Not to get all Oprah on you, but the guys get a bit Oprah on you today as they discuss the topic of self-compassion, which might just be the missing link connecting the incessantly-forward-thinking modern human to the in-the-moment animal they evolved to be. 

The boys continue adding to the list of fundamental human abilities, while trying to figure out what to call the list; discuss how Billy is both a Jim and a Dwight, which explains his issues with not wanting to learn how to make a friction fire;  hear about Jody's attempts at barefoot running through a field of green grass and goose poop; and introduce two new segments -- the Question of the Week, and Unsolicited Advice. All this and the greatest joke of all time, courtesy of Mitch Hedberg and a fire at a potato factory in Maine.

Billy has returned from competing in a swim meet held in a pool cut out of a frozen lake on the Canadian border in Vermont. Jody has become a Forrest Gump-esque running fool, to the point he's now drinking some potion used by an elusive tribe of Mexican distance runners. And the guys try to answer the most important question in life: Should I become a falconer?

At the beginning of the show, Jody declares himself a believer in the theory that the earliest hunters simply wore down large mammals with the human's superior endurance and the almost singular ability to sweat. 

At the end of the show, he attempts this live with three deer. 

In between, Billy declares himself a believer in the theory that the earliest humans used psilocybin to expand their minds, and tells the story of his recent walk in the woods to find out.

The guys also try some of Jody's maple syrup, continue working on their list of the Fundamental Abilities of the Human Build, and review Billy's disastrous first attempt at having "the talk" with his 12-year-old. 

Winter is a time of preparation, of list-making, and the guys continue working on their list of the fundamental abilities of the human build by discussing all the things this animal can't do. 

Also, Jody reveals he has set off running, quite literally, which has led to a big commitment -- the guys are going to train to run up a hill. That hill just happens to be 7.6 miles long, and end at the summit of Mt. Washington.

In the second half of the show, Billy and Jody perform a wild experiment and welcome their first guest -- some regular dude they don't know, who just so happens to be on a journey that is weirdly parallel to this thing we're calling "Remembering I'm an Animal."  

At a base level, this whole misadventure we call "Remembering I'm an Animal" is about trying to crack open the user's manual for Homo Sapiens to figure out how to use this thing correctly. Today on the show, Jody and Billy attempt to identify the signature abilities of the build, from the big evolutionary ones like language, advanced tool-making, and fire-making, to the physical gifts like our ability to throw and run long distances, to the strange ones like mysticism and the inexplicable desire to get intentionally impaired.

Also, Jody eats road kill, Billy goes to a blind acupuncturist, and one of the boys vows to quit caffeine until their next recording. Maybe.

Billy thought his little project would consist of a year of beginnings, followed by a year of breakthroughs. Add this to the list of things he has been very wrong about. Year one was certainly "Beginnings." But as they review year two, it was really a story of "Beginning Again." As usual, this is somehow Jody's fault. He's supposed to be the expert.

In this episode, Jody and Billy look back at 2021, wrap up their historically bad deer season, discuss a bear hound controversy in Vermont that Billy stupidly got involved in, discuss Jody's concept of cooperatives, and plan ahead for 2022, which will involve singing and dancing (for real) and will definitely be the year these aspiring homo sapiens hit "Breakthroughs." Probably. Maybe. 

The deer rut has come, and the deer rut has gone, and Jody joins Billy to take the blame for everything that went wrong. Also, they discuss the reaction to Billy's front-page article in the Boston Globe about the (alleged) deer overpopulation problem in Massachusetts, and public perceptions of wild game management in a state where less than 1% of people hunt. Special guest appearance by the flower delivery guy. 

Billy Baker is trying to remember he's an animal and access the signature abilities of our build, and one of those things is learning to bowhunt. The guy teaching him is Dr. Jody Simones, who claims to know what he's doing and allegedly has a Ph.D in something to do with wildlife. Two years into their partnership, they've yet to bring home dinner.  Will the deer rut finally change that?