Bear Grylls on Running Wild with President Barack Obama

During the regular season of Running Wild with Bear Grylls, Bear Grylls has taken A-list movie stars like Channing Tatum, Kate Winslet and Kate Hudson on adventures in the wild, but tonight, in a special edition of the series, he takes the most powerful man on earth, President Barack Obama, on a trek through dense forest and across a glacial outwash at Alaska’s famed Exit Glacier, where they observe the remarkable effects of climate change first hand.

“They reached out to us, you know?,” Bear told Parade.com. “The White House said, ‘Would you consider taking the president on an adventure to Alaska?’ I almost didn’t really believe it. When we started, I thought it was a spoof. But, we got into it and we all came together. There are obviously quite a few hurdles along the way of trying to keep everyone happy, including the whole Secret Service, presidential team and all of that. It’s an episode I’m hugely proud of.”

Airing tonight at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, Bear and Obama will check out everything from wild salmon, to catkins tea made with melting glacial water, as well as make s’mores. During their time together, Bear gives the president a true taste of Alaska, while Obama reveals his thoughts on his official duties, family life at the White House, parenthood and his own faith.

“My overriding impression was he’s really a humble, family-centered, lovely guy, you know?” Bear continued. “Of course, there were times along the route I had to pinch myself and think, ‘This is the president of America, you know?’ I think there’s a connection when you’re out in the wild with someone. I always say it’s the ultimate learning [experience].”

In the rest of this interview, Bear also talks about why President Obama decided to join him in Alaska, the highlights of their time together, what they talked about, and prayed about, and what Obama wants his legacy to be.

What did he tell you about why he wanted to do this?

One of the big reasons he wanted to do this was he wanted to see some of the effects of climate change close up. He wants to preserve the planet for his children’s future, and I feel exactly the same way, you know? I spend all of my life charging around the world in all of these wildernesses and I see the harsh reality of climate change close up.

We want to protect this incredible planet. It’s the only one we’ve got, and we want to make sure our children get to enjoy these wonderful wildernesses. So there is a great connection there.

And he was excited to be there and he was fun. To be able to kind of pull each other’s leg a little bit, in a way that if you just sort of meet someone in the White House in an interview situation, it’s difficult to do.

But we were out there and you light fire together and climb up trees and, eat half-eaten salmon, and talk about flatulence and the berries and all of that gets out, you know? The connections always come. So it was a huge privilege, but definitely a side of the president you’ve never see before.

What were some of those hurdles that you had to get through with the Secret Service?

Well, I think initially the Secret Service was quite wary, because of their job. It’s just one job: Keep him safe. This sort of thing was well off piece for them. So initially, there was quite a lot of pushback. But I think as soon as we got our team with [them on the ground]—and a lot of our team are ex-U.K. soldiers—it was just a process of talking through the routes that we wanted to do and checking that route, and talking through every stage of what I was going to do with him. Then just going through the the process of evac plans if somebody got injured. All of that sort of thing.

I thought initially they would have five or six Secret Service guys with us that ended up being like 50. It’s a whole team with the press corps, and they even got a guy who’s there to make sure if any food or drink he’s drinking is approved. So it’s a big, old group to move around.

But once we got going, you can then obviously take the lead from him. And if he’s fine to eat what I’m producing and share water bottles and climb up and down stuff, well then, I was going to take my lead from him, and the Secret Service, obviously, will do the same.

Was there a moment that really stands out in your mind from filming?

If I look back at the whole thing, for me, there are two moments. One was beforehand on the riverbank. We had this big journey to get in there. They shut down the airspace. It was all quite frantic, you know? Suddenly, it all went still. I was waiting at the riverbank and I can see all the Secret Service and the snipers positioned all around this mountain with the helicopters, and it was like, “Wow, I am really genuinely nervous.”

As soon as he arrived, he was saying, “Hey, I’ve been a big fan of the show. It’s great to meet. Let’s go and do it,” it was like awesome.

But I think at the end of it what really stood out for me was where we prayed together. It’s funny because it’s such an intimate thing to do, but we talked about faith on the journey.

He said to me this was one of the best days of his presidency because I didn’t want anything from him. We’re just sharing a little bit of our world.

What were some of the conversations that you had that stand out in your mind?

We talked a lot about the climate change stuff. And I said, “Were you ever a skeptic to this?” And he said, “I’m always a believer in science.” He looked at this, and he looked at it, and the truth is, it is happening and we’ve got to take action. America can’t do it on their own. We’ve got to form this global partnership to really tackle this. Otherwise, the consequences will be huge. He said, “You can’t slam on the brakes. When you’re getting near a cliff, you’ve got to start tapping the brakes early.”

I said, “What do you want a legacy in your presidency to be?” He said this is right up there for him, because it goes beyond politics.

Running Wild with Bear Grylls airs tonight at 10 p.m. on NBC.