“Massacre!” - Uncontacted Tribes Video PROOF, Narco Mass Grave & El Dorado | Paul Rosolie • 383
Julian Dorey · 13 Feb 2026 · 3h 42m
Guest: Paul Rosolie · Host: Joey Def, Julian Dorey
A conservationist who has spent close to two decades living and working in the Peruvian Amazon returns to discuss the fallout from a viral encounter with an uncontacted tribe, the publication of his new book, and the escalating dangers facing the rainforest and the people trying to protect it. He recounts, in granular detail, the multi-hour beach encounter with a previously unknown group of the Mashco Piro, describing the exchange of plantains, clothing, and a Brazil-nut necklace, and the tension of not knowing whether it would end peacefully. He also describes a much darker escalation: a colleague murdered by narco-traffickers who moved into the reserve to grow coca, a subsequent assassination attempt on the guest and his local partner, and reports of a mass grave connected to the same groups. Alongside the violence, he details his organization's land-buying model, funded by small recurring donations, and argues it is measurably more effective than large conservation nonprofits. Lighter stretches cover jungle survival stories — a stingray sting, tiger and crocodile bites, a cliff fall — and reflections on storytelling, his childhood, and how growing up with supportive parents shaped his unconventional path. The conversation moves between wonder at the ecosystem's biodiversity and blunt warnings about gold mining, deforestation, and government policy pushing settlement of the rainforest, framing the current period as a narrow window to prevent irreversible collapse of the Amazon's water cycle.
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What comes up
Timestamps link into the episode on YouTube.
- Amazon donor story and land purchase
- Stingray sting and jungle injuries
- Cliff fall and near-death moments
- Presence, fear, and disconnecting from news cycle
- Camera traps and jungle wildlife
- JJ's childhood and being left alone in the jungle
- Narco-traffickers, murdered colleague, and assassination attempt
- Illegal gold mining operations
- Amazon deforestation tipping point and dam damage in US rivers
- Uncontacted Mashco Piro tribe encounter
Said on this episode
Quoted from the auto-generated transcript, which mishears names and technical terms. podcite.com reports what a show said; it does not endorse or fact-check it.
“The question no longer is, can we save the forest? The question is, can we do it in time? We're racing the chainsaws and the flames”
“So I get the phone call, the man whose hand I just shook, who saved our asses today, is dead.”
“They were fully intending on executing us right there.”
“This is the first time in history that we are getting a view into what it was like when people were living in the Stone Age. It's like an aperture back in time.”