Save What You Love with Mark Titus

00:00:00:05 - 00:00:28:00
Mark Titus
You've arrived. Welcome to the Save What You Love podcast. I'm your host, Mark Titus. Today's episode we get to hang out with Kyle Gleason. Kyle is a good friend of mine and a Bristol Bay fisherman who just experienced the greatest return in Bristol Bay of wild sockeye salmon on record ever. 65.5 million sockeye. He also had a and just epic adventure with his two sons up in the Bristol Bay system catching trout after his fishing season.

00:00:28:02 - 00:00:54:02
Mark Titus
And we talk about all of that. And by the way, Kyle's brother is named Steve Gleason. You may have heard of him. He's an NFL legend, played for the New Orleans Saints, has been the advocate for ALS for the last decade and because of this work, won the Congressional Gold Medal. That's big deal. What's even more of a big deal is the heartfelt connection that we all have to wild salmon from Bristol Bay.

00:00:54:05 - 00:01:17:15
Mark Titus
And we get into all of that in the conversation. If you've been enjoying the show, I'd like to ask you to consider to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. It really helps our exposure and helps get this show out into the world. Also, writing a review in your own words helps a bunch too. Lastly, wild salmon to your doorstep flash frozen from Bristol Bay evaswild.com that save spelled backwards wild dot com.

00:01:17:17 - 00:01:27:13
Mark Titus
Order online and it will be at your door right away and you can get a monthly subscription to it. Enjoy the show with Kyle and we'll see you down the trail.

00:01:27:15 - 00:02:01:10
Music
How do you save what you love?
When the world is burning down?
How do you save what you love?
When pushes come to shove.
How do you say what you love?
When things are upside down.
How do you say what you love?
When times are getting tough.

00:02:01:12 - 00:02:06:08
Mark Titus
Kyle Gleason Welcome. Where are you coming to us from today?

00:02:06:09 - 00:02:13:13
Kyle Gleason
I am coming to you from I'll call it my second home in Fairfax, California.

00:02:13:15 - 00:02:22:05
Mark Titus
Cool. So that would just if it's a second, then there would be a first necessitated by that. So where would you call the first home?

00:02:22:07 - 00:02:37:17
Kyle Gleason
Well, I just got back from Alaska, so I was able to spend three months in Alaska this year and I certainly feel at home there. So yeah, that's. Yeah, I'll phrase it.

00:02:37:19 - 00:02:41:12
Mark Titus
Yeah, brother, I certainly know that feeling as well.

00:02:41:13 - 00:02:43:06
Kyle Gleason
Didn't you get that?

00:02:43:08 - 00:03:08:10
Mark Titus
Yeah, I did. I was up in Bristol Bay filming a bit and more on that later. But yeah, I feel home when I'm there and it's, it's good to be home with my wife and my pups here in Seattle. But yeah, there's a, there's a yearning in my heart for that place that's never fully quelled until I'm there.

00:03:08:10 - 00:03:30:11
Mark Titus
So I get it. I'm going to I want to dig into your season and to Alaska and all of that stuff that we share a great affinity for here in a minute. But first off, I would love to hear your version of the story about how we met, and then I'll fill in the details with my own little part of that.

00:03:30:11 - 00:03:36:23
Mark Titus
But I think it's a pretty entertaining story. So why don't you give us the deets on how we met in the first place?

00:03:37:00 - 00:03:58:12
Kyle Gleason
Yes. So it must have been about nine years ago, maybe ten, but not eight. A little while. A friend of mine who is a San Francisco resident, I live in the Bay Area most of the year when I'm not living in Alaska on my fishing boat.

00:03:58:14 - 00:04:26:14
Kyle Gleason
And he he hits me up and he's like, Hey, man, there's going to be a showing of documentary at the San Francisco Aquarium about salmon. We should go watch. And he was he'd help me around my business plan to buy my fishing boat. And so he had a vested interest in my life as a fisherman. So we we picked out the Showtime and made it down there and watched the breach.

00:04:26:16 - 00:04:52:14
Kyle Gleason
And I was really, really impressed with the storytelling in that film. And afterwards, that happened to be a Q&A with the writer, director, producer Guy, and his name was Mark Titus. And so I started asking questions from people, what do you like? Salmon? And, you know, how did you get into making film? And I was like, Yeah, so what do you know about Bristol Bay?

00:04:52:16 - 00:04:58:00
Mark Titus
And I asked him, I ask you.

00:04:58:02 - 00:05:17:13
Kyle Gleason
And then you're like, Hey, man, I'd love to talk more, but I got to I got to get to the airport. And I was like, that's cool. This drive you. So I ended up driving you to SFO so you could catch your flight out. And on the way we discovered that we have many mutual friends and that we have similar, similar backgrounds.

00:05:17:14 - 00:05:39:05
Kyle Gleason
We come. I would say that as far as like a cultural identity, I understand your your cultural upbringing in like the 99th percentile as being similar to mine, even though you grew up in Seattle and I grew up in Spokane. We're both kids from the Northwest. We're both kids that love to fish. We're both kids that went to parochial schools and then went to Catholic high schools, and we have mutual friends.

00:05:39:05 - 00:05:44:02
Kyle Gleason
And so it was there was an affinity of knowing when I when I met you.

00:05:44:04 - 00:06:05:23
Mark Titus
That is a rock solid encapsulation. And why is it that the guys sitting in the front row who pepper me with the smart ass questions end up being some of my best friends for the long haul? I don't get it, but that has been a similar trait and that was wonderful. Yeah, not the least of which the similarities anyway.

00:06:05:23 - 00:06:19:23
Mark Titus
Were your your brother Steve was my brother in law and Johan's big brother in their fraternity at Washington State University. And on and on and on. Yeah, it was just it was speaking.

00:06:20:01 - 00:06:21:11
Kyle Gleason
As a group, right?

00:06:21:13 - 00:06:48:10
Mark Titus
Absolutely. Yeah. My wife's kid. My brother's kid. Her entire side of the family are all kids. So, yeah, we got a lot of cougar blood running around here. I'm, as you probably remember, all mixed up. And I'm a duck who roots for the Huskies, who's married to a cougar. So, you know, that's about a schizophrenic suggest. But anyway, that is a another long story for another day.

00:06:48:10 - 00:07:10:09
Mark Titus
But I would love to continue on with your journey now and if you could tell us just a bit about how you came into this work that you do in Bristol Bay. Like that's not something you just wake up one day and say, I'm going to go be a Bristol Bay commercial salmon fisherman. How did you come into that work and what keeps you going?

00:07:10:09 - 00:07:14:10
Mark Titus
What keeps you sustained throughout?

00:07:14:12 - 00:07:35:16
Kyle Gleason
That's a great question. The direct answer to how I came into the work. I have a very good friend and as a young man I met him in the Bay Area and he was a hotshot sailor racing boats on San Francisco Bay and somebody from a sailing community offered him a shot as a deckhand up in Bristol Bay.

00:07:35:16 - 00:07:56:07
Kyle Gleason
And he took it and he ended up buying a boat. And then and when he bought a boat, he was like, Hey, man, you got to see this thing. I know how much you love the water, so come on and check it out. And two years later, I bought his boat from him when he bought a different boat and that's the succinct version of it.

00:07:56:08 - 00:08:20:18
Kyle Gleason
The long story is that I've been in love with water since I can remember. You know, I grew up a very long ways from the ocean in Spokane, But I remember a kid being a child like, you know, four or five or six years old. And you know, like going to the Eagles Health Club spa thing with my dad where he would go swim laps and I would just play in the pool for hours and hours and hours.

00:08:20:18 - 00:08:42:03
Kyle Gleason
And I remember the lifeguard, you know, being like, there's that little fish again. And then, you know, some of my most vivid early memories are of going fishing with my dad. And I, you know, I remember the first fish I caught over 12 inches. You know, I was seven years old. I caught a rainbow trout out of Sprague Lake.

00:08:42:03 - 00:09:14:16
Kyle Gleason
And it was the one fish we caught all day that, like, broke the skunk. And as a child, I remember thinking, I want to be a marine biologist when I grow up. And I ended up choosing not to pursue athletics in college. I come from a pretty renowned athletic family and instead I went and followed my heart, which led me to Peru via some contacts I had at my high school.

00:09:14:16 - 00:09:32:16
Kyle Gleason
And I met a priest down there and he said, Hey, while you're in this country, you need to take a look around. And I learned how to surf while I was in Peru. And suddenly my love for the ocean just kind of overtook my life. So then it was like, okay, I'm going to follow my desires. And I wanted to live near the ocean.

00:09:32:16 - 00:09:58:12
Kyle Gleason
So I started doing construction work on yachts like yacht repair stuff, yacht carpentry, restoration and work. And in that pursuit of the water and the closeness to the water, and my friend in that community who sailed, who offered me the gig in Bristol Bay and to have somebody offer me the opportunity to make money fishing, which is something I've just been so passionately fond of my entire life.

00:09:58:12 - 00:10:22:21
Kyle Gleason
Do I love to fish more than I love to surf? I don't know. But nobody's paid me any money to be a surfer yet. So you know the opportunity to make money fishing. I was like, Sherman, sign me up. I love this idea. And I went to Naknek. I was curious, but I was also super motivated to get up to Alaska because I knew if I got there I could bang around and do a little bit of fly fishing.

00:10:22:22 - 00:10:50:18
Kyle Gleason
So regardless of whatever happened with the commercial pursuit of commercial fishing, I, I knew I'd be able to sneak off and catch a fish or two on the fly. And so I went to Naknek and I remember like being in Naknek as a greenhorn fisherman, and I work really hard and get my jobs down. And then I trudge across the tundra and find the lake where I could fly fish for pike and I'd catch all the pike I could behind red Salmon Cannery, and I'd hitchhike up to King Salmon Creek and I'd, you know, catch Little Rainbows and King Salmon Creek.

00:10:50:18 - 00:11:24:18
Kyle Gleason
And, you know, in between openers, in aggregate, I remember like trying to floss sockeye salmon, you know, like, so yeah, I've, I've always really loved fishing. And so that's how I got into commercial fishing. And, and, you know, it's it's just another beautiful thing for me to pursue with all of my heart. You know, I'm also a general contractor, and when I meet contractors that do better than me, I'm like, Good for you, man.

00:11:24:20 - 00:11:31:16
Kyle Gleason
And when I meet fishermen that do better than me, I want to sink their boats. So I guess I can honestly say it's like the.

00:11:31:16 - 00:11:40:00
Mark Titus
One thing, like a true fisherman, you know?

00:11:40:02 - 00:12:17:09
Kyle Gleason
So it's fishing is the one thing that it just takes all of my soul, you know, in my pursuit of it. It's the one thing I want to be the best at and I know that I never will. And that keeps me very humble. You know, one of my approaches as a fisherman is to always have a friend who's better than you at whatever it is you know, in the commercial fishing world, there's I had a guy in my radio group or girl at my radio group because there are some girls in my radio group that kick my butt.

00:12:17:11 - 00:12:36:12
Kyle Gleason
But you know that to have somebody on my radio group that knows ugashik better than me or the news or Upriver stuff and the Queen Jack, you know, as a as a bass fisherman, you know, it's like, this guy's really good at crank baits or, you know, fly fisherman, here's a steelhead junky and he knows it better than me.

00:12:36:12 - 00:12:55:13
Kyle Gleason
And, you know, and all of the different pursuits of fishing that I have. There's really only like one spot that I'm like, I might be the best guy in the world at that point and all the other places. There's so many better than I am.

00:12:55:15 - 00:13:17:23
Mark Titus
All right. And okay, you lit up about 15 lights. I don't know if you look hit all of them because I do want to keep this move along and we're going to come back to that one spot for sure that you are the man and I'm pretty sure I know where that is. But look, I talked to all kinds of people on this show that are doing incredible things in the world.

00:13:18:01 - 00:13:41:17
Mark Titus
People like Olivia Watkins, who is the president of Black Farmers Fund, empowering African-Americans to take ownership of farmland again And really, Yeah, move forward. And but, you know, I can't tell you how many people have said what you said, which is, man, I just I'm in love with water. I've been in love with water my whole life. And that really is a common thread.

00:13:41:17 - 00:14:03:18
Mark Titus
And and it's been in particular water. But even more so, I think just that love and you know, clearly it's the name of the show save what you love but that that's the thing I think people that stick it out and want it to be a part of their life for the rest of their lives. It's right in here.

00:14:03:18 - 00:14:30:03
Mark Titus
It's based in your heart. And, you know, to that point about fishing and the eternal mystery, I loved what you said about, you know, I'm never going to be the best. And there's always something to keep coming back for, man. I'm simpatico with that. Exactly. On all fronts. Like, you know, I love to fish and I think I'm a pretty decent fisherman and I know I'm going to be the best.

00:14:30:05 - 00:14:48:13
Mark Titus
And that mystery under the surface and that challenge about wanting to be good at your craft. Yeah, it keeps me coming back over and over and over again. Yeah. And so, yeah, I mean, again, these connection points are incredible. And.

00:14:48:15 - 00:15:11:12
Kyle Gleason
Well, one thing also that I love going back to water is like, I think water is one of the most basic ways that we can really feel connected to something that's greater than ourself, right? Because like all of these lakes that go into these rivers, that go into these streams, that go into this ocean, like it's all going into that one body of water, you know.

00:15:11:14 - 00:15:30:01
Kyle Gleason
Yes. When you're when I'm in that water, I really, truly feel my connection to the whole I think I know how powerless I am. Like, I feel this like part in me that no matter what, when I'm in the water, I'm a little bit surrendered, like I'm a little bit surrendered to the fact that I'm not in control.

00:15:30:03 - 00:15:55:22
Kyle Gleason
Right. And the fun of it is knowing you're not in control and trying to understand what's happening around you at such a high level that you can be in tune with this rhythm that's that's truly greater than you, and that is that you're you're a part of it. You're a part of it when you're choosing to participate with it.

00:15:56:03 - 00:16:19:17
Kyle Gleason
But it's like the hidden world, you know, like what happens under the water and on the water. It's like the earth is covered by, what, 70% water? But we know so little about that 70% because we're terrestrial beings. And, you know, for me, it's like when I get to when I get to be in the water, on the water, either as a surfer where I'm timing the swell and catching the wave.

00:16:19:17 - 00:16:55:03
Kyle Gleason
And when I'm doing it perfectly, you know, like I'm all the way inside of a barrel and I'm looking out inside of a tube of water, breathing air, riding a board on a piece of moving energy, you know, like that's a it's a pretty in the moment state. And, you know, and the same thing when I'm like analyzing water and looking at a rip in the middle of the creek Jack going, my gosh, the fish are on the east side of the ramp or they're in the dirty water instead of the clean water, and eliminate out something in my mind that lights up because I'm able to see the secret language that the natural

00:16:55:03 - 00:17:33:04
Kyle Gleason
world is is speaking to me and understand it. And I guess it's the part that breaks my heart is the part of me that fails to understand when the language is being spoken. Right? Like because I feel like the language of understanding of water is always there for us. If we are perceptive enough, even if we can try really hard to hear it, but we don't always perceive it, and then we see those that understand it better than us and we go, man, you know, and then we can attempt I can attempt to, you know, try to learn, try to become more fluent in that language of water understanding.

00:17:33:04 - 00:17:42:22
Kyle Gleason
But it will forever leave me with something to strive for in a way that will humble my soul.

00:17:43:00 - 00:18:23:07
Mark Titus
Yeah, man, absolutely. Surrender is what you said. And I don't know if that makes sense. It makes perfect sense to me. And that surrender part is what I'm really attached to. It's I've been I'm going to gush about this for, for some time to come here. But my buddy Russ Ricketts, who was on a previous show, got me into river snorkeling, and I 100% identify with that surrender and that awe and that wonder by just dipping my head below the water and this stretch of water I've driven by or I've walked by 100 times, all of a sudden has gone from two dimensions into three dimensions.

00:18:23:09 - 00:18:41:13
Mark Titus
And I am surrounded by fish that I never knew were there by an intact ecosystem on the Snoqualmie River with crawdads and catfish fly and sculpted and whitefish and rainbows and brook trout and cutthroat. And I'm just inhabit and have many ideas.

00:18:41:13 - 00:18:42:17
Kyle Gleason
And this to me.

00:18:42:19 - 00:18:53:03
Mark Titus
Absolutely big. There's there's one that lives in this whole that's like I swear to God he's £10. She's £10. That's just this massive whitefish.

00:18:53:05 - 00:19:05:20
Kyle Gleason
I love like this man. There's so ancient, like there are kidneys. About every time I see a white fish or catch one, I'm always like this. The ancient ness of that fish. I have so much reverence for the.

00:19:05:23 - 00:19:30:06
Mark Titus
Yeah, they are ancient and they are in the water. When you're in the water with them and the lights coming through, just so they sparkle, they sparkle with this gold kind of glint and they're going to get pooh poohed as sport fish. People that eat them love them. Yeah, and you're right, they're ancient and they're kind of wise and they just kind of hang around the bottom and don't don't expend too much energy and come up when they need to.

00:19:30:06 - 00:19:57:19
Mark Titus
It's they're beautiful and and, you know, man, the poetry you just laid on us with looking down that pipe, writing a board in the water, you know, encompassed by water, but still breathing air as a terrestrial being. And I hope I don't get too decrepit, you know, fast enough so I can still learn to get sort of proficient.

00:19:58:01 - 00:20:31:22
Mark Titus
You're like on the pro circuit on surf. I've done it once or twice in Hawaii. A friend of mine, Rob, got me up on a board and even that was like miraculous. And yes, all of this is poetry in motion, in liquid form. I mean, David, Jim, James, David James Duncan talks about it with the the ocean producing the clouds coming off the ocean and into the mountains and the earth connecting with the sky and the love that exists there.

00:20:31:22 - 00:20:36:07
Mark Titus
And it's just it's so true, man. And it's all connected. Well, again, okay.

00:20:36:07 - 00:20:54:14
Kyle Gleason
I got to interject quickly with mine, said to me once when I got to Mackinac and we were we're going out to fish right now. I was a greenhorn, my friend Tyler Rasmussen says to me, he's like, God, I love this place. It's warm. Weather is made.

00:20:54:15 - 00:21:20:22
Mark Titus
And easy to see that when you're standing in the middle of it. Let's let's let's hover right there. So we're talking about Bristol Bay and you rattled off a bunch of names that I'm familiar with because I've spent a little bit of time there most of our listeners are not familiar with. So you were talking about Ugashik and Jack and Igor and can you give us a little bit of a lay of the land of the landscape there?

00:21:20:22 - 00:21:23:09
Mark Titus
What are you talking about when you're talking about all these different names?

00:21:23:11 - 00:21:56:12
Kyle Gleason
Sure. So there's you know, there's four primary districts where commercial fishermen fish and the four primary are the new Chugach, the Queen Jack Naknek, which is kind of two and one egg lake and Ugashik. And so as a commercial fisherman, when the season opens, the state of Alaska has come up with this great system where they say, Hey, you can fish in any one of these districts.

00:21:56:12 - 00:22:18:14
Kyle Gleason
There's also a fifth District Togiak but you can't fish in Togiak if you're going to fish in any of the other districts. And it has a smaller run and it's pretty well managed by the first nation, people that are there. So for the most part, visitors like myself, you know, we fish in one of these other four major districts.

00:22:18:14 - 00:22:52:04
Kyle Gleason
And so the state of Alaska says, okay, Kyle, you can go fish, but you have to tell us where you're fishing. And by the way, if you want to change rivers, you have to sit out for 48 hours, which means that river that you choose to fish in, whether it's the new Chugach district or the college district or the district or the Ugashik district, you really want to make sure you're making the choice that's best for you, because missing the wrong two days of fishing can be very, very costly thing.

00:22:52:06 - 00:23:15:20
Kyle Gleason
So our season is so short. I mean, my boat is in the water for usually less than 45 days in the season and you know, it's in that pursuit of those fish in that time makes up a significant amount of my livelihood. So choose wisely, friends. But any river system also has a very unique, you know, has a unique feel and character to it.

00:23:15:23 - 00:23:37:23
Kyle Gleason
The new Chugach district is is pretty massive and wide open and the mountains on the west side of Bristol Bay, they really come down to the water and you can feel the presence of the mountains when you're in that district. Whereas if you're over in the technical district, it's a lot more, much more of a wide open tundra flat.

00:23:37:23 - 00:24:15:21
Kyle Gleason
You know, it's like the greatest part of the basin that makes up Bristol Bay and you know, exotic has. Bishara I think is the pronunciation on it, but it has the backdrop of Mt. Ashraf. So you see nothing really when you're out fishing except for, you know, like brown tundra flats and then there's a big volcano in the background and then you get down to Ugashik and every time I get down to Ugashik, which is the southernmost district, the closest to the Aleutian Islands, to me it feels like when I spend time on the west coast of Ireland and, you know, there's there's beautiful rolling hills in the southern part of the Ugashik district.

00:24:15:21 - 00:24:38:03
Kyle Gleason
And and it's it's quite a bit greener than the neck that Queen Jack and aggregate areas and you could spend a lifetime fishing each one of these districts and still be lacking several lifetimes of knowledge. There's so much to learn.

00:24:38:05 - 00:24:58:14
Mark Titus
I know exactly what you mean about the the land and not not about the fishing. I've only done a little bit of commercial fishing up there myself, but the land you feel like, you know, I spent a lot of time in Naknek and King Salmon and on the Naknek River and then over on Lake Electric and in the wood check system.

00:24:58:16 - 00:25:23:10
Mark Titus
Beautiful look. Never touch it. And I plan on I plan on being up there somehow, some way every year for the rest of my life. And we'll never touch even those those just those two things. Yeah. But again, to clarify, you were talking about the Ugashik and the Jack and the Nishi. Those are all districts referring to the rivers that flow into the Bristol Bay.

00:25:23:11 - 00:26:02:04
Kyle Gleason
To Bristol Bay. And each district has, you know, like for example, the rivers that are inside of the Queen. Jack Well, you've got, you know, you've got the Queen Jack River or the Naknek River, the elect area along the river. You know, I mean, like in the news you have the wood and the igushik and the snake and I mean, you know, and again, can ugashik are mostly just one, but even has a King Salmon River, and so does Ugashik, you know, So there's, there's, there's the main river mouth that, you know, we're fishing around, but from that there's 10,000 arteries going into each one of those which are all going into Bristol Bay.

00:26:02:05 - 00:26:28:12
Kyle Gleason
And you know, one thing that I try to do as a commercial fisherman, you know, I try to stay and get up into the the little creeks at the end of it all. And, you know, because I'm catching these bright fish as they're coming in to spawn. But there's so much more that's happening after us, you know, like there's like if I think about what those fish have survived to get, then go ahead and get caught in my net.

00:26:28:14 - 00:26:47:07
Kyle Gleason
You know how many predators have pursued them? Salmon, sharks, seals, birds, you name it, you know, and then they get past us and then you realize how many barriers they have to evade and how many bald eagles they have to obey to evade and wolves, and then setting its sights and, you know, I mean, and still so many of those fish are spawning right now.

00:26:47:09 - 00:26:52:05
Kyle Gleason
That's incredible. It's really incredible.

00:26:52:07 - 00:27:15:21
Mark Titus
So, dear listener, I encourage you, we're going to put a link up in the show notes that'll have a link to a Google map of Bristol Bay. And I encourage you to take a look at that and kind of visualize what I was talking about. And it is incredible the amount of braids of of water that are moving through this whole area.

00:27:15:21 - 00:27:50:05
Mark Titus
And it is inexhaustible. You can't even do it in an entire human lifetime. Let's focus now on this season. This season was exceptional for a lot of reasons, but most importantly, it seems that the numbers were unbelievable. Again, yeah. Can you tell us about the unique nature of this season? How did it go for you and how does that how does that blend into the absolutely sacred, unique nature of of this incredible place on earth?

00:27:50:06 - 00:28:17:14
Kyle Gleason
So we had more fish come back to Bristol Bay this year than any other year. And in an incredibly humbling fact, I also caught the least amount of fish I've got since my greenhorn skipper season. So, you know, as a commercial fisherman, usually you're supposed to say, Yeah, the biggest trout ever. And I caught the most fish and I'm like, and a lot of those fish are in the new act.

00:28:17:14 - 00:28:47:14
Kyle Gleason
And there's an interesting thing basically in I think it was 2018 was the last time there was a massive, massive new year and 2018 2019. But you know, basically that breed class that came to the new sugarcane was about a 30 million fish run. It's their kids essentially. They just came back again and there was another roughly 30 million fish around in the new act.

00:28:47:16 - 00:29:18:15
Kyle Gleason
So if you take away the prosperity of the nushagak and and suddenly this season is not quite as amazing as as we might think, because it was so concentrated in that in that river system. So there is a little one it's great to hear. Hey, largest run ever. There are some things that I think about as a fisherman, and I might not be going exactly where you want me to remark, but please forgive me.

00:29:18:17 - 00:29:39:05
Kyle Gleason
There's some things that I think about here as a fisherman and in know the news in that district and those systems, especially the word which is getting a lot of fish, they're producing a lot of the breed class that are one year in the river and then two years in the ocean. And so it's a it's a pretty short return cycle.

00:29:39:06 - 00:30:01:11
Kyle Gleason
And one thing that we're starting to see less and less of is the variety in the age classes. And, you know, I'm just hey, I'm going to say I'm not a fisherman or sorry, I am just a fisherman. I'm not a biologist. And, you know, but that's one thing that I wonder about is like we're getting more and more fish in this one to age cycle.

00:30:01:13 - 00:30:22:18
Kyle Gleason
Is that something we should be paying attention to? I don't know the answer to that, but that's like, that's the one thing that I go, okay, well, should I, should I be concerned? And then the other side of the coin is, well, shoot 60, what was it when they come in at 63, 66 million this year.

00:30:22:20 - 00:30:26:01
Mark Titus
The last number that I saw was 65.5 million.

00:30:26:01 - 00:30:46:14
Kyle Gleason
A 65 and a half million salmon. And I, you know, like, I wish I could say that it was like, what a year for me. It wasn't. I left the new and too early and I had friends that had the season in their lifetime. And I heard stories of like, man, we were just trying to get our nets in.

00:30:46:15 - 00:31:15:10
Kyle Gleason
And I didn't have that experience. I had an experience fishing in aggregate and mostly in aggregate where we were expecting there to show up and feeling like it never quite came and aggregate came in 4 million fish under its forecast. So in the slice of abundance where I was, we actually spent most of the season in a feeling of scarcity and understanding, you know, our brothers and sisters over in the news for nailing them and we're going, man, we really maybe should have made a different choice.

00:31:15:12 - 00:31:19:18
Kyle Gleason
And that's fishing, man.

00:31:19:20 - 00:31:52:12
Mark Titus
Fishing every type of fishing. Yeah, it always experiences that, you know. And the big picture I'm hearing from you, though, is about diversification and yeah, that how important it is. And I think that that really ties into a nice little segue here in our film The Wild of which you are an associate producer. Yes. The folks that would build the proposed Pebble Mine in the headwaters of this incredible place you're describing here.

00:31:52:12 - 00:32:28:11
Mark Titus
Yeah. Make a claim that they would only harm theoretically if there was a disaster with their mine site, 0.002% of the fish in Bristol Bay because it would only harm this one little area in their in air quotes little area up near Lake, Indiana. And what we talk about in the in the film and I think is just so perfectly illustrated in the narrative that you're given us here today is that diversity is critical to salmon.

00:32:28:11 - 00:33:03:08
Mark Titus
It's to it's critical to all life on Earth. But that 1.002% could, in fact, be the most important part of this ecosystem in a given year or in a given decade. Yeah. So making the assumption that, it's just a little system up there and it hasn't done really well for the last ten years. Five years, whatever. Yeah, is totally erroneous because everything in this system which is still perfect because it's perfectly intact, it is not cut apart by roads or pipelines or culverts or anything else.

00:33:03:08 - 00:33:33:17
Mark Titus
Yet it is entirely dependent upon its diversification. And I think that you can't emphasize that enough. So when you're when you're looking at this issue and you're looking at Pebble and you're talking about this amongst your friends, fellow brothers and sisters out there on the fishing grounds, why is this issue something that has really brought you together? You know, you mentioned earlier about like, hey, man, I'm competing against that guy.

00:33:33:19 - 00:33:46:11
Mark Titus
You know, I'm going to sink his boat because you're competitive, you're fishermen. But what's incredible is like, not only is it commercial fisherman, but it's commercial fishermen and sport fishermen who have come together and governments and men.

00:33:46:12 - 00:33:48:10
Kyle Gleason
And all of them. Yeah.

00:33:48:12 - 00:34:10:20
Mark Titus
Right. So it's like, what is the point of unification about this issue and why is this matter of sustainability in Bristol Bay so important to commercial fishermen? Why do you and why do you adhere to it so strictly.

00:34:10:22 - 00:34:45:01
Kyle Gleason
Or so I, I would call myself a worshiper of the wild. You know, people talked about rewilding and I left home at 18 and I moved to South America. And at one point I spent three months paddling through the Amazon River in a dugout canoe. And, you know, at one point I spent three months alone on the last coast of Humboldt County living in a shelter and surfing every day.

00:34:45:01 - 00:35:20:04
Kyle Gleason
And and I remember when I left the Lost Coast after three months and, I went and visit my brother in New Orleans. And this conversation with him where I was like, I don't know that I am going to be able to join society. Like, I don't know that I'm going to be able to assimilate because I'd spent so much time in the pursuit of remote, far flung places and the concept of like living in a city and having a job and all of that.

00:35:20:04 - 00:35:50:23
Kyle Gleason
I even though I'm a human being and that seems to be like what we do, I wasn't sure that I would be able to successfully achieve that in Bristol Bay. And discovering Bristol Bay for me was the first time where I was actually able to work in a way that enhanced my worship of the wilderness and the wild.

00:35:51:01 - 00:36:22:23
Kyle Gleason
And to have found that has saved my soul. I don't know how else I can say it and simultaneously I've spent most of my adult life well. I've been in Bristol Bay for ten years. I'm 40. I mean, for 30 years. I was heartbroken that nothing was intact. Like I saw activists and I was like, You're wasting your time.

00:36:23:01 - 00:37:02:21
Kyle Gleason
Like, we lost already. Like, why do you care? You know, after being in the Amazon and like in some of these places that are just like, so I'd only found to really, you know, the the Pacific islands on the Pacific coast of Panama, the last coast and the Amazon where it wasn't like pretty deeply scarred and damaged by by humanity's impact on the whole the whole, you know, like an ecosystem is a complete thing that will take care of itself.

00:37:02:23 - 00:37:39:03
Kyle Gleason
And to that, if I want to, you know, get even more existential, like when we die out as humans, we're going to leave a massive gap for something to fill our place like it will be. Life will go on and we won't be competing. It's evolution anymore will be leaving a giant space for something to fill. All that being said, well, when I got to Bristol Bay and I saw this thing that was whole that I'd never seen before on such a large scale, it really just touched my heart and healed me in a way.

00:37:39:03 - 00:38:32:05
Kyle Gleason
It took away my cynicism. It allowed me to be hopeful for the future to the point where, you know, I came there and I was like, I want to have sons that come fish with me here. The way fathers and sons have been fishing this place for thousands of years. And so when the Pebble Mine became an issue again shortly after the breech was finished and toured around, you know, 2016, for the first time in my life, I decided to become an activist because essentially Bristol Bay had saved my life and given me a reason to be hopeful that I could be a fully wild, fully integrated human and that there would be a place

00:38:32:05 - 00:39:25:20
Kyle Gleason
that I could bring my children to and they could bring their children to to experience that. The bounty that the Earth has without us interfering. I mean, there's a lot of bounty on Earth. We've how many billions of people are we feeding? You know, but you can still walk across the backs of salmon in Bristol Bay, you know, And so when the threat of Pebble Mine really came back to the surface in 2016, you know, from a selfishness standpoint, I said, I make money and of course I want to protect my income.

00:39:25:22 - 00:39:58:05
Kyle Gleason
But that's not really it. You know, it's really about how many intact ecosystems do we have left on earth. And at this point, I think we're smart enough as a species to promote the preservation of what's still completely intact. Like I understand that we have to we got to live here. We have cities, you know, we have impact and simultaneously, like a completely intact wild ecosystem is absolutely worth saving.

00:39:58:07 - 00:40:04:09
Kyle Gleason
So that's that was my motivation to get involved.

00:40:04:11 - 00:40:31:22
Mark Titus
And that's beautiful, man. And and, you know, I've seen you in action. We've gone to DC together and and yeah, it is is work. It is activism And now you like I said, your dad and I know you got to take your boys fishing after the commercial fishing season. You guys got to go fly fishing together in Bristol Bay.

00:40:32:00 - 00:40:37:10
Mark Titus
What was that like and what did it mean to you as Dad?

00:40:37:12 - 00:41:00:12
Kyle Gleason
I said to my I kept two deckhands with me, Glenn. My boys came up after the season. We we ran my boat from Naknek across the creek, jack up into the new and then all the way up the Wood River to Lake Electric. And it's one of the few lakes that I have an old slow prop up. And it's one of the few lakes that you can get an old slow prop boat up into pretty easily.

00:41:00:15 - 00:41:28:23
Kyle Gleason
And, you know, we had to dodge a few rocks and got stuck a few times on the way. But we made it off and and got to elect Nick and it was I said to my I said to my deckhands. I was like, I looked at my boys and I was like, Hey, guys, we might not have had the best season, but we are Highlanders and happiness because this trip was so incredible, man.

00:41:29:01 - 00:41:49:11
Kyle Gleason
I got to put my children on board a boat that, you know, I've rebuilt, stripped it all the way to a bare hull and put back together again. They know how much work I put into it, and I got to initiate them into the oldest tradition we have as humans. You know, we've been fishing since there's been a shore.

00:41:49:13 - 00:42:09:12
Kyle Gleason
So they got and they got to me, you know, the woman, Marcia Dale, that hangs my nets. And, you know, I was actually just going back through and introducing my children to the Sermon on the Mount the other day, talking about the book of Matthew, where Jesus meets, you know, the two brothers on the Sea of Galilee, and they're mending their nets.

00:42:09:14 - 00:42:47:22
Kyle Gleason
And I'm like, Hey, you guys learned how to mend net this summer? I'm doing it for a long time. And so to be able to bring my children into a tradition that is so much greater than me, you know, a timeline that's ancient means a lot. And to have them, you know, pick fish out of a net and we traded our salmon and for diesel, and then we ran up, took that, ran up the Wood River, got to their collecting again and we got to see a lake that was just teeming with fish staging to spawn.

00:42:48:00 - 00:43:10:19
Kyle Gleason
With so many millions of fish swam up the Wood River and the lakes crystal clear. So we're driving on the lake and my boys are standing on the back of the boat, and there's just thousands and thousands and thousands of salmon below them. And, you know, we're we're we found that we rented a jet skier from a pretty kind family up there, and we ran it up a Google like River and catching Rainbow and Grayling.

00:43:10:19 - 00:43:31:04
Kyle Gleason
And they really got to see the whole process of like, hey, this is how we catch them in the nets. And they get past us and they go up into the lakes and this is where they stayed. And we got to walk up little teeny tiny creeks and see, you know, sockeye spawning and, you know, some of the some of the the dogs or chums were also spawning as well.

00:43:31:04 - 00:43:54:10
Kyle Gleason
And they got to see bears picking fish out of the river and eagles eating carcasses of spawned out fish. So in a in a ten day window, you know, they got to see the industry of Bristol Bay and the tannery and the work that, you know, that we're we're doing to take care of our boats so that we can go do this every year.

00:43:54:10 - 00:44:27:06
Kyle Gleason
And then they got to see, you know, the other side of it, the far flung, super remote places where very few humans go and watch these fish spawn in streams that they've been spawning in for longer than I've been here, man. And so as a father, to introduce them to all of this, you know, I felt blessed beyond belief that I could share such an amazing experience of wilding with my children and to be their steward in it.

00:44:27:07 - 00:45:01:09
Kyle Gleason
Like what a gift, man. Like in my if my 40 year old self would have stood with my 19 year old despondent self who felt completely broken and disconnected from the world and unable to interact and unsure of how he was going to be, and he said to him, You're going to give your children this. And I showed him that experience by God, that 19 year old kid would have a lot of peace in his soul, you know, like, I can't believe it, brother.

00:45:01:09 - 00:45:11:15
Kyle Gleason
I can't believe that this is my life. Like, I'm such a blessed man.

00:45:11:17 - 00:45:42:02
Mark Titus
I happened to see your Instagram post when you were just finishing that and you were just I could I could feel the water gushing out of you. I could feel the life, the love, the grace about what a perfect, blessed week and, you know, time it was. And I saw the images on your kids faces and I man, I knew exactly that.

00:45:42:04 - 00:46:11:08
Mark Titus
That place of bliss, that place of contentment where literally you didn't need another thing. It was just a parent. And I try to make a rule to not make suppositions about how other people going to react or what they're thinking. It's it's not my job to do that. It's not my experience. But I can tell you with a great degree of certainty that your boys are never going to forget that man.

00:46:11:10 - 00:46:43:14
Mark Titus
Yeah, that that is a gift that is going to carry on for generations. And you should feel that welling that's happening in your heart right now is justified. Yeah. Thank you, brother. I want to talk about another member of your family, your brother Steve. He makes an appearance in our film and the Wild and a lot of folks out there know him, but some folks don't.

00:46:43:15 - 00:47:16:05
Mark Titus
He's also a fisherman. And the moment that he appears in the wild is is a really poignant moment for him. And I think for anybody that watched the film. So for for those of you out there who don't know, Steve, how can you can you tell us who your brother Steve is and why was that moment that we try to depict in the film with some semblance of grace so important and so poignant for him?

00:47:16:07 - 00:48:04:12
Kyle Gleason
So my brother Steve Gleason, he he's a giant among men and he played for the New Orleans Saints for eight years. And then shortly after he retired, he was diagnosed with Amul Tropic Lateral Sclerosis. And he has been living with ALS now for, I want to say, 12 years, perhaps. And an ALS diagnosis at best is an extremely accelerated timeline of functional use of your body.

00:48:04:14 - 00:48:35:07
Kyle Gleason
So my brother is 12 years later alive, hasn't moved a muscle in ten years and he hasn't been able to breathe independently for the last. Yeah, yeah, ten, about ten years. And most humans are dead within two and a half years of their diagnosis. So when he received that diagnosis, he decided to wander as far as he could while he was still ambulatory.

00:48:35:09 - 00:49:04:20
Kyle Gleason
And he and his wife, Michelle, drove from New Orleans, Louisiana, to all the way up to Alaska. And one of the things that he really, really wanted to do before he lost functional use of his body was catch a salmon on flora and and he managed to achieve that feat literally as he was losing the ability to, like, grasp a fishing pole.

00:49:04:22 - 00:49:55:11
Kyle Gleason
And and my brother has the same hunger for wildness that I do. His was I would say his inner savage was channeled more through professional sports. The simulated warfare that is playing in the NFL. And he my brother's a warrior man. He's a modern warrior. And and my wildness went more into the pursuit of waves, fish, sailing, water, ocean, wilderness and one of the beautiful ways we connected is that in the ways of the wilderness, I was always his guide and in the ways of society.

00:49:55:11 - 00:50:28:10
Kyle Gleason
He was always the guy that opened doors that I shouldn't be in, like backstage at Pearl Jam, etc., etc.. But he knew that his time, his opportunity to connect with with the wilderness was finite. And that was that was a bit of a it was a dying man's wish, you know. And fortunately, he's still alive. But we didn't know that was going to be the case.

00:50:28:12 - 00:50:51:01
Kyle Gleason
And and he wanted to see like there was just a hunger, a yearning in him to go to Alaska and see what's there. And, you know, like that I meet so many people that are curious about it. I think, you know, there's many, many, many of us that have that hunger, you know, that desire to see what's up there in that great northern wilderness.

00:50:51:01 - 00:51:26:20
Kyle Gleason
And and he was able to, you know, check a box. And more than that, that's a very trite way of saying it, I guess, Mark, what's hard for me is like, I know how desperately my brother wanted to be on the trip that I just took my kids. So it's he had that moment and he's he's had an amazing life and he has many amazing things.

00:51:26:20 - 00:51:54:10
Kyle Gleason
But there's a deep there's still a hole in my life where he and I are no longer to be able to be friends the way brothers where we used to be. And it's hard. But fortunately, I know that at least he knows what it's like where I go because he's been there and I've been there with him. And that that allows me to have some comfort.

00:51:54:12 - 00:51:59:09
Kyle Gleason
I don't know if I answered that how you wanted me to, but.

00:51:59:14 - 00:52:23:22
Mark Titus
Mean you're you're telling such a beautiful story today, and I know you really well and I know Steve really well and I know Bristol Bay really well. And I'm still just taking a whole new journey with you, with with what you're describing. And and I know our listeners are as well. Couple less notes on Steve in the film.

00:52:24:00 - 00:52:31:02
Mark Titus
First of all, there's a film bearing your family's name. GLEASON Yeah, documentary, you know that I took the film.

00:52:31:02 - 00:52:44:15
Kyle Gleason
Footage and didn't get a credit for it where he caught that fish. And I didn't, even though after I left, man yeah, I took that shot.

00:52:44:17 - 00:52:48:05
Mark Titus
Rack it up a long list of emotions.

00:52:48:06 - 00:52:50:00
Kyle Gleason
And just a hard time, buddy. I love.

00:52:50:00 - 00:53:01:11
Mark Titus
You. Well, I know, man. That's what we're here for. Each other. It's an amazing film, Gleason. It's widely available. Please check it out. Steve, Your brother also, I didn't get.

00:53:01:11 - 00:53:04:12
Kyle Gleason
Video credits in that one either, and I took a bunch of their shots. Also.

00:53:04:14 - 00:53:37:23
Mark Titus
All right, man, let's air out all the gear that is all royalties. Royalty, please. Your brother also won the Congressional Gold Medal two years ago. Which is it? You know, reserved for a very few amount of citizens in our country. And it's so well-deserved. The work that he's doing has never been stronger. I follow him on Twitter. And your brother's a frickin like you said, he is just a giant among men.

00:53:37:23 - 00:53:53:06
Mark Titus
He he has grown stronger as the years go on. I mean, he's a sage, he's prophet. And and I encourage you out there to to check out Steve Gleason in all of the social aspects that are out there.

00:53:53:08 - 00:53:55:05
Kyle Gleason
Can I tell you the story about Steve Moore?

00:53:55:09 - 00:53:56:00
Mark Titus
Absolutely.

00:53:56:03 - 00:54:25:12
Kyle Gleason
So one dude sat on his front porch all the way through Hurricane Ida and is still at home, got a generator running. Things are good. Tim Gleason is doing a lot of outreach to the ALS community in Louisiana right now to get them resources to keep people alive. So it's really important work, but it was a real highlight for him to sit out on his porch.

00:54:25:17 - 00:54:33:09
Kyle Gleason
You know, they built a little shelter where he'd be dry and just like feel the storm, because that's that's what he gets to do. Now.

00:54:33:11 - 00:54:34:06
Mark Titus
That is epic.

00:54:34:06 - 00:55:01:17
Kyle Gleason
And and then, you know, not too long ago, we were having a check in and, hey, man, how's it going? He's like, good. I, I meditated, blindfolded all day today, and I only needed to ask myself three yes or no questions, and I didn't miss being able to move. So I guess that's good. What a dude.

00:55:01:19 - 00:55:27:23
Mark Titus
Yeah, I. I'm just going to shut up now. There's nothing to add on. Yeah, he is a dude. He's a dear friend. And I mentioned you and your brother and and a really amazing part. As the film starts to wind up in the wild and folks, if you want to watch the wild, you can go to IBISWorld dot com and click on the wild film and check Steve out.

00:55:28:05 - 00:55:54:13
Mark Titus
And Kyle's amazing camerawork. Amazing camerawork. I see. Yeah. So speaking of starting to wrap this rascal up, I mean, we've been talking about this, I think in kind of oblique ways here, but we all deal with trauma in our lives at some point way or some form or varying degrees of it. But we we all we all do.

00:55:54:13 - 00:56:21:15
Mark Titus
I mean, life is it's traumatic coming out of this incredible warm place for nine months and getting smacked into the cold and having no idea where you are separated from this chord that you were attached to mom with. So there's there's clearly no inference here at all that my trauma is anything like somebody who's experienced intergenerational trauma as an indigenous person, for instance.

00:56:21:17 - 00:56:58:00
Mark Titus
But it is true that we have all experienced trauma in some way, shape or form. And I think that you've just given a beautiful example of your brother and how he's transcended and and transformed it through through trauma that he's gone through. How about you? Like what is when you were a 19 year old and now that you're 40 year old, how have you dealt with trauma in your life and how has that evolved to the moment that you're in right now?

00:56:58:02 - 00:57:01:12
Kyle Gleason
I need another hour, Mark.

00:57:01:14 - 00:57:06:05
Mark Titus
Well, we'll have to do a follow up. Yeah.

00:57:06:07 - 00:58:01:16
Kyle Gleason
But it is succinctly as I can. Essentially, I've done a lot of there's I realize that I think we all come into the world with Krishna consciousness, meaning like that We know our divinity, we know our connection, and then we forget through time. And I've done a lot of work going back to the places where I, you know, the wounds, the wounds were developed and literally taking that little one and holding that little one and blessing that little one and giving him assurance that he he did the best he could in that time and that we made it and and let him know that I'm safe now and that he doesn't need to work so

00:58:01:16 - 00:58:30:08
Kyle Gleason
hard anymore. We got this man like, now I'm a 40 year old man and I'll take care of you. You don't have to take care of me anymore. And so I've gone back pretty regularly and visited those trauma points in my life and held that little me literally in my arms, visualizing like, you know, giving them the love that they wanted at that time and letting them know that they did the job that they needed to do to make us safe.

00:58:30:10 - 00:58:58:09
Kyle Gleason
And that's gotten me to the point now where I am holding my own children in my arms. And when I put them to sleep at night, I ask them, How do you feel? And they tell me I feel safe and loved. And so I'm hoping to create the association for them with me that they have a dad that is a place of safety and love.

00:58:58:11 - 00:59:36:16
Kyle Gleason
And there's nothing more cathartic than raising children that are that know that they're safe and they have secure attachment to their parents. It's a it's an amazing gift that I'm able to live in this life. I have great relationship with my children and and I know that they they're growing and growing into the healed beings that I did not have the opportunity to be.

00:59:36:18 - 01:00:06:10
Kyle Gleason
So that's this life is a gift, man. And I'm and I take the opportunity of fatherhood really seriously and playfully and my children really they I can say without a doubt I know that they are loved and they they I'm blown away the number of times a day of their own volition. They tell me that they love me.

01:00:06:12 - 01:00:22:05
Kyle Gleason
And for everyone that says, wait till they become teenagers, I have a teenager and he still does that. So I'm like, Well, maybe I'll have to wait till he's 20 and then I'll stop. But I don't know, man. So far, so good.

01:00:22:07 - 01:00:48:14
Mark Titus
Well, you're doing something right, man, And I'm looking forward to meeting those boys one of these days. And I love what you said about playfully. You know, like recently I was looking at the root word of human humor. Humor, humor of the earth and humor. Having that embedded into our experience on this planet, I think not only makes it bearable, but it is a gift that we give each other.

01:00:48:16 - 01:01:08:02
Mark Titus
So amen to that. You're right. We're going to need another session. So we're going to we're going to plan on that. We're going to check in from time to time. Sure. But on the wrap up today, I promise to you and our audience. And so I'm going to make good on that, that you are a master of one type of fishing.

01:01:08:02 - 01:01:35:13
Mark Titus
And, you know, a lot of folks get in their head. I've certainly been there myself in this purist mentality that I've got to catch only rainbows on a dry fly, on a perfect fall day in the perfect river. Like fishing is fishing and it is connecting if you're doing it right. So give us give us the thumbnail of where you are best as a fisherman and why that makes you feel so connected.

01:01:35:15 - 01:02:14:21
Kyle Gleason
Yes. Okay. Happily so. Fishing from my rowboat around the Mariana Islands on San Francisco Bay, I will occasionally have a day where I will catch a striped bass from a boat I built with a rod. I made an a fly that I tied myself. And, you know, it's kind of nice, but it all comes together like that. But the place that I am the best fisherman is a spot called Kent Lake by my house.

01:02:14:23 - 01:02:48:00
Kyle Gleason
And you have to ride your bike about seven miles to get into it. And I don't mind telling people about Kent Lake because nobody's going to work that hard to get to it. So very few people go. And I for a long time it was the wildest place I could get to in Marin, and I would go back in there and, you know, on a good day, Catch 30 largemouth bass on a crowded jig and a big casting rod and just have a movement.

01:02:48:02 - 01:03:16:07
Kyle Gleason
So my favorite fishing is the the fish that I can catch. However, they need to be caught. So sometimes it's on a dry fly in a perfect Alaskan stream. And, you know, sometimes it's with my eye with a poke. Paul in a tidal cave on the coast of Marin County, and sometimes it's with a big net in the middle of it.

01:03:16:09 - 01:03:22:05
Kyle Gleason
So it's all fish and man, I love it all.

01:03:22:07 - 01:03:43:03
Mark Titus
And it's all part of the mystery and it keeps us coming back. All right. So we're going to wrap this rascal up here, but we do this little bonus round at the end. You've been listening. You'll know what's coming. So, Kyle, this is all facetious. So just making up a big fantasy here and in this time where things are so tinder dry.

01:03:43:03 - 01:04:02:11
Mark Titus
And as I knock on wood here, but just in the imagination, in the abstract, let's just say your house are on fire and you could only bring out one physical thing. Your family's already out, Pets are out, living beings are already out. But if you could only bring one physical thing, what's that thing?

01:04:02:13 - 01:04:07:23
Kyle Gleason
My wife's alter.

01:04:08:01 - 01:04:34:19
Mark Titus
Was a deliberate thought process. Yes, I'll let that rest for what it is. It's. I think that's a fine answer. Absolutely. And it's unique. No one has ever answered that to this point. All right. Let's go to the more metaphysical. There's two two things about two traits about you, two metaphysical traits about you like generosity or things like that.

01:04:34:19 - 01:04:44:06
Mark Titus
Sure. What are those two things that you pull out of the fire and take with you?

01:04:44:08 - 01:05:12:02
Kyle Gleason
Yeah, two traits of mine that I need to keep no matter what. One, I had a dear friend say to me on my 40th birthday, You love undefended Lee So I think that's probably pretty important to keep. And then the other one is my need to be wild.

01:05:12:04 - 01:05:20:08
Mark Titus
Yeah. So anything you leave in the fire to be burned up purifying the atmosphere. Yeah. Yeah. Then I said, such.

01:05:20:08 - 01:05:24:21
Kyle Gleason
You going to revise that statement? My unnecessary fear.

01:05:24:23 - 01:05:54:11
Mark Titus
Good point. Sometimes fear is necessary for survival, but yes, it's it's so true. Fear is just such a root of all things malevolent cognition. You are a dear friend and what a great conversation today. If folks want to check you out on social media and I know you do that a little bit, but if there's if there's anybody anywhere that you want to have send folks to to check out the things that are important to you, where would that be?

01:05:54:13 - 01:06:15:07
Kyle Gleason
Tim Gleason dot org and, and that's probably the big one. Tim Gleason dot org. And then the other one is hit me up on Instagram if you want to go fish CG And the fam is my handle, you'll see some pretty amazing pictures of the trip that my boys I just took.

01:06:15:08 - 01:06:44:07
Mark Titus
Yeah, I highly recommend a little trip down that lane. All right, Kyle, Until next time. And here's an incentive to come back. We got to hear about your story of the shark at Sun. As as inviting as that is for you. Do it. Or let me tell you, this is a story for the ages, so we'll have to tune in next time for part two of the Cowboys and series.

01:06:44:07 - 01:06:48:11
Mark Titus
So for today, brother, thank you for being here. And we'll see you down the trail. Hey, Mark.

01:06:48:13 - 01:06:55:05
Kyle Gleason
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

01:06:55:07 - 01:07:02:21
Music
How do you save what you love?
How do you save what you love?

01:07:05:07 - 01:07:36:04
Mark Titus
Thank you for listening to Save What You Love. If you like what you're hearing, you can help keep these conversations coming your way by giving us a rating on Apple Podcasts. You can check out photos and links from this episode at evaswild.com. While there, you can join our growing community by subscribing to our newsletter, you'll get exclusive offers on wild salmon shipped to your door and notifications about upcoming guests and more great content on the way.

01:07:36:06 - 01:08:14:19
Mark Titus
That's at evaswild.com. That's the word Save spelled backwards Wild dot com. This episode was produced by Tyler White and edited by Patrick Troll. Original music was created by Whiskey Class. This podcast is a collaboration between Ava's Wild Stories and Salmon Nation and was recorded on the homelands of the Duwamish. People. We'd like to recognize these lands and waters and their significance for the people who lived and continued to live in this region whose practices and spiritualities were and are tied to the land in the water, and whose lives continue to enrich and develop in relationship to the land waters and other inhabitants today.