Ep. 510: On Nature and Suffering with Werner Herzog

Steven Rinella talks with filmmaker and writer, Werner Herzog.

Topics discussed: Werner Herzog’s latest memoir, Every Man for Himself and God Against All; writing text in your native tongue; “The nets were set the night before”; mattresses stuffed with fern; when the first time you ate an egg was a feast; having no tolerance for the culture of complaint; the value of food as something to be honored; determining how you live but not telling others how to live; taking self responsibility for getting your own food; grabbing trout out of the creek with your bare hands; the people who seem miserable but are happy and dignified in Herzog’s film Happy People; how Timothy Treadwell was undoubtedly a very good outdoorsman; the Disney-ization of nature; how the story behind Grizzly Man stumbled into Werner; the need to protect the privacy of death; surviving a plane crash from 15,000 feet and then knowing how to get by in the jungle; how the birds scream in agony; loving all of your films; when you use a phone for the first time at the age of 17; the afterlife; acting in The Mandalorian and playing a character on The Simpsons; and more.

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