hello everyone
today I am with Latif Nasser he's a host
at the netflix series
connected from Veery bird predicting
hurricanes
to our poop showing history. Everything
is connected
thank you for taking out time and
being on my show
thank you so much for having me i'm i'm
very i'm very excited to talk to you
same here um it's an honor that you are
here and i must say that the show
is amazing if you have not watched this
show i advise you i highly recommend
that you should watch the show on the
Netflix today
so let's start with what motivates Latif
Nasser
who inspire or what inspires you uh
i mean i think that for me that the work
that i do the thing that i
love the most about it the thing that
makes me get out of bed every morning
to to to do the work that i do
i think it's it it's most often
it's that you know if you find
like like i'm just so gravitated towards
stories and particular stories about
our world stories about people that are
surprising that are wondrous
that are beautiful that are
kind of extraordinary um it's
like it's it's it's hard to explain i
don't even know if i know exactly
what i'm looking for in stories but um
but i just
like there's certain stories and i'm
sure this is true in your life too when
you when you hear about them
you just want to tell everybody and so
for me
the fun is finding those stories stories
that nobody else really knows about
and then and then and then telling
everybody that's basically like my my
favorite thing to do
and i i like that in in your show that
initially you ask questions
and then try to pick up like how how
that how you can find the answers
because that is what quite important for
me because like in science as well we
try
we ask questions and then try to find
answers and that's how life is supposed
to be i believe
yeah and it's often it's often confusing
and messy and it's not always totally
satisfying
but but it but it also can be really
twisty and like it
it just you know something comes in from
a direction you totally didn't expect
like
to me that's that's uh there's something
very honest and fun about that yeah
um and i like to me
the journey is as much fun as the answer
the journey is often
always more fun than the answer yeah um
so to me hopefully it's like
like in my work i try to do and and uh
in in my
radio journalism too like it's like like
let people walk with you you know and
then and then when you get there like it
may or may not be exactly what they were
hoping but at least they had fun along
the way yeah i i could relate to that
but
when they show used to you you said like
i'm going to sahara to catch a fish and
i was like
how is that possible yeah and then he
said i kept fishing and then i wrote
okay that's what you
that was awesome thank you yeah i said a
lot of dumb jokes
let me ask you like what's your personal
story like how did you come up with the
show and how did you pull this off like
this is amazing it's a big show how did
you come up with that
yeah i i was very lucky to be approached
so i was already before this i was a
science journalist
and the way i ended up there was i mean
i always loved science
uh but i was never very good at it i
mean
i'm sure you must have uh the mental
fortitude and patience that i just i
just didn't
um and uh so so i always liked science
but i was never really like i was never
really good at
it and and reading scientific papers and
stuff they would never just
click in my head the way that you know i
i wish they would
and i realized that there was this other
field
called the history of science which is
like kind of
deals with so much of the same kind of
topics like
it's like you get to study science
without studying science necessarily
it's like you're studying
people and stories you know um the
stories behind the science like how it
got to be that way who were the people
that um that did it what what was going
on in their worlds that made them think
that way
so so i got into this field the history
of science um
which is in a way a kind of a field
about like how do we know what we know
you know
um and i got into that and so then i um
sort of from there from academia i went
on to uh
journalism and then i got approached uh
by this production company this
wonderful production company
who had this kind of vision for
uh they're called 0.0 and what they've
done before i don't know if you know the
work of anthony bourdain like they've
done a lot of his uh shows so he's like
he was like a food like a food chef
and and he basically before him like a
lot of food tv was just like someone in
a kitchen like making a thing
and then they took this guy and they
were like okay he's gonna go all over
the world you know and he's gonna he's
gonna go to
tokyo and paris and vietnam and congo
and all these places you know um and so
they did that and it was very successful
and i think they had the vision of doing
a similar thing
uh for the world of kind of like a
hosted science show so
they were like what if we exploded it
out it wasn't just
you know sort of a scientist in a in a
in a lab or in a studio setting like
doing experiments or something what if
we
just exploded that out and took someone
and just sent them all over the world
and like and
let them kind of look over scientists
shoulders like as those scientists were
doing like really cool things in really
cool places
and so that was yeah that was kind of
and uh for some reason
uh they picked me uh and i was lucky
and um and so we started your ted talk i
believe
that's what that's what happened that's
exactly what happened and so then
um then they like we together they were
like hey would you be up for trying this
and i said sure and we
we spent like like over a year trying to
figure out like what's a good idea
how would it work what would be the
structure how can we do something that
feels a little bit different
um than you know planet earth or
something you'd see on discovery channel
or something like how do we do something
different
uh and um
yeah and then and then like sort of
through inspiration from a bunch of
other stuff and just noodling around
we kind of uh came up with this this
sort of idea this structure of like like
our connected world and the idea of like
okay
this host is gonna go you're gonna get
flung all over the world
but then the fun part is like how do you
connect it all the way back to the
viewer at home so that like
even though i'm watching you in a
totally different place of the world
that i probably will never even go to my
whole life
um somehow this is about me somehow my
like my breath or my poop or my this or
my that
it's all wrapped up together so so that
that was kind of the genesis of the
whole idea
that's nice like i i can relate like in
one of the episodes you mentioned like
about the
dust come from sahara and how it's
affecting the amazon rainforest and the
and the red tides so i think that's
that's amazing that was like how you
connected
i could see that yeah and that's the
hope i think is that each one of these
episodes in some way
you feel like no matter who you are
um you feel like some part of it touches
you you know that some part of it
touches your life even if it's in this
like very indirect way
you know like it's like a bank shot into
your life but somehow
somehow it like it it touches you
so let me come to the funny stories
there must be some like because
it's a lot that you have been to so many
places had so many people
yeah i'm trying to think of some good
ones there was one
where uh when we went into the uh the
sahara
um with this wonderful chatty and uh
um scientist uh
dr musa um he
so we we would be out kind of in this
place of the bodily depression
and so it's it's one of the windiest
dustiest places in the world
and they have these kind of like it's
like basically a so we went in the not
windy season
on purpose um but then when we went not
windy season they're like oh yeah
there's certain times of the day when
you just like you can't we can't do
anything
and so um so we were like oh okay
like well that's fine we'll just uh you
know like but
what it turned out was like it was
basically like too windy
all of the time like like it kept
interrupting our
production so for instance there was one
night we were all camping out like it
was really middle of nowhere no
buildings
no nothing and and uh
like so for instance one night we did a
time lapse you know you do like a time
lapse like it's like so we have the
the tent and we wanted the moon to come
up and then the sun
we wanted like a beautiful time-out so
we put the tent there it was so
windy the tent blew away in the middle
of the time lapse couldn't even
didn't even i don't even know if we used
that shot or not another
and the idea was that i was supposed to
be sleeping in that tent but i wasn't
sleeping that time i was sleeping
because i didn't want to sleep at a time
i wanted to sleep outside
but then it would be weird to just film
me sleeping outside but then anyway so
so i was supposed to be sleep sleeping
in the tent
um and then and then the tent blew away
they're like we can't we can't use this
shot people
died or something um another thing was
that
again while we were at this in the
sahara um basically there was
of almost i mean i want to say
like half of a day basically that it was
so windy it was so dusty
that our entire there was in this whole
area like as far as you could see in
every direction
there was one tree um
and so what happened was we we had tried
to set up all these you know
uh tents and and structures and stuff to
so so we we thought okay when it gets
too dusty we'll hunker down in these
tents and all the tents blew away
the dust was too strong like it really
clearly was not gonna work
so the whole crew the whole like and we
had a lot of people
um camera people the director the
producer the security person
the sound guy and that's just our crew
and then in addition we had
soldiers and cooks and and and you know
all these and a doctor and porters and
like all these other people who are
coming with us
you know there's this long caravan of
cars um
and we all had to huddle underneath this
one tree and we were all like basically
like hugging each other underneath this
tree
because it was the wind was so strong
and so for hours and hours and hours we
were just sitting there doing nothing
like just just just waiting for this to
pass
and um you know i asked uh
dr musa because he goes out there all
the time and i was like how do you
deal with this how do you do science
under these conditions
and he was like you know sometimes i'll
be digging for something then a dust
storm will start
and i'll have to go into my car and i
just wait until
in my car until it's over and i said oh
how long like how long does that last
he's like oh you know sometimes two days
three days
and i'd be like you're just waiting in
your car for two days
and he's like yeah no big deal you know
what it's like just that kind of
commitment like you're like oh my
god yeah like just something like that
from an in my entire life
or something i know and it's like no big
deal to him like he does it because he
loves it because it's so
exciting um like when we there there's a
scene in that
episode where we stumble upon that
fish and and usually in tv like when
someone stumbles upon something like
they actually like
they sort of planted it ahead of time
and someone well like we
really discovered that right in that
moment and uh
and you could see just on his face he
was so excited he was so excited
and so so to me i don't know there was
something just kind of magnificent about
that it was it was a sort of absurd
trip like for me i i i actually visited
the sahara before but never
never like that um and uh
and just to see that this man loved what
he did
so much to be able to like sit in his
car for three days i'm sure he's like
peeing in a little a water bottle or
something whatever he's doing
um it was amazing to see that that kind
of level of commitment wow
that's that's like that's pure out of
love i mean there is no other emotion
that you can just stay there for like
doing science for that yes
let me come to my next question what are
the struggles like
more struggles like hurdles would you
face during the shooting i'm sure that
there must be some
yeah oh there were i mean there were a
lot i think like the biggest struggle
probably was
um not actually not for me i i had i had
a fun time because they'd be like okay
dream up as many stories as you want and
make them as global as you want and go
to
the furthest fun corners of the world
that you can think of or whatever yeah
um so so i would do that but then the
really hard thing was
we had at the production company there
was a kind of a team of producers and
directors and the show runner and all
these logistics folks
who were trying to figure out like so it
was six episodes
with approximately six um
locations each so that's 36 stories and
locations
all over the world all over the us all
over the world and and so
it was really like a kind of like they
had to plan we had three different
production teams so i would
like to take red eyes like almost every
night or every other night and i would
join them
in different places and so you'd need
like you know
in each place you'd need a certain team
and then you'd need
and everybody had their respective you
know conflicts and someone be like oh no
i'm working on
uh you know the sound guy can work for
this time to this time but then
then has another commitment on a
different day and so
it was just like the the scheduling of
it was
like i i it was a seven-dimensional
puzzle
i'm shocked that they pulled it off like
and it would and for me it was very easy
like
i would get a phone call and i'd be you
know in um
uh uh portugal or something and they'd
be like okay we need you to come to san
francisco tomorrow okay
and i'll be like sure uh but but but but
the amount of
work that they had to do behind the
scenes to make that happen
you know um yeah it was a lot
and there must be a jet lag involved
like traveling from one part of the
continent to another must be like oh
this is my sleeping time oh yeah no i
would wake up
in the middle of the night and
it would be dark and i'd be like i i i
do
not know where on earth i am like i
could be
don't know and and i remember one
particular time like i was in a i think
i was in a hotel room but
the light was so dark and i had to go to
the bathroom and i was like i don't even
know where the bathroom is like i don't
know
i could be anywhere i have no
um it's very disorienting feeling but it
was kind of
it kind of it was kind of cool it made
me feel like uh like jason bourne or
something you know
yeah nice nice let me come to my
last part of this uh what's next for you
what's what's next
where are we when are we seeing the next
season two why
something else yeah i hope i hope season
two uh
they're it sort of depends on how many
people watch netflix is
really a data company so they they look
at how many people are watching where
are they watching are they the right
demographics that kind of thing
and if enough people watch and they
decide it's like sort of a good return
on investment for them then they'll then
the green light is season two um which i
hope they do i have tons of ideas i have
tons of
things like just even last night i was
like coming up with new ideas and i was
like oh
um other than that i am uh
data should follow bedford's law as well
oh yes right exactly
right yeah i know i wonder we did we
actually did
the uh some of the folks at the
production company they ran our show's
budget through benford's law
and it worked yeah but we wanted to put
that in the episode but then it was too
weird to
kind of explain it but anyway yeah the
show's budget fit benford's law which is
very funny
um and then uh yeah so so there's that
and then also i still
am working this other job in a radio and
podcasting
um so i work for the show radio lab and
and i'm still doing stories for them and
and we actually have some really cool
kind of exciting stuff in store this
fall uh that i'm i'm
really really excited about and uh and i
may have some other
sort of secret projects i'm working on
now that will uh will save you a little
later too
nice i think that's pretty much what i
wanted to ask personally i'm very happy
to have you on my show and like the your
show connected
is is amazing like when i saw him and i
was like me and my wife were like oh
that's so awesome like we were like we
could relate ourselves with that so it's
incredible
any last thoughts well i i think for me
i think
the uh you know the the exciting thing
in a way for me is to sort of reflect
the the the glory of
i think some of the real exciting work
that's being done out in the world and i
think right now is a time when uh
as you know probably even better than i
um like science and authority are
really under um
a kind of a a cynical skeptical
uh uh kind of threat and
and and to to life and death kind of uh
to the detriment of of
of of literally people's lives um and i
think that
uh if anything i hope this this show
um helps people you know have maintain a
healthy skepticism of science but also
really be able to trust that hey there
are people out there who are
well-meaning people who are trying to
tease out
kind of these these cosmic mysteries and
and are trying to save us
uh and and we should trust them uh
because we really need to
and and and and i think i mean
scientists like yourself
um so so i'm really i'm really glad um
that so many scientists have kind of
wanted to share their stories with me
and and have wanted to uh you know
participate
and help uh so yeah so i i really hope
that
um yeah that this kind of i don't know
that there's some people out there who
are
not sure who to trust or something and
then they watch the show and maybe it'll
put them put them over the edge
nice nice thank you so much uh latif for
being at veda money
so be happy and enjoy the surprises of
life
thank you so much
