Let's Take It Outside: S1E4 Speedo Diplomacy

Transcript

Chris Hill: Where do big life changing ideas come from? Is it an a-ha moment? A sudden strike of inspiration? For Lewis Pugh, it tends to be more of a slow burn, usually informed by geography.

Lewis Pugh: My high school classroom overlooked the Atlantic Ocean, and when I put my head out of the history classroom, in the distance I could see Robben Island.

Chris Hill: Lewis is a British-born conservationist who spent much of his childhood in Cape Town, South Africa. Robben Island shone like a beacon to young Lewis.

Lewis Pugh: And a friend had swum it. And one day I said to myself, “I also want to do it.”

Chris Hill: When he was 17 years old, Lewis decided to swim the four and a half miles from Robben Island back home to Cape Town.

Lewis Pugh: I had a month of training. I was woefully, woefully underprepared, and then I started the swim. And it was a three hour swim, and after the first hour, I was cold. After the second hour, I was frozen. After two and a half hours, I wasn't sure I was going to make it. But after three hours, I put my feet down, and I remember that feeling as I made it. I realized at that moment that I loved endurance swimming.

Chris Hill: It's been 36 years since Lewis' feet touched down in Cape Town. Since then, he's become one of the world's most elite endurance swimmers, shattering records and swimming some of the world's most remote and treacherous waterways.

Lewis Pugh: In the mid 2000s, I went to the Arctic for the first time, and I just fell in love with it.

Chris Hill: But Lewis is more than a record setting athlete. He's an ocean advocate and uses his gift as a world class swimmer to bring attention to the plight of waterways around the world. 

Lewis Pugh: And I spent about six summers in the high Arctic. I had noticed how the water was getting warmer and warmer. I noticed how glaciers were retreating, less and less sea ice every year. And I said to myself, “Where can I do a really symbolic swim?” And then I just realized, “Wow, I've got to go to the North Pole.”

[Music transition]

Lewis Pugh: I remember arriving in the North Pole and looking out over this icy terrain, and there were these large open patches of sea at the North Pole, and I remember thinking to myself, “You know, what I'm witnessing now will impact every single person on this planet. And what's more, every single future generation and the whole of the animal kingdom.”

Chris Hill: On July 15, 2007, Lewis swam 18 minutes across the geographic North Pole.

Field tape: “Go for it!”

Lewis Pugh: But it was a terrifying place to do a swim. The water was -1.7 degrees Centigrade, which is 29 degrees Fahrenheit. Incredibly cold.

Chris Hill: More than incredibly cold, the water was below freezing. The only reason it wasn’t frozen solid was because of how salty it was. 

Lewis Pugh: I dove into the water. I swam across the North Pole. I did a kilometer across the North Pole. I got out the other side, and I think I got out a very different person.

Chris Hill: His goal was to bring attention to melting Arctic sea ice, and pressure world leaders to act on climate change. His swim attracted media attention all over the world.

[Newsreal audio]

Jon Stewart: How long can you stay in without – are you covered in grease, Bengay? What are you covered in that allows you to do this, physically? 

Lewis Pugh: No, no, no, I don’t wear grease…

Lewis Pugh: I came out with an absolute renewed determination that I should take this message about what was happening in the high Arctic and take it around the world. And that started in 2007, and it hasn't stopped.

Chris Hill: In the years since, Lewis has taken on harder and longer swims. The Ross Sea in Antarctica, a glacial lake on Mount Everest, the length of the English Channel, and so many more. The media has taken to calling his style of advocacy, “Speedo Diplomacy.”

Lewis (in scene): It’s it’s it’s – just a speedo, it’s a cap and goggles, nothing else  

Chris Hill: His swims always come with a message, and he's managed to gain audience with some of the most influential people in governments across the globe. This summer, Lewis decided to bring his Speedo Diplomacy to the States for a different kind of swim.

Lewis Pugh: I mean, I've always wanted to do a big swim down a river, and a swim down a river which could tell a story about all rivers, and it always came back to the Hudson. 

Chris Hill: His goal was to swim the entire length of the Hudson River, and finish in New York City in time for the UN's annual Climate Week, a global summit that brings together policy makers, climate activists, and diplomats from around the world to accelerate the fight against climate change. As the UN Environmental Program's official Patron of the Oceans, Lewis had the rare opportunity to address delegates and policymakers from around the world. He wanted to come ready with a message to deliver on behalf of the Hudson River. 

Lewis Pugh: I believe that the Hudson gives hope to people all over the world that their rivers, which are so dirty and polluted, can one day be saved. I think the Hudson can be an example, can be an inspiration for rivers all over the world. You know, rivers are the arteries of our planet. They sustain life on earth, and we cannot have a healthy planet without clean and healthy rivers.

Chris Hill: In today's episode, we're diving into public waterways to tell the story of Lewis’ most recent epic swim, and to take a closer look at how activists and communities worked together to clean up one of the world's most polluted rivers. I'm Chris Hill. Let's take it outside.

[Music transition]

Chris Hill: The Hudson River is about 315 miles long. It ends in New York City, where it empties into New York Harbor, but it starts all the way up in New York's North Country, at the beautiful Lake Tear of the Clouds. That's where Lewis began his journey on August 13, 2023.

Lewis Pugh: It's high up in the Adirondack Mountains, and it was raining and it really was torrential rain. And then the rain stopped, and just for that little tiny moment, we could see the sun come through and lit up this little lake. And I swam along the lake. And then the lake sort of just, it starts as a little trickle, the river, and then from the trickle, it gets faster and faster and faster, and then it goes over some rapids, and then some waterfalls, and off it goes, all the way towards Albany.

Chris Hill: Those first few days, Lewis and his support team hiked and camped down the river. The water was either too shallow or too fast moving to swim.

Lewis Pugh: Eventually I was able to get into the water. And I remember diving in, and it was going so fast. And I had so much fear because I'm terrified that I'm going to hit a rock or even worse – a submerged log or get trapped up against it. And I got my safety kayak next to me, and the photographer is sitting on the front of the safety kayak, and both of them are giving me fast instructions. And this is a very, very high consequence environment because if you get it wrong, you're going to hit a rock, and that could be – that could be fatal. And it was this mixture of sheer exhilaration, and at the same time, utter terror as we went down that river. And the problem is that when you start that, when you're in that very, very fast flowing section of the Hudson, right near the source, you've got no brakes, and so you've got to make the right judgment calls on whether you go left or right, how you move around rocks, how you avoid the big branches over the river. It was amazing. I look back at those first few days and I say to myself, those were some of the best days of swimming I've had in 36 years.

Chris Hill: There's no doubting that Lewis is a thrillseeker. But even with the perils of the rapids, this swim is actually so much safer today than it would have been in years past.

Lewis Pugh: Fifty years ago a swim like this would have been absolutely impossible. The river was so polluted.

Chris Hill: For centuries, the Hudson River was witness to the rise of industry, a bustling metropolis, and the lasting scars of pollution. Factories and sewage discharge left their mark, threatening the valuable tributary – home to so much biodiversity.

Lewis Pugh: And New Yorkers said enough is enough. And then they started cleaning it up, literally mile by mile, town by town, and factory after factory. And while there's still much work to be done, and New Yorkers must always be vigilant, they turned the fate of the river and its wildlife around.

[Music transition]

Chris Hill: As Lewis made his way downriver, the team transitioned from camping to Airbnbs and eventually to a catamaran so that Lewis could swim at any time of the day or night. 

Lewis Pugh: And that made things a lot easier because I could just do my swim in the morning and then during the daytime I'd be doing interviews and then in the evening we'd have dinner and then sometimes it would be just close to midnight that I would get back in the river and then do that final shift.  And the most magical evening was at the end of August when we had that big, big blue moon,  and I got into the river, and there were very few lights, very few towns, no cities, and so you can see all the stars. And the heavens were – there's thousands and thousands and thousands of stars and a big blue moon. And I just found it incredibly comforting as I just started swimming.

Chris Hill: Eventually, Lewis propelled himself from sparsely populated wilderness to bustling riverfront towns and villages. And unlike his previous swims, this one offered something unique – people.

Lewis Pugh: I met people from all demographic groups who said to me just how much they loved the river and how proud they were about the enormous cleanup which has taken place in the river.

Chris Hill: In every town, he met people with stories of their river and how it's been transformed over the last 50 years.

Lewis Pugh: I met one man who said to me that when he was young, he used to look out of his bedroom window onto the Hudson, and one day the river would be white. And the next day he'd wake up and it would be blue, and then the following day it would be red. And that was because he lived next to a car factory, and the color of the river depended upon the color of the car they were manufacturing that day. It's incredible to believe. We were using our rivers and oceans literally as dumping grounds.

[Music transition]

Chris Hill: The enormous effort to clean up the Hudson River really started in earnest in the 1960s. Groups of fishermen, scientists, artists, and concerned citizens formed organizations that are now known as giants in the Hudson Valley conservation movement. Hudson Riverkeeper patrolled the waters to hold corporate polluters accountable, and Hudson Clearwater, founded by the legendary folk singer Pete Seeger, used art, music, and education to mobilize communities to action. And volunteers from these organizations, and so many more, spent years and years cleaning up riverbanks, organizing events, and advocating for environmental policies.

Lewis Pugh: Fifty years ago, people like Pete Seeger and many others worked so hard, and they must have dreamt of a Hudson which was drinkable, fishable, and swimmable. And as I say, still lots more work needs to be done, but they've turned the corner on this amazing river.

[Music transition]

Chris Hill: As the river slowed down, widened out, and the ocean tides started pushing back against Lewis, the swim got tough.

Lewis Pugh: And I had a friend who is the British Ambassador at the Security Council, Dame Barbara Woodward, and I knew that she was on leave. And I called her up and I said, “Barbara, this is getting really tough now. Is there any chance that you can come and do some swims with me?” And I had expected her to come for a day or two and swim with me. She got in there and every day, morning and night, five days, she got me down that river. And she's an excellent, excellent master swimmer, but there's no way I'm going to ask Britain's ambassador to the Security Council to come and swim with me and then I'm going to get out. I'm going to stay in there and I'm going to keep on going and I'm going to turn my arms stroke after stroke, mile after mile, day after day, until eventually I will get to New York to deliver this message to the United Nations.

Chris Hill: As Lewis continued downriver, more and more people came out to support him.

Lewis Pugh: I think the other moment in the river which just brought me so much joy was when I swam past Poughkeepsie and past the university there, and the swim team and the water polo team – they all dove into the Hudson and swam with me. And even the president and his wife, they also swam with me. You know, I look to my own country, to Britain, and I dream of a day when a vice chancellor could swim down a river close to their campus. But at the moment, that is unimaginable. And my message to them is, “Yes, it is imaginable. It can be done.”

Chris Hill: Lewis is right that the vast majority of rivers in the U.K. are too polluted for swimming, and they're not alone. Rivers around the world are choked by sewage overflow, industrial pollution, and plastic debris. But from the Fox River in Wisconsin to the Spokane River in Washington, the Sierra Club has been working with local organizers on behalf of rivers for decades. We look to these rivers – and to the Hudson – as an inspiration that with strong community engagement, corporate accountability, and policy change, success is possible.

[Audio transition]

Field tape: “Come on Lewis!”

Chris Hill: Lewis made it to Battery Park in New York City on September 13, 2023 – 32 days after diving into Lake Tear of the Clouds.

[Music transition]

Field Tape: “Go Lewis!”

Chris Hill: In only his Speedo, swim cap, and goggles, Lewis climbed out of the water to a media gaggle, awaiting fans, and curious onlookers.

Field Tape: [Music and cheers] “Okay guys you’re gonna have to give him a chance to hop over the fence here.”

Lewis Pugh (in the field): “Thank you all so, so very much for coming here today. You know, this dream to do this swim, I've been dreaming about this for many, many, many years and the wait has been worth it.”

Chris Hill: Lewis arrived in time for Climate Week in New York.

Lewis Pugh (in the field): “How am I feeling today? Exhausted. You know, 315 miles is a long way to swim, but I am also really motivated. I've seen a river which was one of the most polluted rivers in America, if not the world. And the people of New York said enough is enough. And they turned it around.”

[Music transition]

Lewis Pugh (in the field): I'll be saying to the delegates who are meeting in the United Nations. The people of New York can do this with their rivers, surely everyone else can also do it. But it’s gonna take commitment.

Chris Hill: When we spoke to Lewis a few weeks later, we asked him if he thought his message was heard and received by the delegates at the UN. He gave an answer familiar to those of us who've spent years working to convince politicians and policy makers to take action.

Lewis Pugh: If you're going to be an environmental campaigner. It's very, very difficult to measure success. Because sometimes, for example, I'll go in for a meeting with an environment minister or head of state, and they agree to what we're urging for. And they make a big announcement about it, but years later you find out that actually nothing – nothing changed. Other times you can be very, very publicly rebuked. But you find out a few years later that actually things did shift. So measuring success is a very difficult task. But when it comes to rivers, I think we can start beginning to measure success because you can measure the health of the river. And the success of the swim down the Hudson, you can't measure this year or next year. But I plan to take this message around the world. I do think though that this will probably be an intergenerational task. So I may never see beautiful, clean rivers in parts of the world, but I hope like Pete Seeger and all the people in the 1970s who were so inspiring and who in turn inspired me, I hope that people looked to the Hudson swim and the work which our group did and said, “Let's also clean up our river.”

Chris Hill: This episode was produced by Tina Mullen, edited by Isaac Kestenbaum of Future Projects, and hosted by me, Chris Hill. Ian Brickey is our executive producer. Mixing and sound design by Nic Neves, and special thanks to Susan Del Percio and everyone at Fresh Air Studios in Plymouth, England. 

To learn more about Lewis’ swim down the Hudson and for practical steps to restore and protect rivers in your community, visit the links in our show notes.