Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Meets Twirl, a podcast that once chronicled
Speaker 1: two guys who had never seen Dancing with the Stars,
Speaker 1: but watched a season and somehow walked away experts. From there,
Speaker 1: we ventured into Traders, a show I'd never seen but
Speaker 1: Will swore he could win. And now we turned to
Speaker 1: Survivor season fifty, the Big One, and this time the
Speaker 1: roles are reversed. Will has seen exactly one season, the
Speaker 1: first one. Meanwhile, I've watched for years. We are Wilfordell,
Speaker 1: who prefers his wilderness with room service, and right or Strong,
Speaker 1: who will hike any mountain but hates the beach. Two
Speaker 1: best friends, one devoted to the comforts of civilization, one
Speaker 1: who would never leave the woods if he could. Both
Speaker 1: reality competition scholars join us as we dive into alliances,
Speaker 1: blind sides, fire making, sand related misery, and twenty five
Speaker 1: years of television history culminating in a single massive season.
Speaker 1: This is Pod Meets Twirled, Seeking Immunity.
Speaker 2: How you feeling, Will, I'm excited, cautiously excited, I guess,
Speaker 2: and you're.
Speaker 1: Completely right with what you said in your intro.
Speaker 2: As my wife often says, if I'm in the woods
Speaker 2: for three days.
Speaker 1: I've been dead for two of them. So yeah, but
Speaker 1: you grew up kind of didn't you camp when you
Speaker 1: were a kid? Oh? Every weekend.
Speaker 2: I was in the woods every weekend growing up. I
Speaker 2: was a boy scout. I can start fires once. You
Speaker 2: were never going out.
Speaker 1: Hell no.
Speaker 2: Once you sit in a nice hot tub, you never
Speaker 2: want to have to scrounge for water again.
Speaker 1: Would you do like an r V? Would you do
Speaker 1: like a camper van? Yes, briefly and a big one. Right,
Speaker 1: But what is it that scares you or what is
Speaker 1: it that is it just a discomfort? Yes?
Speaker 2: I like I like things like showers and hot water.
Speaker 2: And yeah, you being on a mattress and shower.
Speaker 1: Like twice a day?
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: At least wait, really like every every day you shower
Speaker 1: twice a day. At least you at least you have
Speaker 1: to keep in mind. I also work out twice a day.
Speaker 2: So I wake up in the morning and I work
Speaker 2: out and I do cardio or lift weights with with
Speaker 2: the trainer, and then at night I do cardio again.
Speaker 1: Do you shower after you poop? Are you one of
Speaker 1: those people?
Speaker 2: No? God, no, I couldn't I be showering eleven times?
Speaker 2: A day with my stomach.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding?
Speaker 2: I'm a I'm a prodigious pooper. My friend, very healthy body,
Speaker 2: that prodigious pooper, Wilde, I am.
Speaker 1: I've got a very healthy scholar and prodigious pooper. Okay,
Speaker 1: So it's not about it's not about like the animals
Speaker 1: or fear of the woods or exposure to the element.
Speaker 2: I don't mind. But hugs, I don't mind. Uh you know,
Speaker 2: Oh a bear is gonna get me. I'm not scared
Speaker 2: of the woods. I just I like being comfortable and
Speaker 2: I like not having to you know, again, there's a
Speaker 2: novelty to that stuff. I get, no like I feel
Speaker 2: like with you, there's a piece to it and almost
Speaker 2: a philosophy to it which is completely and totally lost
Speaker 2: on me, the idea that I'm getting in touch with nature.
Speaker 2: And yeah, that doesn't do anything for you nothing.
Speaker 1: See. I think that there's something so profound that happens
Speaker 1: when you look at an amazing stars, you know, like
Speaker 1: sky filled with stars or I've.
Speaker 2: Got telescopes put him right outside, right next to the awe,
Speaker 2: in the face of nature.
Speaker 1: That is really important to me. And that and I
Speaker 1: feel like is even better when it's slightly earned in
Speaker 1: other words, like you get high to it, to it
Speaker 1: and and and there's there's something terrifying, genuinely terrifying to
Speaker 1: me about the solitude of the woods that, in that terror,
Speaker 1: actually makes me feel good, Like I feel like I
Speaker 1: am somehow closer to reality or like closer to the
Speaker 1: real nature of things. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: Are you one of those people where it's like the
Speaker 2: closer you get to tasting death is really makes you
Speaker 2: feel like you're alive.
Speaker 1: Oh, I guess I need to do and a motorcycle.
Speaker 1: I don't want that. No, it's more about the like,
Speaker 1: you know, the the slight panic that comes from like
Speaker 1: being alone in the woods looking around and being like, yeah,
Speaker 1: if I ran into a bear, it would it would
Speaker 1: just kill me. And it's not it's not because the
Speaker 1: world's an evil place. It's because the world is just
Speaker 1: a place where things happen, and you are a physical
Speaker 1: body in it. That as much as we like to
Speaker 1: think of ourselves as important, we're not, And that that
Speaker 1: feeling of like not being important is really profound to me,
Speaker 1: and I I cherish it even though it scares me right,
Speaker 1: Like I want to be important. I want to be
Speaker 1: the center of my own movie. And getting into the
Speaker 1: woods is a sort of shortcut to that sense of
Speaker 1: inconsequence of your own life. And I think that that's
Speaker 1: healthy and fun.
Speaker 2: And I like to sit at home knowing how important
Speaker 2: I am. That's that's that's what I.
Speaker 1: Like, watching your own TV show, watching You like to
Speaker 1: sit at home watching Boy Mets World. You all the time,
Speaker 1: and Susan's next to you applauded, You're amazing.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: As a kid, I did all that stuff by Heights
Speaker 2: Mount Washington, and we camped every weekend. I would get
Speaker 2: home from school and we all had We were without
Speaker 2: the karate or being cool in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 2: My couple friends and I in seventh and eighth grade,
Speaker 2: we were like Johnny from Karate Kid. We all had
Speaker 2: dirt bikes. We built a track in the woods. We
Speaker 2: were in the woods every weekend.
Speaker 1: We loved it.
Speaker 2: There's a we found an old band in Chicken Coop
Speaker 2: and we spent every weekend and all the weeks we
Speaker 2: had off like rebuilding it into this great fort we had.
Speaker 2: I mean, I loved the woods and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: But then I got to a point where I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't need to do that anymore, and
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna there's no I find no peace in it.
Speaker 2: So there's no active like, oh, this is the best
Speaker 2: thing in the world. I get to go and be
Speaker 2: in the woods by myself. Like no, I'd rather go
Speaker 2: have a nice massage somewhere and get a nice meal
Speaker 2: and watch a show and go to sleep in.
Speaker 1: A nice band. And now you have you watched the
Speaker 1: one season of Survivor, the very first one, but you
Speaker 1: have watched Alone, another Survivor reality. Yeah several times.
Speaker 2: Okay, we've seen a bunch of episodes of Alone, and
Speaker 2: now that is way more badass than this, way.
Speaker 1: More bad ass. And yeah, that one is, yeah that
Speaker 1: you know, that one is true survivalist skills and they
Speaker 1: have to carry their own camera gear. They are truly alone. Yep,
Speaker 1: it's hardcore. And you see that that Actually the survival skills,
Speaker 1: which are difficult but are manageable. The real thing is
Speaker 1: the loneliness, right, Like to watch people start to go
Speaker 1: crazy being in the wilderness by themselves after you know,
Speaker 1: thirty days or whatever.
Speaker 2: That would be the easiest part for me by far,
Speaker 2: do you think so? Really, dude, I was alone in
Speaker 2: my house by myself with my anxiety for like seven years.
Speaker 2: I didn't see anybody, So being alone, I was able
Speaker 2: to completely compartmentalize the difference between See. That's why the
Speaker 2: show is called alone and not loneliness, right, because being
Speaker 2: alone and being lonely were two very different things.
Speaker 1: I love being alone. I almost never get lonely really.
Speaker 1: Even now now that's a little different because I have Susan.
Speaker 2: Yeah without Susan, like yeah, yeah, twelve year and I
Speaker 2: want to be twice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're talking about your mid twenties when you were sire. Well,
Speaker 1: I I think it would be very different now, because
Speaker 1: that's what you say is like on that there was
Speaker 1: one season of Alone where this guy was doing great.
Speaker 1: He even made like his own the toy wifim out
Speaker 1: of here going home, and they're like, dude.
Speaker 2: Are you see Like he locked up his fake garage
Speaker 2: that he had built and every like going home.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The best on that show are the ones that
Speaker 1: have either just been through divorce or or they they
Speaker 1: need the money so bad. I said, they have something
Speaker 1: so important that they were like, and they're doing it
Speaker 1: for somebody else that they're just going to do it there.
Speaker 2: I remember that that one season where the guy built
Speaker 2: rock rock House, Yes, and he was eating and soon
Speaker 2: and I looked at each other and he.
Speaker 1: Saved he he killed the.
Speaker 2: Muscock and then and then he's eating the stomach and
Speaker 2: we looked at each other like, Okay, when you're eating
Speaker 2: warm contents of muscogs, no.
Speaker 1: One's gonna beat that guy. He's going to eat his
Speaker 1: own leg before he leaves. No one's going to beat
Speaker 1: that guy. And he dug a fire pit too, right,
Speaker 1: like he dug he dug.
Speaker 2: It's called it was called rock House where the whole
Speaker 2: thing was made of stoney, found the cave and then
Speaker 2: built everything around it.
Speaker 1: And so I mean, you're not going to beat that dude.
Speaker 1: It's just not going to happen.
Speaker 2: Whereas Sue always says, I would have tapped out on
Speaker 2: the on the boat right over yea where I would
Speaker 2: have literally been on the phone and the guy, the
Speaker 2: producer's phone would have rung and he would be like,
Speaker 2: I'm standing next to you, like, yeah, I'm tapping out,
Speaker 2: turn around and tapping out. But it wouldn't be from loneliness.
Speaker 2: It would have been probably from boredom more than anything else.
Speaker 1: Well, so survivor. You know, it's having watched most of
Speaker 1: the seasons, I have to In are some of our
Speaker 1: promotional material for this season. It said on the social
Speaker 1: medias that I had seen every season. I actually haven't
Speaker 1: watched every season. What what's happened is I started watching
Speaker 1: it when my wife was pregnant and we started devouring
Speaker 1: every season, and then I watch it with my son
Speaker 1: and her. Now the problem is they watch it sometimes
Speaker 1: when I'm out of town, so I've missed either half
Speaker 1: of a season or I know they that's not allowed.
Speaker 1: I know, but well I couldn't, you know, hold them
Speaker 1: back from what you know, the season without me and
Speaker 1: then I'll jump in. I So it's a little confusing,
Speaker 1: and it's been especially confusing coming into this season fifty
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of people that I do know
Speaker 1: or a scene, but I can't remember what they did
Speaker 1: in their season because in part sometimes I didn't finish
Speaker 1: the season in or I only came in fifty seasons.
Speaker 1: How could anybody remember what everybody did in every single
Speaker 1: I know, it's it's a lot.
Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite from the season, whether they
Speaker 2: wont or not. Do you have a favorite Survivor that
Speaker 2: was your favorite the whole time.
Speaker 1: Ozzy's just the man, the guy who's in this one. Yes,
Speaker 1: he's the best of all time. Is Ozzie's not Coach,
Speaker 1: No coaches.
Speaker 2: No. Ozzy is the guy who looks like the drummer
Speaker 2: from a Okay, yeah, he looks like the drummer from Total.
Speaker 1: He is by far the best survivalist ever on Survivor.
Speaker 1: He like, y oh, yeah, he's I think I told
Speaker 1: you about him. He's the guy who like will fish
Speaker 1: for everybody. That's yes, dude, did you notice he already
Speaker 1: found like that. He provides for everybody. He is and
Speaker 1: he's never won. He's been on the show I think
Speaker 1: four or five times, and he's the nicest guy. His
Speaker 1: problem is he gets too cocky and he thinks that
Speaker 1: by being providing for everybody that they won't stab him
Speaker 1: in the back, and they always alway.
Speaker 2: He's the one who had a problem with Coach, who
Speaker 2: I guess said that it was because of him the
Speaker 2: coach didn't win a million dollars.
Speaker 1: Coach is my the villain that I love to hate. Coach.
Speaker 1: He's a villain. Knowing nothing about this, I thought everybody
Speaker 1: coaches first season, So what happened coaches first season? And
Speaker 1: some people do love him, but it's mostly because they
Speaker 1: have mixed feelings about him because he's a very good player,
Speaker 1: but he's also very socially manipulative. There's the season that
Speaker 1: really turned me against him, which I believe was his
Speaker 1: first season. He was on a tribe with somebody. I'm
Speaker 1: blanking on this guy's name, but this guy was not
Speaker 1: very stable mentally and very religious, and Coach made a
Speaker 1: partnership with this guy and like four other people and
Speaker 1: said we're gonna go all the way to the end.
Speaker 1: Like day one, he was like, the best, the only
Speaker 1: way to win this game is if we never break alliances.
Speaker 1: And then this guy was really off his rocker and
Speaker 1: like targeting women because they were enticing him, you know,
Speaker 1: like saying like that woman is a is sent here
Speaker 1: from Satan and because she's dressing and you're like, dude,
Speaker 1: you're just attracted to her. Let it go. It's not
Speaker 1: her fault. And Coach didn't draw the line and say like, oh,
Speaker 1: this guy is probably He instead leaned into it, used
Speaker 1: religiosity to keep them tighter and said, let's all pray
Speaker 1: before every challenge. Is and I find that really despicable.
Speaker 1: And he agreed. He made it to the end. He
Speaker 1: made it to the end. He did not win. The
Speaker 1: jury did not get him. It was a woman who
Speaker 1: also just sort of attached herself to him, knowing that
Speaker 1: he might get to the end, and she was smart
Speaker 1: and you want but that's always turned me against coach.
Speaker 1: He's he's manipulative and he I think he crossed the
Speaker 1: line there, you know, going too far into like using
Speaker 1: religion to rally this team of people on his side.
Speaker 1: They did very well though, they want and he and
Speaker 1: by sticking with that group of five, because it is
Speaker 1: true if you have a group of five and you never,
Speaker 1: no matter what, turn on each other, you can make
Speaker 1: it all the way to the end pretty much, especially
Speaker 1: back in those days. Now it's gotten more complicated because
Speaker 1: of the rules that they've introduced with advantages.
Speaker 2: Well, this is what I want to talk to you about,
Speaker 2: because there's there's basic things that I as somebody who
Speaker 2: didn't watch your vivor that I don't know. And since
Speaker 2: I watched the first season, all I remember is naked guy.
Speaker 2: That's all I remember. And I actually remember the girl
Speaker 2: from this one, Jenna I think her name was I
Speaker 2: remember that. So first of all, what is you're talking
Speaker 2: about new rules? So what is the new era?
Speaker 1: I actually don't know that distinctions technically. I believe there
Speaker 1: was a it was it was a shift in the
Speaker 1: way the game. I don't know technically, but yeah, So
Speaker 1: I honestly I had this same question. I was sort
Speaker 1: of like, okay, one of our parisiers could jump in
Speaker 1: the thought. But I believe it has something to do.
Speaker 1: I believe the problem with Survivor when it started was
Speaker 1: that the men would dominate the entire first half of
Speaker 1: the game because they were The challenges were so physical, right,
Speaker 1: and the men would end up winning, and so women
Speaker 1: were getting eliminated like just you know, even the first
Speaker 1: couple rounds and challenges. And so I believe at some
Speaker 1: point they decided to institute more puzzles and to make
Speaker 1: the social learn more. Yeah, so it wasn't just and
Speaker 1: then because at a certain point, you know, if your
Speaker 1: tribe is losing, you just decimated. There's like one person left.
Speaker 1: And what was ended up happening is people would never
Speaker 1: want to vote their big powerful men off, so they
Speaker 1: would they would just keep winning with their men and
Speaker 1: vote the women off. So I believe the new era
Speaker 1: has something to do with that shift, because the game
Speaker 1: is way more balanced now in terms of like the
Speaker 1: teamwork involves like a puzzle always or some sort of
Speaker 1: like throwing challenge that doesn't need brute strength or physical ability.
Speaker 1: It's much more balanced. And then also this, you know,
Speaker 1: when it gets to the individual challenges, a lot of
Speaker 1: the challenges are physically tough, but they're often about perseverance
Speaker 1: in your own strength, like with your own body. In
Speaker 1: other words, you're like beholding on holding onto something just
Speaker 1: by your fingertips, and it's like it's your own weight,
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean. So it's not like
Speaker 1: it's like it's vary to the person. It's not like
Speaker 1: we all have to lift the same amount or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's like it's all scale to you. So it's really
Speaker 1: about challenging to yourself. So yeah, I believe that has
Speaker 1: something to do with a new era or the old era.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing that I find I think is
Speaker 1: a big mistake.
Speaker 2: You should never start a new season of a show
Speaker 2: assuming everybody that watches the show has seen it before. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so one thing this did not explain to me in
Speaker 2: any way, shape or form, which I have no idea,
Speaker 2: is what the does an idol do?
Speaker 1: Okay, So an idol protects you at tribal So if
Speaker 1: you can't be voted out and voted out, but you
Speaker 1: only play it after everyone's voted, so essentially they're wasting
Speaker 1: their vote. And so if you feel like everybody's going
Speaker 1: to vote for you and they don't know you have
Speaker 1: an idol, or only certain people on your team, on
Speaker 1: your tribe know you have an idol, you could then
Speaker 1: bust the after the vote, you say hey, I'm playing
Speaker 1: this idol, and then the person who gets the next
Speaker 1: level of votes is the one out. So it can
Speaker 1: be a real turnover. So they have to they have
Speaker 1: to always be suspicious that somebody is playing the game
Speaker 1: with an idol in their pocket. And that's why like
Speaker 1: Ozzie got voted with, he got voted out with an
Speaker 1: idol in his pocket because he didn't he didn't play it,
Speaker 1: which happens often people will just be so trusting of
Speaker 1: their team. The team might know they have an idol,
Speaker 1: convince them, oh no, we're not voting for you tonight,
Speaker 1: blindside that person, and then they walk out with the
Speaker 1: idol in their pocket, so you can be voted out.
Speaker 1: Even if you have an idol, you have to just
Speaker 1: for you ever, yes, you have to play it at
Speaker 1: after the vote is but before it's before they replay it, yes,
Speaker 1: before they read it. And then you have things like
Speaker 1: multiple idols, like people will play I'm playing an idol
Speaker 1: and you're like okay, and then the other person who's
Speaker 1: like the next in the line will be like, I'm
Speaker 1: also playing an idol. You're like, oh my god, and
Speaker 1: it'll go down. They've had like tons of weird things
Speaker 1: like that. The main thing with idols is that if
Speaker 1: it's if it's played, or if it leaves the game
Speaker 1: because it's in their pocket, it gets hidden again on
Speaker 1: the island.
Speaker 2: And are these always hidden or are there are? Do
Speaker 2: you ever win one? When you win?
Speaker 1: It's changed every season you got you don't. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: win when you're Yeah, you win immunity through the challenges,
Speaker 1: either as a tribe or when they get to the
Speaker 1: individual game, you individually win immunity. But yeah, the idols
Speaker 1: are and there have been seasons with no idols, and
Speaker 1: then there have been seasons where you get clues that
Speaker 1: can lead you to an idol, and then you have
Speaker 1: weird rules like this time they have that boomerang idol
Speaker 1: that got introduced. Yeah, the game is you know, it's.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I just realized if you take your
Speaker 2: middle name out, it's literally a billy idol. How did
Speaker 2: nobody else pick that up that it's.
Speaker 1: A billy idol? I got it. Yeah, it's a complicated game,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's pretty manipulative in terms of like how
Speaker 1: the rules change season to season. You know, they're they're
Speaker 1: they're ultimately going to go for the best television and
Speaker 1: there have been times when you're you can tell that
Speaker 1: they're kind of tilting the challenges to sort of favor
Speaker 1: a certain person or to give certain But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's a it's a tricky game. The main thing is,
Speaker 1: you know, the three the three rules, outwit, outlast, and outplay.
Speaker 1: So those are the three things you really you you
Speaker 1: know you that you you want to outwit your fellow players,
Speaker 1: you know, because you're gonna have to eventually be voting
Speaker 1: against each other, even if they're on your tribe or
Speaker 1: working against another tribe. In the in the early half
Speaker 1: of the game, let's see outlast obviously, just surviving and severe.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of the Outwit Outlast out play is that it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: What's been interesting for me is, like going back to
Speaker 1: the early seasons, there was a lot of emphasis put
Speaker 1: on the actual survival factor, like how they got food, right,
Speaker 1: if that's what I remember, building fires, stuff like that.
Speaker 1: That has really for the large part been edited out.
Speaker 1: Now the game is now, I mean, I think people's
Speaker 1: psychological stuff. It's all the social stuff because they are
Speaker 1: still doing all the physical stuff. I mean, you see
Speaker 1: in this one they figure out how to make a fire,
Speaker 1: which was great, and you're still having to build shelters.
Speaker 1: You see them working hard. They're just not focusing on
Speaker 1: that in the editing at all anymore. So it's really
Speaker 1: just about who's partnering with who, who's going with who,
Speaker 1: And then the challenge is becoming the sort of showdown
Speaker 1: and the immunity the tribals to be like the reveal
Speaker 1: of what's actually going to happen, So you don't get
Speaker 1: like there would be whole seasons where you'd just be
Speaker 1: listening to people complaining about how hungry they were or
Speaker 1: that they were cold, and you don't get that much anymore.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how much of that is because
Speaker 1: it's not as hard as it used to be because
Speaker 1: they did like one season in Africa which was truly devastating,
Speaker 1: like people were like near death because they were starving
Speaker 1: and the key was doing to death. And they used
Speaker 1: to do a lot of seasons where they would do
Speaker 1: in like a culturally specific area, so you'd have like
Speaker 1: the Philippines and you'd learn about Filipino culture, they'd eat,
Speaker 1: you know, or whatever. They kind of now just limited
Speaker 1: it to Fiji for the last like ten years, just
Speaker 1: like it's kind of a standard set of circumstances, like
Speaker 1: there are fish, there are coconuts, you get a certain
Speaker 1: amount of rice, and you can get flint if you
Speaker 1: work for it, so you can start a fire.
Speaker 2: And that was the other thing is I didn't again
Speaker 2: because I didn't know. When they're like one team wins flint,
Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, does that mean the other teams
Speaker 2: can't just build a fire if they want to they
Speaker 2: just And I didn't know if that meant it's like
Speaker 2: one one tribe gets fire, the other two you can't
Speaker 2: have fire, right, But that's not what it means.
Speaker 1: But it means you can you can you could make
Speaker 1: a if you knew how to make a fire, right.
Speaker 2: But you figure everybody going on something called Survivor would
Speaker 2: know how to make a fire.
Speaker 1: Dude, you are will every season, not every season, Almost
Speaker 1: every season there comes down to a challenge between two
Speaker 1: people where they have to build a fire after because
Speaker 1: they like split the votes or there's no other way
Speaker 1: to determine, so they have to build a fire at
Speaker 1: the tribal council and I shit, you not have The
Speaker 1: people that get there do not know how to build
Speaker 1: a fire with flint. At the end of the d
Speaker 1: Alex and I are talking about this all the time.
Speaker 1: We're always like, how toy, It's like not knowing how
Speaker 1: to swim. It's dude, you have to figure this out,
Speaker 1: like get you know? So, yes, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: Like the first thing I would do is figure out
Speaker 1: how to make fire under any conditions, but especially the
Speaker 1: Fijian conditions, right, like knowing what my resources are called,
Speaker 1: how to make a fire and fee exactly exactly, And
Speaker 1: then I'd learn what I can eat and what I
Speaker 1: can hunt and what kind of fish I could eat.
Speaker 1: And then I would also starve myself leading up to
Speaker 1: going because you watch these people and there's they lose
Speaker 1: so much weight, and also their bodies are so used
Speaker 1: to regular calorie intake. You see like big guys crash
Speaker 1: because they have such requirements their bodies require, so which
Speaker 1: is why weird. That's the opposite of a loan.
Speaker 2: Everyone on a loan they put on as much weight
Speaker 2: as they possibly can before they go into a loan.
Speaker 2: So you see these women that are like, I just
Speaker 2: put on sixty pounds before I.
Speaker 1: Go because they just know they're going to lose it.
Speaker 2: They know that they're going to lose all the body fat,
Speaker 2: so they're like fat is fuel on a loan, so
Speaker 2: they're like put on as much weight as you can.
Speaker 2: It said, it seems almost like a bit of a
Speaker 2: vanity project on Survivor, where it's like I need to
Speaker 2: look good with my shirt off.
Speaker 1: Mike White worked really hard to make sure he abody
Speaker 1: for this moment for months, like yeah, with your fifteen
Speaker 1: personal trainers.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, it's like, I think I'd
Speaker 2: rather go in thirty pounds overweight and carry a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of that.
Speaker 1: No, I don't, because there's because they're so physically stretched,
Speaker 1: like the challenges you want to be in really good,
Speaker 1: like lean fighting shape and also not be hungry, you know,
Speaker 1: So like to me, I would I would be like
Speaker 1: restriction going like the month before. I'd go to like
Speaker 1: a really low calorie diet because what that does is
Speaker 1: it trains your body to be more efficient with less
Speaker 1: food because you're only getting so much rice, You're only
Speaker 1: getting so much stuff. So yeah, be used to it.
Speaker 1: Here we goes. Maddie just said the player that won
Speaker 1: last season since she was fasting for months before going
Speaker 1: to the show, so we're a body.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly what I would do, which is totally
Speaker 2: the opposite of a loan.
Speaker 1: Everybody and alone is like we're just sitting around and
Speaker 1: in cold weather and trying to survive that. It's different.
Speaker 1: This is like, yeah, this one you just want to
Speaker 1: be because you're working hard. I mean those challenges you
Speaker 1: see them insane. It's really tough, man Like, it's not light,
Speaker 1: you know, and you're doing that.
Speaker 2: Okay. My last question is a basic one. Are these
Speaker 2: people hot or are they cold? Because when you've got
Speaker 2: somebody just in shorts with no T shirt next to
Speaker 2: a woman with a parka and a sweater, what the
Speaker 2: is happening. Are they hot or are they cold because.
Speaker 1: Weather extremes man without shelter, and I think at night,
Speaker 1: like when you saw them on Exile Island, they were
Speaker 1: all bundled up in whatever they could have because I
Speaker 1: think they're talking at the same time.
Speaker 2: You've got a woman there literally in like a trench
Speaker 2: coat and a turtleneck next to a guy with shorts on.
Speaker 2: I'm like, temperature wise, help me out what's happening on?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's tropical, which is just very you know,
Speaker 1: and it's like whether you've been in the water or not,
Speaker 1: or like right, yes, without shelter, Man, it's intense. Like
Speaker 1: that was confusing.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I think the game has gotten a
Speaker 1: lot better since, and maybe that's what the new era
Speaker 1: is is locking it in in Fiji and sort of
Speaker 1: controlling those conditions because like they did an Australian Outback one,
Speaker 1: which was brutal, Like you get into situations where like
Speaker 1: the survival question overtakes the gameplay because it's like we're
Speaker 1: literally starving and you know, or our shelter gets blown
Speaker 1: away by a hurricane wind, you know, like that shit
Speaker 1: like that has happened, so I think now they've they
Speaker 1: figured out the beaches, Like now they're repeating using They're
Speaker 1: using the same beaches that you can reckon from season
Speaker 1: to season.
Speaker 2: It's interesting that's their set. Yeah, I mean it's basically
Speaker 2: become a set. Yeah, they figured out what they can control.
Speaker 2: There has to be a point where you've done enough
Speaker 2: seasons there where you've depleted the natural, right, like the
Speaker 2: coconuts aren't going to be as plentiful, and the trees
Speaker 2: that you can use to make shelter aren't going to
Speaker 2: be as plentiful, and eventually they're gonna have to move it, right,
Speaker 2: I know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: How they rotated or how they figured it out. Would
Speaker 1: you go on? Yeah, I think this is the one
Speaker 1: reality show that I would But again, like Traders, I
Speaker 1: would probably be bad at it the same way that
Speaker 1: like Ozzie's bad at it, Like, I mean, I'd be
Speaker 1: way worse than him physically number one. But number two,
Speaker 1: I'm just too trusting. I'm just too like I would
Speaker 1: be like I would want to play with honor and integrity,
Speaker 1: but you said you can't do that. Yeah, but it's hard, man,
Speaker 1: you know, like you eventually somebody is gonna have to say,
Speaker 1: let's take advantage of you know, right, honor and like
Speaker 1: his word.
Speaker 2: Which but you would also have to you would have
Speaker 2: if you wanted to play honorably, you would have to
Speaker 2: go in in ripping shape because what you would essentially
Speaker 2: be saying is I'm going to play honorably, but I
Speaker 2: have to win every challenge that I can possibly win
Speaker 2: so we're not voted off.
Speaker 1: Yes, And I mean I think I would do exactly
Speaker 1: what Ozzie is doing, which is partner up with the
Speaker 1: Machiavelli and genius like SII and just be like, hey,
Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna help tell me who to vote
Speaker 1: for and help me and watch my back and be
Speaker 1: the strategic mind for me. Well, I'm just like here
Speaker 1: to help and like support and provide like and I
Speaker 1: could never be that provider, but I hopefully I would
Speaker 1: offer other help, you know, in terms of like moral
Speaker 1: support or leadership skills or whatever. But I yeah, I
Speaker 1: would not be I'm not a good liar. I'm not
Speaker 1: a no you're not and I'm really uncomfortable with you know,
Speaker 1: and I just would ultimately be like, Nope, just take
Speaker 1: me out, vote me out.
Speaker 2: If I you know, have to Well, here's the last
Speaker 2: thing I'll say before we get into this. And you
Speaker 2: told me about this, you said this several times, but
Speaker 2: it wasn't until I really watched.
Speaker 1: Jeff Probst is a phenomenal host. He's the man, dude,
Speaker 1: phenomenal part. At times he's doing sports commentary.
Speaker 2: At times he says all of their names, it's he's
Speaker 2: it's great.
Speaker 1: And I assumed that he had an ear piece on,
Speaker 1: you know, that his producers were helping him. Turns out
Speaker 1: Emily Longoretta, who's writing our Podny's World book and she's
Speaker 1: a journalist and she went and covered Survivor this season.
Speaker 1: He does no earpiece. He is fully on his own.
Speaker 1: That man is like, because I look at like amazing
Speaker 1: race and Phil what's his name?
Speaker 3: Who has that?
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm like, dude, your job is like you got
Speaker 1: the coucius job in the world because he just like
Speaker 1: literally gets a fly around the country or the world
Speaker 1: and meet people in beautiful places and be like you
Speaker 1: made it, you didn't. Like, that's all he has to do,
Speaker 1: whereas like Jeff Probes is actually engaging them and and
Speaker 1: monitoring and and like over refereeing and overseas a referee.
Speaker 1: He's doing sports. A trial judge. He's like a trial judge, dude.
Speaker 1: He is great an entertaining host, yes man, and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just think.
Speaker 2: He's empathetic, dude. He keeps everybody on track. Halfway through
Speaker 2: the show, was like, my god, this man is a
Speaker 2: good host. Yes.
Speaker 1: And when Indy like became a fan of Jeff Probes,
Speaker 1: you know, when he was a little little like five
Speaker 1: year old six years watching him, like it's a good
Speaker 1: person to look up to.
Speaker 2: Dude.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like he's the guy is a really good it's
Speaker 1: it's like one of the few like reality show hosts
Speaker 1: that I'm like, he deserves every cent that he goes
Speaker 1: because that's not easy.
Speaker 2: He's entertaining, he's yeah, I mean he's it's really.
Speaker 1: And everybody feels like it's on their side, like it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter how they behave like for the most like
Speaker 1: every single person that's part of the game. They never
Speaker 1: turn on him. They never are like, Jeff, you really
Speaker 1: messed this up? Or Jeff, how dare you talk to
Speaker 1: me like that? They he's always very upfront, he's personable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's the best. Was great. Yeah, all right, So We're
Speaker 1: gonna pause here before we get into the actual recap
Speaker 1: of the episode, because it turns out we've had a
Speaker 1: lot of survivor back history to cover and discuss. You've
Speaker 1: been listening to pod meets Twirled. The torches may be snuffed,
Speaker 1: but our questionable analysis burns on. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: A Tribals wa