May 9, 2026 • 40 mins
Christian Hubicki is a reality TV superstar, thanks to becoming the first contestant in Survivor history to vote against himself. Now, Will & Rider are about to find out just how deep the lore goes.
The Season 50 standout explains how he went from robotics scientist to island castaway, and what it was like returning to the mainland as the most popular professor at Florida State University.
He opens up about the unexpected challenges of post-show life, and how he balanced grading tests while participating in the Survivor press cycle.
So come along, and hear Will and Rider get outwitted, outplayed and MAJORLY outsmarted when Christian, from Survivor 50, joins Pod Meets Twirl’d: Seeking Immunity!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Pod meets Twirld, the podcast that once chronicled
two guys who had never seen Dancing with the Stars,
but watched a season and walked away experts. From there,
we ventured into Traders, the show I'd never seen but
Will swore he could win, and now Survivor Season fifty,
the big one. This time the roles are reversed. Will
has seen exactly one season, the very first one. Meanwhile,
(00:32):
I've watched for years. We are Wilfred Ll, who prefers
his wilderness with room service, and Rider Strong, who will
hike any mountain but hates the beach. Two best friends,
one devoted to the comforts of civilization, one who would
never leave the woods if he could. Both of us,
reality competition scholars join us as we dive into alliances, blindsides,
(00:52):
fire making, sand related misery, and twenty five years of
television history culminating in a single massive season. This is
Pod meets twirled Seeking immunity. Hi writer, So today, uh,
very special guests?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, super exciting.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
We actually have a member of season fifty.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
What I can't be right?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Christian hu Becky, robotics scientist, two time Survivor contestant, first
Survivor David Versus Goliath season thirty seven, and then this
season's Survivor fifty. In the hands of the fans, he
earned your reputation is one of the smartest and most
lovable players in modern Survivor history. Christian currently lives in Florida,
where he is a robotics professor at Florida State University.
(01:36):
His hobbies include playing classical clarinet in orchestras, coding, and
famously writing a computer program to create train his dog.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
He's so much smarter than you and I will ever understand.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Oh yeah, oh, and yet he didn't complete the puzzle
Yeah David and Versus Goliath. The twenty eighteen Christian was
eliminated in the final seven and seve years later, he
returned to Survive of fifty, where he took a turn
when Jimmy Fallon inspired a twist that forced him to
(02:09):
cast a vote against himself when he lost a puzzle,
making him the first contestant in the show's history to
do so, and ended his second round after eighteen days.
Please welcome to pod meets Twirld Christian who Becky, Hello,
hy Hello, good see y'all you too? Oh I love it.
Your your your background is perfect. You're just talking about
(02:31):
how much smarter you are than.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Either of us put together.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That is it a real board behind you or is
it a fake background?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Be honest, it's a real board. You can see it
coming to focus. Okay, Well, Will Ryder, nice to meet
you both. Yeah, you too.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
We are so honored to have you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
We're very excited to have you here. We're big fans.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So you you must be going through like a major
media run right now. Are you just exhausted from all
these appearances?
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Well? Look, I actually a nice break over the last
couple of days when I had to submit grades for
the semester, so which I got to recover my voice,
which I was really appreciate with. So I was like,
this is the first day I feel like I'm talking
and it doesn't feel like I have sandpaper in my throat,
which is a lovely thing. So I feel well rested
for for for for the twirling. If I'm not sure
(03:19):
that's the burg you used to describe yourself.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It is.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But did you notice that when you started once again
as a contester for Survivor, your class size got bigger
and bigger and more people come into your class.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Now it's I.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
I will admit it approaches fire hazard some days, but
like it's I, that's it's my own ornament, like it.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
You know, it's a.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
It's funny because like I get the reputation of like, oh,
he's a nice teacher, but then people take the class
of like oh this material is kind of hard.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Now I do a good job. I think a good job.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
It's like it's it's so it's kind a bit of
a bait and switch, like, oh, he's so nice, and
the first homework assignment comes to like, oh.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Oh it's it's actual work, right, you know, the only
other time, only other time this happened in history. You're
not in good company because you are somebody who is
is very honest. But Charles Van Doren, I think, was
probably the only other game show host, game show contestant
at the time in the fifties who also ran a class.
And turns out, of course he was cheating the entire time.
(04:17):
So thankfully you are playing the game all right, honestly, yes,
for christ show. So he was the Columbia professor who's
class sized doubled as he's on on the game television.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
But yes, so that was sixty four thousand dollars question, right?
Does that was that that same of the show?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yes, yeah, it was that the name of the No,
it was it.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Was something pyramid or I forget.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
What it'll come to me, but yes, it was.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Okay, it might have been the sixty fourth that No,
sixty four thousand dollars question was one, and then it was,
oh god, I'm gonna remember it.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Forget. It was the same same host who did Tic
Tac though, because.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
There was the movie with Ray Kurrant the dude, right,
that's w Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
So that's that was the game show. Quis show, Yeah,
Christ show was the movie, but the game was twenty
one twenty one was the name of the game.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Show that he was on.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah. Yeah, so again you are the other professor, But
you've played the game straight and honest, So that does
not different category that it would.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Have been caught on twenty different cameras.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
What you can't can't You can't really cheat at Survivor. No, actually,
like when you think about it, it's it's not that
kind of game whatsoever. So how did you end up
on Survivor in the first place? Because we actually have.
I haven't watched your first season, So what was your journey? Like,
what made you decide to go on a beach and
starve yourself for however many days?
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I mean, my goodness.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
So I mean, look, I I've always wanted to be
on Survivor.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
See when I was a kid.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
I was at fourteen years old when the show came on,
originally the original season, which I believe you did you
So did you all watch the first season? I know
some of you watched, like the whole Like I've watched
many seasons.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I watched the first riders, watch most of them, and
I watched season one. I just call it the naked
Guy season was the only one I remembered.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Yeah, that was my memory of from listening to your
podcast that that was the history here but the but
like the but yeah, so like I did too.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Like I watched Rich he was out catching fish in
the ocean.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I'm like, this is so cool, and I was all
sort of like, in the back of my mind has
something to do, which was an audacious thing because like
at the as a kid, I was like, you know,
a little squawtie kid who like do what it was
on like a robotics like a robotics club.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
But we'll get that later.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
But like, you know, in terms of but and I
just was always so interested in just like what is
it like to have to adapt to something completely new?
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Right?
Speaker 5 (06:33):
And and and so and I was always in the
back of my head.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
And I went through school and college and I went.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
To I always wanted to be a robotics professor, which
is what I am now and and so but so
I knew I was going to have to go through
grad school eventually get like a PhD. And in this
case of robotics is what I love to do. And
but in the back of my hand, I was like,
I would love to do survivor someday. So a couple
of times in grad school I would sneak into the
lab in the middle of the night, you know, and
because I was embarrassed to film an audition tape in
(07:00):
front of other human beings, and like I would and
I would, I would take the laboratory camera, set it up,
you know, like, take it pointed away from the robot,
pointed toward me.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
And uh, and it's like and and and put this
thing together. Submit of tape.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
I had to burn it onto a DVD and ship
it off in the mail ye made before the deadline,
and like I hear nothing back, nothing and uh, and
it was and it was just like but it was.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
It was always in the back of my head.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
And then a two years went by, nothing, no responses
on my tapes, and then I was sort of on
the cusp of becoming a professor.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I was doing what was called a postdoc.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
That's like, if you've gotten your PhD, you would do
more research in a different laboratory, but you want to
probably be a professor. I was doing a postdoc in Atlanta,
Georgia Tech, and I was like, I probably should try again,
because it was to become a professor, probably very hard
to take off time to do this. And so I
once again took a camera. I went into like the
little physics library and the physics building, wrotete a bunch
(07:52):
of equations on the white board behind me, and I.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Took I took a video and and I and I
and I.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Edited together, set it off and I got a call
it on that day and I was like, oh my gosh,
they actually were interested. Like I was over the moon.
I could not believe it. And I was like and
and that just starts a very long process. And because
like I realized that, to my to my to my delight,
I got a call. I was like, that's this is
as far as it's getting, because as soon as they
talk to me, they're gonna realize what a horrible mistake
(08:20):
put me on. They're gonna realize. They're like, they're gonna interview.
It was like, they'll do a phone interview with me.
They realized like, no, there's this weirdo who's like who's who?
Was talking about robots and things like that, and they're like, actually,
we'd like you to move on to the next phase.
I'm like really again. Then I was like, oh, this
is gonna be a horrible disaster. And eventually they they
flew me out to Los Angeles for another interview.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
I was like, why do they How did I trick
these people?
Speaker 5 (08:43):
They think it would be a good idea to put
me on Survivor, And sure enough I get into this,
in to this to this room, and uh, they shove
me in with like a bunch of casting directors and
I remember thinking, Okay, Christian, you know, let's just be calm,
don't say don't stutter. It be like a newscast or
you know, like someone who has an incredible polish and
(09:04):
everything that they say. The very first thing I say is, uh,
that one about math, and I'm like.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Robots math.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
It's like like it was basically that was the tenor
of the conversation, and but just kept going and going,
and by the time I left the room, it's like, oh, Christian,
we love you. We move on the next round, like
you you are you are all fools.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
But eventually, but so eventually I got on.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
I got on the show, and I think that the
thing that I realized as a part of just the
experience of being getting on survivor even being there, was
that like when you just approach something with your whole
heart that you love and you talk about it like
in a way to just want to tell people how
much you love it, whether it's survivor in my case,
(09:49):
robotics or teaching, you know, the people tend to respond
well to that because it feels genuine. It feels real,
because it is real and it really is authentic. And
that's what I've generally found, and that then that's the
response that I felt.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
It stuck with me.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
It's like I don't need to change anything right about
what I'm doing to present myself, Like.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Just just just be what I just keep doing what
I love to do.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
That's so healthy.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
I'm curious about that though, because, like I I would
assume that, like, I don't know. I guess I'm wondering socially,
what is it like out there? Do you feel like,
because it seems like, especially this last season, it's actually
a really interesting, diverse group of people with like really
different backgrounds. Does it feel like there's a group of
popular kids and you're like on the nerdy outside, like
(10:37):
or does it feel like everybody's sort of figuring this out?
Speaker 5 (10:40):
I think the beautiful things about Survivor and I think
that the right regimes of the adult world, what you
inventure the adult world and you find the right things.
Is that like those lines blur right to what is
popular and not popular. It doesn't feel like the stereotypical
uh you know, uh maybe maybe sit conversion of high school,
you know, right up any any past memories they're so
(11:04):
but like but I mean, but the line starts to blur.
It's like, yes, there are people you might gravitate toward.
Naturallyis do you have similar interests in similar hobbies. But
like when you're out on the island, you never know
who's into just uh, who's who's into like nerd romance
books like Foxy on season fifty was into nerd romance books,
like like like like a like all these.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Kinds side romantic.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Romanticy as as as it is called. I knew that
phrase definitely be four five minutes, five seconds ago. And
but like the people contain multitudes, and I think that
as people become more secure in who they are, they're
willing to show.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
That about themselves, right and.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
So yes, I mean like there was my when well,
you know, in this kind of applied to multiple things.
My first season, I got to be a what what
we called a brochatcho. I was paired up with UH,
with with UH with two people from a swap tribe.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
I was.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
I was with this person who was a SWAT officer
and a professional wrestler who went by the Moniker, the
mayor of slam Town, and I decided we're.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
Gonna be friends.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Yes, We're gonna be friend and so I mean and
and there's just a beautiful marriage of ideas, like like
I would be talking to John Hennagaan, who aka Mayor
of slam Town. He went by many names, actually, I
try to remember as many as I can. You know,
Johnny Nitro, Johnny Mundo, the George Bushy of Tushy I believe.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Is one of those.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Stealing that.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
But like he would talk to me, Yeah, you would
talk to me about professional wrestling and is like, what
would it take to make a robot that's a professional wrestler?
Speaker 4 (12:35):
What is it about it?
Speaker 5 (12:35):
And we would have a nice conversation about yeah and yeah.
So anyway, my point is the lines really do blur
in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Now going back to when you first found Survivor of
fourteen fifteen and you knew it was something that you
wanted to do. Were you attracted to the cerebral aspect
of the show, which I know from what I'm gathering
from what I'm learning about Survivor, I know that the
cerebral part of the show has certainly morphed into what
it is today. I know there's a difference between old
school and new school, and the older episodes used to
(13:05):
show more of kind of the actual surviving on an island,
trying to start fire, trying to catch fish, that kind
of thing, and the cerebral aspect has kind of taken
over since then, did were you more attracted to I
want to go be on a deserted island and see
if I can do it? Or were you more attracted
to I can go and win the game because of
the strategy.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
And the way my mind works.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Well, originally it was just the raw adventure of the
show I thought was fascinating, But that hooked me until
I saw which was like a sort of a deeper
level to what is sort of this really open ended
strategy game. I mean, like the rules are very simple
in the scheme of things for Survivor, just don't get
more votes than everyone else and then they stick around.
(13:47):
But all the things that can emerge from that that
really did tickle sort of the intellectual problem solving element
of the game, Like what just the simple act of
I mean, the Matt skills that you need to play
Survivor are counting on two hands, right, that's all You're right, right?
And yet you can split up the votes in weird ways.
You can play I hit an immunity Gatto in this
sort of way. Uh, you know, you can split it
(14:08):
up in a three two one, you know, like in
order to get a right outcome. There are all these
crazy things and that does tickle the math part of
my brain, but really it's the problem solving and just
I think that's something that I as I grew up,
I mean even in high school, you know, like I
like I like when I was on like a you know,
I was on like robotics teams and I was in
the band right like you know, like I was a
drum major in the band. You're you're trying to find
(14:29):
solutions to like, oh I need to get this formation
working right. I want to get this robot working right.
And there's just an open ended ways you can so
really focus in your mind. Yes, that strategic element definitely
hit me hard. And I'm still learning things about the
show right just how it's played strategically all these years later.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Well yeah, well this season is so chaotic kind of
like I mean, that's will you know when it comes
to like blood Moon and like all these crazy new things,
do you feel I mean in some way like did
you come away with like a sense of like, oh
I could have played it better or I should have
done this, or does it does it feel like you
(15:07):
just were dealta a not great hand? With the Jimmy
Fallon twist.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Well, I mean there are certain things that, like, you know,
and that I wish I'd done differently, But frankly, the
stuff are right near the end of the game, you know,
like it's really stuff at the end. Like, I think
that two things combined to make it hard for me.
I don't want to get to too many details about
season fifty exactly, of course, but I think that there
are always things you do regret. But honestly, the vast
(15:36):
I would say, like ninety five percent of the things
that I did out there, I was like, I'm super
proud of I'm like, I wouldn't do any differently, right, Yeah,
And so sometimes you catch a bad break, but like,
but honestly, I mean, I am so tickled by this
whole run that I got to do. I mean, yes,
the fact that I got to be uh, you know,
in a way voted out in part because of the
(15:58):
flight of fancy of an idea from a Hollywood celebrity
from the show.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, yeah, and you had to you had to know
that the second you read that you were going to
be on Jimmy Fallon, right, Yes, you know, from.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
What little I know about show business is that it's
highly random or stopastic, as we would say.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
It's like it's like like you might think that it's like, yeah,
I hope I remember always being this, you know.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
I hope at some point I get to talk to
Jimmy Fallon about some of these ideas.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Didn't know how that was gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Where did this come from?
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Where did this come from? Like there?
Speaker 5 (16:28):
Like I also I found out Billie Eilish Boomerang idol, Like,
where is this coming from?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
You know?
Speaker 4 (16:32):
It just that that kind of crazy stuff happens.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
But I think that, uh, like really you just got
to take the randomness and go with it. Sometimes you
can make that play to your advantage, right uh And
I and I think that you know that that sort
of problem solving comes back into play a lot. You know,
when you when you embrace that problem solving attitude, you
take things less personally. You're like, you can't change the
fact that Jimmy Fallon decided to intrude upon your survivor existence.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
You can't change that. What do you do now?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So I have a couple questions that are just logistical
questions about the show itself, because again I'm a neophyte
when it comes to this stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
First of all, how.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Much does the hunger play into the game.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
The hunger as are being physically hungry. Uh so, yeah, yeah,
the hunger to win out that you're at you man, like,
oh no, I guess it is significant. It's it's significant,
and I think that the the especially it's less that
you can't you know that you feel hungry.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
It's not like you feel like you skipped lunch.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Right, there are times that you know, I had to
skip lunch at work and things like that, I feel
like I want to die, right, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
That what the heck is going on?
Speaker 5 (17:34):
But when you are starving, you go into a more
of a crisis mode in your body, and so you
really you don't feel hungry.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
You feel lethargic, and it's.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
One and to the point where like it's effort to
just get up, stand up, walk around the campfire and
sit back down again, right, Like that's effort. But also
it's mental fatigue and like that that that's that's honestly
more than anything it takes. You know this, Our brains
they are energy hungry organs. They take a lot of energy.
So literally, you think poorly when you're this when this emaciated,
(18:06):
and when you have to be you think on your
feet and if that's something you hope is your strength,
that's incredibly difficult. Uh, I mean this is and honestly
it's something I learned my first time in playing Survivor
and something honestly we we kind of take into account
in robotics, like like when like I work in research
lab and we have robots that walk around like people.
Humanoid robots is what I work with as a profession,
(18:26):
and so like you, there's certainly it's a lot of fun,
Like you do it.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
We do it because it's cool. You do it because
it's fun. Yeah, but the yeah, but but.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
Like but like you think about like how hard how
much time does this robot have to think in a snap?
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Right?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Right?
Speaker 5 (18:40):
And so you need to find ways to when you're
on a when you're on a computation budget, like wherever
a brain's on a computation budget, when we're starving, Uh,
you have to simplify the calculations. You can't think thirty
steps ahead. You literally can't. The math is mathing, the
computation compute doesn't happen. You have to come up with
clever ways to simplify the way that you think. And
(19:00):
that's certainly true in robotics. We try to wait to
simplify the math and the computation so that these robots
don't fall down when you push them. They don't have
time they can think. In Survivor, you have to come
up with very quick heuristics. So you had to say, Okay,
if someone approaches you with an alliance and survivor, what
do you say? And yes, you could think, well, ten
steps down the road, maybe this alliance is a bad idea,
but isn't a big idea. You don't have time to
(19:21):
think about that because at that point that person already
knows you don't want to talk to them, right, just
say yes, that's a heuristics, that's a rule. It's a
rule of thumb, right, that allows you to think quickly.
So you have to rely upon those quick thinking you know,
thinking fast thinking you slow ideas.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
When you're starving, Now, what about do you do? Is
it also because one of the other things that they
very rarely show. They might show the night camera there
as they do an interview when you come back from
tribal but are you sleeping, are you getting a decent
night sleep on the beach there.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
I mean I do, I sleep fine, Okay, I like
the shelters are horrible.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
They're designed, they are not well engineered ruptures.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
They are whatever bamboo can be, uh is in fact
just left around camp and like you know, we could
find like okay, and sometimes we didn't have a machete
at start of certain seasons, right, so we're just kind
of throwing bamboo on the ground.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
So it looks like you got hit by an earthquake
these things.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
So you just literally just got to find a groove
in bambooed So, But at the same time, like I
don't know, maybe this was just college, but I remember
in college, like I was like I was a big
time procrastinator in my like not that I swear I
do other things other than robotics, I swear I was,
but like, but that would be in like the lab
and I have like a SIS deadline or something, right,
(20:36):
and so like I had to be in here all
night to work on this project. I have to, So
I would just sleep on the linoleum floor, right, Like
that was my survivor training, and so it was kind
of it's kind of a joke on my seasons that
like that that I will just crumple up into a
strange shape by the fire and uh and and that's
just where I'll be, I think by work, I'm just
(20:56):
covered in dirt. Yeah, just like it because I'm like
I'm just I'm just and dirt by the fire such
as like it's probably soot.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, you know, I loved I loved hearing you know,
your your sentiments about your son and like you know
the emotions that were going into this season. Did you
actually keep it a secret from everybody else though? In Survivor?
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Yeah, I did. I did.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
I did it, and it was sort of a There's
a lot of reasons, uh that I did that, But
the main one is I needed something that was for
me that like like said like this like this is
my thing.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Yeah, like and.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Because it's it's actually easy to trust people out there.
It might sound contradictory because it's a game often about paranoia,
right right, and and I think that and so but
like when realized, no, this is one thing I shouldn't
share it.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
This is for me. He's my secret motivation and not
do dumb things.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
And like there are times where like where I'm like
at tribal counts, like what DoD me?
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Funny?
Speaker 5 (21:56):
If I said this, I realized, Nope, that's it. It's like,
probably be bad for me. This might put a target
on me if I say this.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Funny thing but really funny if I said this, should
I say it?
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I was like, no, no, no, no, my my son would
not want me to do something.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Yeah, it's like it's like I do play.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
Silly things to be clear, but but yeah I think that,
like but one thing that uh so, so that having
that close to my my heart is a thing I
can't share it. That really is a reminders like I
can't really trust these people right right, and like they
aren't at the end of as much as I like
so many of them, seriously, you become to grow to
(22:33):
love them that you can't that that that it's just
your way of reminding yourself that no, at the end,
it's got to be for you.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
And yeah, so that's why.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
All right, So how was it going on Jimmy Fallon?
I can I mean, I would just be such a
nervous wreck to go on a talk show like that.
So how how was it for you?
Speaker 5 (23:06):
I was oddly in a state of calm and I
have no idea how or why.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
So like it's so I got to go on Jimmy Fallon.
It was I that was not expected. Believe it or not,
I don't know if you buy it by that as
of that boring. I was not going on Jimmy Fallon.
I was not going on Jimmy fall Like I was
told it wasn't happening, Like I was like, maybe it might,
but but they had a full state of guests and
and so like you know, like they're gonna they're gonna
(23:34):
bump you know, you know Tarry, you know Taron Edgerton, Edgerton,
christianly bicky. Turns out that's what they did. Turns out
that's what they did. Like like Taron, Like poor poor
Taron Edgerton's you know, they're to promote his thing. He's
some weirdo from reality TV gets get kinda gets a
weird twist from Jimmy Fallon. He probably got a call
saying I'm sorry, we got to bump you for this
(23:54):
guy who in a robot shirt, who's like, who's talking
in front of a whiteboard to you right now?
Speaker 4 (24:00):
And so but yeah, that's what happens. So like I
think it's just something.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
You know, there's sometimes I'm in a nervous wreck, you know,
when I'm trying to when there's pressure to do something
like having to do a puzzle under the gun can
make you a nervous wreck. But then there are sometimes
you lock in like a fighter pilot right right, and
and and it just hit that zone and I felt
so weirdly calm, like even though it makes no dang sense,
(24:24):
I'm sitting here on a cow on a couch talking
to Jimmy Fallon, and I'm like on like the couch
that you see on television, that's me.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
I'm right here. But then you act like, oh, of
course I belong here. Of course I do. I don't,
but you act.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Like you did. I don't understand you did.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Come on, I appreciate that. Sorry, like not to brag,
but I'm just it's just it felt.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
I not to over you know, romanticize the experience of
being within six feet of Jimmy Fallon as romantic as
it is.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
The it's it.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
But like I'm sure we all experience in our life,
like like in our life, there's a time where like
I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
I could do that right, right.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
I didn't think I could, but some reason you hit
that zone where you could. Just that's something to remind yourself,
you know.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
And I experienced this in all kinds of ways where
like you know what those those intermittent times where that happens,
remember it, right, And I will remember.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
This one, oh, I'll say.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
But that makes me wonder, like do you feel because
now you are a public figure, you are you know,
you've done Survivor twice. Is there is there a part
of you that wants to sort of stay in the
public eye and you know, take advantage of this in
some way career wise.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
I mean in a small way, yes, I mean in
a very specific way though, like like what I look,
I love being on Survivor. I always wanted to be
on the show because I thought it was a cool
adventure and also I wanted to show, like, hey, what
can I do as like a robotic sky on the
iland can make fire with glasses or something. And that's
but like what my my true north is I love
science education Like that's like that's I mean, I do
(25:57):
it for a living, like I'm actual professor and I
love talking to kids about science and math and Stam,
you know, as a science fount engineering math. Because again
just throw back to the theme, I love it and
if you talk about it in a way that you
love it in a way that's accessible, it's infectious lost
people in thank you, That's the word I say with it.
(26:20):
It's infectious, right, I mean, like, it's not just about Stam.
Of course, people have that in all kinds of ways.
You know, you listen, you know, people are listening to
a podcast where people were covering originally you know, Dancing
with the Stars, right right, and you're talking like in
a in a way and in a in a way
with genuine curiosity, what is this show Dan getting with
the Stars?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
What? Like?
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Just people feel that's there's a reason that podcast laped
on as the short of medium.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
It's not just podcasts.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
So if something like me, you know, I'm looking, I'm like,
what is the way that I can bring, you know,
what I feel like I bring to this science education
world to an audience that may see it in a
different way because i'm you know, big, because I read
in it maybe a slightly different way than other people. Right,
So if you answer your question that that's a long
way of saying yes, but that's what I do.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I think the problem that you're going to have, though,
is one of the things this country has is an
abundance of really qualified, very passionate, well paid teachers.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
There's just too many. So that's true, I think.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
But I mean, well, you definitely get a lot of
very very passionate I mean, like certainly you get the
passionate teachers.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
It's well taken. Yeah, I'm from a family of teachers,
by the way, so that's why.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
Yeah, in fact, you know, I just teachers and also volunteers.
I actually just came back from uh the International Championship
of the First Robotics Competition, the first Robotics competent, and
like that was it was you know, I came off
Jimmy Fallon last week, like two weeks ago, like crazy, crazy,
but in a way almost equally emotional was me going.
(27:55):
So First Robotics is like it's azo robotics team as
a kid in high school. It's an organization called First
And so they invited me out to their you know,
international competition in Houston, Texas where they literally have you know,
like like nineteen thousand kids from all the world competing,
and I got to be there and you have all
these kids that are super passionate. I can go on
like forever about how awesome they are. But there were
(28:17):
also a thousand just volunteer adults that were there to
help make the competition go.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
And like these are like people.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
The students are building these robots, They're running around, they're
zipping up, picking up balls, launching balls into like into
hoops and things like that. And I did says a kid,
it's really bringing back the nostalgia. But also I'm seeing
this now as an adult and like, oh my goodness.
The thing that made this work is also a thousand
adults who came to this competition to just volunteer.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
They don't get paid.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
My definition, I was.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Just like and and and you talk to them and
they look forward to it every year, like it's like
it's it is that passion, and I'm just so so
so I'm like so yes, I'm not like like being
there and just being think about it. They help me
roam the place with a cant with just the phones
just filming everything and just to see it up close.
(29:05):
I just like so anyway, So of course, so there's
lots of passion out there. I think that there's something
to highlighting the people that are so passionate about this
sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
I think so too.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Can I ask you a couple very rapid fire questions,
but would you mind shoot out four or five right
in a row? Okay? First, who is your favorite Survivor
player of all time?
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Tony Blacchos from season twenty eight and forty and thirty four?
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, okay, great?
Speaker 2 (29:30):
What helps you more in Survivor? The ability to use
robotics or being a musician?
Speaker 5 (29:36):
Ooh, I actually being a musician. I'm gonna give you
an answer, even though it's rapid fire.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
So please please, no, no, no, please, this love it.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
It's the formance.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Yeah, you're perform I mean I mean in a way
in a way that you won't get like like, yes,
being a robotics guy got probably gonna be on the
show in some way because it's like, oh, we haveing
a robotic guy on the show. But like you also
have to talk to a camera, and that's a perform
I think that if you're taught, like like I was
a clarinet player all the way through grad school and
and so and if you're my dad too, by the
(30:07):
standing the recital, Yeah, and you're you know, you're performers
by trade. You know, like you know, you feel that
I'm projecting upon you. Please forgive me.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
You know, you feel that it's like all of a sudden,
it's go time, show, mus go on.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
You have to perform, and you feel that at tribal Council,
you feel that when you're giving interviews.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
So the musicians at Angle is incredible.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Okay, Uh yes, Benny Goodman was. Basically I grew up
just listening to over and over and over again because
my dad.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
That's what was just in our house everywhere, every every day.
What is the future of robotics.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Oh, the future robotics?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (30:43):
We what we need for the future robots are reliable machines.
Right now we have great machines that are good that
big for fantastic spectacle and great YouTube videos for the
times that you it worked for camera and then you
cut the other ones at times that that does work
on the editing room floor. What you needed to do
is work exactly when you need it all the time.
(31:04):
You know, we would not accept dish put or away
robots that breaks your dish went out of every ten times.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Accept that.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
We would not you know, accept a walking robot that
trips over your dog. I trip over my dog, and like,
you know, it's like and that's a tricky problem. Right,
So the future robotics is reliability, and cracking that nut
is the challenge. It works well in factories when there's
nothing getting in your way. Robot robots and factories, you
bolt them to the ground. No one's getting in this way.
(31:33):
That partner is gonna pick up. It's gonna be the
same place every single time, tends of thousands of times.
But as the world gets crazier and messier, where the
rules aren't well written and you know you're doing it
the rules of people, reliability is even harder.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Okay, wow, are you afraid of AI?
Speaker 4 (31:50):
I am not afraid of AI.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
I am afraid of people putting it in places where
it doesn't belong. That's what the same thing of a reliability, Right.
It's incredible what AI can do, but it's less clear
what we can reliably count on it to do. Right, So, like,
if if I need, if like if I need to
like summarize a giant like book or something like that,
give me a summary and I don't care, like if
(32:15):
it works ninety percent five nine percent time, it's fine, right,
But if I'm asking it for mental health advice, I
want to know I'm talking to an expert and not
something that's randomly hallucinating advice that shouldn't be giving me.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Right.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
So that's so I'm afraid of where you're putting AI
in places where it's not ready.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Okay, wow, And final question for me, uh and it's
just a fun. One favorite musician of all time?
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Oh oh, I'm going to go with a composer. I'm
going to go with the bails Sibelius from from his
first symphony was a banger. When your first symphony is
a banger, that says, So that's the one that I
go back and listen to over and over again. The
Vorjak goes up to symphony number nine, and that's the
(33:13):
one eight and nine I think where people really dial in.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
And that's great.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Look, you know, I wish I could pick a peek
in my eight first or eighth or ninth symphony. But
when you really nail number one, there's something special Therebelius.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
I'm not familiar with Sibelius.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I got to that out all right, good amazing.
Speaker 5 (33:31):
Sorry, Billy Eilish, Billy Eilish, gotta take it back, Billy
Eilish taking Billy Billy. We're still friends, of course, of
course you are ocean eyes.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Of course. I was just saying random titled oceanized.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Billy's feather something I don't know something. Thank you so
much for joining us. This has been awesome and I'm
I'm so happy. I mean, like, you know, our show,
like we were talking about the teaching thing our show
was known for having. Mister, I appreciate that you're a
teacher so much, the most important thing in the world.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
So as writer. He won't say it because he doesn't
want to toot his own horn, but writer also teaches
uh uh screenwriting in college.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
No, but I miss it. I haven't been teaching this
last year and I'm I'm I miss it. So I
feel the same way.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Man.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I think it's like the most important thing, and I
love the potential that you're that you're bringing to, you know,
more awareness to stem and science education. Please keep keep
it up, keep it up, man, really support that.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Thank thank you so much. And I'd be remiss not
to write this again.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
I was really touched when I went to this what's
the first robotics called the first organization, and it's like,
if you're interested, this is your audience. If you're interested
in getting involved with seriously, check it out. It's it's
just it's f I R S T spell First you
go to if you want to, If youre interested in
learning more, go to first inspires dot org slash learn
and seriously, if you don't have to know anything about robotics.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I was just gonna ask, can I somebody like me?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Who who? I?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I love robots, but I'm I just don't have that
kind of analytical mind. Can I still come and kind
of enjoy the spectacle and help or you whatever I've
got to do?
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Absolutely? Absolutely, seriously, That's that's the thing.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
I mean, like it's it's you might think, oh, it's
the first it's a robotics club, so you can have
all of these you know, brainiact robotics wizards there and
they certainly are there, right sure. But like the good
thing is like these teams that like these these these
kids are making these robots. Someone's got a fundraise for
these teams, so they have to. And that means these
students are their own, making their own business plans, They're
they're their own accountants, they are doing marketing, they're doing
(35:26):
graphics design, and so they have adults that will menor
them and these things like, oh, do you know how
to use you know this, you know Adobe Illustrated.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
I'll show you. And there will have adults who will show.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Them how to do it.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
And like, honestly, like I some of the some of
the parents they just cooked for us when we were
on these teams in high school. Like so because we're
we're saying such late nights, they're like cay Man, Like
my I remember my parents made pasta for the team
one night, right, So so like and so they are
all kinds of and and what typically happens is people
kind of just get sucked into this organization of first
and they're like they want to get more and more,
(35:56):
and they end up learning more about robots in the process.
You might even coming look, you might not even come
in liking robots, like you right, Like I just want
to help these kids, and all of a sudden you
feel it. So so I've just been it's been such
a joy getting to revisit that after all these years
of being I was on a team back in high
school and two there I was on there are now
over eighty thousand teams of this and I was on
(36:18):
team number seven.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Wow, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
That's incredible.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Yeah, full circle for me.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
I can tell you the way you think about robotics
is and you're gonna be like, what, But it's the
way I grew up thinking about television.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
It's been the great love of my life.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
And the idea that we had first mister Wizard, and
then there was Bill and I the science guy, and
there's room for kind of the new host for the
next generation to come in. And I can see you
definitely taking that spot on some great Disney or Disney
Plus show kind of doing that whole next generation of
robotics and everything. I'd watch that. I think a whole
generation of kids would watch that. How they're not pitching
(36:55):
that right away, I don't understand. But that would be
a phenomenal show. It really would.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
That's I will just basking that compliment.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Sure, thank you, that would be great.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
I have no I don't even know what to say
to that. That's so kind. Thank you would be aome.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Well, thanks for coming on, and we will keep watching
your your your your Jury experience as it continues for
the for the rest of the season. Actually, one last question,
any chance that you would go back to Survivor if asked, well.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
They got my number, I had such a I had
such a I had such a fun time both times.
Had very different experiences on both times, but like each
each one was a blast in its own way.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
So I'm like, yeah, I mean, I take the call.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
You know, it's crazy everybody seems to be so positively
affected by doing Survivor. It's like, you know, without winning,
without even making it to the final three or whatever,
it seems like everybody just comes away with being like
this was, you know, a life changing, wonderful experience.
Speaker 5 (37:49):
It is something immersive about it. I mean, like I
think that maybe there's something you might catch, you know.
I'm I'm babbling on out the last of the babbles
to to spare your time. But the like, there's some
like there's a lot of reality shows out there as
and you watch I watch many of them, as to
you clearly from the repertoire of your podcast, but there's
I will speak just to Survivor, there's something that the
crew takes incredibly seriously and they really are committed and
(38:14):
there is a reason I one of the reasons I
want to do Survivors. When I watched the show, I
was like, I would see the way that the show
would give a hearing to things that were like interesting
that I would never thought would get a fair hearing,
so like like on the show.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
So like when I auditioned, I was.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
Like, you know what if I talk about science again
in a way that I care about, this show might
not just make fun of me. They might actually show
like what it's like, what does this offers the world
this particular point of view, And it's not just my
point of view but anyone's point of view, and and
and I was nothing but validated from my experience actually
(38:51):
going on and like.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Wow, so cool, amazing, awesome.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
All right, well, thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
For I appreciate it. Thank you so much, I really.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
And best of luck finishing up the semester.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
Yeah, range today we are done, friends.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Done, They'll be fine. Ay, I'll take care of it,
don't worry about it, all right, have a good Thank
you so much, thank you, Bye bye.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
What a good guy.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
He seriously he should no joke, be like the next
mister Wizard, the next Bill.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
I know it's a I mean, I think we need
more of those people. Although yes, you know, hell yes,
anytime science becomes exciting for kids, it's like, yeah, it's
so good.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
And they were also like I met mister Wizard when
we did Nick takes over your school when I was eleven,
and he was there with his wife, and no matter
what you did, he turned it into a fun lesson.
And I remember when you and I and Ben rode
Tower of Terror with Bill Nye.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
He was like, all right, everybody grab a penny.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Everybody have a penny, and he used it just the
moment as the tower dropped and the penny is floating
in front of us.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
He just took that moment to teach the science.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
And I feel like Christian wi be exactly the same way,
where it's like if I have that that moment and
we're gonna make this fun, We're gonna teach you what's
going on.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
I could totally see him grabbing that mantle. I agree,
that was cool.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
It was really cool.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
All Right, you've been listening to pod Meats twirled torches
may be snuffed, but our questionable analysis burns on. We'll
see you next time at Tribal Trap. You're smoking
Speaker 2 (40:27):
M
Welcome to Pod meets Twirld, the podcast that once chronicled
two guys who had never seen Dancing with the Stars,
but watched a season and walked away experts. From there,
we ventured into Traders, the show I'd never seen but
Will swore he could win, and now Survivor Season fifty,
the big one. This time the roles are reversed. Will
has seen exactly one season, the very first one. Meanwhile,
(00:32):
I've watched for years. We are Wilfred Ll, who prefers
his wilderness with room service, and Rider Strong, who will
hike any mountain but hates the beach. Two best friends,
one devoted to the comforts of civilization, one who would
never leave the woods if he could. Both of us,
reality competition scholars join us as we dive into alliances, blindsides,
(00:52):
fire making, sand related misery, and twenty five years of
television history culminating in a single massive season. This is
Pod meets twirled Seeking immunity. Hi writer, So today, uh,
very special guests?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, super exciting.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
We actually have a member of season fifty.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
What I can't be right?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Christian hu Becky, robotics scientist, two time Survivor contestant, first
Survivor David Versus Goliath season thirty seven, and then this
season's Survivor fifty. In the hands of the fans, he
earned your reputation is one of the smartest and most
lovable players in modern Survivor history. Christian currently lives in Florida,
where he is a robotics professor at Florida State University.
(01:36):
His hobbies include playing classical clarinet in orchestras, coding, and
famously writing a computer program to create train his dog.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
He's so much smarter than you and I will ever understand.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Oh yeah, oh, and yet he didn't complete the puzzle
Yeah David and Versus Goliath. The twenty eighteen Christian was
eliminated in the final seven and seve years later, he
returned to Survive of fifty, where he took a turn
when Jimmy Fallon inspired a twist that forced him to
(02:09):
cast a vote against himself when he lost a puzzle,
making him the first contestant in the show's history to
do so, and ended his second round after eighteen days.
Please welcome to pod meets Twirld Christian who Becky, Hello,
hy Hello, good see y'all you too? Oh I love it.
Your your your background is perfect. You're just talking about
(02:31):
how much smarter you are than.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Either of us put together.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That is it a real board behind you or is
it a fake background?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Be honest, it's a real board. You can see it
coming to focus. Okay, Well, Will Ryder, nice to meet
you both. Yeah, you too.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
We are so honored to have you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
We're very excited to have you here. We're big fans.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So you you must be going through like a major
media run right now. Are you just exhausted from all
these appearances?
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Well? Look, I actually a nice break over the last
couple of days when I had to submit grades for
the semester, so which I got to recover my voice,
which I was really appreciate with. So I was like,
this is the first day I feel like I'm talking
and it doesn't feel like I have sandpaper in my throat,
which is a lovely thing. So I feel well rested
for for for for the twirling. If I'm not sure
(03:19):
that's the burg you used to describe yourself.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
It is.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But did you notice that when you started once again
as a contester for Survivor, your class size got bigger
and bigger and more people come into your class.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Now it's I.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
I will admit it approaches fire hazard some days, but
like it's I, that's it's my own ornament, like it.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
You know, it's a.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
It's funny because like I get the reputation of like, oh,
he's a nice teacher, but then people take the class
of like oh this material is kind of hard.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Now I do a good job. I think a good job.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
It's like it's it's so it's kind a bit of
a bait and switch, like, oh, he's so nice, and
the first homework assignment comes to like, oh.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Oh it's it's actual work, right, you know, the only
other time, only other time this happened in history. You're
not in good company because you are somebody who is
is very honest. But Charles Van Doren, I think, was
probably the only other game show host, game show contestant
at the time in the fifties who also ran a class.
And turns out, of course he was cheating the entire time.
(04:17):
So thankfully you are playing the game all right, honestly, yes,
for christ show. So he was the Columbia professor who's
class sized doubled as he's on on the game television.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
But yes, so that was sixty four thousand dollars question, right?
Does that was that that same of the show?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yes, yeah, it was that the name of the No,
it was it.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Was something pyramid or I forget.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
What it'll come to me, but yes, it was.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Okay, it might have been the sixty fourth that No,
sixty four thousand dollars question was one, and then it was,
oh god, I'm gonna remember it.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Forget. It was the same same host who did Tic
Tac though, because.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
There was the movie with Ray Kurrant the dude, right,
that's w Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
So that's that was the game show. Quis show, Yeah,
Christ show was the movie, but the game was twenty
one twenty one was the name of the game.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Show that he was on.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah. Yeah, so again you are the other professor, But
you've played the game straight and honest, So that does
not different category that it would.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Have been caught on twenty different cameras.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
What you can't can't You can't really cheat at Survivor. No, actually,
like when you think about it, it's it's not that
kind of game whatsoever. So how did you end up
on Survivor in the first place? Because we actually have.
I haven't watched your first season, So what was your journey? Like,
what made you decide to go on a beach and
starve yourself for however many days?
Speaker 4 (05:34):
I mean, my goodness.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
So I mean, look, I I've always wanted to be
on Survivor.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
See when I was a kid.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
I was at fourteen years old when the show came on,
originally the original season, which I believe you did you
So did you all watch the first season? I know
some of you watched, like the whole Like I've watched
many seasons.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I watched the first riders, watch most of them, and
I watched season one. I just call it the naked
Guy season was the only one I remembered.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Yeah, that was my memory of from listening to your
podcast that that was the history here but the but
like the but yeah, so like I did too.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Like I watched Rich he was out catching fish in
the ocean.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I'm like, this is so cool, and I was all
sort of like, in the back of my mind has
something to do, which was an audacious thing because like
at the as a kid, I was like, you know,
a little squawtie kid who like do what it was
on like a robotics like a robotics club.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
But we'll get that later.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
But like, you know, in terms of but and I
just was always so interested in just like what is
it like to have to adapt to something completely new?
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Right?
Speaker 5 (06:33):
And and and so and I was always in the
back of my head.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
And I went through school and college and I went.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
To I always wanted to be a robotics professor, which
is what I am now and and so but so
I knew I was going to have to go through
grad school eventually get like a PhD. And in this
case of robotics is what I love to do. And
but in the back of my hand, I was like,
I would love to do survivor someday. So a couple
of times in grad school I would sneak into the
lab in the middle of the night, you know, and
because I was embarrassed to film an audition tape in
(07:00):
front of other human beings, and like I would and
I would, I would take the laboratory camera, set it up,
you know, like, take it pointed away from the robot,
pointed toward me.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
And uh, and it's like and and and put this
thing together. Submit of tape.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
I had to burn it onto a DVD and ship
it off in the mail ye made before the deadline,
and like I hear nothing back, nothing and uh, and
it was and it was just like but it was.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
It was always in the back of my head.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
And then a two years went by, nothing, no responses
on my tapes, and then I was sort of on
the cusp of becoming a professor.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I was doing what was called a postdoc.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
That's like, if you've gotten your PhD, you would do
more research in a different laboratory, but you want to
probably be a professor. I was doing a postdoc in Atlanta,
Georgia Tech, and I was like, I probably should try again,
because it was to become a professor, probably very hard
to take off time to do this. And so I
once again took a camera. I went into like the
little physics library and the physics building, wrotete a bunch
(07:52):
of equations on the white board behind me, and I.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Took I took a video and and I and I
and I.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
Edited together, set it off and I got a call
it on that day and I was like, oh my gosh,
they actually were interested. Like I was over the moon.
I could not believe it. And I was like and
and that just starts a very long process. And because
like I realized that, to my to my to my delight,
I got a call. I was like, that's this is
as far as it's getting, because as soon as they
talk to me, they're gonna realize what a horrible mistake
(08:20):
put me on. They're gonna realize. They're like, they're gonna interview.
It was like, they'll do a phone interview with me.
They realized like, no, there's this weirdo who's like who's who?
Was talking about robots and things like that, and they're like, actually,
we'd like you to move on to the next phase.
I'm like really again. Then I was like, oh, this
is gonna be a horrible disaster. And eventually they they
flew me out to Los Angeles for another interview.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
I was like, why do they How did I trick
these people?
Speaker 5 (08:43):
They think it would be a good idea to put
me on Survivor, And sure enough I get into this,
in to this to this room, and uh, they shove
me in with like a bunch of casting directors and
I remember thinking, Okay, Christian, you know, let's just be calm,
don't say don't stutter. It be like a newscast or
you know, like someone who has an incredible polish and
(09:04):
everything that they say. The very first thing I say is, uh,
that one about math, and I'm like.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Robots math.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
It's like like it was basically that was the tenor
of the conversation, and but just kept going and going,
and by the time I left the room, it's like, oh, Christian,
we love you. We move on the next round, like
you you are you are all fools.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
But eventually, but so eventually I got on.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
I got on the show, and I think that the
thing that I realized as a part of just the
experience of being getting on survivor even being there, was
that like when you just approach something with your whole
heart that you love and you talk about it like
in a way to just want to tell people how
much you love it, whether it's survivor in my case,
(09:49):
robotics or teaching, you know, the people tend to respond
well to that because it feels genuine. It feels real,
because it is real and it really is authentic. And
that's what I've generally found, and that then that's the
response that I felt.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
It stuck with me.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
It's like I don't need to change anything right about
what I'm doing to present myself, Like.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Just just just be what I just keep doing what
I love to do.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
That's so healthy.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
I'm curious about that though, because, like I I would
assume that, like, I don't know. I guess I'm wondering socially,
what is it like out there? Do you feel like,
because it seems like, especially this last season, it's actually
a really interesting, diverse group of people with like really
different backgrounds. Does it feel like there's a group of
popular kids and you're like on the nerdy outside, like
(10:37):
or does it feel like everybody's sort of figuring this out?
Speaker 5 (10:40):
I think the beautiful things about Survivor and I think
that the right regimes of the adult world, what you
inventure the adult world and you find the right things.
Is that like those lines blur right to what is
popular and not popular. It doesn't feel like the stereotypical
uh you know, uh maybe maybe sit conversion of high school,
you know, right up any any past memories they're so
(11:04):
but like but I mean, but the line starts to blur.
It's like, yes, there are people you might gravitate toward.
Naturallyis do you have similar interests in similar hobbies. But
like when you're out on the island, you never know
who's into just uh, who's who's into like nerd romance
books like Foxy on season fifty was into nerd romance books,
like like like like a like all these.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Kinds side romantic.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Romanticy as as as it is called. I knew that
phrase definitely be four five minutes, five seconds ago. And
but like the people contain multitudes, and I think that
as people become more secure in who they are, they're
willing to show.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
That about themselves, right and.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
So yes, I mean like there was my when well,
you know, in this kind of applied to multiple things.
My first season, I got to be a what what
we called a brochatcho. I was paired up with UH,
with with UH with two people from a swap tribe.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
I was.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
I was with this person who was a SWAT officer
and a professional wrestler who went by the Moniker, the
mayor of slam Town, and I decided we're.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
Gonna be friends.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Yes, We're gonna be friend and so I mean and
and there's just a beautiful marriage of ideas, like like
I would be talking to John Hennagaan, who aka Mayor
of slam Town. He went by many names, actually, I
try to remember as many as I can. You know,
Johnny Nitro, Johnny Mundo, the George Bushy of Tushy I believe.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Is one of those.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Stealing that.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
But like he would talk to me, Yeah, you would
talk to me about professional wrestling and is like, what
would it take to make a robot that's a professional wrestler?
Speaker 4 (12:35):
What is it about it?
Speaker 5 (12:35):
And we would have a nice conversation about yeah and yeah.
So anyway, my point is the lines really do blur
in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Now going back to when you first found Survivor of
fourteen fifteen and you knew it was something that you
wanted to do. Were you attracted to the cerebral aspect
of the show, which I know from what I'm gathering
from what I'm learning about Survivor, I know that the
cerebral part of the show has certainly morphed into what
it is today. I know there's a difference between old
school and new school, and the older episodes used to
(13:05):
show more of kind of the actual surviving on an island,
trying to start fire, trying to catch fish, that kind
of thing, and the cerebral aspect has kind of taken
over since then, did were you more attracted to I
want to go be on a deserted island and see
if I can do it? Or were you more attracted
to I can go and win the game because of
the strategy.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
And the way my mind works.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Well, originally it was just the raw adventure of the
show I thought was fascinating, But that hooked me until
I saw which was like a sort of a deeper
level to what is sort of this really open ended
strategy game. I mean, like the rules are very simple
in the scheme of things for Survivor, just don't get
more votes than everyone else and then they stick around.
(13:47):
But all the things that can emerge from that that
really did tickle sort of the intellectual problem solving element
of the game, Like what just the simple act of
I mean, the Matt skills that you need to play
Survivor are counting on two hands, right, that's all You're right, right?
And yet you can split up the votes in weird ways.
You can play I hit an immunity Gatto in this
sort of way. Uh, you know, you can split it
(14:08):
up in a three two one, you know, like in
order to get a right outcome. There are all these
crazy things and that does tickle the math part of
my brain, but really it's the problem solving and just
I think that's something that I as I grew up,
I mean even in high school, you know, like I
like I like when I was on like a you know,
I was on like robotics teams and I was in
the band right like you know, like I was a
drum major in the band. You're you're trying to find
(14:29):
solutions to like, oh I need to get this formation
working right. I want to get this robot working right.
And there's just an open ended ways you can so
really focus in your mind. Yes, that strategic element definitely
hit me hard. And I'm still learning things about the
show right just how it's played strategically all these years later.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Well yeah, well this season is so chaotic kind of
like I mean, that's will you know when it comes
to like blood Moon and like all these crazy new things,
do you feel I mean in some way like did
you come away with like a sense of like, oh
I could have played it better or I should have
done this, or does it does it feel like you
(15:07):
just were dealta a not great hand? With the Jimmy
Fallon twist.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Well, I mean there are certain things that, like, you know,
and that I wish I'd done differently, But frankly, the
stuff are right near the end of the game, you know,
like it's really stuff at the end. Like, I think
that two things combined to make it hard for me.
I don't want to get to too many details about
season fifty exactly, of course, but I think that there
are always things you do regret. But honestly, the vast
(15:36):
I would say, like ninety five percent of the things
that I did out there, I was like, I'm super
proud of I'm like, I wouldn't do any differently, right, Yeah,
And so sometimes you catch a bad break, but like,
but honestly, I mean, I am so tickled by this
whole run that I got to do. I mean, yes,
the fact that I got to be uh, you know,
in a way voted out in part because of the
(15:58):
flight of fancy of an idea from a Hollywood celebrity
from the show.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, yeah, and you had to you had to know
that the second you read that you were going to
be on Jimmy Fallon, right, Yes, you know, from.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
What little I know about show business is that it's
highly random or stopastic, as we would say.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
It's like it's like like you might think that it's like, yeah,
I hope I remember always being this, you know.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
I hope at some point I get to talk to
Jimmy Fallon about some of these ideas.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Didn't know how that was gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Where did this come from?
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Where did this come from? Like there?
Speaker 5 (16:28):
Like I also I found out Billie Eilish Boomerang idol, Like,
where is this coming from?
Speaker 1 (16:31):
You know?
Speaker 4 (16:32):
It just that that kind of crazy stuff happens.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
But I think that, uh, like really you just got
to take the randomness and go with it. Sometimes you
can make that play to your advantage, right uh And
I and I think that you know that that sort
of problem solving comes back into play a lot. You know,
when you when you embrace that problem solving attitude, you
take things less personally. You're like, you can't change the
fact that Jimmy Fallon decided to intrude upon your survivor existence.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
You can't change that. What do you do now?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
So I have a couple questions that are just logistical
questions about the show itself, because again I'm a neophyte
when it comes to this stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
First of all, how.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Much does the hunger play into the game.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
The hunger as are being physically hungry. Uh so, yeah, yeah,
the hunger to win out that you're at you man, like,
oh no, I guess it is significant. It's it's significant,
and I think that the the especially it's less that
you can't you know that you feel hungry.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
It's not like you feel like you skipped lunch.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Right, there are times that you know, I had to
skip lunch at work and things like that, I feel
like I want to die, right, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
That what the heck is going on?
Speaker 5 (17:34):
But when you are starving, you go into a more
of a crisis mode in your body, and so you
really you don't feel hungry.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
You feel lethargic, and it's.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
One and to the point where like it's effort to
just get up, stand up, walk around the campfire and
sit back down again, right, Like that's effort. But also
it's mental fatigue and like that that that's that's honestly
more than anything it takes. You know this, Our brains
they are energy hungry organs. They take a lot of energy.
So literally, you think poorly when you're this when this emaciated,
(18:06):
and when you have to be you think on your
feet and if that's something you hope is your strength,
that's incredibly difficult. Uh, I mean this is and honestly
it's something I learned my first time in playing Survivor
and something honestly we we kind of take into account
in robotics, like like when like I work in research
lab and we have robots that walk around like people.
Humanoid robots is what I work with as a profession,
(18:26):
and so like you, there's certainly it's a lot of fun,
Like you do it.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
We do it because it's cool. You do it because
it's fun. Yeah, but the yeah, but but.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
Like but like you think about like how hard how
much time does this robot have to think in a snap?
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Right?
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Right?
Speaker 5 (18:40):
And so you need to find ways to when you're
on a when you're on a computation budget, like wherever
a brain's on a computation budget, when we're starving, Uh,
you have to simplify the calculations. You can't think thirty
steps ahead. You literally can't. The math is mathing, the
computation compute doesn't happen. You have to come up with
clever ways to simplify the way that you think. And
(19:00):
that's certainly true in robotics. We try to wait to
simplify the math and the computation so that these robots
don't fall down when you push them. They don't have
time they can think. In Survivor, you have to come
up with very quick heuristics. So you had to say, Okay,
if someone approaches you with an alliance and survivor, what
do you say? And yes, you could think, well, ten
steps down the road, maybe this alliance is a bad idea,
but isn't a big idea. You don't have time to
(19:21):
think about that because at that point that person already
knows you don't want to talk to them, right, just
say yes, that's a heuristics, that's a rule. It's a
rule of thumb, right, that allows you to think quickly.
So you have to rely upon those quick thinking you know,
thinking fast thinking you slow ideas.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
When you're starving, Now, what about do you do? Is
it also because one of the other things that they
very rarely show. They might show the night camera there
as they do an interview when you come back from
tribal but are you sleeping, are you getting a decent
night sleep on the beach there.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
I mean I do, I sleep fine, Okay, I like
the shelters are horrible.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
They're designed, they are not well engineered ruptures.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
They are whatever bamboo can be, uh is in fact
just left around camp and like you know, we could
find like okay, and sometimes we didn't have a machete
at start of certain seasons, right, so we're just kind
of throwing bamboo on the ground.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
So it looks like you got hit by an earthquake
these things.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
So you just literally just got to find a groove
in bambooed So, But at the same time, like I
don't know, maybe this was just college, but I remember
in college, like I was like I was a big
time procrastinator in my like not that I swear I
do other things other than robotics, I swear I was,
but like, but that would be in like the lab
and I have like a SIS deadline or something, right,
(20:36):
and so like I had to be in here all
night to work on this project. I have to, So
I would just sleep on the linoleum floor, right, Like
that was my survivor training, and so it was kind
of it's kind of a joke on my seasons that
like that that I will just crumple up into a
strange shape by the fire and uh and and that's
just where I'll be, I think by work, I'm just
(20:56):
covered in dirt. Yeah, just like it because I'm like
I'm just I'm just and dirt by the fire such
as like it's probably soot.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, you know, I loved I loved hearing you know,
your your sentiments about your son and like you know
the emotions that were going into this season. Did you
actually keep it a secret from everybody else though? In Survivor?
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Yeah, I did. I did.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
I did it, and it was sort of a There's
a lot of reasons, uh that I did that, But
the main one is I needed something that was for
me that like like said like this like this is
my thing.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Yeah, like and.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Because it's it's actually easy to trust people out there.
It might sound contradictory because it's a game often about paranoia,
right right, and and I think that and so but
like when realized, no, this is one thing I shouldn't
share it.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
This is for me. He's my secret motivation and not
do dumb things.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
And like there are times where like where I'm like
at tribal counts, like what DoD me?
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Funny?
Speaker 5 (21:56):
If I said this, I realized, Nope, that's it. It's like,
probably be bad for me. This might put a target
on me if I say this.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Funny thing but really funny if I said this, should
I say it?
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I was like, no, no, no, no, my my son would
not want me to do something.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Yeah, it's like it's like I do play.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
Silly things to be clear, but but yeah I think that,
like but one thing that uh so, so that having
that close to my my heart is a thing I
can't share it. That really is a reminders like I
can't really trust these people right right, and like they
aren't at the end of as much as I like
so many of them, seriously, you become to grow to
(22:33):
love them that you can't that that that it's just
your way of reminding yourself that no, at the end,
it's got to be for you.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
And yeah, so that's why.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
All right, So how was it going on Jimmy Fallon?
I can I mean, I would just be such a
nervous wreck to go on a talk show like that.
So how how was it for you?
Speaker 5 (23:06):
I was oddly in a state of calm and I
have no idea how or why.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (23:12):
So like it's so I got to go on Jimmy Fallon.
It was I that was not expected. Believe it or not,
I don't know if you buy it by that as
of that boring. I was not going on Jimmy Fallon.
I was not going on Jimmy fall Like I was
told it wasn't happening, Like I was like, maybe it might,
but but they had a full state of guests and
and so like you know, like they're gonna they're gonna
(23:34):
bump you know, you know Tarry, you know Taron Edgerton, Edgerton,
christianly bicky. Turns out that's what they did. Turns out
that's what they did. Like like Taron, Like poor poor
Taron Edgerton's you know, they're to promote his thing. He's
some weirdo from reality TV gets get kinda gets a
weird twist from Jimmy Fallon. He probably got a call
saying I'm sorry, we got to bump you for this
(23:54):
guy who in a robot shirt, who's like, who's talking
in front of a whiteboard to you right now?
Speaker 4 (24:00):
And so but yeah, that's what happens. So like I
think it's just something.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
You know, there's sometimes I'm in a nervous wreck, you know,
when I'm trying to when there's pressure to do something
like having to do a puzzle under the gun can
make you a nervous wreck. But then there are sometimes
you lock in like a fighter pilot right right, and
and and it just hit that zone and I felt
so weirdly calm, like even though it makes no dang sense,
(24:24):
I'm sitting here on a cow on a couch talking
to Jimmy Fallon, and I'm like on like the couch
that you see on television, that's me.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
I'm right here. But then you act like, oh, of
course I belong here. Of course I do. I don't,
but you act.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Like you did. I don't understand you did.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Come on, I appreciate that. Sorry, like not to brag,
but I'm just it's just it felt.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
I not to over you know, romanticize the experience of
being within six feet of Jimmy Fallon as romantic as
it is.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
The it's it.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
But like I'm sure we all experience in our life,
like like in our life, there's a time where like
I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
I could do that right, right.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
I didn't think I could, but some reason you hit
that zone where you could. Just that's something to remind yourself,
you know.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
And I experienced this in all kinds of ways where
like you know what those those intermittent times where that happens,
remember it, right, And I will remember.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
This one, oh, I'll say.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
But that makes me wonder, like do you feel because
now you are a public figure, you are you know,
you've done Survivor twice. Is there is there a part
of you that wants to sort of stay in the
public eye and you know, take advantage of this in
some way career wise.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
I mean in a small way, yes, I mean in
a very specific way though, like like what I look,
I love being on Survivor. I always wanted to be
on the show because I thought it was a cool
adventure and also I wanted to show, like, hey, what
can I do as like a robotic sky on the
iland can make fire with glasses or something. And that's
but like what my my true north is I love
science education Like that's like that's I mean, I do
(25:57):
it for a living, like I'm actual professor and I
love talking to kids about science and math and Stam,
you know, as a science fount engineering math. Because again
just throw back to the theme, I love it and
if you talk about it in a way that you
love it in a way that's accessible, it's infectious lost
people in thank you, That's the word I say with it.
(26:20):
It's infectious, right, I mean, like, it's not just about Stam.
Of course, people have that in all kinds of ways.
You know, you listen, you know, people are listening to
a podcast where people were covering originally you know, Dancing
with the Stars, right right, and you're talking like in
a in a way and in a in a way
with genuine curiosity, what is this show Dan getting with
the Stars?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
What? Like?
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Just people feel that's there's a reason that podcast laped
on as the short of medium.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
It's not just podcasts.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
So if something like me, you know, I'm looking, I'm like,
what is the way that I can bring, you know,
what I feel like I bring to this science education
world to an audience that may see it in a
different way because i'm you know, big, because I read
in it maybe a slightly different way than other people. Right,
So if you answer your question that that's a long
way of saying yes, but that's what I do.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I think the problem that you're going to have, though,
is one of the things this country has is an
abundance of really qualified, very passionate, well paid teachers.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
There's just too many. So that's true, I think.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
But I mean, well, you definitely get a lot of
very very passionate I mean, like certainly you get the
passionate teachers.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
It's well taken. Yeah, I'm from a family of teachers,
by the way, so that's why.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
Yeah, in fact, you know, I just teachers and also volunteers.
I actually just came back from uh the International Championship
of the First Robotics Competition, the first Robotics competent, and
like that was it was you know, I came off
Jimmy Fallon last week, like two weeks ago, like crazy, crazy,
but in a way almost equally emotional was me going.
(27:55):
So First Robotics is like it's azo robotics team as
a kid in high school. It's an organization called First
And so they invited me out to their you know,
international competition in Houston, Texas where they literally have you know,
like like nineteen thousand kids from all the world competing,
and I got to be there and you have all
these kids that are super passionate. I can go on
like forever about how awesome they are. But there were
(28:17):
also a thousand just volunteer adults that were there to
help make the competition go.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
And like these are like people.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
The students are building these robots, They're running around, they're
zipping up, picking up balls, launching balls into like into
hoops and things like that. And I did says a kid,
it's really bringing back the nostalgia. But also I'm seeing
this now as an adult and like, oh my goodness.
The thing that made this work is also a thousand
adults who came to this competition to just volunteer.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
They don't get paid.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
My definition, I was.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Just like and and and you talk to them and
they look forward to it every year, like it's like
it's it is that passion, and I'm just so so
so I'm like so yes, I'm not like like being
there and just being think about it. They help me
roam the place with a cant with just the phones
just filming everything and just to see it up close.
(29:05):
I just like so anyway, So of course, so there's
lots of passion out there. I think that there's something
to highlighting the people that are so passionate about this
sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
I think so too.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Can I ask you a couple very rapid fire questions,
but would you mind shoot out four or five right
in a row? Okay? First, who is your favorite Survivor
player of all time?
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Tony Blacchos from season twenty eight and forty and thirty four?
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, okay, great?
Speaker 2 (29:30):
What helps you more in Survivor? The ability to use
robotics or being a musician?
Speaker 5 (29:36):
Ooh, I actually being a musician. I'm gonna give you
an answer, even though it's rapid fire.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
So please please, no, no, no, please, this love it.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
It's the formance.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Yeah, you're perform I mean I mean in a way
in a way that you won't get like like, yes,
being a robotics guy got probably gonna be on the
show in some way because it's like, oh, we haveing
a robotic guy on the show. But like you also
have to talk to a camera, and that's a perform
I think that if you're taught, like like I was
a clarinet player all the way through grad school and
and so and if you're my dad too, by the
(30:07):
standing the recital, Yeah, and you're you know, you're performers
by trade. You know, like you know, you feel that
I'm projecting upon you. Please forgive me.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
You know, you feel that it's like all of a sudden,
it's go time, show, mus go on.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
You have to perform, and you feel that at tribal Council,
you feel that when you're giving interviews.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
So the musicians at Angle is incredible.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Okay, Uh yes, Benny Goodman was. Basically I grew up
just listening to over and over and over again because
my dad.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
That's what was just in our house everywhere, every every day.
What is the future of robotics.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Oh, the future robotics?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (30:43):
We what we need for the future robots are reliable machines.
Right now we have great machines that are good that
big for fantastic spectacle and great YouTube videos for the
times that you it worked for camera and then you
cut the other ones at times that that does work
on the editing room floor. What you needed to do
is work exactly when you need it all the time.
(31:04):
You know, we would not accept dish put or away
robots that breaks your dish went out of every ten times.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Accept that.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
We would not you know, accept a walking robot that
trips over your dog. I trip over my dog, and like,
you know, it's like and that's a tricky problem. Right,
So the future robotics is reliability, and cracking that nut
is the challenge. It works well in factories when there's
nothing getting in your way. Robot robots and factories, you
bolt them to the ground. No one's getting in this way.
(31:33):
That partner is gonna pick up. It's gonna be the
same place every single time, tends of thousands of times.
But as the world gets crazier and messier, where the
rules aren't well written and you know you're doing it
the rules of people, reliability is even harder.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Okay, wow, are you afraid of AI?
Speaker 4 (31:50):
I am not afraid of AI.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
I am afraid of people putting it in places where
it doesn't belong. That's what the same thing of a reliability, Right.
It's incredible what AI can do, but it's less clear
what we can reliably count on it to do. Right, So, like,
if if I need, if like if I need to
like summarize a giant like book or something like that,
give me a summary and I don't care, like if
(32:15):
it works ninety percent five nine percent time, it's fine, right,
But if I'm asking it for mental health advice, I
want to know I'm talking to an expert and not
something that's randomly hallucinating advice that shouldn't be giving me.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Right.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
So that's so I'm afraid of where you're putting AI
in places where it's not ready.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Okay, wow, And final question for me, uh and it's
just a fun. One favorite musician of all time?
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Oh oh, I'm going to go with a composer. I'm
going to go with the bails Sibelius from from his
first symphony was a banger. When your first symphony is
a banger, that says, So that's the one that I
go back and listen to over and over again. The
Vorjak goes up to symphony number nine, and that's the
(33:13):
one eight and nine I think where people really dial in.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
And that's great.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Look, you know, I wish I could pick a peek
in my eight first or eighth or ninth symphony. But
when you really nail number one, there's something special Therebelius.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
I'm not familiar with Sibelius.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I got to that out all right, good amazing.
Speaker 5 (33:31):
Sorry, Billy Eilish, Billy Eilish, gotta take it back, Billy
Eilish taking Billy Billy. We're still friends, of course, of
course you are ocean eyes.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Of course. I was just saying random titled oceanized.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Billy's feather something I don't know something. Thank you so
much for joining us. This has been awesome and I'm
I'm so happy. I mean, like, you know, our show,
like we were talking about the teaching thing our show
was known for having. Mister, I appreciate that you're a
teacher so much, the most important thing in the world.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
So as writer. He won't say it because he doesn't
want to toot his own horn, but writer also teaches
uh uh screenwriting in college.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
No, but I miss it. I haven't been teaching this
last year and I'm I'm I miss it. So I
feel the same way.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Man.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I think it's like the most important thing, and I
love the potential that you're that you're bringing to, you know,
more awareness to stem and science education. Please keep keep
it up, keep it up, man, really support that.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Thank thank you so much. And I'd be remiss not
to write this again.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
I was really touched when I went to this what's
the first robotics called the first organization, and it's like,
if you're interested, this is your audience. If you're interested
in getting involved with seriously, check it out. It's it's
just it's f I R S T spell First you
go to if you want to, If youre interested in
learning more, go to first inspires dot org slash learn
and seriously, if you don't have to know anything about robotics.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I was just gonna ask, can I somebody like me?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Who who? I?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I love robots, but I'm I just don't have that
kind of analytical mind. Can I still come and kind
of enjoy the spectacle and help or you whatever I've
got to do?
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Absolutely? Absolutely, seriously, That's that's the thing.
Speaker 5 (35:04):
I mean, like it's it's you might think, oh, it's
the first it's a robotics club, so you can have
all of these you know, brainiact robotics wizards there and
they certainly are there, right sure. But like the good
thing is like these teams that like these these these
kids are making these robots. Someone's got a fundraise for
these teams, so they have to. And that means these
students are their own, making their own business plans, They're
they're their own accountants, they are doing marketing, they're doing
(35:26):
graphics design, and so they have adults that will menor
them and these things like, oh, do you know how
to use you know this, you know Adobe Illustrated.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
I'll show you. And there will have adults who will show.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Them how to do it.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
And like, honestly, like I some of the some of
the parents they just cooked for us when we were
on these teams in high school. Like so because we're
we're saying such late nights, they're like cay Man, Like
my I remember my parents made pasta for the team
one night, right, So so like and so they are
all kinds of and and what typically happens is people
kind of just get sucked into this organization of first
and they're like they want to get more and more,
(35:56):
and they end up learning more about robots in the process.
You might even coming look, you might not even come
in liking robots, like you right, Like I just want
to help these kids, and all of a sudden you
feel it. So so I've just been it's been such
a joy getting to revisit that after all these years
of being I was on a team back in high
school and two there I was on there are now
over eighty thousand teams of this and I was on
(36:18):
team number seven.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Wow, oh my god.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
That's incredible.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Yeah, full circle for me.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
I can tell you the way you think about robotics
is and you're gonna be like, what, But it's the
way I grew up thinking about television.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
It's been the great love of my life.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
And the idea that we had first mister Wizard, and
then there was Bill and I the science guy, and
there's room for kind of the new host for the
next generation to come in. And I can see you
definitely taking that spot on some great Disney or Disney
Plus show kind of doing that whole next generation of
robotics and everything. I'd watch that. I think a whole
generation of kids would watch that. How they're not pitching
(36:55):
that right away, I don't understand. But that would be
a phenomenal show. It really would.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
That's I will just basking that compliment.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Sure, thank you, that would be great.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
I have no I don't even know what to say
to that. That's so kind. Thank you would be aome.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Well, thanks for coming on, and we will keep watching
your your your your Jury experience as it continues for
the for the rest of the season. Actually, one last question,
any chance that you would go back to Survivor if asked, well.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
They got my number, I had such a I had
such a I had such a fun time both times.
Had very different experiences on both times, but like each
each one was a blast in its own way.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
So I'm like, yeah, I mean, I take the call.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
You know, it's crazy everybody seems to be so positively
affected by doing Survivor. It's like, you know, without winning,
without even making it to the final three or whatever,
it seems like everybody just comes away with being like
this was, you know, a life changing, wonderful experience.
Speaker 5 (37:49):
It is something immersive about it. I mean, like I
think that maybe there's something you might catch, you know.
I'm I'm babbling on out the last of the babbles
to to spare your time. But the like, there's some
like there's a lot of reality shows out there as
and you watch I watch many of them, as to
you clearly from the repertoire of your podcast, but there's
I will speak just to Survivor, there's something that the
crew takes incredibly seriously and they really are committed and
(38:14):
there is a reason I one of the reasons I
want to do Survivors. When I watched the show, I
was like, I would see the way that the show
would give a hearing to things that were like interesting
that I would never thought would get a fair hearing,
so like like on the show.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
So like when I auditioned, I was.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
Like, you know what if I talk about science again
in a way that I care about, this show might
not just make fun of me. They might actually show
like what it's like, what does this offers the world
this particular point of view, And it's not just my
point of view but anyone's point of view, and and
and I was nothing but validated from my experience actually
(38:51):
going on and like.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Wow, so cool, amazing, awesome.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
All right, well, thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
For I appreciate it. Thank you so much, I really.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
And best of luck finishing up the semester.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
Yeah, range today we are done, friends.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Done, They'll be fine. Ay, I'll take care of it,
don't worry about it, all right, have a good Thank
you so much, thank you, Bye bye.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
What a good guy.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
He seriously he should no joke, be like the next
mister Wizard, the next Bill.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
I know it's a I mean, I think we need
more of those people. Although yes, you know, hell yes,
anytime science becomes exciting for kids, it's like, yeah, it's
so good.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
And they were also like I met mister Wizard when
we did Nick takes over your school when I was eleven,
and he was there with his wife, and no matter
what you did, he turned it into a fun lesson.
And I remember when you and I and Ben rode
Tower of Terror with Bill Nye.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
He was like, all right, everybody grab a penny.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Everybody have a penny, and he used it just the
moment as the tower dropped and the penny is floating
in front of us.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
He just took that moment to teach the science.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
And I feel like Christian wi be exactly the same way,
where it's like if I have that that moment and
we're gonna make this fun, We're gonna teach you what's
going on.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
I could totally see him grabbing that mantle. I agree,
that was cool.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
It was really cool.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
All Right, you've been listening to pod Meats twirled torches
may be snuffed, but our questionable analysis burns on. We'll
see you next time at Tribal Trap. You're smoking
Speaker 2 (40:27):
M
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