#571: Boyd Varty — The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life
The Tim Ferriss Show
Connections Beyond Words
This chapter delves into the profound emotional bonds formed between humans and animals, illustrated through a Navy SEAL's connection with a dog and a series of transformative encounters in the wild. It reflects on vulnerability, trauma, and healing, particularly through experiences with a kudu and a leopard in a bushfire's chaos. The narrative emphasizes the therapeutic potential of such relationships, showcasing how non-verbal communication and instinctual animal behavior can deeply support individuals on their healing journeys.
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Boyd Varty (@boydvarty) is the author of two books, The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life and his memoir, Cathedral of the Wild. He has been featured in The New York Times, on NBC, and in other media and has taught his philosophy of “tracking your life” to individuals and companies around the world.
Boyd is a wildlife and literacy activist who has spent the last ten years refining the art of using wilderness as a place for deep introspection and personal transformation. He grew up in South Africa on Londolozi Game Reserve, a former hunting ground that was transformed into a nature preserve by Boyd’s father and uncle—both visionaries of the restoration movement. Under his family’s stewardship, the Reserve became renowned not only as a sanctuary for animals but as a place where once-ravaged land was able to flourish again and where the human spirit could be restored. When Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years of imprisonment, he went to Londolozi to recover.
Boyd has a degree in psychology from the University of South Africa. He is a TED speaker and the host of the Track Your Life podcast.
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Setting the scene. [05:44]
How the Londolozi Game Reserve came to be, and what happened during Boyd’s childhood that instilled him with a “get on with it” attitude. [08:02]
Why did Boyd’s father and uncle insist on keeping the property that would become the Londolozi Game Reserve when, at the time, it was considered useless, overgrazed wasteland? [10:18]
Boyd shares what it was like growing up as a regular passenger/survivor of The White Knuckle Charter Company. [12:25]
How a man named Ken Tinley and the native Shangaan trackers helped a trio of teenagers transform their expanse of scrub-encroached land into a thriving safari business. [21:03]
On the ancient lineage of the Shangaan trackers, and how the local wildlife came to trust the human caretakers of Londolozi. [27:05]
Renias Mhlongo is supreme among world-class trackers — and sometimes the importance of the work outweighs the will of his clients. [32:21]
Which animals are hardest to track at Londolozi — even if you happen to be Richard Siwela? [37:53]
Because nature can be unpredictable, how do people protect themselves in Londolozi? [41:03]
“I don’t know where we’re going, but I know exactly how to get there.” —Renias Mhlongo [42:56]
How the tracking process has changed for Boyd over the years — from confident child to young adult traumatized by a home invasion and crocodile attack to competent grown-up thanks to people like Dr. Martha Beck and Solly Mhlongo. [45:00]
What is Ubuntu? [1:02:50]
Boyd talks about that time he lived 40 days and 40 nights up a tree — the questions he was trying to answer for himself by doing so, the primal fear he experienced while waiting out a storm, the pros and cons of extreme solitude, and if he’d do it again. [1:05:15]
Stories about bees, the birds who help humans rob them, and the power of the hive algorithm. [1:17:45]
The dos and don’ts of interacting with lions in the wild. [1:29:42]
On the eerie conversation of death, modern confirmation of ancient myths, and the inexplicable movements of beasts and men. [1:34:16]
How did Boyd’s own path toward healing after trauma differ from the way his mother and sister recovered from a trauma they experienced? [1:39:57]
What is ceremony work, and how can it help someone deal with trauma? [1:43:32]
What Boyd means when he says “an authentic life infused with meaning is a kind of activism.” [1:46:40]
How Boyd and I have both been affected by the Work of Byron Katie. [1:52:03]
Boyd’s first medicine encounter in an Arizona sweat lodge, and what he took away from the experience. [1:56:31]
Feelings. Nothing more than feelings. [2:02:49]
Kudus and nightjars and leopards in the fire (oh, my)! What a close encounter with a beautiful predator taught Boyd about Ubuntu. [2:04:14]
Examining the therapeutic value of spending time with animals. [2:13:05]
Laurens van der Post poetically described the sound of a lion’s roar. And, in a packed presentation hall at a major Silicon Valley company, Boyd did not. [2:17:57]
An invitation to visit Londolozi and other parting thoughts. [2:22:10]
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