"The whole point of civilization is that we're almost all indoor people," says comedian Ivy Le, who created and hosts the podcast, FOGO: Fear of Going Outside. From Monster Bug Wars to Naked and Afraid, the one-time newcomer to camping admits she prefers to experience nature through a screen. But she got curious and ventured outside to answer the couch-surfers' burning questions.
"I don't call myself a guru for anything. I'm a comic. I'm a mom," Le says. "You know, they don't really let moms out in public anywhere nowadays. I'm a queer woman of color with a raging case of ADHD. I'm a flaming bi-sexual. I'm Vietnamese-American. My parents only got into the woods because communists were shooting at them. You know what I mean?"
One of her major revelations: Most of the camping experts she solicited for her podcast couldn't explain why they did things the way they did or back up their advice. She assures Good Food host Evan Kleiman that all the kitchen hacks we use at home can be transferred to the outdoors. Le recommends shopping at Asian grocery stores to stock up on cuttlefish jerky, spicy Vietnamese beef jerky, pork floss, and shrimp chips that don't require refrigeration. She also suggests a Vietnamese coffee filter as a lightweight option for your morning brew.
"I had a very small amount of refrigeration available and half of it was reserved for Korean skincare masks we were doing every day to make sure I didn't age when I was outdoors," says Le. Photo by Riley Banks.
In FOGO: Fear of Going Outside, podcast host Ivy Le learns to camp and hunt. Photo courtesy of Shark Party Media.