Men's Journal - September 2017

BE THE SMARTEST GUY AT THE GYM
SEPTEMBER 2017 Vol. 26, No. 7
THE
HUNTERS
FIGHTING
FOR PUBLIC THE
LAND DOOMED
VOYAGE
OF THE
SS EL FARO
GEAR LAB
SPECIAL
Jeremy HIGH-TECH
SHADES
Renner
An Action Hero
SOLO
CAMPING
GRAVEL
BIKES
Shifts Gears
MENSJOURNAL.COM
th
VOLUME 26 NUMBER 7
p. 54
Renner Rides Solo
Jeremy Renner could have been
Hollywood’s next action movie star.
Instead, he’s pursuing something
different: a sane life. By Josh Eells
p. 60
The Last Voyage
of the SS El Faro
A cargo ship sailed into a hurricane.
No one onboard survived. Using its
black-box recording, we explain what
went so wrong. By Jeff Wise
p. 68
This Land
Is Our Land
Leading a gritty group of Montana
hunters and anglers, Land Tawney is
on a mission to protect public lands.
By Abe Streep
Push through your

limits with some
savvy training
tweaks. Page 43.
p h o t o g r a p h b y D Y L A N C O U LT E R
24
The SUV gets
a luxury makeover.
NOTEBOOK
18 Seal of Approval
Rocker Steve Earle’s favorite things; plus,
expert advice on surviving Burning Man.
28 Drinks
Mixing with mezcal.
30 Food
How to make summer veggies taste
even better.
34 Profile
26
Stylish
This doctor’s prescription for a longer,
hikers for
healthier life: more sex.
every day
36 Essay
A son of amateur geologists on a child-
hood spent searching for rocks. 20
Pitcher
Jake Peavy
HEALTH & FITNESS plots a
musical life
after baseball.
43 Training
How to be the smartest guy at the gym.
48 What Works for Me

Acclaimed chef René Redzepi shares
his fitness epiphany.
50 Nutrition
How to eat your way out of diabetes.
GEAR LAB
78 Eyewear
Performance shades that do more than
block rays.
80 Backpacking
What you need — and don’t — to take an
75
Bikes that
devour gravel
epic solo adventure.
82 Fitness Apparel
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY OF ALFA ROMEO; DAYMON
GARDNER; COURTESY OF GIANT/JAKE ORNESS; JARREN VINK
Gear that keeps you cool and stink-free.
84 Grills
Four portable models that will make you
king of the tailgate.
THE L AST WORD
86 Ken Burns ON THE COVER: Jeremy Renner photographed for Men’s Journal by Simon Emmett on May 5, 2017, in Palmdale,
The prolific documentarian on staying California. Styling by Paris Libby. Grooming by Roz Music for Tracey Mattingly. Production by Flower Ave Photo
Production. Renner wears jacket by Saint Laurent, shirt by AllSaints, jeans by Diesel.
authentic and making sense of Vietnam.
10 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017

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Letters
“ Too many people think
that rescuing is the
only ethical way. In the
end, there are people who love
dogs and people who exploit
them. You can f ind both
types on either end of the
breeder-rescue spectrum.”
GRIZZLY WARS Doug Peacock’s challenge to
I read “The Grizzly Man’s Last us is simple — if we can save
Stand” by Rick Bass with these bears, we can save
great interest. While it was a ourselves. His task is made
fascinating personal profile, it harder by human ignorance,
fell short on facts and the but Peacock is right. Our
realities of management of natural world is at stake.
apex predators. The facts: DAN SULLIVAN
Grizzly bears in the Greater LIVINGSTON, MT
Yellowstone Ecosystem from. Too many people encouraged Chambers to
surpassed every recovery For Peacock to rail against look down on responsible walk on his foot months
goal under the federal allowing grizzlies to be breeders and think that before his surgeon recom-
Endangered Species Act. The hunted, while he is fine with rescuing is the only ethical mended, telling Chambers
population has exceeded the hunting elk, deer, and way. In the end, I believe there that his surgeon “doesn’t care
delisting threshold by 40 antelope, is the definition of are people who love dogs and if you ever run again. He
percent and has remained hypocrisy. I wonder why he there are people who exploit doesn’t care if you want to
stable and above recovery thinks his hunts are any them for money. You can find climb Mount Everest.” I take
goals for nearly a decade different from anyone else’s. both types on either side of issue with that. The great
while also tripling its MIKE VAUGHN the breeder-rescue spectrum. majority of physicians care
occupied range. The delisting OVIEDO, FL The article you published tremendously for their
of the Greater Yellowstone about finding the right dog patients and their f itness
Ecosystem grizzly bear FOR THE LOVE OF DOGS acknowledges that. goals. I’ve personally seen
should be celebrated for I want to commend you for ANTHONY DEMARCO what can happen if athletes
what it is: one of the greatest your defense of purebred JERSEY CITY, NJ bear weight too early, and I
wildlife management success dogs [“Life’s Just Better With a am so glad that those
stories ever. Dog”]. Puppy mills are BAD MEDICINE complications did not happen
EVAN HEUSINKVELD, obviously wrong, but every I am a huge fan of Tom Brady, to the author. Doctors,
CEO, SPORTSMEN’S ALLIANCE dog deserves a loving home but as a sports-medicine therapists, and alternative-
COLUMBUS, OH no matter where it comes doctor, I was disappointed in medicine practitioners should
what I felt to be a very be working together toward a
unbalanced view of Alex common goal of preventing
Guerrero and his practices and healing injury, not
[“My Miracle Cure: Tom working against each other.
THE Brady’s Guru,” by Mike JESSICA FLYNN, MD
GRIZZLY
M A N’S Chambers]. Guerrero BOSTON
LAST
STAND
AUTHOR AND NATURALIST DOUG
PEACOCK OWES HIS LIFE TO
MONTANA’S BEARS. NOW WITH
THE FEDS SET TO LEGALIZE GRIZZLY
CONTACT US
HUNTING, HE’S WORKING TO REPAY HIS
DEBT — BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT.
BY RICK BASS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY TOM ROBERTSON
Letters become the property
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for a long time, the old soldier and I, beneath a thumbnail
silver moon, the coyotes chattering like roosters. He makes
his way using a wooden f lagpole for a cane, a rif le and a
tripod strapped to his back. Here, some 30 miles north for publication.
of Yellowstone, at the edge of Montana’s Crazy Mountains,
on this cold morning in November, the mind feels clean
and clear, focused on this one moment. We’re hoping to kill
/MensJournal
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an elk at daylight.
INSTAGRAM @mensjournal
Doug Peacock has barely hunted, or even fired a gun,
since his days in Vietnam. He experienced enough killing
there, he says, to last several lifetimes. He was 27 when he
came home, racked with PTSD, back before there was a name
Go to mensjournal.com
EMAIL [email protected]
for it — his Army medical papers described his condition
as: “Occupational and social impairment . . . due to such
symptoms as: depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, panic
attacks, sleep impairment . . .”
Peacock thought he was alone back then; he didn’t know /customerservice
that every soldier experienced some version of this. Once
home, he wandered the West — Utah, Arizona, Wyoming —
in solitude for weeks at a time. Eventually, he found his way
Doug Peacock beside
the Yellowstone
River, near his home
SEND LETTERS to MEN’S SUBSCRIBE • RENEW • GIVE A GIFT
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into Yellowstone country, just a day’s walk from the sagebrush in Emigrant, Montana
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prairie we’re traversing this morning. In the small number of
064 JUNE 2017 MEN’S JOURNAL 065
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D I S PAT C H E S F R O M A W I L D W O R L D

SURFERS HAVE OAHU’S North Shore. “As soon as it was rigged, Ryan was
A Mountaineers have Everest. For

slackliners, there are few more iconic
sites than Taft Point, 2,000 feet above
like, ‘You’re up,’ ” says Burke. “He
wanted me to go first. The previous
highest slackline I’d done was 400 feet
Straight Yosemite Valley, a location made fa-

mous by the late climber and BASE
jumper Dean Potter, who once walked
— it was terrifying.” While the slack-
liner worked the camera, Burke,
wearing a harness and leash for pro-
Line to
a line here with no protection. “For tection, scooted out onto the inch-
slackliners, it’s a bucket-list item,” wide webbing. Halfway through, he
says photographer Travis Burke. “I’ve turned sideways to the line, a trick
always wanted to do it.” In late May, called an exposure turn, and stared
the Burke connected with his buddy Ryan

Robinson, a professional slackliner, to
rig up the line at Taft. Delayed by
into the abyss, the roar of Yosemite
Falls in the distance and no focal point
below him except the valley floor. “It
Abyss snow on the trail — unusual for this

time of year — the pair had to rush up
the mountain to beat the setting sun.
was literally the coolest view I’ve ever
had,” he says, “like you’re just floating
in space.” — RYAN KROGH
p h o t o g r a p h b y R YA N R O B I N S O N SEPTEMBER 2017 MEN’S JOURNAL 17

AGENDA
Q&A
SEAL OF SAFETY TIPS FROM
APPROVAL
BURNING MAN’S ER DOC
For the past three years, Dr. Jeff
Westin has overseen Burning
Man’s “emergency room,” a
2,000-square-foot tent called the
Rampart, staffed with 100 medi-
READS Nick Tosches FISHING I’ve been cal professionals. During the
blows my mind. In the fly-fishing for 20 years. weeklong event, some 70,000
Hand of Dante is one of It’s a recovery thing. I half-naked Burners descend on
my favorite books. They don’t do it regularly, but Nevada’s Black Rock City (this
think they’ve run I keep a five- and year’s gathering is August 27 to
across a copy of The six-weight rod on the September 4), and Westin’s team
Divine Comedy in tour bus at all times. I treats roughly 250 people a day,
Dante’s handwriting, have a Winston rod and which is many times the visits
and Tosches makes a Waterworks-Lamson for a town this size. As for the
himself a character and reel. I need something actual work? He describes it as
wants to authenticate powerful since my “a different genre of medicine.”
it. I love the idea of casting is terrible when
taking something true I start. It takes me a SO ARE ALL YOUR PATIENTS NAKED?
and extrapolating it few hours to get back in “The vast majority of people have
into fiction. the groove. some form of clothing on. It just
might be pasties and thong shorts.”
HOW COMMON ARE OVERDOSES?
“You’re more likely to get people
tripping on the guide wires of tents
than tripping on drugs. One percent
of our complaints are drug-related.”
WHAT IS A TYPICAL INJURY?
ACCORDING TO “Dehydration. A lot of people
underestimate how much they
Steve
need to drink on a daily basis. Also,
TELEVISION I’m an JEANS I don’t go on the Playa is as hard as concrete. We
HBO and Showtime mass retail websites see a lot of people simply because
guy. I saw every very often, but I buy they fell off their bike.”
Earle
episode of Girls. clothes on eBay. When WHAT’S THE CRAZIEST INJURY?
Somebody finally got you find something “A few years ago, we had a piece of
the Williamsburg cool and they art called Coyote, which was 30 to
hipster thing right; I discontinue it, you can 35 feet tall with a head that spun
The singer, songwriter, trip over them all the find it there. I buy lots around, so when people were
time. The writing was of Levi’s 527 jeans climbing up 20 to 30 feet, if they
actor, and novelist — whose great — funny but also there, slim fit in black. weren’t paying attention, its ears
new album, So You Want kind of tragic. I loved They fit me in the ’70s, could come around and knock them
to Be an Outlaw, is out when it ended that she and they fit me now. off. You get things like that that you
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF CHAD BATKA; COURTESY OF JEFF WESTIN; COURTESY OF NETFLIX
didn’t tie up all the really won’t see anywhere else.”
now — shares his favorite loose ends, because
—AS TOLD TO
WHAT’S YOUR SAFETY ADVICE FOR
DAVID BROWNE
offstage discoveries. that’s not real. A VIRGIN BURNER?
“Go with a veteran. The more
experienced Burners — some of
FILM
them have been going for 20 years
— we generally don’t see them very
THE OTHER RUSSIA SCANDAL much.” —JOE JACKSON
Netflix’s latest tour de force documentary, Icarus, begins as something of a Super Size Me for PEDs, as filmmaker and
cyclist Bryan Fogel dopes himself to prove just how easy it is to cheat in sports. But the film soon turns into a full-on
exposé as Fogel reaches out to Russian doctor Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of Moscow’s anti-doping lab. Rod-
chenkov designs an undetectable protocol for Fogel, even flying to the U.S. at one point to smuggle back Fogel’s urine
samples for testing. Soon it emerges why Rodchenkov is so savvy at the endeavor: He’s the main doctor behind
Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program, one linked to Vladimir Putin and backed by the former KGB. As
a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation heats up, Rodchenkov flees Russia to join Fogel, and the two begin working
with the New York Times to expose the scandal. But when
two colleagues of Rodchenkov’s die under mysterious
circumstances, Rodchenkov must decide whether to join
the witness protection program. What starts as a shop-
worn participatory doc spins into a hair-raising Tom Clancy
thriller. You’ll never look at the Olympics the same way
again. —RYAN KROGH
7
C U LT U R E
Peavy’s
New Pitch
A little bit Deadhead and a little bit Duck
Dynasty — former Giants hurler Jake Peavy
wants to turn Mobile, Alabama, into the new
Music City USA. by RIEN FERTEL
I
T WA S A S H E L L I N G that lasted
the whole season. Jake Peav y, a
journeyman fastballer for the San
Francisco Giants, was greeted in
the early part of the 2016 season
with the news that he’d been bilked out of
$15 million by a financial adviser. As the
summer wore on, meetings with lawyers
outnumbered strikeouts, depositions over-
shadowed wins, and Peavy’s ERA soared
to a career high of 5.54. His season was cut
short when he stepped on a pair of scissors,
forcing the two-time World Series winner
to sit out the postseason, too. He returned
home only to be served with divorce papers.
Undoubtedly, it was a very bad year for
Jake Peavy, but you wouldn’t know it by the
party he hosted in early December. Seventy
friends and family trekked out to Cath-
erine, Alabama (pop. 22), 80 miles west
of Montgomery. It’s the pitcher’s offseason
home away from home, a 5,400-acre ranch
and hunting camp named Southern Falls.
Guests packed the property’s spacious bar-
room/concert venue/bowling alley, the Mill
Creek Saloon, as if it were a championship
locker room, hoisting bottles and cans, hometown of Mobile, Alabama. “Any city Out of uniform, Jake Peavy resembles the south-
moonshine jars and joints. that’s worth a dang certainly has a musical ern rockers he idolizes — and whom he plans to
The host weaved through the crowd, heartbeat,” he says, “a culture and a scene lure to his Alabama ranch and studio.
cheer ing t he house band jamming that can stand on its own.” He’s not out to
onstage. It was a southern-f lavored shin- build it from scratch but simply to turn the Emmylou Harris, and Whiskeytown), and
dig, with an oyster roast and barbecue buf- volume up on a city that has produced an a nearby band house that doubles as a pri-
fet and plenty to wash it down. As guest eclectic mix of musicians, from Jimmy Buf- vate rehearsal and event space. And then,
after guest — southern-rock legends and fett to James Brown’s longtime band direc- just two hours north, there’s Southern Falls,
almost-famous singer-songwriters — sat tor, trombonist Fred Wesley. where Peavy recently built an outdoor the-
in for a turn with the band, Peavy boogied, So he built a studio, Dauphin Street ater and a 48-bed lodge — “a Bass Pro Shop
hollered, and used his iron-veined hands Sound, in downtown Mobile in the hope on acid,” a friend called it. In an era when a
to pogo off the shoulders of others while of turning the town into a mini Music musician can cut a record just about any-
shouting, “Can you believe this, brother? City USA. Located in the heart of the Gulf where, Peavy’s dream is for the two loca-
Can you believe this!” South — just over two hours’ drive from New tions to become destinations, like FAME
As he eases toward retirement after Orleans and six hours from Nashville — Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, or
15 seasons in the majors — during which the studio comes complete with Peavy’s col- Sonic Ranch in West Texas — workspaces
the reliable right-hander won a Cy Young lection of guitars, valued at a half-million that will allow singers and songwriters to
Award and spots on three All-Star rosters dollars (including a 1955 Fender Telecaster escape the world, hunker down, and write
while inching his way up to 56th on the that may be the first with a sunburst fin- and record music.
list of all-time strikeout leaders — Peavy ish), the expertise of three-time Grammy- Peavy talks about music like baseball
has begun his walk toward a new passion winning producer and engineer Trina Shoe- fanatics rave about a batter’s perfect home
project: Building a musical outpost in his maker (who has worked with Sheryl Crow, run swing or the sublime form of a star
20 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 p h o t o g r a p h s b y D AY M O N G A R D N E R

C U LT U R E
pitcher’s windup. Music is “vital to who

we are as a people,” he philosophizes. “The
closest man-made thing to that next level,
the spiritual.” Growing up in Semmes, just
outside of Mobile, he remembers watching
his grandfather sing gospel harmony in
the family’s church and playing bluegrass
and Hank Williams records back home. On
Sundays, his grandmother would transport
her grandkids to the local nursing home,
where she would, in Peavy’s words, “beat on
a piano” as the children sang out “This Little
Left: Peavy with bandmate Ben Jernigan and spent most of it seeking out music. He fre- up with a team in the second half of the
producer Trina Shoemaker. Above: On the mound quented Chicago’s blues-bar scene after 2017 season — Peavy seems content to nest
in game two of the 2014 World Series. being traded to the White Sox in 2009. In in Alabama, surrounded by his four sons,
Boston, where he won a World Series in wide circle of musician friends, burgeoning
Light of Mine.” His father, Danny, exposed 2013, he faithfully worked to build his gui- guitar collection, and brand-new recording
him to healthy doses of classic rock before it tar and piano skills while crate-digging for studio. But at Southern Falls that evening,
was called classic rock — “Bob Seger saved vinyl in each city the Red Sox landed. In San Peavy had focus only for music: someone
American music in [my father’s] opinion,” Francisco, where he was reunited with Flan- playing a piano, a songwriter willing to
Peavy says. nery and secured his second World Series share tips on crafting that perfect melody,
After skipping college to work his way ring in 2014, Peavy befriended and jammed even a stereo softly humming in the corner,
up through the minors, Peavy joined the with luminaries of that music scene, includ- stole his attention. After the barbecue was
San Diego Padres in 2002 as a 21-year-old ing Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead. cleared and the house band was only tuning,
rookie in need of a mentor. He gravitated Last August, Peavy partnered with the Peavy allowed his mind to wander.
toward the team’s third-base coach, Tim Dead’s Rex Foundation in hosting a Jerry “It’s time to be more involved where I’m
Flannery — the Padres’ fan-favorite sec- Garcia tribute concert to raise money for gonna spend the rest of my life,” he says,
ond baseman throughout the 1980s and several San Francisco nonprof its. (His side-stepping any talk about the money
a roots-country singer-songwriter with band, the Outsiders, played on the bill.) It troubles or the divorce. On this night, even
a dozen albums to his name — who could was the highlight in a season dedicated to baseball is nothing more than an abstract
often be found on road trips strumming his charity. At home and out of town, Peavy metaphor for music. He takes comfort in the
travel acoustic, accompanied by a bottle of toted his guitar to children’s hospitals, belief that musicians, like the most nonjaded
wine, in hotel stairwells. The young pitcher sharing what he calls “the sheer joy of of athletes, “show up for nothing other than
begged Flannery to teach him the song his music” by covering Tom Petty and Bob the music,” for the love of playing to packed
grandfather sang to him as a boy: “Pancho Marley tunes for young patients. In Bos- auditoriums or empty stairwells.
and Lefty,” Townes Van Zandt’s oft-covered ton, he gathered a group of friends, includ- Late in the night, Peavy joined the band
ode to an outlaw’s struggle with the bitter- ing Jennifer Hartswick, the trumpeter in onstage, grabbed a guitar, and stepped up to
RON VESELY/MLB PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES
sweet memory of a life spent on the road. Phish frontman Trey Anastasio’s solo band, the mic. “Living on the road my friend,” he
(It is, in Peavy’s estimation, “the best coun- and Widespread Panic drummer Duane sang, “is gonna keep you free and clean.” The
try and western song ever written.”) The Trucks to play a benefit concert. Back home crowd cheered in recognition of “Pancho
coach eventually snuck a guitar into Peavy’s in Mobile, he sponsored the TenSixtyFive and Lefty.” We raised our drinks as Peavy’s
locker, a gift with a note attached: “Bring music festival, a free three-day event to pro- tentativeness transformed into a voice that
this with you.” mote the revitalization of the city’s down- sounded determined and resilient, and we
Professional baseball players spend a town corridor. sang along: “Now you wear your skin like
shit-ton of time away from home, and Peavy Now a free agent — and hoping to hook iron, your breath as hard as kerosene.” Q

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pizza-making god; professional video gam- wide. It’s harder to find fault in the 2018 the XC60 — essentially a smaller version of
ers are athletes; and Maroon 5 belongs in the model — based on the same platform as the the cooler-than-a-leap-into-a-fjord XC90.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. OK, we’re clearly Porsche Macan. We love everything from The XC60’s similarly minimalist cabin could
joking, but what we can get on board for: You the Q5’s clear, logical tech controls to its have been designed by anticlutter guru
should buy an SUV. The debate is over, and velvety power delivery. But we argue that Marie Kondo, accented with pale wood and
sport-utes have won. They now make up 53 it’s worth the nearly $13K upcharge for its seats that prove more comfortable than
percent of the market. The biggest chunk of more muscular brother, the SQ5, and not their slender, space-saving profiles would
those are in the so-called B segment: your just for the significant leap in power. hint. We dug the flat, near immediate onset
two-row, five-seat midsizers — sometimes Adding on the S Sport package ($3,000) of torque from the T6 model’s two-liter,
called crossovers — which are nearly a quarter brings a hydraulic rear differential that super- and turbocharged four. There’s also
of all new vehicles sold. sends up to 100 percent of its available a cheaper turbo four and a late-arriving
The competition is the most interesting power to one rear wheel, keeping you eerily plug-in hybrid, which will hit a Porsche
among the luxury brands. High-end carmak- planted in corners, while adaptive steer- Macan–rivaling 400 horsepower.
ers are using lighter mixed-material sub- ing ($1,150) tightens up as your speed In line with Volvo’s tech and safety push,
frames that improve performance and fuel increases — both of which offset the SQ5’s the XC60 has some advanced semiautono-
economy; torque-vectoring all-wheel drive 4,400-pound weight. We found ourselves mous features baked in, including one called
and differential braking systems that impart bombing down British Columbian forest Pilot assist, which can accelerate, brake,
sport-sedan-like performance; and autono- roads as if piloting a hot hatch. Of course, and steer at speeds up to 80 miles per hour.
mous safety tech that may actually save your loading on those options gets pricey. But
life (even swerving away from oncoming the SQ5 is so quick and so polished that
cars) when you inevitably look down at your it’s hard to resist diving into deep savings.
phone. Beginning with last year’s fantastic audi.com
Jaguar F-Pace and continuing through this
summer’s release of three standout entrants ENGINE 3-LITER SUPERCHARGED V6
from Audi, Volvo, and Alfa Romeo, we may be HORSEPOWER 354
arriving at the high point of the gas-powered, MSRP FROM $55,275
five-seat luxury SUV era.

On the winding, heavily trafficked Spanish highways we tested it on,
Pilot proved more stress-inducing than task-relieving. (The Volvo folks
admitted that the system may be better suited to U.S. interstates than
twisty European thoroughfares.) Bottom line: The drive is so entertain-
ing, you’ll want your hands on the wheel anyway. volvocars.com
ENGINE 2-LITER SUPER- AND TURBOCHARGED 4

HORSEPOWER 316
MSRP FROM $44,900
ALFA ROMEO STELVIO

Can an SUV have soul? Such is the question posed by the first people-
hauler from Alfa Romeo — yeah, the same folks who won the first
Formula One championship. While an SUV might seem anathema to a
motorsport heritage brand, remember that the Cayman basically saved
Porsche. Luckily, Alfa’s five-seat Stelvio has good genes: The second
vehicle in the brand’s comeback shares its underpinnings with the
rousing Giulia sedan. And like that car, among a same-same group
of vehicles, the Stelvio feels livelier. Part of that is because of its lighter
weight, the result of using components like a carbon-fiber drive shaft
and magnesium and aluminum elsewhere. Like the SQ5 and XC60,
its all-wheel-drive setup favors the rear wheels. But the Stelvio almost
begs you to drive it with spirit — from big, column-mounted paddle
shifters to a “dynamic” drive mode that really is just that. The cabin
doesn’t quite match the hushed sophistication of the Audi or Volvo —
you can see the Fiat Chrysler shadow in places like the rubbery dash.
But after our test drive in the sweeping Tennessee foothills, we didn’t
want to leave it. Even more surprising? Topping out near $54,000, with
all the options, the Stelvio is kind of a deal. alfaromeousa.com
ENGINE 2-LITER TURBOCHARGED 4

HORSEPOWER 280
MSRP FROM $42,990
STYLE & DESIGN
1/ WINTERHAVEN
MID
KEEN $150
Mountain Kicks
These shoes borrow DNA from classic hiking boots to
Keen crafted this rubber- form a stylish hybrid that’s perfect for fall.
soled boot with insulation by JASON CHEN
that’s designed to keep
feet warm even when tem-
peratures dip to –4. The
technology might be inspired 1
by the rigors of nature,
but the shoe looks as if it’s
meant for city streets — and
the black-and-white laces
are a nice accent.
2
2/ KILLINGTON
LEATHER HIKER
TIMBERLAND $130
With a 50 percent recycled

mesh lining and 15 percent
recycled rubber outsole, the
Killington is the eco-choice 3
that also happens to be com-
fortable: The outsole is made
of three layers that provide
cushioning and support.
3/ THE HIKER
KENNETH COLE $195
The sole of a sneaker

combined with the upper
of a hiking boot, this
high-top has a sleek, dark,
good look you could wear 4
to the office, even with
eyelets that could have been
lifted off a dusty trail shoe.
4/ DANTE
TRETORN $100
5
The tonal contrast of the
Dante’s upper — a heavy
wool flannel with leather
trim — gives these shoes
a rugged, mountaineering
aesthetic that’s comple-
mented by the bright, alpine-
influenced laces.
5/ THURSTON MOC
ROCKPORT $140
STYLING BY PETER TRAN
FOR ART DEPARTMENT
The standard lacing (rather

than D links) shows sophisti-
cation, and the stitching
has a neutral Top-Sider vibe.
26 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 photograph by JARREN VINK

FOOD & DRINK
OAXACAN OLD-FASHIONED
½ oz mezcal
1½ oz reposado tequila
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 barspoon agave syrup
Orange twist
Add ingredients to an ice-filled rocks

glass. Stir until cold. Garnish with a
flamed orange twist.
MEZCAL MULE
2 oz mezcal
½ oz Ancho Reyes Verde Chile
Poblano Liqueur
½ oz fresh lime juice
Ginger beer
Lime wedge
Sprig of mint
Add first three ingredients to an

ice-filled highball glass, then top it off
with ginger beer. Garnish with lime
wedge and mint.
KATE VALK
2 oz mezcal
¾ oz lemon juice
½ oz yellow Chartreuse
¼ oz agave syrup
⅛ oz Ricard pastis
LIQUID STYLING BY REBECCA JURKEVICH FOR EDGE REPS; PROP STYLING BY SARAH CAVE FOR EH MANAGEMENT
Shake; strain into a cocktail glass.
Mixing With Mezcal

Tequila’s smokier cousin is a hard beast to tame in a cocktail, but a few masters have
figured out how to subdue it — with delicious results. by ST. JOHN FRIZELL
M E ZCA L I Stequila’s older country cousin, But lately I’ve warmed to mezcal cock- of strategies. One: Keep it in the agave fam-
made from different types of agave that tails. It helps that there are more mezcals on ily by combining mezcal and tequila in a
infuse it with big, brawny f lavors — think the market now, and many of the new ones classic recipe, like a margarita or Oaxacan
smoke, sweat, and petrol. As such, it doesn’t aren’t so smoky, like Marca Negrá Espadín Old-Fashioned. Two: Make it a fair f ight by
always play well with others. In Mexico, and Real Minero Jabalí. “There are fruit- pitting mezcal against an equally assertive
people drink the stuff undiluted and have forward mezcals, and mezcals with so many ingredient, like the fiery ginger and poblano
for hundreds of years. Mezcal seemed to pre- botanical f lavors you would think they’re pepper in the Mezcal Mule or the explo-
fer it that way. That’s why I used to say that gin,” says Nacho Jiminez, the head bar- sively herbaceous Chartreuse in New York
mixing cocktails with mezcal was like trying tender at Ghost Donkey, an agave-focused bartender Tyler Caffall’s Kate Valk. Follow
to teach a pig to sing: It wastes your time and bar in New York City. either of these rules and you’ll have that pig
annoys the pig. Best just to leave it alone. Bartenders have also figured out a couple singing in no time. Q
28 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 p h o t o g r a p h s b y TA R A D O N N E

FOOD & DRINK
SUMMER SUCCOTASH
Serves 4 to 6
3 tbsp unsalted butter
½ sweet onion, sliced thin
1 clove garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
2 ears of corn, kernels cut off
the cob
2 cups fresh peas (about 1½ lbs),
shelled
½ cup vegetable stock, chicken
stock, white wine, or beer
¼ cup heavy cream
Kosher salt and freshly ground
black pepper, to taste
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 ounce Asiago or Parmesan
cheese, grated
2 tbsp minced herbs (parsley,
chives, chervil, tarragon, or some
combination)
(Optional: 1 cup cooked white beans
or 1 cup cooked farro and/or 2 cups
chopped fresh shrimp)
1. Heat butter in a large skillet over

medium-high heat until foamy.
Add onion and cook, stirring
frequently, until translucent,
about 4 minutes.
2. Add garlic and peppers and cook,

stirring frequently, until the
peppers have barely softened,
about 5 minutes.
FOOD STYLING BY REBECCA JURKEVICH FOR EDGE REPS; PROP STYLING BY SARAH CAVE FOR EH MANAGEMENT
3. Toss in the corn kernels, peas,
A Veggie Genius
and stock (or wine or beer) and
bring to a bare simmer (no hard
boiling). Cook, stirring occasion-
ally, until the stock is reduced by
Tells All
half, about 3 minutes. (If adding
cooked beans, grains, or shrimp,
this is your moment.)
Chef Sean Brock’s secrets on making the most 4. Add cream (and, if you’re using
of your late-summer green-market haul. beans/grains/shrimp, an extra
½ cup of stock), simmer, and stir
by DANIEL DUANE until liquid has thickened and
everything is warmed through,
THE ACCLAIMED SOUTHERN chef Sean Brock Rule Number One: “Learn to shop,” says about 2 minutes.
abides by certain rules, codes to live (and Brock, the former co-host of The Mind of a
cook) by. So in late summer, when farmers Chef and current owner of some of the hot- 5. Remove from stove, season with
markets are brimming with gorgeous pro- test restaurants in the South, including plenty of salt and pepper, and
duce, he wants you to remember three big Husk in Charleston, South Carolina, and stir in lemon juice. Gently fold in
rules to wrest maximum f lavor from high- Nashville. “You’re looking for vegetables cheese and herbs and transfer
season corn, sweet peppers, peas, squash, picked at that absolute peak moment of to a serving bowl.
and whatever else you can get your hands on. ripeness.” The more a plant or vegetable is
30 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 p h o t o g r a p h s b y TA R A D O N N E

M A K E R ’ S 4 6®.
SEAN’S SECRET
WEAPONS
Why do Brock’s veggies taste
better than yours? He keeps
a couple of cards up his sleeve.
“I like adding depth to my succotash and
other simple vegetable dishes by adding extra
acidity, like you get from vinegar or citrus.
It opens up your tongue to accept more flavor,”
Brock says. “I also up the umami, that savory
taste you get from mushrooms or anchovies.
It makes you salivate so all those flavors stick
around your mouth longer.”
For Acidity “I have probably 60 different

vinegars in my house, but I love the ones
from Lindera Farms in Virginia, especially
its Hickory Vinegar. Add it by the drop to
your vegetables. Keep tasting after each drop —
when your eyes widen, you’ll know you’ve
got it right.”
For Umami “I love this stuff called Takii

Umami Powder, which is made from shiitake
mushrooms. It takes any dish from ‘Really, really
good’ to ‘Holy crap, that’s amazing!’”
“There was just something about eating

vegetables out of my own field, still warm
from the sun and alive, that taught me the
value of handling them as little as possible,”
he says. “It’s all about chasing the precise
instant when great vegetables slip past raw
to being just barely cooked, so you keep all
that fresh f lavor but you’re not just biting
into a raw radish.”
Which leads us to Summer Produce Rule
Number Three: Make succotash.
The all-time champion of southern sum-
mer staples, succotash is an opportunity to
toss together whatever amazing produce
popped up in the market that day. “Succo-
tash is really a theory more than a recipe,”
Brock says, “so it doesn’t matter what you’ve
got.” The dish goes great alongside chicken,
fish, and beef, but Brock also suggests serv-
Brock hunts for the good stuff at Thornhill Farm ing it as a main course. “In that case, I might
in McClellanville, South Carolina. add white beans or some kind of hearty
grain like farro or rye berries,” he says.
handled, says Brock, the more it deteriorates. (Cooked first, of course.) “If you really want
“So try to find farmers who pick stuff from to try something cool, make the succotash
the field right into a truck and then drive to a little thinner, with extra chicken stock,
market,” he says. and then, when everything else is just about FROM THE HOME OF
Born and raised in rural Virginia, where cooked, drop in some beautiful, small pieces
his family grew cabbage and corn, Brock has of peeled fresh shrimp and let them poach.”
built his reputation on reviving the foods of “Or, while we’re on the subject,” Brock
PETER FRANK EDWARDS/REDUX
the pre–Civil War South: Sea Island red peas, says, “skip the shrimp and add even more
benne seeds, traditional country ham. He’s broth and call it a soup! Oh, and I always top
dabbled in farming, too, with a plot on Wad- my succotash with lots of fresh herbs, like
malaw Island in South Carolina. That’s where tarragon, chives, or parsley.” Fresh herbs, of
Brock developed Summer Produce Rule Num- course, raised right by a good farmer and, in WE MAKE OUR BOURBON CAREFULLY.
ber Two: “Don’t overcook it.” this case, not cooked at all. Q PLEASE ENJOY IT THAT WAY.
Maker’s 46® Bourbon Whisky, 47% Alc./Vol.
©2017 Maker’s Mark Distillery, Inc. Loretto, KY
PROFILE
This Doctor’s Orders:

More Sex Researcher Nicole Prause is on a mission to link good sex
to better health. Not everyone is onboard. by JOEL WARNER
N A R A I N Y Januar y after- of sexual stimulation,” says Prause. “There’s orgasms. It’s why the majority of American
O noon, Nicole Prause sits in a

cozy apartment in Los Ange-
les’ Venice neighborhood
with two laptops in front of
good reason to believe there’s a link.”
Today, that means hooking up Matt and
Cara Brand to an EEG monitor to track brain
activity, finger cuffs to measure heart rate,
sex researchers have lately decamped for
Canada, Australia, and other countries with
fewer hang-ups and funding challenges.
Currently, only two U.S. labs studying sex-
her. The screens display graphs that con- and an armband that monitors movement. ual arousal have federal funding, and since
stantly update a stream of information. In The Brands are in the middle of something Prause’s former mentor at the famed Kinsey
the bedroom next door, less-clinical data called orgasmic meditation, or OM. This Institute took a job in Belgium in 2014, Kin-
can be heard: “Uh, uh, uh.” Rhythmic moans relatively new practice requires a partner to sey hasn’t had a full-time psychophysiologist
rise, shifting in volume and pace. “Uuh! stroke a woman’s clitoris to achieve “an option staff. Which means the iconic center is no
Uuh! Uuh!” mal state of consciousness” but not neces- longer actively studying how the body and
As a sex psychophysiologist, Prause sarily orgasm — OM is not about getting off. mind interact during sex.
studies the mental and physical changes Devotees claim that it can increase productiv- But Prause continues to tackle questions
that happen during sex, and she’s made a ity, focus, and confidence. (“We OM twice a others are too gun-shy to address: How do
career of dreaming up outlandish devices, day, every day,” Cara says.) Prause is out to you know when a woman is climaxing? What
protocols, and experiments to do so. “My determine whether the method is legit. size penises do women really prefer? And per-
goal is to identify the general health benefits “What Nicole’s doing — studying human haps most important, could sex be akin to
sexual response in the lab and tying it to medicine? Prause hopes to show how inter-
neuroscience — very few researchers in the course can help supplement or even replace
country are doing,” says Justin Lehmiller, certain prescription drugs and expensive
director of the social psychology graduate therapies, similarly to medical marijuana.
program at Ball State University.
That’s partly because sex research is a BAC K IN TH E VE NIC E apartment, and after
dying profession, at least in America. Sty- Matt and Cara complete their OM session and
mied by persistent puritan convictions and get their clothes back on, Prause instructs
a pullback in federal funding, even leading
sex-research institutions have stopped study-
ing actual sex. Researchers are forced to rely Prause (left) studies the mental and physical
on rudimentary tools like surveys rather changes that occur during sex, and how we can
than studies involving actual genitals and tap into those responses for better overall health.
34 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 photographs by ART STREIBER

them to do a series of frustrating computer inches, with a 4.8-inch circumference — for try to have an orgasm,’ all of a sudden the
tasks. (The couple did the same tests before long-term partners. brain appeared to become disengaged and
the session.) She wants to see if OM has galvanic skin response dropped. We don’t
improved their composure and resilience. struggled to obtain
FO R Y E A R S , P R AU S E know why that happens. Maybe to reach
Both claim they feel sharper, more confi- funding and approval for sex research involv- orgasm you have to reach a state of mind
dent, and less stressed than before OM-ing. ing actual sex. “Program off icers at the where you are no longer trying to control
Now Prause just needs an additional 150 or National Institutes of Health instruct you not your environment.”
so couples to help create a clear conclusion. to include the word sexual in any of your grant But what she’s most interested in learning
As long as sex science has been around, applications,” she says. “Apparently, congres- is how sex can be used to make us healthier.
a kind of squeamishness about the topic sional aides run regular searches of funding She’s hoping the OM study will help her
has hindered progress in the field. “I can databases to look for studies they can make reveal a connection between genital stimu-
measure your heart rate with 10,000 dif- examples of, and sexual is one of the words lation and the positive benefits that people
ferent things,” says Mark Cohen, a neuro- they search.” get when taking antidepressants. At the
scientist at the University of California, Los Under the current administration, these same time, she’s working on a grant pro-
Angeles, who is one of Prause’s mentors, problems could intensify. “I worry about this posal that would allow her to explore how
“but nobody has a tool out there that mea-
sures vaginal lubrication.”
Despite being one of the most integral
IT WASN’T UNTIL 1998 THAT WE REALIZED WE’D

parts of existence, our concept of sex is still
riddled with misconceptions. “It wasn’t
MISSED A PART OF THE CLITORIS. THERE ARE ALL

until 1998 that we realized we’d missed a
part of the clitoris,” says Prause. “There are
KINDS OF BIG QUESTIONS LEFT.

all kinds of big questions left.” For example,
scientists don’t know why some people take
sexual pleasure from pain; or what exactly
makes sex most rewarding — the arousal or
the climax; or even what triggers orgasm in more now in the face of a
the first place. government that is hostile
In addressing those questions, Prause to all forms of sexual discus-
has developed a reputation for rigor. “When sion,” says Cohen at UCLA.
it comes to her process, she holds herself “It is going to get worse for
to a higher standard,” says Ardy Rah- everybody.” It doesn’t help
man, a former UCLA research collabora- that the country has a his-
tor. “She overengineers her science.” For a tory of sex-research witch
study that measured whether condom use hunts: In the early 2000s,
in porn impacted sexual arousal, Prause Congress nearly defunded
could have simply shown participants some NIH-approved studies on
scenes with condoms and some without. sexuality and health. At the
Instead, says Rahman, to create a more same time, a lobbying orga-
exact comparison, she used a single scene nization called the Tradi-
of unprotected sex and had a research assis- tional Values Coalition
tant digitally add a condom to the male porn compiled a hit list of 157 sex
actor, frame by painstaking frame. “Poor researchers, many of whom
thing,” Prause says with a laugh. were subsequently grilled
The cheery demeanor hides a def iant by government staffers on the health benefits Prause uses myriad sensors — like this armband
streak that’s spurred Prause to dabble in of their work. that tracks minute movements of the arm and
belly dancing and fire spinning, in which In late 2014, when her UCLA contract was wrist — to monitor how people move during sex.
she twirls f laming staffs and batons. In up and the university declined to accept the
2014, she crashed while racing her motor- private-company funding she’d obtained to sexual function could be used to understand
cycle and suffered broken ribs and a shat- study orgasmic meditation, Prause decided depression; increased sexual activity is often
tered scapula. Three days later, she met up it was time for a change. She launched her a sign that people with the mood disorder
with her track club — where the 38-year-old own research institution, Liberos, with the are improving. She also wants to design a
is known as Danger Nikky — arm taped to tagline “The freedom to desire.” study that will ask people to masturbate
her side and ready to run. She’s using that freedom to explore the in her lab, then try to fall asleep while she
That tenacity transfers to her work, most mysterious sex organ of all: the brain. monitors their brain waves. The idea is to
where Prause dreams up devices to help Prause is currently studying whether brain investigate whether orgasms could replace
answer lingering questions about sex. In stimulation might prove to be a more prom- drugs as a treatment for insomnia.
2010, she was the first and only U.S. scientist ising treatment for female sexual disorders All of this research fuels Prause’s belief
to use genital vibrators and MRI machines than Addyi, the “female Viagra” that’s that, one day soon, doctors will be prescrib-
to test brain response in the midst of stimu- become infamous for troubling side effects ing good old-fashioned sex for what ails us
lation. Two years later, she used a 3D printer and limited effectiveness. And she’s hoping — she just has to prove it works.
to produce 33 erect penises of various sizes the OM trials will help her better under- “People would care if there was evidence
to deduce, for the first time, what length stand unexpected shifts in galvanic skin that orgasms can replace your antidepressant
women actually prefer. Answer: big penises, response — a measure of emotional arousal or sleep medication,” she says. Right now,
but only 0.4 inches longer than what’s often — that she’s noticed in past studies. “When though, science ignores the many beneficial
considered typical — 6 inches long — and we showed people porn or turned vibrators changes that happen in the body when it’s
only for short-term f lings. Women favor on, galvanic skin response went up and up sexually aroused. Says Prause: “We ignore
slightly shorter options — on average 6.3 and up,” she says. “But when we said, ‘Now them because it’s sex — and that’s stupid.” Q
SEPTEMBER 2017 MEN’S JOURNAL 35

PROFILE
compass, gem guide, topographic maps,

rif le, pistol, f ishing rod, peanut butter
sandwiches. We would pack the pickup and
growl off into eastern Oregon or northern
California to scramble across scree slopes
and wade hip-deep through rivers — caught
up in our quest for rocks, minerals, and fos-
sils. We clawed geodes from hard-packed
sage f lats, hauled petrified logs from dry
canyons, carved fossils from limestone
shelves, and — occasionally — blasted the
head off any rattlesnake that got in our way.
This was my childhood.
E V E RY W I N T E R , visitors from all over the

world attend the Tucson Gem and Mineral
Show, in Arizona. They come for the jewelry
and beads, the sculpture and furniture, the
bins of fossilized shark’s teeth, the purple-
gutted amethysts as big as coffins. They
come to ogle the allosaurus skulls and the
knives with petrif ied-wood handles, the
3,000-pound boulders of rose quartz and the
12-foot cave-bear skeleton arranged upright
so that it sits on its haunches, its claws out-
stretched and shredding the air.
I am here to join my parents in what is
known as the world’s biggest treasure hunt.
Tucson is their Burning Man, their Lol-
lapalooza or Coachella. When we shoulder
our way through the crowds, they spot old
friends, banter with strangers, and shake
hands with dealers who remember them
from previous years.
My father wants a dinosaur bone. My
mother wants a spider nested in amber. But
A Boyhood they plan to see everything, to slowly navi-

gate the miles of vendor displays and take in
all the agaty wonder. “Isn’t this great?” my
mom keeps saying, while my dad asks me
on the Rocks
Growing up with geologists meant vacations doing
more than once, “You aren’t bored, are you?”
I would complain, especially as a teen-
ager. We sometimes saw no one else for
days, outside of the lonely convenience
stores we frequented for diesel and Corn
fieldwork and easy access to snakes, but those family treasure Nuts and Diet Coke. “I’m bored,” I would
say. “This is ridiculously boring.”
hunts yielded something more precious than stone. While my friends were wandering
by BENJAMIN PERCY through malls, I was scraping through
rabbit-brush thickets, exploring lava tubes
that stretched on for miles. While my friends
were holding out change for an Orange
Julius, I was holding out a shard of chert
when you ask them an Audubon guide on rocks and minerals for and asking my father, “Do you think this is
M
OST BOYS,
what they want to be when one birthday and a .357 for another. a broken Clovis point?”
they grow up, say a profes- It was not uncommon to find my parents Sometimes I would go on strike. “Find
sional baseball, basketball, or kneeling on the living room f loor, peering your own damn rocks,” I would say and lie
football player. I, too, had trou- through a magnifying glass at the geologic in the skirt of shade beneath the truck and
ble deciding — whether I should become an surveys spread out before them. They made read a mass-market paperback, usually with
archaeologist, paleontologist, or geologist. notes on legal pads and f lipped through a dragon on the cover.
COURTESY OF BENJAMIN PERCY (3)
This is what happens when you grow guidebooks, using terms like mother lode But t hen someone would call out,
up with parents who call themselves rock and greenstone belts and tetrahedron and low- “Snake!” or “I found something!” and I
hounds. I wore a fedora and safari pants grade, large-tonnage deposit. would join them again.
with bulging pockets and a belt with a utility At least once a month, my sister and I
knife strapped to it. I subscribed to Archae- would join them for what was less a vaca-
ology and attended lectures on the geomor- tion and more an expedition. Here was our The author in 1995, on a quest for petroglyphs in
phic drivers of arroyo dynamics. I received checklist: pickax, trowel, whisk, shovel, eastern Oregon.

PROFILE
Our standard routine was this: My father Hurry! Up ahead there’s a blooming field of she was sleeping sometimes 20 hours a day.
would study geologic surveys until he deter- penstemon that’s to die for!” My father drives a Dodge Ram pickup
mined an area that might be rich with gems An exclamation mark lurks in most every- with a grill like a clenched fist. It’s a muscular
and minerals. Then we’d drive to the middle thing she says. The skin to either side of her tank of a vehicle, but in the rear cab, he’s built
of nowhere, his eyes bouncing between his mouth is creased like parentheses from all my mother a nest of blankets and pillows.
map and the rutted road ahead, until he her smiling. She is deeply tanned from the She has trouble climbing in and out when he
killed the ignition and snatched the revolver time she spends outside. She wears bright- drops her off and picks her up at the entrance
off the dashboard and said, “Roll out.” colored clothes and jewelry studded with of every site we visit. She carries a backpack
We would then spread out and march turquoise. She talks to flowers. She pinches full of pills with her. If she spots a bench — or
together at a slow pace, hunting for veins off sprigs of sagebrush and sniffs them. She a crate — she sits down on it. “Sorry,” she says,
of quartz, humps of petrified wood. Hours spent years, after moving to Arizona, plant- as if she’s bumped into a stranger in herself.
would go by as we patrolled a predetermined
grid, and my neck would cramp and my eyes
burn from looking so hard.
MY PARENTS WRESTLED A 334-POUND GEODE

In much the same way, we now work our
way through Tucson — through the tents and
OFF A TRUCK, A PROCESS THAT TOOK HOURS

hotels and warehouses — treasure hunters
searching for the right prize at the right price.
MY FATHER WAS a lawyer, my mother a bot-

anist. But they have probably spent more
AND NEARLY CRUSHED MY MOTHER.
time in the field than many career geolo-
gists. Their house exists as living space but “I’m feeling suddenly really old.”
more so as a repository for their collection. My father looks a little like his truck. Like
Visitors often refer to it as a museum, but someone you don’t want to fuck with. Tall
that word doesn’t fully capture the atmo- with muscled shoulders and a thick neck and
sphere of worship. My mother touches a big hands. My grandfather regularly told the
geode in passing as if rubbing a quick prayer story of the catcher — way back in his Little
with rosary beads. My father stands before a League days — who quit the team because
trilobite and sips his wine as if taking Com- my father kept bruising his palm with his siz-
munion before the cross. zling pitches. People are intimidated by him.
Every shelf, every nook, every windowsill But he is gentle with my mother, offer-
and mantel, every bureau and end table and ing her a fleece, helping her in and out of the
credenza, is a display. My parents will move truck, as if she were some precious gem he
a lamp or adjust a shade for complementary worries might break.
lighting, so that the house seems to sparkle
from every corner. I NEVER BECAME a geologist, paleontologist,
They have an encyclopedic understand- or archaeologist. I spent a summer research-
ing of every single stone and bone. Not only ing rock art with the Oregon Museum of
its historical, biological, and geological sig- Science and Industry and another summer
nificance, but their personal connection to it. excavating a Paiute village with the Univer-
Here is the four-foot, 334-pound Brazil- sity of Oregon — and then I canceled my sub-
ian amethyst geode — with one white crys- scription to Archaeology. I hung up my fedora.
tal toothing its center — that stands next to I had inherited my parents’ stony dreams
their fireplace. Together my parents mum- and dusty appetites. But once I moved away
mied it in towels and wrestled it off the back — away from their maps and magnifying
of a truck and into the house, a process that glasses and gem guides — I couldn’t main-
took several hours and nearly crushed my The diplodocus ulna that the author’s father had tain my enthusiasm.
mother. “He’s always doing things like this sought for years. But I feel it again now — that old treasure-
to me!” my mother says. “Making me move seeking rush — when my father and I enter
rocks as heavy as pianos!” ing shade trees, cacti, and succulents, creat- the 22nd Street Mineral & Fossil Show, a
And here is the 100-pound hunk of pure ing a desert garden that she fusses over daily. pop-up pavilion that accommodates several
obsidian that my father hefted out of the Pau- She keeps binoculars in the house, in the car, acres of high-end vendors. We are here for an
lina flow in Oregon prior to its being declared and in her backpack, and she is constantly ulna. My father already owns the vertebrae
a national monument. And the clutch of three reaching for them, saying things like, “In of a diplodocus, and he wants another piece
hadrosaurus eggs from the Gobi Desert. And that juniper over there — I think I see a yel- of it, hoping to eventually puzzle together the
the 88,000-year-old cave-bear skull from low tanager!” or “It’s just so difficult to tell long-necked dinosaur in its entirety.
Romania. And the 24-inch, 350-million-year- if it’s a Cooper’s or a sharp-shinned hawk.” He missed out last year. He was ready-
old, Carboniferous-era ammonite that looks But something has changed since I last ing a bid when another buyer swooped in
like the granddaddy of all nautilus shells. saw her. She’s quieter. Paler. Thinner, so and bought the bone he wanted. My father
Every time I visit, there is something that I can feel her bones when I pat her on narrows his eyes and lowers his voice mur-
new — and by that I mean something old. the back and ask if she’s doing all right. derously when he recalls the moment. “Not
My mother has always been the most ener- In the fall, she learned what was wrong, this time,” he says and marches straight for
getic among us. The first one up in the morn- but she didn’t tell us until after Thanksgiv- the booth of Jason Cooper, the president of
ing, standing by the window at 5 AM, waiting ing. Cancer. She’s suffered through weeks Trilobites of America.
for the sun to rise, her hands wrapped around of a chemo-radiation combo that blistered Jason is about my age and about my build,
a mug of coffee. The first one down the hik- her skin and melted the fat off her and and I can’t help but imagine him as some
ing trail, waving us all on, yelling, “You guys! weighed her down with exhaustion so that alternate version of me. He wears the belt

PROFILE
knife and safari pants that were once my “Yes. We finally got our dinosaur ulna.” She goes on to describe how, on that
uniform and looks a little like a game warden “Oh, this is so exciting.” She smiles and trip, I was walking through a dry riverbed,
from Jurassic Park. He studies geologic sur- knits her fingers together in what looks like hunting for agates, and nearly stepped on
veys, leases or buys land, hires out a crew, and a prayer, and my father puts his arm around a diamondback rattler six feet long. It was
excavates dinosaur bones to sell at shows like her and kisses the top of her head, and they sunning itself on a flat stone, and if I hadn’t
this one. “My company has the whole story,” stare at the bone lying on the bed while the yelled for my sister to stop where she stood,
he says. “We find it, dig it, finish it, sell it.” window air conditioning wheezes and blasts only a few paces behind me, she would have
He has dozens of fossils on display, along the room with its crypt-cold breath. leaped down onto it.
with photo narratives that show the exca- My father owns thousands of rocks and Or she tells the story of how, at the age
vation process, much of which takes place fossils, and for every single one of them, he of two, I walked out the door and hiked all
outside the town of Dinosaur, Colorado. can rattle off the date and place they were the way up our long driveway — to the high-
My father wastes no time with small talk. harvested, all the way back to his child- way — and got “the spanking of a lifetime”
The show opened minutes ago, and people hood. And I know that years from now, to make certain I never wandered off again.
are streaming thickly through the aisles. when he stands before this diplodocus ulna, Or the time my sister was riding a sheep and
“That diplodocus ulna,” he says and pulls he will remember it as the fossil he bought broke her arm. Or the time I was left alone
out a thick wad of cash. “It’s mine.” when my mother’s veins were streaming in the truck and pulled the gearshift and
Anywhere else, we would be an unusual with a chemical cocktail that made her feel started to roll backward down a hill and
sight — two men hoisting an enormous black half-alive. how I surely would have died if my father
bone through a hotel lobby — but everyone hadn’t chased after me and jumped through
in Tucson is here for the rock show, so they vacationed at the
L A S T Y E A R , M Y FA M I LY the open door and slammed the brake.
Grand Canyon. When we hiked the switch- I do remember. With their help, I remem-
back trail — into the shade of the gaping ber the wild strangeness of it all. When in
The Percy family (from left): Susan, Benjamin, chasm — my parents pointed out the layers their company, I am still the child, but now
Peter, and Jennifer, in 2016. of stone. Sandstone, limestone, shale. Red, they are strangely the vulnerable ones.
purple, tan, gray. My father
lustily eyed the cliffs, and MY MOTHER never finds her amber-trapped
his hand closed around spider, so she buys some cyanobacteria
an imaginary pick. “I can instead — a knuckly mass of stromatolite.
practically smell the stro- This one is 250 million years old and among
matolites,” he said. the earlier forms of life on Earth.
My mother paused at a It’s another two months yet until the sur-
viewpoint and scanned the gery. The doctors will probe around in her
canyon with her binocu- body and slice the tumor from her — and I
lars. “Just think,” she said. can’t help but imagine it will look a little like
“We’re touring our way into this discolored mound of rock.
the past with every step we “So . . . Mom?”
take, and by the time we get “Yes?” I can tell she’s worried about me,
to the bottom, we’ll be in a just as she worries about my father. How
world that’s billions of years we’re processing her condition. “It’s OK. Ask
old. Time travel is possible.” me anything.”
That’s a little like how it So I do. “Why do you guys love rocks so
feels every time I visit my damn much?”
parents. Like I’m swirling At this my mother laughs. Her shoulders
into the past, reliving my rise and fall in a shrug. “Why does anyone
childhood. love anything?”
swarm us and admiringly call out, “Wow!” In my day-to-day life, I’m so caught up in Because she does, damn it. That’s what
and “There’s a beaut!” and “I’ve got a stego- the rush of deadlines, parenting, housekeep- she seems to be saying. Why do I like the
saurus plate on display at my dental office!” ing that I’m always focused on the future. color blue or pecan pie or autumn or horror
The speakers in the elevator play Elvis Worried about whether the kids will need movies? It’s just the way I’m hardwired.
Presley as we head to the third f loor, and I braces, about securing the next book deal, Twenty minutes after I ask the question,
note that the song is the perfect soundtrack saving enough for college. she finally has an answer, “Why do I love
for our quest for early rock. My father doesn’t But I grew up focused on ancient history. this place? And all these stupid old bones
laugh, maybe because it’s not funny, but And the traces of my past — the fossils of and rocks?” She picks up a jagged piece of
maybe he’s just worried about my mother. who I used to be — still exist at my parents’ jade, a sick green color. “Because they took
We knock and hear her moving about in house. In photo albums, in bins packed with millions of years of grinding and braising
the room, and she answers the door with my old report cards and sports trophies and and cooking to become a thing of beauty
sleep-mussed hair, and he says, “Have we school projects, in the stories my mother and end up in my hand right now. And
got a surprise for you.” tells about me. because for a little while, for just a speck of
“You got it!” “Do you remember that time we went to their existence, I get to be their custodian.”
“We got it.” the John Day fossil beds?” Permanence. The rocks will outlast our
We negotiate our way into the room and “Which time?” I say. “We went to John wonder for them, will outlast these words
lay the bone down on the bed that’s still Day a thousand times.” you’re reading now, will outlast our fragile
tangled and warm from her nap. “Well,” She clarifies. The time we found that slab bodies and this country and humankind
my father says. “What do you think?” He of siltstone — fanned with the needles of an altogether. They’re as close as we can get
sweeps his arms outward, like a magician ancient metasequoia — that we chipped out to forever. Q
performing a trick. of the thinly bedded rock of what was once a
“I think you’ve been dreaming about this shallow lake nearby. BENJAMIN PERCY is the author of six books,
all year, and now it’s finally come true.” “Oh, right,” I say. including this month’s The Dark Net.

THE PLAYBOOK FOR A LONGER, STRONGER LIFE
The
Smartest
Guy at
the Gym
By now, we’ve learned a lot about
what it takes to be fit. But the
difference between good shape
and great shape comes down
to how you apply the science.
by DANIEL DUANE
WE LIVE IN A GOLDEN AGE OF FITNESS SCIENCE . Studies come out every month that confirm one or another fun-
damental truth about how to get in shape — the power of rest and recovery, the importance of mental tough-
ness, or the unbeatable efficiency of high-intensity interval training. Still, buried within all those studies are
subtleties and finer points that can make all the difference in how strong, fast, and healthy you feel and look.
And that’s where we come in. We raided the latest research, talked to leading experts, and honed five work-
out upgrades that you can make right now. The tweaks may be simple, but follow the advice faithfully and the
results will be nothing short of genius.
p h o t o g r a p h s b y D Y L A N C O U LT E R SEPTEMBER 2017 MEN’S JOURNAL 43

ADVICE
AN INTERVAL
Gibala, chairman of the kinesiology depart-
1
ment at McMaster University and a leading
Fact: Interval training works.
PLAN THAT
researcher for high-intensity interval train-
How to use it: Go harder and ing (HIIT).
shorter to get fitter.
DOESN’T SUCK
“You have to go very hard — well out-
side your comfort zone.” This means you’re
By now, most everyone knows that short pushing so hard that you’re thinking Holy
bursts of intense cardio deliver big leaps shit! but you’re unable to actually speak With this 30-20-10 routine, the tough
in f itness: You move faster, breathe bet- the words “Holy shit.” However, you don’t stuff lasts only 10 seconds. First, pick
ter, and even your blood sugar numbers have to keep this up for long. In fact, an activity that quickly ramps up your heart
improve. There’s just one catch: “Intense” HIIT is most effective when it’s incredibly rate — treadmill, spin bike, even burpees.
leaves no room for half-assing. From the clipped. “When people do longer interval Warm up for two minutes, then repeat the
landmark 1996 Tabata study that kicked off workouts, they save their energy,” Gibala following progression five times through
the interval-training craze to the hundreds says. “But if you’re only doing a few min- without taking a break. (It will take you
of similar studies that have followed, the utes’ worth, you really go all-out.” That five minutes total.)
largest gains have always come when sub- maximum effort is what challenges your 30 SECONDS: Go easy, you’re at about
jects drove themselves to the wall. “There’s heart, lungs, and muscles — and ultimately 50 percent of your all-out effort.
no free lunch with intervals,” says Martin strengthens them. 20 SECONDS: Crank to a midlevel pace,
between 70 to 80 percent of your max.
10 SECONDS: Everything you’ve got.
Now, take a two-minute breather. Repeat
the whole thing two more times.
In a Danish study, runners who did the
routine for eight weeks not only shaved 38
seconds off their best 5k time, they also
bettered their blood pressure and lowered
their resting heart rates.
If you can easily

bang out big sets
of body-weight
exercises, don’t add
reps — add weight.
GROOMING BY REBECCA PLYMATE FOR ART DEPARTMENT. SHORTS PROVIDED BY COLUMBIA; SHOES PROVIDED BY SUPRA
work out. According to Mark Rippetoe, number of sets, or the amount of weight, or
2
reigning American barbell guru and author decrease the amount of rest you take. (For
Fact: Functional exercises are of Starting Strength, “the variable that you example, for lower-body movements like
the ideal way to get strong. tweak should never be exercise selection. It back squats and dead lifts, add five pounds
How to use it: Advance a little has to be load or none of your muscles have to the bar every time you train. For upper-
every time you train. a chance to adapt.” body exercises, like overhead presses or
Yes, constantly doing a different mix of rows, go up two or three pounds. For body-
Pushups, pullups, squats, dead lifts. These exercises may stave off boredom and cer- weight exercises, like pullups and pushups,
classics are the foolproof way to build tainly burns calories, but it creates a kind add extra reps to what you normally do or
strength, and are a helluva lot more useful to of muscle confusion that you don’t want if give yourself less rest between sets.) Only
get you through everyday life than muscle- you’re trying to get strong. Your neuromus- when you get to a point where you can’t add
isolating curls or leg raises on machines. cular system — the communication center more reps or weight without failing should
The common mistake: doing the exact same between your brain and muscles — never you consider doing new exercises. And even
functional workout over and over and over has a chance to learn the movements and then, employ standard variations on your
again. The human body is remarkably good then cue your muscle fibers to grow bigger go-tos, like front squats instead of back
at adjusting to new demands: Even within a and stronger after you break them down. squats or a narrow-grip bench press instead
month, muscles can become accustomed to Instead, stick with a set group of functional of a wide-grip. That way, you keep targeting
doing the same routine and your strength strength exercises, but force growth by mak- the same fundamental movement patterns
gains plateau. But the solution is not to ing small progressions each time you work while also changing things up enough that
randomly vary the exercises every time you out. Increase the number of reps, the total you stay mentally invested.

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ADVICE
who treats professional athletes as well as

3 4
mere mortals. “Say, if you lose what we call
Fact: Mobility is key to fitness ‘posterior glide’ in that hip — your hip joint Fact: To make gains, you have
gains and injury prevention. gets so stiff that you can’t sink into a proper to recover. How to use it:
How to use it: Zero in on hips squat — then your glute shuts down and stops Recover by moving.
and shoulders. firing.” Soon, your pelvis is tilting forward,
your lower back muscles are seizing up, your The essence of training goes like this: First,
One of the biggest revelations in athletics is hamstrings are tight, and, ultimately, your you tell your body that it’s not fit enough
that mobility — the freedom to move with- knees start to hurt — and all because one hip by applying a new stress — lifting a heavier
out pain through the full range of squats, joint got constricted. A parallel story happens weight, running a faster mile. That breaks
lunges, pushups, and pullups — depends less above the waist. There, a tight shoulder — you down muscle fibers, and during recovery,
on stretchy muscles than mobile, supported can’t raise your arms straight overhead, the your body repairs the fibers and makes them
joints. And no joints are more important shoulder blade hikes up when you try — can stronger. That means recovery is just as
than the two big guys: hips and shoulders. set you up for the painful, common shoulder vital as the workout. But the most effective
Limited mobility in either place, and even in condition called impingement syndrome. method doesn’t always mean taking a day
one joint — a hip, for example — can cause a A tight upper back, constricted lats, and off. In many cases, active recovery — moving
chain reaction of problems throughout the hunched posture follow soon after. The good around — helps you bounce back fitter, faster.
body. “It creates a compensatory pattern,” news, says Reavy, is that you can prevent all of After a heavy weights day, for example, a Uni-
says Chicago physical therapist David Reavy, this with the two basic mobility drills below. versity of Oregon study found the ideal recov-
ery strategy is a day of light lifting using the
exercises that got you sore. (So if you crushed
the bench press with three sets of 10 reps at
TWO MOVES TO INJURY-PROOF YOUR WHOLE BODY 135 pounds, your recovery session could be
These exercises loosen and strengthen the hips and shoulders and prevent a cascade of
two sets of five reps at 65 pounds.) Same for
problems that occur when those joints are tight and weak. Do them before every workout.
cardio. After a long run Sunday, log a light
30-minute jog on Monday. “The idea is to
increase circulation to those same muscle tis-
sues,” says Pete McCall, adjunct professor in
exercise science at Mesa College and spokes-
man for the American Council on Exercise.
“That helps f lush the metabolic waste that
contributes to soreness and speeds delivery of
oxygen and nutrients to repair muscle fibers.”
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JASON LEE
5
1. GLUTE STRENGTHENERS Loop a resistance 2. SHOULDER ROTATIONS Stand tall, a band
band around legs and just over knees. Lie on looped around right shoulder and under right Fact: Strength requires
one side, knees bent, legs stacked. Keeping foot. Hold right arm out to side in a goal-post willpower. How to use it:
feet together and squeezing glutes, lift top leg position; rotate arm so forearm is parallel to Create motivation.
up and down. Repeat 1 minute. Switch sides. floor. Repeat 1 minute. Switch sides.
Anyone who has ever decided that an after-
work beer sounds better than going to the
gym knows the critical role of willpower.
Here’s the thing: You can actually plan to
have more of it. According to Frank Mar-
Tight pecs can tela, a willpower researcher and the author
restrict motion in of Willpower: The Owner’s Manual, the key is
your shoulders; open to simultaneously focus on big goals and the
up the joint with this small steps that will achieve them. The mere
standing stretch. act of pausing midafternoon and reminding
yourself of the long-term plan — packing on
muscle or completing a marathon — flips the
stressed-out mind from short-term gratifica-
tion (an IPA sure would taste good) to long-
term satisfaction (crossing that finish line is
going to feel amazing). Plotting small steps
makes it all feel more doable. “Be precise, and
decide ahead of time how, when, and where
to fulfill them,” Martela says. In other words,
don’t just think “Maybe I’ll go for a training
run tonight.” Pull out your phone, and write
“4 miles at the track at 6 PM” on your Google
calendar. And that beer? We guarantee it will
taste better after hard work.

W H AT WO R KS FO R M E
Finding the groove

I wasn’t looking for a beach body, and I wasn’t
going to be fanatical about exercise or nutri-
tion. I just wanted to be healthier, to have
more energy. I wanted to be able to play with
my kids. I started slow: I’d go for a run, huff
and puff up a hill, maybe do a few burpees.
Then I ran into an old friend, Thomas
Røde Andersen, at a coffee shop in Copen-
hagen. Thomas had been head chef at Kong
Hans Kælder when I was sous-chef there.
Back then, he was kind of pear-shaped
and slightly overweight. He told me he’d
decided to take control of his life, leave
The Denmark-based Noma team exercised

together almost every morning of its seven-
week stint in Tulum, Mexico.
cooking, and focus on fitness. When I told
Burpees him I had started doing a few things, he

immediately said, “Let’s work out together.”
So I joined him and a few others, and it was
exactly what I needed — somebody who
on the Beach
René Redzepi was the world’s most celebrated chef, but he felt
knows what he’s doing to make a plan.
And it was hard. One day, the leg exercises
were so tough, a guy who worked out with
us had to shit standing up. It’s not like we
were doing anything crazy, but back then,
terrible. So he overhauled his routine with a pre-breakfast ritual. doing 100 squats and 100 lunges and sprint-
ing 50 meters f ive times was enough to
make that happen.
I hated work ing out , ever y single
moment. It was the time more than any-
A
T NOMA, WE HAVE guests com- to the doctor. He pressed around a bit, and thing. I’d wake up, be tired, and then I’d
ing from all over the world for then he just looked at me and said, “René, have to use this small window of time off to
a meal, and you want things to you’re out of shape.” exercise. It was a huge hurdle, and I didn’t
go perfectly. It means I work up He was right. I had always worked out get over it quickly. It was six months before
to 90 hours a week. A few years when I was younger: I was athletic, I played I started to feel OK when I was running,
into this, I started noticing that I was incred- soccer. But it had been about six years since rather than feeling like my heart was going
ibly exhausted. I felt so drained on weekends, I’d done anything, and I’d gained 20 to 25 to explode. And it was six months before
I didn’t have the capacity to do anything. pounds since my mid-twenties. I was up I stopped dreading the workout. It sounds
Even creative work made me tired — I was to 180. I wasn’t fat, but I was soft. I looked so dumb to say, because spending six
tired all the time. at these other guys in the industry, people months to make that kind of change — to be
I thought it just came with the territory I knew who had heart attacks in their forties better with your team, have more energy for
of being a chef. But then one day I was play- or had to go into observation for high blood your kids, have more energy in general — is
ing with my daughter, Genta. I was throw- pressure, and thought, “That could be me. I’m such a small investment. But at the time, it
ing her in the air, and I felt something in my almost 40. Now is when things go downhill.” didn’t seem like it. I really had to adopt this
back give — it was like a twitch or a crack. That was about three years ago, and it positive mentality, tell myself, “This is good
I couldn’t walk for two days. Finally, I went was the start. for you, good for the family.”
48 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 p h o t o g r a p h s b y L I N D S AY L A U C K N E R - G U N D L O C K

After my youngest daughter, Ro, was born,
my wife, Nadine, wanted to get in shape, too.
We realized we’d have to be a bit more orga-
nized, so we hired a trainer for the whole
restaurant, a great guy named Johan Troels
Andersen. I guess what we do is considered
functional training. There are a lot of push-
ups and pullups and burpees, and sometimes
we do weights or yoga. But Johan mixes it up,
and there’s a playfulness to it. Sometimes we
“fight” each other by trying to tap the back of
each other’s knees, and the loser has to carry
the winner piggyback. I think that if you want
to stick with exercise, it has to be fun. If you’re
just being told to run here, lift this, touch the
ground, stand up — it becomes robotic, like
chopping onions every day. Putting playful-
ness into the mix makes it seem less like work.
The training took off. More people from
the staff started coming, and we added a sec-
ond session in the afternoon, between lunch
and dinner, that we lead ourselves. We even
put pullup rings in the office. Sometimes, if
there’s a break, guys will start doing sets.
When we decided to go to Mexico for a
seven-week pop-up for Noma, we wanted to
keep up the training. So we brought Johan
with us. We worked out six days a week, every
morning on the beach, and we’d have as many
as 35 or 40 people training. Afterward, we all
had breakfast together — fried eggs, avocado,
fresh fruit, and homemade sourdough. It defi-
nitely made us closer as a team.
I tell Johan he’s the only person in the
world who tells me what to do, and because
he’s always changing things, giving us new
goals, and keeping it fun, it motivates me.
I still wouldn’t say I enjoy working out, but
now I only hate it about 25 percent of the time.
A huge change
I know focusing on my health has made me a
better chef. I can’t say that any particular new
dish or event is a result of the workouts, but if
I zoom out to two years ago and how I would
feel at the end of the day, I see a huge change.
I didn’t have the same feeling of being ready
to attack a challenge, and back then we were
just talking about doing a new menu or some-
thing like that. Now the tasks are far more
daunting — the pop-up in Mexico, opening
a new restaurant last summer and another
this summer, and of course closing the old
Noma and building a new one. We’re chang-
ing everything up, but I’m much more con-
fident and comfortable going into it. I feel
more creative, like I can think faster, and
I have more energy and patience.
The one thing that hasn’t changed is how
I eat. I have bread, love a piece of cake, and the
other night I came home and went through an
entire bag of chips. But now I eat with a clear
conscience. And I’m down to 163 pounds.
Above all, it’s been better for my family.
When my youngest daughter is 10, I’ll be
48. I like knowing I’ll still be able to play
with her. —As told to Lisa Abend
NUTRITION
“produces inflammatory hormones that can

cause diabetes as well as heart disease and
strokes.” Worse, you may not even know this
is happening. The added fat can wind its way
around and inside organs and muscles with-
out ever producing a telltale beer belly or an
alarming number on the bathroom scale.
We need a collective wake-up call. Dia-
betes is a nasty disease that, over decades,
can age virtually every system in the body
before you arrive at grim late-stage symp-
toms like numbness, pain, and infections in
the extremities. That’s why it’s imperative
that all of us know exactly how well — or
how poorly — our bodies handle the sugar
and carbs we consume.
The first sign is at your waist. If it mea-
sures 35 inches or more, you’re at risk. But
even if you’re relatively slender, ask for a
blood test the next time you see your doctor.
You want hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), which
provides the most sophisticated reading of
sugar levels. Ideally, you want a score of 5.5
or below. A range of 5.7 to 6.4 means you’re
prediabetic; anything above 6.4 is diabetes.
Another warning sign: metabolic syn-
drome. This is when all or most of your lab
LEVI BROWN / TRUNKARCHIVE.COM

numbers — LDL cholesterol, triglycerides,
blood pressure, waist size — are high, but
your blood sugar may be normal. Because of
that fact, many primary-care doctors over-
look metabolic syndrome’s connection with
diabetes. But the condition suggests that
excess insulin, and the inf lammation that
EXERCISE
Eat to Beat THE IDEAL

WORKOUT
COMBO
Diabetes
Sugar-packed diets are putting us on the path to a lifelong disease.
Avoiding diabetes is a two-part
process: First you eat the right kind
of calories, then you burn them up.
That means doing more than just
Here is a simple way to reverse course. by JOSEPH HOOPER running, cycling, or weightlifting.
Studies show that hitting both
T H E N U M B E R S H I T you like a a researcher with the Pennington Biomedi- cardio and strength buys you
slap in the face: Nearly half of cal Research Center. In other words, evolu- the most metabolic bang for your
Americans have diabetes or tion hasn’t had the chance to catch up with buck — “like combating a disease
likely will soon, according to the way we eat. From 1977 to the present, with two different drugs,” Church
a recent crunching of national data in the the amount of added sugar we consume has says. The cardio steadily eats
Journal of the American Medical Associa- soared 30 percent, and our metabolism is sugars as you keep your heart rate
tion. If you just mentally counted yourself losing its ability to process the onslaught. elevated, while resistance exercise
out of that half because you aren’t fat, or you This means that if you eat a lot of refined builds the muscle mass that will
think you’re pretty fit, heads up: You’re not carbs and added sugars — which, let’s face it, burn sugars all the time, not just
immune. Twenty percent of Americans with most of us do — and you aren’t blessed with when you’re training. Shoot for
prediabetes are at a normal weight — double the genes that can handle them, your pan- strength work twice a week, and
the percentage from two decades ago. creas has to produce an overload of insulin cardio three or four days a week. If
What’s going on? “Our food supply has to clear sugars from your bloodstream. That you can combine the two — circuits
become f looded with sugar, which has excess insulin cues more fat to be stored in that mix heart-pumping exercises
exposed a latent metabolic vulnerability in your gut. This “visceral fat,” explains Dr. with strength work, for example —
an awful lot of people,” says Dr. Tim Church, Samar Hafida of the Joslin Diabetes Center, so much the better.

follows, is gumming up your metabolism.
Those with metabolic syndrome, Church
says, have a seven times greater risk of
developing diabetes. And if one of the bad TREND WATCH
numbers in your metabolic syndrome diag-
VIRTUAL FITNESS IS HERE

nosis is high blood sugar, that risk jumps to
21 times greater.
So, if you have diabetes, or you’re on the
road to it, what do you do? The biggest pay-
off comes from attacking your diet. Church’s Four new VR games that yield real-life results. BY CLINT CARTER
prescription: “Go low-carb, all-in.” This
approach can also help you shed weight,
recent studies confirm. Here’s what such a
diet looks like:
MEALS To fill the carb void, nutritionist

Kathie Madonna Swift recommends three
things: first, lean protein, like chicken and
fish, along with legumes — such as beans
and peanuts — which are a great source of
plant protein and full of stomach-f illing
fiber. Second, nonstarchy vegetables like
broccoli, peppers, and greens, which have
tons of fiber and phytonutrients and few
carb calories. Finally, healthy fats, like
those found in avocados and olive oil.
Limit grains, even brown rice and whole-
wheat pasta. “They’re not as healthy as you
think,” Hafida says. Yes, they have fiber, but
they also pack a lot of carbs, which can keep
blood sugar and insulin levels high.
Also, keep in mind that pretty much any 1/ Holopoint 3/ Glow!
packaged food — in a can, bottle, or box, It’s not billed as a fitness game, but Designed to help users cope with
organic or not — is a likely and avoidable Holopoint will make you sweat. In it, anxiety, Glow! uses a heart-rate
source of added sugar: Campbell’s soups, you’re a warrior armed with a bow sensor to control the program. The
Wonder whole-grain bread, Triscuit crack- and arrow, firing rapidly in what better you’re able to keep calm —
ers. Same goes for condiments like ketchup, amounts to a motion similar to what and your heart rate down — the
salad dressing, and even hot sauces. you’d do on a rowing machine. more you’re able to interact in the
Meanwhile, attackers come from all world around you. It’s not a game
SNACKS Do you eat a carb-infused sports angles, so you squat and jump to per se, but more of a biofeedback
gel or bar during or after a long bike ride dodge them. One user recently practice that works like deep-
or run? Replace it with an apple and a packet credited the game with helping him focus mindfulness training.
of almond butter, suggests Hafida. The fruit drop 50 pounds and trim four
will boost energy, and its fiber will slow carb inches off his waist in five months. SYSTEMS: HTC VIVE , OCULUS RIFT
absorption, while the fat and protein in the
almond butter will help satiate you for hours. SYSTEMS: HTC VIVE , OCULUS RIFT firsthand.com; $300
For snacks around the office, be mindful of
nutrition labels: A package of trail mix can store.steampowered.com; $15
be doused with added sweetener, creating a 4/ VirZoom
faux-healthy sugar bomb. Stationary bikes can be boring, so
2/ Guided VirZoom ups the fun factor with an
DRINKS Avoid bottled teas, sodas, and Meditation VR actual bike equipped with VR
sports drinks that list sugar as one of the Zenlike mindfulness may come arcade games. With the headset on,
first three ingredients. And no more fruit more naturally if you aren’t sitting you pedal to navigate a virtual bike,
juices: They can be three times as sugar- on your living room couch. Guided tank, kayak, helicopter, or Pegasus
laden as eating the whole fruit. As for Meditation VR offers the upgrade: through a digital world, using
alcohol — which is basically sugar in a Find solitude atop a glacier, on a buttons on the bike’s handlebars to
glass — you may want to hedge to one drink beach, or along a trail as autumn control gameplay. Want to move
a day, less if possible. leaves drift to the ground around faster? Pedal harder. The bike also
you. Choose from 2-, 5-, or folds to fit under a bed or in a closet.
TIMING It’s not only what you eat, but when. 10-minute programs, or simply sit
A new study from the University of Pennsyl- quietly with the sounds of nature. SYSTEMS: GOOGLE DAYDREAM, HTC
vania found that snacking and dining as late VIVE , OCULUS RIFT, PLAYSTATION VR,
COURTESY OF SAMSUNG
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the same food earlier. This may be because SAMSUNG GEAR
food eaten right before you lie down for the virzoom.com; $400 (or $100
night isn’t metabolized as quickly and effi- guidedmeditationvr.com; free for for a VZ Sensor compatible with a
ciently. Try to give yourself a cutoff of 8 PM. Gear VR, $15 for HTC, and $8 for Rift stationary bike)

REPORTS
WHY YOU
Health News
The month’s most important discoveries, updates, and advice.
SHOULD
SWAP RED
by MELAINA JUNTTI
MEAT FOR
WHITE
A report of a half-million
people showed that
those who ate the most red
meat — processed or
unprocessed — were 26
percent more likely to die
of eight diseases, including
cancer and heart disease,
than those who ate the
least. However, those who
ate the highest amount of
white meat, instead of red,
had a 25 percent lower risk
of disease-related deaths.
Researchers say red meat’s
X factors may be high levels
of heme iron and nitrates.
WHAT TWO
WEEKS OFF
EXERCISE
REALLY DOES
TO YOUR BODY
When British researchers asked
healthy adults to stop exercise
for 14 days, they found the break
produced enough change to
increase the risk of heart
disease and type 2 diabetes.
While researchers assumed that
Just Five Internet Addiction

Is Real — and Physical
subjects might gain a pound or
so, “we didn’t expect to see fat
around the liver and loss of
Drinks a Week Effects Prove It

In a first-of-its-kind study,
scientists at Swansea University
cardiorespiratory fitness,” says
study author Kelly Bowden
Can Damage asked 144 adults, nearly half of

whom identified as internet
Davies. “These were significant
changes and would be detri-
mental if continued long term.”
Your Brain addicts, to stop using the Web.

(The subjects averaged five
hours a day online, including
More reason to move as much
and as regularly as you can.
Before you pour that nightly glass of beer, time at work.) As expected,
FACT OR FICTION?
consider this: You could be doing lasting people reported feeling anxious
damage to cognition and memory. That’s the when they weren’t allowed
result of a study on 550 healthy middle-aged online. But their heart rate and Running leads to
people who were tracked over 30 years. The blood pressure also jumped 3 to arthritis in knees
trial found that the more the subjects drank, the worse 4 percent, suggesting that the FICTION. A study of
off they were. The surprising part was that even moderate withdrawal was mental and 114,000 people in the
drinkers (five to seven drinks a week) were three times as physical. “That’s enough to Journal of Orthopaedic &
likely to have a shrunken hippocampus, which affects move you from normal to Sports Physical Therapy
memory, compared with nondrinkers. They also per- shows that just 3.5
THE GOOD BRIGADE/OFFSET
pre-hypertensive range,” says

formed worse on cognitive tests. “Excessive alcohol acts study author Phil Reed. And if percent of regular
as a toxin to brain cells and leads to vitamin deficiency,” you’re prone to anxiety, it may recreational runners
explains lead researcher Anya Topiwala. “This could also exacerbate symptoms. The develop hip and knee
be what’s happening with moderate drinking.” Her sug- takeaway: Be mindful that arthritis, while 10 percent
gestion: Limit weeknight “just because” drinks. screens don’t become a crutch. of nonrunners develop
arthritis in those joints.

54
JEREMY RENNER was poised to become Hollywood’s
next mega-franchise action hero. Instead, he aimed
toward a different destination: a sane life.
BY JOSH EELLS PHOTOGRAPHS BY SIMON EMMETT

waterfall kicks in” — five waterfalls, to be much anymore. Renner’s good on a motor-
precise, cascading down to Renner’s lagoon- cycle, he’s good on a horse, he can drive a car.
like pool — “you kind of capture all this.” He He’s just a dude.”
punctuates the sentence with a sweep of his For the first 15 years of his career, Renner’s
hand — the king on his barstool throne. stern looks and gritty bearing won him roles
Renner’s place is a Frank Lloyd Wright– as a parade of scumbags and psychopaths:
style number built in 1964, set deep in a skinhead, child molester, con man, serial
canyon in the Hollywood Hills on a quiet killer. But then in 2008 and 2010 came the
cul-de-sac with no cell service. It sits on its one-two punch of Kathryn Bigelow’s The
own man-made plateau, with no houses on Hurt Locker (in which he starred as a bomb
either side; his nearest neighbors are actors tech in Iraq) and Ben Aff leck’s The Town
Chris Pratt and Anna Faris, who live down (in which he played a bank thief in Boston).
the hill. But you can hardly see their house Renner carried one film, stole the other, and
I F YO U WANT TO HAN G at Jeremy Renner’s through Renner’s thick pines and 30-foot- earned Oscar nods for both. An overnight
place, you need to follow a few simple rules. tall bamboo. “I’m not too big on city views,” success at 40, he responded by going all-in
The rules are displayed in a five-by-seven he says. “So instead I’m just surrounded by on Hollywood, signing on to not one or two
picture frame atop Renner’s bar, a marble- these old-ass trees.” but three massive franchises — The Avengers,
topped walnut number he installed himself, Renner calls his house “the Nest” — first Mission: Impossible, and The Bourne Legacy, in
stocked with enough Bulleit to give Ken- because it feels like being in the treetops and which he replaced original star Matt Damon.
tucky the year off. There are five rules in all second “because it ties in to Hawkeye,” the The work took its toll. “I was fucking
— printed in block capitals and superimposed avian, bow-and-arrow-toting comic book exhausted,” Renner says. “In four years, I
over one of those red NO SMOKING circles: hero he plays in Marvel’s Avengers movies slept in my own bed maybe two months. I
didn’t see my family, didn’t see my friends. I
spent four birthdays in a row with my assis-
“HE’S A LITTLE BIT OF AN tant. It was a glorious time — but it was a
long, long run. By the end of it, I was toast.”
ANARCHIST,” A FRIEND SAYS. Not that he has any regrets. “It was
all things I wanted to do,” he says. “But I
“WHEN YOU’RE AROUND wouldn’t do it over again.” He looks down
the hill at Pratt’s house. “Chris is kind of on
RENNER, ADVENTURE IS that train right now. I couldn’t go on that
train again.”
SOON TO COME.” Renner is dressed in heavy boots, slim-
cut jeans, and a brown suede work shirt
unbuttoned over a navy tee. At 46, his face is
handsome but aged, with a boxer’s nose and a
cop’s squint. He’s one of those actors like Sean
Penn who always look a little rough, as if he
might still be coming off a bender from the
night before, and also a little dangerous. Like
DO NOT FUCK WITH AVA. (and the role that probably helped pay for a guy who has seen some shit. “He’s a little bit
NO SOCIAL MEDIA. this house). Renner likes that unlike his col- of an anarchist,” Rockwell says. “When you’re
NO PHOTOS. leagues Thor or Iron Man, Hawkeye isn’t “a around Renner, adventure is soon to come.”
PREVIOUS SPREAD: RENNER WEARS T-SHIRT BY RICHER POORER, JEANS BY CULT OF INDIVIDUALITY, AND BOOTS BY ALLSAINTS.
NO GLASS BY THE POOL. guy who flies around with a hammer or does But Renner also has a way of surprising
NOTHING IN JR’S BUTT. intergalactic stuff.” He’s just a hardworking you. Elizabeth Olsen, his co-star in the new
Ava is Renner’s four-year-old daughter, dude who shows up, does his job, and goes film Wind River — a taut crime drama set in
his only child, and the center of his world. home to see his family. the snowy wilderness of Wyoming — met
The ban on photos and social media, he says, You could say the same about Renner. He Renner several years ago while f ilming
means “I didn’t invite everybody on Snap- grew up in blue-collar Modesto, California, Avengers: Age of Ultron. “I used to think of
chat or Instagram.” Glass by the pool is an where his dad ran a bowling alley and his him as this kind of grumpy, funny dude who,
obvious safety hazard. As for JR’s butt? mom worked at a poultry-processing plant. like, stretched a lot,” she says. “But what I
“That’s a joke,” Renner says, laughing. He stumbled into acting at Modesto Junior got to see making [Wind River] was a much
“But also, don’t put anything in my ass. I College, and he’s not sure what would have more sensitive, full-rounded person.”
really don’t want that.” happened if he hadn’t. “I still would have Before filming started, for example, they
When Renner is at home, which these left Modesto — unless I got somebody preg- were rehearsing some stunts and Olsen
days is often, he spends a lot of time at the bar, nant,” he says. “I had a lot of friends who did found herself holding on to Renner as they
with its imperial views of his lush backyard. that. Who knows? If I didn’t find the act- hurtled down a mountain on a snowmobile.
“The bar is the focal point of the house,” he ing thing, I might have three divorces and a “We were about 1,200 feet up, and there’s
says. “The only problem is these windows are mullet, driving a forklift.” this steep, steep drop — almost like we’re
heavy as shit, so to be able to open them. . . .” Actor Sam Rockwell, one of Renner’s going vertical,” she recalls. “We’re in a cloud,
With that, he presses a button, and the good friends, met him while filming The so we can’t see the bottom. And I’m behind
large glass panes emit a hydraulic whine and Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Jeremy, squeezing him and telling him,
start motoring upward, like a garage door. “I Robert Ford. “He was at a bar in Calgary, ‘Please slow down.’” Olsen thought Renner
spent so much dang money on this,” Renner kind of crouched over a whiskey,” Rock- was the kind of guy who’d gun the throttle
says. “But when you open these up and the well recalls. “He had this sort of West Coast just to mess with her — and he does have a
machismo, an old-school Steve McQueen reputation as a prankster. But, instead, he
Contributing editor Josh Eells profiled thing. It’s cool to have guys like that in the eased off and talked her through her fear.
Werner Herzog in the May issue. movie business, because they’re not around “If someone doesn’t screw around with you
to be on time and under budget. He’s a solu-
tion finder, a problem solver. “He’s very tac-
tile,” Winters says. “He can sit and talk to
the electrician for hours. Or he’ll go on and
on about doorknobs.”
Above: Renner smooches with his daughter, house-f lipping started 15 years ago. He’d All of this came together in his current
Ava, at this year’s Academy Awards. Right: With been knocking around Hollywood for a place, the first one Renner renovated for
co-star Elizabeth Olsen in the upcoming thriller while, paying the bills with Bud Light com- himself. He calls it his forever house: If he
Wind River. mercials and guest parts on forgotten ’90s has it his way, it’ll be the last place he ever
shows; between gigs, he’d work the makeup lives. “It was 100 percent his vision,” Win-
in those moments,” she says, “all of a sudden counter at Lancôme. Then in 2002, he landed ters says. Renner spent $5 million redoing
you really feel safe in their hands.” a supporting role in the ’70s cop-show reboot it — adding guest rooms and hiring an archi-
S.W.A.T. — his first major studio film. tect who helped design the San Diego Zoo
“ YO U WA NT CO F F E E or anything?” Renner Renner had only $200 in the bank. to redo the pool. “It’s a lot,” he admits. “But
asks. He pours us each a mug the size of a But he’s a master at knowing a f inancial if I had to sell it, I would make money.” He
Big Gulp, black, and we head out to his patio, opportunity when he sees one. He used his smiles. “But I’m not going to.”
where he sits at a long table and lights a yellow S.W.A.T. contract to get a loan, and he and a Back inside, Renner takes me on a quick
American Spirit. His hands are large and cal- good friend, an actor named Kristoffer Win- tour of the Nest. He points out details he’s
lused: Even after he’d made it as an actor, he ters, went in together on a modest three- especially proud of, like the recessed base-
had a lucrative side hustle renovating houses, bedroom in Nichols Canyon, about a mile boards (“which is not common”), the wood-
and his ropy forearms and sturdy grip sug- from where we are now. They paid $659,000 burning f ireplace (“you can’t build ’em
gest a man who knows his way around a for the house, added a patio and some land- anymore”), the glass-encased bathrooms
sledgehammer. His fingernails are large and scaping, and sold it a few months later for (“it’s like you’re showering in the damn
pulverized — except for the one on his right $900,000 — more money than they’d ever trees”), and the pulsating control room
pinkie, which is coated in a shimmery pink. made in their lives. that houses all the security and electronics
“My daughter,” Renner explains, holding it up From there, Renner and Winters invested (“the brain of the house”). The whole place
in the sunlight. “Glitter sparkles.” in bigger and bigger properties, from a 1940s is filled with light and is even bigger than it
Ava is with her mom this week, so Renner Spanish-style place near Laurel Canyon looks outside. “You hear it’s 9,000 square
is getting some errands done. He’s got some (bought for $915,000; sold for $2.4 mil- feet and it’s got 10 toilets, and you’re like, ‘Oh
guys coming over to show him some gear for lion) to a 1924 Greek Revival in Hollywood my God, it’s a mausoleum,’ ” says Renner.
his recording studio, and later this afternoon (bought for $1.5 million; sold for $4 million). “But it’s really homey.”
he has a tuxedo fitting before he heads to Winters oversaw the interior design while
Cannes for the Wind River premiere. “I try to Renner handled “the exterior finishes and WALKING THROUGH THE HOUSE, it’s hard not
get all my work stuff done when I don’t have the f low.” They often lived in the houses to notice that Ava’s toys are everywhere — a
FROM LEFT: COURTESY OF JEREMY RENNER; COURTESY OF FRED HAYES/THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY
the baby,” he says. “Because when I have the while renovating them, usually without elec- stuffed fox under the coffee table, a pair of
baby, everyone else can fuck off.” (As for the tricity or running water. When Renner was pink-and-teal Rollerblades wedged under
two slender brunettes chatting in the liv- nominated for an Oscar for The Hurt Locker, the couch. It all seems to emanate from her
ing room, one in denim cutoffs, the other he had to brush his teeth before the ceremony bedroom, a Hurt Locker–esque explosion of
in a Batman T-shirt that just barely covers in a Starbucks bathroom. Still, he always stuffed animals and clothes. We stand outside
her bikini bottom? “That’s Jess and Alison,” knew he’d be OK in Hollywood because her door, and Renner skeptically regards a
Renner says. “They’re just friends.”) even if things didn’t go well, he could just four-foot plush giraffe.
Renner’s backyard has a serious Asian say, “Fuck it. I’ll go build a house.” “She’s got too much shit,” he says.
vibe — bonsai trees, a koi pond, a Bud- In 2009, as the rest of the real estate Renner was 42 when Ava was born. “It
dha, a gong. “I love Japan, dude,” he says. market bottomed out, Renner and Win- was like seeing The Matrix,” he says. “In a
“I got a lot of inspiration from there — and ters had one of their best years ever. Then second, everything just opened up and made
the house had kind of a Zen thing going in 2013, they pulled off their magnum opus perfect sense.” He named her Ava because it’s
anyway.” He planted Japanese maples and — a 10,000-square-foot Art Deco mansion “a classic Hollywood name” but also because
added the walls of bamboo. He also outfit- above Beverly Hills that they bought for $7 it’s a palindrome, like Renner. He has custody
ted the whole place with solar panels. “I million and sold for an eye-popping $24 mil- every other week, he says, and the rest of the
redesigned every square inch,” Renner says lion. Even Marvel paychecks aren’t that big. time she’s with his ex-wife, Sonni Pacheco, a
proudly. “I did way more than I ever would Renner likes flipping houses for the same former stand-in he met on the set of Mission:
if it was a spec house.” reasons he enjoys making movies: the col- Impossible. Pacheco lives down the hill from
He’s done a lot of spec houses. Renner’s laboration, the element of risk, the hustling him, and Renner says they’re cordial enough
57
to do the handoff with no drama. “That’s my In Wind River, Renner plays a hunter to read this thing.’ So I f inally begrudg-
number one thing as a parent,” he says. “Con- for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who ingly sat down and read it, and I was like,
tinuity and consistency.” teams up with a greenhorn FBI agent goddamn. The themes in it, and what I was
I ask him the most fun parts of having (played by Olsen) to solve the murder of a going through in my life — I just couldn’t
a daughter. “Everything’s fun, man. Espe- young woman on Wyoming’s Wind River say no.”
cially at this age.” She loves dance, gym- Indian Reservation. His job is complicated At the time, Renner was coming off a
nastics, musical instruments, swimming. by the fact that he’s an emotional wreck, pretty brutal custody fight. He and Pacheco
Renner tries to keep her from being too still mourning the death of his daughter had split the previous year, and the divorce
girly: “Like this Christmas,” he says, “she got a few years earlier. It’s a fantastic perfor- got gnarly. Pacheco accused Renner of fraud
a princess castle, but she also got a tool set.” mance, one of Renner’s best: Sadness and and claimed he’d endangered Ava’s life by
Renner takes out his phone and pulls up anger play across his face as he swallows his keeping unlocked guns around the house.
a video: It’s Ava, towheaded and adorable, words the same way he’s been swallowed by Renner reportedly alleged that Pacheco was
lying on her back underneath her miniature grief. “Taylor [Sheridan, the screenwriter a negligent mother who’d admitted to mar-
RENNER WEARS JACKET AND SHIRT BY ALLSAINTS.

piano, banging on the strings with a plastic and director] explained it to me in a really rying him only for his money and a green
hammer. Behind the camera, Renner asks interesting way,” Renner says. “He was like, card. The f ight dragged out for months,
her what she’s doing. “I’m tuning my piano!” ‘I wanted to see what happens when you take splashed across the tabloids and TMZ.
she shouts. a piece of granite and a bar of steel, and you “It was awful,” Renner says. “Airing dirty
Friends say Ava is everything to Renner. smash them together.’ That made a lot of laundry, the mudslinging. I don’t give a fuck
“She has her daddy wrapped around her fin- sense to me.”
ger,” Winters says. “The few times in life I’ve The script sat in Renner’s pile for a year
seen him cry were because he missed some- before he got around to reading it. “I wasn’t “If I didn't find the acting thing,” Renner says,
thing of hers — whether because of work or trying to work too much,” he explains. “But “I might have three divorces and a mullet,
because it wasn’t his turn.” my whole team was like, ‘Dude, you’ve got driving a forklift.”
58
about my feelings. But do what’s best for the Renner onstage in New York City in 2015
baby.”
Our tour ends down in Renner’s master own bed,” he says. Plus Ava can see it, which
bedroom, a gigantic suite with two bath- is a first. “I won’t even let her watch Aveng-
rooms and huge walk-through closets on ers,” he says. “The only reason she knows I’m
either side. We stand in one closet, full of Hawkeye is I’m on her pajamas.”
his dress clothes — suits and ties, watches, Renner’s tuxedo fitting is soon, so it’s
vintage Louis Vuitton luggage, and an entire almost time to leave, but first he wants to
drawer just for sunglasses. Renner looks a show me some of his toys. We start in the
little embarrassed. “It’s designed to be his- garage, with his collection of motorcycles:
and-hers,” he says. “This was the ‘his’ closet, a replica Norton Commando (one of just 50
and then the girl’s would be, like, dresses.” built); an electric-powered Zero; and two
But when we walk over to that closet, it too Triumphs, a Speed Triple and a new 1,200cc
is full of Renner’s stuff — T-shirts and jeans Thruxton. Then his cars: the Porsche 914
and motorcycle jackets. “I fill up this whole he’s been rebuilding for a decade; his
stupid thing,” he says. “It’s kind of pathetic.” 2012 Tesla, which he says is the first new
For the first time, Renner looks a little car he’s ever bought; and a futuristic-
lonely. He bought this house before Ava Most people know him for his looking Acura NSX supercar, a gift from
was born, when he and Pacheco were still a movie roles, but Renner’s also Acura (which does product placement in
couple. There must have been a period when a wannabe rocker. the Avengers films).
he pictured the three of them here together, And finally, in the driveway, there’s his
growing old as a family. But now it’s back to Renner got his first taste of performing Ford F-150 Raptor. “I love that big, ol’ truck,”
being just him, and Ava half the time. as a teen, when he played drums in a he says. “It’s a beast of a rig — the thing is
Renner says he would have loved to have garage-rock band called Hot Ice. After just silly. But I need it for Tahoe. It’s essen-
more kids. “I’d like to have eight running moving to L.A. in the 1990s, he practically tially a work vehicle for the ranch.”
around,” he says. “A gaggle, a little clan.” He lived at a Sunset Strip karaoke bar, where The ranch is Renner’s biggest toy of all.
thought about having another girl and nam- he and a crew of regulars — including future He bought it three years ago and just fin-
ing her Hannah, also a palindrome. “But at The Voice winner Alison Porter and fellow ished renovating it: a stone-and-timber
this point,” he says, “that’s not in my future.” aspiring actor Amy Adams (who would later cabin on six acres near Lake Tahoe, across
I tell him you never know, but he shakes co-star with Renner in American Hustle and the Nevada state line. (Officially, Renner’s
his head. “It takes two,” he says. “Doing it Arrival) — would get free drinks in exchange a Nevada resident, which he admits is
alone is not fun. You want to share the expe- for pulling in crowds with their singing. partly “a business decision.” Nevada has no
rience. You kind of want a partner. I’ve done Renner’s repertoire included Bon Jovi, state income tax.) “It’s like Camp Renner
so many amazing, cool-ass things in my life Queen, and occasionally Carly Simon: “We up there,” he says of the spread. “All these
— but I think as we get older, there’s more did it for like a decade — it became a whole little outbuildings and trees, clean water
value in doing something with somebody.” community,” he says. and air.” He’s been teaching Ava to ski. And,
Since then, Renner’s musical side has of course, there are more toys: ATVs and
Renner switches to
B AC K O N T H E PAT I O , made it onto the big screen a few times: In UTVs, motorcycles and snowcats — all the
Marlboro Lights and talks about the future. the Charlize Theron–starring North Country, y goodies a working-class kid from Modesto
Now that he’s no longer a real estate mag- he does karaoke to George Thorogood’s “I could want. (In the words of a wise man: “He
nate, he’s f inding other ways to occupy Drink Alone,” and in The Assassination of has too much shit.”)
himself. His production company, the Com- Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, he “I always wanted that shit as a kid, and I
bine, has several projects in development, performs a Confederate hymn called “Good could never afford it,” Renner says. “So I just
including a Steve McQueen biopic (Renner Ol’ Rebel Soldier.” For his new film, Wind said, ‘Fuck it. I deserve it.’ ”
would play McQueen) and a Doc Holliday River,r Renner did himself one better, writing Renner’s newest acquisition is a giant
TV series (Renner would play Holliday). an original song — an Aerosmith-style tour bus, with bunk beds, a shower, and a
Last year the company released its f irst power ballad called “Garden of Stone.” “I was full kitchen. It’s fun, but it’s also an invest-
film, which Renner wasn’t in, called The sitting at the piano one day watching my ment. Never one to miss an angle, he plans to
Founder, starring Michael Keaton as legend- daughter pick flowers in the garden, and I use it on set, instead of a trailer, and have the
ary McDonald’s chairman Ray Kroc. The realized she never takes notice of this old studio pay him rent. “So they pay me to have
movie got early buzz as an Oscar contender, rock,” he says. “Parenting is not a sexy thing. my own trailer that I like better,” he says,
but it was pushed back several times and was But when someone has fortitude, they’re grinning at the deal. “Over a couple of years,
ultimately kind of a bust. The disappoint- always going to be there.” So he’s the rock? it’ll get paid for, and then I’ll have this great
ment still stings: “Michael was tremendous “I’m the rock,” he says. thing my daughter and I can tool around in
in it,” Renner says. “But these days, unless The song was originally supposed to play and see the country.”
you put on a cape and fly around, it’s tough over the film’s end credits, but, says Renner, I ask him why he thinks he’s always work-
to get asses in seats.” “it’s a big, sweeping song, and it just felt like ing angles like this — the real estate, Nevada,
Speaking of which: The new Avengers is too much.” But you may still hear it the bus — and he cracks up. “Because I was
BRAD BARKET/GETTY IMAGES FOR REMY MARTIN
filming soon. It will be Renner’s fifth time someday: Renner has recorded more than always broke as shit!”
donning the Hawkeye suit, and he insists 50 songs in his home studio and says he’s in Recently, Renner bought the property
he’s looking forward to it. The movie shoots the process of whittling them down for a next to his in Tahoe, an additional three
in Atlanta through the end of the year, and potential album, maybe even two — one with acres. It was a preemptive move. He was
after that, he says, “I can kind of do what- a band and one solo. He wants to do it very worried a developer might build condos on
ever. But I’m not itching to do three mov- organically — release some singles it, so he swooped in and got it before some-
ies next year.” One movie he is doing is an anonymously or put a few songs in movies. one else could.
animated film called Arctic Justice: Thun- “I’m open to anything,” he says. “If enough Of course, being Renner, he already has
der Squad, in which he plays a fox named people want to hear it, I’ll play a show.” plenty of ideas about what to do with it. “I’ll be
Swifty. “It’s so fun — and I get to sleep in my developing it soon,” he says. “But not now.” MJ
“I GOT CONTAINERS
IN THE WATER!”
“RING THE ABANDON

SHIP. TELL
THEM WE’RE GOING
IN. BOW IS DOWN.
BOW IS DOWN!
CHIEF MATE?”
“HEY, CAPTAIN!”
“GET INTO YOUR

RAFTS! THROW ALL
YOUR RAFTS INTO
THE WATER.”
“THROW THE
RAFTS IN THE
WATER. ROGER.”
“EVERYBODY GET
OFF! GET OFF
THE SHIP!”
On a routine passage
The from Florida to Puerto
Rico, a cargo ship
Last Voyage sails into the heart of
a hurricane. No one
of the aboard survives. With
the discovery of its
SS El Faro black-box recording,
we re-create the
ship’s final 26 hours
and the decisions that
sealed its fate.
BY
JEFF WISE
PHOTO
ILLUSTRATION BY
GARRIGOSA STUDIO
62
IT STARTED AS A DIP of low pressure over the Atlantic that gathered a loose circle of
sluggish wind. Ruffled, the summer-warmed sea released more moisture as vapor and the
pressure went down a bit further. The wind picked up, driving big waves and unleashing
more moisture and heat. During the next few days, this chain reaction turned into an
atmospheric buzz saw that spanned hundreds of miles: Hurricane Joaquin.
I
As the Category 4 storm bore down on the Bahamas with winds peaking at 140 miles an
hour, people evacuated and vessels raced for safety. But one ship did not. On October 1,
2015, the SS El Faro — a cargo carrier whose veteran 33-member crew enjoyed modern
navigation and weather technology — sailed into the raging heart of the storm. Everyone
aboard perished in what ranks as the worst U.S. maritime disaster in three decades.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were left to grapple
with a seemingly unanswerable question: Why?
The NTSB launched one of the most comprehensive inquiries in its 50-year history,
interviewing dozens of experts and colleagues, friends, and family members of the crew.
Then, last August, came the crucial discovery: A robot submersible retrieved El Faro’s
voyage data recorder from the three-mile-deep seabed. The black box contained
everything that was said on the ship’s bridge, right up to its final moments afloat.
The transcript reveals a narrative that unfolds in almost cinematic detail, with
foreshadowing, tension, courage, and hubris. Like most tragedies, no one factor brought on
the disaster — but human error was chief among the problems. This is the answer to the
riddle of El Faro’s baffling final path, in the words of the crew members themselves.
SEPTEMBER 30, 5:36 AM As the record-

ing begins, El Faro — Spanish for “the
lighthouse” — is 150 nautical miles
A DOOMED COURSE southeast of Jacksonv ille, Florida,
Hoping to avoid Hurricane Joaquin, El Faro veered off its usual steaming toward San Juan, Puerto
Rico. The sea is calm. In the predawn
course from Jacksonville to Puerto Rico. But Joaquin veered, too.
darkness, the ship’s captain, 53-year-old
Michael Davidson, pores over naviga-
tional charts with 51-year-old chief mate
Steve Shultz.
JACKSON V IL L E
El Faro shuttles the weeklong route
back and forth between Jacksonville and
El
Fa Puerto Rico roughly four times a month,
ro
’s
t yp
as regular as a commuter train, carrying
ic cars and containers filled with groceries,
al
ro
ut clothing, electronics, and other consumer
e
FL ORIDA goods. Today, though, there’s a hiccup.
Th
er
Tropical Storm Joaquin, which has just

ou
been upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane.

te
Sa
El
nJ
The ship can expect 45-mile-an-hour
Fa
ua
ro
n,
P. winds and 12- to 15-foot swells — a rough
to
R
ok
.∂
ride even for the 790-foot El Faro.
San Hurricane Joaquin is 200 miles
Salvador
northeast of the Bahamas and currently
BAHAMAS on a course straight for the islands —
and El Faro’s track line — but the fore-
Rum cast predicts the storm will soon curve
C ay
Old
Ba
to the northwest. If they angle their
ha Hurricane
ma
Ch Joaquin course slightly south, Davidson reasons,
an they’ll scoot through a gap between the
CUB A nel
r ou
te LAST COMMUNICATION islands and the storm.
This would be only a 10-mile diver-
sion, a distance that means the trip will
take just 30 minutes longer and burn a
negligible amount of extra fuel. Still, the
The Untrackable Storm Six major prediction models, including the decision doesn’t seem to sit well with
National Hurricane Center’s official forecast, all misjudged Joaquin. “We Davidson. A 20-year veteran of the U.S.
ILLUSTRATION BY JP LONG
didn’t forecast it to get as strong as it did,” says James Franklin, chief of forecast Merchant Marine, he had applied for
operations with the NHC, noting that Joaquin was the most powerful October a transfer to a newer ship with TOTE
storm to hit the Bahamas in 150 years. Because Joaquin was able to hold together
better than predicted, the storm moved in an unexpected direction. Jeff Wise is the author of Extreme Fear:
The Science of Your Mind in Danger.
MEN’S JOURNAL
Maritime, El Faro’s shipping company. storm — it’s not even that windy out. I’ve
He may have thought that even a minute seen worse,’ ” she tells Riehm.
amount of extra expense wouldn’t help Even the amended route El Faro is on
his cause. exposes it to the risk of getting trapped
“We’re not that much off course,” between the storm and the shallow
Davidson says, as if to reassure himself. waters of the Bahamas. “It’s nothing —
“It’s a good little diversion. Are you feelin’ it’s nothing!” Randolph says, quoting
comfortable with that, Chief Mate?” Davidson. “I think he’s trying to play it
“Yes, sir,” Shultz says and adds, “The down because he realizes we shouldn’t
other option is drastic.” have come this way. Saving face.”
That option is a more southerly route Minutes later, Davidson returns to the
called the Old Bahama Channel, which bridge, complaining that the engine room
would require the ship to turn 90 degrees isn’t giving him as much speed as he’d like.
to the right, sail 200 miles south, then “Oh yeah?” Randolph asks. “I think
turn east, and sail along the northern Capt. Michael now it’s not a matter of speed. When we
coast of Cuba, sheltered by the islands of get there, we get there — as long as we
the Bahamas. The ride would be much Davidson arrive in one piece.”
smoother, but the trip to San Juan would
be 160 miles longer — six hours’ sailing In the maritime world, Maine
time and about $5,000 in extra fuel. native Michael Davidson had it 3:45 PM By the time chief mate Shultz
“It doesn’t warrant it,” Davidson says. made. He’d joined TOTE Maritime, the returns for his 4 PM to 8 PM shift, the
“Can’t run from every weather pattern.” company that owned El Faro, in 2012, ocean swell has increased to eight feet,
“Not for a 40-knot wind.” signing on as a third mate and working the crests whipped into whitecaps by
“Now, that would be the action for up to captain. That made him the the stiffening wind. The deck crew has
some guy that’s never been anywhere highest-ranking officer on the largest tightened the lashings that hold El Faro’s
else.” The captain mimics a panicky voice: category of ship in the U.S. cargo fleet, 391 containers in place on the deck and
“ Oh my God! Oh my God!” with pay in the $200,000-plus range. scoured the ship to make sure everything
Davidson had endured plenty of rough But he’d also learned the hazards of has been secured.
water, including a decade running oil not toeing a company line. El Faro’s sister ship, El Yunque, is 33
tankers from the legendarily stormy Gulf Before working for TOTE, Davidson miles abeam, heading in the opposite
of Alaska to the West Coast. He noted one was a captain for Crowley Maritime in direction toward Jacksonville. Shultz
particular voyage across the Atlantic in Jacksonville — but he lost that job after calls on the radio for a chat. El Yunque’s
the transcript: “We had a gust registered refusing to sail a ship because he said chief mate tells him that they put on
at 102 knots. It was the roughest storm I the vessel’s steering was unsafe. speed to outrace Joaquin but still got
had ever been in — ever.” At TOTE, two months before beat up pretty bad. At one point, they
“It should be fine,” Davidson says, then Hurricane Joaquin, Davidson took a recorded gusts of more than 100 miles
corrects himself. “We are gonna be fine, 160-mile detour to avoid Tropical Storm an hour. “You are going the wrong way,”
not should be. We are gonna be fine.” Erika. That extra time and fuel may have the chief mate says.
To the east, the sky is growing bright. made him look bad in management’s When Davidson returns to the bridge,
“Oh, look at that red sky over there. ‘Red eyes. In the black-box transcript, he Shultz does not pass along this warning.
in the morning, sailors take warning,’ ” agrees with his chief mate that he’s “in “There could be a chance that we
Davidson says, quoting the old seafarers’ line for the choppin’ block.” TOTE had could turn around?” asks the helmsman
saw. “That is bright.” ordered two brand-new natural-gas- on duty, 49-year-old Frank Hamm.
powered ships for Davidson’s route, and “Oh, no, no, no,” says Davidson.
he’d applied to be captain. He’d been “We’re not gonna turn around.”
11:45 AM The morning opens into a fine turned down for one and wasn’t
tropical day, blue skies with temperatures optimistic about getting the other.
in the high 80s. But the swell has started As for his management style, crew 6:51 PM As twilight settles, Davidson
to build with the energy of Joaquin, still members described Davidson as comes up from his office to find Shultz
some 300 miles away. magnanimous but arrogant, with little standing watch. “I just sent you the latest
At noon, 34-year-old second mate interest in the details of running a ship. weather,” Davidson tells him. Four times
Danielle Randolph begins her shift on the Seaman Kurt Bruer, who had worked a day, the captain receives a forecast
bridge. Randolph is a popular member of under Davidson, calls him “one of the from a private meteorological service he
the crew, an extrovert with a passion for laziest captains I’d ever sailed with,” subscribes to called Bon Voyage System
pumpkin-spice coffee and a penchant for saying that Davidson spent most of his (BVS). Its colorful graphics, with areas
singing along with the radio. time in his cabin instead of walking the of severe weather in yellow and danger-
By now the ship is approaching the ship as other captains would do. ous weather in red, are easy to under-
f irst of the Bahamian islands, Little Still, others who have borne the stand, and Davidson relies on the reports
Abaco. Third mate Jeremie Riehm tells responsibility of captaining a ship say exclusively, ignoring the hurricane alerts
Randolph about the slightly altered Davidson’s failure to deal with Joaquin and National Weather Service (NWS)
MICHAEL DAVIDSON/FACEBOOK
course that Davidson has laid out. As sec- could have happened to any leader. “He updates that are printed out and posted
ond mate, Randolph is responsible for the seemed like a pretty normal captain,” on the bridge, and are the standards
ship’s navigation. She makes clear that says George Collazo, a Seattle-based most captains use.
she doesn’t think the captain is taking ship captain. “He could have done the What Davidson doesn’t know is that
Joaquin seriously enough. “He’s telling same thing 100 times and been fine.” the BVS forecasts are up to 21 hours out-
everybody down there, ‘Oh, it’s not a bad of-date, and their estimate of Joaquin’s
MEN’S JOURNAL
location is off by as much as 500 miles. Joaquin has been upgraded to a Category
The free NWS reports are timelier and 3 hurricane, with winds of more than 111
more accurate. miles an hour. As if on cue, three min-
But by now, even the BVS forecast has utes later, the ship lurches violently to the
grown ominous. It shows the storm con- left, nearly knocking Randolph and the
tinuing on its southern course toward the helmsman off their feet.
Bahamas and El Faro. Davidson plots a “Whoa!” the helmsman shouts. “Big-
new course that will take them around gest one since I’ve been up here. This is
San Salvador Island, which, according fixing to get interesting.”
to the BVS chart, will provide shelter and “Mistaaake,” Randolph drawls.
limit the size of the swells.
However, the three off icers have
been watching more accurate forecasts O C T O B E R 1 , 1 :2 0 A M El Faro
and have a much clearer idea of what’s approaches Rum Cay. If Randolph is
in store. All three tell Davidson they’re Second Mate going to make a turn to the south, she’ll
concerned about the ship’s course, but have to do it soon.
the captain is unfazed. Danielle Randolph “I’m going to give the captain a call,”
Davidson leaves the bridge at 8 PM, just she says. When Davidson finally picks up,
after third mate Riehm relieves Shultz. “I Growing up in coastal Maine, it’s clear he’s been asleep. “It isn’t looking
will definitely be up for the better part of Danielle Randolph felt the good,” Randolph tells him, then explains
your watch,” Davidson tells Riehm. “So seafaring urge at an early age. When her her idea. Davidson isn’t convinced. He
if you see anything you don’t like, don’t mother, Laurie Bobillot, burst into tears tells her the worst of the storm will soon be
hesitate to give me a shout.” He heads to while saying goodbye on Danielle’s first behind them, so she should stay on course.
his stateroom for the night. day of kindergarten, she scolded: She hangs up and turns to the helmsman.
As he leaves, the National Hurricane “Mama, how am I going to learn about “He said to run it.”
Center upgrades Joaquin to a Category 2, boats if you don’t let me go to school?” At this point, Randolph has a choice.
with winds of 105 miles an hour. Sure enough, she went on to enroll at the Her captain has given her an order that
Maine Maritime Academy, then began she knows could have a terrible outcome.
sailing for TOTE at age 24. “If she had it She can follow it, putting her crew mates
10:30 PM As the night drags on, the in her mind to do something, says in certain danger, or she can take mat-
weather gets progressively worse. Bands Bobillot, “nothing was going to stop her.” ters into her own hands and turn the ship
of heavy rain and gale-force winds lash At sea, Randolph was consummately toward a hope of safety.
the ship as El Faro enters the main body professional but rarely staid. Even in the Going rogue, though, is not an option
of the storm system, an area of rainfall thick of a crisis, she would crack a joke or for Danielle Randolph. To defy Davidson’s
the size of South Carolina. go brew someone a fresh cup of coffee. order is the kind of insubordination that
In the control room, Randolph contin- A decade in the Merchant Marine, would get her fired upon arrival in San
ues to worry about their predicament. If though, had begun to take its toll. Life Juan. The chain of command has ruled life
they were in the open ocean and the storm aboard El Faro meant 12-hour at sea for centuries, and for good reason:
grew dangerous, they could turn tail and workdays with rest broken up into odd A crew’s safety is dependent on discipline,
run, but as it is, their options are limited, hours between her midday and with no room for dissension. A captain’s
with the ship hemmed in by the islands midnight shifts. She told her friends unquestioned authority is something a
and reefs to the southwest. that El Faro was a “rust bucket” and mariner accepts with the job.
“We don’t have much space,” she marveled, in particular, at the So, instead of turning south, Randolph
tells her helmsman. “Not much wiggle inadequacy of the obsolete open-deck instructs the helmsman to continue east.
room, you know, ’cause it’s so shallow lifeboats. She had been reluctant to Directly into the storm.
everywhere.” sail with El Faro on this voyage but felt
“I don’t like our chances,” the helms- that she had to in order to get her
man says. 10-week rotation over by Christmas. 1:55 AM A particularly large wave
At 12:26 AM, the satcom printer, which Still, she never hesitated to obey slams into the ship. “That was a good
provides the latest updates from the orders. Like many mariners, she had one,” Randolph says. “Def initely lost
NWS, chatters to life and spits out a new family ties to the sea — her mother some speed. Although we’re not doing
report. Randolph tears it off and reads. was in the Navy — and was raised to the max RPMs.”
Joaquin hasn’t turned, as all the forecasts respect the Merchant Marine’s The ship’s engine burns oil to gener-
predicted. In fact, it’s grown stronger, military-like pecking order. Upon ate steam, which drives the turbine that
and they’re heading right into it. joining, she had sworn to “faithfully turns the propeller. It’s technology that
“I may have a solution,” Randolph and honestly carry out the lawful was familiar to sailors during Titanic’s
says. She shows the helmsman the chart. orders of my superior officers.” era. If the boiler can’t generate enough
Around 2 AM, they’ll pass Rum Cay. At Bobillot confirms her daughter’s heat, the propeller’s revolutions per min-
that point, they can turn south and head mind-set: “She was going to obey orders ute will fall and the ship will slow. The
for Crooked Island Passage. They’ll avoid 40-year-old El Faro had reportedly suf-
DANIELLE RANDOLPH/FACEBOOK
even if she knew it was wrong.”

hurricane-force winds, and once through Just before she embarked on the El fered loss of propulsion at sea before, and
the passage, they’ll be sheltered from the Faro run, Randolph told her mother, “If its boilers were scheduled to be repaired
swell by the islands. “From there we anything happens to me when I’m out later that fall.
connect with the Old Bahama Channel,” at sea, it’s OK, because that’s where I A little-known quirk of the power-
Randolph says. want to be.” plant design was that if the ship listed,
A weather report comes on the radio: or leaned over, more than 15 degrees —
MEN’S JOURNAL
65
THE PERILS OF A 40-YEAR-OLD SHIP

A U.S. Coast Guard report said that if El Faro were built today, it “would not meet
current damage stability standards.” Here’s why.
OUTDATED LIFEBOATS El Faro carried two A DYING INDUSTRY Antiquated ships are not A CORRODED BOAT Built in 1975, El Faro
open-air lifeboats. “Today, a vessel like that unusual in the U.S. Merchant Marine. Once the was some four times older than the average
would be required to have totally enclosed, world leader, the U.S. fleet has been in decline container ship at sea. One sister ship,
motor-driven lifeboats,” marine safety since World War II and survives only because El Morro, had recently been scrapped
consultant Robert Markle told investigators. of a law called the Jones Act, which restricts because its aging steel hull was so
Such vessels, which can be launched from shipping between U.S. ports to American- corroded. El Faro’s other sister ship,
the inside so that no one is left behind, can flagged ships and crews. The industry limps El Yunque, was taken out of service in 2016
turn right-side-up if they capsize. “If they on within this protected safe zone. The because of extensive corrosion.
had enclosed lifeboats,” says former El Faro reason? Money. American mariners are
seaman Kurt Bruer, “they would have been expensive. It costs millions of dollars a year
able to survive.” more to operate a ship under a U.S. flag than
with foreign crews. Were it not for the money
the U.S. shipbuilding industry makes, the
government might scrap the Jones Act
altogether and let U.S. shipping die off.
31.5 2 790 391 294

TONS 43-PERSON LIFEBOATS FEET LONG CONTAINERS TRAILERS AND CARS
an unlikely possibility — the lubricating hits. “That was a doozy,” Randolph says, “Well, this is every day in Alaska,”
oil would run to one side and the engine nervously laughing. “We won’t be able to Davidson retorts.
would stop. It’s a problem that is less take more of those.” Shultz points out that the ship is listing
likely to occur on modern ships. Minutes later another wave hits, and to the right. The wind is hitting El Faro’s
“Damn sure don’t want to lose the this one nearly knocks Randolph off her exposed left flank, pushing it even further
plant,” the helmsman says, referring to feet. An electronic alarm sounds, warning to the right side.
El Faro’s engine. That’s because a ship that the ship’s autopilot has been shoved “Yeah,” the captain says. “The only way
is designed to plunge through heavy off course by the force of waves that have to do a counter on this is to fill the port-
weather bow first. But with insufficient grown too big for it to handle. side ramp tank up.” In other words, they
power, wind and swell will cause it to list can pump stored water from the right side
sideways, exposing a vulnerable f lank. to the left side of the ship, to help steady it
Soon the ship could take on and fill with 4:09 AM Shultz arrives on the bridge against the wind. If they don’t, the list will
water, then capsize. and relieves Randolph, who goes below continue and the powerplant could fail.
deck and staggers to her cabin. There she While Davidson goes to get breakfast,
writes an email to her mother: “We are the chief engineer phones to tell Shultz
2:44 AM Over the next hour, Joaquin heading straight for the hurricane. Give that the engine lubricating oil is acting
batters the ship with increasing inten- my love to everyone.” up. Evidently, shifting the water hasn’t
sity. Waves break over the bow, sending On the bridge, Davidson returns worked. It’s time for plan B: Turn El Faro
torrents of water surging over the deck. after an eight-hour absence. The winds into the wind. Davidson rushes back to
Explosions of spray splatter the windows raking the ship are 100-plus miles per the bridge. “Going to steer right up into
of the bridge. Unseen clankings reverber- hour, but Davidson feigns nonchalance. it,” he declares. “Let’s put it in hand-
ate over the howling of the wind as the “There’s nothing bad about this ride,” he steering.” To prevent a more drastic list,
ILLUSTRATION BY TODD DETWILER
storm wrenches away loose fittings. says. When Shultz asks if he’s managed they need to point the bow directly into
“Figured the captain would be up to get any sleep, he says he’s been “sleep- the hurricane-force wind. But that’s no
here,” says the helmsman. ing like a baby.” easy feat. El Faro is now in the eye wall
“I thought so, too,” says Randolph. “Not me,” Shultz says. of a hurricane that is strengthening from
“He’ll play hero tomorrow,” the helms- “What? Who’s not sleepin’ good? How Category 3 to Category 4. Thirty-foot
man says. come?” waves, their crests whipped to foam by
A few minutes later, a massive wave “I didn’t like it.” 115-mile-an-hour winds, hammer the
MEN’S JOURNAL
66
ship every 10 seconds. The wind howl-

ing against the bridge sounds like a jet 7:28 AM Shultz calls in on a walkie-
engine on takeoff.
WHY talkie to report that everybody has mus-
tered on the starboard side. “Captain, you
5:43 AM “We got a prrroooblem,” David-

EL FARO getting ready to abandon ship?”
“Yeah, what I’d like to make sure is
son says. Engineering has called with CAPSIZED everybody has their immersion suits, and
more bad news. How an antiquated get a good head count.”
A type of hatch called a scuttle, located engine and hurricane- A minute later, Randolph lets out
between cargo decks, has f lown open, a yell. “I got containers in the water!”
force winds brought
allowing water to f lood the hull of the Ravaged by the 115-mile-an-hour wind
ship. A lot of water sloshing in an open down a 31-ton vessel. and bashed by crashing waves, stacks of
hold makes a ship incredibly unstable containers on the deck have started to
and prone to capsizing. Efforts to seal the plunge into the ocean. The ship is com-
hatch fail, so Davidson orders the crew to ing apart.
run water pumps to remove the seawater. “Ring the abandon ship,” Davidson
He tells Shultz to go check it out. orders.
The chief engineer calls in soon after. A high-frequency bell tone rings in
“OK,” Davidson tells him, “I’m going to seven short pulses, followed by a long
turn the ship and get the wind on the pulse. “Tell them we’re going in,” says
starboard side. Give us a port list.” David- Davidson loudly.
son hopes that with the ship leaning in Randolph asks if she can get her life
the other direction, the water will drain vest. Davidson says yes and asks her to
away and they can secure the hatch. bring his and one for helmsman Hamm.
Sensing that the ship is in trouble, “I need them, too!” Hamm yells.
Randolph returns to the bridge in her El Faro’s engine burned oil to “Please!”
off-duty clothes. Davidson greets her generate steam, which drove the “OK, buddy, relax,” Davidson says. “Go
with a friendly “Hi!” and tells her about turbine that turned the propeller. ahead, Second Mate.”
the hatch. A few minutes later, Randolph When the old boilers couldn’t Randolph leaves, and the captain and
notices that the engine power is falling produce enough heat, the the helmsman are alone on the bridge.
and asks, “Did we come down on the propeller’s RPMs fell off, and the The ship is taking on water fast. The
RPM, or did they do that?” referring to ship slowed. Winds pummeled its morning light is strong enough now that,
the engine room. left (port) side, and it began to through the rain and spray, Davidson can
Davidson says he didn’t ask them to lean right (starboard). When it see the front of the ship slip beneath the
reduce power. It’s more than worrying. hit a critical 15-degree list, roiling surface. “Bow is down,” Davidson
A loud thump comes from outside. lubricating oil ran to its right side says. “Bow is down!”
“There goes the lawn furniture,” says Ran- and the engine stopped. Without He calls Shultz on the radio: “Chief
dolph, likely seeing objects on the deck power to move forward, it filled Mate, Chief Mate.”
start to come untethered. with water and capsized. “Hey, Captain!” Shultz shouts over the
“I’m not liking this list,” Davidson says. freight-train roar of the storm.
A few seconds later, the engine RPMs “Get into your rafts!” the captain yells.
drop. He turns to Randolph: “I think we “Throw all your rafts into the water.”
just lost the plant.” “All hell’s gonna break loose,” Davidson “Throw the rafts in the water. Roger.”
says. Somewhere, alarm bells are ringing “Everybody get off!” Davidson shouts.
and rescue teams are saddling up. “Get off the ship. Stay together!”
6:55 AM By now the goal is no longer to “Wake ever ybody up!” Davidson On the bridge, Hamm has slipped
get to San Juan but to simply keep the ship shouts. “Wake ’em up!” He adds: “We’re on the now steeply pitched deck and is
af loat. With each swell, El Faro lurches going to be good. We’re going to make it.” having trouble climbing up. Each time
further onto its right side. Shultz hurries back to the bridge. “I the ship lurches, the slope gets steeper.
“How long we supposed to be in this think that water level’s rising, Captain.” “Cap . . . Cap,” he’s saying.
storm?” Hamm asks. But he can’t determine where the water is “What? Come on, Hamm. Gotta move.
“Should get better all the time,” David- flooding in. “I saw cars bobbing around.” You gotta get up. You gotta snap out of it.”
son says. “We’re on the back side of it.” “All right, we’re going to ring the gen- “OK,” Hamm says. “Help me.”
Davidson makes a satellite phone eral alarm here and wake everybody up,” “You gotta get to safety, Hamm,”
call to Capt. John Lawrence, the head of Davidson says. “We’re definitely not in Davidson pleads.
TOTE’s emergency response team and good shape right now.” Hamm is becoming increasingly pan-
the man responsible for coordinating Davidson tells Shultz to “muster all the icked. “You’re going to leave me.”
rescue efforts. Instead of abandoning El mates,” then calls the engine room: “Cap- “I’m not leaving you! Let’s go!”
Faro, Davidson tells him, “No one’s pan- tain here. Just want to let you know I am Hamm lets out a primal scream. “I
ILLUSTRATION BY TODD DETWILER
icking. Everybody’s been made aware. going to ring the general alarm . . . . We’re need somebody to help me! You don’t
Our safest bet is to stay with the ship. The not going to abandon ship or anything just want to help me?”
weather is ferocious out here.” yet. All right? We’re gonna stay with it.” “I’m the only one here, Hamm.”
After he hangs up, Davidson tells Ran- Davidson hangs up, turns to the crew “I can’t!” Hamm yells. “I’m a goner.”
dolph to send a satellite distress signal. on the bridge, and shouts, “Ring it!” “No, you’re not!” Davidson shouts.
“Roger.” The satellite terminal chirps: A series of high-pitch tones blare Hamm screams as the deck lurches
Message sent. The time is 7:13 AM. throughout the ship. ever steeper. The voices cut out.
MEN’S JOURNAL
TOTE for $500,000 each in pain and
7:39 AM Thousands of tons of water suffering and undisclosed amounts
crash onto El Faro’s exposed left f lank. for financial loss. Insurers paid TOTE
Destabilized by flooding below decks, the $36 million for the ship’s loss. Last
ship eases past the critical angle. The deck May, those insurers launched a lawsuit
rises up to vertical, then past it, and like against StormGeo, the company that
a toppled seven-story building, it breaks owns Bon Voyage System, claiming
apart. Containers stacked on the fore and that its outdated reports were to blame
aft decks scatter like Jenga blocks as sea- for the disaster. Apart from settling
water surges into the shattered hull. accounts, anger remains. “The laws need
The crew members mustered below to be changed,” says Kurt Bruer, a sea-
are unable to launch the lifeboats. Even man who had worked on El Faro. “The
if they could, the open-top boats would industry is more interested in protect-
likely capsize almost immediately. The life ing the Jones Act [the law that requires
jackets and immersion suits are likewise Helmsman that only U.S. ships sail to and from U.S.
useless. Simply put, trying to abandon El ports] than they are about safety. They
Faro in the teeth of a Category 4 hurricane Frank Hamm don’t care about us mariners — we’re just
is suicide, and the crew doubtless knew it. replaceable bodies.”
A hundred feet beneath the roiling Forty-nine-year-old Frank Hamm The NTSB, still working on its inves-
waves, where the morning light fades into joined the Merchant Marine when tigation, does not expect to issue a final
perpetual black, the sea is calm. Torn-off he moved to the port city of Jacksonville, report until this fall. (Both TOTE and
sections of the ship ride downward toward Florida, in 1995. He rose to the rank of StormGeo, citing the unfinished investi-
it, streaming bubbles, followed by a tor- able seaman, entrusted with physically gation, declined comment for this story.)
rent of man-made objects: containers, steering a 31,000-ton ship. Even if the NTSB proposes new regula-
cars, air conditioners. They fall three “He talked about the amazing career tions, there will be powerful industry
miles down, into the quiet. it was, how he loved to travel,” says his resistance to any money-spending mea-
wife, Rochelle, adding that wherever sures. Mandating closed lifeboats for older
Hamm would go, he’d collect a souvenir ships, for instance, would be opposed
THE AFTERMATH The Coast Guard in shot glass to display in his man cave at strongly by ship owners as being overly
Portsmouth, Virginia, picks up El Faro’s home. On land, Hamm doted on his five expensive, says Robert Markle, a marine
emergency signal. They spend a day try- kids and three grandkids, and loved safety consultant for the Coast Guard.
ing to radio the ship. Days later, once the watching cartoons with the youngest. “This whole tragedy has opened my
storm has subsided, they send an HC-130 “The old-school ones,” laughs Rochelle, eyes so much,” says Bobillot. She reels off
reconnaissance plane from Clearwater, “Popeye, Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo.” a litany of safety shortcomings aboard El
Florida. It spots nothing. In 2011, the helmsman had a career Faro, from a shortage of emergency loca-
When Danielle Randolph’s mother, highlight: Hundreds of miles out at sea, tor beacons to the lack of closed lifeboats.
Laurie Bobillot, opens the last email that he spotted a lone boat in the distance. “Had I known half of what I know now, I
her daughter sent her, she immediately The two fishermen aboard had lost power would have totally discouraged Danielle
fears the worst. The sign-off — “Give my and been adrift for three days. Hamm’s from shipping out,” she says. Then she
love to everyone” — sounds like a farewell. keen vision saved their lives. laughs ruefully. “I don’t know if she would
Three days after the sinking, a Coast have listened to her mother.” MJ
Guard helicopter sees a body floating in
an immersion suit but is unable to retrieve
it. No other remains are ever found.
The immediate reaction was to ques-
tion the judgment of Michael Davidson.
“I don’t think he believed he was going
to get into 100-knot winds, even though
the data was right there in front of him,”
FROM TOP: COURTESY OF HAMM FAMILY; NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD/AP
says Seattle-based ship captain George

Collazo, who has done research on the
causes of maritime disasters. “You do
something so many times and it always
comes out right — you start to get a feel-
ing of invulnerability.” However, Collazo
adds, in the shipping industry, a captain’s
job is defined not simply by getting from
point A to point B, but by how well he
leads and listens to his crew.
By spring 2017, all of El Faro crew’s
next of kin had settled claims against
On November 12, 2015, a U.S. Navy submersible

discovers the torn-off bridge of the SS El Faro,
resting 15,000 feet below the ocean’s surface.
THIS LAND IS OUR
by
ABE STREEP
photograph by
CHRIS
DOUGLAS

A SCRAPPY CREW OF HUNTERS AND ANGLERS
LED BY MONTANAN LAND TAWNEY ARE
MARSHALING THEIR POLITICAL MUSCLE TO
FIGHT FOR AMERICA’S LAST WILD PLACES.
ISSOULA, Montana, never suf- a handful of brawny guys drinking beer. organized fish tales, during which Newberg
M fers a dearth of pickup trucks,

but the number of jacked-up
4x4s rises dramatically in late
April. That’s when Backcoun-
Land Tawney, BHA’s 42-year-old president,
is a ruddy-faced, fifth-generation Montanan
who calls creeks “cricks” and could fit a pen
in the gap between his front teeth. He owns
tells a Garrison Keillor–esque yarn about his
uncle throwing a treble hook into his dad’s
crotch. Then a 10-year-old girl takes the
stage. Her name is Lola, and she’s from Wis-
try Hunters & Anglers gathers for its annual more than 20 guns. In an era when much of consin. Along with her parents, she screens
three-day Rendezvous, with camo-clad his- the GOP is intent on transferring or selling a simple film that consists entirely of her
tory lessons, camp cook-offs featuring meals off vast swaths of public land (mostly in the catching fish. Every time she hooks up, the
like Arizona javelina, and lectures on the West), Tawney represents an aggressive line crowd roars. At the end of the film, she takes
finer points of field-dressing an ungulate. At of defense for America’s wild places. Since he the stage and says, “My name’s Lola, and I’m
a standing-room-only seminar titled “Use took the reins in 2013, BHA has grown ten- a public land owner from Wisconsin!”
the Whole Animal,” topics range from elk fold, largely because of Tawney’s ability to At that, Tawney stands up, pumps his
tongue preparation (parboil it) to whether create this bipartisan coalition. fist, and howls thunderously.
brain really tastes like sausage. (It does.) One of his more charming habits is a ten-
The crowd here is a mix of biologists, dency to compare politicians to dogs. “The
military vets, TV hunting personalities, for- dog understands the stick,” Tawney says,
P
UBLIC LAND in America exists
mer hippies, and ardent Trump supporters. “and so do politicians.” Recently he has been largely because of hunters. Theo-
All are dedicated to one issue: the preserva- using the stick to great effect. This spring, dore Roosevelt and George Bird
tion of America’s wild public lands. Many Tawney took on former Utah Congressman Grinnell formed the Boone and
are wearing sweatshirts emblazoned with Jason Chaffetz — who resigned in the sum- Crockett Club in 1887 in order to
the phrase PUBLIC LAND OWNER, a rallying cry mer to take a job as a political pundit at Fox protect Yellowstone National Park from min-
for the nonprofit group. During an awards News — after the representative introduced a ing and railroad interests. The group was
luncheon, a muscled guy from Wyoming bill to “dispose” of 3 million acres of federally responsible for many of conservation’s early
managed public land. Tawney countered by victories, including legislation allowing the
LAND
mounting a fierce grassroots response: At a president to set aside “forest reserves” — a
rally at Montana’s capitol organized by his crucial precursor to Roosevelt’s establish-
group, a thousand protesters in cowboy hats ment of national forests and monuments.
and camo crammed the corridors, denounc- In the latter half of the 20th century,
ing the bill. however, hunters slowly ceded much of their
BHA helped launch similar efforts in political clout to the National Rif le Asso-
Idaho and New Mexico. Chaffetz eventu- ciation, which mostly focused its efforts on
ally stood down, and shortly thereafter, in fighting gun control. So protection of public
a combative press release, Tawney issued lands often fell to big legacy organizations,
something of a warning: “[Chaffetz’s] fellow including the Nature Conservancy, or left-
lawmakers should take note of the ire and leaning groups like the Wilderness Soci-
rapid response by hunters and anglers. We ety, whose environmental concerns often
aren’t going away.” clashed with those of locals dependent on
Tawney’s role at the Rendezvous includes extractive industries — oil and gas work-
says he’s skeptical of climate change but greeting his tribe, meeting with BHA’s 24 ers — as well as with ranchers and loggers.
nonetheless opposes the state’s Republican nationwide chapter chairs, and managing his Federal land is managed for “multiple
congresswoman, Liz Cheney, on account of full-time staff of 14, who oversee the event. use,” meaning the government’s supervision
her support for transferring federal lands to Throughout the weekend there are plenty of of it must plan for recreation and conserva-
the states. At an outdoor wild-game feast, VIPs to glad-hand, among them Montana tion in addition to drilling and grazing. But
I run into a blue-eyed 33-year-old woman Gov. Steve Bullock, bigwigs from sponsors this has created a cauldron of conf licting
named Lauren, who says she got into hunt- including Yeti, and hook-and-bullet celebri- interests that have occasionally come to a
ing because “I thought it was important to ties like Randy Newberg, a TV host on the boil. The most recent land-transfer flare-up
ILLUSTRATION BY DEEP BEAR
take responsibility for meat-eating, karmi- Sportsman Channel. But Tawney appears started roughly five years ago, not long before
cally.” Now she’s hooked on killing. Her most focused on the next generation, lis- Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy mounted an
entry in the cook-off is a cougar pinwheel tening in on a session about millennial armed insurrection against federal agents.
roast stuffed with morels. recruitment and introducing himself to It was also around the time when industry-
Across the tent, a reddish-blond man in BHA’s younger members. The Rendezvous’ friendly groups had started a campaign to
a blue shirt and camo vest yucks it up with most popular event is story night, essentially persuade Americans that the government
69
was botching the management of their land. was the pick of the litter for sure.”
Their general argument is that states can So far, in the early days of the Trump AWNEY OFTEN wears muck boots
manage the acreage more efficiently than
the federal government. But states have a
poor track record of keeping the land public:
70 percent of the roughly 200 million acres
administration, Tawney has helped stall the
most direct attacks on public land, includ-
ing Chaffetz’s bill, but there are plenty of
worrying developments — most notably a
T and camo to his office, a brick-
walled space where dogs roam
freely. Fly-tying materials sit on
shelves, and taxidermied ducks
that were given to states upon their entering Trump-ordered review of national monu- adorn the walls. When I come to visit, Taw-
the union has since been sold or transferred ments, including Utah’s Bears Ears, which ney’s new puppy, a black Lab named Tule,
to private interests such as landowners and Zinke recently suggested shrinking. Utah’s romps around, and Tawney’s iPhone buzzes
companies. Much of the remaining acreage congressional delegation, however, would constantly. The ringtone is the call of a
has been leased out to extractive industries prefer to do away with it altogether. drake mallard.
that have limited or cut off access. “The precedent of undoing a monument Tawney is not shy about implying that he
This is the nightmare scenario that Taw- could have dire consequences,” says Tawney. was born for this role. One afternoon, while
ney envisions if the large-scale transfers “We don’t want that precedent set in any way.” taking me on a tour of his family’s property,
that the GOP supports become a reality, Following Zinke’s recommendation on in a steep canyon outside Missoula, he notes
and he’s turned the matter into his animat- Bears Ears, BHA issued a press release criti- with pride that Jim Posewitz, the author of
ing mission. “It’s not a political game for cal of the move and asked its membership to Beyond Fair Chase, a seminal backcountry
him,” says Kai Anderson, former deputy flood the Interior Department with input on hunting book, drove his mother, Robin, to
chief of staff for Sen. Harry Reid and now
a lobbyist who works on the issue. “It’s
‘What’s the right outcome from a sports-
man’s perspective?’ ”
Last summer, the Republican National
Committee went so far as to add transfer of
lands from the federal government to the
states — a process called divestiture — to
its platform. Now, under President Trump,
pro-transfer Republicans are eager to carry
it out, and environmental groups have about
as much sway at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
as Howard Dean. That leaves swing-voting
hunters as the rare conservation-minded bloc
with access to the administration.
“[BHA] is seen as more credible,” says
Athan Manuel, who oversees public land
issues for the Sierra Club. “We’re saying
the same thing, but they probably do vote
Republican more than Sierra Club mem-
bers do.”
There are other conservation-minded
groups trying to stem the land-transfer tide
— among them Trout Unlimited and the
National Wildlife Federation — but few have
had the effect of BHA. “Their political clout
is all connected to the turnout, the energy
they’re able to harness,” says Peter Aengst, the monument review process, generating Tawney addresses his BHA following at the
who helps oversee public land issues for the nearly 15,000 comments. But Tawney has yet organization’s Missoula Rendezvous.
Wilderness Society. “You know that saying, to organize the kind of rallies that moved the
‘The world is shaped by those who show up’? needle on the Chaffetz bill — a sign, perhaps, the hospital on the day of his birth. “My dad
Well, BHA members show up.” of his choosing his battles carefully. “The was out fishing,” Tawney says, smiling.
BHA now has a budget of $2.5 million minute you put your foot in Zinke’s ass,” he Phil Tawney, Land’s father, was the
and 13,000 members, a number that grows says, “you lose an ally.” first attorney for the Rocky Mountain Elk
monthly. Recently, some high-profile names Tawney finds himself in a delicate posi- Foundation and a prominent early Montana
have joined the cause, notably MMA fight tion. To win his war, he must rally his conservationist; he also served as executive
analyst and podcast phenom Joe Rogan, bipartisan coalition of hunters, anglers, and director of the state’s Democratic Party.
as well as Donald Trump Jr., who became other conservationists; convince gun lov- Land was named for Land Lindbergh, a
a lifetime member in 2015. “I was ready to ers to criticize legislators supported by the family friend and the third son of the avia-
be unimpressed,” Tawney says of Trump NRA; and go to battle with land-transfer tor Charles. Land shot his first whitetail at
Jr. “But I was encouraged by his acumen advocates who are backed by some of the 14, Phil smearing blood under his son’s eyes
and knowledge of conservation history. He most powerful industry groups and special after the kill, “almost like war paint.” When
COURTESY OF LYLE JAMES VINSON
passes the smell test.” interests in the country, including the Koch Tawney tells me the story, he notes, “Teddy
Tawney also suspects that Junior has had brothers’ network. Roosevelt had done that to one of his sons.”
an effect on policy, namely with the ascen- “There’s a lot of money behind that move- As a high schooler, Tawney was, in his
dancy of Montana congressman Ryan Zinke, ment,” says Martin Heinrich, the Demo- own words, “a punk kid,” interested primar-
an avowed public lands supporter, to the post cratic senator from New Mexico, a lifelong ily in soccer and girls. He went off to college
of secretary of the interior. “If you think about hunter and prominent public lands supporter. in Seattle, but his father was soon diagnosed
a litter of dogs,” Tawney says of Zinke, “he “I don’t think it’s going to go away.” with leukemia, and after he died, Tawney

This land is
your land?
Public lands face more pressure than ever—development,
resource extraction, political incentive to sell off priceless places
to the highest bidder. But these hundreds of millions of acres
belong to you, to us, and to the future.
1906
Devils Tower National Monument, 1908
Wyoming, Roosevelt El Morro National Monument, New Mexico, Muir
Roosevelt Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona, Roosevelt Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, Woods
Roosevelt 1907 Chaco Canyon National Monument (Now Chaco Culture National Historical Park), New Mexico, Roosevelt Cinder Cone National Monument National
(Now Lassen Volcanic National Park), California, Roosevelt Lassen Peak National Monument (Now Lassen Volcanic National Park), California, Roosevelt Gila Cliff Dwellings Monument, California,
National Monument, New Mexico, Roosevelt Tonto National Monument, Arizona, Roosevelt 1909 Mt. Olympus National Monument (Now Olympic National Park), Roosevelt Grand
Washington, Roosevelt Navajo National Monument, Arizona, Taft Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, Oregon, Taft Mukuntuweap National Canyon National
Monument (Now Zion National Park), Utah, Taft Gran Quivira National Monument (Now Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument), New Mexico, Taft 1910 Park, Arizona,
Sitka National Historical Park, Alaska, Taft Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Utah, Taft Big Hole National Battlefield (Now Nez Perce National Historical Park), Montana, Roosevelt Pinnacles
Taft 1915 Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, Colorado, Wilson Walnut Canyon National Monument, Arizona, Wilson 1916 Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico, Wilson National Park, California,
Sieur de Monts National Monument (Now Acadia National Park), Maine, Wilson Capulin Mountain National Monument (Now Capulin Volcano National Monument), New Mexico, Wilson Old 1911 Roosevelt Jewel Cave
Kasaan National Monument (Became part of Tongass National Forest), Alaska, Wilson 1918 Casa Grande National Monument (Now Casa Grande Ruins National Monument), Arizona, Wilson Colorado National Monument, South
Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, Wilson 1919 Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska, Wilson Yucca House National Monument, Colorado, Wilson 1922 Lehman Caves National Monument, Dakota, Roosevelt Natural Bridges
National Monument (Now Great Basin National Park), Nevada, Harding Timpanogos Cave National Monument, Utah, Harding 1923 Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico, Colorado, Taft Devils National Monument, Utah, Roosevelt
Harding Hovenweep National Monument, Utah, Colorado, Harding Mound City Group National Monument (Now Hopewell Culture National Historical Park), Ohio, Harding Pipe Spring Postpile National Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park,
National Monument, Arizona, Harding Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, Harding Carlsbad Cave National Monument (Now Carlsbad Caverns National Park), New Mexico, Coolidge 1924 Monument, California, Montana, Roosevelt Tumacacori
Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona, Coolidge Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho, Coolidge Statue of Liberty National Monument, New York, Coolidge Fort Pulaski Taft 1913 Cabrillo National Historical Park, Arizona,
National Monument, Georgia, Coolidge Fort Marion (Now Castillo de San Marcos National Monument), Florida, Coolidge Fort Matanzas National Monument, Florida, Coolidge Wupatki National Monument, Roosevelt Portion of Rio Grande
National Monument, Arizona, Coolidge 1925 Meriwether Lewis National Monument (Now part of the Natchez Trace Parkway), Tennessee, Coolidge Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, California, Wilson National Forest, Colorado, Roosevelt
Alaska, Coolidge Lava Beds National Monument, California, Coolidge 1929 Arches National Park, Utah, Hoover Portion of White River National Forest, Colorado, Hoover 1930 Sunset Crater National Monument (Now Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument),
Arizona, Hoover 1932 Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado, Hoover Grand Canyon II National Monument (Later added to Grand Canyon National Park), Arizona, Hoover 1933 White Sands National Monument, New Mexico, Hoover Death
Valley National Park, California, Nevada, Hoover Saguaro National Park, Arizona, Hoover Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado, Hoover Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, Roosevelt 1935 Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida,
Roosevelt 1936 Joshua Tree National Park, California, Roosevelt 1937 Zion National Park, Utah, Roosevelt Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona, Roosevelt Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, Roosevelt 1938 Channel Islands National Park,
California, Roosevelt Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming, Roosevelt 1939 Santa Rosa Island National Monument (Became part of Gulf Islands National Seashore), Florida, Roosevelt Tuzigoot National Monument, Arizona, Roosevelt 1943 Grand
Teton National Park, Wyoming, Roosevelt 1949 Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa, Truman 1956 Edison Laboratory National Monument (Now Thomas Edison National Historical Park), New Jersey, Eisenhower 1960 Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge, Alaska, Eisenhower 1961 Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Maryland, Eisenhower Russell Cave National Monument, Alabama, Kennedy Buck Island Reef National Monument, Virgin Islands, Kennedy 1969 Marble Canyon
National Monument (Later added to Grand Canyon National Park), Arizona, Johnson 1978 Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota, Carter Misty Fjords National Monument (Became part of Tongass National Forest), Alaska, Carter Aniakchak
National Monument & Preserve, Alaska, Carter Becharof National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, Carter Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska, Carter Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Alaska, Carter Denali National Park, Alaska, Carter Gates of
the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Alaska, Carter Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska, Carter Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska, Carter Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Alaska, Carter Admiralty Island National Monument (Became part of Tongass
National Forest), Alaska, Carter Noatak National Preserve, Alaska, Carter Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska, Carter Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska, Carter Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, Carter 1996 Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, Clinton 2000 Agua Fria National Monument, Arizona, Clinton California Coastal National Monument, California, Clinton Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, Arizona, Clinton Portion of
Sequoia National Forest, California, Clinton Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Colorado, Clinton Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, Oregon, Clinton Hanford Reach National Monument, Washington, Clinton Ironwood Forest
National Monument, Arizona, Clinton President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument, Washington, DC, Clinton Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona, Clinton 2001 Carrizo Plain National Monument, California,
Clinton Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, New Mexico, Clinton Minidoka National Historic Site, Idaho, Clinton Pompeys Pillar National Monument, Montana, Clinton Sonoran Desert National Monument,
Arizona, Clinton Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, Montana, Clinton Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument, Virgin Islands, Clinton Governors Island National Monument, New York, Clinton 2006
African Burial Ground National Monument, New York, Bush Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, Hawai'i, Bush 2008 World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, Hawai'i, Bush 2009 Rose
Marine Atoll National Monument, American Samoa, Bush Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, Hawai'i, Bush Mariana Trench Marine National Monument, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Bush
2011 Fort Monroe National Monument, Virginia, Obama 2012 Fort Ord National Monument, California, Obama Chimney Rock National Monument, Colorado, Obama César E. Chávez National
Monument, California, Obama 2013 San Juan Islands National Monument, Washington, Obama Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, New Mexico, Obama Harriet Tubman Underground
Railroad National Monument (Now Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park), Maryland, Obama First State National Historical Park, Delaware, Obama Charles Young
Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, Ohio, Obama 2014 Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, New Mexico, Obama San Gabriel Mountains National Monument,
California, Obama 2015 Honouliuli National Monument, Hawai'i, Obama Pullman National Monument, Illinois, Obama Browns Canyon National Monument,
Colorado, Obama Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, California, Obama Waco Mammoth National Monument, Texas, Obama Basin and
Range National Monument, Nevada, Obama 2016 Mojave Trails National Monument, California, Obama Sand to 2017 Birmingham Civil
Snow National Monument, California, Obama Castle Mountains National Monument, California, Obama Rights National
Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, Washington, DC, Obama Stonewall National Monument,
Monument, New York, Obama Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, Alabama, Obama
Maine, Obama Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, Freedom Riders
Massachusetts, Obama Bears Ears National Monument,
National Monument, Utah, Alabama, Obama
Obama Gold Butte Reconstruction
National Era National
Monument, Monument,
Nevada, South Carolina,
Obama Obama
Stand with us. Protect your public lands.
This graphic lists national monuments designated and safeguarded under the Antiquities Act of 1906.
Some are now national parks, but those that remain can have their protection rescinded without congressional approval.
moved back to Missoula, where he enrolled ing organization opposition research.” around politicians. “They give you an extra
at the University of Montana to study wild- Tawney soon realized that he was in half-inch,” he says, “and it’s business time.”
life biology. Soon thereafter, he met his wife, a messaging war. So in the fall of 2014, Before dinner, Gov. Bullock addresses
Glenna, while teaching soccer, and they he organized a pro–public land rally at the crowd: “I’d like to say that there isn’t
moved into a log cabin with no running t he Montana capitol, in Helena, g iv- a war in the West going on, but there is.”
water that his parents had built. ing out T-shirts that read #KEEPITPUBLIC . He continues: “They ain’t coming for our
Before his death, Phil had launched When the Bundy brothers occupied the Walmarts. They’re coming for our beautiful
Montana’s first sportsmen’s political action Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in places. And the threat is real.”
committee, called Montana Hunters and Oregon, Tawney was struck by how easily Then everyone steps inside the barn to
Anglers. Land took over in 2009. He started they were able to convince rural westerners eat, gathering beneath the bleached and
on the state level and later moved on to that they were trying to “return” the land mounted skulls of three bull elk. Tawney
national races, always supporting Demo- to the American people. “I was like, ‘It sits next to the governor. I find myself at a
crats. At the time, Tawney was frustrated belongs to us,’ ” says Tawney. He com- table between two donors. Blake Fischer,
with the lack of moxie among hunting missioned a batch of hooded sweatshirts a 38-year-old Idahoan and owner of an
groups. “Hunters are complacent,” he says. bearing the words PUBLIC LAND OWNER, which irrigation business, has well-coiffed hair
“And hunters and anglers are conservative. soon became something of a tribal identifi- and a snap-button shirt adorned with two
Have they traditionally voted around the cation item, the hunter’s equivalent of a MAKE roosters. Baker Leavitt is a brash and bald
Second Amendment? Yes.” AMERICA GREAT AGAIN hat. 41-year-old from Washington. The guys talk
Tawney claims he doesn’t identify as a football for a minute, and then, inevitably,
Democrat or Republican — “I’m a one-issue the conversation turns to bragging about
voter,” he says — but for an independent, he recent kills. Leavitt produces his phone and
has frequently leaned left. While he won’t pulls up a photo of piles of dead feral hogs,
“ I’D LIKE TO
criticize the NRA, he’s not a member, either. which he dispatched using night-vision.
“The only thing that’s frustrating,” Tawney Fischer recounts a family javelina-hunting
says, “is that there’s power there that could
be used for conservation.” SAY THERE trip to south Texas.
When I ask about the public lands fight,
In 2013, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers ISN’T A WAR IN Fischer corrects me, saying, “It’s not a fight.
THE WEST GOING

reached out to Tawney, and from the We own the land.” Leavitt, an enthusiastic
moment he took over, he focused entirely on Trump supporter, says he understands why
sportsmen’s issues. This often meant send-
ing out sleepy press releases about, say, the ON,BUT THERE some politicians find divestiture appealing.
But, he says, “it’s like communism: sounds
Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act.
IS. THEY AIN’T great in theory.”
COMING FOR
But he also pushed lawmakers on both sides “I’d like to see river guys and hippies and
of the aisle. In 2015, Montana Sen. Steve hunters unite behind a common cause,”
Daines voted for a measure to facilitate land
transfer. BHA blistered him in the press, OUR WALMARTS. Leavitt says. “It’s cool to pick up the ball and
run with people you have nothing in common
and, according to Tawney, “he’s been good
THEY’RE with other than your love for public land.”
COMING FOR
on land ever since. He got educated.” Now Tawney starts to mingle, shaking
The more confrontational the group hands and wearing his gap-tooth grin.
was, the more it grew. The first year under
Tawney’s leadership, BHA’s membership OUR BEAUTIFUL “They named him Land,” says Fischer,
“and he’s the number one land advocate in
more than doubled from 1,000 to 2,400.
Around the same time, it gained some PLACES.” the country. It’s his birthright! I don’t know
what his middle name is — but I think it’s
new enemies. ‘Fucking.’ ” Leavitt finds this hilarious and
Though it’s most frequently associated roars approvingly: “Land Fuckin’ Tawney!”
with the Bundy family and the populist One of Tawney’s staffers began distribut- Midway through the dinner, Tawney
movement supporting them, the idea of ing them at “pint nights” across the West, stands up to give a sort of keynote speech,
transferring federal lands to the states has where BHA gave away beer and preached and it’s about a recent bighorn ram hunt
been mainstreamed by a couple of Washing- the gospel of public land. “People are com- in Montana. He tells it as the main course
ton, D.C., think tanks and advocacy organi- ing into the political process who are not is being served — osso buco with risotto
zations with extensive ties to the oil industry experienced and maybe a little naive,” cooked in the broth of the ram he shot.
— most notably, the American Legislative Tawney tells me. “But they’re psyched. The story stands out for what it lacks: the
Exchange Council, a Koch Industries– It’s rad.” kind of chest-beating one might expect from
backed group that pushes industry-friendly the hunting crowd. Mostly, Tawney talks
bills to state governments. Another Beltway about failure. During his hunt he crashed his
nonprofit, the Environmental Policy Alli- N THE EVE of the Rendezvous, truck and missed one shot. He talks about
ance, started a campaign in 2014 to label
BHA, among others, as a “green decoy” —
a front group for “radical environmental
activists.” That year, the alliance’s director
O BH A V IPs g at her for a
$350-a-head wild-game feast
in a barn at the conf luence of
Rock Creek and the Clark Fork
family, noting how deeply he missed his wife
during the hunt. And, mostly, he talks about
the solace of the mountains. “Those places
don’t exist in other parts of the world,” he
of research, Will Coggin, began publish- River, 20 miles east of Missoula. Outside, says, “where you can go lose yourself on pub-
ing op-eds throughout the West attacking appetizers like chunks of seared elk heart sit lic lands and have those experiences I did.”
BHA. Coggin turned out to be an employee on trays, and two mule-deer shanks lathered At the end, there’s a silence, then Tawney
of Richard Berman, a notorious public rela- in bear fat roast over an open fire. Western- raises a glass. “A lot of people think we’re just
tions executive who runs a series of think formal abounds — bolo ties and dresses — but doing this so we can shoot the next thing,”
tanks, one of which received $57,250 from a Tawney wears a red checked shirt, a ranger he says. “That is not even close to why we are
Koch-backed nonprofit for so-called “hunt- hat, and cowboy boots, his favored footwear all here.” Then he sits down to eat his kill. MJ

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ES SE NTIAL S FOR THE WE LL- EQUIPPE D MAN
No Road,
No Problem
Whether commuting on
rough pavement or racing
off-road, our favorite
new two-wheelers are
gravel bikes. Drop bars,
beefy tires, and light, sturdy
frames add up to a bike
that can really do it all.
by BERNE BROUDY
1
Giant TCX Advanced SX
$2,050
Giant took the frame and fork
of its cyclocross racers and
made an even more rugged
ride, with 40c tires, a wide-
range drivetrain, and spread-
out handlebars. The result
is a bike that feels pretty
indestructible. We spent a
lot of time commuting on
this rig and would purposely
steer toward potholes and
hop curbs whenever pos-
sible. It’s a tank — in a good
way. giant-bicycles.com
photograph by JAKE ORNESS SEPTEMBER 2017 MEN’S JOURNAL 75

G R AV E L B I K E S
2 3
Looking for a well-specced and well-priced gravel If you’re looking for a top-of-the-line carbon
grinder? Fuji’s Jari series (starting at $1,197) is cyclocross frame at a midrange price, hop on the
built on a stable and confidence-inspiring alu- SuperX. It comes with big tires, wide rims, and a
minum frame. And the model we rode has top- broad range of gears. It hammered lightning-fast
notch components, including the dependable through miles of rumble-strip road and trail, but
Fuji Jari 1.1 SRAM Force 1x11-speed drivetrain. Plus, the wide Cannondale SuperX still felt rock solid at a race pace. Want to amble?
$2,950 handlebars felt great on long rides. fujibikes.com Force 1 SE $4,000 Try another bike. cannondale.com
PREVIOUS PAGE COURTESY OF GIANT
4 5
For commuting and day tripping, the Grade A versatile drop-bar touring machine, the Comp
lets you take in the sights in comfort. Relaxed Carbon is like a mountain bike on a diet. Relaxed
geometry and plenty of gears make any terrain geometry, 40c tires, thru-axles, and mechanical
manageable, even if you’re carrying a load. disc brakes powered by a 2x11-speed drivetrain
But it’s no entry-level adventure bike — SRAM let us day trip back roads and go bikepacking
GT Grade Carbon Pro Force components were rugged and reliable. Diamondback Haanjo fully loaded — rear mounts support racks and
$3,500 gtbicycles.com Comp Carbon $2,200 panniers. diamondback.com

EPIC RIDES
ON GRAVEL
These organized rides are perfect for rough
road-ready bikes.
Crusher in in the world. Timed

the Tushar and ranked stages,
mechanical support,
luggage transfer, film
crews, post-stage mas-
UTAH sage, and European
Experience high-alpine sister rides give Haute
Utah on this July ride. Route a pro peloton
The aptly named feel. hauteroute.org
Crusher leaves from
Beaver, birthplace of Dirty Kanza
6
Butch Cassidy, and For maximum comfort on long rides, the new
goes 70 miles with Diverge not only has relaxed, stable, easy-riding
10,000 feet of climbing geometry, but — in the top-of-the-line model we
through the Tushar KANSAS rode — there’s also a suspension shock built into
Mountains and Fish- This windy, muddy, the stem and a dropper post that smooths out
lake National Forest. hot, 200-mile June Specialized S-Works washboard dirt. Ceramic bearings in the wheels
tusharcrusher.com gravel ride started Diverge Carbon $9,000 made us feel superhero-fast. specialized.com
in 2006, before gravel
Rasputitsa racing and riding
Spring Classic were a thing. Now,
2,200 people sign up
each year and report
that Kansas isn’t as
VERMONT flat as Dorothy and
Russian for “mud Toto led us to believe.
season,” the 45-mile, Unless you’re elite,
90-percent-gravel prepare to ride into
Rasputitsa dishes out the night and then
the best of April in party till dawn.
East Burke, Vermont dirtykanza.com
— slush, snow, and
mud. Many racers run New Belgium
on foot a 5k stretch Ramble Rides
called Cyberia because
the mud is too deep to
ride. Did we mention
the 17 percent climbs? COLORADO, OREGON,
rasputitsagravel.com NORTH CAROLINA
For a taste of the
Mavic Haute bikepacking, gravel-
Route Rockies riding lifestyle without
the pressure of being
self-supported, try
these long-weekend
COLORADO tours from Fort Collins,
A weeklong ride from Colorado; central
7
Boulder to Colorado Oregon; or Asheville, This bike is allergic to the road: Thanks to an
Springs — including North Carolina. Food, oversize fork that makes the front end stiff
multiple stretches of beer, camping, and and steering precise, as well as shortened
dirt and gravel roads camaraderie are all chainstays for added stability, it plowed over
— this is billed as provided as well as a singletrack as if it were a mountain bike. You
the most prestigious test of legs and lungs. Pivot Vault can even swap in a 48c tire in the front — the
amateur cycling event newbelgiumramble.com $4,200 fattest here. pivotcycles.com

SUNGLASSES
High-Tech Shades
Sunglass companies are not just focusing on the
cooler frame styles — they’re also developing lenses
that do much more than block UV rays. These are
the standouts. by CLINT CARTER
BEST FOR
EVERYDAY WEAR
BEST FOR
HIGH ALTITUDE
Oakley Prizm Sapphire Fade Dragon Alliance Lumalens

FRAME SHOWN: PROFLECT $140
FRAME SHOWN: LATCH $190
Prizm sport-specific lenses come in a variety of shades that are tuned to accentuate the colors you’re likely These are great shades for parts of the country
to encounter when you use them. (For example, Prizm Road helps cyclists differentiate textures in the with harsh sunlight. They exceeded at intensifying
pavement.) For the Daily line, the drama is enhanced across the spectrum. The result: the most vivid colors the sense of depth without significantly distorting
you’ll get in a pair of sunglasses, making the world look like it just got a fresh coat of paint. oakley.com natural color. dragonalliance.com
BEST FOR BEST FOR BEST FOR

BEACH DAYS HIKING EYEGL ASS WEARERS
STYLING BY PETER TRAN FOR ART DEPARTMENT
Electric OHM Smith ChromaPop Spy Happy Lens

FRAME SHOWN: KNOXVILLE $120 FRAME SHOWN: LOWDOWN $139 FRAME SHOWN: HAYES $190
Melanin (the pigment that protects skin from burn- ChromaPop selectively filters out confusing parts Happy lenses block short-wave blue light while
ing) is the main compound in these, which means of the light-wave spectrum. The result: Fuzzy back- allowing longer waves that have been shown to
the OHM will slow the spread of crow’s feet from sun lit leaves became crisp and neon green, and rocks promote mood-boosting serotonin. We didn’t get
damage, while also creating the most true-to-life and dips on the trail are more pronounced, so you happy, but we were thrilled by the exceptionally
color of any lens we tested. electriccalifornia.com don’t stumble. smithoptics.com crisp visuals. Available in prescription. spyoptic.com
78 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 photograph by JARREN VINK

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BAC K PAC K I N G
Adventure For a next-level outdoor experience, try a solo back-

packing trip. Just you, the woods, and your thoughts —
and not a lot of extraneous gear. by CLINT CARTER
for One
1
3
STYLING BY PETER TRAN FOR ART DEPARTMENT
1. The One-Man Shelter 2. The Versatile Sleeping Bag 3. The Portable Bed 4. The Easy-Access Pack
SIERRA DESIGNS KELTY SINE 35 $240 THERM-A-REST THULE CAPSTONE 50L $200
DIVINE LIGHT 1 FL $320 ULTRALITE COT $220
Less than 2 pounds, the Sine has a Well engineered without inessential
Plenty of room for one, plus a long cross-body zipper that makes it feel Go ahead, get comfortable: This cot weight, the Capstone has zippered
awning that uses trekking poles for like a comforter; and with a zip-open packs to the size of a pad, but the access from the side and bottom
support and makes great shade for toe box, you can walk around the legs ensure a great night’s sleep up so you’ll never have to rummage for
morning coffee. sierradesigns.com campsite wearing the bag. kelty.com off the ground. thermarest.com gear. thule.com
80 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 photographs by JARREN VINK

Less Is More
SOLO GE AR Backpacking gear is getting lighter
and more compact — ideal for
a hiker who can’t share the load.
SINGLE-SERVING
SHELTERS 1
They’re compact and SIERRA DESIGNS FLEX
CAPACITOR
lightweight, but with plenty $200
of room to stretch out. Use this bag for a trip of any
length: A system of cinch straps
allows you to quickly convert
from a 40-liter minimalist pack to
one that holds 60 liters of gear for
a longer haul. sierradesigns.com
2
OPTIMUS CRUX
LITE SOLO
$60
Quarter Dome 1 The backpack-friendly kit fits
an entire camp kitchen into a
REI CO-OP $279
three-piece system (burner,
Most ultralight tents rely on staked-out guylines pot, and mug/lid) that weighs less
for structural support. The Quarter Dome is a true than 10 ounces. The whole thing,
freestanding shelter that sets up in about a minute, plus a separately sold 4-ounce
weighs just under 2.5 pounds, and has 19 square fuel canister, packs neatly into
feet of floor space. rei.com a mesh case. optimusstoves.com
3
MSR TRAILSHOT
POCKET-SIZE
WATER FILTER
$50
We’ve yet to find a filter easier to
use: The TrailShot is small enough
to fit inside a pocket, but it’s
capable of cleaning a full liter of
Hornet Elite 1P water in a minute. msrgear.com
NEMO $450
Thin ripstop nylon and a simple, single-pole design With nobody to run for help if you injure
don’t make Nemo’s tent the sturdiest, but they SAFETY IN yourself, solo hikes come with risks
do bring down its weight to an amazing 1 pound, SOLITUDE that group trips don’t. Steve Dessinger,
7 ounces without sacrificing livability (including more program director at the Boulder Outdoor
than 3 feet of headroom). nemoequipment.com Survival School, explains how to stay
safe on your own.
WHAT’S THE MOST WHAT EXTRA GEAR WHAT IF I GET LOST?

IMPORTANT THING A SHOULD I PACK?
PERSON CAN DO TO Take it easy.
PROTECT HIMSELF? Old-fashioned “You know what’s
navigation tools. important? Sleep.
Make a plan, and “Your phone can fail. You’ll make terrible
stick to it. Your GPS can fail. decisions without it.
Moment DW “Tell someone where You don’t want to Stay calm while you
you’re going and rely too heavily on make a plan, and
TARPTENT $295
when you’ll be back. those things. So be when you get tired,
The Moment DW provides true four-season comfort: People who do this sure you have a map lie down. But tie
Large vents on both ends allow air to pass through, are generally found and a compass — something bright —
but when the temperature drops, the mesh interior within 72 hours of and that you know like a red bandanna
can be replaced with a heavier silicone-nylon winter going missing.” how to use them.” — to your shelter.”
layer ($140 extra). tarptent.com

GYM CLOTHES
1 Bulldog Tank
2
RHONE $39
Neither dead lifts nor sweaty beach volleyball left

1
their odorous mark on this tank. It’s made from
a moisture-wicking poly woven with silver threads
that prevent bacteria from reproducing. We liked the
relaxed fit and the off-shoulder seams, which meant
no rubbing when we carried a gym bag. rhone.com
2 Coolmax Vertex
Ultra-Light Socks
DARN TOUGH $16
Coolmax polyester and nylon pull moisture away

from your feet, preventing the moist environment
that breeds stink-causing bacteria. A light layer of
cushioning helped absorb shock during our high-
intensity workouts. darntough.com
3 Cool-Lite Windbreaker
ICEBREAKER $160
This slim-fit, ultralight jacket is lined with naturally

3
anti-stink merino, and after a season of workouts
(and not washing), a sniff of the armpits was still
inoffensive. The durable, water-repellent shell sheds
wind and rain, and laser-cut underarm holes helped
with venting. icebreaker.com
Get Fit,
Stay Fresh
The perfect kit for working out is
comfortable, cool — and stink-free.
4 We found high-tech gym clothes that
actually fight the funk. by BERNE BROUDY
4 Metal Vent Tech

Short-Sleeved T-Shirt
5
LULULEMON $68
In the name of science, we wore this silky-light tee

during a particularly hard workout and then kept it
on under a dress shirt for dinner. Thanks to the silver
STYLING BY ALEX SILVA FOR BERNSTEIN & ANDRIULLI
strands in the fabric, we did not reek. Our compan-

ions confirmed it. lululemon.com
5 Kinetic Train Shorts

SAXX $78
The Kinetic Train has Saxx’s supportive 3D-fit

BallPark pouch semicompression underwear sewn
in — and are specially treated to keep everything
smelling fresh. saxxunderwear.com
82 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 p h o t o g r a p h b y S H A N A N O VA K

The Complete Issue.
Every Word. Every Photo.
Now Available on Mobile

P O RTA B LE G R I LL S
Parking Lot Gourmet

Smarter, more powerful portable grills will push you beyond
hot dogs and burgers. Chef Jeff Mahin tests the best of these tailgate tools.
by JESSE WILL
7 OUT OF 10 6 OUT OF 10
1 2
Big wheels, scissor legs, and a built-in side table With just a single burner, smaller cooking area
turn the X-cursion into an all-in-one tailgate or (200 square inches), and a fuel regulator Mahin
camp kitchen — though it demands space in your describes as “touchy,” the Grill2Go was out-
trunk. Our tester, Mahin, got a good sear using classed in our test. Chops stuck to its stainless
the 20,000-Btu unit, but fought flare-ups along steel cooking grate. Says Chef Jeff: “Let’s just
Coleman RoadTrip the way. Luckily, the big 285-square-inch surface Char-Broil Portable say that if you forgot it at the campground, you
X-cursion $200 makes moving meat around easy. coleman.com Grill2Go X200 $150 wouldn’t turn around.” charbroil.com
8 OUT OF 10 9 OUT OF 10
3 4
The Blaze connects to a standard 20-pound The Napoleon comes to life via an electronic igni-
propane tank, so it easily switches from tailgate tion and heats up to 525° in just eight minutes.
to terrace. Mahin gives the 20,000-Btu grill props Steaks took on perfect grill marks and looked and
for its burly build (“You cook without feeling you’ll tasted, Mahin says, “like they were cooked on a
break it”) and the most readable thermometer in full-size grill.” An optional cast-iron griddle allows
Cuisinart Dual Blaze the test — helpful when you’re cooking a more Napoleon TravelQ for flare-up-free cooking of greasier fare like
$170 delicate protein. cuisinart.com 285 $249 bacon. napoleongrills.com

Ken Burns
The master documentarian on
Vietnam, everyday heroes, and the
simple power of country music.
What’s the best advice you ever received?

It’s come in different forms and different
words, but if I were to distill it, it was to
always be yourself. The thing I respond
to and that I hope I’m able to bring to
the table is a kind of authenticity and
honesty. And that only comes from that
essential Socratic question, “Who am I?”
It’s never really fully answered, but the
deepening of the question is the arc of our
lives. I don’t know a time when it hasn’t
been important to me. It came from my
dad, from my mother’s bravery before she
died [of cancer], from teachers. And also How hard was it to be a filmmaker early on? foreign government during an election
as a father of four girls. They are mighty [One of the] great platitudes, especially cycle? Just about everything concerning
BS meters. in documentary filmmaking, is perse- the Vietnam War resonates in this par-
verance, because there are many more ticular moment.
Your films never fail to convey the role of talented filmmakers than there is money
regular Americans amid these epic histori- to make the f ilms. That means disap- What do you think about the way this coun-
cal moments and towering figures. pointment will be an important character try wages war?
There’s been a bottom-up approach that builder. I used to have on my desk two Well, it’s less this country than it is human
has probably def ined my f ilms more gigantic three-ring binders, four or five beings. I find war the most insightful way
than anything. Whether it’s a f ighter inches thick, each filled with hundreds to study human behavior. It clearly brings
pilot whose first day of work was D-day, of rejections for letters I had sent trying out the worst of us. But it also brings out
or some of the soldiers we interviewed to raise money on my first film, on the the best of us in very unexpected ways.
from South and North Vietnam — or Brooklyn Bridge. I saved them all. It took Unfortunately, there is no danger that
people whose bravery might not be tak- me as long to make a one-hour film on we’re going to get rid of wars, I’m sorry to
ing place on the battlef ield but some- the Brooklyn Bridge as it took to make say. As one of our Marines says, we didn’t
where else, maybe back home — you the Civil War series, five and a half years. get to be the dominant species on the
begin to realize there are no ordinary planet because we’re nice. And he went
people. That’s one of the great lessons of Why did you choose Vietnam now? on to say, “People always said, ‘Oh, you
40 years of doing this history business. It had to be done. It’s the most impor- know, the military turns kids into killing
There’s always somebody new you’re tant event in American history in the machines.’ ” And then he said, “Nope. It’s
about to meet. second half of the 20th century. It is only finishing school.”
hugely defining. And a good deal of the
You seem to go from a serious topic, say the divisions we experience today come In light of the history you’ve explored, are
Civil War, to a fun one, like baseball. from divisions of Vietnam that have you optimistic about America now?
Yeah, I just spent the entire day in the edit- never healed, in large part because we’ve I am always optimistic about it. People
ing room on an eight-part, 16½-hour his- refused to examine them. As one of our are fond of saying “History repeats itself.”
tory of country music. Country music has Army guys says, Vietnam drove a stake Right? You hear it all the time, and it’s
been fun in a way that Vietnam was never through the heart of America and we’ve crazy. Mark Twain is supposed to have
fun. It also has emotions that are as pow- never recovered. I’m not as pessimistic said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but
erful, because they are so elemental. Har- as he is, but I think Vietnam offers some it rhymes.” Then I guess I’ve spent my
lan Howard, the songwriter, said country stunning ways of understanding our entire professional life trying to hear
music was three chords and the truth. And present situation. What if I told you that those rhymes.
there’s lots of execrable country music, just I’ve been working for 10 years on a story —INTERVIEW BY SEAN WOODS
as there’s lots of execrable everything, but about mass demonstrations across the
when you distill the essence of the story, United States, about a White House para-
COURTESY TIM LLEWELLYN
Ken Burns has directed and/or produced more than

you get socked in the gut by the power of lyzed by leaks and investigations, about 30 films. His 10-part documentary The Vietnam War
the simple stuff that happens. a political campaign reaching out to a will air on PBS in September.
MEN’S JOURNAL (ISSN 1063-4651) is published monthly (except for the January and July issues, when two issues are combined and published as double issues) by Men’s Journal LLC, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104-0298. The entire contents of MEN’S
JOURNAL® are copyright © 2017 by Men’s Journal LLC, and may not be reproduced in any manner, either whole or in part, without written permission. All rights are reserved. Canadian Goods and Service Tax Registration No. R134022888. The subscription price is $19.94 for
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SEPTEMBER 2017 Vol. 26, No. 7

Push through your

48 What Works for Me

Gear that keeps you cool and stink-free.

THE L AST WORD

10 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017

Summer FEATURES EDITOR

Vacations CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER

NEW YORK Craig Mura, Timothy J. Murray,

Strong Without What We’re SOUTHEAST Gary D. Dennis

2. Hill Sprints DIRECT RE SPONSE ADVERTISING

3. Trap Bar Dead Lift DIGITAL MEDIA

12 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017

• REPORT MISSING ISSUES • PAY

064 JUNE 2017 MEN’S JOURNAL 065

14 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017

16 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017

A Mountaineers have Everest. For

Straight Yosemite Valley, a location made fa-

the Burke connected with his buddy Ryan

Abyss snow on the trail — unusual for this

p h o t o g r a p h b y R YA N R O B I N S O N SEPTEMBER 2017 MEN’S JOURNAL 17

SEAL OF SAFETY TIPS FROM

20 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 p h o t o g r a p h s b y D AY M O N G A R D N E R

pitcher’s windup. Music is “vital to who

22 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017

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Luxe Utility Vehicles

E A M E R I C A N S are liv ing

24 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017

ENGINE 2-LITER SUPER- AND TURBOCHARGED 4

ALFA ROMEO STELVIO

ENGINE 2-LITER TURBOCHARGED 4

With a 50 percent recycled

KENNETH COLE $195

The sole of a sneaker

The standard lacing (rather

26 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 photograph by JARREN VINK

Add ingredients to an ice-ﬁlled rocks

Add ﬁrst three ingredients to an

Mixing With Mezcal

28 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 p h o t o g r a p h s b y TA R A D O N N E

1. Heat butter in a large skillet over

2. Add garlic and peppers and cook,

30 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 p h o t o g r a p h s b y TA R A D O N N E

For Acidity “I have probably 60 different

For Umami “I love this stuff called Takii

“There was just something about eating

This Doctor’s Orders:

O noon, Nicole Prause sits in a

34 MEN’S JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017 photographs by ART STREIBER

IT WASN’T UNTIL 1998 THAT WE REALIZED WE’D

MISSED A PART OF THE CLITORIS. THERE ARE ALL

KINDS OF BIG QUESTIONS LEFT.

SEPTEMBER 2017 MEN’S JOURNAL 35

compass, gem guide, topographic maps,