Hey, A to Z English Podcast listeners, it's Jack here.
And we just want to announce that we are now on WeChat.
Our WeChat ID is A to Z English Podcast.
That is A to Z English Podcast. One word, all lowercase.
And if you join the group, you'll be able to talk with me,
you'll be able to talk with social.
And we can answer your questions, we can read your comments
on the podcast. So we'd love for you to join us
and be active in our WeChat group.
Our WeChat ID is A to Z English Podcast.
Thanks. See you on the app.
Welcome to the A to Z English Podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my co-host
social and today we have another topic talk for you. And social, you have kind of a,
I don't know what you'd call like a situation or a conundrum.
A conundrum is like a difficult decision or a difficult situation.
So what is your, what is the conundrum?
Jack, this has become really popular among
medicines in the last maybe even couple of months.
And it's very popular amongst American medicine.
So I'm curious to hear what your answer is.
No, without any context, let's say that your wife and your daughter are in the woods lost
and oh, and they have, you know, no internet, cell service, whatever to call you or call
anyone else. Would you rather they come across a strange man that, no, like you,
you don't know they don't know nobody knows him or his intentions or anything?
Or would you rather they come across a bear?
No.
Okay. So just for our listeners there in case you didn't catch that, you said social that my wife
and my daughter are in the woods just walking in the woods. They have no cell phone, no way to
to contact anybody. And the question is, would I rather they come across a bear or a strange man
that they don't know? Yes, that's correct. Okay.
Yeah, this is, you know, this should be an easy question. I mean, if we lived in like a,
like a reasonable world, you know, where we, you know, but I feel like, I listened to a lot of
like true crime podcasts. And so I just, I've listened to too much true crime to, to answer this
one easily. What kind of bear is it? Is it a grizzly bear? No, we don't know what kind of bear it is.
We don't know what kind of bear it is. It could be a brown bear, it could be a black bear, it could be
a grizzly bear. It's just like you don't know what kind of man it is. You also don't know what kind
of bear it is. Oh, yeah, have some, you can choice there. Do I know the gender of the bear?
No. All right, because you know, if it were, if it were a female bear, I would be, I would,
I would choose the man because, you know, if the, if a female bear is protecting her cubs,
if her cubs are in the area, that's a very dangerous situation. So I would, I would just hope
that the man is not a psych, a psychotic killer, you know, a psycho. If the, if the bear were male,
I, it's probably going to just leave them alone, you know, like it just, it, it, you know,
they don't really necessarily see humans as prey necessarily unless they're starving, you know,
they'll, they'll pretty much just, they might play around with you or whatever, which is terrifying,
you know, that could still kill you or injure you, but generally speaking, they'll, they'll leave
you alone. If it's, if it's a male bear and it's starving, it'll, it'll eat you. So that, in
that case, I mean, there's just too many, I guess there are too many variables when it comes to the
bear. Yeah, overcomplicated, Jack, you don't know, because also you could also think, you know,
black bears, like 100% of the time pretty much, like 99.9% of the time a black bear will run away
if it sees a human, like it'll, right, right, exactly, exactly. They're, they're not interesting
humans really, you know, they might be curious. Black bears are scared of humans actually a little
bit. Like if they see one, I run into them when I was camping in national parks, I, we did like
two week backpacking in national park and they, they like run away because there's kind of scared of
people, black bears. And pretty, they're kind of, they're a lot smaller than grizzly bears actually.
They're not that big. The problem is just, the problem is bears are just too unreliable right now.
For me, to, like, if my wife and my daughter came across a bear, they're just too, you just,
you just never know what's going to happen. Like, what about men? So men are men,
reliable to you? Well, I think a bear is going to do what a bear is going to do, right? Like,
like they're, they weigh 500 pounds. They're going to, you know, if they decide that they want to,
you know, bite you and mess you up, they'll do it. And it's really kind of like,
it's very much like a coin toss. Now, the man, on the other hand, what percentage of, of men are,
are psycho killers? I mean, like, it's, it's got to be, it's got to be miniscule, right? It's got
to be like a small, small percentage. Well, kind of bad, Jeff, because it's like, I realize that
you're a good guy and that's why you don't think of this. But like, think about it this way. How many
men are psycho killers? Yeah. How many men are actually good people when they come across a woman
alone in the woods? I'm going to say still a large, a majority, a large majority are good,
are good people. But there are, there is a percentage of, of, of very bad people that are going to,
that are going to be like a crime of, we call this, we, we would call this a crime of opportunity, right?
It's like, they're not necessarily, they're not necessarily going to do anything in society.
But when, when society is not looking, you know, and they feel like they can, you know,
sneak their, their hand into the cookie jar and get away with it. How many men, you know,
what are they going to do? This, this is like the darkest podcast we've ever done when I think about
it. Yeah. But I want to ask you something that might make it a little lighthearted and dark,
dark in a way. Yeah. What would you have answered? How, what would you say if I said, would you
rather that your wife and daughter come across a woman in the woods, a strange woman in the woods,
or a bear in the woods? Oh, woman. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't hesitate in this for a second.
And then like, you see how bad it is that like we have to, we, we've started here having quite a
long conversation, debating whether a man or a bear is a, is a worst threat. And when we think about
a woman, we're like, oh, yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Yeah. A woman is, it's not a threat. Just like a,
but also it just speaks about how poorly men behave in society and how many men are criminal
than or just crappy people. Yeah. I mean, it is, it is really, it is, it is, it is, it is bad.
I, one, one, I remember a few months ago, my daughter was coming home and she got harassed by
some guy, you know, she's 16 years old. And yeah, I was, I was, I ran outside. I was like,
like, where, where is he? I'm going to kill him. You know, but it's just like, you know, it's,
what women have to deal with in society, you know, getting harassed and things like that,
is kind of related to this question where, you know, if a, if they were to come across a man in the woods,
it would, that is also terrifying. But statistically, I would rather they come across a man than a bear,
because the bear is just too unreliable. I just don't know what the bear is going to do. I can't,
I just can't trust the bear because the bear is just going to, is going to do what's, what's in
its nature, you know, which is hunt or whatever, you know, like attack, defend, whatever it feels
is necessary at that moment. A man, if 95% of men are, are decent people, that's a pretty,
those are pretty good odds, right? That she's not going to come across that other 5%.
So, you have a really good, you, you think 95% of men are decent people.
I'm not an alienator of me. I don't answer anything. I just think most men would, even most men
would probably disagree with you on how many, what percentage of men are good people when a crime
of opportunity arises. And so, I would have to say, I'm closer to the 75% or 65% of my...
Oh, no, that's too high. I don't think, I really don't think that, that that that that that
man or that bat, I just think that like, the crimes, we, how can I say it? Like, like, it's, like,
it's over amplified in some ways, like true crime. Like, because it's, you know, you only hear about
the bad stories. Because you're a man that you feel this way, Jack. You think so? I'm not trying to.
You're biased. Yeah, you're biased because you have an experience, everything that a woman
experiences. Your daughter is only 16 and she's already been harassed in the street by a man.
Yeah, yeah. Think about that. That's kind of what women grow up with. I think the first time I was
her harassed by a man, I was nine years old. Yeah, that's really disgusting. I mean, it's just
just a behavior. I guess you, I mean, I could be totally wrong here. You could be, you could be more
on point than, you know, 75, 25. I was, I guess I'm just, I, 5% seem like a high number to me,
even this. Because that's a lot of people. That's a lot of people, you know? That's like in the
United States, that would be 15 million people, you know? You must run yourself with really nice
guys. Like really great. Yeah, I guess I just meant that my, my friends and, and, you know,
colleagues that I work with are just, just very decent people. I guess I don't, I don't know.
And there's probably a part of it. It's also cultural. But I'll tell you,
in the United States and the US, even though the US is, is to me a fairly safe country for women
compared to Mexico and even compared to Korea in some contexts. Because, well, I did, well, I did
feel safe walking around in Korea a little night to the convenience store or whatever.
Situations, you see horrible things come out in the news about women in clubs in Korea and
all sorts of horrible trafficking rings and terrible, you know, things that happen. So the US
is a fully safe country for women, I think, in my opinion. Oh, yeah. And I was thinking USA,
actually, I was just, I was kind of being like, you know, but I, but I think that like, you know,
for the most part, like, I think it's like even more regardless of the fact that that the USA
is a safe country for women, most women, netizens are choosing the bear.
Really, they're going with the bear. Because the bear might just turn, because they're thinking
the bear is going to turn around and run away. And then they're, they're, then they're, it's done.
They're free. But the man is like, you got to, you got to deal with this. Like, if he's a good guy,
okay, fine, he'll help you get out of the woods. But, you know, if he's crazy, you know, sick
or deranged man, sick, deranged man, yeah, I would much rather have the bear, you know.
Yeah. Right. This is tough. This is a tough one. I'm still, I'm still going to go with the man
over the bear. I still think that the bear, they're just too many variables with the bear. I just
can't, I just can't trust the bear. Um, and, and, no, no, no, no, you're going to go, you,
so you're going to go with the bear. I'd rather go with the bear than the man because I've,
I've grown up as a woman and I've experienced too many things throughout my life to trust
random men in the woods. And I have encountered random bears in the woods. Um, when I was camping
in backpacking, I have that experience and bears, especially black bears usually run away.
And grizzly bears are not as vicious as a lot of people think they are. If they're not like,
really in attack mode, they kind of just chill a lot of the time. Like, they're starving and they,
they might eat you. Yeah, they will. Yeah. The worst thing you can do is like, maim or eat you.
I know that sounds terrible. Like, I'm gonna see you up though. Those are terrifying. They're,
they're big. Yeah. They're giant. If it attacks you, yeah, I will mess you up. But, you know,
there's that whole documentary grizzly man where he lived amongst grizzly bears for like 20 years
before he was eaten by one. Yeah, but it's, ah, it's a bear. I mean, yeah, like, it's a man.
It's probably just a hunter, you know, he's probably out hunting just a nice guy,
you know, trying to, trying to shoot some shoot it here. I don't know if I've ever met a nice guy
that like hunted animals. I mean, except for people who traditionally do like indigenous peoples,
but, you know, I don't know. Most people who have hunting is like a hobby are kind of weird too. It's
like, I don't know. I just wouldn't trust him. And I just, I just don't want. There's too many
variables with a man. And so I would rather, I'd rather be maimed and killed by a bear
than if it came down to it, then like tortured and killed by a man. I know that it's so dark.
The more I think about this, your answer, the more insane I think it is though. Like a bear versus a
man, like a human. Ah, I don't know. I mean, I get why you, why, why the netizens and why you,
why you guys think like the bear is better. But I just think statistically, the man would be a
much safer bet. Statistically, most bears are going to run away from you when they run when
they encounter you. Like most of the time in the US, you're going to encounter a black bear. And
it's going to run. Ah, like what percentage of the time do you think a bear would actually attack
you though? Do you think it's the same? Do you think it's like less than 5%?
But I don't think that's less than 5% for men, Jack. I don't think about it all. I'm pretty sure
it can't be more than 5% of men. Let's look up statistics.
Hundreds of millions of people. I mean, I'm going to look up statistics on this. I'm going to look
up statistics. And so one in three women have experienced some form of physical violence by an
intimate partner. And let's see. Yeah, that tracks. I would believe that. But that's domestic violence,
a little different than in the woods, I think. It says, I came across once statistics that
the minister that roughly one third of women experience a assault of some kind. It's kind of a
lack of reliable data here. Yeah, I don't think it's hard to gauge because what you're talking about
in the woods, this is like a full on like felony level like crime. Like the worst crime you can do.
You know, right. So I don't know. This is, there's no way for us to really resolve it.
That's it. It's just kind of our feelings. So I'm going to come back next week with stats because I
want because I, I want, I'm going to come back next week with stats because I feel like you have
your blinders on zero man. And I wanted this mantle. And get on the blinders off.
I also, I want you to talk to your wife. I want you to ask your wife. This is if you think she'd
be down to answer. Yeah, yeah, sure. I'll ask her. I'll tell you what she says next week for sure.
She's probably going to be like, why are you asking me? That's a weird. Yeah. Yeah. So I've
been married to a serial serial killer all these years. Yeah, but you know, it is a weird question.
But I think one thing that she gave us pause is just thinking about how quick we would be to answer
that if it were, if it were a woman in the woods, we would just automatically choose a woman.
And what we do, we do think, you know, we're sitting here and thinking about it. No, I think you,
I think you made, you made the points. And I think the point is very clear that there's a,
there's a distinction. And why is there? There should not be one. And it's, and it's sad. It's a sad
commentary on our society or our world or whatever that, that, that I couldn't answer that one
as fast as the, you know, that we, that the answer is, you know, when it's a woman,
it's so quick to say the woman, but when it's a man, I'm hesitating, you know, right there,
it's already, the point is already made, you know, so. Right. Yeah. All right. Well,
listeners, this was a bit of a dark episode, but an interesting episode on the last. Yeah.
So I'm curious to know what your answers are. Please leave us a comment at
www.exeanglizpodcast.com. Shoot us an email at aida'senglishpodcast.com. And please join the
WeChat and WeChat groups to join the conversation. I'm really, really curious to see what the women
think. And yeah, I got to know, I got to know guys. So let me know what you think in the WeChat and
WeChat groups. And yeah, also Jack and I have started an English corner and we do this Monday
to Friday. And it's really fun. We have a lot of fluent English speakers in there and we have a
lot of people that you get a lot of speaking time to get to practice your English and better your
English with your other co-learners classmates almost on the podcast. And I think that it's really
interesting. We have discussion questions and I've had a really good time doing it so far.
And it's 10 USD a month, which is about 20 or sorry, 50 cents a class, because we eat 20 classes total.
So yeah, I hope that you guys can join us for that. And if you're so interested, make sure to
send us a message and we'll get back to you on how you can join. And we'll see you guys next time. Bye bye.
