Les Stroud – Survivorman Producer, Actor & Musician
Today we have a rather well-known guest, the Survivorman himself Les Stroud. Now for some of you, this is a household name – a celebrity in fact – as youve watched his many TV episodes on the Discovery Channel. But for those who don’t know of Les, he originated the entire genre of Survival TV by taking cameras and going to remote locations around the world filming himself surviving in these locations. He’d document his experience and at the same time teach how to build shelters, start fires, gather indigenous foods, improvise weapons, fashion clothing, etc. But this is not an Eagle Scout grown up with a camera, Les conceived each episode, researched, narrated, filmed, edited, and even produced the music for each episode.
And we are talking over 70 Survivorman episodes in deserts, the arctic, the ocean, deserted islands, canyons, swamps, rainforests – the list goes on and on AND he’s demonstrating survival unique to each location. I find this type of television extremely compelling, it is edutainment – education and entertainment together. By the way, many others find it outstanding as well. Survivorman is one of the highest rated shows in the history of OLN Canada, the Science Channel US and Discovery Channel US and remains the highest rated repeat show on the Discovery Channel. Les has won numerous awards including Best Writer (twice) and Best Photographer from the Canadian Screen Awards, and he’s won the Executive Producers Award for Excellence at the Lewiston Film Festival.
But that’s not all, Les is a speaker and a New York Times bestselling author. He has three books Survive! – Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere–Alive!, Will to Live, and Beyond Survivorman . And he was nominated for Best Travel Writer at the Canadian National Magazine awards.
And if that’s not extraordinary enough, Les is also an accomplished musician. Not only has Les written all the theme songs for his TV series and scored several independent films, but he’s recorded four CDs. Les is also revered worldwide for his iconic harmonica playing. Les’s songwriting style runs eclectic, from art-folk-roots rock to contemporary art rock.
Les is a proud member of the prestigious Explorers Club. He contributes to dozens of charities and benefits, is an ambassador for Shelterbox, and is an advanced survival trainer for the Canadian Military Armed Forces, as well as he sits on the board of advisors for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Organization.
Items in This Podcast
- Recorded on location at Captain Hiram’s Sebastian, Florida
- Raised in Toronto Canada
- Inspired by the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and Tarzan
- Became a survival instructor in his 20’s
- Blended his talents in video, music and survival techniques to create Survivorman
- Survivorman was the first of the “Survival Genre” of TV shows
- How he created his unique camera work
- What actually caused Les to get scuba certified
- Season 2 “South Pacific” stranded at sea when scuba diving episode
- Favorite diving locations
- The importance of conservation
- Tips for divers
- Aggressor Trips with Les Stroud
- His CDs his music his messages in his music
- His take on creative pursuits and releasing energy into the world – this is awesome!
- His upcoming Podcast
Resources
Sponsor
Special thanks to our episode sponsor Aggressor Fleet
Thanks for Listening!
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