“I AM A MUSCLE MOMMY”

A caller talks about being a female competitive body builder, a caller touts his extensive root beer collection, and I read emails. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, Hi, can you hear me?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yes? Who is it?

Speaker 3 (00:06):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is a gecko guy.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Oh my god, Oh my god. Sorry, I'm so loud.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Oh my god, how you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I thought it was damn. I'm good. Wow, this is
crazy man. I've been listening to you for years and
everyone's right too. It's so weird to like actually talk
to you. Oh my god, whoa how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:36):
I'm good? I am uh yeah, I'm good. I feel
ready to talk about life and about stuff and about things.
I I just got back from Iraq yesterday. That was
pretty crazy, and now I'm now I'm back here in

(00:59):
America hanging out, living life.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, it's it's really sick that you're I watched your
break dancing video, but I didn't see your one talking
to the Juggalos. It was a little shaky. Everybody. That's cool,
but no, that's that's sick that you were in Iraq.
It's really cool that you're able to like travel and
make your make your job part of that too. It's

(01:26):
been cool to hear you with your uh with your podcast,
like seeing how it's growing and seeing you kind of
follow your passion. It's really cool.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Thank you man, Thank you, thank you. You know, I wanted,
I want to talk about the all the iraction on
the podcast, but I'm I'm going to do that at
another point because I want to talk to you because, uh,
you texted me something that I thought was super interesting
and I have questions. I am curious. You told me
that you did a strong man show today, yeah, and that,

(01:58):
uh you want to talk about like you want to
talk about these are your words, being a muscle mommy
and competing in a strong Man as a woman. I'm
very curious about that. Please please tell me how it went.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah. So, I don't know how much other people or
how much you know about strength sports necessarily. I know
you've kind of talked about fitness on the podcast, and
I've always thought it would be kind of interesting if
I called in to provide my perspective on being in
strength sports too and having that kind of be my passion.
But yeah, so, I I am twenty eight. Now. I

(02:36):
know you never like remember people's names, but it doesn't
really matter too much. But I'm twenty eight. I started lifting,
like doing up powerlifting, which is like squat, bench press
and bedlift. I started training that in my freshman year
of college in twenty fifteen, and then I did a

(02:57):
lot of power lifting meets between twenty fifteen and about
twenty twenty one when I started freshman year of college,
like I said, and then I graduated college and I
went to a gym where they had strong Man stuff,
and so strong Man it kind of like the the
thing that people think of with strong Man is like

(03:18):
if you've ever seen the guy in a circus uniform
with just the mustache and no hair and the big
dumbbell and like the stripey shorts. You know, if you
could picture that, that's they call that, Like the giant
tell bell is called a circus bill, and that's sometimes
an event. It's strong Man was kind of just bringing

(03:39):
about bringing a weight that's as heavy as you can
from point A to point B. So sometimes it's that.
Sometimes I've pulled a truck before the competition, which is cool. Yeah,
my profile picture on Instagram is me pulling a truck
with like a flag on the back. In school. Sometimes
it's well known for like Atlas stones what they're called,

(04:01):
and they're just big round stones and you pick it
up and you either put it over a bar or
put it up to a platform. You carry a lot
of stuff you do, deadlifts, reps. Sometimes it's kind of
just nowadays I've noticed and I'm like, I go on
Reddit a lot, and there's a subreddit for strongmans and

(04:22):
the sub for everything, and I saw somebody's hot take
a strong man has gotten kind of it used to
be more exciting and now it's kind of like it's
not as exciting, like they used to do sumo wrestling
and they used to like flip cars, and now it's

(04:43):
kind of more it's it's it's a way I think
nowadays it's more like dead lifts and more standardized stuff
as I think to get more people into it. But
it's it's not it's not like creamy stuff now.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
I mean you pull, you know, is there like a
what was the other I guess is the idea that
like it should have been more crazy thing like picking
up a like like they put a child under a
car and you got to save them type of stuff.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
I do actually know one of the people at the
gym that I go to there's a show where one
of the events is running through drywall, and he was like, man,
I wish I could have done that one. But I
mean the show I did today. I wish I could.
I'm hoping when I explained stuff, if like it's not
clear what I'm saying, I could try to elaborate, but
like I think the coolest one that I did today,

(05:37):
or like, there's one event. It's a yoke and so
it's like think of a barbell and it's welded to
two posts on the side. It's like if you've ever
seen the stuff that like cows will pull that, that's
literally a yoke and it's strong man. You'll you'll kind
of get under it and you'll walk with it, sometimes

(05:58):
fifty feet sometimes and in this particular case, it was
carry the yolks fifty feet and then grab farmer handles,
which is kind of like if you can carry two
bags of groceries, then you can do farmer carry, but
then picking that up and carrying that fifty feet back.
And the yolk that I carried was four hundred and
twenty pounds and I'm I'm five to two and I

(06:20):
weigh about one forty five pounds, So wow, it's yeah,
it's it's cool to be able to because I've been
doing string sports, like I said, for almost ten years
at this point, so to be a female athlete in
like where my focus isn't like trying to be small

(06:40):
and lose weight, it's trying to build muscle and take
care of myself to like lift as much weight as
I can. I'm actually too, I'm more excited because in
January too, I'm doing so for context too. With strong Man,
it's very common for people to take steroids, like the
big guys at the tippy top, if you know, like

(07:02):
half thorb Jordson for instance, he was the Mountain and
Game of Thrones, or like Eddie Hall is a popular
name to those guys. It's like pretty understood in the
community that they take steroids like the top guys typically do.
And so there's a federation in strong Man where it's
for people who don't take steroids. And since I've been

(07:24):
doing it long enough, like not a lot of women
do strength sports. So because I've been doing that long enough,
like I'm pretty good at it now, and the show
in January that I'm doing would be a qualifier to
go to Worlds for the federation in like August next
year probably. So I've never I've only traveled to South

(07:44):
America once I went to the Amazon Rainforest, it's funny enough.
That's the only time I've left the country, but for
the show. It would be cool. I would like be
able to qualify and compete and go to Europe hopefully,
and I think it was in the UK this year,
but it'd be cool if it were there Ireland. I
think I'd love to go there next year and like
do a strength competition and stuff. You know, it'd be

(08:06):
so cool.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
That's awesome, that's so cool. So the so thet when
you say so the steroids thing, it seems to me
that it's like, uh, everyone kind of is it kind
of like a thing where it's like you're not supposed
to do it, but everyone just fucking does it anyway.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, And so in strong Man and honestly kind of
an Olympic sports to my understanding, there's ways to if
you get blood work done regularly and you eat healthy
and try to like get good sleep. There's there's always risks,
but there's ways to do it and kind of mitigate
those risks. Like they say cycling on and off, Like

(08:46):
cycling on is like taking some sterized and then cycling off.
That's kind of what you're supposed to do to help
like reset your body, and so I've met different people
who talk openly about it. There's a lot of channels
on YouTube or people talk openly about it, and I
follow athletes on Instagram that's talks openly about it. So

(09:07):
I'm actually funny enough too. I would have considered taking
it if there was a point, because like, I'm a
good athlete, but I don't know if I could ever
like be the best. And I thought about it. But
the reason I don't do is my boyfriend, who he
is a powerlifter. He's like, if I took it, you
know it, it would make me have a deeper voice,

(09:27):
and it would give you more masculine features and probably
like lose my hair and stuff. And if the roles
were reversed, I probably wouldn't be happy if he took
steroids either. So it's it's I'm not gonna like it's
I don't know how common it is necessarily because like
people aren't all talking openly about it, but I know

(09:48):
that it is a thing where they're like people might
you know, take like a little bit of home to them,
you know.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
So I'm curious. So your boyfriend is also a powerlifter.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
He's a powerlifter. I'm a strong an athlete.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Who would win in a fight.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
He would, So I'm curious.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
I'm curious about this, Like was it important to you?
Because I'm sure that like because listen, here's like the
average even though you're five to two. But the fact
that like you could probably like the average guy, right
like you could beat the ship out of me, you
know what I mean, Like you could beat the ship
out of probably most average guys, right Like? Was that

(10:32):
when you were like dating, was that important to you
to find like like I I was that the thing
where you're like, you know, I accept that I could
beat the ship out of most average guys? Or was
it important to you, like find someone who is also
like you know, who was like like I guess above
your level, not like above your level, you know, but
like you know can like uh like physically like like

(10:54):
you know, you know what I'm saying, Like, is that
important to you that you're you know you know what
I'm saying is wrong? I do.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
No, I never thought about it necessarily as like someone
I could be in a site versus couldn't. But I did,
like it's hard to be a woman doing strength sports
and accept that like have like I don't have a
small waist, I'm kind of blocky, and I I feel

(11:21):
like I have like kind of more masculine features because
I'm more muscular, so I was I've dated at this point.
Now I think it's like the fourth guy that I've
dated and after the last one, I guess the last
one was this one. Now, I did want somebody who
uh like a beefcake, you know, like a huge size.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. And look, you got to where
you and you deserve that. You know what I'm saying,
thank you, thank you, because like in the in the
dating universe, in the dating universe, it's you really you
really can't ask for anything that you don't have, you
know what I mean. Like you if you wanted, like

(12:06):
if you wanted like a like a hot muscular guy,
you're like, you know, you've earned it, you know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, that's it's nice. You do kind of get your
pick of the letter if you are a girl who
does shrink sports, because it's like, you know, there's not
a lot of us, so it's kind of nice in
that regard.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
To pass three guys. Do you think you could have
beaten them up?

Speaker 2 (12:32):
No, so my my last boyfriend, Oh that's kind of funny. Uh,
my last boyfriend he was six foot three and at
one point almost four hundred pounds, and he was a
strong man too. He actually when we were going through
our breakup, he didn't he wanted to talk things through,
and so he sat in front the door for like
three hours because he didn't want me to leave, and

(12:54):
I couldn't have moved him, Like I like try to
nudge it a little bit. That whole thing is kind
of funny too. But I think my second one probably
and well because it's funny enough. Like my original type
was like skinny white dude like I was. I'm also
an engineer, so like I was surrounded by like skinny

(13:15):
white guy, right, and that you stalls be my type.
But then you know, you do strength sports, so it's
like you're at the gym four to five days a week,
two to three hours at a time, so you're kind
of surrounded five yeah. Yeah, I'm just you're surrounded by
these giant, muscly guys. So you know, you see that

(13:35):
for like five six years, and that's kind of like
how your type transitions. That's what I noticed for myself.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
I guess, mm hmmmmmm.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Interesting. Okay, so you go to the gym do you
used to sell for how how many years have you
been going to the gym five times a week, four
to five times a week, two to three hours.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
I don't remember what I was doing in college. I
do know honestly that I was a bit more anal
when I was in college. Honestly, up until I dated
my last boyfriend, I was like way more anal about it.
And I think I started lifting and competing in twenty seventeen,
so it was probably from like twenty seventeen up until now.

(14:19):
You know I'm going to the gym. Well, right now,
I go to the gym to do strength training four
days a week, and then I rock climb once a week.
I actually too as a side note, because I've been
listening to your podcast so long. You talk a lot
about just like you know, going out and doing shit,
and I talk about your podcast with people a lot.
I don't think I've gotten anyone to listen to your books.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
It's a tough pi, no, but it's so good.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
And on Monday nights at the rock climbing gym I
go to they have a ladies' night at six o'clock,
different women can go and there's a form of rock
climbing it's called blaying. I don't know if you know
what that means, but that's like when you have to
harness and you're hooked up to someone. And so I
kind of did that and was like trying to go
regularly because like I listen to the podcasts and people

(15:05):
talk about like I remember the girl who went to
Pinball Club, like a older episode, and it was just
inspiring me where it's like I'll go and I'll go regularly,
Like I listen. I think one of the episodes, maybe
a week or two ago, there was a kid who
was like his first year of college and he was
two weeks in. He's like, I'm not making any friends.

(15:25):
I don't understand, and I stand by it that you
have to be regularly at a space for a year
to really get comfortable. Yeah, totally had the community, but
I moved. I've been in the same state for my
whole life, but I left my last job and moved
to the area that I'm at now in October of

(15:46):
last year. So it's been almost a year living here
and I'm rock climbing regularly. And I have like some
friends from it. Now I'm actually going to Warp Tour
with two of my rock climbing friends cool November.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
So climbing friends also like super Ripped.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
No, I'm actually because I have the strength background, I'm
naturally stronger than a lot of them, which does feel
pretty cool. I will say, uh, it has. It's very
helpful to be a lifter in a lot of aspects
of life, to be honest.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
That other what other aspects?

Speaker 3 (16:25):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
One interesting thing is that at the gym I go to,
there are a lot of it's a big gym, and
there's this one woman that I met. She's a mother,
she's probably in her fifties. She's like in perimenopause and menopause,
and she taught. She posts things openly about that on Instagram.
She talks about it. And I know. The biggest thing

(16:48):
is that because I have this like s fitness habit
that I've built, I eat really healthy too. I actually
got a nutrition coach recently. Uh so I eat really healthy.
I prioritize my sleep and it helps being with someone
who prioritizes their sleep. But I feel good pretty much
most of the days, aside from when I'm super sore

(17:10):
from training. I sleep pretty good. I don't drink either.
I haven't actually had any alcohol since New Year's two
years ago now, And I just it's cool to be
able to have a habit where I feel pretty good
a lot of the time. And I feel like, only

(17:31):
not all the time, because I'm kind of an anxious
person too, but I feel like having this fitness habit
allows me to like think pretty clearly, to be able
to have good control of like how I'm feeling. And
I know my anxious thoughts get worse when I'm more

(17:53):
tired or I'm not being mindful of my ChIL to
the point of the menipausting to the thing that women
who actually study that say, and you're older is yeah,
I'm talking to the gecko.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Who is that?

Speaker 2 (18:12):
That's my boyfriend?

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Oh yeah, what's that is it?

Speaker 3 (18:14):
Wait?

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Did he just walk in?

Speaker 2 (18:16):
She just walked in? He just went on a walk.
We went to a restaurant after my show, and we
each ate nachos and boff wings and our own respective meals,
and we each got a dessert.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
Are those all? Are those all the foods that you
like can't have while you're like leading up to this.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
It's funny, actually is you can kind of eat stuff
like that. Like there's if you're ever in a diet.
In my opinion, if you ever a diet where you
have to cut out food, then it's not sustainable. I'm
not really putent free and you can't.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Have wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. That doesn't
make any don't all diets involve cutting out food.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
It's it's it's moderation. So I, for instance, the girl
that's my nutrition coach, one of the snacks that I'll
get on my rock climbing day before I go to bed,
my last meal is and Okay, it sounds kind of lame,
but it's really good rice cakes with peanut butter and
mini chocolate chips. That sounds oh my god, dude, it's

(19:20):
so good. But I just to tie up the last
way too, Like when women get older, they like their
estrogen levels just like shoot down and their hormones get
all out of whack. And the best thing you can
do when you're older and like in that stage your
life is lift weight, eat proteins, leap, drink water like

(19:41):
all that stuff that I'm kind of doing now. So
I feel like because I have this happen now. I
know it's gonna help in the long run, but also
I feel like it helps me manage my emotions and
I I haven't talked to people a lot of I
don't really know how to phrase it, but I feel

(20:02):
like I have a pretty good head on my shoulders
and it helps a lot because I strength train regularly.
And also too, I have a community. I think that's
a big thing that a lot of people miss in
in like the modern day. Is like when you go
to a place regularly, like we were just saying, go
to the gym regularly, you see the same people and

(20:23):
you kind of build a community there. And gym people
are kind of like people who do strength sports. They're
kind of very similar people. So it's easy to say
hi to people and chat about it. And I can
be like an awkward person, but to be able to
ask someone like, oh, are you like training for a show?
Like what events are you doing? And like we're all

(20:44):
kind of in similar boats, so y'all kind of get it.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
So you did the show today, Let me ask you this.
You say that a lot of people in the strong
man community feel as though it's gone downhill because they're
not as, Uh, my understanding of what you said is
that the kind of like there's less showmanship, right, Can
I ask you?

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Oh so sorry?

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Go ahead go aheah ahead.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
I was gonna say, I think I misrepresented it. I
don't think that's a common sentiment among all people. That's
just my perspective.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Okay, wait, so okues, So that's a perfect, perfect perfect.
So if that's your perspective, what do you think, like,
what give me some good like challenges that that you
think they should add, like fucking like picking up big
barrels of water and throwing them down, Like what do
you think they should they should add to the strong
man competition if you could add any kind of challenge.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
So the first thing that comes to mind is that
I follow I follow a lot of athletes on Instagram,
and there was somebody post to show where most of
the events were in water. So it's like one event
was picking up a log and pressing it overhead for
rest in water, and then another was tearing like a tub.
It's kind of like a big a drum filled with

(22:00):
water and carrying that around. I think it's just like
it's stupid, you know, actually too. The last show I
did it was a kilted show. Everybody wore a kilt
and it was a rent fare and so we were
in kind of like the horse trough, kind of where
they do the jeffs, same kind of area. And so
there was one event, and this one you might have

(22:21):
to look up to kind of see. It's hard to explain,
but it's called a single finger something that's such weird names.
But the single finger is you kind of pick up
this I think of a stick that is stuck to
a pivot point, really big stick, and so you pick
up from one end and you kind of get it

(22:42):
up to your chest and then push it above your
head and you kind of walk your hands under it
to push the stick to fall on the other side.
That's the That's the way I can explain it. You
might just have to look it up, but that's a
cool event to watch people do. There was one where
it was the the wagon of pain they called it,

(23:04):
where you pick up a sandbag and load in a wagon,
pick them another loaded the wagon that picks another load
in and then you carry the wagon down at distance.
And that one doesn't look cool too. Those are the
ones I remember, but I thought that one was cool.
And that's why I signed up for it, was because
it was at a rent there and like it's kind
of a spectacle.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Yeah, m.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Oh yeah. I wanted to ask your what are the
so what are the numbers for you? Like, what's your
what's your I would love to hear a rundown of
the stats, like what's your bench?

Speaker 2 (23:37):
So I actually don't really bench anymore, but I did
a power listing meat last year and I benched one
hundred and sixty five pounds the enough that I've deadlifted.
That one's cooler. The most I've deadlifted is three hundred
eighty pounds.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
WHOA, that's great.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah yeah. And then squat too. I don't really do
that one as much, but when I did it last year,
I squatted to sixty so they yeah, the numbers for
it's hard to say numbers for strong man stuff because
it's you're never really going for like a heavy single.

(24:14):
But like I did an event today that was cool too.
It was I picked up a sandbag that weighs as
much as me, like one hundred and fifty pounds, and
then you know, like keg, like you put beer in it.
I picked up that one and that weighed one hundred
and fifty five pounds and I carried it, and then
I picked up an Atlas stone which also it was
one hundred and forty five pounds and tried to carry

(24:36):
that one. But it was cool though, because they like
split up the group everybody was competing today into two
groups to make it go with it faster, and I
picked up I was like the second, the last person
to go for that event. So like all these guys,
you know, some of them were like in their fifties
and stuff, and like they were carrying less than meet

(25:00):
like hot shit, but yeah, thank you. But as far
as specific weights to give, I guess the last show
I did, there was an event where it was you know,
like a beer cake. Literally one of them is like
carrying a keg. It was a two hundred pound keg
and I put it over a bar that was at

(25:21):
like forty five inches tall like I'm five but two,
so it was maybe like forty two inches high, I think,
And I did that I think four times. So I
don't know, it's hard to like explain these numbers and
like know if other people like know what that feels like,
but it's it's I think the coolest part of it

(25:45):
for me is that the stuff that I'm doing next
year is stuff that I never thought I would be doing.
You know, like I now my voice is shaky. I
feel like it's so surreal, but it's just I think
I've been really excited because, Yeah, the stuff that I'm
doing next year is the stuff that I've been standing

(26:06):
since twenty seventeen, like working.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Towards you know, interesting what you never thought that you
would make it into what is it called federation?

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Well, there's different federations. It's more I never thought that
I would be doing a qualifier to go to World
for a strong Man and like I'm going to have
you ever heard of the Arnold?

Speaker 3 (26:29):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (26:29):
No? Is that based off of chart?

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Sorry? Is that based off the Schwarzenegger.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah, it's it's a fitness expo and in Columbus, Ohio.
I don't know what else there is in Ohio, but
there's a fit It's a fitness expo. So it's like
all the strength sports that kind of come together and
it's like it's one of the top sport strong man
shows for people that besides the super heavyweight men. And

(26:56):
I'm going to that too. In March. That's a plan anyway,
unless the events kind of stinker. If it's too expensive,
then I probably won't. But I think I'm been saving
my money. I think I can go, And the fact
that I'm going to it is like I never thought
I'd be able to go, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (27:11):
Mmmmm, what's the what is the demographic? Like who's in
the audience for these shows? I'm curious, like, who are
the what's the demographic of people that attend?

Speaker 2 (27:24):
So the one that I did, it's mostly friends and family.
It's the people who compete, it's the people who help out,
and then it's friends and family. So my mom and
my stepdad actually came to watch, very nice and my
mom she's, oh my god, she's weighs as much as me,
but she's like six inches taller than me. She's skin
and bone, she's sixty. She's sixty years old, literally osteoporotic.

(27:47):
And she's like, she said, she felt so out of
place because you know, we're doing this stuff when we're
like all shouting and rah rah. But you know she
was there too, and there are other like parents and
stuff there, and that's typically who it is, even at
a bigger show, it's comprised of the athletes, the couple
people who help out, and then maybe some other athletes

(28:10):
who go to that gym and are interested in it.
But then in other ways it's friends and family. So
if you ever watch a high level strong man show
like the audience, I mean, for like World's Strongest Man,
that's like one of the biggest ones, and Matt has
other people, but for ones that aren't as well known
but are still big, it's usually friends and family.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Who's the like World's Strongest woman? Right now? Do we
have a do we have eyes on that?

Speaker 2 (28:38):
The name that comes to mind for me, there's this
woman named Nnez I am easy. I think she might
be the strongest in her weight class. There is this
woman whose name I can't think of her name, but
she's she's I think.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
From Oh is it para Kara Squill.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yeah, she's definitely one of the top strongest athletes. The
strongest people. It's mass move mass, so the strongest people
are gonna be the heavyweights and the super heavyweights. Like
I can name the strongest people like in my weight class.
But I guess to give you some perspective too, I

(29:21):
am a typically one hundred and forty five pound woman.
When I do a weight cut into like a competitive
weight class, I'm about one hundred and forty one pounds,
and at one hundred and forty one pounds, there are
women who are deadlifting four hundred and five hundred pounds.
It's absolutely insane. So people are just nutty strong nowadays.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
I got a fitness question for you. It's not really
a fitness question. We're just like, okay, when people do
like squats. There's this thing that gives me tons of
anxiety when I see it at the gym where people
do squats and they're carrying all of the fucking weight
of the thing, not like with their They're not like
grabbing it with their shoulders, like they're on their fingertips,

(30:05):
you know, like they carry it all on their finger
to you know, what I'm talking about is like, is.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
The bar on their collar bone?

Speaker 1 (30:13):
I may possibly possibly maybe I think it's like on
their yeah, like on their back, on their neck maybe,
and they're just carrying it all with their fingertips, I
don't know. And their hand their fucking hands are like
curled all the way back.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Is that just like a regular squat? But people have
their hands bent really far back. I might know what
you're talking.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
About, I think, so, I mean I might just be stupid, but.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yeah, no, no, no, if I'm picturing the right, some people
just have really good wrist flexibility. Some people, how do
I say, Yeah, I mean that's just the way some
people squat. Some people squat with their legs super wide
out and have their hands bent really really far back.
Oh yeah, because it allows them to have the bar

(30:59):
sit lower on their on their upper back. So I'm
not this is kind of out of my wheelhouse. But I,
for instance, for my body shape, I have like longer thighs,
and so when I squat, I kind of will bend
over versus some people, like you can squat really upright

(31:19):
if they have like shorter thighs, and so there are
people if you squat, if you lean over more forward
as you're squatting, and the bar bell is further down
on your back, like on your upper back, and your
hands are bed further, then that's little engineering. It's it's
a smaller lever arm, so it's a little bit easier

(31:41):
to move versus if it were higher up on your
upper back. I don't know if what I'm saying makes sense,
But it's like it's the distance between the bar and
your hips is a little bit closer, so it's a
little bit easier to lift. I don't know if that's
exactly the way to explain it.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
That makes sense. I just as long as I thought
you were gonna, as long as you didn't say because
they're crazy and why then No.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
We'stening regularly. We're not crazy and wild. They go to
bed at nine thirty pm. They don't drink beer or
like once a month. You know they're not crazy.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
So well, let me think here, what's next for you?

Speaker 3 (32:19):
Well?

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Do you tell me your name?

Speaker 2 (32:21):
Oh, it's Rochelle, Rochelle.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
What's next for you? Rochelle? I guess so you're gonna
You're you're going out for Worlds. That'll be cool. When
is that again?

Speaker 2 (32:30):
So the qualifying show I'm doing, it's in Jersey in
mid January, and if I do well in that, then
Worlds would be in August of next year. Presumably it
was in August of this year, so I think it
would be in August next year. And then I'm doing
the Arnold two, which is in March, and after that,
I don't really know. I'll kind of figure it out after,

(32:53):
but those are plans right now. M.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
That's awesome, that's really cool. I'm excited for you. I'm
trying to think if H, well, I guess before we go,
is there anything else you want the people to know
about women's strong men strong man competitions, those conceptions you
want to clear up.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
I guess maybe it's a misconception, but I don't even
think it is. The people who go to the gym regularly,
or the guys, especially who looks big and scary, they're
typically the nicest people. And if you see someone like
in there all the time and lifting heavy, and you
ever have a question about like oh I don't I
don't know how to squat, or like I need help

(33:39):
with ben, you give me a spot, like they would
be more than happy too. They'd be more than happy
to talk about it and give tips because it's all
we do. You know, it's our only hobby. So people
who are like that, they're super nice and they would
love to help you. You never have to like worry
people are watching you at the gym, because they're really
unless you're like in their cocky and like telling people like,

(34:03):
oh this is whatever if you're like trying, Like I
always have respect for the people who are like clearly
trying and a guy who's lifting like the bar bell
because he's new to it, or like someone who's overweight
and like clearly like is uncomfortable being there. Like, I
think that's great. And most people who do fitness to
the level that I do, they feel the same with.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Oh my other question, but what's the what's the like
like the other women who participate in the competitions? Do
you become friends with them? Are they the kinds of
people you you would want to hang out with?

Speaker 2 (34:40):
I honestly, it's interesting. I don't really hang out with
a lot of like the gym people outside of the gym,
but I would. I don't know. I guess I just
kind of I don't hang up. I don't I guess
I would simple question, simple answer your question as I would.

(35:01):
It's hard to break that barrier with like gym going people.
But actually the people that I hung out with after
my competition today were people that I met in the gym.
So I think it's just I don't know. Sometime real
think about I guess trying to like ask them more
like if they want to hang outside of the gym.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
Rochelle, is there anything else you want to say to
the people of the computer before we go?

Speaker 2 (35:24):
No, I just it's so cool that have finally got
on and were listening to you so long. Your podcast
is great. It's it's really I guess for you. It's
just I know people tell you like what you're doing
is it's it's good. I'm trying to find my words,
but it really is. It's really helpful to hear perspectives

(35:48):
of a variety of people. I loved that guys story.
I know I'm talking a lot mo Yeah, no, don't know.
Just the train Hopper guys fascinating you is so nice.
I don't know if he's listening to this too, but
I hope he knows. Like I agree with the Spotify
Covins too, like, yeah, he clearly loves his daughter and

(36:12):
he's I just love hearing different people's stories and makes
the world feel a lot smaller and it really does
help me know that. Like like you say too, I
don't know anything. I don't know anything about people, but
I love learning about their experiences. I love It's just
it's cool that I got to get on, especially too.
When I see like your personal hobbies of like traveling

(36:35):
and making that part of your work and interviewing people,
it seems like that strange to take off. So I'm
excited to see how that goes for you. I will
be whatever is like, we'll be watching your career whatever.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Like, thank you, Rochelle, No, thank you.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
Know.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
I'm touched that so many people have been felt connected
to that particular episode, because yeah, it really touched me too.
It's cool to see. I'm very happy that that got
the kind of response that I think that that guy's
story warranted. And thank you for talking about this. This
was This was a very fun one and a sea
of this was cool. I feel like, in a cee

(37:13):
of a lot of you know, heavy stuff, it's nice
to just like chat about a fun, cool, interesting thing
that someone does as part of their life. So I
appreciate you coming on and talking about this.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Thank you appreciate it. Oh I guess too, if people
I can throw out my Instagram.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Yeah, oh yeah, sure please.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
I'm not trying to become a big name instrum man.
I'm not trying to be an influencer, but I love
that people have questions about fitness and want to like
for me my Instagram handle, Well, yeah, my Instagram handle
is Roe Shambau nine five like r O s h
a m b oh ro Shambo. I'm Rochelle, Yeah, Rochelle.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
Yes, trust me, I'm an engineer. Oh this is you.
This is you with your ripped boyfriend.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
Yes, he he. When I make my next post, I
got him a shirt that says a super hot cougar
stole my heart anywhere? Is that? Because I think it's cute.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Sorry, I hope this isn't weird considering the context. But
you guys have crazy calves.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Thank you. No, I love that.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
I love them.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
People like like I've had girls at the gym sy like,
oh my god, like you your quads are huge, and like.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Oh this is I see this is what the I'm
looking at through a little carousel and I see the
little the post the oh, holy shoe way is that you?
Oh holy fuck, dude, you're you look like you're about
to Oh my god, this is you deadlifting? Uh damn.
That's Cray with the guy in the beard in the background.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Yeah, that's three forty five.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Holy shit, that looks that looks terrifying. Honestly, that looks
like like I look at this and I'm like, you
look it looks like I mean, and you're professionals obviously
know what you're doing, but I'm like, damn, if I
tried to do this shit, my back would just fucking
go be destroyed.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah, your your reaction is the same as my mom.
She gets very scared to see me left. But you know,
you do it for long enough, and you stay open
to feedback from people, and anybody can do stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
You know.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Yeah, if anyone has questions ever about fitness or anything,
you can just like message me and I can do
my best to answer. I feel like sometimes that's what
people need.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
You know.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
I'm looking at you where on your profile picture with
pulling this truck with an American flag in the background.
It's pretty epic.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
My dad recorded that video too, and it's just funny
because he didn't get the truck until like at the
very end, I think.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Oh, he just was like he just recorded you holding
the rope.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, but it was great. My dad moved, but he
came to every single show I had before and every
power every single one before you moved. So I appreciated
that a lot.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
Well, thank you for calling. Rochelle. I wish you good
luck in qualifying for worlds.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Thank you, and good luck in all your trips too.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
See you around the universe. Dude. M hm, take care bybershell. Ye,
that was a fun one that felt like a very
classic therapy Gecko phone call.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
I'm looking through this this woman's instagram. This is this
like strong Man. She has all these photos of her
strong Man shit row Chambeau one n. Yeah, this looks crazy.
This looks like I feel myself in pain just watching
her do this stuff. Yeah, with look at this with
the drum, the big fucking oh holy fuck, dude, she's

(40:58):
picking up this giant like bean bag and like bending
herself all the that's crazy. She's like, that's crazy. Holy shit.
She's like bending herself all the way backwards to hold
up this barrel and then just like powers back forward.

(41:19):
That's insane. Damn. Shout out, shout out to Rochelle. Hey,
what's up?

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Man?

Speaker 1 (41:30):
What's your name?

Speaker 2 (41:32):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (41:33):
I'm sorry, just the get Yeah, who is this?

Speaker 3 (41:37):
Oh? This is Elias Elias.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Elias Elias. You texted me and you said I want
to talk about my root beer collection.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
Yeah, I just text you right now. I just got
a place with no connection. But I tried calling you
tricking after I got off of work. But then I
went to this place with no connection, and then I
think I might have lost you.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
But none of that matters now, Elios, none of that matters. Now.
I want to hear about this root beer collection.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Okay, So I've been building a root beer collection. I'm
only twenty one, so I've been building a re sellection
for like three years, four years now. I mean I
tried everywhere I go, I try to find a bottle
of root beer. I went to Well, so far, I've

(42:37):
only went to places in California, but I went to Hawaii.
I tried to find one there, and I don't think
they sell the right type of the ingredients to make
a good root beer there, or so I heard. But yeah,
I mean I have a picture of my collection, but
I would just have to show you.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Yeah, can you text that to me?

Speaker 3 (43:01):
Tractice? Uh, Now I need to find it.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
What's the most prized aspect of your collection?

Speaker 3 (43:14):
My most tried aspect? It's just that, I mean I
only have.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Like or I'm sorry I said that wrong. The most
prized item.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
Oh, I had, Well, I think my favorite. My favorite
is the Dad's The Dad's root beer. You ever tried
that one?

Speaker 1 (43:37):
It's like, bro, So I've never had I've never had
Dad's root beer. But when I was in high school
on Amazon, I once ordered like a hundred Dads root
Beer barrel candies and so I've had like tons, Like
I would just find loose root beer barrel candies in
my backpack all the time because of how many of them.

(43:59):
I just like took me to school and ship. I've
never had actual Dad's root beer, though, Is it any good? Oh?

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Dude? Every time there's I mean, we haven't had a
Dad's great, but every time I.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Go there, Sorry you cut out for a second. Would
you say?

Speaker 3 (44:24):
Every time I go to the Little Sandwich.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
I always get it and oh, we're losing you.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
Refrigerator with Dad's root beer. I'm grabbing it. That's how
good it is.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Okay, every time you go to a sandwich shop you
get it. That's how good it is. Okay, that's pretty good.
That's pretty good. Okay, what's the root what's the what's
the worst. What's the worst root beer that you've had?

Speaker 3 (44:51):
Okay? So I went to this candy shop my local mall,
and there was one called Rats root beer. It is
like Rats and I tried it. It tastes it tasted
like like super watery. Uh you had like when you

(45:14):
drink from a water fountain. It's just it's just straight
up syrup. Yeah, that's what. That's what that one's chased like.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
Okay, sounds good.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
I'm trying to find this.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Yeah, what about Okay, rank these one to three, A
and W, barks, mug.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
Okay, now we're talking about the real the roof. So
if you have bark in between those three, if you
have barks in two or one the spirit, then that's
the worst stigion of your life.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Because okay, so bars barks is the worst.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
Barks is definitely the worst for sure. And then I
go A and W. But me and my brother dude,
we every every time we go to like a soda
falon and they don't mug. Dude, I mean, I still
drink the root beer, but if they don't have mug,
I mean I give it like a.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
Okay, you're a mug guy. Automatically, you're a mug guy.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
I'm definitely I'm definitely a mug guy.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
For I'm with you. I'm also a mug guy. I
just like the dog. I don't know why, but something
about looking at the dog while I'm drinking the root
beer makes the root beer taste different. I don't know
that much about mug like. I don't know if it,
if it. I know that A and W. I think
A and W is like A what's it? What is
A and W under? I think they're under.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Okay, all right, So there's the three. There's the three
big challengers in the soda beverage industry. There's Pepsi of
course to Pepsi and mug BrX is owned by Coke. Yeah,

(47:05):
and then uh, A and W is hold on, I
think a NWS by like Snapple. Let me let me
look at this an W. Yeah, A n W is
under doctor Pepper, doctor Pepper. I think doctor Yeah, Curig,

(47:29):
Curig Curig doctor Pepper is a publicly traded Oh I
didn't know that they merged. Okay, Curig doctor Pepper. Okay, yeah,
there we go. Okay, it used to be the doctor
Pepper Snapple group, and now it is the Curig doctor
Pepper group. So the doctor Pepper people, the Pepsi people,

(47:54):
and the Cola and the Coca Cola people are the
main competitors in the space, and they all have their
own root beer and I agree that I think mug
is the best of those. Oh I got I have.
I have a question for you. What are what's your
opinion on root beer floats? How do you like a
little bit of a vanilla ice cream in your root beer?

Speaker 3 (48:16):
Honestly, that's like saying, like putting a cherry on top,
you know, No, you always put like cherries on top
of like a like a cat take or something.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Oh, I just got the photo. I just got the photo.
Oh ship, there's so many people in here that I'm
not okay, hold on, wait let me sorry, go ahead,
go ahead, go ahead. Sorry, it's got kind of.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
So this is this is not my full root beer
collection I put it. I haven't taken a picture of
my my fullest one, Like the Rats one is not
on there. But this is like maybe a year ago,
but I added maybe another stack on top of that.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
This is awesome. Okay, I've had I'm gonna go through
the ones I've had. Okay, you've got IBC. That one's
pretty good. I don't know if I've had the IBC
root beer. But I've definitely had the IBC cream Soda.
That ship's really good. Henry Wine Hard's, I've never had that. Stuarts.

(49:15):
That's a that's a sleeper pick. Yes, Stuart's. Stuarts has
an amazing orange creamsicle flavor. Have you ever had?

Speaker 3 (49:27):
I had that? I had that one.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
Okay, Balls root beer?

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Okay, that one's my favorite one. Actually, yeah, that was
my favorite one because I brought it home one day
and then my brother was like, you're really drinking balls
right now? And I was like, no, root beer?

Speaker 1 (49:46):
Wait, balls is a Where have I seen this? Yeah? Okay,
I've seen Balls before as like, uh uh yeah, I've
seen it in like a classy blue soda before. But
I didn't know they had a root beer. So that's interesting.

(50:07):
I don't know. I don't know river City. I don't
know river City. Oh look at this dang butterscotch root beer.
What was that?

Speaker 3 (50:14):
Like?

Speaker 1 (50:14):
Tell me about did they have how was.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
The So that one is a little That one's a
little more on the sweeter side.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
Right, it's got butterscotch.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Good.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
That one's like probably the most seest one.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Jackson hole Buckin' root Beer virgils. I've had this one. Okay,
the Spreker fire brewed root beer.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
They have, They have a couple of different types of those.
I have like maybe two more of those in that
new collection.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Okay, this one the root beer main roots. Where's that
one from? That looks familiar?

Speaker 3 (50:54):
I got that? Do you know what Lake Lake Tahoe
in the in the Nevada? Sure, that's where I got
that one. And it's like, gave me like a forest
you feel, because I feel because Lake Child was kind
of like foresty and like I don't know, it's it
was just like the all the aesthetic around it. And

(51:15):
I was like, it just like called my name in
this little little tiny bakery I went too, and I
was like, hey, grab me.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
I want to backtrack real quick. The dang butterscotch root beer.
How heavy was the butterscotch? Could you taste the notes?

Speaker 2 (51:33):
It was?

Speaker 3 (51:33):
It was kind of like it was kind of like
a root beer float, honestly, not like but it had
like that it had that vanilla e like, oh, you
know if you there's like this root beer, Oh it's
it's it's like mug too where you make it like
kind of like cream it's like root beer. It's like

(51:56):
the cream style cream soda.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
And what's it called?

Speaker 3 (52:02):
Okay, actually it's just cream soda. So that's kind of
what it tastes like if you had.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Oh, okay, it just tastes like a regular cream soda.
All right, we have all right, here's the dads, which,
as you say, is your favorite. I've never seen Dad's
root Beer as just like sold in like a play.
I've just never seen it out and about.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Yeah. I had a spot by my house down town,
and uh, honestly it's pretty good. It's a gig sandwich spot,
so I like it.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
Oh shit, Dad, I'm on the Dad's root Beer website,
a website I never thought I would ever be on,
but it seems like they have a butt. Dad's has
all these whoa dude, holy tits? Have you ever seen
this before? Dad's old fashioned blue cream Soda? Have you
ever seen that? I'm not actually Dad's Blue cream Soda,

(52:55):
it says, it says Dad's Blue Cream Soda is almost
liquid with cotton candy with very heavy vanilla notes. That
sounds fucking insane. I'm dude. You can sign up for
a They have an email list. I'm signing up for
that they have Yeah, dude, you can write to them.

(53:19):
Nine to fifty South Saint Charles Street, Jasper, Indiana, four
seven five four six.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
I'll miss it out.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
They have merch. What do they have on? What's their
merch situation? You can buy a ooh ooh you see this.
They have a Dad's root beer mug. Imagine drinking Imagine
drinking a Dad's root beer out of a Dad's root
beer mug. That sounds awesome. They have lip bomb. It
tastes like root beer. That's I don't I don't know.

(53:50):
If this mug you can sell, you can become a
real itter. Look at this. You can sell dads. Use
the contact form to reach out to be able to
sell dads at your location. Okay name, No, I'm not
gonna fill that out. I don't have anything funny to
say while I fill that out. But uh, okay, I

(54:10):
could read the history of Dad's Rutier, but I won't.
I'm gonna finish your collection. Okay, you have dog and
what is this one? Say? Dog? And us dog and
SuDS dog and what dog? And SuDS Dog and SuDS Rutier. Okay,
how was that that one?

Speaker 3 (54:26):
It was all right, just this is a regular root beer,
maybe like A and W type. So like all these
all these root beers bottles I based off my those
top three that you mentioned earlier, the mug A and
W and then barks. I rarely, I rarely rate them
as the bark style. It's usually A and W. But

(54:49):
like what the wing do the mugs those are like
like the dads maybe yeah, yeah, I like this.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Yeah, you've developed your own you've developed your own ranking
style system where a BARX is a C an, a
n W is a B and a mug is an A.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
Yeah. But then the last one is Sioux City.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Sioux City. I saw that. I saw Sioux City. Okay, well,
I'm where do you rank Sioux City?

Speaker 3 (55:24):
That one's an abbie. Actually I had this one when
I was super drunk one night, and uh so, maybe
maybe it was a mug back then, but it's probably
an a wie mm hmm. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
You sober up and you really yeah, you sober up
and you realize that what you thought was a mug
is really a Sometimes it can be a box.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
I see that you have lego flowers coming out of
a few of these bottles. I like that.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
Yeah, Mike Jruffer bought them for me, and then I
had no place to put them, so I chose the
three bottles that were probably I think I chose these
because there were mugs. They were the mug rating like
the virgils, and.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Then oh, okay you gave you gave literal flowers to
the mugs. Ranking okay, so Henry all right. So for
the people who can't see this image, the Henry wine
Hearts has a flower in it, so that's a mug rating.
The Virgil has a flower in it, that's a mug grating.

(56:35):
And then the Dads has a flower in it. So
those are are those are? Those are three mugs out
of the whole collection.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
Yeah, I think I have a cup. I don't put
flowers in the I think I have one more mugs,
but I'm blanking on the name of it. Dude, I
need to send you that updated picture because they have
like another stack on top of this one picture.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Can can you send me that? Can you send me
that other picture? How far? How so this is from
a year ago?

Speaker 3 (57:08):
Yeah, and I I'm actually coming home from work right now,
so I don't I'm not in access of my rootbeer
collection right now, But next time you're live, I'll just
send you a picture or something.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
So okay, let me count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Okay,
right now, there's thirteen bottles in this picture. How many
bottles do you think you have? Now?

Speaker 3 (57:36):
Probably twenty six? Only?

Speaker 1 (57:38):
Shit? Okay?

Speaker 3 (57:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
How far away are you from your house right now?

Speaker 3 (57:45):
I about forty minutes?

Speaker 1 (57:48):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (57:49):
All right, Well, yeah, I'll have to send you it later.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
All right, you'll have to send me it later. What's
the give? What? What's the root beer that you've heard
of in passing that you have not yet tasted but
would like to taste one day?

Speaker 3 (58:12):
Uh, that's a good question because it's usually like because
I'm more of a of a fake type of guy,
like all my my pet animals I've gotten like from
like them coming to me. You know. It's like like
I said earlier about that main room beer, like it

(58:34):
just called my name. Like as soon as I walk
to a store, I look in like the soda section
just to see if they have one. But you know,
I'm not just not a lot of my friends are
a root beer type of guy. Actually, my brother is
is more. I'm a doctor pepper guy, and uh so
we don't really see eye to eye. But I mean,

(58:57):
it's just whenever I see it, I just grab it.
I don't I haven't had any hurt or I haven't
heard any I traveled yet.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
So I like that you. I like that you. I
like that you let fate bring the right routiers to you.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
And that's just a good, uh good lifestyle for me
at least. I can't speak for everyone, but I like
that lifestyle as just a person.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
Is there anything that you feel somebody? If someone out
there wants to start collecting rupier bottles, what advice would
you give to them?

Speaker 3 (59:37):
Just some I mean, just amongst your travels. Just go
to the local corner store and just look in the
soda section. If they don't have any, just you just
gotta move on. Not much, not so much to it. Also,
restaurants have them too, sometimes if you ask a routier

(59:59):
and then you can sometimes ask them for the bottle.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Do you feel like collecting root beer has given you
a good perspective on the idea of just moving on
in general? You know, has it let you be better
at that? What do you mean, like you know you said,
if they don't have root beer, then you just move on,
you know, like I'm I guess I'm trying to take

(01:00:24):
your root beer collecting and apply it to your broader
life in some sense. No, actually not really, well then
never mind.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
What's your name, ages, It's Elias with a.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
Z, Elias, Elias, thank you for sharing this. This has
been an incredibly enjoyable twenty minutes for me.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
Me toon therapy, get go.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Is there anything else you want to say to the
people of the computer before we go?

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
Keep drinking root beer?

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Beautiful? Thank you, Elias.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
That was That was incredibly enjoyable for me, folks. I
think I'm going to end the podcast today by reading
a few emails. I like that I've gotten a little
drip in of of GEK mails and I figured I

(01:01:28):
would read a few of them. I'll also talk a
little bit about my trip to Iraq. I don't know
if I'm going to do a whole thing about it,
but it was really it was amazing. I mean, it
was so un like what my expectations were of what

(01:01:50):
it would be like. That's the main thing I want
to say. I'll say everything that I really want to
say when the video is out, because that's it's gonna
take me a full month to edit it, at least
a month at least, So I'm aiming for like, no,
I'm aiming for like the very beginning of November to
get the full video out there. But yeah, it was.

(01:02:14):
It was great. People were so fucking nice to us.
Like the very first day we were there, these like
two police officers holding like big ass AK forty seven's
just like came up to us and they were like,
where are you guys from, how you guys doing? Welcome
to Iraq, and then they gave us some SIGs and
then one of them like invited us to get lunch
with him and his mom. We had we just had

(01:02:38):
interactions like that all the time, where like I don't know,
people would just be really chill and really respectful and
really uh really really nice. I wish I could. I'm
glad that I went and I and I took a
bunch of video because I'm kind of shit about explaining
it with my words, but yeah, it was a great time.

(01:02:58):
Please please go somebscribe to YouTube dot com slash lyle
forever so that when I post the video in a
month you can see it because it's it's it's one
of my favorite things I've I've done in my gecko career. Anyway,
let's read a few emails and then we'll get the
fuck out of here, all right. This is from Ali

(01:03:20):
subject line af af fantasia. Am I saying this correctly?
Afantasia fanta Okay? Hi Lyle. I wanted to email because
I recently learned I have something called afantasia and inability
to form mental images, and it's been a crazy revelation

(01:03:44):
for me. I never realized I was missing something until now.
When I imagine things, I don't see them, I feel their
presence or I know certain facts about them. If I
picture a forest, I can tell you how quiet or
loud it might be, how tall the trees are, how
the evening sun paints an orange. But none of that

(01:04:06):
is an image. It's more like a list of facts
that my mind creates. Interestingly, I do see things in
my dreams, sometimes very clearly, and sometimes when I'm between
being awake and asleep, I'll catch moments of imagery and
what I assume is the way other people see their
thoughts all the time. Interesting, I've been thinking about this

(01:04:29):
a lot lately, I feel spiteful that others have this
skill and I don't. I'm really tired at the time
of writing this, so I'm sorry if I sound insane.
Afantasia isn't something I like to talk about to people
in real life, but I'd love to hear your perspective.
How do you see in your head? Thanks for reading this.

(01:04:49):
That's interesting. That part about like how I part about, Like, oh,
I can almost catch a glimpse of what a thought
might feel like when I dream, but it's like elusive.
That's so interesting. How do I see in my head?
I'm imagining boobs right now, but they they're like cartoon.

(01:05:09):
I'm imagining that. It's like when I try to imagine
boobs is like a painting of it. Okay, I just
did it. I just imagined like a normal, like human boobs,
but it felt like a wickied. It felt like I
was looking at like the Wikipedia page for boobs. It
was a very non sexual image. Anything I could tell

(01:05:33):
you about how I see in my head would be
it would be fake because I'd be trying, like right,
like if I try to, like not like when I
like naturally imagine things, because I'm like trying to imagine something.
Right now, I'm trying to imagine like a gecko. I'm
imagining the gecko lizard emojive. I can see it. This

(01:05:57):
is a weird exercise to do right now. This feels
kind of achadelic. I feel like I'm like entering and
exiting my head because yeah, I can see it. I
know what it feels like to imagine something. I guess
I can't explain it. Is this a real condition?

Speaker 2 (01:06:12):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
I'm not saying you're lying, but I'm JUSTO, you know
what I mean? Yeah, Okay, I'm googling it. Affantasia is
the inability to form or access mental images in one's mind,
often referred to as lacking a mind's eye. The phenomenon
was first described by Francis Galton in eighteen eighty. Who
the hell was this guy? Francis Galton? He's dead now,

(01:06:40):
I don't know why. That's the only thing I have
to say about him. I mean, it's not the only thing.
He invented fanta and he's dead. He died in nineteen eleven.
That's one hundred years ago. At least. He's known for
regression towards the mean. Okay, we can stop reading about

(01:07:04):
this guy. Thank you for sharing this. Ali. Okay, this
is from Let's see. This is from Cherry. Subject line

(01:07:25):
the void made me send this. Hi, Lyle, my name
is Cherry, and I don't really know how to start
this without sounding either incredibly self important or totally unhinged.
Maybe both. I've listened to your show for a few
years now, mostly at work, but also sometimes on long
drives when I want to hear someone else speak fluently
to the void. I know this is strange. I know

(01:07:48):
I am strange, but I also know myself well enough
to trust when I feel something important. And this feels
important in the way weird things often do. I think
we might be the same kind of person, whatever that means.
I'm not trying to be dramatic. It's just the way
you talk, the way your thoughts loop and land and
reach sideways into the absurd and intimate at the same time.

(01:08:12):
That is how I think. That's how I feel and navigate.
Like we both tuned into the same haunted radio station
and decided to keep listening. That's very poetic. This is
let's keep going anyway. I'm rambling, I'm nervous, I definitely
smoked a bowler two. But that doesn't mean I'm wrong.

(01:08:32):
I'm not asking for anything, not trying to get on
the show. I just don't often find my flavor of
weird reflected in other people, and I guess I wanted
to let you know that I exist somewhere out here,
not expecting a reply, but also kind of hoping for one.
Not a fan of talking on the phone, but maybe
in the next life we can talk on the phone

(01:08:53):
for approximately seven to thirty minutes. It's nice that she
clocked exactly how much time most people here spend on
the show talking. It's approximately seven to thirty minutes. Thanks
for being one of the few people who makes you
feel like less of an anomaly. PS. So sorry, I
just reread that email. But fuck, are we ball Cherry?

(01:09:22):
How do I respond to this? I don't know. I
don't think it's that weird of an email. I don't
think I don't think it's that particularly star. I don't
think you would listen to the show. I think it's
a legitimate reason to want to like to listen to like.
When I think about like podcasts I listen to, or
comedians I like, and things like that, I guess I do.
I appreciate them because they have a similar I feel like,

(01:09:44):
I'm like, oh, I can see myself in this person's brain,
So I don't think that's this is weird. You know
this makes sense. I don't know if I have a
good response to it, although I guess I just did respond.
I hope you're doing all right, Cherry. It was very
pigh like this. I like, I know that you feel

(01:10:06):
weird about this email, but it's poetic. I like it.
We both tuned into the same haunted radio station and
decided to keep listening. It's it makes me think about
how I'm being perceived when I talk on this fucking
thing and I get I'm, I'm, I'm I'm this email.
It makes me feel like it's a good perception. This
email makes me feel like I exist. So okay, I'm good.

(01:10:28):
I'm glad. This makes me feel like I also exist
in a way. So thank you. Thank you for making
me also feel as though I exist by reflecting that
my existence somehow makes sense to you. You know what
I mean? That was a mutually beneficial email. Okay, let's

(01:10:56):
do one more, all right. This is from someone subject
line I cut open dead people for a day and
now I can't get over it. Hey Gek, I'm a
pre med student working through my undergrad degree and recently
shadowed a forensic pathologist, the type of doctor who does autopsies.

(01:11:20):
It was an insanely eye opening experience, and though I've
never had a fear of death, autopsying approximately ten people
has really changed my perspective on a lot of things,
mainly that we are all just bags of flesh and
are way more fragile than we think we are. During
the autopsies, you have to go through all the organs,
plus cut the skull open and gross the brain, which

(01:11:43):
is a very inhumane experience. Obviously, I know it's necessary
to determine the cause of death, and I literally work
with organs and tissues every day. Just something about the
physical dismemberment of a human is mentally jarring, and every
instinct you have is screaming at you to see stop
and run, kind of like the whole Uncanny Valley thing,

(01:12:03):
which comes from our recognition of decaying humans and subsequent
flight response. Halfway through the workday, I went to grab
lunch and it all hit me. At the same time
I was trying to eat a spam musubi, which apparently
has the same fleshy sponginess as livers do. I couldn't

(01:12:23):
eat meat for weeks, and I couldn't stop thinking about
how everyone in that morgue were people I could have
had classes with or passed on the street. I think
about those patients and their families every day, and the
experience has made me so much more passionate about medicine,
because half of those deaths were completely medically avoidable if
those people received the correct care. I don't regret the

(01:12:44):
experience at all, but I don't think I'll ever really
be the same. Do you have any thoughts. Well, I'm
gonna have a billion thoughts. It's all shit I've been
talking about on here before. But yeah, I think a
lot about our own fragility. I try not to. I

(01:13:08):
try not to, because, like bro coming to terms with
your own fragility as a human being and the fragility
of the universe and the transient nature of time and
all this existential stuff. It's a crazy ride, I think,
if you're alive, I think it's a good ride to take,
but it becomes at at some point just like incompatible

(01:13:30):
with like normal ass life and I got to that.
I got to that point and I thought I would
never be able to leave it, and I and I did,
and that not you know, I don't know if I
ever left it whatever, but I thought I would never
be able to just like live normal fucking human being
life after having really felt like I went there mentally.

(01:13:58):
But now I have, and it's it's good. It's good
to know. I think you should take the ride if
you'd never taken the ride. But yeah, I try not
to think about this stuff as much as I I
try to know, I don't try not to think about
the stuff. I try to think about the stuff optimally,
try to think about the stuff just enough to keep
my ass in shape and ignore it just enough to
keep my ass sane. You know, I'm glad it's made

(01:14:24):
you more passionate. And the fact that you say you
won't ever be the same, I don't think. I don't
think I'm the same after having my crazy, fucking existential crisis.
But that's good, but you but I feel. But I
also I think in order to go there, I had
to lose touch with certain parts of myself, and that
felt scary. The idea that I would uh that in
order to gain this kind of clarity, I had to

(01:14:46):
give give away certain things, but I got I got
all that stuff back. I feel so I feel like
I'm not. I feel like i'm not. I feel like
I've been come more whole as a result of kind
of facing my own fragility. I haven't fucking faid. I

(01:15:09):
don't think I would want to face it in the
way that you have faced it. I'm sorry. That's a lot.
That's a lot, but uh, you know you're you're in medicine.
It's what you do. Uh, And it's a noble thing
to do what you do. I mean, I don't want
to That's that's why it's noble. I don't want to
fucking do it. So, but someone has to do. Someone
has to cut open dead guys. Someone has to do it, bro,

(01:15:30):
someone has to cut open dead guys. And I'm glad,
and I am glad that it's you and it's not me,
And it's noble of it to be you. So you
should be proud of yourself for cutting open dead folks.
It's not an easy thing to do, and I'm glad
that it's made you more passionate. Let that be Look,
because that's the thing, right is like you you you
face it and you're fucking terrifying, but you're using it

(01:15:55):
to actually like do work. And that's when you're the
least terrified, I think, is when you're in the flow
state and when you're working, and when you're like have
some kind of mission, right, Because you could easily open
look at all these dead people and have it drag
you into nihilism. But it didn't. It dragged you quite
the opposite, into into being passionate about keeping people alive.

(01:16:18):
You know, that's awesome. I think that's great. So that's
my thoughts on this email is that you know, what
you experienced sounds like it was really jarring and crazy
and life altering in terms of your perception of life.
But it didn't fucking take you into nihilism. It didn't
make you go, we're all bags of flesh and we

(01:16:39):
don't fucking matter. It took you deeper into your own
fucking humanity. That's what I love about this email is
it took you deeper into your own humanity. Humanity being
a thing that you know is kind of beyond us
that we don't understand. That's like getting us away from
our own nihilism and into let's fucking do something, you know,

(01:17:01):
let's let's keep being more passionate about medicine and fucking
making it so less people die. It's cool. I like it.
I think I think I think you took a good
direction with it. I saw it. I saw a dead chicken,
like it's a raw dead chicken, and I was like, yo,

(01:17:24):
it's crazy. How like you go to chick fil a
and like everything's like white and nice and polished and
like that, Like there's marketing and they have like Instagram,
you know, and it's like a like the capital the
capitalistic guysation whatever of like killing a bunch of chickens
to make it like a nice, fun, happy, cool thing,
even though it's like killing a bunch of fucking living things.

(01:17:48):
It's kind of crazy. I don't say that. I'm totally
I love Chick fil A. I'm gonna keep eating there
and enjoying it and loving loving it. I might go
there right after this. I'm not. This isn't like a
peta rant, but it is. You gotta think about it
is kind of crazy. All right. That's the podcast. That's it.
Thank you all for listening, Thanks for being here. My
name is Lyle. I'm a gecko. I don't know. If

(01:18:12):
I don't have anything else to say, uh, follow me
on YouTube YouTube dot com slash Lyle forever. That's what
I'm gonna post all of my Iraq stuff. I'll i'll
talk about it more if someone calls in and asks
me about it. I can't really just I'm not gonna
rant about it, but I'll also talk about it on
that video when I put it out in a month. Anyway, whatever,

(01:18:34):
I'm Lyle, I'm crazy. I'm a gecko. Thanks for listening.
See you again Wednesday. Gek bless everythin goes on the line,
thanking your phone calls every night. Everything goes, And I'm
teaching you a loud mean of your line expert