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Hi and welcome to

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the Big Deep podcast . Big

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Deep is a podcast about people who have a connection

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to the ocean , people for whom

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that connection is so strong it defines

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some aspect of their life . Over

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the course of this series we'll talk to all sorts of people

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. In each episode we'll explore

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the deeper meaning of that connection . Today

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I speak with a TV correspondent and journalist

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whose passion for exploration is driven

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by a deeper spiritual connection to

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the ocean . Hello

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, this is your host , jason Elias . Welcome

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to the Big Deep podcast

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. In

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today's episode I speak with explorer , ocean

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activist and television journalist , kinga

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Phillips . Kinga was one

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of the founding journalists and hosts of Al Gore's

1:00

current TV and since then she

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has gone on to host several shows on both National

1:04

Geographic and Travel Channel , most

1:07

recently becoming the first female host on Discovery

1:09

Channel's Shark Week . But

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the reason I was interested in talking to Kinga is her

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high profile . Roles on television have always

1:16

been in service of her deeper passions

1:18

for ocean advocacy . This

1:20

has led to her becoming a fellow at the prestigious

1:22

explorers club and becoming a board

1:24

member of the non-profit Shark Allies , which

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works on the protection and conservation of

1:28

sharks and rays and is dedicated

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to changing the public perception of sharks

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. Kinga is also an avid freediver

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and she spoke about how she first discovered

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her passion for the ocean on the shores of the Baltic

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Sea , discussed what she found

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to be the more spiritual aspects of being

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in the water and described a profound

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moment with her sister swimming alongside a whale

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shark off the coast of central Mexico

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.

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My name is Kinga Phillips and

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I have worked in television , specifically

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documentary and unscripted

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, for the last 22 years , with

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a big focus on ocean conservation

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and sharks .

2:05

Can you talk a bit about where you grew up and when

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you first remember your connection to the ocean

2:10

?

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I was born in Warsaw , poland , and

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my parents were both nature lovers . My dad

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was a geologist , trekked all over Europe

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, my mom was a Polish pharmacist

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, so emphasis on botany . And

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they loved being outdoors and we particularly

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always gravitated towards the ocean , and

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the ocean there in Poland is the Baltic

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Sea , so we would go and we would gather

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, amber and just walk for

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hours and hours and hours , and I loved it so much

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. My family moved from Poland

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to Bartlesville , oklahoma , in 1981

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. And we didn't have a

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lot of money so we didn't really fly anywhere . We

2:45

didn't have vacations to tropical destinations

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. So our big trip

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every year over spring break with Florida , we

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would get in our big blue van and we would

2:59

go trip to Florida from Oklahoma

3:01

, stopping at AOA campgrounds , and

3:04

in hindsight that was the best way to grow

3:06

up . When

3:10

we got there I fell in

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love with this warm , crystal

3:14

clear , briny water

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that I just found to be the most magnificent

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thing in the world . I

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think two big memories that I had

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were one finding a deceased

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sea turtle on the beach , which I refused

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to believe was anything but napping , and

3:30

sat with him for a very long time . And

3:33

then we loved horseshoe crabs . I

3:36

spent hour after hour perusing

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the mangroves and looking for them

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and thought that they were the coolest , most prehistoric

3:43

thing ever , because they are , and

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these memories stuck out to me as

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my earliest connections

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to how spectacular and

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vast the ocean is , and that's never left me

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.

3:58

So it sounds like for you there was always

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a sense of wonder around the ocean , which perhaps

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helped guide you to becoming one of

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the more visible journalists and on-air

4:06

personalities in the exploration space . Can

4:09

you talk a bit about that path ? Were

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there challenges , and what motivates

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you to continue pursuing that sense

4:17

of exploration ?

4:19

When I was in college I had seven different

4:21

majors and I couldn't quite wrap

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my head around picking one thing

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to do for the rest of my life . So

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the seven major I had were marine

4:29

biology , lots of medicine . I wanted to do

4:32

doctors' outborders , I mean , there was entomology

4:34

so many different things . And

4:36

because I always gravitated towards wildlife

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I would watch the old shop who Sto Show

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Voyage of the Clipso and I thought that's it , that's what

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I want to do . So I landed on journalism

4:46

, then becoming fascinated

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with sharks and joining shark allies , and

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all of that together started

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to develop into one world . And now , looking

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back , that long game for exploration

4:57

, for research , for wanting to understand how

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we physically , emotionally , mentally

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, spiritually connect to the natural

5:04

world , and the ocean in particular , it

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was always present and all

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of that together was kind of the perfect storm

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to bring me to where I am now .

5:13

Right , but one of the things I find

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interesting about you is you often

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go beyond more established narratives of

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science journalism and are willing

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to explore more spiritual and esoteric

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aspects of our human experiences

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in this world . Would

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you mind talking a bit about your perspective on

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that , regarding the ocean and how it

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might relate to your larger worldview ?

5:40

Being in the ocean is actually being

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enveloped in what this planet

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is made of . I

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remember I was surfing with a buddy of mine

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and we jumped off our surfboards

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and we were just swimming around and

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he goes look , we're in the earth right now

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and

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for some reason that really resonated with me

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and I thought

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well , we are actually

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immersed , we are

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fully submerged in

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the earth and

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that , on a spiritual level

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, is very interesting

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, and I never feel more at peace than

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when I'm underwater . There's

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something healing and

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intriguing about that . I

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loved sci-fi movies as a kid and

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I just don't think that there is anything

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that could possibly be out in this universe

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that is as cool as

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some of the fauna that we have in the ocean

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. I mean

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, I can't imagine anything beating

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out of horseshoe crab or

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a narwhal , a

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mola-mola sunfish , seeing

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a tiger shark in the water and being able

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to swim effortlessly next to it

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, or having a young hunk back approach

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you and start to spin and then mimic

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your movements . There's

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something about that that is every

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child's fantasy and

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I tingle at the idea that there are still

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storylines yet to be discovered

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. I

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mean , in the shark space , the fact that we have

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never seen a great white shark mate again birth

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. How amazing

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is that . Everything

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that exists in the ocean to me is

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the best sci-fi movie that you could ever

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imagine and

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it's real . So

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it's kind of the eternal childlike

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wonder for me when

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I'm immersed in the ocean .

8:00

Well , that was beautifully said

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and , as a huge

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sci-fi fan myself , I think you're absolutely

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right that there is a profound

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beauty and otherworldly weirdness

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about so much of the ocean

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, and I think probably

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a lot of people who are connected to the water might also

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echo your sense of the spiritual aspect

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of being with these animals , and

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I wonder if , in some ways , that also

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shaped the way you dive . I know you've shifted

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from being primarily a scuba diver

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and are now more focused on free diving

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, so I'm wondering if you'd talk a little

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bit about that and why you might have made that transition

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.

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I am fortunate enough to work

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in an industry where I get to

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experience a lot of things , and it usually

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comes in the form of me getting thrown

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into a situation that I have very little experience

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in and it's literally sink or swim . I

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was a scuba diver , probably going on 20

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years , hundreds of dives and

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I was enjoying it because it was my access

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to the ocean and I love that space , I love that

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world . So I was on a travel

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channel show and they took me to

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Hawaii and they said we're going to put you with this

9:07

gentleman named Sean Harada . He's an amazing spear fisherman

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, amazing freediver . Go , and

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they literally handed me a spear gun . We're

9:14

like so we're going to drop down to 50 feet , you're

9:16

going to hunt the experience

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of being down there on my breath , the

9:21

silence of it as opposed to the

9:23

silence of the ocean . I

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loved it . So when I left I

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went into a free diving class and

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kind of learned the basics and

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ever since then it's

9:35

actually quite hard for me to go back to scuba

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. I mean , there are wonderful times and places when

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we do shark week , we'll scuba dive or I'm

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on a live aboard . There are environments where

9:43

it's just preferable . But

9:45

I love the freedom

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of freediving . When

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you're on your own breath , it

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is silent and you were immersed

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in the waves . There's a sense

9:56

of extreme presence and

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you know you can't get as close to a whale

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or a shark or a manta ray on

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scuba as you can in this silent

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space where you kind of feel like one of them . There

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is something so spectacular in that I

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feel changes in my

10:13

system that I can't get anywhere

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else . It makes me tingle . I love it .

10:18

Yeah , it's so fascinating when people talk about how

10:20

, when you freedive , you can get closer to the

10:22

animals because of the lack of scuba bubbles

10:24

, which can sometimes frighten the animals , but

10:27

also the greater sense of presence that

10:29

people feel when they're freediving and how

10:32

that allows them to interact closer . And

10:34

I just find that fascinating . And

10:36

that specific dynamic also predicated

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a story you've told before about a trip

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you took with your sister to Mexico to

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go diving with whale sharks . Can

10:46

you talk about that trip a bit and why

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you found it so profoundly moving ?

10:50

One of the first trips that I ever took solo

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was to Isla Mojarras and

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went out twice , swam with the whale

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sharks , and it was an incredible

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experience . I absolutely loved it . Several

11:03

years later , I really wanted my friends

11:05

and my sister to have that experience , but

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instead of going to Isla Mujeres , we decided

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to go to Isla Hallbosch , which is just

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north of Cancun , and I had warned

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the girls in advance . It's an incredible

11:17

experience , but it's also crowded

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as all hell . You're having people

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crawl over your head as they're trying to get to the whale shark

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. It's a magnificent experience , but I'm

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just warning you right now that you're going to be a little

11:28

annoyed with the amount of humanity there . From

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Isla Hallbosch they gave us the option . The

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water around Isla Hallbosch is more of

11:36

this emerald green color . It's a little

11:38

bit more murky , but

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if you want to pay a little bit more , we'll take you to where

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the water is really clear blue and

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corresponds with where the boats

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out of Isla Mujeres go out to , and I said I

11:50

would rather go to the blue . I just think that's an spectacular

11:53

experience . We're getting

11:55

our little boat , rupanga , and we're out there probably

11:57

for two hours from Isla Hallbosch , and

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it really does change from this gorgeous emerald

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color to this beautiful deep

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blue . And

12:07

there's one boat sitting there as

12:10

we start to get ready , the boat

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packs up the leaves and

12:14

we jump in the water and

12:19

there are 15 whale sharks around

12:21

us Me

12:25

, my sister Julia , my

12:27

friend Mina and my friend Sophia . So

12:29

there are four of us girls with 15

12:31

whale sharks . They

12:34

were feeding in this area , so they just kept circling

12:36

us . They didn't leave . We

12:40

were in the water with these 15 whale

12:42

sharks for

12:44

so long . Just

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the four of us . What

12:51

experience . Alone in this

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planet where there are eight billion people

12:55

and

12:58

to think that's four friends

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who got to have this phenomenal experience

13:03

not to be shared with anybody else , these

13:06

magnificent creatures which just

13:08

move through the water with their big old slots

13:11

and their open mouths . There

13:16

was this huge whale shark making its way through

13:18

our group . My sister

13:21

and I started pacing it on

13:23

both sides and

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I remember I looked up at her . I

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waved to her over the back of a whale shark

13:31

and the two

13:34

of us just started laughing in our snorkels

13:36

because we realized

13:38

this

13:41

was this extraordinary

13:43

moment where

13:47

two goofy sisters just waved

13:49

to each other Over the back

13:51

of a whale shark in

13:53

500 feet of blue water

13:55

. That

13:59

is one of my favorite

14:02

life moments . Your

14:06

heart is so full of joy , everything

14:10

is right with the world and

14:14

you are distinctly

14:17

rooted in

14:20

the present moment , in

14:24

that space , in that moment

14:26

. If

14:29

someone gave you the option to be anywhere else

14:31

in the world , you

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would say , no , I want to be here , and

14:40

for that to be facilitated by the

14:42

ocean and

14:44

this massive animal

14:46

that allowed

14:48

us into its presence . When

14:53

you look back on your life , that

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to me is one of the main moments in my life

14:58

that I think this

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journey on this little planet , with

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my little soul being here , that

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was worth it .

15:21

Finally , we end every interview and

15:23

every episode with a single open-ended

15:25

question . We ask everyone we talk to

15:27

what does the ocean

15:30

mean to you ?

15:32

The ocean is an

15:34

extension of my consciousness

15:37

. I am also a big believer

15:40

in self stewardship , and

15:42

when you are in the ocean , you are responsible

15:45

for your own well-being , and there is something

15:47

very primal in that that

15:49

I absolutely love makes

15:52

you feel very alive .

15:58

Thanks for listening to the Big Deep podcast . Next

16:01

time on .

16:02

Big Deep . When I came

16:05

to Galapagos , I wanted

16:07

to work on something

16:09

that would make some kind of difference

16:12

, to be able to look back and say well

16:14

, I tried to make the planet

16:17

a little bit better than it

16:19

was when I was on it . I tried to

16:21

clean up a little bit .

16:24

We really appreciate you being on this journey into the

16:26

Big Deep as we explore an ocean of

16:28

stories . If you like

16:30

what we're doing , please make sure to subscribe wherever you

16:32

listen to podcasts . Also , please find

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us on the socials where you can like and comment , because

16:36

those subscribes , likes and comments really

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make a difference . For more content

16:41

from our interviews in our series , photos of every

16:43

guest or just to get in touch , please reach

16:45

out at our website , bigdeepcom Plus

16:48

. If you know someone you think we should talk to , please

16:50

let us know at our Big Deep website , as we are always looking

16:53

to hear more stories from interesting people who are

16:55

deeply connected to our world's oceans . Thanks

16:57

again for joining us .