- [Rae] I'm Dr.

Rae Wynn-Grant and this is a PVC pipe.

It's used to collect soil samples.

This is the soil ecologist who uses it, Jordon King.

You're so cute.

And this is "Going Wild."

(gentle music) Here in the South Florida Everglades, it can feel like the whole landscape is alive.

Something is always moving, growing, fluttering past.

In the trees, in the grass, somewhere just above your head.

And the longer you stand still, the more you start to notice.

A flicker of wings, a rustle in the brush, something you could have sworn wasn't there a second ago.

There's a whole world happening around you.

The trick is knowing where to look.

(car door clicks) Lucky for me, I know someone who does.

(footsteps tapping) Hi!

- [Jordon] How are you?

- Oh my gosh!

I've been wanting to meet you for so long.

- [Jordon] Nice to meet you.

- Hi!

- [Jordon] How are you?

- It's nice to meet you.

- [Jordon] You too.

- Thanks for having me out here.

- [Jordon] Thanks for having me!

- Oh my God, look at your grill and everything.

You're amazing.

- Thank you.

- [Rae] Nearly half a million people follow Jordon King's adventures.

- So I'm a scientist that does research in the Everglades.

- [Rae] Across the Everglades in South Florida on social media.

- When it rains, the wetland sucks up all that water.

- [Rae] Wildlife, invasive species, strange discoveries.

If it catches his attention, chances are he wants to know more.

- So this is a corer that I used to collect my samples.

- [Rae] And he has a knack for bringing the rest of us along, breaking down complicated science and making it easier to understand.

- They're both green so they match my grills.

- But he shares something else too, a genuine wonder for the world around him.

His own research takes that curiosity beneath the surface to the parts of this landscape we rarely notice.

He's collected more than 200 samples across the Everglades, studying what lies beneath our feet and what it can tell us about the world above it.

So something tells me that you're not happy with where we are in terms of like, your real work and your science.

- Right now we can't like, collect any samples because like, it's dry, it's a dry season.

So... - Can you show me what it would look like if we were collecting samples?

- Yeah, I'll show you when we walk out there.

- Yeah, like, we can do a demonstration and then I know what we're doing when we come back.

Is this...?

- [Jordon] Yeah.

You want to take your shoes?

- [Rae] Sure.

I'm going to do whatever you do.

- This is the initiation in the Everglades.

- [Rae] Oh, gosh.

Ah, yes.

An initiation into the Everglades, which I'm quickly learning means being willing to get your feet wet.

All right.

Well, I'm already dirty, so might as well.

(laughs) Even when you're not totally sure what you're stepping into.

- This.

- You said, "Initiation into the Everglades," but I know that you have only lived here for a few years, but you just jumped right in, huh?

- Yeah.

I've lived here for about four years now.

- Uh-huh.

- I moved here in 2022 to do my master's at FIU, and that's what kind of led me to the Everglades.

- Wow.

The Everglades is often called a river of grass, and the river part matters.

Water is what makes this place work.

It moves slowly across the landscape, connecting everything that lives here.

Lately, South Florida has been facing one of its worst and most prolonged dry spells in recent decades, heavily impacting natural landscapes and water availability.

The Everglades in particular has succumbed to what's described as extreme drought conditions after an exceptionally dry winter, spring, and summer.

In a place defined by water, you notice when it's missing.

(foliage rustling) So you've come out to this exact site before?

- Yeah.

- [Rae] And it's like, flooded?

- Right now, Florida is going through, like, a more prolonged drought.

- That's what I though.

- If you like, separate the grass, you can see that like, there's no water.

- Yeah.

It's like it's... I mean, the soil is cool.

- It's a little moist.

- But it's not like, you can't press down and get any.

It's like, would you say this is quite dry?

- [Jordon] Yeah, it's pretty dry.

There's no water.

Usually there'd be a little bit of water, even if it's like, a centimeter, but it's... - [Rae] Oh, you could see water here and feel it?

- Yeah, but it's nothing at this point.

So usually when it's like this, we don't collect our samples.

Or, I specifically don't collect my samples.

- [Rae] Turns out studying a wetland gets a little complicated when it isn't... You know, wet.

- We usually go out on boats during the wet season, but when it's like this, we'll take helicopters out, which is like, the coolest part.

- [Rae] Are you serious?

- Yeah.

- [Rae] Because you need to go really far in order to find soil that's submerged?

- Yeah.

So like, imagine there's a boat ramp right here.

So if there's a boat ramp right here, the boat wouldn't be able to move across the landscape.

- [Rae] Right.

- So we'll need a helicopter to like, take us all the way out and then it'll land and then we'll just walk out and get the sample.

- Do you like going in helicopters?

- Yeah, it's fun.

I got lost once, so.

I was with a lab mate (laughs) and we were like, in thick, like, grass like that.

It's probably like, 10 feet high or 8.

- Oh, the helicopter didn't get lost?

- No, no, no, no.

We did.

So we lost each other and I was screaming.

I was like- Her name is Julia.

I was like, "Julia, where are you?"

She's like, "Jordon!

I don't know!"

(laughs) And then we spent like, 30 minutes trying to find each other.

- Oh my gosh, you were really lost.

- Yeah.

- Were you scared?

- Yeah, I was scared.

- Oh my gosh!

That's horrifying.

Like, dropped off by a helicopter and then you lose your research partner?

- Yeah.

It was not fun.

- All in the name of soil.

- Pretty much, yeah.

- Okay, see, people don't know the adventures you can have- - [Jordon] Literally.

- Studying soil composition.

(both laugh) I'm learning so much in two minutes of talking to you.

I'm learning so much.

But okay, wait, let me ask like, a more simple question.

So what's wrong with dry soil in terms of what you're trying to understand about it?

- So the thing that I collect is called like, flockland organic matter, and it sits directly above the soil, right?

So if water is here, then the flock would be like this layer.

But if there's no water, then you can't collect it because what you need to do is to take this tube, kind of jam it in while there's water in there, and then this creates suction.

And then once you create suction, you pull it out with the water, and then the flock is like, floating around.

So there's these little tiny particles that float in the water.

So if there's no water, you can't collect it.

- You can't collect it.

- Yeah.

- [Rae] Unless you're a microbiologist, you may be wondering at this point, what in the world is flock?

- Flock essentially forms like, the sediment or the soil, so it becomes a part of the soil layer.

And once everything, like, right here, like these plants and like, a deceased animal or insect breaks down, it becomes like, tiny particles again.

So just like if- - So it's there, but you can't sample it.

- Yeah, you can't sample it.

- Yeah.

It's like, mixed in with everything else.

Okay.

Sorry, soil.

There you go.

So we need to find some water.

- Yeah, to sample.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

Let me stand up.

You want to walk a little bit more?

- Barefoot?

- Yeah.

- Yes.

- Okay.

- Oh, yes.

Okay, I got this.

- [Jordon] (laughs) Okay.

- [Rae] You just still have to go first.

- [Jordon] Okay.

(gentle music) (foliage rustling) (gentle music continues) (foliage rustling) - [Rae] After a few tries, it was clear we weren't getting a sample that day.

So we did what any two scientists would do after wandering barefoot through the Everglades, looking unsuccessfully for submerged organic matter: We lay down in the grass.

- Do you want to lay down, kind of get the full feel of the grass?

- All right.

You do it first.

- Okay.

- [Rae] All right, Jordon.

- Go for it.

(pipe thuds) (Rae sighs) But yeah, it's pretty peaceful out here.

This is one of my favorite sites to come to, besides the cars and stuff, like, you could just lay here all day.

- Oh, God.

And get like, a sunburn.

- Literally.

Like you're tanning in the Everglades.

Imagine that.

That might be a million dollar idea.

- Tanning in the Everglades?

- Yeah.

- Because you can do it in like, a second.

- Literally.

- Okay, so... I guess with our eyes closed.

- Yeah.

- Tell me, who's Jordon King?

Who are you?

Where'd you come from?

- I was born and raised in Jamaica.

Kingston, Jamaica.

And I was always like, fascinated with the outdoors.

I used to regularly go to the beach with like, my dad and my mom and stuff and I took a lot of swimming classes so that was kind of like, my segue into marine biology because I was obsessed with water.

- And what a great place to swim.

- Yeah.

So it was like, perfect.

Like, you could see so many different things there.

So I became fascinated with like, all the things I saw and became like, more curious about the environment.

- Did your parents support you in that curiosity?

- Oh, 100%.

Yeah, 100%.

They definitely like, supported me like, all the way through.

I was always curious about nature.

I think once I got to a certain age, I became more of an inside kid.

And then, but I still had the outdoor in me.

Like, I always wanted to go outdoors.

I was always excited when my dad would take me to the beach because we used to go almost every other Sunday, spent a lot of time with my mom.

At first, I wanted to be like, an astronaut.

- Aww.

- And then an architect.

And then I saw like, how much school it required, even though science requires like, a lot of school too, but I was like, "I don't know."

I don't like physics.

- Yeah.

- I don't want to do all that stuff.

Before I go to space, I'll probably be like, 50 or 60 years old.

- Imagine that.

- I'm like, "You know what?

I'll stick to science."

This was like, the next cool thing for me.

So yeah, pretty much like, moved to the United States when I was like 13 years old and then I- - Do you remember that move very well?

- Yeah, it was like, December.

I remember the exact date.

It was like, December 13th, I think.

- Oh, what a time to go from the Caribbean to the cold, snowy East Coast.

- Yeah, because I'm like, "Dang, it's gonna be so cold."

I never experienced anything like that.

The first time I like, touched down in New York, I was like, "It feels like the freezer out here.

I want to go back home."

(both laughing) And I got acclimated pretty quickly.

I fit in, like, really easily.

- That's good.

- And then went to high school and got more deep into like, the marine bio stuff.

I used to watch like, day in the life videos of marine biologists to kind of like, get an idea of what they do on a day to day and that kind of helped me to set my expectations for the future.

- It sounds like you were always very career minded.

Like, not every teenager is thinking so hard about like, having an incredible career journey.

- Yeah, because I wanted to make sure I was gonna to do something for the rest of my life that I loved so I did like, a lot of research on it.

That's why I watched all those YouTube videos and stuff, because if I didn't do that research, I would think, like, you're always in the field, like, in the ocean, like, in the Everglades or somewhere, like, going to work.

But it's really not the case.

You probably go out to the field like, once a month.

- Like.

you have a field season sometimes.

- Right.

- You know?

So it's like, at least for me, doing bears and stuff, like, it would be like, summers and a little bit in the winter.

So maybe four months of the year, it's like, 100% field work.

- Right.

- But then eight months is like, in the lab or in the office.

- Right, exactly.

So that kind of helped me to set my expectations early.

And even though I knew that, I was like, "You know what?

I still want to do it because it looks cool."

So I stuck with it.

I did research on fish in Alabama while I was in undergrad, pursuing my degree in marine biology.

- You were on the coast of Alabama?

- Yeah, the Gulf Coast.

And shout out to Sarah Ramsden, by the way, and the Baker Lab.

- Shout out to Baker Lab.

Was there any part of that experience that you didn't like?

- No, I loved the whole thing.

Honestly, after that, I was like, "Yeah, I'm definitely going to do my master's."

- Oh, that's amazing.

- Because I was surrounded by everyone who either were pursuing their master's or like, their PhD or already had their master's.

So being around people like that, that really motivated me, gave me that push to say, "I'm gonna go ahead and figure out how to do this."

And they also told me, like, "You don't need to pay for school."

So I'm like, "What?

I could go to school for free and do research?"

So I reached out to like, 40 professors, but only one had funding to take on a master's student.

And that was John Kominoski at FIU, the ecosystem ecology lab.

And that's how I ended up in the Everglades for real, because at first I wanted to do research on fish and kind of continue that, but there were no available opportunities, like, at the time.

So I kind of like, ended up in the Everglades, not on accident, but- - But not deliberately.

- Yeah, not deliberately.

- Well, a lot of what you said reminds me of myself because I also always heard that like, graduate school costs money, it's expensive.

- Yeah.

- But then I also got funding to go do a master's and it totally changed my life.

Like, for the better.

It introduced me to like, real research and yeah, it was free.

And I also, when I started my PhD, I had to switch species and I did not want to, I did not want to, and I had to switch locations.

And I was so upset about it because I was working in Africa and then I was being asked to work in North America.

- Wait, you worked in Africa?

- I did.

- That's so cool.

- It was amazing.

It was... You've got to go.

(both laugh) I was in East Africa studying lions and then I had to switch to studying bears in North America, but I didn't want to, and turns out it was the best thing that could have happened to me.

- That is so cool.

- Yeah, it was awesome.

- And what was your favorite experience or most memorable one from that whole experience?

- You know, I grew up like, really urban and I grew up thinking that like, the wilderness was very far away.

Like, you had to cross oceans, you know?

Like, you had to be in Africa or Asia or South America or Australia or something.

And so studying bears in North America taught me that like, you can be in the deep wilderness and be like, an hour from home, you know?

And I just never knew that.

And it really helped me like, understand myself better and like, why I craved adventure, but also like, how I could have more balance in my life.

And so it really like, it was an amazing kind of personal discovery.

- That's so cool.

I'd love to go to Africa one day.

- Oh, you will.

(Jordon laughs) You will and then you'll never want to come back.

When I was an undergrad, I did like, almost like your time in Alabama, I did a study abroad research experience in Kenya.

- Oh, okay.

- And it was really- That was my first time like, doing research and seeing wild animals and being in the outdoors.

I was 20, and that was my first time in it.

- Oh, you were that young?

- I was gonna say old!

- No, 20 years old doing research, that is so cool.

I was about the same age when I started.

That's really cool.

Did you find any... These are my favorite reptiles, they're like lizards, chameleons.

- That's my favorite.

- For real?

- Yeah!

I love chameleons so much.

And the first chameleon I ever saw was like, I was on this hike in the Rift Valley in Kenya, and the whole purpose of it was to just get all the students hiking, just to like, see the views and stuff.

But there was a chameleon and I picked it up and I just remember, I have a picture and it was like, on film, like a film camera picture.

And I was just like, "Oh my God."

Like, "I can die happy.

I'm holding a chameleon right now."

- That is so cool.

Was it a Panther chameleon?

- Oh, see, now you're gonna ask me all kinds of questions.

- Oh, you don't know?

(both laughing) - Google it.

- No, that's so cool though.

Yeah, I want to go to Africa specifically for the chameleons because I know they got like, a lot of different species out there.

- Yeah, that's why I think you wouldn't come back.

- Probably not.

(both laughing) Cut.

- Like, we're gonna be 10 shades darker and have irreparable sun damage.

- Literally.

It'll be worth it though.

(laughs) - Okay, I'll lay down like this.

- Okay.

- By now, the South Florida heat was setting in and it made me wonder what it takes to keep coming back out here day after day, chasing something most of us would barely notice.

So you're collecting soil samples out here, you're having adventures, you're getting dropped off by helicopters and getting lost.

(both laugh) - I would say it's very fun.

It's tedious at times.

It's like a learning curve at first.

I had to learn how to, you know, properly collect samples, learn about things like storing the samples properly, analyzing it.

But over time, like, you get it and you get so like, deep into it to the point where you get like, super obsessed.

So that's what happened to me.

I got like, super obsessed with it to the point where I started recording myself and every time I came out here, that's why I have so much footage from the Everglades.

And yeah, but I never shared it online at first.

I just kind of kept it because I'm like, "Dang, this is cool."

Like, who would've thought coming from like, Jamaica or like, New York, I would be out here in the Everglades.

- Because you've had like, some incredible journeys in your life.

I loved my conversation with Jordon because in a way, it felt like I was talking to my younger self.

Whether that's the Everglades in Florida in the middle of a heat wave or the Savannah in Kenya, somewhere along the way, you start falling in love with the world around you.

And when you fall in love with something, well, you'll do anything in your power to protect it.

- I'm not sure if you knew, but like, the Everglades used to be free flowing at one point, but because of all the development and like, you know, urbanization, building of canals and stuff like that, the water doesn't flow as it used to.

- One effort to bring water back into the Everglades is the comprehensive Everglades restoration plant launched in 2000 to reverse decades of drainage and restore the natural flow of fresh water through South Florida.

- The whole goal behind that was to restore the fresh water in the system, and they're still doing it to this day.

Like, they're still pushing freshwater in the system because there's sea level rise as well and that causes salt water intrusion.

So they're trying to battle against saltwater intrusion and also like, the other effects of climate change in the system through freshwater restoration.

It's a lot going on.

(laughs) - Oh my God, you're so awesome.

You know so much.

I'm so fascinated by this.

Okay, so... You know, it's interesting.

A lot of people think that soil is just dirt, and they'll say that in a dismissive way.

Like, "It's just dusty, dirty dirt.

You wash it off.

It's not important to the planet."

But that couldn't be farther from the truth.

So like, for someone who just doesn't understand the importance of soil at all, like, how would you tell them, "This is why I take soil samples?"

- So, soil is important to understand because, you know, without soil, there'd be like, no plants.

- For one, yes.

- For one.

And then it leads back up to like, it goes up the food chain.

So the base of the food chain is pretty much the flockland organic matter sample that I collect.

Then that forms the soil and then the soil gives life to the plants.

Then the plants provide food for animals that eat plants, and then the animals that eat plants have animals that eat animals that eat plants.

- [Rae] Bingo.

- And then you also have insects and stuff that inhabit these plants as well, so... - And we're just laying in those insects right now.

- Pretty much, yeah.

- We're amongst them.

Yeah.

Why not?

(Jordon laughs) - So yeah, that's pretty much why it's important to understand it because it might seem simple at first, but it really forms the ecosystem itself.

Yeah, without that thing, like, there'd probably be like, none of this.

- [Rae] Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Like, everything we love starts with soil.

- Pretty much.

And cut!

(laughs) (foliage rustling) When it's like this or hotter, it's not fun.

- Yeah, well, listen, Florida's been kicking my butt and I've only been here two days.

- Really?

- Mm-hmm.

Because the mosquitoes and then the heat and everything, it's a lot working here.

- Yes.

It's fun, but like, it has its like, setbacks.

- Yeah, it's hard.

- It's a place you won't forget, though.

- No, I'll never forget this.

- Yeah.

You won't forget it.

- And it's awesome being here with you.

- Mm-hmm.

(gentle music) There's something about spending a day with someone who loves what they do.

The heat, the mosquitoes, getting lost in 10 foot grass, waiting patiently for a sample that may or may not come.

Somehow with Jordon, it all feels like part of the adventure.

And I think that's one of the things I love about science.

Sometimes what you're looking for isn't there, and sometimes that absence is really important information.

The Everglades is alive; In the water, in the grass, in the insects we were apparently lying right on top of, even in the soil beneath us.

So maybe that's what I'll remember most about today.

How good it feels to be curious, to love what's alive, and to truly feel like we're alive too.

- Oh no, he likes you.

- No, he likes me.

He's like, "Maybe you are some grass."

There we go.

- He fell.

(laughs) - [Rae] Luckily, my adventures with Jordon aren't nearly over yet, and apparently, the Everglades is a very different place after dark.

(birds chirping)