In this very strange crossover episode of The Crowded Hour and Remembering I'm an Animal, Billy and Jody are back together. It will make sense if you listen. Probably.

It's been a little over a year since Jody and Billy decided to start documenting this journey they call "Remembering I'm an Animal." Thirty-seven episodes later, the boys take a look back, list their highs and lows, and look ahead to more species-appropriate behaviors.

If you've been listening, thank you. If you haven't, it would be kinda weird if you were reading this.

It's been a while since the boys have done an old-school, multi-topic episode, so settle in. And, once again, Billy announces his New Life Plan.

Plus: the three (and a half) types of fun; the collapse of the metaverse; how "avid" hikers are the heavyweight champions of Mr. Outdoors behavior; lots of life lessons from Stephen King; the misnomer that substance abuse plays any positive role in creativity; and the most important question that will never be answered: Who is the youngest person named Dick?

In a very surreal turn of events, much of Billy's personal quest comes to a climax. Except it wasn't Billy doing it. It was Jody.

F-ing Jody.

(Speaking of F-ing Jody, he got Covid, which is why it has been so long since our last episode. But there's another one coming right behind this fella.)

Chris Borgatti was a high school science teacher at a prep school, until a challenging question from a student made him face a dilemma that is central to this podcast: Why didn't he hunt for his own food?

Fast-forward nine years and Chris has become an acclaimed hunter and conservationist, and has left the classroom to become the New England and New York coordinator for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

Chris takes Billy hunting (behind Jody's back), and it goes so well -- while also raising many challenging questions -- that Billy fires Jody as his mentor and hires Chris.

So much drama, people. So much.

Following a disastrous assignment where he attempted to smoke his way through the tiny town that has become the Pot Capital of America, Billy is back and firing on all cylinders, with some insights about what it is we're chasing on this program, this algorithm to animal authenticity, and how hitting it 80 percent of the time is the goal.

Plus: Jody gets the authorities called on him for legally hunting; some insights from the long life of "the world's dirtiest man;" feedback from listeners who claim to be hip experts; and more bullying until Billy agrees to enter a swim race against a 77-year-old woman in 34-degree water.

This whole mess of a story started for Billy years ago at an agricultural fair, and a return visit this time around brings back all the questions about our relationship to food.

This all goes down as another suburban hunting season gets going. How's it going? Nowhere.

Plus: one of the boys finds out they need a new hip; the magical feeling of lateral momentum; more trash-talking from a 77-year-old cold water swimming bully in Maine; and how a Radiohead song from 1997 predicted the Instagram wellness cult of today. 

We humans are living in a time of evolutionary mismatch, asked to live a life we were not designed for.

Our DNA demands better from us, so on this show we discuss how to listen to it, to take take dance lessons from it. 

That plus the magic of knots, and the 77-year-old Maine woman who continues to challenge Billy to a swim race in 34-degree water.

The "llst" of the fundamental evolved abilities of the human species is long and impressive. But can you boil that list down to the fundamentals, the 9 abilities that showcase the best "magics" of the Homo sapiens?

Plus: the toxicity of deadlines; why briefs are more primitive than boxers; and whether to dance or fight. 

Martha Wood is something of a myth on the North Shore of Massachusetts, a real-life mermaid who seems to thrive in water cold enough to kill.

Today on the show, the 59-year-old Wood tells the story of how a botched colonoscopy led her into the winter ocean, beginning a journey that culminated a few weeks ago when she swam across the fabled English Channel.