4 of the Most Daring Jobs

[Music] are you afraid of heights how about a sting buy one of these what if we told you that there are people out there who seek out this stuff would you ever try them well you know the saying never say never [Music] this is Justin Schmidt yeah my name is Justin Schmidt he's an entomologist and I'm an entomologist I basically studied stinging insects he's been stung by a lot of insects I've probably been stung at least a thousand times he reviews insect stings the way a somali a review swine pure intense brilliant pain like walking or flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel which insect was that that's the bullet ant this is his lab in Tucson this is his harvester ant this is his vinegaroon this is a tarantula hawk these are some more harvester ants in a park near slab he is the creator of the Schmidt pain scam the Schmidt pain scale is basically a scale to rate the painfulness of stinging insects on a scale of 1 to 4 but one would be a sweat B 2 would be something like a yellowjacket was the 3 would be something like a harvester ant and a 4 would be a parental hawk how bad is a 4 4 it's absolutely excruciating the debilitating incapacitating just shut you down just absolute sheer pain there's just nothing you can really do about that I don't think I'd want to be stung by a whole bunch of different 4 thing I don't think I could endure that for very long let's be clear Justin Schmidt doesn't just go out and get stung on purpose it's just that he's dedicated his life to studying well my passion is insects and stinging insects in particular yeah I get stung with that that's all just part of the passion you know what that gives me data you know sting helps me in understanding what the insects doing and I get to be out in the sunshine and out in the rain out in the environment studying these magnificent beautiful insects just just such a joy I can't imagine anything I'd rather do more what's the highest you've ever thought that almost a mile when you don't have a fear of heights it's not really scary it's like being in the craziest treehouse that you can possibly imagine that's Mike's in it he's a professional rock climber and he's talking about sleeping in a tent they're called total edges that's hanging off the side of a mountain he's been climbing for over 30 years and his favorite walls to climb are really really high alpine big wall climbing is the pursuit of scaling the biggest cliff on planet Earth years they take a few days to summit so he has to camp out along the way so I want to know what does it feel like to sleep in a portaledge hanging off the side of a mountain the one thing that's more or less ever-present in the mountains is wind it can be pretty violent you can experience hurricane-force winds there's also this thing that we call the Bronco ride wind comes in hits a cliff and it really has nowhere to go except for up eventually it hits you and your latch and it can lift the whole thing up so you can be suspended and then of course the ledge like slams into the wall you're just thinking about surviving and that wasn't the worst of it the smell in the lattice is not it's not nice you don't change your clothes you don't bathe it's wicked scummy but people love it they continue to climb and explore through all of this punishment because there's still that one question left how does it feel the way it makes you feel is like a tiny speck of dust very empowering it really is just like kind of the most spectacular spot that you could be on planet earth if you're a cyclist you see the word really really different if I go through a city and I see a bench for me it's not a bench the Samsun resting can I jump on it so the world is an obstacle for me I always sing this is too steep it's possible to drop on this walk so it really changed my perspective on everything my neighbor's latesh odds I'm a professional mountain unicyclist that means I unicycle in the mountains I started unicycling at the age of nine first I own unicycle eight on the street and over the years I got more and more extreme and now I unicycle mostly in the mountains I really like to go down big mountains so I did the five thousand six hundred meter mountain an Iowan a couple of years ago and I want to go on even higher mountains i unicycle on five continents on many many places in the world the biggest challenge on a unicycle is to always stay balanced technically the most important movement are my legs because I always have to pedal so my legs are always moving then my right arm I use to balance so I move it up and down my left arm maintains a break if I go down on hard terrain I'm not thinking at all I'm just in the moment I'm 100% focused just on the spot on the movement because if I start to sink for sure I would fall down I like it to stuff which has not done by so many people and I think it's a bigger challenge if you don't have people you can copy and you have to invent a sport a little bit by yourself it's really a unique it's really special than chasing that's a big part why I like it so much [Music] every waterway in the United States is supposed to be safe enough to swim in every single day but of course they're not I'm getting in to these contaminated water raisin someone's got to risk something if people see that image they start to ask themselves why is that guy in there that starts a discussion that can lead to a clean up [Music] my name is Christopher Swain and I've swum over 3,000 miles in over 25 different contaminated waterways in North America I want to advocate for these waterways and I can energize cleanups I learned to swim as a kid I was the kid who didn't want to get out of the water as I got older and I think this is true for many of us I started to become aware that waters are contaminated with everything from arsenic to zinc everything from human waste to nuclear waste we saw our waterways as dumpsters we saw them as sewers legally speaking since 1972 when the federal Clean Water Act passed all navigable u.s. waterways have to be safe for swimming and fishing and drinking if they're a freshwater Creek dozens and dozens of those waterways were in and around New York City Newtown Creek is the worst of those it is contaminated with lots of things heavy metals toxic chemicals raw sewage and one of the largest ongoing oil spills in the history of the United States so in some way we stole this waterway from ourselves what I'm saying is let's turn that around [Music] when I decide to take on a waterway this is my puncture-resistant dry suit I've taken all these measures on all my swims to protect my body to protect my health I wear a cap I wear goggles I wear earplugs I never put my head under even so I've gotten sick lots of times rashes skin infections ear infections respiratory infections it's a hazard that goes with the territory the reason nobody has swum the length of Newtown Creek in history is that at least in the last hundred years it's been far too disgusting no one in their right mind would go in there [Music] it's like swimming through a dirty diaper that's been garnished with oil gasoline and trash every part of your skin wants to crawl so why do I push on and do it I'm doing this out of love like I really do love the water and I don't have a lot to work with I'm not a wealthy person I'm not a scientist what I've got is my body and my life to offer I'm gonna keep going back in my dry suit and my hazmat gear until these waterways are clean and when they're clean I'm gonna get into these clean waterways in my bathing suit and enjoy them with my fellow citizens you [Music]

Channel: Great Big Story

Views: 83,541

Rating: 4.8959317 out of 5

Keywords: great big story, gbs, lag, documentary, docs, New Releases, Great Big Reels, Weird & Fun Knowledge, weird, fun knowledge, odd job, weird jobs, jobs, job, entomologist, unicyclist, toxic water, activist, tarantula, love my job, swim, professional, pro, Human Condition

Id: T5j3BXmNt7I

Length: 10min 51sec (651 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 30 2020