[music] Hey there, welcome to Big Blend Radio with your host, Lee Sun Nancy, editors of Big Blend Magazine.com. [music] In 1999, Aaron Baker broke his neck in a motocross accident, and it left him completely paralyzed from the neck down. And the doctors gave him a very grim prognosis, and he just kept moving forward over the next 16 years. He decided not to listen to those who said he had a million to one odds of ever feeding himself again. Think about that. Think about that. And instead, he just kept going, he moved forward. And he's like a little medical miracle, but it's also about perseverance. It's about fighting the odds. It's an incredible story, and we're very excited to talk about that today. We have director Dominic Gill and writer/producer Nadia Gill joining us here on Big Blend Radio today to discuss the orchard inspiring new and award-winning documentary about Aaron. It's called "Coming to My Senses." And it shares Aaron's story about perseverance. It shares everything it talks about moving forward by your own free will. And I encourage everybody, it's out. Go to mycensus.com, that's T-O-MyCensus.com. Go there, they're on Facebook and Twitter, everywhere. But you're going to be able to get this online and through all those digital formats. So check it out. Welcome, Dominic. How are you? Good. How are you? No, doing good, doing good. And feeling pumped up after watching the movie or the documentary. And I think this is so important that you've done this because it's inspiring people on a very important issue where people aren't being cared for when it comes to neurological issues and that things can be changed. But also telling a story of beating the odds that don't give up, the personal. Absolutely. Yeah. There's a huge gap in the market for recovery between fully able-bodied people that go to the gym and kind of take for granted daily exercise and people for one reason or another that can't do that and where does that leave them? We live in a society where we know that mobility and activity is kind of important, yet we don't necessarily give everyone the tools to be able to do it. Yeah. Exactly. I think this is so important. And we also have Nadia here. Nadia, welcome. How are you doing? Good. Thank you very much for having us on the show. That's really wonderful to hear how much the film has touched people. Yeah. It really is. He has won so many awards. And I mean, how is that Nadia sitting there with footage and going, "Okay, we're going to edit this. We're going to... Did you want to keep everything in there when it comes to putting this together? Yeah. Actually, Dominic, usually I think the director wants to keep everything in there and the producer comes in and says, "We don't need that. We don't need that. We don't need that." In this case, it might have been a little bit reverse-roll because there were definitely parts of it that didn't make the final cut that I was desperate to keep and that Dominic managed to do the right thing and tighten it up and get it out of the project. So I definitely have that sort of, "When I'm really into something, I could see more effects." Yeah. It's a very real story. It's very raw, candid, and I think going into the history of Aaron. You know, you capture his character so well and it's interesting how his character got him into his personality and who he is, he has that drive and when you look at him, you want to hang out with him. You were like, "Dude, I want to hang out with you, party." It's like he's a fun guy and at the same time, going through this traumatic thing, it's like the favorite guy in class when you're in high school, it's like the favorite dude and then something like that happens and you want to go like, "No." And come on, you got to pull through and he continues on with this. Dominic, I want to ask you, did you meet him through tandem cycling because I was reading your bio and it seems like you've traveled all around the world on a bicycle? Yeah. Yeah. I think one or two places on a bicycle. I have been to very few on a single bicycle, almost all of them on a tandem bicycle. And yes, I did in fact meet him when I was embroiled in the opening stages of a TV series we made about cycling from the west coast of the states over to the east coast taking riders with us on a specially designed tandem that could benefit from this kind of adventure and who are unable because of some kind of impairment to have that kind of an adventure independently. So when we started casting that net far and wide for looking for willing companions, Nadia actually got in touch with Aaron, discovered his gym and got in touch with him. And though he was way down the line of recovery already training for the Paralympics on his own tricycle, he came out in support of our journey and rode with us on his own bicycle for the first day. Wow. Wow. That's amazing. That's an amazing person. And I have to say, you guys made us cry. I know. I know. And I'm like, don't look at me Nancy. Don't look at me. I'm like, no, no, I've got allergies. Don't do it. No, but it's true. But it also made me want to get up and take ass. So, you know, it's like, you, you know, and the film is interesting because you go through his life as, you know, in motocross, which I think is interesting and how it changed from him going from that through the actual, you know, accident and dealing with the injury and moving forward past what the doctors say and also the family dynamics of how to handle this all together, you know, and then go on all these, you know, we turned into like, I'm going to be an athlete again, and I'm just going to do it differently. All the way through him walking across Death Valley National Park and, you know, when I look at Death Valley, I mean, there's that word, but Nancy, what did you say today about his name? Oh, yeah, Aaron Baker, and he ends up in Baker. Was that on purpose, when he crossed Death Valley? It's amazing, actually, that almost, almost no one recognizes that in the film. We didn't necessarily draw attention to it, but it wasn't on purpose, but I was very cognizant of the fact that the best trajectory I found for this journey did end up in Baker, and they were certainly some terrible title ideas involving Baker, which we gladly put to bed before they ever escaped. When he walked across there, what I found was really transformational, just being National Park people that travel around and go in there and understand this beauty of our parks and desert, and we've been fighting this for years about people understanding the desert. It seems that, you know, if people come from another country, they understand the desert sometimes more, understand that magic of it, and there's this transformation that happens to you in the desert. We're here in Tucson, Arizona, we walk through the desert, we understand the desert, and when he walked, you know, watching him go through it and go talk about the transformation and change about how beautiful it was and how this is life, all the other stuff, he really had a change not just personally because of the challenges and him overcoming challenges, but it seemed like he had a change between the motocross and running a bike around in the dirt versus I'm walking across, I'm fighting to make this happen, but the desert almost became his friend in a way. Yeah, I think that's very accurate. I think while the motocross lifestyle and motocross speed, Aaron is always going to be there in his spirit and in his character, I think he has learnt a new sort of transcendental maybe zen attitude and approach, which the desert has a lot of room for, I think it's you know, famous, people at Edward Abbey sort of epitomize that feeling of calm and very inviting solitude in the desert that allows you time to think, and I think Aaron benefits from that a lot in the film. It also makes you, because at first glance, look sparse, like there's nothing there, so you have to now look further, and I think that's the epitome of what this young man has done is he looked further, he looked deep and hard everywhere and made something happen. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right, and actually we chose the desert, and particularly that transect across the dry lake bed, at least partly, to allow the viewer really to focus on Aaron and not be distracted by, although there is an intense beauty to that landscape, there's no distraction, there's no streams, there are no big mountains, it's almost sort of almost two dimensional, which really focuses your attention on every step that Aaron takes. And he also brought in the fact about how the terrain changes, and I thought that was so awesome, you know, we are, we hike and we do, we are advocate for everybody to get out and take a one hour walk once a week, and now I'm like, well this dude just took it to a whole other extreme, you know, we're just trying to get people to get out their butts, you know, and walk, because of the experience you can get of just actually coming to your core center, core being a good word with Aaron, right, with what he does. Yeah, exactly. And you get to your core, and there's a, you start to see things, and as, you know, a filmographer, do you not see that too, when you go out, you start to see the desert changes here, and we don't get the terrain this way, and you know what I mean. And I think that when we are so wrapped up in a digital society, sometimes we're forgetting if we don't disconnect and do something like what Aaron did walking across, we, we don't see, no, feel, we don't see and feel, and I think he just took it all on in one big sweep, and that was what his first solo adventure, right? We've done many things, but that was, it was, I'm always very careful, and obviously in the film, we portray this, we're always very careful to make sure we're not trying to kid the public that he is absolutely alone. I was, of course, with him filming, just the two of us, but it's certainly solo in the sense that every adventure up to that point, he had the formidable support network of his family but particularly his mother, and often mechanized transport in terms of a support vehicle or something. So this really was the first independent unsupported adventure, as far as you can be when you have a cameraman casting a sort of a bunch of camera equipment in a wheelbarrow essentially across the desert with you. Did you enjoy walking across that valley? I mean, like this place. I loved it. I loved it. I was very, I was slightly anxious about the speed at which we'd be travelling and wonder whether I would sort of get antsy and impatient, but very, very quickly, partly because of Aaron's attitude and partly because of the desert itself, you slow down into a pace that is very reflective and it feels very healthy. So I really, it was a great experience for me. Did you have cell phone service or anything like that because I know we used to live near there and it was like, Samir is like, "Uh-uh, we used to live out in Joshua Tree and it's like, no. Yeah." I know it's changing in the world, but I mean, were you - Funnily enough. I'm going to, I'm going to, as soon as I say this, you'll remember the part in the film where he's talking to his uncle on the phone who doesn't really know what the heck he's doing. So there, you know, there was very much, very, very much cell service all the time. My phone didn't have service because I have a terrible cell phone provider or I did, but Aaron, we won't mention him. Let's say it, say it, do it, do it. No, no. But Aaron kept in touch with his family and I think that was perhaps more important for them to know he was okay than it was for him, but I think he was - we were grateful that we were in touch with the world for sure. Nadia, when you're knowing this is going on, did you have any anxiety about this? You know, I didn't. I can't speak for Katie and Laquita because, you know, there are immediate family members of Aaron and they have a different level of intimacy with his abilities, but I know Dominic's capable of, you know, going to great lengths in extreme environments and I also know that Aaron knows his body quite well and I think I really trusted the judgment of the two of them. You know, I dropped them off and I filmed a little and then I picked them up six days later and it was awesome, but at no time did I think that I was going to be risking anything serious. This is interesting too, you know, you said about, they know their bodies like Aaron knows his body and I think that's one of the things this film does is it teaches you to connect with your body and to really understand how the brain works and how the rest of your body works and obeys the brain and what you can do there is a scene where, you know, it's not a scene. It's not a movie. This is real stuff and I thank God for documentary makers like you guys. We love you. It's like we bow down. We're like, thank God. I mean, it's like such a, I don't think, I mean, you guys are life changing. You change the world, these things that nobody gets to see. You know, it's like, I think it's so important and thank you to all the supporters, the Kickstarter campaign. Everybody who did that is, you know, we do, I mean, as bad as the world made look, there are awesome people that support projects like this that are so important and just things can change. I think that's one of the beauties of this film that just shows. Like everybody gets matted, everybody politically, it's like, who cares? You can do things. Yeah, I definitely think that that is something that kind of cuts through the noise a little bit. You know, every day now on social media and we live our world lives in the online world and we're inundated with all sorts of antagonistic vitriol and division and derision. And just for a minute, you can see something like this and it doesn't matter where you sit in the political spectrum, it doesn't matter, you know, whether you're rich or you're poor, it doesn't matter. It's an obstacle and everyone has a goal and they find that it's hard to, you know, manifest those dreams and it's hard to deliver on those goals and you just watch Aaron for a minute and your mind stills and you hopefully reach down into what's inside of yourself and you say, okay, what is my track? What is my journey? What is my, you know, what is my overcoming? What are my million to one odds and then hopefully you just give it a try. And also the importance of you go into yourself but you also have to have a team. See, there's, it's not a solo thing, there's no way. I mean, this is something, finding out is mom found, you know, you know, just the whole thing of getting someone to help him and looking at hello insurance services. Taylor Isaac coming in and helping and that there was, you know, someone there that actually could help and the need for more people like Taylor to be around in the world is important. So I think this is what's so great but I want to go back to this about your mind body, right? And this, I mean, we, you know, the back of the day, it's like mind, body, spirit but this encapsulates this, you know, Dominic, tell us a little bit about, you know, painting toenails and how that really, how anger can turn into transformation of goodness. Yeah. Well, I mean, I remember the first time Aaron told me that story, I don't know whether it's because I'm English or it's something else but I'm a healthy skeptic borderline cynical about certain things and the sort of spiritual side of life was something that didn't come easily to me but the more I listened to Aaron telling me about that sort of transformation of anger into, into action, if you like, I realized that you don't have to be spiritual to understand the sort of transcendental nature of this and how it's possible for anyone to redirect energy in a different way but, you know, the more, the more you read up on the idea of this visualization and the channeling of energy, the more you realize that it's, it's, it's plain to see it's done in almost, you know, clinical environments now for sports teams and top level athletes where visualization gets as almost as good a result or as good a result as the actual practical exercise or training itself. And Aaron took that from his, you know, motocross days and essentially, you know, while anger got in the way for a second, he was able to remember that and channel that energy into the visualization process first of simple colors and then then of movements and then combining movements and that's, I think, in a large part what got him to where he is today. You know, I have an experience with my father who was in LA General Hospital and told he had like six months to live and 25 years later, he was telling the doctors, you need to go back to school or something because he had a family or more actually. And he was not ready to go and he used, I will say, anger at first, but now I'm going to call it focus. You have to get it out of your system and it's natural to get mad. And then when you get past that it is, okay, I say I can change it. How am I going to do it? I'm going to focus on it and just even how he negotiated the hospital and the doctor was different from day to day. Like he would, he, he commandeered the ward he was in. He got the payments to talk. He got people to laugh and he went and he wasn't the nicest person. I have to say that, but he decided that his goal was to not die. And he told me once for the reason he said he was going to not die because he didn't want someone else to tell him when he was going to die. Right. I think, I think there's a huge, I think there's a huge synergy between that, between his thoughts and Aaron's thoughts for sure. I think being a headstrong, motivated individual isn't, isn't always, doesn't always make a recipe for the most charming person. But sometimes when you need to get a job done, it's an incredible strength. And I think Laquita as well, obviously in the film, she, she says at one point, yeah, yeah, Laquita, he's, she's, she's an incredible woman and she says early on in the film, you know, if denial is what you've got, then, you know, denial is a very powerful tool as well. And, and to your words of common during the warwood and treating the doctors one way, one, one day, one way and the next, you know, a different way, I think is, if that's what it takes to get the job done, that's what you have to do. That's what you do. Exactly. Exactly. That's the thing. It's interesting. I mean, when I look at your, your dad and my grandfather, you know, when they, he cut his hand open on a fan blade in a car, he was fixing a car. And he did really have a lot of medical things and, and it, it just, you know, it's a crazy long story. His hand basically all four fingers were cut down to the bone right, you know, where you look at where your hand is and then it goes to your fingers, they were all cut down to the bone and they were going to cut his hand off and he said, no, that won't be happening here. And they're like, no, you're going to have an infection and they try to scrub it and do all this stuff. He kept his hand. And then as he said, no, I'm, yeah, and then they said, okay, now it's not your hand is your, like your arm up to your elbow and a couple weeks later, it was okay. Now your whole arm a week later, he could move his hand and he had this whole arm. He had, he had asthma and respiratory problems that kept him in and out of the hospital forever, but this was an accident that was just like crazy. He kept his alarm and they told him, no, you're going to have gangrene, which he did. And he still, he's like, no, it's not happening. Yeah. The power, the power of the mind. Amazing. That's, that's what's so great about this documentary that you have done. Everyone coming to my census, go to the website to mycensus.com that's CO, mycensus.com because I think this is so important that people realize this because there's so many medical issues that happen and so many people are told that's it, you're out, you know, and you guys doing this provide hope, Nadia, for you, when you look at your work, did this change anything for you in just in general, like we all have obstacles and things that, oh, we can't do this. We all have that in life, like in business and everything we do in career, did this change anything for you to kind of take a step further in something you may have thought like, no, maybe not. Well, I think actually while, you know, Erin, while we were filming Erin's life journey, the closest thing to a parallel experience that I was having was, you know, making this film. This is our first feature film and there's a reason a lot of documentarians start making a film and never finish. It is a long process, there's not a lot of support or funds that come your way. You have to really believe in what you do and you have to use, you know, every ounce of your tenacity, every contact and you have to really just go out there and, you know, pound the pavement and you get, you hear a lot of nose and you hear a lot of, this is not going to work and you can't and I'm sorry I'll pass and, and, you know, that's the uphill battle and making a film is actually really hard but the beauty of making this film our first time around was that every day the material that we were witnessing and looking at and wrestling with was, you know, a message to me to keep continuing on and, you know, finish a job and, and do it well done and put it out there under the world because it's a message that people need to hear and we knew it would touch people and it might even save some lives and, and that's a big deal and so I'm glad that we were able to do that and I'm glad that we came out victorious in the end and we created not only a beautiful film but we've had great support from our distributor and great support from, you know, our Kickstarter donors and, and it feels, you know, very meaningful and I hope that, you know, it's just one of many times I'm going to use Aaron's spirit and, and trying to accomplish something. Yeah and you guys have won a ton of awards and it's exciting because now it's at that point where now people can get it online everywhere, right? I know this is, it's, it's like in, tell everybody about that how they can get it. I know everyone can go to the website to mycensus.com but it's pretty much you can get it on Amazon Netflix, those kind of places. Yeah, so starting May 15th, that's Tuesday of next week, it's going to be available for wide release on iTunes and Amazon. Hopefully later in the summer it will be on subscription VOD but we're still working on that right now. So in the meantime we'd love it if your listeners might go give it a, or at least view the trailer and give it a download on iTunes or Amazon and help and write a review if you can if you like it. You know, that's one of the biggest ways you can support, right on people. Everybody go check it out. Go to to mycensus.com and get it. I would love to see you guys go to Congress and show this film. Yeah and then let them talk about healthcare and Medicare and Obamacare or whatever you want to call it and re-sync and try to get it right for one. Yeah. Talk about, talk about persistence and energy and commitment, that would be a journey that needed all of that. Yeah, so yeah, I mean, this is part of that. You never know, when I was thinking about Aaron and his mom and his dad and wife and family and everybody involved, you know, just thinking about that, I was like, you know, I know that there's a lot of public speaking involved that, you know, passion go out and share this and you documented that in this too, the documentary that, you know, he went out and try to help people immediately. You know, as soon as he started being able to move and working and he was like, you don't give up, you can do this and have it and go through that. And because his passion is there, he wants everyone to, you know, hey, I can do it. You can do it too. Come on, come on. And I was thinking about that, like how important documentaries are and this kind of media where you never know who's going to see it. Who knows who's going to hear this? I could turn around and go, we need to look into this further because what I've learned was that 30 million Americans are struggling with mobility each day and they're not getting help. I mean, he got kicked off his insurance, right? Aaron, like at this point, that's that insurance not covering it. And they had insurance. And that's that. That's it. That's exactly what happened to my dad. He lost everything, his job, his house, everything because the insurance would only do one year. So I don't, I mean, I don't know the answers to all of that stuff at all. I mean, I think if anybody did, they'd be like, you know, we've run the country. But when we look at it, this is a serious issue that I don't think any of us really understand and some people just go home and say, that's it for me. That's it. I'm done. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, by the way, oh, thank you very much. Yeah, we, we get a lot of lovely flattering comments about the Senate Party, which means a lot, means a lot to us, but speaking, speaking to the, you know, the medical shortfall, if that's the right thing to call it, it's, yeah, it's a hugely complicated issue for sure. And I always, as a, as a, as a European as an Englishman, I am always, well, we certainly have big flaws in our medical system, I'm always slightly confused at the, if you, if you fall a little bit either side of the sort of doing okay lifestyle, you can be in deep water in this country. And it's, it's not an easy thing to navigate because of the sheer cost of living. Yeah. No. We lived in England for two years. You have a good medical system over there. But, but, yeah, I totally agree with you, but you talk to, you know, significant percentage of Americans and for one reason or another, they, they, despite having not experienced that they love to hate it. Yeah. I don't get that. Yeah. We, I mean, I remember, yeah, getting help over there. Yeah. We will not talk about what that was about Nancy. Don't happen. Anyway. Anyway, just don't go camping where she, you know, were first. Right. And his kids, they'll put your fingers in your mouth because like things will come out later that you don't want to follow me too. Yeah. Anyway, I had a good time in England, but so this is interesting too because of the tandem thing. I want to talk about this because I find this interesting because to me, Aaron has this incredible story and this incredible journey and it's very inspiring, but the teamwork part to me was such a huge part of this. And I feel like that brought him, him and his mom were able to communicate through the tandem bicycle and I didn't even know that sort of tandem bicycle was, to be honest. I didn't know. I had no clue that that was the, sorry, don't put me on a bicycle and say, but now Nancy I was like, you should see us try to kayak together. That's really funny. And we were talking about this like, can we tandem bicycle together? Oh, no. Like, that would, one's going to go left, one's going to go right. Some, you know, I've been on motorcycles. If I'm the passenger, they stop the bike, I fall off. But anyway, I'm like, we could learn this is something people learn, but isn't that tandem part part of the communication when something really harsh happens in life, everybody has drama comes back and that, that definitely happened to Aaron's mom, but this tandem cycling to me, I understand, you know, connecting with Taylor who helped, you know, and understood the medical side and the rehabilitation and keeping with rehabilitation going. But this tandem cycling thing to me kind of gave them a communication and a moving forward together. Sure. Yeah, I mean, I definitely think, you know, Laquita's very open about also rebuilding her life from the ground up after Aaron's accident as well. And I think the tandem was, was as much transformational for Laquita, I believe, as it was for Aaron and that it, it gave them both a platform together off which to work. And Laquita, Laquita's health, I know, has, has, you know, got better and better, she's incredible and very fit individual herself these days. And I think it was that very cognizant rebuilding with Aaron side by side that was the reason for that largely. Did it change you filming this? I certainly learnt a lot, I'd like to think I became wiser and absorbed some of, even if I absorb the fraction of Aaron's ability to cope in the face of adversity, that will, that will serve me extremely well. But I would certainly, you know, if I think, do I, do I, you know, live every day with some of Aaron's wisdom echoing in my ears, I, I hope so, but with the best will in the world, it's hard when, you know, where we don't, it's hard to not let the day to day make you take things to granted again. But I think I certainly learnt and grew as a result of filming this and particularly for me, the time of the desert together was a, was a very nice change of pace that I'll remember. Yeah, it's, it's like, you know, to be able to, that's not bad, bad twist words, but to focus on one thing, whether you have to or you choose to, let me put it that way, to focus on one thing, one foot after the other, to focus, yeah, it is really hard in our modern day world with all the distractions and everything that has to be done to focus on just one thing. But then life will come and go, you know what, if you don't, you're in trouble, so you're going to go focus. Yeah, yeah, well life tells you, life tells you not to focus on one thing, it tells you to focus on a million things, spend your money here and look at me and, but it's a trick. But nature tells you to focus on one thing or you're going to get eaten. I like that. It's a trick. I like this. Yeah, because you understand this too, we've done some crazy like tours in South Africa and in all this, and here in this country and we've interviewed a lot of, I'm just people of endurance and to me, that's it, it's like I'm not good at sprinting. You do not want to see me even try to sprint, that's ugly, it's just not good. But I will run across country because I have run, I know don't, I did, when I was in school, I could be across country, but don't make me do the little sprinty thing. Okay, you mean, because I mean, you're not playing across this entire country. No, but I could do a cross country thing, but I can get the sprint thing from here to here. I was like, there's no bang, go and I'd go like really, ha ha ha, that's really funny, you know, and for some reason you could never get on with it. But across country, I could, because you just kind of like get in a zone. And Dominic, you've done this, you've done this, you know, drafting, cycling and getting that zone. Our friend, Jamostik, just now he's cycling the Sierra's and he's a retired school teacher who's cycled the perimeter of the country of America, and he just finished walking across the country from Lou's Delaware to Point Reyes National Fish and now he's itchy again and he has to go. And he talked about this pattern and I really identified with him watching Aaron on their going step at a time, step at a time because there are places he went through and he was just like, damn it, like why am I doing this? And then it was like this addiction to the moving forward, there's a repetition of focus that happens. Did that happen for you, Dominic, because I know with your cycling, you've been all over with that. There's something with that where you get into a zone and you realize that all the stuff Nancy was talking about, all the stuff that happens in the world today, really doesn't matter. Yeah, I think there are two things. I think there is something very, very addictive about a linear journey. And it's a very, very unusual thing to be able to experience in a day and age where we are pulled in and sometimes physically and sometimes psychologically in a million different directions with a million different responsibilities at the beck and call of a lot of different people in life. So if you are lucky enough to experience a journey where if you progress forward, a foot, a mile or a hundred miles every day, that is defined as progress and that is all that matters. That is a very polarizing and powerful experience that is quite addictive and very, very simple. I think that is one important part of the magnetism of these challenges, journeys. But also, exhaustion through physical activity is incredibly cathartic and takes you to different places psychologically that I certainly have a great deal of nostalgia for when I get back from a journey because you suddenly have this incredible, fun memory of what you are able to do to sort of under fire, so to speak, or in arduous circumstances. You realize that your body is twice or three times the machine you gave it credit for and that is what Erin is proving in spades. That's exactly it. And don't you think your body is like, "Oh my God, you're finally using me to almost or sort of to hold potential?" And then it rushes to bring in the truth, restore this dude. It gets all like, "You're using me." And that's what I was meant for so your body gets happy, first it gets a bit tired though. But I just believe that our bodies, yeah, they feel like dormant until we start connecting with them. There's this dormancy, like I remember going and having to have my wisdom teeth pulled out, which was not fun, all of them at one time, yippee yay, let's go. And then all of a sudden talking about what was going on with my teeth with the dentist and everything, suddenly there was this weird connection I had with my body, like it's just you and me now. And that's that. We're going to have to deal with this. I'm scared as hell. I don't like needles. I don't like anybody in a white coat and it's just you and me. And suddenly there was this weird strength that came out of that and suddenly like, oh my gosh, I got to really look at what I do with my body, like there was this weird thing that happened just in that one little thing. I mean, I've had other weird things, no, not weird, but like going to the, you know, breaking an arm and having a rod put in and all that kind of stuff, like that kind of, it's almost like this wake up call of connecting to your body again and having that conversation. And I think we miss that sometimes. That conversation. Sure. Yeah. I definitely think we're living in a world where people aren't in touch with their bodies hardly at all. I know that I try more than most people and I still barely can, you know, I don't even know what gives me indigestion, why, you know, am I feeling tight in my hamstrings? Like, we just keep, we, we move, we just keep going on moving forward and we don't pay, you know, we don't pay much attention to our bodies and I totally understand why because they're built pretty well and they treat us pretty well for the most part regardless of the fact that we fill them with crappy food and we don't exercise enough, but it's very helpful when you learn the skill of getting in touch with your body. I agree. Now, Nadia, let's talk about Encompass Films, your production company. You guys started this in Bolivia in 2008, this is what I'm reading. Cool. So how did this like, okay, like give me the background on this and why in Bolivia? Well, Dominic happened to be doing his large tandem journey from Alaska to Argentina and I had just graduated law school and was avoiding becoming a lawyer for a little bit longer and I was traveling to South America and we were in a place called the Salarde uni, which is the largest salt flat in the world and there's a small town of about four or five hundred people right next to it and where we met in the town square and we just started talking and, you know, I really like Dominic's point of view about the world and I just thought, you know, until then I thought I was adventurous or I was inspired and then I, I saw what he was doing and I was like, wow, this guy really puts me to shame much the way that when we look at Aaron, we're like, wow, this guy puts us to shame. You have these moments in life where somebody just inspires you to, you know, work harder to fulfill your dreams and meeting Dominic is definitely one of those moments for me. So we didn't actually start the company for two more years, but we kept in touch and then he came to Los Angeles to do another project where we, you know, basically got together for the second time and realized that we would make a good team. Right on. Right on. This is so cool, you guys. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. I just so, you know, I feel like when anybody complains to me, I just like go watch this. Yeah. That's why I said the power of documentaries is so important because it just takes away all the drama going on and gets you to see something that is happening. And I, when did you guys start filming this? We started filming it in 2014 in earnest. I mean, I think we had talked about it for a little while and we filmed a short film in 2012 or 2013, which was about five minutes long on Aaron. And then it took us about, we finished it at the, you know, the top of 2017 and then it spent a year on the festival circuit and it's just now getting out to the public. Wow. It's amazing. So like learning that part of like the distribution and going to the festivals, did you travel to all the different festivals or, because you guys, one, yeah, we traveled the part a few of them, you know, we were, you can't afford to travel to all of them. It's just not possible. And you want to support the film and you kind of have to strategically choose which ones, you know, fit your schedule and your budget. And so we traveled to Austin Film Festival, Miami Film Festival, Mammoth Film Festival. Well, Newport, we didn't have to travel to is right around the corner, but like, for example, the film is playing at the end of the month in Auckland, but we won't be there for that. So it's a little bit beyond our reach right now. Yeah. Okay. So I want to ask each of you this question, because I think, I mean, I'm really trying to get people to take a walk and then watching Aaron, I'm like in tears, I'm like, but I'm trying to do is nothing compared, but it's all the same level of, you know, just take a one hour walk, everybody, one hour walk.com, go join our Facebook group and put your photos and just, we're trying to inspire people to be aware and to get out and breathe and do that connection. So I want to ask each of you, if you could take a one hour walk with anyone in the world, whether they're live or passed on, who would it be and where would that walk be? And what are you going to talk about with this person? Like, there's, you know, when you take a walk, you gain insight with people. Sometimes it's quiet. And then sometimes it's like, no matter what you're going to learn, right, Dominic? I know, right? It's going on that walk with Aaron, there's going to be lessons from that, whether it's quiet or, you know, you're behind, but there's times where you connect, so that's what we want to talk about. So let's start with you, Nadia. Who are you going to go for a walk with and where? Jeez, that's really hard. I mean, I, you have different people for different reasons. Like on one hand, I would say my mom who passed away 10 years ago was one of the wise persons that I've ever met and whenever I have a difficult time in life, I just want to talk to her. But on the other hand, I'm an insatiable reader and an insatiable learner. And I feel like there are, you know, educators or academics out there that I would just love to know more about what they do. But yeah, I think I'll stick with my mom. So where are you going to go? Ooh, where are we going to go? Well, I mean, the setting is not as important to me, but I'm kind of a city walker. To be honest, everyone wants to go to the mountains on a hike or, you know, to the desert. But I can just pick a big city and people watch and walk around for hours and hours and hours. It really brings, it really makes you ask a lot of questions about, you know, how people came to be the way that they are and why they do what they do and there's a lot of fodder for conversation. All right. I love that because that's exactly why we do the One Hour Walk, it's about actually knowing your community. It's about walking your neighborhood, you know, things that this flower bloomed this time last year. That stuff are knowing your neighbors and like, dude, that guy's got a weird mailbox or people watching for sure. So when you walk with your mom is your discussion on the people and the people watching, are you creating like things about what these people do for a living and are they together? Are they not? Well, our conversations go all over the place. I mean, sometimes we could, you know, rehash back then a whole episode of long or something. But I definitely, usually they boil down to the way that we feel and the emotions that are inside of us and there's definitely a communion and a sense of bonding and a release over, you know, asking advice or ignoring advice and then also just, you know, asking ourselves about the people that we encounter and, you know, what's going on in their lives and kind of drawing parallels to things that you see. Oh, nice. Yeah. That's tough. Like our walks. Yep. Although we make up stories about people we see and we're like, oh, you're doing this. Yeah. You're cheating on your wife with this person. Yeah. Yeah. We can tell. Sorry. None of it is true. We just do airports are good to that. Yeah. All I love airport cars. Airport cars. Yeah. They're really good. So Dominic, you're not off the hook, but where are you going for what I'm going to do? We want the gossip. I need. I want, I want three or four choices, but I realize I'm only a loud one. Yeah. After, after two people are in stiff competition, one is Charles Darwin, because I am actually a biologist, but he is pit to the post, the pun intended by a chap called Gabbry Hylie Selassie, who is an Ethiopian runner, retired now, but he, I have never seen anyone behave, especially in the world of sports, but in life in general was so much honor and integrity. And I would like to take a walk with him and understand how at least he appears to behave that way and give back so much to his community and smile in the face of adversity and be very grateful for everything that comes his way in life, good and bad, at least that's how it seems. Wow. Like, that's amazing, yeah. I want to go on and walk with both of them, like Selassie, like, man, I haven't heard anybody talk about him for a while, like yeah, like, I know, general conversation, I feel like is he still alive? You are British. So last time I talked to him, it was Charles Darwin is my choice, seriously, because, I mean, he got housing, happened or, you know, some people will quietly disagree, but, you know, you're in the water as fish, and you come to the shore and you might turn into a bird. And now you get to, it's kind of crazy. Yeah, it's the greatest thing ever. What do you say now to Monsanto? Oh my God. You know, I think Charles Darwin's biggest strength, and this is why I would want to talk to him, is his ability to observe, like, he was a true scientist, in that he made, he made theories, he made the theory of evolution, and I feel like he would be okay to be disproved that that would be fine, but he observed and made a, you know, incredibly educated guess as to how things work, and the fact that it holds water to this day, you know, have a much people argue with it, I think that's amazing in itself. I think it's really important, I mean, Nancy, that's what you did in Africa, I mean, she worked with Joy Adamson, I don't know if people watch "Born Free", it's an older movie, but Joy Adamson, you have to say, don't date me. I know, it's your birthday, anyway, so she worked with Joy Adamson, because she took me, as a, like, a year old out of LA, by the way, Northridge, so cool, we do them and everything there, yeah, that's why I was born with Northridge, oh, everything comes full circle. I know, doesn't it? It's crazy, but she took me as a year and a half old, over to Kenya, and worked with Joy Adamson in the middle of nowhere, and the bush, and that's what she did was observe wildlife and track them and everything, and that's the thing, it's like, to the observant, that to me is so, that's why I love what you guys do, because it's like, you're doing it, like, you're filming, there's so much, and that's why Nadia, when we were saying earlier about like, how do you cut stuff, because there's, there's, I wish people could see all of the stuff, you know, because there's nuggets in everything, new one, and, and things that connect, and everyone's going to have a connection with some part, somewhere, you know, and that's the hardest thing is editing, and when you are observant, you have these theories, you go, well, I think this, because I see that, and now I feel like, are we seeing everything, and when you see a documentary like yours, it brings me to this point of yes, there are people out there seeing things, and documenting them, and putting it out there for us, we, as, you know, a, a global, you know, race, and, and humans, we need to support that, so we can see things, you know, we can get some education, that's not just a typical news channel, that we can actually see things, and understand, and have that connection, and, make changes where changes need to be, get inspiration, and, you know, could be your diet, it could be someone like Erin that says go for it, and it could be like, hey, we need to have more medical reform for this, and that, you know, don't take it when a doctor says, sorry, one in a million chances, move forward, don't just take what somebody tells you, and, and leave it at that, you know, so she's like one person, it's like, that's a, but that's a big odds, that's, that's a big odd, and he went for it, and, okay, so one thing, okay, Dominic, where are you walking, it's like, oh, where am I walking, I think honestly, given that, um, just throttling back from, from Darwin for a second, given that we're, I'm walking with, uh, Hilary Selassie, I would walk through his homeland of Ethiopia. Hmm, yeah, oh my god, yes, yes, did you see the Anthony Bourdain episode of Ethiopia? I did not, but it sounds fascinating. Oh, you need to go, you need to go watch that with, oh, I'm like, I can't stand that I can't remember the chef's name, please watch that. Oh, the, the, his friend? Yes, oh, it's, it's Swedish Shez. Oh, go watch it, it is, it's just, it's, I don't know, it rings home to us for living in Africa so much, and it's just, it's, I'll definitely, I'll definitely look that up. I'll have to watch it on my own because Nadia doesn't like spongy Ethiopian bread. You don't like spongy Ethiopian bread? Yeah, that might be too much of a detail for this video program right now. So what about chapatis? No, no chapatis. No, I like chapatis. I don't find very funny. Do you like papatis when you're a friend of mine? Do you like honey worms? No, and that's, come on, Anthony. All right, we've digressed here. Thank you both for joining us. We appreciate your work and everything you're doing and Nadia is something else coming up that we should know about. Is any of, are you on a new project? Yeah, we're always working on new projects. To be honest, we just rather point you guys to our website. We have a couple of new projects up on that. It's encompassfilms.com or tomycensus.com. And you can always check in or email us. We answer the emails ourselves all the time. So we always love to hear from people. Awesome, awesome. Thank you both for joining us. Again, everyone coming to my census, go to the website tomycensus.com. And that's T-O tomycensus.com and you will really get that why it's called that when you watch this and, you know, see her in a Death Valley. It really, that happens. And throughout the documentary, actually, I want to thank everyone, all our listeners. As always, thank you for joining us here on Big Web and Radio. We air on Monday through Thursday at 4 p.m. Pacific time, 7 p.m. Eastern time, Fridays and Sundays at 11 a.m. Pacific time, 2 p.m. Eastern time. You can see the schedule on bigbendradio.com. Of course, you can listen as the episodes go live or you can listen on the band and we have all the links there to go and listen to what you want, when you want. And I want to thank our sponsor. Yes. Find something awesome. It's a book series by Matt Scott that teaches kids early in life, the wisdom and life lessons adults get from self-help books. Think about it. If we had a self-help book that we could understand as a kid, it's cool. And it's definitely something that parents can sit down or teachers, anybody that's a guiding light of a child's life to sit down with this book as well. He has a whole series. It's sick now. And I know. And really get into positive thought. Something like the boogeyman could scare you, but how to look at it in a positive light and really have your own thoughts and make decisions. So it's very cool. You can go to find something awesome.com. And now some music. You all ready for some music? I am. Yes. All right. Absolutely. This is called Life. It's from Josh Pfeiffer. It's off of this album American Crooner Act 1. Just got his new song, new shoes on the Grammy ballot. So we got to give him some props there. Josh Pfeiffer.com. This is Life and listen to this song. Life is definitely what this whole documentary is about as well. Thank you for joining us. You guys take care. It's a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Life is a beautiful thing. Never ends a mystery. Wild and free. But life is a funny thing. It can tell you up and beat you down. Bring it to your knees. I'm learning how to really love, learning how to dream, learning how to find my wing and the beggar scheme. [ Music ]
