Michelle Armogida loves spending time outdoors tending to her farm in Brevard County, but she never imagined she would be spending three weeks outside with a complete stranger.
Armogida said it all started when she and her husband were watching their favorite TV show.
“Every time we would watch he would say, ‘Oh my gosh babe, you are so much better than these people. Why don’t you sign up?’ And at first I was like, ‘Ha ha very funny,’ but after he had said it multiple times, I finally went, ‘Well he’s not wrong.’ So then I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to sign up.’ It was a super quick, five-minute, I didn’t even fill out the entire application. I submitted it just to get him off my back. Had no hopes of ever being contacted.”
Then she said the producers from “Naked and Afraid” actually reached out.
“They sent me an email and I thought it was a scam, I thought it was like fake,” said Armogida.
She figured out, it was legit and soon after she was dropped off in South Africa with a stranger, sans clothes. The new duo was left to create their own shelter, hunt for food and survive for 21 days.
Armogida told Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden on Florida’s Fourth Estate her unique upbringing prepared her for the opportunity.
“I grew up in Western Washington on a small homestead where we grew our own food and we were just backed up to the forest where my brothers and sisters and I would go out into the forest barefoot all day every day and we’d build forts and we would find food to eat that, who knows, didn’t kill me, I’m still here today. And we would just live as like wild forest children. So, I’m very comfortable in that environment,” Armogida said.
She also told Matt and Ginger she was a hiker for many years and knows how to identify food in the wild.
“I have a long extensive background in wild edible identification and foraging, mushrooming as well. I am also a huntress,” Armogida said.
Since her interview on Florida’s Fourth Estate, Armogida announced her next big challenge to premiere on Discovery Channel will be on Naked and Afraid XL. That show will be available on May 12 on Discovery Channel. Her previous show can also be streamed on Max and Discovery+.
Learn more about Armogida’s military service, farm in Mims, and what it was like to survive in South Africa for three weeks on Florida’s Fourth Estate. The podcast is available from wherever you listen to podcasts and anytime on News 6+.
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