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Brian Lara on WNYC. So

1:00

AJ Jacobs, the journalist, NBR

1:02

contributor, author of many books, and self proclaimed

1:05

human guinea pig has an

1:07

essay in the New York Times, and here's

1:09

the gist of it if you haven't seen it. If

1:11

you saved me and my sister on

1:13

a cold rainy night in Alaska thirty

1:16

four years ago, I would like

1:18

to thank you. Now, Jacobs

1:20

and his sister got lost tells us in

1:22

the waterways of Glacier Bay National

1:25

Park in Alaska for many

1:27

cold, rainy, long hours

1:30

until in the early morning hours,

1:32

they heard some voices in the distance.

1:35

They followed those those voices and

1:37

stumbled upon a group of five people

1:39

camping on one of the islands. And even

1:41

though the campers were a little buzzed on

1:44

beers, A. J. says, they

1:46

gave A. J. and his sister dry

1:48

clothing, food, and a place to sleep that

1:50

night. And the next morning, the Jacobs'

1:52

were reunited with their parents.

1:55

So now, thirty four years

1:57

later, AJ wants to find

1:59

any of those five people in that group

2:02

to say, thank you. So we thought

2:04

we'd use the resources of our radio show

2:07

to try and help him and also give

2:09

any of you who wanna call in a

2:11

shout out, an opportunity

2:13

to shout out a stranger who

2:15

helped you at any time and

2:17

disappeared in your life. 212433WNYC

2:22

Hi, AJ. Welcome back to WNYC Always

2:25

great to have you on. Thank

2:27

you, Brian. Thanks for having me on. And

2:29

listeners again, who's that stranger

2:32

who helped you out of a pickle big

2:34

or small once upon a time, and

2:36

you never saw them again, and whether or not

2:38

you wanna find them, you wanna thank

2:40

them. 212433

2:43

WNYC, 2124339692

2:48

or tweet that Brian Lara, I see

2:50

we already have one tweet like this. We'll get

2:52

to it. Mhmm. So AJ, what a story? How'd

2:54

you get lost in Glacier Bay

2:56

National Park in Alaska? Well,

2:59

well, it was in the eighties. I

3:01

was in college, and we

3:03

were on a family trip to Alaska. And

3:05

one afternoon, my sister and I, we rented

3:07

a kayak for an hour. We

3:10

paddle out. It's beautiful. We

3:12

turn around after half an hour to paddle

3:14

back. But the channel we

3:16

had paddle through it had disappeared.

3:19

And we found it out later. It was because the tides

3:21

had changed. But we were baffled

3:24

and then lost, so we just turned

3:26

made a right turn and kept paddling. And

3:28

like you said earlier, it got colder, it got

3:31

darker, it wasn't fun anymore.

3:34

On land, my parents were understandably

3:36

freaking out -- Mhmm. -- because the park

3:38

rangers had told them it was quite likely

3:41

we had been swept out to sea

3:43

and drowned. Wow. So as

3:45

you mentioned, we've after that

3:48

about one in the morning, after hours

3:50

of paddling. We heard these rowdy

3:52

campers, the only campers for miles.

3:54

And thank god they were up

3:56

and a little buzzed and making enough

3:59

noise and they rescued us. They paddled

4:01

out and gave us food and dry clothes

4:03

and and just showed

4:05

incredible kindness And, you

4:07

know, these are polarized times,

4:10

and I sometimes have to

4:12

remind myself that humans have

4:14

this. amazing capacity for

4:16

science for kindness. So

4:18

I I wanted to write the story about

4:20

these strangers who saved my life. and

4:24

my quest to find them and thank them.

4:26

Because as you know, I'm very into gratitude.

4:29

Yes. You wrote a whole book on gratitude. And

4:32

I guess that's why thirty four years

4:34

later, you're undertaking this

4:36

mission. You realize they might be sale of Palen

4:38

voters. Right? That's

4:41

funny. I thought of that. It's like, what if we find

4:43

in their queue and the but listen. Even

4:46

so, I would still be grateful

4:48

to them. But yeah,

4:50

I I told the story and my

4:52

son said he was fourteen

4:54

at the time. He said, well, why

4:56

don't you go and thank them? And it was

4:59

a a great project, especially during the pandemic,

5:02

to sort of remind myself of

5:04

the bright spots of humanity. And I

5:06

put the story on Facebook and

5:08

said, I'm looking for these guys because we never

5:11

got their name. We were

5:13

too frazzled by the whole thing. And

5:17

And we we got I got

5:19

hundreds of responses on Facebook, and

5:21

people just showed

5:22

the same level of kindness.

5:24

that these campers did. They

5:26

volunteered to help with my search,

5:28

and there were these self proclaimed Sherlock

5:31

who tracked down people who

5:34

worked in Alaska in the eighties, I

5:36

got the emergency report from nineteen

5:38

eighty eight with the name

5:40

of one of the campers. So that was a huge

5:42

clue. His name was Doug Rand, so

5:45

I spent several weeks calling

5:47

every Doug Rand I could find

5:49

dozens of Doug Rand's And I

5:51

haven't found the right one yet, but

5:53

even so it's been a wonderful experience. I

5:56

got to meet this cross section of America

5:58

through Doug Rams and they told

6:00

their stories about the kindness of

6:02

strangers. And I even

6:04

got a little closure because found

6:06

the people who rented us the kayak, and they were

6:08

so apologetic about not

6:11

telling us, preparing us, and they

6:13

said they changed their policy. So maybe

6:15

we saved someone. So I wrote this

6:17

up and and

6:19

there are hundreds of comments on The New York

6:21

Times article. Most of them were about

6:23

people telling their own stories about

6:25

the kindness of strangers. And

6:27

we've got about ten minutes, and boy do we

6:30

have stories coming in

6:32

on the phones and on Twitter or

6:35

listeners help HJJ Jacobs find

6:37

the real Doug Rand. But

6:40

I'll tell you very briefly because we wanna

6:43

go to the cause and the tweets. Believe

6:45

it or not, something much more mild,

6:47

but a little bit similar happened to me.

6:50

I was backpacking one time

6:52

in Canyonlands National Park,

6:54

which is a very desert park

6:56

in Utah. and my

6:59

friend and I didn't bring enough water

7:02

for the number of nights we were gonna

7:04

be out. We didn't realize just how dry it was be

7:06

out there. It wasn't like anything I ever experienced

7:08

growing up in queens, you know. And

7:11

we came apart there was her last

7:13

night in. It was like, we're thirsty.

7:16

How is this gonna work? We have to hike

7:18

out tomorrow morning? How

7:20

are we gonna get through the night? And

7:22

sure enough, we stumbled upon some other campers,

7:25

and they had all this water and they shared

7:27

generously with us. So whoever

7:30

you were in Utah I don't

7:32

know if you were Doug Rand on the next

7:34

leg of your journey, but

7:36

thank you. That's

7:39

lovely. And yeah, I've I've heard

7:41

hundreds of these stories. They're they're the ones.

7:43

People getting lost in a Blizzard and a

7:46

a snowmobile club rescuing them and

7:48

giving him soup and it's just that, you

7:50

know, it restores your faith a little. So your

7:52

story is from thirty four years ago. Maddie

7:55

and Brooklyn's story is from Yesterday,

7:59

Maddie? Yesterday?

7:59

What?

8:01

Hi. Yeah. So

8:04

hello. So I was riding

8:06

my bike yesterday in

8:09

Belori, Side Chinatown. And

8:12

I looked down in my bath it and

8:14

I had my bag and I could not find my cell

8:16

phone. It had fallen

8:18

out somewhere and I started writing back

8:20

and there were some ladies in the street.

8:22

And I said, hi. Have you all seen a red

8:25

cell phone? And they said, no. No. But tell us

8:27

your phone number and we'll call it. And

8:29

then we all started looking around

8:31

and they called some other people. And

8:33

eventually after the third phone call, a

8:35

random guy a few miles

8:38

back picked it up and said

8:40

he just need a truck run over it,

8:42

and he saw it in his ditch, and

8:44

he picked it up because it was ringing. And

8:47

called and said, hi to me. And I said, oh, hold

8:49

on. And she told me his cross streets, and I

8:51

ran back and got it, and it was still working. Boom.

8:53

And I'm like calling you from it. although -- Yeah.

8:56

Yeah. -- it does look like it's different over it.

8:58

That's it. No. Multiple people

9:00

were involved in helping you find that phone.

9:02

Thank you. Karen in Westville, New Jersey

9:04

is gonna go back a lot further than that. Hi,

9:06

Karen.

9:07

Hi.

9:09

So in nineteen

9:11

ninety seven. I was in India,

9:13

Northern India, doing my graduate

9:15

field work with the Tibetan government in

9:17

exile, and I met a grad

9:20

student, Melissa, who

9:22

turned

9:22

out to be invaluable because

9:24

my brother back in

9:27

California had

9:29

with HIV positive, and it turned

9:31

out that he had gone into the hospital when

9:33

I was in India and died

9:36

And and

9:39

well, I thought, tell me

9:42

navigate. getting back home when

9:44

I just couldn't even function. And

9:47

I know her name, but I've never been able

9:49

to find her. Melissa

9:52

Adler, a graduate student at Johns

9:54

Hopkins at the time in public health and was

9:56

going on to med school, and I've never been

9:58

able check her out.

9:59

Alright. Melissa Adler, did

10:02

you say? If you're

10:04

out there, you hear

10:06

how much gratitude Karen

10:09

and Westville has for

10:11

you, get in touch. If you get in touch

10:13

with us, we'll help you get in touch with her.

10:15

Thank you for that, Karen. Couple

10:17

of tweets, AJ. Listen

10:19

to writes. Michelle and Brooklyn

10:21

here. Thank you to Bernard Diaz

10:23

from Adercibo CAR Service who

10:25

likely lost transmission in

10:28

the twenty ten December twenty

10:30

sixth Blizzard driving me

10:32

home from work in waist high

10:35

snow. two miles, took us

10:37

six hours. He never gave up.

10:42

How about that from Michelle? Wow.

10:44

And another one, This says two

10:46

weeks after high school graduation in

10:48

nineteen sixty nine, I almost

10:51

drowned at the Jersey shore a classmate

10:53

whom I didn't know, but was there because he knew one

10:55

of the other girls was brave enough to

10:57

pull me in when I was

10:59

able to help myself wish I could

11:02

remember his name. So what do you

11:04

think about these stories so far? We've got four

11:06

of them already. And

11:08

god, they they're putting me in a

11:10

good mood. It's like, yeah, that

11:12

humans really really

11:14

do have the good side. And I

11:16

also love the cell phone

11:18

story because it turned into a team

11:21

effort, which is something that I've seen

11:23

with my story with all these

11:25

people on Facebook and they became

11:27

friends through this search

11:29

and these people

11:31

are having reunions because

11:34

they met. So so I think that

11:37

when people do good, when they collaborate

11:39

to do good, it's it's a great way to

11:41

form community.

11:43

Hyrum in Park Slope has another

11:46

international story. Hyrum, you're on WNYC.

11:48

Hello? Hey.

11:51

How are you doing?

11:51

Good morning. Sorry. Sorry. I was going back.

11:54

I was an exchange student, and

11:57

I met another guy who was also an exchange

11:59

student while I was

12:01

in a computer lab back then.

12:04

And he lived in Berlin, and I

12:06

went up to visit him. And this was before

12:08

Facebook, And this is with my old

12:10

Hotmail account, and I've always wanted to get

12:12

in touch with this guy again. He's from Missouri,

12:15

and he's gotta be probably

12:18

forty or forty one, but he

12:20

he was an amazing encounter, and

12:23

I had a great time hanging out with him. and

12:25

I've always thought about this. And then when AJ

12:27

was on talking about this, it really yeah.

12:31

I just wanna find his first That's

12:33

great. You know you're old when you can say

12:35

I had a Hotmail account. Hiran,

12:37

thank thank you very much. Erika

12:41

in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hello,

12:43

Erika.

12:45

Hi. Thank you so much. So

12:47

mine isn't quite as, like, dramatic and lifesaving

12:50

as of a story. But

12:52

in the very rare case that

12:54

this

12:54

person happens to be listening, I would love

12:56

to just do this public. Thank you.

12:58

So back in twenty nineteen I had

13:00

gotten I was signed up for the

13:03

thalamus Roadrace over

13:05

the summer in Cape Cod, and I

13:07

wasn't in great shape to train for it. But

13:09

kind of in the midst of everything, I

13:12

have history of cancer and got my --

13:14

got a positive buyup feedback And

13:17

so it was kind of really not in any sort

13:19

of mental or

13:19

physical shapes. I mean, physically,

13:21

I was fine at that point, but just like

13:24

my life kind of was a little bit turned upside down

13:26

at that point, but I was signed up for the race with a

13:28

friend. And about,

13:31

I don't know, third of the way through just

13:33

kind of collapsed, was really

13:35

not doing well, and just emotionally

13:38

was very overwhelming and kind of came across

13:40

this woman, whose name was Kathleen. I have no idea

13:42

where a lot thing was, but my mom's name

13:44

happens to be Kathleen. So she was like, oh, we

13:46

were meant to, like -- Mhmm. -- find each other.

13:49

And she just kinda walked like, walked

13:51

ran with me for the rest of the race that

13:53

just talked with me the whole time and,

13:56

you know, kind of what was what felt like

13:58

a big failure because

13:58

I was looking forward

13:59

to this, and it was like a big thing to

14:02

get into the race, you know,

14:03

ended up just being kind

14:05

of a moving experience. And she lives

14:08

think somewhere in New Hampshire or Massachusetts,

14:10

so I would very much doubt that she's listening

14:12

to this. But in the event that someone

14:14

knows Kathleen who ran the film with Roadways in

14:16

two thousand seventeen, Thank her for

14:19

me.

14:19

Beautiful, Erica. Thank you very much.

14:22

A couple more from Twitter, AJ, before

14:24

we run out of time. listener rights.

14:27

Thank you to the bus driver the week

14:29

after nine eleven who found

14:31

my phone on his bus and took

14:33

the time to drive the bus to

14:36

meet me where I was at

14:38

the end of his shift. New York

14:40

City always gives us

14:42

her best writes that listener

14:44

named Dell. And then

14:47

another one let's see.

14:49

In the In in nineteen

14:51

ninety one, oh, this is another I almost drowned

14:54

story. In nineteen ninety one, I was at

14:56

the beach with my friend and our moms In

14:58

Virginia Beach, kids got swept out

15:00

by the Undertoe. Our mom's tried but

15:02

couldn't get us back in. A young

15:04

man saw us yelling and ran into the water

15:07

and swam out and dragged us all

15:09

back in, never got his name,

15:11

I was nine. And we'll finish

15:13

with this tweet, It's a question

15:15

for you, A. J. Listen to rights.

15:18

White AJCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

15:23

That

15:23

is a good question. Well,

15:26

I I thank my son, Lucas,

15:28

who was the one who said, you've got to find

15:30

a I mean, we were so frazzled at

15:32

the end that we didn't get their name. I

15:34

did I did leave a hundred dollar thank

15:36

you for them for the campers.

15:39

but they stayed out camping, so we never

15:41

saw them again.

15:43

AJ Jacobs, who among

15:45

other things, has written a whole book. on

15:48

gratitude and now a

15:50

New York Times article about how

15:52

he and his sister got lost in the waterways

15:54

of Glacier Bay National Park for

15:57

many cold, many long hours

15:59

until in the early morning, they heard some

16:01

voices in the distance. and

16:04

a group of five people camping on one

16:06

of the islands, buzzed on beers,

16:09

gave A. J. and his sister dry clothing,

16:12

food, and a place to that night.

16:14

And if you are dug around or any of

16:17

the other four people involved, AJ

16:19

Jacobs wants to thank you. Hey,

16:21

Jay. From me. Please get in touch.

16:24

Thank you.

16:25

Oh, well, thank you, Brian, and I'm glad

16:27

you got that water. So that you can continue

16:29

doing your radio show. points we love.

16:32

Bye bye.