“He’s not human” The Most Isolated Man in the World
Lost men of the island. Yeah. Yes. We’re out of here. We’re leaving. Woohoo. To find our planet’s most hidden stories, you have to go where few others think to look. And in the most remote corner of the already very remote American territory of the northern Marana Islands, there is an island called Pagan, an active volcano where one man has been living in isolation for the greater part of the last decade.
It has taken us over 2 days of travel to get to the nearest island where we got stranded as our ship ran out of fuel on the way there. Eventually, a ship rode 22 hours to get to us with extra fuel, allowing us to finally continue. So, if you’ve seen our last two stories, you’ll know how hard it has been for us to get to this very moment.
Today, he’s the only one living there full time. Because, you see, this island was once inhabited, but after several ma.ssive volcanic eruptions, people were forced to flee and have not been able to come back ever since. Only one man. They call him a jungle boy. He’s not human. He’s something. has indefinitely embraced this lifestyle, living in a way that maybe nobody else like him in America still does, removed from modern society.
And as no story has ever been told about this incredible man, we have set sail onwards to go find him. And thus began the story of Pagan. Yeah, we are actually going to Pagan out. I have a hard time processing that because we’ve been we’ve been f1ghting for it. We heard about this place about 3 weeks ago and now we’re finally on our way.
Luckily, there is no place that is harder to reach. There’s no scheduled boat, there’s no plane, there’s no helicopter. You have to basically get on a fishing ship and rally a crew together to make it all the way there. But this is aing adventure spending a few days on an active volcano that erupted just a few years ago.
And you can imagine that if you’re on a deserted island, you’re either really happy to see people come or you’re kind of annoyed. So now we have around like 1 and a half hour and then we finally at Pagan. Oh, we can actually see Pagan now. Getting closer. This is maybe one of the craziest things we’ve ever done together.
Yeah, for sure. and we’ve done some cr4zy stuff. We’re getting a first look at what we’ve getting ourselves into and this island is whole other level. Okay, my lad1es and gentlemen, we are finally arriving at the island of Pagan. It feels absolutely surreal right now. Yes, we’re actually here.
That’s the first ever active volcano I see in my life. immediately. It looks way more wild. Like there’s just trees and palm trees and volcanoes. And this is a be4st. This is a true be4st. Jordan, the man we came here to meet, has been living here for years and spent 7 years mostly alone on the island across that we were stranded on.
the night before. Today, there is also one other man named Joe, an employee of the mayor of these islands, currently here since March, to work on and maintain some of the facilities that still exist here. Neither of them have seen another human being for almost 8 months. Island of Pagan, we are here. Let’s go.
So many weeks to get here. You go, sir. You go, sir. Made it to Pan. Oh, three days. They heard a couple of days ago that a boat was coming, but they didn’t know when. They didn’t exactly know who. It’s impossible to know where they are on the island. Maybe they are out doing on some exploration or adventure.
So, we It might take the whole day to find them, but we’re going to Yeah, we’re going to we’re going to go and try to find them. Go. while the fire is still going. Looks like someone put wood in it recently. Oh wow, there’s just a bunch of cows. And after 15 minutes of silence, we began hearing something faintly in the distance.
Hey, I think we can hear an ATV. Hi guys. Half a day. Nice to meet you. How are you, brother? Thomas, nice to meet you. How you doing? Thomas. Joe, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. I don’t know how to react here. It’s a very interesting moment. Okay. Well, we found the island. We found the two guys that live here.
Vlad is excited. I’m excited, dog. I’m missing my dog. Oh. Our first meeting with the elusive men that call this island home had sort of an awkward start. To be honest, we weren’t even sure what to say. And these guys were so used to living mostly in isolation that I don’t think they did either.
We explained that we wanted to learn about what living so remotely was like and how they survive. So, we pretty quickly skipped all the small talk and they jumped straight into showing us around. I caught this cow last 3 days ago. So, it’s still wild. This white one. Oh, you just caught it? Yeah. Wow.
Is it hard to catch a cow? Yeah, sure. It’s hard. Yeah. Yeah, it’s hard. You’re living the the true jungle life here. Oh my god. Hold it here. Here. Yeah. Uh oh. This is a huge one. Around the beach. Oh, I don’t know about that. Are you not afraid of the claws? Just be careful. Just be careful.
How long have you been living here on this island? Total I stay in this island 5 years. 5 years. 2018. You’re you’re connected with nature here. Before you guys leave the place, I want you guys to just go and visit the church cuz we have a church. Yeah, I would love to go there with you. The volcano is still alive.
I just pray to God that doesn’t make it, you know, rupture or what. Do you worry about that sometimes? That’s what I’m thinking about cuz the last time they brought me down, they left all the trash. Then the volcano got mad and it was going to explode. But we just stay behind cleaning the trash all over the place.
So the people that came here last left trash and you’re afraid that that upset the volcano. Do you never get bored? I never get lonely cuz I got animals. I wish them. So without this animal here, I won’t be probably like this. I talk to them and they they listen to me. And how did you learn how to be connected to animals? From that from old the old peoples.
Oh, when I was young, I never stay with like my age is all older people 70 years old and they always tell me the stories about way back me here in the northern islands. Then after that, I keep on wanting to come up here. So, I dropped off from school just to come up here and stay live my life. So, you’ve spent quite a lot of time here completely alone, right? Alone.
Wow. How does that feel? Oh, feels more better cuz it’s no bothering and no stress or something. Just you and what you ever going to eat. We knew nothing about Jordan before coming here and we’re so curious to understand how he made the choices he did and learn how to live in the way he does today.
So at 15 you moved out onto the island here cuz it was free. There’s no car, no cell phone, no internet. And I always wanted to go there cuz he said once you get it, it’s yours. It’s free. You don’t have to buy it. Who was the first old person that taught you how to do these things? My grandpa.
Uh I was probably 2 years old. I cut my ligament right here in my feet. You can see the mark. Oh, you still have the mark. Yeah, here the surgery and no one was going to babysit me. So, they gave him to watch me. So, he just carry me along when he’s feeding the animal. How did it how long did it take to heal this? A year. 1 year and 5 months.
He was holding and like talking to me. Okay, this is how you feed them and this is where you put them. I started raising animals 4 years old. Then when I reach uh Yeah. I when I reach around 8 years old, I started bringing h.unting and fishing. M but to tame the animals my grandpa don’t show me how to make them tame if I caught it while for me it’s good cuz uh nowadays they don’t learning it.
Do you feel that a lot of people are forgetting this? Yeah they’re forgetting the knowledge. Yeah. Even the stones I’m put all the stones here. You put the stones here. If bad spirit comes here and my stones are here, they can protect me from bad energy like you saying to ah you created it like with this this this this place.
It’s a beautiful place. Thank you. How long have you been here? Since March. Can Could you compare? Is it better here or better in way better here? Okay. Okay. Way better here. Nothing to worry about. No need to worry about payments, anything. It’s like the beginning of exactly right.
After being introduced to Jordan and Joe and the rest of the crew getting a chance to catch up, we were all slowly settling into our homes for the next few nights. But soon we got into a topic that sparked the start of our first outing. If a typhoon comes, where do you bunkers? Yeah, bunk fishing.
Well, bunk fishing and grab that g.un the There’s still the g.uns here. Yeah, I think that’s the one for the plane or something. And before we knew it, we were leaving camp and venturing straight into Jordan’s backyard. This is cr4zy. This island is ma.ssive. It’s not like big. It’s like just open. Yeah.
It’s not like mountain big mountain, but it’s like Yeah. There’s just planes here. Have you seen smoke come out from the volcano? Once in every like 4 months. Jordan is barefoot, but he’s so much faster than us. Can’t believe he walks like these bushes and all of this without any shoes. The lava flow from one eruption.
Wait, what we see here is from the lava that came from the volcano and then created like a little wall here. Yeah. Oh my god. What is this? This is cr4zy. Middle of P and this is hiding on every island here in the northern Marianas. There’s like remnants of World War II. This is a crashed airplane.
Oh my god. Christ. This is just laying there. Look at all the bull3t holes. Probably another another American plane, right? The Marianas are home to some of the most brut4l and strategically important battles of World War II between America and Japan. I did not realize that Pagan had essentially a forest.
This does not feel like the typical landscape and vegetation you’d imagine on a tropical island in the Pacific. There’s a jungle and a forest on the same tiny volcanic island. Wa! What is this? It could be pigs inside, you said. Just look at it. Don’t Yep. Don’t go inside. Damn. Japanese World War II ruins all around us here.
There’s bunkers everywhere we look. There’s one right there. There’s one behind us over there. There’s one right there. This was clearly a bigger base than I imagined. They uh definitely had a full army posted up here. And Jordan taking us on quite an exploration. These structures are actually prisons that they put the Chamoros that were living here in the entrance from the top.
And then they they used the Chamorro as slaves while the Japanese were here. Jordan is a Chammoro, descendant from the indigenous people of these islands who settled here over 4,000 years ago. And as most people on the mainland have slowly embraced the more modern lifestyle, he’s one of the few living in what he sees as the way that his ancestors once lived and survived on these islands.
Are you kidding me? He knows things we don’t know. Wow. Well done, Jordan. We know it’s easy for you, but like wow. When did you learn to climb the trees? Yes. 3 2 3 years old. 3 years old. But that’s wild. He used went up, took it, went down, and then just casually continued. And just like that, after 3 days of traveling to get here, we were drinking coconuts while watching the sunset with one of the most isolated men on our planet.
Jordan was still a complete mystery to us, but tomorrow would be our actual first full day with him where we hoped to really understand how he lives and survives so remotely. We are about to take our first I don’t know if I can call it a shower, but wash up with soap for a couple of days. Please bring a soap if you go out in the wilderness.
Just take a little bucket. Not even a bucket. It’s a cup. It feels nice. Yeah. fresh. The only thing that would make this better is if we actually had towels. Another thing, we we forgot to bring towels. Okay, so sorry for editor who is watching this. And before going to bed, luckily we had some entertainment to pa.ss the time.
That’s a super super radio. You know, you can connect with the world to listen what’s going on. Thomas, you ready for a great night’s sleep? Great night’s sleep. I don’t know. I hope so. Sleeping a bit up in the air because the centipedes could else um yeah come and bite us and want to avoid us right now.
What’s the time? Five. The dogs were barking like cr4zy all night like right in front of us. And then there was cows that were screaming like never heard cows scream like it. I didn’t sounded like dinosaurs. I didn’t know cows could make that noise. We are healthy nature for sure.
Yeah. But talking about Jordan over here, like feel like he hasn’t seen too many humans. So like when he woke up, you know, when he came over to us, you know, he doesn’t really say anything. Like he walks next to us and walks among us, but he doesn’t say like hi or good morning.
But it’s not impolite in any way. It’s just that it’s not his way really of doing it. Yeah. He’s just been here by himself for a very long time. So while doing some research for this video, we started looking into some of the numbers and statistics around loneliness. And honestly, they were sh0cking.
In America, for example, one in three people feel lonely at least once a week. That’s over 50 million people. This may be hard to believe, but in 2023, the US Surgeon General actually declared loneliness a public health epidemic, saying it has the same health impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. But what’s strange about loneliness, as we all know, is that it’s not always about being physically alone.
Sometimes we can be surrounded by people and still feel completely isolated. And the hardest part is breaking those patterns, which is why so many people struggle with it for years without finding a way out. And that’s why we believe through our own experience that therapy can make a huge difference and why I want to tell you about today’s sponsor, BetterHelp.
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So, be sure to use yours before they expire. Go to betterhelp.com/y theory for 10% off your first month. And now, let’s get back to the video. To start the morning, Jordan took us for a ride across the island to show us the place he calls home. Let’s roll. Let’s lovely dogs. Oh, wow. Which animal is this? Pig.
Pig. From pig. We discovered that one of the things that Jordan keeps himself busy with is collecting what he calls pagan treasures. Relics either left in the jungle from the wartime or washed up on pagan beaches like gla.ss fishing bobbles, metal boy, and colorful sh3lls and stones.
These treasures are used for decoration, but also for crafting traditional jewelry and ornaments of his own design that he uses for bering. My money is from the animals. That’s how you earn money. Yeah, that’s how I earn money. But actually, I don’t get the money. They gave me supply for the for the cow.
I trade it. Actually, the last time somebody came and bought a cow from me. So, it’s like 100 some bucks. So, I keep that 100 bucks for like two years. And then when one of my brothers came from Saipon, I gave it to them. This is where you live. Yeah. Yeah. You see the volcano from your Can we quickly like see how it looks from? Yeah, you can get up.
Here’s a little It’s You see this every day? Yeah. I can hear the volcano actually growing like how does it feel when it comes up like that? Oh, you can feel the earth shake like it shake the entire world. Are you always ready or do you Yeah, I’m always ready. Always ready. Nice man. We’re happy. Very happy.
Our first mission for the day was to take a dinghy to another part of the island where there is a large inland lake surrounded by forest that Jordan was eager to share with us. Let’s roll. Wow, look at that. The green mountains over there. Yay! Got it. Thank you. Take care of my boy.
Thank you, Papa Mario. As Jordan took us through this strange landscape, he started pointing out different plants that he’s learned to use as food, spice, and medicine. Once you have a back tooth, bat tooth egg, you just rub this one in here because okay, for the tooth egg, this medicine as well from the rooture some digestion. Yes.
And you like eat the roots? No, just uh drink it like you boil it. Robin has made it. It’s a guava, right? That’s Oh, wow. And as we venture further into the forest and onto cattle paths, we came into some of the other inhabitants of the island. What is it? Oh, hi. Wait, there’s a cow, too.
Yeah, I know. Holy hide. Hide over here. Hide a bit. After the eruption in 1981, the people who evacuated the island left behind cows and boores who were left to rum free. Their offspring eventually became completely feral and hostile to humans. Cuz they can just be around these ferns and once we pa.ss by, we can spook them and when we spoke them, they might just charge us and poke us or something and then run off.
That’s why I always look around over there. And so an encounter with a tusk boar or horned bull in the woods could be extremely d4ngerous with our only course of action being to frantically climb a tree. They’re right on the trail and both the walk pigs and the cow typically if you get too close to them will charge us.
Wow. That is a fr3aking bull. That is a gigantic bull. If my heartbeat is beating. Oh, that thing would stay. And we need to realize it run here. See, it’s like Yeah, still here. On a serious note, we just need to be like very very focused. Now we are deep here in the jungle of the island.
And now we’re walking back through the jungle to get back to camp. I did not imagine that we would be coming across vegetation that looked like this on this island. to go from jungle and then step straight into a forest is surreal. And then you come around the corner and there’s just like a patch of beautiful green gra.ss like right here.
Look at this. The last volcanic eruption in 2021 spread so much ash everywhere that it fertilized the ground like cr4zy. And now the trees and the coconuts and the forest is just so lush and overgrown. It’s hard not to feel like there is a mysticism in this forest when you just walk right here and look in front of you.
Another cow’s right there again. Oh, that’s another big one. It’s cr4zy. There’s just ma.ssive wild cows everywhere. Huh. Is that one of the main dangers on the island? Yeah. Let go. It It feels like we’re in the Oh, bro. Bro, I have high alert right now. My senses has been on for like one hour.
I’m sorry, man. That was good. That was good. Yeah, me too. A reminder that Jordan is doing all of this walking completely barefoot and unbothered. He’s walking slower on purpose for our sake. Yeah, I have no concept of where we are on this island.
We are completely at Jordan’s mercy over here. There’s no way out now. If the cow comes from this way, it’s going to be like running from the balls in Spain. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, near the rail, it’s for the Japanese time. Oh, no. From World War II. This is for the Japanese. And this is just laying here. Yeah. It’s from the river. Wow.
Imagine someone ate most likely from this during Second World War. What makes you the most happy in life. Uh I think makes me most happy in the life is like now when there’s a big island and there’s only two person on it. It’s not like 201. That’s the one that make me happy cuz it’s a few people here. Not much.
You made that look easy. I don’t know how you climb that, man. That’s fr3aking tall. Are you never scared? No. No. Only time stolen. Fair enough. Man, I’m so hungry. We haven’t eaten in fish. We got fish. No way. You caught fish? Yeah. Oh, James. James caught fish. Nice. Captain James.
Oh, no. Papa Mario, you caught it? Yeah. Me and my boy over there. Let’s go, man. Papa Mario taking care of us. This is barracuda right here. Wa. I’m going to fry it. Hungry, boys. Hungry. Very hungry. Tastes good. Thank you, Papa Mario for cooking. You’re welcome. Just fresh plate.
It’s a cow to Jordan cut. A big a.ss cow. Jordan caught in. It is huge. Holy crap. But how did you pull it back here? He make the cow run after him. How would you describe Jordan? Who is Jordan? Jordan is a man that you never actually know. Yeah. You don’t not going to know what kind of a person he is. Look at him.
He’s so skinny but he’s skinny but he’s strong. Cuz you guys are super strong. Do you guys find him impressive? Yeah. Yeah. Jordan is not human. He’s not human. Really? He’s something. If you get a bull in the jungle, how do you get it here? First I like I said I get a r.i.pe mango then I just keep throwing it to it and it’s eating it and it’s looking at me probably 3 days.
Then I make the rope very long. When I make the rover very low, I go close. Then I make it chase me. Hold it onto the beach. Then I just tie there in the coconut. So you make this bull chase you and then you run back here. Back there straight to the with the probably like 2 miles. The cows have gone quite comfortable here in this home.
You can check the kitchen. Hey guys, what’s up? With the sun dropping over Pagan, Jordan and Mario asked us to come along as they set out to catch dinner for the night. Showing us his favorite secret spot where he have 100% guarantee of fish. This is it.
This is where we’re going to catch a fish. This nature is just unreal. It’s like one of the most beautiful places I ever been to. It’s uh it’s stunning. Paradise. 100%. We might be catching a second one right now. Whoa. Oh, that’s a big one. Whoa. Oh, it’s a big one. And it’s like so colorful.
We are going to have a feast tonight. Jordan, do you have any nickname? Call the jungle boy. Jungle boy. Jordan the jungle boy. Jordan the jungle boy. Yeah, that’s why I have a tu here. Do you have any bank account or so? No bank account. No bank account. Well, you don’t think about money at all? You may be the most free man we ever met. Probably.
Probably. Most free man. This land is completely untouched. On a lot of islands after World War II around here, they like sprayed seeds over the fields, get the nature to regrow, but pumpkin was never touched. So everything that you’re seeing here is just raw, untouched nature like it was millions of years ago. Yeah, there you go.
And can I ask you what is your biggest dream? If I have one big dream, I hope they reest4blish pagan. I hope people comes back to their island and release it for next generations to come just to try it out and you can say like oh the life now is pretty hard cuz of the internet.
So imagine if they don’t use that here for one year. No internet for connection for one year. So, you think modern life is hard because there’s so too many distractions? Cuz a lot of people think the life here is hard, but for you it’s the opposite. Yeah, it’s normal. Hey. Yeah. The squad, man.
What do you call this in tomorrow? Fish. M. Yummy. Yummy. It’s wild to think that we all met like strangers, right? We went onto that boat a couple of days ago and we were like, “Hello, h3llo, h3llo.” And now we’re all sitting here like a family. That’s what it feels for me. So, thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you. Mario, this is going to be hard to sleep with. Every time this dog starts to bark, it’s because like it’s a cow hair or a pig here or something. So, they’re like protecting us. They’re like the natural alarm system of our camp here. If the dogs aren’t here essentially huge cows and pigs just walk in here and that happened just before there was a fr3aking ma.ssive pig that came and all the dogs chased it away.
And if you’re wondering if we’ve had any sleep in the last 5 days, the answer is no. What the is happening? It’s 5:30 in the morning. It’s Mario. He put it on full blast over there. We haven’t slept for a couple of days. We just need some sleep. Cory, are you awake? I can’t. Okay. How can you not be awake right now? Hey, good morning.
Did I wake you up, bro? Yeah, you did. What’s going on here? Are there supplies that you would want here? Chainsaw. Like a machete or machete? Cuz there’s a cargo ship coming in a few weeks, right? Yeah. We would love to um get some gifts and supplies for you and put it on that boat before we leave.
Mhm. Um, maybe even get you a chainsaw. No, I think those are all our really valuable chainsaw hands machinery. We have a message called seek this comfort. We wanted to give this to you as a as a gift. Thank you again for for everything. That’s our message and we feel like you really embody that and we feel honored to have met you, man.
You’re a super interesting and kind human. I’m so happy at least I met people like you guys. Was usually mostly from Saipan but like people far away like you guys. We’re We’re Vikings from the north. Hopefully one day we’ll be back. Nice to meet you, man. Nice to meet you, Joe. No, you’ll be back tomorrow, right? Yeah, for sure. For sure.
We’ll miss you. And just as quickly as he entered our lives, he vanished. Here he goes back for another few years here. Yeah. Off we go. Bye, Parker. We love you. We love you. Okay, bye. It is hard to describe what meeting Jordan truly felt like. Someone who has embraced solitude and a lifestyle in the wilderness like very few on our planet still have.
But in reality, what Jordan is doing is keeping his Chamorro’s ancestors flame alive. His grandfather and the elders pa.ssed on knowledge to him when he was a child. ancient wisdom that is going extinct that he sees as a duty to be a custodian of. Maybe Jordan has never felt alone here because as in the Chammoro beliefs, his ancestors are still all around him.
Nature isn’t separate from the Chammoros. Its spirit is alive and our ancestors live through it. They inhabit our trees, our mountains, and our oceans. As the world is modernizing at an everinccreasing pace, makes you wonder how rarer people like him will be in the future.
Will our disconnection from the natural environment take us further and further away from what is making us human? Maybe the cure to modern day loneliness is to reconnect with the natural mystery of our existence and likely spending more time embracing the quietness that one can only find outdoors. As we close this long and ambitious tr.i.p, probably don’t go as far as we did, as our journey turned out to be far from over.
And we got caught in a tropical storm on the way back. A tr.i.p that was forecasted to be 8 hours with favorable conditions ended up taking 18 hours, arriving home at 4 in the morning. Thank you for watching this series. If you’re still here, Stephan and I have officially launched our podcast. And in the newest episode, we talk all about seeking discomfort and about this wild tr.i.p right here.
It would mean the world to us if you checked it out.
