Podcast: Finding Hope In the Wild with Dylan Efron

<sup>[00:00:05] Dan Lambe: 
Real stories, real change, rooted in the power of nature. You're listening to Unearthing Optimism from the Arbor Day Foundation. 

[00:00:23] Dan Lambe: 
Hi, I'm Dan Lambe. Today, we're joined by producer and outdoor adventurer Dylan Efron. You may know Dylan from his global travels on Netflix's "Down to Earth," navigating strategy and suspense on "The Traitors," or even from the dance floor on "Dancing with the Stars." But beyond the cameras and the competition, Dylan has built a life rooted in exploration, curiosity, and a deep connection to the natural world. In this episode, we talk about his California roots, how travel has transformed his understanding of environmental challenges, and why adventure can be a powerful gateway to conservation. Dylan, welcome to Unearthing Optimism. We're thrilled to have you with us today.

[00:01:07] Dylan Efron: 
Thank you for having me. 

[00:01:11] Dan Lambe: 
Anyone who knows you, anyone who follows you on your social channels, knows that you are an outdoor enthusiast to the extreme. You have built this life around adventure, and you make it look fun. You make it look exciting. You make it look easier than I think it is, but I bet you make a lot of people jealous who wish they had that opportunity to have that kind of lifestyle. At what point did you realize that the outdoors wasn't just something you enjoyed, but it was shaping who you are? 

[00:01:42] Dylan Efron: 
Oh, wow. Yeah. No, so first, this is so fun to be able to talk about, because I don't get to talk about this all that often, so I'm glad. This is going to be fun for me, too. When you were saying that, there was one memory that sticks with me growing up that I feel like kickstarted a lot of this for me, which was, I was in high school, and I really just wanted to hang out with my friends, but my dad forced me. I was probably a freshman in high school. My dad was like, "Hey, we're going fly fishing this weekend." I'm like, "Oh, I don't want to go." And hop in the back of his truck, and I'm just dreading this whole trip. And I start learning to fly fish, which if you've ever fly fished, it's incredibly— 

[00:02:23] Dan Lambe: 
I never have. 

[00:02:23] Dylan Efron: 
It's beautiful. It's addictive, right? It's addictive, I've heard. 

[00:02:26] Dan Lambe: 
Addictive. 

[00:02:26] Dylan Efron: 
Yeah. But it's incredibly frustrating. You're tying little teeny knots with your fingers. You don't eat all day. You're uncomfortable. You're in the water. But there was a moment where that perspective shift happened for me, where it was like I didn't want to be there. And all of a sudden, the more I learned, the more immersed I was in nature. There was just this moment where I will never forget, still gives me chills. I'm standing in the river. All I hear is the river. It's cold on my feet, and I'm stalking these little fish, and I can see the fish in there, and I'm trying to catch these fish, and I catch one. And I was just out there. I wasn't hungry. I wasn't uncomfortable. It felt like for the first time, I was like, I had a relationship with nature. I wasn't just looking at a mountain from my car and through the windshield or on a hike that was paved. It was like I'm immersed in this, and it was that first time of feeling like there's a relationship here, and that really sparked it for me. 

[00:03:28] Dan Lambe: 
I've got a lot of friends who do fly fish, and I've seen it done, and it looks so elegant and so beautiful, but I've never done it. Thanks for sharing that. I know you grew up in California, a place that is known for its natural beauty. I lived there in Northern California for a few years. It's just an amazing place, for sure. I'm curious how growing up in that landscape and that access to go fly fishing or wherever else it might be, how did that shape the way you see nature and your place in it? 

[00:04:00] Dylan Efron: 
Yeah, it's huge. So I went to college in San Luis Obispo, too, and it was my hometown, so we grew up hiking on weekends, and it was just normal to go on hikes. If we're hanging with friends, we're going to wake up on Sunday and go on a hike, and we didn't think anything of it. And then we had people coming from all around the US to our school, and they're like, "Oh my gosh, let's go hike Bishop's Peak." It was this crazy thing, and we're like, "Yeah, let's do it. Why is this such a big deal?" And it was like we took it for granted growing up. We were jumping off rocks into the ocean. We were floating down rivers, and it was just like going to local water holes to jump off rocks and stuff. It was just everything we did was outside in nature. And I think when I got to college and realized not everybody grew up that way and that it was pretty special to grow up where I live. We would go on an annual trip to Samuel P. Taylor every year and go in the redwoods up there and go camp with a bunch of people. So it's a lot of my dad as well. I could have grown up in the same place and not had the appreciation I do for nature. 

[00:05:05] Dan Lambe: 
And I'm telling you, they're some of the most beautiful places in California. Coastlines, mountains, the trees are just remarkable. And I know that San Luis Obispo area is fantastic. I've got to go visit sometime. 

[00:05:20] Dylan Efron: 
You really do. 

[00:05:21] Dan Lambe: 
I know I do. My neighbor is from San Luis Obispo, and she keeps telling me I've got to go visit, and I will someday. 

[00:05:29] Dan Lambe: 
We know nature's important. We do a lot of research around the impact of trees as well. One of the things we do is a survey with the Harris Poll to see how Americans are thinking about trees and nature. And this last year, we did a poll, and 90% of people told us that being near trees and green space gives them a more positive outlook, and they think it improves their mental health. And I know you are clearly a lover of the outdoors, and I'm wondering how you would react to that. Do you feel like being in nature impacts your state of mind? 

[00:06:09] Dylan Efron: 
100%. I believe that study 100%. I think it gets worse every year, I think. There's almost a battle of being in the physical world and being in the digital world. We have our phones on us all the time. We're doom scrolling. We're answering emails. We're on the phone. We're inside. And I think that being in the physical world without your phone on, without listening to music, whatever it is, that time is really limited right now, and it's getting worse, I feel like, especially for me. So I think that time to go into the wilderness, there's almost a subtle stimulus. Again, like how I was saying when you go into the river, all I could hear was the river. When you're in a big forest and you hear the trees rustling and stuff like that, that's a very calming, soothing stimulus. That's not like my AirPods blasting music in my ear. Or like a podcast even. Sorry. But it's something that's very soothing, and I think that can absolutely slow things down and maybe even have that perspective that the things that we think are so important and stress us out aren't that important, because we're seeing these massive trees that have been around us forever, and I don't know. I believe the study, for sure. 

[00:07:38] Dan Lambe: 
I hear that with you, and clearly a lot of other people feel like being near trees and green space is important for mental health. I'm curious if you see your time in nature as escape, as therapy, as challenge, as all the above, or something else.

[00:07:55] Dylan Efron: 
Yeah, I think it's easy to label it as escape, but again, it's mental health, so I don't even think we need to label it. Going back to that first analogy of being so accessible and tied into this digital world, I need a break from that. Same way that you would take vacation from work. And I think for me, that is my time in the sun. That's my time away from any technology. So yeah, it might be escapism in a way, but I think it's so much more than that. It is for my mental health. So I don't think escapism is the right word. 

[00:08:30] Dan Lambe: 
At the Arbor Day Foundation, we plant trees all over the world. We've got projects and partners, I think, in 60 countries worldwide where we're planting trees. As I have had the opportunity to go see some of these projects, it has been really cool to see how trees transcend borders. They cut through language barriers, and they bring people together to do great things. It's pretty magical for us, and I know you have traveled the world extensively as a part of filming "Down to Earth." Took you all over the planet. Had to have been a really awesome experience for you, I'm guessing. What surprised you about the way that different cultures interact and depend on nature through those travels?

[00:09:14] Dylan Efron: 
Oh, yeah. There's so much to unpack there. The first place my mind went was the Amazon rainforest, and we went there. We went to Iquitos. And then I was lucky enough to go back, and I've been to Guyana a few times and saw a more northern section of the Amazon. And it's so impressive how the locals live there. It's a weird feeling to go from California and then fly into the Amazon. Your body is in shock. There's mosquitoes. You're in the most dense ecosystem in the world. And every time I've gone, as much as I am a nature guy, it's uncomfortable at first. It takes your body two, three days to be like, "What is going on here? I'm allergic to everything." And then the coolest part about those experiences is after being with the locals, after going on and hiking and seeing the rivers and the lakes, and just once you're invested there, it becomes normal, and it starts to feel like home. And I think that is the coolest feeling that I always crave on adventure is that change in me, where it's like, "Oh, this feels uncomfortable. I'm afraid of the spiders," or whatever it is, to all of a sudden being like, "Oh, I could live here my whole life. This is home now." 

[00:10:41] Dan Lambe: 
Your willingness to learn through experiences like that, I'm telling you, there are a lot of people who, the way you just described that would make them say, "There's no way I'm going there." But it's really cool to hear how you just embrace that as a part of your learning. Place is such an important part of perspective. I've had the opportunity to do some really cool traveling, and I hit some spots in countries or cities. It just makes me pause and realize that I'm experiencing something different. Any other places that you have been to as a part of "Down to Earth" or otherwise, that gave you that same kind of just pause and think, "This is just different, and I'm learning here, and how lucky am I?"

[00:11:28] Dylan Efron: 
Yeah, for sure. The Costa Rica episode, the most fun off camera. Because it's so hard to describe what this felt like. But it felt like we were in Costa Rica for maybe two weeks. And I've been to Costa Rica so many times. It's one of my favorite places in the world, and it's so beautiful. They have a beautiful relationship with environmentalism even. The food is organic. It's just such a beautiful country and culture. But so we're there. We went all the way from the west coast to the east coast. We're in a bus. It's uncomfortable. But we go to this place, so none of us really know what's going on. We're going to this island. And part of the beauty of "Down to Earth" was we had a few producers kind of arranging things, and Zach and I are just along for the ride, learning with the audience, really, what's going on. So we go to this little island and we get greeted by some people. We're on this little teeny boat, we get greeted by some people that live there, and they're just barely wearing any clothes. It felt like "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio. It was just like, "Who are these people? They look really friendly, but let's just go to this little island." We ended up spending the night there, and I think the reason it was so special to me was my brother and I were raised this way, like you said, and we love this type of adventure. So as soon as the cameras cut, we are climbing trees. We're skinny-dipping in the ocean. We're just in heaven. But half of our crew is not that way. Half of our crew works behind a computer. They have stressful jobs. They have never camped before, and we were able to see them get immersed into this and buy into it. And by the end, the smiles you see. It was so cool seeing my friend who's glued to the computer sitting by the campfire, skinny-dipping. Again, it was so cool to just see that transformation in one night, how living like that can change someone. 

[00:13:33] Dan Lambe: 
They've probably told that story so many times. You know what I mean? I bet your local community hosts just loved seeing you do all that. 

[00:13:41] Dylan Efron: 
Oh, it was so special to us. And then I think it's special to them, too, because they get to share their passions. The guy had fruit trees that I've never seen in my life, and that's why he loves Costa Rica, is you can grow anything there. So he had all these incredible fruits for us to try and just showed us a simple way of living out there that was barefoot in paradise. 

[00:14:02] Dan Lambe: 
That's impressive, Dylan. Again, it's part of how you're learning. So in one of the episodes I saw, you were in Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, a growing part of our work at the Arbor Day Foundation is disaster recovery work. After hurricanes, after tornadoes, after fires, we're coming in to replant. We've been replanting following Hurricane Maria down in Puerto Rico for quite a while now with great local partners. I know a part of what you were doing there was disaster recovery. Any other observations or memories from that trip around what disaster recovery looks like for Maria, both on the built environment and the natural environment? 

[00:14:38] Dylan Efron: 
I just remember there was a dichotomy of part of Puerto Rico that we were in that looked beautiful and had no disaster at all, and then we drove an hour or something, and it was just like you could see all the roofs were torn down, and it was like the water collection, it just looked shanty-ish, and it was crazy to me seeing that difference. We were just in part of Puerto Rico that was stunning, and then how does this side not look the same? So I think that was something, again, this was a while ago, but that stood out to me was how it seemed like half of it wasn't taken care of as well and I think that was the side that got hit hardest by the disaster. 

[00:15:22] Dan Lambe: 
That's where a lot of the trees were hit the worst, too, and it's making a difference. Okay, so I'm going to shift to talking about your role as an influencer because you are an influencer in a lot of unique ways, in a lot of positive ways. It seems like you are always on an adventure. What role do you think adventure and outdoor recreation plays in helping people care and think differently about the environment? 

[00:15:48] Dylan Efron: 
I think you can just tell from talking to me that so much of the reasons that I love nature are the experiences I have there. So with rock climbing in Joshua Tree, I'd been to Joshua Tree a few times growing up, and it's a desert. There's not that much there. So if you're going to Joshua Tree, which hundreds of thousands of people do every year, just to drive through it and walk some paved roads, I'm not going to say it's a waste of time, but I don't know if they're going to get the same benefit that you would get if you started rock climbing. And that feeling to me of rock climbing in Joshua Tree was like now it's one of my favorite places in the world, and it's that feeling of once I start climbing, I'm feeling the rock. I feel that texture on my fingertips. I'm exerting myself, and then I get to the top, and I see this place with a whole new perspective. And again, I think the adventure and the activities you do in nature help you feel like you have a relationship with nature rather than you're just looking at something. So I think that's where all these hobbies that I do really have helped me become more environmentally conscious, I guess.

[00:17:03] Dan Lambe: 
I agree. Just experiencing it helps to give you a whole different perspective and appreciation, and I think a lot of people, it gives them their inspiration to want to be more connected and help protect the environment. We have talked with a number of other celebrities before on this podcast, and when you could use your platform, use your celebrity to talk about anything, why talk about the environment? Why use your voice to talk about the environment? What compels you?

[00:17:34] Dylan Efron: 
Yeah. Again, because that is genuinely where I've found happiness in my life, and that was my whole motto. My whole life was that I always wanted to put experiences first over money, and as long as I'm happy, then that's the life I want to live. It doesn't matter if I'm living in a little apartment, which I've been doing my whole life, or living in a mansion. I'd rather just be out there experiencing the world and experiencing real life. Being able to experience that stuff is so important to me, and I want the future. I want my little brother and little sister to have that same relationship that I do with nature. So I know you said you don't really get into politics, but it's something that both sides can agree on. We need to protect the environment. It doesn't divide. It doesn't matter your party. It doesn't matter anything. It's something that we can all come together on. We say the same thing. In this incredibly divisive and contentious time we live in today, there's one thing everyone can agree on. We say it's trees. It can be nature as well, but we have this opportunity to be unifying in this moment of divisiveness. And so I love to hear you seeing that as well. But it's definitely something we pay attention to. And I'm telling you, your content is awesome. You're introducing people to a lot of different experiences outdoors, even if they may not go do it themselves. What kind of reaction you get from your community of followers, and how they connect with your content? 

[00:19:06] Dylan Efron: 
Like you said, I think it's just we're so lucky to be able to experience things at this level with Instagram and all these different apps. So I think when I went to Guyana and was again in the Amazon fly fishing for an arapaima, it's not about sustainability. You're not watching it because you wanted to learn something about sustainability. You're like, "Oh, what is this place? What did he just catch in the jungle? What is this monster fish?" So it's almost like a subplot, but by the time you watch this whole video, you have an appreciation for what this little village did for this arapaima. And I think that's the kind of content I like to do is I like to show new cultures, new little things, but kind of disguise it in there. Take the audience on an adventure and let them draw their own conclusions.

[00:20:02] Dan Lambe: 
We love to talk about optimism and hope, and we feel that for sure at the foundation. But there is some tough news out there. We hear it. We read about it. Some of us are experiencing the impacts of new weather patterns, a changing climate, for sure. I'm sure over your travels, you've had plenty of opportunities to see some of the challenges that the planet is facing, whether it's deforestation, some places, coral bleaching, whatever it might be. Any specific experiences from your travels where you've seen the impacts of a changing climate that have had an impact on you that you can share? 

[00:20:42] Dylan Efron: 
Yeah. Like you said, the coral bleaching, that is a huge one for me because going to see the Great Barrier Reef was bucket list for me. And to say I was disappointed when I saw it was an understatement. It was sad. I think in general, I am optimistic, and it was sad to see a bleached kelp forest there. But then I've also been able to see protected zones in Fiji where I didn't know a coral reef could look that vibrant, and it's not something that was that hard for them to do. They protected this island from commercial fishing, a radius of two miles around the island, and for 20 years. And to tell you the colors I saw first person underwater, it just dropped my jaw. They said it wasn't always that way. This is new. It was like 15, 20 years they've been protecting that section, and it looks like that now. So I think that is where the optimism comes in, is that the Earth really does heal itself. It's like a human body and broken bones. We can get caught up in the fact that we broke our bone and it's the end of the world, but it will recover, and especially when we step away from it. So I think that's where the optimism comes is like, yes, there's terrible things going on with the environment, but it doesn't have to stay that way. As long as we step away from it for a little bit, it should repair itself. 

[00:22:09] Dan Lambe: 
You can tell it's just kind of instinct for you to be optimistic. I love that, Dylan. It's like you can just tell you're going to find the bright side of something. You can see that in your videos, too. And it's not just a naive optimism. We got to do things about it. We got to tell stories. We got to plant trees. We got to take action. We can't just sit around and hope that things are going to get better. I know a lot of people are stuck with a lot of climate anxiety right now, especially our younger generation. That research with the Harris Poll we did found about 60% of people experience some kind of climate dread, like a nervousness about how climate's impacting them, their families, their communities. I'm guessing, knowing nature is such your happy place, do you ever struggle with that? Do you feel that, or what advice might you have for folks who are experiencing that?

[00:23:03] Dylan Efron: 
It's a quick way to get depressed. I think it's crazy when I'm reading things like that, that I'll sit down and it just makes you sad, and it makes you angry. And I think that is a great starting place to make change, to try to get involved locally and try to make a difference. But I think it's just something that I can't personally dwell on. I can't carry that world on my shoulders, if that makes sense. You have to do what you can, and if it is weighing on you, step up in a bigger way and make even more of an impact. You can't let the world's problem fall on your shoulders, otherwise you're going to live depressed.

[00:24:00] Dan Lambe: 
You talked about one of the recoveries of the ecosystem. We get to see a lot of planting projects around the world, a lot of recovery projects, and it is inspiring seeing these organizations, seeing these associations we work with, these partnerships, bring these landscapes back to life. And I get to see it, and that gives me confidence. It gives me information to give me the hope and the optimism that I have. I'm just an optimistic guy, too. I'm always going to look for the bright side. I'm gonna look for the solution. But I'd love you to dig into a little bit more about what is it that gives you hope today, especially as it relates to the environment. What is it that's giving you that hope and optimism, that confidence that we can do good things and help make this a better planet? 

[00:24:33] Dylan Efron: 
I think it's talking to people like you and this organization that like— As crazy it is the globalization of our world that all of these things are in the light now. I know we've gone through terrible periods of time where things were just happening we didn't know. We didn't have this level of accessibility that we know now, and I think that's helping us in general. When these things are happening, it's on all of our Instagrams, it's on all of our news feeds, and we're seeing things that previously were kept in the dark. All the pollutions and stuff that we would never have been privy to, now there's people that are stepping up and exposing that. So I think the globalization really of the world is helping us all hold each other accountable. 

[00:25:23] Dylan Efron: 
I remember my grandpa was talking about Los Angeles when he used to live here in the '70s or '60s. He was saying that he couldn't unroll the windows in his house because it was just so polluted. And he was so shocked visiting our home and looking out at the views, and he's like, "Dylan, I was standing here 50 years ago and I couldn't see 30 feet in front of my house, and now I can see the city." And it blew his mind. And it's just like, again, we can naturally heal from this stuff. And I think that optimism, there's so many people doing good right now that I think as long as we have people like you and for ourselves, we can do this. 

[00:26:05] Dan Lambe: 
That's great. That's great, Dylan. I appreciate that. I love you talking about stories with your grandfather. I know you also have an amazing relationship with your younger siblings. It looks like you guys just get along so well, and I'm curious how much you're thinking about their future and what you're hoping for, for the planet, for them, for the long term. 

[00:26:28] Dylan Efron: 
I think with them, I learned really early, it was like I wanted to make experiences with them. I would come home to San Luis Obispo and we'd hang out at their house, and it didn't feel like I was making lasting memories like the ones that I had as a kid. So now every time I come home, it's like I pop in the door, I'm like, "Hey, we're going to the beach. We're going on a hike. We're getting out in nature." Because those are the things that I did that stuck with me. So that's really I think why I get along with them so well is I get to redo all the stuff that I did as a kid and all the stuff I love. I'm so excited for them to keep growing up and for their first rock climbing and their first fishing experience. So that's just important to me to be able to be there as much as I can and really be that person who shows them the stuff that I love, like how nature has helped me throughout my life, and get them into those passions as well. 

[00:27:24] Dan Lambe: 
Do you see them embracing it, or are they like, "Oh, here comes Dylan again. Now we got to go on a big hike." Or do you feel like they're embracing it and getting excited about it? 

[00:27:33] Dylan Efron: 
They embrace it. They're so excited about it. 

[00:27:36] Dan Lambe: 
Good. 

[00:27:37] Dylan Efron: 
I'm always pushing them a little bit at a time, like, "Oh, you can do this slide, but can you do it head first?" 

[00:27:43] Dan Lambe: 
Yeah. 

[00:27:44] Dylan Efron: 
That next generation is going to be the most important thing for us as we give them those opportunities to get outside like you were talking about in your college experiences versus just sitting on phones and screens and that sort of thing. 

[00:27:58] Dan Lambe: 
Yeah. One last little tidbit from Costa Rica when we were there for Down to Earth. We got to see one of those, I don't even know the technical term, it was just like a nature school. It was like a school where they were immersed in nature all day, and they would sneak in math classes and they would sneak in all the stuff you get in normal schools, but it was pretty much like a playground with jungle gyms and the kids were outdoors all day having fun in the sun, and then they'd go and do 10 minutes of math. And it was so cool to see because the kids would actually elect to do it. As a kid, I would never have elected to go to math class. But they'd get tired, they're running around, and they're like, "All right, let's go do some math." And it was such a cool perspective to see a different form of school because the way I grew up was like, "No, you have to go to school whether you like it or not." And these kids loved going to school. There was a trampoline. 

[00:29:00] Dan Lambe: 
It was so cool to see just different systems of ways to grow up, and I think Costa Rica was doing it right there. 

[00:29:07] Dan Lambe: 
Yeah. Sounds like a really cool trip, really cool experience. 

[00:29:09] Dan Lambe: 
Okay, so we're going to try something new, Dylan. We've never done this before, but I'm going to do a speed round here where I'm going to ask you some questions that through your life of adventure, all of your extensive travel, you can help answer the questions for us, okay? But for the listeners, I'm just going to rattle off a handful of different questions for you to give just gut reaction to, okay? 

[00:29:30] Dylan Efron: 
Okay. 

[00:29:32] Dan Lambe: 
All right. So, favorite forest, Dylan? 

[00:29:35] Dylan Efron: 
Sequoia National Park. The redwoods there, so gorgeous. 

[00:29:40] Dan Lambe: 
Have you been a lot? 

[00:29:42] Dylan Efron: 
Yeah, a lot. 

[00:29:44] Dan Lambe: 
A lot as in probably like 20 times. 

[00:29:46] Dylan Efron: 
It just stuns you, doesn't it, to see those trees? 

[00:29:49] Dan Lambe: 
It's like how can something be this big and alive, right? 

[00:29:53] Dylan Efron: 
It's amazing. It's so cool. And you can touch it and wrap your arms. You're not supposed to, but if you wrap your arm wingspan, you're not even close to getting around it. It's so cool. 

[00:30:07] Dan Lambe: 
Well, next one was going to be favorite national park. 

[00:30:10] Dylan Efron: 
Favorite national park. Gosh, I spoke about Joshua Tree a lot. For me, where I live, I go there the most, and I've just had such incredible experiences there that I really like Joshua Tree. 

[00:30:25] Dan Lambe: 
Oceans or mountains, Dylan? 

[00:30:27] Dylan Efron: 
Hopefully I can have both, but I would choose oceans. 

[00:30:31] Dan Lambe: 
I always say both, too. I actually like the mountains more in the summertime than the winter. I love skiing, too, but there's so much to do in the mountains in the summertime. But we'll give you both, but you said oceans. It's okay. 

[00:30:44] Dylan Efron: 
Yeah. 

[00:30:46] Dan Lambe: 
Okay. Sunrise bike ride or sunset hike? 

[00:30:51] Dylan Efron: 
That is the easiest one because sunrises are not my jam, so— 

[00:30:56] Dan Lambe: 
I was wondering about that... 

[00:30:58] Dylan Efron: 
It's the hike. The sunsets in California go over the ocean, and I'll take a sunset all day.

[00:31:04] Dan Lambe: 
Okay. 

[00:31:07] Dan Lambe: 
What's one of your most memorable wildlife encounters? 

[00:31:08] Dylan Efron: 
Ooh. I saw a puma in Costa Rica that walks two feet away from me. I saw grizzly bears in Montana, and gosh, whales in the ocean and swam with sharks in the ocean. I think nothing makes you feel alive like something that's bigger than you naturally being in your presence, and just again, that's that feeling is that relationship. When I'm swimming with sharks, there's an understanding, and there's a bit of, "Okay, I'll respect you. You respect me. We're going to do our own things." And that's cool to feel accepted underwater. Same with the puma. It's like the puma walked right by me, and there's that misconception that you see a big animal, they want to kill you, and it's not that case. It's like I kept my distance. I did my own thing. It walked right by me. Same with the grizzly bears. But man, those memories never go away. 

[00:32:07] Dan Lambe: 
Last question for this speed round is, what's the dream destination you haven't explored yet? 

[00:32:14] Dylan Efron: 
Ooh. Mm-hmm. What's next on the list for you? 

[00:32:19] Dan Lambe: 
I think there's so much that I haven't seen, but I think Raja Ampat. There's some really cool underwater areas that I want to go to, and I haven't been to Thailand or any of the Southeast Asia areas, so there's so much left for me to see and experience. 

[00:32:43] Dan Lambe: 
Well, wherever you go, I know you will bring your positivity, and you'll be welcomed, I'm sure. So one of our final things we do with all of our guests, Dylan, is we ask them, can you tell us about a tree you love or a tree memory you have? 

[00:33:01] Dylan Efron: 
This probably isn't a good one, but the first thing that popped up was, I think I mentioned earlier, I would go on a camping trip to Samuel P. Taylor in Marin County. Again, just giant redwoods. And there was a stump, unfortunately, but the stump is kind of the entrance. You see that stump, and it says Samuel P. Taylor on it, and that is like, it was always this feeling of, "Oh, I'm back. I'm about to go catch crawdads in the river and go just have fun with friends." And we would always take a photo by that stump every year, and you can stand in the tree, stand on the stump. And I think that tree is always going to be special to me, just because those are memories I'll never forget with my brother, with my family, with my close friends. 

[00:33:51] Dan Lambe: 
Have you done much tree planting, Dylan? Do we have to get you out tree planting one of these times? 

[00:33:56] Dylan Efron: 
I would love to come do it. I've done it a few times. We did it in college, actually. It was really rewarding. 

[00:34:03] Dan Lambe: 
Like on campus or in parks around there, something like that? 

[00:34:06] Dylan Efron: 
Yeah. It was part of a class we took. We pretty much did it for a whole semester, and it was really rewarding. I can go back and see the trees that we planted. 

[00:34:17] Dan Lambe: 
Right. It's one of the best parts. Yeah, the legacy of trees. 

[00:34:21] Dan Lambe: 
Well, listen, thanks for being a tree planter, Dylan. Thanks for being an ambassador for nature, honestly, in a lot of ways, helping to expose people to adventure, to the outdoors, and just reminding them that there's great experiences out there. We love getting to follow you, and thanks for being a part of "Unearthing Optimism." We really appreciate it. 

[00:34:42] Dylan Efron: 
No, thank you. And again, I would love to see your guys' work in action. Sign me up, I'll be there. 

[00:34:48] Dan Lambe: 
We will. We'll give you some opportunities to get out there and get your hands dirty, okay? 

[00:34:53] Dylan Efron: 
Good. I'm here for it. 

[00:34:54] Dan Lambe: 
That was Dylan Efron reminding us that caring for nature can begin by simply experiencing it, because each adventure, big or small, is an opportunity to create a deeper connection with ourselves and this planet we call home. To our audience, thank you for tuning in to "Unearthing Optimism." If today's episode moved you or inspired you, we hope you'll subscribe, leave a review, and share the show with a friend. Until next time, keep planting those seeds of hope.</sup>