations. His passions lies in bridging the gap between nature and our youth, to teach families sustainably and safe farming and garden techniques. I'm so excited to talk to this guy.
And without any further delay, I would like to welcome, Captain Planet.
[00:00:47] Garrett Stuart: What's up, homies? How are we doing?
[00:00:49] Dylan Watkins: Well, Cap, it's so good to see you, man. I love seeing you. I came across you on TikTok. I just love your energy, all the things that you're putting out there, all the good you're trying to do, the way you respond to criticism online as well, I think is beautiful.
We can dive into all of that out there, but first I want to learn just, if you could just tell a little bit of your origin story, what got you to be the captain? Can you please just give us just a little bit of the intro to the people at home know that?
[00:01:19] Garrett Stuart: Yeah. Well, I guess what got me to be the captain, is by starting out being a bad man, you know, I'm from Kansas, I'm from the wild west, right, and I haven't always been all pro environment and everything, even though I was a wildlife biology major, in college, for example, I was a trapper, you know, when I talk about the homies, you know, the animals, you know, I used to pay for my books and my rent and everything by knowing these skills and trapping these animals and, bashing them over the head and taking their furs to trade for bad things.
And one day, I was running my trap line and I heard this whimper and it turned into a scream once it saw me, it was a little baby coyote, you know, like a little puppy. And my trap had broken its spine. There wasn't any saving this little guy. So, I raised up that club one last time and, when I hit the trap, my hand got cut and I saw myself through the eyes of that animal, you know, and what I saw was like the angel of death. I didn't like what I seen.
And I went home and I melted down all those traps so that they would never hurt any of the homies again. And I say that that's the day that Garrett died, and Captain Planet was born, because it seems like ever since that day, I've been trying to say, I'm sorry, you know, and using those same set of skills to help make a difference. I'm getting all teary eyed already three minutes in, huh?
[00:03:09] Dylan Watkins: That's powerful man.
[00:03:12] Garrett Stuart: Becoming Captain Planet was a beautiful tragedy, you know. The scars that I still carry still to this day, to remember what I'm capable of, you know, and remember that not all of us start out as good people, you know, and I think that's why I get so happy, because I come from a place where I'd seen a lot of bad things. And so to me, when I look at my life now, it's super fun and super positive, because like I went from a life of taking lives, you know, and killing, to a life of saving, you know. I still hunt, you know, I still fish and things like that. I can't say I'm vegan because I'm not, but if some old redneck Indian, rancher from Kansas can change, you know, it’s encouragement that the rest of the world can, too.
And it's been a process of letting go of some of that bullshit ego that us men, carry around, that whole Gary Cooper, John Wayne thing that we all aspire to be. And it's some of that stuff that I still haven't figured out how to separate myself from, you know, because, anymore things like that word ego, is perverted, but honor and integrity, those fall in that same little category, you know?
So, it’s about learning how to love and not learning how to kill, all the time, for me, anyway, I had to get a little bit of blood on my hands to become Captain Planet. It’s a deep question to start out with, brother.
[00:05:06] Dylan Watkins: Yeah, man. Well, you know, I honestly I didn't know the origins of it, but it's like – to set out on a journey though, like that, I mean, you, the pain really creates purpose behind this stuff, right? And it's like, unless you sit in a spot where you're like, I don't want to be here anymore, you know, and then you start to climb your walls out, I've had my own situations where like, you know, I got in trouble with the law and I was facing a long time, and I was like, I don't want to do this no more. And I said, I'm never going to be in this situation again.
And I just climbed out, right? But you have that pain, that creates so much more meaning, than someone that's always had an easy life, a good life, and then just stayed good, they don't – it doesn't seem as valuable, right, because you can't taste both sides of that.
[00:05:57] Garrett Stuart: Yes. I said something once about, you know, being a peaceful man is about being a violent man that has it under control, you know. I like that aspect of it, you know, I've always kind of referred to myself as the shepherd who carries a spear, instead of a walking cane, you know, because sometimes you don't know when you're going to have to use that. And for me, life has been kind of about understanding the difference between being a warrior and being a gangster, you know, because anymore we're getting confused on those two.
Being a gangster, you know, you're just fighting for yourself and those around you, where that warrior is fighting for everything. And the warrior, even though it's hard not to, violence is always, should be the last choice. Like for me, I laugh a lot of things off, but inside, you know, that grizzly bear's just rattling at the cage, is begging to be let out, but I let him stay inside me, you know, because you don't know if you're going to need that bear one day. You know what I mean? I always heard that Indian story about the – you got a good wolf in you and a bad wolf, and which one wins is the one you feed the most.
And I always thought that was just so full of shit, you know, I've never in my life, heard an Indian tell that story.
[00:07:31] Dylan Watkins: It sounds good, though.
[00:07:32] Garrett Stuart: Yeah, it does sound cool, but like, in reality, at least for a man, because I don't know what it's like to be a woman, we all do have that good wolf and that bad wolf, but it's not about which one you're feeding, it's about letting both exist and run, you know what I mean? And sometimes, we get hard on ourselves because we stress, we worry, we get sad.
And nobody's teaching you guys about the science of sadness, you know, the biology of worry. Think about our mammal homies, you know, our brothers and sisters, like the raccoon, that raccoon can taste a thousand things that taste good in his life and never remember it, but he tastes one thing that makes him sick, and he'll remember it for the rest of his life, and he'll go around the whole forest, writing raccoon Yelp reviews, you know, telling us all not to try that shit.
So one of these things were – the mammals, they wake up every day, worried about four things; number one, trying not to get eaten, number two, water, number three, food, number four shelter.
And we humans, have figured out a way that we don't have to worry about those four things, at least Americans, a lot of Americans, I'm obviously not talking about Indian reservations and different places like that in America, but for the most part, people don't have to wake up worried about trying not to get eaten and water, food and shelter.
But, just because we got rid of that problem, the main problems, doesn't mean that that inherent worry, isn't flowing through our DNA, you know, so, it's like, sometimes if you can just remember, as like your own little scientist, like, hey, these are hormones that are natural and chemicals flowing through my body, making me worried, and making me negative, because that's how mammals are. When we start taking that mindset, it's almost like you can use science to take a step back and think to yourself, yeah, I'm going to give myself 20 minutes before I think about this again, you know, before I deal with this in my head, you know, because a lot of times our problems are just between our ears.
[00:10:00] Dylan Watkins: That is so true. If you're looking at those things, your body, your genes, all that stuff, it doesn't care if you're happy or not, it wants you to survive, survival above everything else. And there's certain innate characteristics that like, I know of my own, you know, monkey DNA style, I got to get up and move. I've got to get up and do something. If I just sit at home and I am in a little hole watching stuff, it might seem like I'm giving myself a treat, but I'm just treating myself like crap. And then at the end of it, you have this weird energy where you feel all exhausted and you feel, you have a sense of just like that low level anxiety, that kind of tracks, and people think that they're bad, they're wrong, they should have shame around that. And everybody else is happy because you go on TikTok and Instagram and all, and everyone's having a great time. So why are they broken, right?
[00:10:53] Garrett Stuart: Yeah. You know, I say all the time, you don't see me going live when I'm pissed off, you don't see me going live when I'm crying upset. It doesn't mean that I don't get so upset that I cry. It doesn't mean that I don't get pissed off, you know, because the mammal in me, I'm no different than a silver gorilla when I get pissed, I look like an idiot sitting there, throwing tree branches and stuff, you know, we all have those feelings.
And that's something like I always express, you know, because people – the number one thing people say to me is, you're special, and that's true. But my number one message back to people is, I was not born special, I became special, I became special, you know, because people will idolize people, and then like, I can't be that, you know, I don't want people to idolize me, like I'm some kind of eco Jesus, like I'm something that they can't be themselves, because I'm just a common man, I'm just a redneck from Kansas, I'm out here saving the oceans and stuff like that. And kids will look at me when I go to their schools and whisper, you know, I'm like, my dad said that you're Poseidon’s son, you know, that you're the Aquaman, is that true?
And I'll just laugh and be like, no, man, I'm from Kansas, homie, you know, and he'll just laugh. And then I'll lean in real close I'm like, I am the Aquaman. I need you and your buddies to be the Aquaman too, when you grow up. Can you do that for me? And they'll look at me like they're veterans of war, you know, and just get that and not even say anything like –
[00:12:51] Dylan Watkins: Soldier nod.
[00:12:52] Garrett Stuart: Yeah. And to me, like that's what's special is reaching the youth.
[00:12:57] Dylan Watkins: Looking at that, one of the things that you talk about, you talk about the only way that we can savor our oceans, because if you look at what's going on by 2050, more plastic than fish in the oceans and there's a lot of stuff like that, it feels so overwhelming for people they go, what can I even do about it?
You talk about having kids falling and getting them to fall in love with the ocean, getting them to fall in love with the planet, like, what does that look like, I mean, instilling these things? Because, you know, people, they look at you like, oh they heed it, but I can't, there's this disconnect, right? So, how do you inspire kids to fall in love the ocean? How do you get them to actually take up that mantle, and move towards that goal?
[00:13:41] Garrett Stuart: Well, I'd start out with saying the same thing as I'm going to tell you, deep breath in with me, inhale, now, you got to shrug your shoulders, shake them around a little bit, because I got a deep breath, deep, get in real deep as you can.
Yeah, you're smiling. Love oxygen. That first breath that you took with me, see all the plants behind me, you can thank every plant that you've ever seen growing on the soil, but that second breath you took with me, that deeper breath, that 70% of the oxygen that this planet needs, you can thank the liquid love, the ocean, you know, so for even a kid in Kansas, every other breath is, thanks to the ocean, you know? So, even the rain that falls on this parent's crops in Kansas, that rain comes from the ocean. One day, it returns to the ocean, so, we got to protect our water.
People grow up being disconnected, even though the connection is all around us, we just grew up in a world that doesn't allow us to set still long enough to just plug in our roots again. So, getting connected to the ocean, you don't have to – you don't have to live five minutes from the ocean, you can simply just breathe, and be connected to mother ocean. 700 million people survive on coral reefs per year, you know, and that's just the corals, that's not the oceans. Corals are less than 0.01% of our ocean surface area, it’s how important this is. So, even for that kid in Kansas, there's only so many cows, right? And so, you save that reef, you save the food, save the food, you keep the peace.
So, I mean, we all know, like when I get hungry, I act like Joe Pesci off that Snickers commercial. I'm here to amuse you, make you laugh? What do you mean I'm a funny guy? I get hangry. And I'm the kind of guy you don't want to whip out a sandwich in front of me when I'm hangry, because I'll give you that weird look like I'm going to take your sandwich, boy. And I did – for any of us – we used to have green seeker technology satellites spying on Russia, back in the cold war to look at chlorophyll levels in their corn so we could plug in our algorithm equations and predict their yield.
So, if we thought that Russia was going to have a bad year on corn, we would lower our prices of corn for Russia, in order to not prevent a – in order to not have a war, we're preventing warfare because we know when people get hungry, they get angry, and more reason, you know.
So, saving the ocean, really, when it comes down to it, saving coral reefs are a matter of international security, you know, and people need to realize just how important that is. You know, 25% of the species who live in the ocean call coral reefs, their home, so, if we lose those coral reefs, which 2050 is the same year they're projecting that to be extinct as they are with the more plastics in our ocean than fish pound per pound. People get a little sad because they only hear the bad parts, you don't hear about how me and Dr. Coral can accomplish in two years, what takes nature 800 years, like me and my homie, Dr. David Bond, can literally reskin the world's coral reefs faster than it's dying. The support – we don't get the support because you don't hear about it, you know? And that becomes the issue.
[00:18:00] Dylan Watkins: Yeah. I was, very recently, I was fortunate to be on Kona, the Big Island and I got to go swim around the coral, and you could see that they're like, we're going to take you to the nicest parts of the coral. We got to swim around there, you know, they want to make sure you didn't have any of the bad stuff on you, as you're doing it. And you could see the coral was like, it was beautiful, but at the same time, you could tell it was dying. There was this element of kind of the beauty and sadness there because you recognize that there's a piece of us that like natural beauty, we have this effect on it and you can see a bunch of people jump in the water, just cycling in, jumping in the water to check out the beauty, and while we're trying to appreciate the beauty, we're also stomping on the land, so, you know, one of the big questions that people say is, they can feel that pain, but what can be done? What does that look like?
Are you able to reskin the – you're talking about the coral, even if there has – the detrimental effects in the oceans, can you talk a little bit about the project you're working on? I've seen some of the work you've done online, but I'd love for you to elaborate a bit.
[00:19:01] Garrett Stuart: So, imagine my hand is a piece of like Staghorn Coral, and I'm seeing this part bleach, this part bleach, and when I say bleach, it's when corals turn white. So, to understand this, we need to kind of take a step back and understand the coral. People all the time are like, what is coral? Is it a rock? Is it an animal? Is it a plant? Is it a bacteria? And I'm like, yeah, because it's like all of those things. So, first and foremost, it's an animal. It starts its life as an animal, its closest relative is the jellyfish.
So, this jellyfish like animal, a long time ago, he builds this hard calcium carbonate structure, this skeleton, same thing as limestone, what shells are made out of. So, a long time ago, he looks over at Zooxanthellaez, let's just call them Zoox, it's a specific kind of algae, and he’s like, yo, Zoox, if I build the hard calcium carbonate resort, will your homies want to move in here and like pay the rent and paint the crib? And Zoox is like, yeah, we're always living in soft stuff like Cassiopea, the upside down jellyfish, getting eaten by sea turtles, trying to get stoned, we would love to move into this hard calcium carbonate hotel where the only thing that's going to eat on us is parrotfish.
So the Zoox, the Zooxanthellaez move inside of the coral. And that's what paints the house, that's what gives coral its color. Not only that, it pays the rent, meaning 90% to 98% of the energy that the coral animal needs to survive, is simply received photosynthetically, by the algae, Zoox that lives inside of him, you know, so it's paying the rent and it's painting the crib.
So, now that we know that part, and we're talking about coral bleaching, when a coral turns white, now you understand that it's actually like an algae problem that becomes a coral problem. You know, so, what's happening is, it's getting too hot and too acidic, too fast. And the algae can't adjust. So, the algae's producing 90%, 98% of the food that this animal needs, well, then all of a sudden, it gets overworked, it's too hot, it's not producing as well. So, let's say it's only giving 60% of the energy, the coral's response to that, is, oh no, I'm sick. So, it expels everything out of its body in order to lower the likelihood of disease. And this is a phenomenon called coral bleaching. And it only has a matter of months to get the algae back inside of it before it dies forever.
And coral bleaching is normal, but now, the algae's not coming back inside, which is not normal. Over half of our coral reefs on earth are already dead, because of this phenomenon that keeps happening and it's caused from being too hot, too acidic, too fast.
So, now that we know a little bit about that, back to your question, is, how we're going to do it? So, imagine my hand is a piece of coral, and this part is bleaching, and this part is bleaching, meaning it's all turned white, except for this stem of it. For whatever reason, the genetics in here, the genome is more adapted to the climate change, so, we cut that off with a saw, and we take it back to a lab and it's called micro fragmentation, so we fragment this coral, into all those little holes, we separate them, because a few years back from an accident, we figured out if we did that, we can grow in two weeks what used to take three to five years to grow in a piece of coral.
And we take those corals and we plant them back out onto the reef. So, let's say there's a rock this big, as big as me, I can sit there and take the coral with the same genomes like that same stem, and I can go boo, boo, boo, and basically plant polkadots, and in two years, all those polkadots fuse together, and that whole boulder will be covered with live coral again, you know, reskinning a reef, that is actually what I'm meaning.
So, for those nerds that are really into that, you can buy Dr. Coral's new book, Active Coral Restoration, it is a very nerdy read, but a great read, you know.
[00:23:54] Dylan Watkins: That’s super powerful and that’s amazing. So, if I understand you correctly, so, what you're doing is, you're taking the last pieces of the coral that is the most resilient, breaking it apart, and you're reseeding it, almost like a hair transplants or something like that, where you're taking the parts that are the most resilient, and you're moving it from the rich neighborhood, to the poor neighborhood, and letting it reseed around, and do its thing.
[00:24:16] Garrett Stuart: Exactly.
[00:24:18] Garrett Stuart: That's powerful. And so, then –
[00:24:19] Garrett Stuart: We could grow corals that we're predicting will survive in the oceans that we are seeing 50 years from now, more warmer, more acidic oceans. We don't want to regrow the corals that are already screwed and that are already dying. It doesn't mean that entire species have to be eliminated. It means that specific genomes are being concentrated upon in those species. You know, we're looking at genome number 56, when it comes to Staghorns, you know, and this and that. And it’s cool how science can help, you know, and Dr. David Vaughn, who's the leading scientist in the world in coral restoration, this is his work that I'm talking about, he told me once, you know, Captain, technology got us into this pickle, but it can also be technology that can bring us out.
He, right now is up for an X-price where he could potentially get a hundred million dollars from Elon Musk, to help restore coral reefs. So, there's cool companies out there, you know, like Patagonia, North Face and all them who do the 1% for the planet, which I actually just reminded. I got to send an email back, I got accepted into that program.
What that is, is, companies who want to have a voluntary tax, they donate 1% of their profits, back to environmental nonprofits that are doing things like me, to help the world out in regards to climate change and stuff like that. So, Patagonia alone, donates about a hundred million dollars per year to different organizations like mine, you know, so it's really, really cool, you know, and I think that it would be neat if some companies who don't want to voluntarily have that tax, could just go ahead and have that tax anyway.
Mike Jordan, what the hell have you ever done for me and my planet? Nothing. You know, other than having kids, getting shot out in the streets to buy your shoes that are made in China. How about you get tax 1%? Like, Mosaic, you know, Monsanto, why aren't they paying 1%? Why is it North Face? You know what I mean?
[00:26:48] Dylan Watkins: Yeah. Well, it’s –
[00:26:50] Garrett Stuart: Their taxing some poor, small business appliance store, you know, or the guy who does framing for paintings and stuff, like, no, but some of these giant corporations, that are known for polluting, you know, they need to be considering being put on that tax as well.
[00:27:09] Dylan Watkins: Yeah. We have a weird thing here where like, in the U.S., we have the game of capitalism, right? That's the game. The game is, make as much money at all costs. And the challenges is, that dollar, they're really good at abstracting out that dollar, and detaching from everything that gets made to make that dollar, right, so, one’s time and effort, but one of the things that get is like suffering, right, like you don't see all the suffering that gets made when you create those shoes, or you create that thing, or you create that stuff, or the suffering that you create from families when you have like, you know, mono crop cultures or whatever it might be.
So, it's a really interesting thing that we don't – we've kind of abstracted it out, but what I like about this, is that, that reintegration of like a holistic viewpoint, to kind of say, okay, the ocean is so incredibly powerful, you know, and it's such an important piece of resistance, like how can we do our part?
And we just recently – so I live in, California, Orange County, other side of the coast, and we recently had one of the largest oil spills right off of our area, that just happened like a couple weeks ago, and it was one of those situations that we've never had that issue, but you see all of these oil rigs out there, and you kind of feel the sense of like people want to contribute.
There's also a bunch of people that volunteer on the beach to pick up stuff, but I feel like that's like, what can you do once it's there, to that. Is there anything that we can do with technology that can help with that type of situation? Because people want to help, but we're not familiar with the, you know, what you're talking about, fragmentation or these other types of situations to be able to help when stuff like that happens, other than hang along the shore and then pick out the pits that kind of wash along.
[00:28:55] Garrett Stuart: Absolutely. You know, I'm going to walk inside before it starts to get too dark. One thing that I've noticed too, you know, social media, for example, social media can be a good tool, that's how you found me. But for whatever reason, people have taken social media as a tool that can be used in this battle, and thinking that it's the only tool, you know? And it's almost like, people just think that they can just Facebook their problems away, and it's not going to happen.
My number one kind of complaint that I have with different people is like, I'll see them on Facebook, this is people that I'm like literally friends with, I'll see them on Facebook, raise an absolute hell about Mosaic, and I'll drive three hours to the meeting in their backyard, and then they don't show up, ever, you know? And it's like, you're expecting government to, to read your personal profiles on Facebook, to see what you're complaining about, and you're not showing up in the actual meetings or they're holding a meeting saying, hey, dear public, if you got anything to say, now would be your time.
Well, when it's me and three other guys that look just like Jesus, it's not exactly the pressure that we need to put on our local governments. So, we need to also remember that, you know, podcasts and social media and all this stuff, it doesn't replace real action. And actually being there, what these tools are for, is inspiring people to take some fucking action.
Excuse my French, because that's one thing that I would like to see more of. Sometimes I feel like years have gone by, and people are cheering me on from social media, and it's like, I'm begging you to get in the trenches with me, and help me fight, you know, like I don't need cheer, you know, I need warriors, you know?
So, it's one of those things that, you know, I use social – oh my battery thing. I use social media to help inspire, you know, no different than you're doing this podcast to help inspire, but we got to remember that, that doesn't replace boots on the ground, you know, that we always have to keep our boots on the ground when the day's done, you know?
[00:31:34] Dylan Watkins: Yeah. Well, that's one of the hard things. I mean, why we love watching movies of heroes? Why like the Montage, like when you see the Montage the movie, it's like the heroes got to go do, nine months of hard work. And so what we do is, we get to watch 60 seconds of them, hitting a punching bag, and that's it. And it goes by, and you're like, oh, that was great. So much effort and I just got it in 60 seconds, right. Same thing like TikTok and all that thing. So, we admire the hero of the story because we know it takes great effort, but at the same time we have those genes, those same sadness genes, we also have lazy human monkey genes that make us want to do as little effort as possible to eat the fruit, right.
And so, it's both sides of those equations. So, if you can inspire people to the path of saying like, look, if you take this action, you can actually have an effect. That is one of the things that like, you’re right, you can get inspired all day long, but then you've got to be – to use that as a fuel source, otherwise, you'll just – you'll rage out and slam into the keyboards. And that is all you're going to go to.
[00:32:37] Garrett Stuart: You don't see me doing that because I don't have the energy because I'm doing something, but I’m not going to lie. My favorite thing in the world to do, is feeling – one of my favorite things to do, especially anymore, is just not doing a damn thing, but I'm getting to the point where I'm earning that too, you know, like – and what I'm meaning is, I can chill a lot better when I'm ready to chill, knowing I did so much when I wasn't chilling, like I could not leave the house tomorrow, and I still know that I filtered millions and millions of gallons, tomorrow, of water, because of all the reefs I put in yesterday and the day before.
That helps my chill. And I think that everyone's the same on that, we can't chill very well when we have a to-do list that we're constantly putting off, you know? And I, for one, have spent my whole life being horrible about that. My to-do list just get thicker and thicker, you know, but, And then you get to a point where you're breaking promises. Like I was sitting there and making a necklace on a TikTok live and you're on there, hey Captain, you're supposed to be – and I said, cool, man, like, I'm not the kind of dude that signs up for something and then doesn't go through, I just merely forgot. And as soon as I saw, it's like, cool, I'll hop off of this live real quick and we'll go straight to a podcast, you know.
[00:34:22] Dylan Watkins: I can verify that, yeah. So funny.
[00:34:25] Garrett Stuart: I might be tired enough that I'd forget about it. I spent like four days in the Everglades working with the Gladesmen, to restore a camp down there with the national park service, but my point is, don't make so many vows, you need some more chill time, because you check box some stuff off of that to do list, whether it's for the earth or yourself, or your family, you know, because it'll help you chill more. And the more you chill and the more you relax, the longer you live, you know, me, I'll probably live 160.
[00:35:05] Dylan Watkins: We're working on it, man.
[00:35:08] Garrett Stuart: I could teach Snoop Dog how to chill.
[00:35:11] Dylan Watkins: I actually had a friend on the podcast who's actually working on like ending aging, and one of his missions, right, he’s trying to use tech and that kind of stuff. But you’re right, there's an endless to-do list in life, right, but if you hit the most meaningful things, right, we're never going to like run at a to-do items, but if you can hit the most meaningful items and focus on that and knock that out, then you feel better. You feel like you – because otherwise, you do that, it's like that whole like sand in a jar metaphor they're talking about, you have the sands, the small rocks and the big rocks. You try to fit it all in. And if you put in the sand first and then the little rocks, you don’t have room for the big rocks.
But if you put in the big rocks first, and then the little rocks go in between, and then finally, sand will fill up at the end and you can fit it all, but just like, knock out the big stuff first, right?
[00:35:58] Garrett Stuart: And sometimes you just got to do some stuff for you. You know, like me, dude, I've had some of the coolest jobs, you know, like titles, like Marine scientist, and the wildlife biologist, and I would absolutely hate it, it's because I hate taking orders from anyone that's not me and it made me completely miserable to sell my time for money.
And finally, I got over that, and I just said, hey, you know, at 37, well, now I'm 37, I would've been 35, I guess at the time, so at 35, I don't think I'm going to ever change. Let's try to work for myself. As I said before, I love to chill, so I always want to work for myself because you know, I treat myself good, well, yeah man, it turns out I'm a hard ass like, oh now I'm working seven days a week, but like I was sitting there just a couple days ago next to a national park service employee, and I was helping them paint the side of this building, right, and I looked over at them and I laughed, and I said, you know, back when I had your job and was being paid to do what we're doing, I would've bitched the whole time, but being here for free and being the only guy in just a pair of board shorts and no shirt, just walking around like a homeless hippie and guys covered in camouflage, I was like, but now, I'm sitting here doing the same shit for free, and completely happy, you know, just because it's not someone telling me to do it.
[00:37:43] Dylan Watkins: See, but that's a trick though, right there is one of the things that you just talked on, that I think is really important to note is that, everybody wants the easy life, but more than the easy life, they want the meaningful life. So many people go into entrepreneurship because they think it's going to be easier, ah, easier, less work, the boss isn’t going to be here.
[00:38:04] Garrett Stuart: It’s harder, it's more meaningful. I mean, like I bought a damn folding computer a couple weeks ago, one of the things you put on your lap and it opens up. And I'm sitting here on my phone, because I don't know how to work my $2,000 folding computer, you know, like, but I try to figure it out, you know what I mean, and Lord knows, like, I was that guy that said, hey, computers are just a phase, don't fall for this stuff. And boy, I bit the crow on that one, because now, I own two online businesses, you know, it's like social media stuff, my god. So I got me the folding computer, and I do all these things that I don't want to do, in order to work for myself, but it makes me happy, because if I wake up and I got to poop, I don't have to call anyone and explain to them that my body's pooping right now, and I'm going to be a few minutes late, you know.
[00:39:04] Dylan Watkins: It's not good conversation.
[00:39:06] Garrett Stuart: Yeah, that freedom right there just means a lot to me, and it’s made me a lot happier person, but it took a leap of faith because I'm a man that likes security and not possibility. And I was that dude that would rather take a check and know I'm taken care of next month, than to wing it. So, it's been a struggle, but it's been a fun struggle.
[00:39:30] Dylan Watkins: Yeah. It's really interesting because we, I mean, like starting your own business and all that stuff, I mean, you very much go into hunter gathering mode, right, because you only eat what you kill in that proverbial sense, right, and then at the same time though, like we want certainty. And so it's like we've constantly built situations around us. We've enclosed ourselves in this technological womb, right, this safe place where we have plumbing that brings the poop out, we have showers that brings the water in, we are insulated in this thing that's really – that makes things convenient, but the same time, we want this freedom, we want to feel, wow, we want to get into the oceans.
and there's this weird thing, because we also connect, like I've noticed this, I love both high technology, I'm into like virtual reality, deep seated stuff., that's my company, that's what I do, right, but I also love sitting by a fire, sitting by a campfire. I recently got to go in and like check out some lobsters and do like lobster diving, for the first time ever, a couple weeks ago, just to see what that was like.
And, they’re two opposite ends of the spectrum, two very different things, but I feel like, as humans, we want both, right, you want both sides, you want the convenience, but then you want the freedom, you want the nature, but then you want the technology. It's a really weird thing that we're at as humans in this day.
[00:40:53] Garrett Stuart: Yeah, me included, you know. I wanted real freedom, you know, so I went out and I became a mountain man in the Pacific Northwest and built my own cabin and you know, was completely off grid, you know? And I remember a moose hunter, saw me when I was walking, you know, and he's got a big old pack, you know, because this is about 2-, 3-day walk where I was at. He looked at me, well, what are you doing up here? Because I didn't have nothing on me, you know, I was like, I'm just up here living, man. I got me a little cabin back over the other side of the hill, and he just looked at me and he looked up me up and down and he said, you don't answer to nobody do you, boy?
And I just smiled real big and said, no, sir, I reckon not. But pretty soon, that smile faded, you know, I went up to the mountains to seek true freedom, no electricity, no nothing. And I found that the only freedom that I truly wanted was the freedom to be comfortable. it was that mix that you're talking about.
[00:42:05] Dylan Watkins: Yeah, the easy road, man, but it's not as meaningful.
[00:42:09] Garrett Stuart: Yeah. It's always nice to go hunting at Bob Evans every now and then, you know?
[00:42:15] Dylan Watkins: Yeah, yeah. It's easier. It's easier. So, well, let me ask you, like, what is like – so, with you and like, what's your, what I call, holy grail, like, what is your goal, what is your mission, what is a thing like, if you could, you know, wave an easy wand, magic, easy one that makes everything possible, like what would you want to see and have your mission come true?
[00:42:41] Garrett Stuart: Seeing people live with the earth again. There was a holy man that once said a long time ago, said that, a vision is needed, and the man who has it, has to stick out like the Eagle follows the deepest blue in the sky. And I had a dream, and a tornado was in the dream and it went into my eye, and what I saw, I can't really talk about, but what I'll say, is that if I could wave a magic wand, it would be for people to know that they're of earth, they're of ocean, you know, and how they're treating their mother, you know, because if we treated our own mother better, I think we treat each other better too, you know, and all this fight between black and white, and red and yellow, and all this, and just understand that we're all creatures of earth and anybody claiming to understand that God would need to understand that their God created this too, you know, it's why I don't say I hate Trump or I hate Biden, I don't hate nothing, man.
If I said that I hated someone, that'd be the same thing, my auntie says this, that's the same thing to saying that you hate creator, you know, it's about understanding all these different feelings and stuff. And I feel like if we lived more in tune with the earth, because we're still cavemen, we just figured out how to build our own caves that had the pipes of shit. And grandpa said that when everybody started pooping inside and eating outside, the world went backwards.
[00:44:41] Dylan Watkins: It is true.
[00:44:42] Garrett Stuart: You know, but that would be my magic wand, is for everybody to live in tune with the earth, you know? And if everybody could just peak out of my heart for a little bit, I think the world would be a better place, we'd start understanding why these Monsanto people are bad, and why these Mosaic people are bad, and we shouldn't sell pieces of our earth to them. The earth belongs to the creator, you know? So, we treat her so bad that like, while we've been fighting wars on terrorism, the earth has declared war on terrorism. The problem is, me and you are the terrorists, you know, and that's real.
[00:45:37] Dylan Watkins: Yeah. How can we live not as viruses that are taking over the planet, like the matrix said, kind of thing, like, how do we actually integrate? And that's one thing that I'm really interested in, is those, like, kind of holism, those sustainable societies, those people that are able to – that you know, that are able to create these kind of, you’re talking about the safe ways to garden and fish, that is actually a more of a holistic design that we could actually work in a sustainable system because there's kind of like this, you know, there's two sides of it, right, there's the quick and effective, destructive, short sided burst of energy, right, and there's that slow burn, like fat burning energy, the things that take a while, take more time and more effort, but like, you know, like, in terms of designing sustainable cities and sustainable places, you know, what would that look like in terms of trying to integrate, you know, trying to actually make that possible?
[00:46:33] Garrett Stuart: Done it, dude, like, it's already good. We’re just, we're waiting on old people to die, I mean, I'm just be real with you. We're waiting for old people to die, old people in politics that refuse to let this kind of stuff happen. My uncle alone, for example, has figured out how to, take 900,000 aquatic acres and supply United States with sustainable electricity, by using duckweed, genetically modified duckweed that has more free, radical moving electrons, moving around it.
And we can literally produce electricity like biological, solar panels, you know, we already have figured out how to run our gasoline engines on this plant, with biobutanol, like biodiesel per gasoline cars, for a matter of 20 cents a gallon, you know, we have all these cool technologies out, brother.
I got off the phone last week with a company in Sweden, who's making these big old box fan looking things, you know, and these cool little dudes, figured out a way to trap carbon and safely store it in the earth for thousands of years. And not only that, but use the carbon and make energy out of it that feeds our cars, so like, we could go from polluting in our car, to using the same car, to help pollution. It's pretty nuts. And again, why don't we implement these things that we've already figured out? Because we're just waiting on old people to die in politics, let the new blood come, let the new people that are going to run this earth, run it, and get out of the damn way, get out of our way, you know, because you're running our planet into the ground and it's not fair for my grandchild.
[00:48:39] Dylan Watkins: There's a saying, two sayings, but one is like, you can't make a man understand something that his paycheck won't let him understand. And that's one of the things with these people that are getting paid, the whole, special interest groups and all that jazz, I’m not getting like super deep into politics, but when you're getting paid a paycheck, it's very difficult to make a non self-serving decision that stops you from growing.
But you're right, the thing is, we're constantly innovating and you know, these new techs that are coming out, I think things like that, if we could find a way to cut the middleman, if you made a way for people to easily and frictionlessly, be able to order things online, like Teslas, you can order a Tesla, it'll show up your house. It will like auto bot, they'll drive it up to your house, order it online. If you can just cut out that middleman and have that, and the more people knew about this and the more it became common knowledge, the better all these things would be, like, I didn't really know about the duckweed.
[00:49:35] Garrett Stuart: Down here in Florida, I shouldn't be shipping sweet corn to Washington state and California so you all can eat sweet corn, why LA got skyscraper buildings that are no longer apartment complexes and are now their own growing facilities. Like we've learned so much with vertical agriculture and I'm also an agricultural scientist, and that stuff is just beyond amazing like, as far as per square foot, like cities can be producing their own food, we can be cleaning up our own feces and urine, with that same duckweed technology, we could run a lot of these duckweed plants on preexisting, water sewage treatment facilities, you know, and literally be using our own poop, to grow high grade fertilizer so that we're not using our own actual shit as first straight fertilizer, even though it's okay, people just can't get over it, but that's when I'll take some duckweed and integrate that.
So we're like, you're not eating your own poop, you're eating duckweed it was grown by your own poop.
[00:50:53] Dylan Watkins: Reduce, reuse, recycle.
[00:50:54] Garrett Stuart: Yeah.
[00:50:55] Dylan Watkins: Yeah. So, how do people become more aware of this? Because I think what it is, is, you're talking about one is having old people die, and that makes sense. I think another one is –
[00:51:05] Garrett Stuart: No disrespect to my elders. We all know that we're talking about a few select old people in office that have been there for a long time and won't leave on the parties, you know, like –
[00:51:17] Dylan Watkins: yeah. And –
[00:51:19] Garrett Stuart: Such a disrespect little turd
[00:51:22] Dylan Watkins: No, but you're looking at a situation where one of it is an awareness problem, another thing is a friction issue, right? Because we are lazy, but if everybody could just wake up tomorrow and go, I click to use this fuel over this fuel, I click to eat this thing and this thing, and it was as simple as a click of a button that they could do as they swipe, you know, up on TikTok, and so, the question is, how do people become more aware of this? How do people start to integrate this? What would this look like for people to take these small steps forward?
[00:51:50] Garrett Stuart: I think it’s a matter of integrating people, like imagine if Captain Planet and Elon Musk started hanging out, or like, you've got a buddy who writes software program, you know, like, like he makes apps, and starts hanging out with Captain Planet. And just off the top of my head, we make an app called Native or Not, not all the bullshit that comes along with all the plant identification, just tell somebody if it's native or not, you know what I mean? And, you know, some of these concepts, like, Buycott, I liked Buycott, but then it just kind of disappeared, like stopped being updated, I guess.
[00:52:35] Dylan Watkins: I don't know what Buycott is.
[00:52:36] Garrett Stuart: What Buycott was, is this cool app that was, you pulled this app open and basically went through your morals. Like if you're anti GMO, like Monsanto, or let's say you're vegan, you go in and put all your personal information, and then I could be at Publix and literally take my phone and scan the barcode on the ketchup, and it'd be like, yo, Captain Planet, there's eight different reasons why you shouldn't want to buy this Hunts ketchup and a different one, like the green wise of Publix, and it'd be like, hey, you know, like – so it's taken technology because you don't know that Nestle owns Hot Pockets when you're like, yeah, fuck Nestle, I don't want to support Nestle. I'll stop buying their candy and their water.
We don’t know Hot Pockets is Nestle, you don't know that all, you know, Kelloggs is Monsanto, and Doritos is Mosaic and all these little things, but that was a cool app that like allowed you not to have to spend hours per day learning all this crap and simply just scan the stuff at the grocery store so you know that your dollars are making a bigger impact. Like I don't want to support Tyson. You know? I don't like Tyson. I don't want to support him, you know, and then, but I don't know that, Marie Callender's is owned by Tyson, you know, and I might be wrong on that one, but you know, there's a lot of those things that it makes it hard if you want to truly boycott Nestle.
You don't realize all the different things that Nestle owes. I think that was a cool one, but like taking that and taking it to different levels, you know, and I mean, like making it to where, there's different places like dive shops or whatever that have these scales, where you go take your trash and they weigh it on this scale and it goes up to this other app that like keeps track of how much trash people are pulling out because when somebody's like, cool. I've picked up enough trash, well, they say to themselves like, well, shit, man, I want to win today. You know? And then they have like personal thing, like Johnny Smith, got the most pounds like, Natalie Daniels got the weirdest fucking trash, you know what I mean? Like different categories.
[00:55:13] Dylan Watkins: So what you're talking about is like, you turn into games, right?
You're creating these systems that are easy and frictionless. And you know, a lot about this – a lot of what this podcast is about, is like the game of life, right? And it's about how you turn things into games, how you turn your mission into games, how do you do these things.
And I've seen people – I've seen interesting game models that people have done that like, instead of there being an, if you drive over the speed limit, you get a ticket it's if you drive under the speed limit, you get into a lottery. And so, the whole thing is that, the more times you pass it, you go on the line, so, everyone is trying to do that because now they're in that. And then there's all the ones that have the same thing. I think they did it with trash, where, when you put a trash away, you get like a lotto ticket and then you don't know who's going to win. And so you're, you're competing and stuff. So, those things are incredible. And people that can take those and integrate those things and actually roll them out into systems are –
[00:56:01] Garrett Stuart: They pick up, man. You know, like you ever pulled up in a drive through, and then like, you don't have to pay for your thing because the person in front of you paid for it?
[00:56:11] Dylan Watkins: Literally happened to me. two days ago.
[00:56:16] Garrett Stuart: Isn’t that the coolest thing in the world? Did you not pay for the person behind you, to have the same experience?
[00:56:23] Dylan Watkins: I tried. I tried and they said – oh, they already had paid for that. I was like, can I pay for them? Yeah, I felt that reciprocity of just like, oh my God, that was really cool.
[00:56:33] Garrett Stuart: Yeah. That unexpected, you know, that can catch people, you know? And, you know, teaching like I've been trying to do like educational, invasive plant species, like to where, you know, I saw today, there was a post a mother made of her kids out there cleaning the air potatoes in a neighbor's yard. And I was like, there's my kids right there. That's because they're hanging out with Captain Planet so much, like. because, you know, they're already learning what's in their neighbor's, yard's, it’s going to be in their yard.
You know, as a wheat farmer, I take care of my neighbors, you know, because if I'm growing wheat and I let my neighbors grow shit wheat, then their genetics, when the wind, it comes into my wheats, and it lowers my wheat, you know? So, that's why we take care of our neighbors because your wheat is only as good as your farmers, or your neighbors, you know? So, it's that kind of same concept, you know, and we make little games with these air potatoes, like who collects the most and who collects the weirdest, you know, like the weirdest shape one, you know, and just whatever we come up with, you know, and it's all about having fun with it and being involved.
[00:57:53] Dylan Watkins: See, that's the other bit, is fun. People take this thing so seriously they get so –
[00:57:59] Garrett Stuart: Having fun, dude, always.
[00:58:02] Dylan Watkins: And that's the thing. If you can have fun with the kids, teach them some things and you have the – you have the transformation be the byproduct, right, you have like, okay guys, we're going to pick up the trash. I saw one guy that they did, they were on like, they did trash pickups, but then they did, in like – and then they did parties, it was like a trash pickup then party. And so they had the DJs come out, they had this stuff. So, everyone got a little trash, whoever got the most trash, all that stuff, and then it was like, do, do, do, do, do – I was like – and they would go all around.
[00:58:32] Garrett Stuart: This is how we do it. I can sing.
[00:58:36] Dylan Watkins: That's what I'm talking about, man.
[00:58:39] Garrett Stuart: It’s never late for you.
[00:58:42] Dylan Watkins: But that's what we need, we need more people having fun doing good. If you can have fun, do good and inspire other people, it's so important.
[00:58:50] Garrett Stuart: Bad as the media wants to make it sound like, as a scientist, I'll tell you, the earth isn’t dying, homie. The earth is changing and she's got a right to change, just like you have a right to change. If you're too hot, do you not put on some board shorts? How would you like some damn squirrel telling you that you shouldn't be able to put on board shorts? Like, that's how we take climate change, you know what I mean? It's about us not adding to the problem, us not making her change too fast, like with coral reefs, that's on us, you know.
Corals have been around for 550 million years, so, it's on us that over half of them have already died, but it could be on us, to bring it back like Jurassic park days, man, you know?
[00:59:41] Dylan Watkins: Yeah. And I mean, that's the power of the technology, right? It’s a magnification of intent. What do you want to do with it? Do you want to order Amazon to your house, which nothing wrong with it, I very much enjoy it, but also, being able to actually do some good with it and which is one of the things why I'm so excited to talk to you. because I know you have these coral reef projects, you have these other things. I know there's people that are building sustainable cities that just don't know about this tech, they don't know how to integrate it. And I know there's a lot of like, UN sustainable development projects where people are building sustainable cities.
And I think, you know, if any of them hooked up with you on how to do this type of stuff and actually integrate it, I think it'd be a powerful thing.
[01:00:24] Garrett Stuart: Oh yeah, absolutely. It's just getting the right people together. And that's where some of this social media stuff can be a great tool. People who know something like they'll see me. And that's why I was on the phone with this company in Sweden, like them trying to get me to support them, because they know that people pay attention to what I say. And so, like me checking them out, like, yeah, this is cool. I can get behind this. I'm not making no money off of it. You know, I, don't – not doing some commission thing, like it's just simply because I care, you know what I mean?
[01:01:02] Dylan Watkins: A hundred percent.
[01:01:03] Garrett Stuart: But sometimes you go inter Captain Planet in the promo code, I get a little commission, hey, I got a job too.
[01:01:12] Dylan Watkins: Win-win, man, it's a, win-win totally. And things like, if you can find something that supports you, and you support the world at the same time, you support people around you, you know, there's a bunch of different ways to do it.
So, Captain, with that, all that being said, one, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate you being flexible and popping on, man, I've really enjoyed chatting with you.
[01:01:34] Garrett Stuart: I was walking to my charger.
[01:01:38] Dylan Watkins: Well, we're getting towards to the top of the hour. So, what I'd love to say is, is there anything else you'd like to let people know about, before you tell them how they get ahold of you and find more about the good work that you do, brother?
[01:01:50] Garrett Stuart: Yeah. So, I mean, I haven't mentioned the fact that like, I do artificial reefs. This is something super cool to where these are more like artificial mangroves that go underneath docks. So, you don't have to have permits, you also don't have to live in Florida or on the water to be able to help. You can donate from anywhere in the world. I've had people clear from India to Italy, purchasing these artificial reefs. I put them into a restaurant down here in Florida. That way, if you're ever in the state and you want to come check out your reef, you can. I also do all kinds of cool classes, eco tours, camping adventures, you name it.
[01:02:35] Dylan Watkins: How do find that? Like, if they're going to look for the eco tours and the artificial reefs, and they want to be able to contribute, they want to purchase, they want to get involved, like what does that, how do they find you?
[01:02:45] Garrett Stuart: The EcoPreservationProject.com. I even make like some cool eco swag, I just made this one, when you caught me on that live with the alligator scoop, some old Indian trade beads and stuff on there.
[01:02:59] Dylan Watkins: That’s beautiful brother. So, if you get a chance, support Captain. This is a really cool mission. This is something that – I love what you're doing. You put out a ton of great vibes. I found you on TikTok, but I know you're all over the place. I know you have a YouTube channel. So, EcoPreservation.com, correct?
[01:03:18] Garrett Stuart: Yeah. EcoPreservationProject.com. The name is Eco Preservation Project.
[01:03:26] Dylan Watkins: Love it. Thank you so much for your time, brother. I appreciate all the good work that you do. Keep it up, Cap and I'll see you on the other side, okay?
[01:03:35] Garrett Stuart: You bet, dude. I had fun, man. Thank you for having me.
[01:03:38] Dylan Watkins: Me too, brother, appreciate you. Take care.
[01:03:39] Garrett Stuart: Bye-bye.
[01:03:40] Dylan Watkins: Bye now.
[01:03:42] Outro: Thank you for listening to the Heroes of Reality Podcast. Check out HeroesofReality.com for more episodes. While you're there, you can also take the Hero's Quiz to find out what kind of hero you are, or, if you have a great story and want to be on the podcast, tell us why your hero's journey will inspire others. Thank you for listening. See you on the other side.
