Olly Steed was here in Manila at the Nido Science Discovery Center to talk about his show, “Solving History with Olly Steed” at the Discovery channel.

Written and photographed

By Jude Thaddeus L. Bautista

Olly Steed walked in to face the media at the Nido Science Discovery   Center with confidence and humor. He was presented as the host of the latest Discovery Channel hit “Solving History: with Olly Steed”. As a long time investigative journalist, facing reporters is something that he’s at ease with. Prior to being an explorer, he was based in China doing documentaries about North Korean women who have emigrated to escape hardship. A majority of them find themselves recruited for the sex industry or sold as wives in the provinces. He has been nominated for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, Emmys and Overseas Press Awards.

Olly Steed (center) with writer Jamie Ortega (left) and Kat Sebastian (right) features writer from Phil Star. We were able to interview Olly together.

It is the same hard nosed, persistent and journalistic approach to the greatest mysteries that will aid him in getting to real facts. “The show is a dream come true in search of the great mysteries of the world, El Dorado, The Ark of the covenant, Atlantis.” The series premieres locally on Monday, June 28 at 9pm with encores on Tuesdays at 4pm and Saturdays at 2pm. Steed was recruited for the series after his exploration in Papua New Guinea. He spent a total of three years in the jungle with indigenous people such as the Kombai and Mek tribes. His experiences were documented and became a TV series “Living with the Kombai” in 2006.

The lovely Joan Ignacio of Qtv hosted the presscon.

Steed has the distinction of being the youngest among the world’s leading explorers in a highly acclaimed book “Faces of Exploration”. Featured in the book are legendary names such as astronaut Buzz Aldrin, conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall, the first to conquer Mt. Everest Sir Edmund Hillary and deep Sea Explorer Jacques Cousteau.

Although, he has serious credentials, Steed is able to inject humor once in a while, which also makes the show entertaining to watch. He quoted esteemed American paleontologist Roy Andrews, “(He said) the more mistakes you make the more the Adventure.’ That’s what happens most of the time, the more stupid things I do the more adventure we get into.”

In the last episode Devil’s Island, features the French penal colony of which only 10% of inmates survive. The 1970’s film “Papillon” starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman was based on the real prison, Guiane in French Guiana, South America. What the show wanted to find out was the ways that prisoners could escape the island. Steed was asked to swim across the river, where crocodile, anaconda and piranhas are found. “The irony is that they only tell me of the dangers after I swam across it.” Another method was creating a raft and sailing out of the island. Sharks infested the surrounding seas because prisoners were regularly thrown to them. “After they got the shot of me sailing out on an improvised raft, the crew went to have lunch. Then they realized someone was missing. It took them an hour to find me by then I was 6 kilometers out to sea.”

As the new host of a Discovery show it was inevitable that he was compared to another Brit with a massive following, Bear Grylls of “Man vs Wild” in the same network. They have some similarities in looks and build apart from the accent. The modest Steed however gives Grylls credit for his survival expertise, “I know him we’re good friends and we’re unfairly compared. He’ll jump into a desert by himself. Where I would take some maps and sandwiches and take as many people along who know the place. I love him.” But while Grylls is more of an action man, Steed is more of a journalist looking for hard facts about the mysteries that have boggled mankind through out history.

Olly's youngest and cutest fan is from the Philippines

What makes him special is his innate desire to share these discoveries. He is involved with iNOMAD which exists to develop the next generation of explorers regarding issues of environmental conservation and cultural understanding. He is also director of Digital explorer.com which aims to connect classrooms directly to the world of exploration.