Happy Birthday to Buck’s Dad, Mason Speed Sexton!

BUCK: Gotta say happy birthday to my dad, Mason Speed Sexton, 75 today, looks 55, and we celebrated his birthday a bit more over the weekend, the guy who taught me man stuff growing up.

CLAY: He was fantastic in-studio —

BUCK: Yeah, he’s great.

CLAY: — people out there who remember.

BUCK: He’s a great storyteller, a great dad, and a great golfer. He loves golf so you’ve got to help me out next to you’re doing some kind of celebrity, fancy man golf tournament, you gotta take my dad out there. He’s a great golfer. But one thing growing up is he used to like to take us to — we used to go to — very remote spots. It wasn’t camping like in a cabin or anything else. We were carrying canoes over our heads, carrying all of our stuff in packs. I’m like 12 years old. This is pre-cell phone era. We would go up into a place called the Quetico wilderness area of Canada, which is just right north of Minnesota.

CLAY: Oh, wow. That’s aways up there.

BUCK: Oh, no, this is the real deal, my man. We used to do this stuff and there were bears and wolves and all that stuff.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: I remember being a kid hearing the wolves howling at night and my dad would just look at me and be like, “Isn’t this great, son?” I’m like, “I don’t know.” I’m kind of more of a house cat. I like being able to order my Thai food and my burgers. But I did do that stuff growing up. My dad taught us outdoor stuff, taught us how to shoot. I should post photos. We got some photos of me at the range with the .22, I’m 11, 10, 11 years old, my first riflery experience going on. I’m about 10 years old. But my dad was an outdoorsman, true outdoorsman. But this is what’s funny, Clay. I started watching this show called Alone. Do you know about this?

CLAY: Is that like Naked and Afraid?

BUCK: It’s kind of, but there’s no like weird being naked or afraid. Alone I like because there was a history… History Channel? Is that right? It’s one of those channels. And now it’s on Netflix. It’s real survival experts. It’s not just like, “My name is Bob. I sell hot dogs. Now I’m naked in the woods.” I mean, these are people —

CLAY: I used to love watching Bear Grylls. So I was obsessed with that show.

BUCK: So imagine if you had 10 Bear Grylls-like figures and the game is you’re dropped in the middle of the wilderness and you have to survive as long as you can out there. You have a satellite phone. You tap out, right, if he calls in?

CLAY: It’s Hunger Games, except you’re not trying to kill each other?

BUCK: Exactly. It’s actually The Hunger Games because the biggest enemy you face is hunger.

CLAY: Yeah, right.

BUCK: These guys, 30 days in they’ve lost 30 pounds. By the way, it’s a reminder: Calories in, calories out. I gotta keep that in mind. But it’s funny because I started telling my dad about it. Now he’s like, “I want to go on this show.” He’s convinced he wants to compete. I’m like, “Dad, I don’t know. If there’s like a master’s level of this, maybe we can try.”

CLAY: Is there an age limit? I mean, 75, I would imagine there aren’t a lot of 75-year-olds trying to survive by themselves in the wilderness.

BUCK: He’d do well. He was always really good in the woods. He grew up… His dad was born in South Dakota. His mother is from Virginia. That’s why.

CLAY: I would tap out. How long do you think you would last on a wilderness show? A celebrity version of this show would be really funny too. Nobody would laugh.

BUCK: I could tell you my version of this, and it would be hilarious. If we did conservative media alone, and it’s on Netflix, for anyone who hasn’t seen it, I’m telling you, it’s an addictive show. I mean, the first five days, after five days, I’d be like, “Oh, I’m hungry and I’m cold but I think I’m starting to see my abs.” Week two, I’d be like, “I’m the out. I don’t want to do this anymore.” I think I would last 10 days, max.

CLAY: I don’t think I would last one. You make me sleep outside if it’s cold? First of all, this is my vacation. I’m not spending it this way. I would tap out really fast.

BUCK: I have a rule now. I only go on vacations where I’m sleeping in a bed. I don’t do any of this on-the-ground stuff.

CLAY: I 100% agree with that, 100%. Speaking of television, I watched… I think it’s Shark Week again. Is it Shark Week? It feels like it’s always Shark Week now.

BUCK: They overdid it. Shark Week turned into, like, shark month and too much.

CLAY: I somehow missed this last year, but the Jackass crew… Did you watch Jackass back in the day on MTV?

BUCK: A little bit. I’m familiar with it.

CLAY: So they have mixed the Jackass crew… For those of you out there who remember the Jackass television show that used to air on MTV, Johnny Knoxville, all those guys, and they mixed ’em with Shark Week, and, Buck, it is one of the most addictive television program. I couldn’t stop watching. They try to think up incredibly ridiculous, dangerous situations to put them in with sharks. Last year, I think one of the guys got bit and they had to rush him to the hospital. So, I mean, they’re idiots. But knowing that they might get bit, I can’t look away, and I couldn’t stop watching last night.

BUCK: I will say maybe we’ll get some put in the show. A lot of possible entries last few days for Animal Thunderdome, I’m just gonna say.

CLAY: There are a lot of hits. A lot of hits going on.

BUCK: Summertime, one, people are out more. It’s warmer. So there’s more interaction with wildlife. You probably saw even on Fox this morning they had the humpback whale that breached and landed on the boat. The humpback whale, obviously, is not trying to hurt anybody, but it’s a big fellow.

CLAY: That’s what they said about Endurance, the book that I just finished that you suggested about Shackleton.

BUCK: It’s an amazing book.

CLAY: It’s a phenomenal book. And, again, British, not American. ‘Cause everybody’s like, “Eh.” We got Brit listeners who were offended that I was like, “Hey, this is a great American story.” They’re like, “It’s British.” They were concerned that that would happen to them when they were in those small boats trying to eventually get to civilization ’cause the whales will evidently just come up everywhere. And it’s not intentional. I don’t think the whale is trying to come up underneath the boat or land on them, but it happens every now and then.

BUCK: Yeah, sometimes you’re under the humpback whale, folks, you know it’s a bad day. You gotta watch out for that. One funny thing about doing radio, especially when it comes to the international audience is if you want to ever find out, “Do we have listeners in Wales” for example?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: Just be like, “Hey, speaking of whales…” Look what I did there. Be like, “Hey, England and Wales, same thing, right?” Boom! Ten emails from the Welsh listeners that are like, “How dare you!”