‘Survivor’ Season 51 Cast Analysis with Sharon Tharp!

I'm Pro Football Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins, and I lived for a long time with something I did not know the name of, major depressive disorder. I carried sadness and anger because I thought I could handle it alone, but I couldn't. Now I want to make sure others know that that support is out there. If you're experiencing similar symptoms, talk to a healthcare professional. Visit mddallies.com to watch my story. Paid partnership with Johnson & Johnson. Brian Dawkins has not prescribed Caplyta Lumateperone. I needed more from my antidepressant, so my doctor added Caplyta Lumateperone, proven to provide greater relief from depression symptoms than an antidepressant alone, building on my progress without starting over. Caplyta is for adults with major depressive disorder when used with an antidepressant and is available by prescription only. Individual results may vary. In clinical trials, weight gain was not common. Elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. 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If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tramphya, proper training is required. Tramphya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections, or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphya today. Call 526-7736 to learn more or visit TramphyaRadio.com. Welcome back to The Pod Has Spoken. We're back. Season 51 coverage is starting here at The Pod Has Spoken. Your favorite survivor contestants, favorite survivor podcast. That's us. Riley, did you come up with that? Was that you that put that on the Instagram account? I put it on the Instagram account. I think that we kind of brainstormed it together in some group chat that we had going back in the day. We were saying something about how like all the former survivors love Tramphya. This podcast, that's what we always hear. I mean, maybe they're just gassing us up because they are. They know how to gas people up. They gas us. We gas them. Everyone gets gassed. But I was like, that's pretty good. You know, your favorite survivor players, favorite survivor podcast. The Pod Has Spoken. There you go. And until someone proves us wrong, we're going to hold on to that. Until they actually take a poll or something. But you know, until then, all I've heard is that we're the favorites. Yeah, that's what I've heard too. And since you know, Riley's back from vacation, traveling the world. Where were you again, Riley? Wisconsin. Insane. That's insane. So welcome back. He was, how long? Three or four weeks? How long were you in Wisconsin? Just living the life. Yep. It's expensive in Wisconsin. If you're going to vacation there, a week max is all you can probably do, even though there's a lot more stuff that you could do there. It's just, do you have the budget? I love to take big exotic trips to the Midwest for a friend's wedding. Yeah. It's crazy that you're just out here. And we thought of going to Wisconsin, but we had to go to Italy. Oh man. What a bummer. I know, dude. And I was just looking at your trip. So jealous. Just like, dude, I could be in Wisconsin right now. The birthplace of my mother. My mom's from Wisconsin. Oh, cool. I know. Right. Really cool. Anyways, we're here. Riley's here. We're back from vacation. Finally, he's got that Wisconsin glow. And we're here with producer Ashley as well. Ashley. Hi. Just diagnosed with vertigo. Yes. Congratulations. Thank you. All right. We are off, dude. This is crazy. What a start. We are here with our dear friend of the podcast. I've known her for years and years and years. And esteemed pop culture journalist at People, Men's Health, other notable publications. And she also hosts a podcast of her own called The Exclusive. We are with Sharon Tharp. Sharon, also renowned world traveler. You ever been to Wisconsin? I have not. I have not. I'm not that well traveled. Dude, you should check it out. Well, I used to think that Sharon had a cultured palate seeing all the places she's been. But if she has not experienced Wisconsin, she's not. It's on my list. It's on my list. Short list. One day. Yeah. It's one of those places where you get on Instagram and they're like, most Americans have only been to two of these places. Yeah. And you're like, I've been to eight of them. Wisconsin's always on that short list of places we need to go that we haven't been. Um, we are talking about the cast first impressions. We have very little, go off of, uh, except for some YouTube shorts, some Instagram posts, which are the same as the YouTube shorts, but why not double up? And then it's also on Tik TOK, same exact content also out there. So you can find it three different places. Uh, and you can pick and choose where you want to ingest your content from, but that's all we have. And we're excited. I think, are we excited? Sharon, what's the new era going to be? Well bones. We know it's well bones, not dinosaur bones, which we initially thought. Oh yeah. No, I listen. I'm excited. I went through, I took notes. Uh, you know, we didn't get much from these people. I am a little disappointed that there's no preseason interviews that this is probably the least amount of information we've had on a cast since I can recall. Um, so going a little blind here, but I, you know, I think there's some personalities and let's see what the open era brings us. I suppose. Why do you think there's less information? Is it because season 50 overshadowed everything? I heard journalists didn't go out to pregame this time because, uh, it was overlap. And kind of with the finale trips, uh, for season 50 stuff within the weeks, right? Like it's hard to get the budget for two things. You don't know. Were you out there? Were you out there? No, no, no. I was there for 50 and there were a lot of us. And I think, I think it went well, but yeah, it was kind of interesting. I didn't plan to go to 51, but you know, people like Dalton Ross and Bank Bloom who are always out there. I don't know if it, yeah, if it had to do with the 50 finale, I didn't hear that, but I also, yeah. Don't know if it's a budget thing. I don't know if it's a budget thing. I don't know I just think it's, it's disappointing because it would have been nice to have a little more information, but. Yeah. And we, whoever went out there could have had full reign of all of it to themselves. Exclusivity. The exclusive. The exclusive. Exactly. Um, is that your tagline at your podcast? No, I think I should, uh, workshop that though with you guys. Cause you My wife walked in while I was watching these shorts and she said, I thought you were watching Big Brother. Like the energy. You would never. Did she say it like that? Yeah, she did. And I was embarrassed. I was like, uh, and some of the, I don't know. And some of the energy more Big Brother-y than it has been in the past. Is that just me being old? I didn't think about that. Are we talking about Big Brother right now? Yeah. Have they adopted the Big Brother energy where they're yelling at the camera and their confessionals and over the top with their gestures, et cetera? You know, Rick Devins has always been a little over the top. So I think it's a little more natural for him, but there's definitely been moments where the, you'll catch him in the background being like, how am I on this show right now? Like they're dressing me up in a costume. Like it's a little ridiculous. And you, I think you could, he catches himself, but I feel like Rick plays the part well. Um, but I didn't, I didn't get Big Brother. I didn't get Big Brother. Big Brother energy from these people, but it, it, it's not crazy because they're all in the same casting pool, right? A lot of times. So who knows? I didn't necessarily feel like that until Rachel said something. And then I was like trying to see it more. I don't remember, but it was definitely somebody animated. Um, okay. I looked at these YouTube shorts and I actually broke it down in most viewed to least viewed. That's how we're going to go through them. Although I know the algorithms. Some of that is their following on certain platforms I don't know which one's the most honest platform to gauge whether the fans are interested in this person or not but our number one guy who keeps telling us he's a great crack whatever that means I don't want to hear that the rest of the season get that out of my face do not say that you're a great crack because if you say it enough times we know that you are not and you're trying to convince us that you are Lewis from Ireland Puerto Rico uh all of it what are your thoughts on this kid did you see uh so we also had like the little bios that they do for each of these players I don't know if you read this Jason so part of that is they ask you know which former survivor player they identify as and who they will play as uh Lewis said he feels like a better cooler version of him Tyson is that true really that's what he said that's in his thing he has a little blurb of him on a surfboard he's not cooler than me I've seen this kid in a full wetsuit barely able to balance not cooler than me uh good try Lewis uh I think he's gonna have a hard time to be honest I think he's a little bit colored your perception of him with this no you didn't you didn't he already I think he understands he likes chaos he thinks that he's going to uh embrace it but he also understands he needs to pump the brakes early but he doesn't know if he can I think that is going to be his hurdle so yeah I just went to my document and searched crack and then he came up um one of three farmers which I found interesting how do a lot of farmers yeah farmers but and he lives in Puerto Rico on a tiny school bus uh what else he said he's he just visited North Korea and he said that will prepare him for survivor so I don't know but okay the uh like how far into North Korea did we go did he get all the way in there or did he just go through the non-militarized zone that we uh visited Caleb from last year unclear unclear but I kind of agree I think he he's very excited about lying and being mischievous and cheeky as he likes to say and I think that that could get him in trouble he also mentioned he likes Venus which Venus wasn't necessarily I liked Venus but like socially she was having a hard time so yeah yeah I don't know about him yeah I like Venus as a character on a tv show as far as being the like she had good reads she usually had a good pulse on how people were feeling but she herself couldn't control any of it because she also uh was viewed as emotional which made it hard for people to to believe her and then also go with her so uh yeah what do you think overall Lewis gonna go far good addition to the cast people love the accents like he's he's not a lot of accents on this season too is there a lot of accents yeah I feel like there were a bunch of uh also like rural accents like Appalachian stuff like that yeah I feel like there are a bunch of accents on this season oh yeah I feel like it's a heavily accented Boston yeah Boston yeah yeah uh and he had the most views on YouTube not by a lot by a little bit uh I think Lewis's shorts were also or Instagram rule was also pretty popular uh so people seem to like him so far let's see can he I feel like there's a difference between like thriving in chaos and actually seeking it out and he all of his stuff was like I love to push buttons I love to get in on the drama I'm a lunatic and I'm like this that could be very dangerous is he gonna be a younger cooler Tyson I don't think cooler I think if you have to say you're gonna be cooler than they have already but he's younger he's definitely younger than me right now in this time point of life like I don't know can't argue with that but when I was younger than he is now I was actually younger than he is so I guess that's how it works I guess that's how it works I don't know yeah I don't know like did he go to casting was like Jeff I'm a younger cooler Tyson and he was like definitely one of those he's on the show I do feel like like a like a younger like alternate universe version of you you know would say if there was like a version of you that was like this isn't gonna make sense but basically you would say I'm gonna be a better cooler version of Tyson that is something that Tyson would say about Tyson yeah or I'm just like by myself alone with no comparison um that's true yeah the other thing too is he is younger let's even give him the cooler but even at this moment we weren't giving him the cooler that was the first thing you said we're not giving him I'm I'm going to give that to him because I know that even now uh activity I'm more athletic than he is okay because I saw him standing on a surfboard like I absolutely know with a half a second of him standing on a surfboard that I am more athletic than him uh we didn't see him plug his nose when he jumped in water yeah oh that's offensive yeah I didn't see him I didn't see if he did or didn't but I did see some other people plug in their nose when they jumped in the water so I was like another season of nose pluggers uh which is a dead giveaway for a certain type of person so Lewis tops the charts number two or do we need to get more Ashley Riley that Lewis going far what's he got to do is he going to win can he win is he going to go home early I think he's going to go too hard I think he has so he's like TikTok famous and I watched a few of his TikTok videos with him and his wife and them traveling and they take a lot of risks which is great but I just don't know if he knows how to turn it off and now that this is like a bigger TikTok platform for him I'm gonna be intrigued to see like how he navigates real life people and them actually reacting to his big risks and his big things that he's gonna do to them um he just he just seems like a guy who's gonna take a lot a lot of risks and not really care what's gonna happen until it blows back into his face and he's gonna be like oh in an Irish accent oh yeah crap Riley yeah I feel like uh with the caveat that because we know so little about these people I reserve the right to completely change my opinion next week when we get the first episode sure he could totally settle into the game and like sit under the radar yeah and befriend the right people and they are drawn to him from his act like that totally could happen but based off how he's presenting himself in this short minute and a half based off this like the 80 seconds of the time that he's presenting himself in this short minute and a half based off this like the 80 seconds of yeah footage I have here and the one the one quote about uh Tyson and and Venus uh no why didn't he say less athletic like he could have been full honest and been like I'm the younger maybe cooler less athletic version of Tyson then we would like him we'd be all in then we'd at least know he's telling the truth a little bit you know I I just I feel like he uh everything in his clip was kind of like about himself and if you're like a tick tocker you've got the camera like turned on you so much and a lot of these other players you know they talk about other people and how they're going to like connect with other people and use those bonds to advance them in the game and Lewis didn't talk about any of that he was just like I crave chaos I like to push buttons I don't think he's self-absorbed you don't think he's something the better cooler version and more self-absorbed version of Tyson um yeah so so no I think he if he struggled he might not realize that like this is a game of connections and he may find himself you know not in an alliance yeah and then he's yeah and then he's easy fodder it's not an individual game right right uh and I'm also wondering can he separate himself from his Tick Tock Persona whatever he's created for himself or does he have to ride with that to give his audience what they already expect of him and then that could also be a downfall like that's probably also tricky to navigate in these newer eras where you're getting these influencers on these TV shows like do I go in and be the person everyone already knows me to be or can I lay low and be quiet and do that stuff that I know I need to do without either disappointing my fan base or without me feeling like I am not giving my fan base what they expect me to be that's a lot of a lot of stuff I don't want to lose the listener so I'll take this quick but there's a tick talker in the big brother house who I said was going to be a first boot because I thought he was going in presenting a certain thing and as the weeks went by and he survived uh he sort of learned the game as he went and now he's like one of the front runners to win he's like the biggest opposition to Dean Devins and so yeah I want to reserve my right to sort of change my mind because I think do I think he would go far right now probably not but like who knows yeah see how he settles in okay let's go to the second most watched YouTube clip Carter he's also a farmer from Iowa and uh dumbest kid of all time snow cone truck moving company photographer content creator likes to get his dirty mom loves survivor that's a common theme throughout the entirety of the new era into the open era that's one thing that they share in common is all the moms love survivor and uh it's in his dna what do we think of carter a jt i got a jt vibe from him a little bit yeah yeah totally i could see that likes woodworking good around camp probably values trust and communication mentions tony rob ozzy sam phelan okay interesting mix yeah that was the sam stood out to me too as like oh that's an interesting four people to group together yeah but sam's very good on podcasts and understands the game more than we saw him understand the game on tv and so i'm assuming that he may be referencing sam's appearances on podcasts yeah maybe on this pod maybe he's a listener could be could be and if he is we're sorry but we're gonna shit on you carter just kidding that's the not necessarily no i like this guy i like carter just fine yeah i like carter just fine um and i do think that you know he if he's one of those guys like a jt that can has that magnetism through providing like fishing hunting gathering whatever he's doing he's providing for the tribe a little bit and that can go a long way and then also being you know nonchalant about it and and uh maybe underestimated based off of his accent alone um so yeah uh thoughts riley love him hate him indifferent i like him i feel like he's gonna be a a person who unlike like lewis who kind of like jumps off the page with everything that he is and maybe that's because he's like this you know he's a good friend familiar with tiktoker yeah he's got the good great crack great crack um carter is gonna be someone i think that we learn about like over a longer period of time like i think that he's just less like obvious and what his personality traits are so i like them um but i don't know i feel like i don't have as good of a handle on like what is his like thing in the game and how is he gonna like navigate the game yeah okay sharon you have to go to wisconsin with one of these guys or he's from south dakota i've never been there either um oh nice yeah another destination yeah yeah it's on my list so any listeners from south dakota um i had the least amount of information i feel like about him uh i think he has a good energy but it's just like i it wasn't giving me much but i feel like if you have that many jobs and you're that sort of scrappy and i feel like he could be a hustler which i feel like is a good i don't know it's always good to be like that um yeah i just didn't feel like i got that much information he was like the least amount of bullet points under his name so uh not sure you do make a good point though i think with all the different things he's doing being a hustler having all those different experiences does help you connect with a broader spectrum of people and so i think that that can go far too um so yeah again like he's also a mystery but i think he's going to be chill and i think that if you're chill and you're helping and you're helping the tribe win challenges and you're helping at camp which i believe he's one of those guys that's like you know just pulls his bootstraps up and works like i think he's gonna be fine for till the merge and i think he's gonna settle into agree and be loyal to whatever group he's with and he's not going to be the first one voted out of that group because he's loyal and he's not the one that's like leading the charge of whatever's happening so um next on the list and we drop a few thousand views on youtube uh at this point kilby so uh kilby a 30 years old game designer and has his dream dream job he grew up working and helping support uh with his mom through high school and college and uh yeah uh what do we think about him sharon kilby is one that i've got a lot of text messages about like i love kilby kilby looks fun yes i feel like kilby is the quintessential like as a fan he's a fan right like he says he's good at puzzles he's done these sort of games before but i also just want to temper my expectations with him because i think a lot of times when people over prepare go into the game like i know all this i don't know i get a little nervous um but i do think he has a lot of you know he mentions todd herzog ben katzman but he wants to play with like david wright i think that's super interesting i also like he said he wants to see someone's real laugh and sort of get to know them in the beginning so he can kind of gauge when they're lying later on in the game i thought that was interesting he hates when people say wrestling is fake so maybe he's a big wrestling fan and that we have a wrestler on the cast so i don't know he i i liked him though he he has a lot of good energy do you think that people recognize because we have got a lot of super fans on here we only have one person who admittedly is not a like a long years and years of viewership is he getting recognized because he's so active in the survivor fan community are other people seeing him and being like that's kilby he's uh he's played these online games he's done this and that like is that something that you have to worry about as a super fan interesting i didn't know if there was another fan like you know a teeny or an asia like someone that would recognize him level like i think a lot of people said that their parents watched the show and when people say that i agree my parents do too but i never can really gauge okay like what level of fan is that um so i don't think people would recognize him but i could be wrong okay uh ashley what do you think of kilby i think he's funny i love his smile um and i played his little game just to see if he was going to be a big fan of what his puzzle level you did this research yeah i went to his to the website and i played one of his games where you have to like change words and everything and it was fun it's interesting to see what kind of puzzles he's into um and yeah that part always scares me when they announce a new puzzler because like like i don't know but so far so good because the puzzles were puzzling on his website so that's a good sign yeah uh okay the puzzles were puzzling that's great research yeah that is great research that's way from i literally watch these videos and then i kept my then it was like kind of stressing a lot of information i was like oh but there's four of us to lean on each other we'll be fine um i also noticed a common theme here was that everybody was saying most probably because producers were asking how crazy they thought season 51 was gonna be yeah yeah leading question it's like it's like the first couple seasons of the new era where they're like this is harder than the old era you're like okay nobody asked but now we are asking and we're thinking you're lying uh so everyone's expecting crazy twists nobody knows what to expect because anything could happen which was always the case with survivor i don't think that's a crazy thing to announce and be like guys this is the year that anything could happen on survivor finally remember sharing how you were telling me how you were like the one thing i don't like about survivor is how not anything can happen but now that's changed yeah like jeff might even be talking to the cameras again who knows who knows i loved that yeah you did like that and he did a he did a challenge last season yeah they brought that up too yeah they sure did so uh yeah kilby uh is kilby going far what do you think sharon i mean he said he has a hard time fitting in he's happy-go-lucky but a little bit of an oddball as i think if he survives the first few votes i think he's good i just think it's that early game that maybe i'm a little worried about but riley you know i thought him comparing himself to todd and ben was like so interesting to me because it was like maybe not a red flag but like a pinkish flag where i was like those two players are like not similar at all so how do you sort of bridge the gap but then you know he's this guy is such a survivor super fan that of course he must know that so i'm actually like that's actually really interesting like is he going to try to present himself more as ben but play like todd and own his game like todd that could actually work really well um so i could see him going far um i mean everything kind of depends on the early game like you said sharon it's it's so and it's like we don't even have tribe divisions so we don't know you know like is he going to be like who's he going to connect with who's he not going to connect with it's like we can't even speculate um good point but i'm i think he needs to i think he needs to connect with somebody who's socializing for him like carter would be a perfect person for him i feel like somebody who can kind of work his way in and be nonchalant and be pretty trustworthy pretty quickly i think kilby needs that person there and and somebody to tell I'm like, things are good. We're okay to keep them cool and collected. A lot of times when somebody compares themselves to a former survivor contestant, they're projecting, uh, who they would actually want to be in real life. And so, uh, you know, with Lewis, we have him dreaming of being me, uh, with Kilby, we have him, uh, uh, mentioning other players. Lewis did this to himself, but he probably did it by design, but we're going to be, that's going to be our running joke for the season is, uh, and it's not necessarily a joke. Cause I do believe I'm more athletic than Lewis and, uh, probably always have that. Uh, even before he was born, since, since he was born, he's never been more athletic than me. And, uh, you heard it here first, but everybody already knew that. Like you saw him, but he's been younger than you the whole time. The whole time. And that is true. I do agree with that. Like there's no, I will not disagree with that. And I don't take any, the younger, cooler Tyson, of course you're younger, uh, cooler. I don't know. It probably depends on the demographic. Uh, but, uh, athletic, there's no, like you can have the younger, I'm still more athletic. Uh, let's go to the fourth most viewed, uh, contestant are our first female Sharonda. With 11,000 views on YouTube. Uh, again, these mean nothing because on Instagram, the, the views worship was all different. I just thought it might be interesting and then realized it probably isn't going to be, but too late. That's how my notes are written. So Sharonda 34 resident physician, OBGYN now in Kentucky from Florida. Uh, I liked that. She said that she was going to do it for, uh, the black boys and girls to, to show them. And then she decided, no, she's going to do it for her family. And then she decided, fuck that. I'm doing it for myself. I love this. I like that answer. That was cool. I like it too. But then this is where my doubts come in a little bit is that she talked about hiding behind her profession and her husband and her sisters when she was younger. And now she's going to have to come out and be her own person and her own thing. And she's excited to see, I don't know if a national, uh, TV show is the time and place to like, that's a challenging place to come out of like whatever you've been hiding behind. And so I think that that will be a challenge for her. Uh, her self-discovery could go either direction or both directions or be an emotional rollercoaster for her. Yeah. She mentioned she needs to watch her empathy because she said, I guess if she's working with someone, who's like her number one or something that she, if they're a threat, she would want them out. So I like worried that she would jump on that too early where she might be able to. She's that's what I didn't understand. Was she saying that she's cutthroat and she's, or that she has too much empathy in her real life and she needs to disregard it. I was also confused. I rewatched it. Cause I was like, I don't know exactly what she's saying. I have to imagine because she's a doctor, maybe she's talking about empathy. Um, so which is a smart read on herself. It's just like, yeah, maybe let's see how it plays out. But, uh, yeah, I didn't, I feel like her energy was lower, but I also don't take that too much because I feel like you're out there and you're getting peppered with the same questions over and over. You're like, are we done with this? Um, well, it's a chill energy. It's, it's not like, it's like, uh, we talked about the big brother energy of the animated and the excitement and stuff. And she's more even kill, which I think can be a benefit in this game. Like if you look at someone who's not, not like highs and lows and stuff, it just depends on how herself, uh, discovery is going. Uh, Ashley Sharonda. I like her. I put a yes with a question mark at the end of it because yeah, there were a few confusing things about what she was talking about. I am happy that she's on the cast because there's a lot of people who are like extremely excited. And I think people are going to want to go to her to kind of get like a refresher just to be like, okay, let's just sit down and relax. Um, I, I'm worried about her game, but I'm excited to see her grow, um, on TV. I'm also worried that we're not going to be able to see her grow on TV if she's so quiet and chill because then the cameras aren't not going to like look at her. So I don't know. I'm, I'm intrigued to see what she's going to be up to. And I'm also like, kind of like dreading her not getting any storyline. I'm like, I don't know. I'm not going to be able to see her grow on TV. I'm also like, Ooh. Yeah. I think that's a lot of people too. It'll be interesting to see how they balance this. I also, yeah, I can see that Ashley, for some reason, I feel like I think she's going to be fine. Cause I, I, I think with her like doing this for herself and like, this is for me, I think she's going to take extra effort in like making herself heard. When she needs to and doing that is, is my hope for her is that like, she's like going to do that rather than, uh, swing the opposite and just like try to be invisible. Um, so yeah, it'll be interesting. I, I don't know. And is she also going to sink back into like, is she going to have to struggle with like, this is for me I'm doing, I'm not hiding behind something or, you know, masking this with my profession or whatever. Like, is that going to be a back and forth battle with, for her? Or is she going to be able to step out from behind that immediately? Or is she going to be able to kind of use that? Like use it, but she has three sisters with big personalities. Does she know how to then navigate? I mean, if we got, I think we got some big personalities on this cast. So, uh, you know, there could be some tension there between her being like, Oh, I want to step up and be me versus like, you know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't like being in the shadows of other people. Or it's like, actually I can use my experience in navigating that type of dynamic to, uh, you know, embed myself with a solid group and move forward in the game. I'm really excited for her. Yeah. Okay. And who's she, who's she gravitating towards? As a, for, for former players? No, as, as, uh, alliances. Oh, who's she gravitating? Oh, we'll, we'll touch on that when we get there. Uh, anything else on, on her, uh, Sharon? No, I think, I think if you're an OBGYN resident, you're busy as hell. Uh, so, and I like the fact that she's showing up for herself. Cause maybe, maybe she won't fade into the background. Maybe she's there like, listen, this is my one time off my crazy ass job and I'm just going to go in and play super hard. So that's the energy I'm hoping we see. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh, let's go to Mike, assistant director of baseball operations. Is he at the Yankees? Yeah, it's the Yankees. I don't know why they, they felt the need to like, sort of hide that. Like they, they clearly like cut around it in this clip. Yeah. Um, like, I don't know if there's like a, he saw, he said it in one clip I saw or something. Oh, he did. Okay. Yeah. I just ended up looking him up and yeah, it's Yankees. And, uh, grew up with his parents, uh, you know, putting everything into support and always loved survivor, went to Princeton, married the lovers of his life. Everything's just turning up. Mike, uh, wants to play with complete players. Uh, I do, I do like that where he's like, cause there was a clip going around on Instagram a little while ago that it was like, I wanted to be on survivor, but my life has been too good. My parents love me and I have no challenges growing up. And so like, I just can't get on the show. Even in this clip there, he was like, well, my parents had really difficult times. And I was like, well, my parents had really difficult childhoods, but you didn't like one obstacle for your parents. Yes. For his parents. It was, I also, uh, went to a baseball game last night where I talked to a senior director of baseball operations for a team and asked him who was also a survivor fan, asked him about Mike. And he said, he pumped up what he does pretty good in these interviews. He's like, well, this is a senior director. Mike is just an assistant director, which is two or three levels down from that. Yeah. So he's maybe working his way up, uh, whatever. But, uh, and my friend also said in the industry, they call the assistant directors ass D's, but I think that that's not real. I think that's just a thing he made up, which is pretty funny. So, uh, Mike, is he going to be a winning survivor this season? Sharon? Um, I'm a little worried about him. I think, I think he's like, he's obviously a huge fan. Um, but he's, he's also, and he's very outgoing. So socially, I think he could be okay. Um, I thought it was interesting. A lot of players mentioned Rachel Lamont. He was, this is the first one that we're talking about, but like she was clearly the person that everyone was talking about. Um, he also mentioned Kyle, Charlie and Adam Klein. So I thought that was interesting. Um, Yeah, I think a lot of it was just about how much of a fan he is as opposed to what Strat he's going to be bringing to the game. So it was hard to gauge. Like he mentioned that when he proposed to his now wife, he used a line that Jeff said or something. I don't know what the line was. But I wish I got a little bit more, you know, strategy talk or like what to expect. But yeah. What do you expect? I think he's going to go in with a lot of energy. I just worry, again, that he could flame out or be too much. But I think because he's a fan, he'll be okay. I don't like see him as like, oh, he's my winner pick by any means. But I like his energy. I don't know. I get all guys alliance from him. Not like, you know, not like in a bad way, but just like he gravitates in with the sports and that stuff. He kind of just like naturally falls in. It's not like he's like, it's the guy's time. The last six of his winners have been females. I don't think he's that. But I do think he's like just naturally with baseball background and kind of. His energy. But who knows? There's also a guy from Boston there. Maybe they'll have a little banter. I don't know. New York, Boston. I could see it. Yeah. That could happen. We'll get to him in a little bit. Riley, what are your thoughts on Mike? Yeah. I mean, I feel like I have trouble seeing him winning too. I actually think he could go fairly deep, but then you kind of run into the. He didn't mention this in his thing, but I wonder if he's going to be completely honest about some of his background. Because if he kind of just lands on the beach and is like, I went to Princeton. I married my high school sweetheart. I'm now an assistant director of baseball operations with the New York Yankees. Are you jealous of my life? Gassing it up a little bit. And it's like, I negotiate like million dollar deals for players that try to help us win the World Series or whatever. It's kind of like, yeah, I don't know if I'm going to vote for you to win the million dollars. Like, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. So what's he going to do? Lie and say he's a lawyer? Yeah. Maybe lie and say he's a lawyer. Lie and say he's a farmer, maybe? Yeah. Oh, a farmer. There's, yeah. If he can figure out, they should for future seasons and maybe for the new era, what they should have done is given everyone a list of. No. Give everyone a list of all the professions. They're like, there's 21 people here. There's three farmers. There's four lawyers. There's two cops. There's. And now, you know, the breakdown. And then you're like, I'm one of the farmers. They're like, no, I am. You're a lawyer. It's giving big brother. Oh, it is? A little bit. But actually, they're all lawyers. They're all lawyers. Yes. Okay. Riley, there's the twist we needed. And that's what you can expect in the new era. And on the list, we only put one lawyer down. So they all think that they're the one. Yes. And they're all. Another big brother tactic. Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually the fourth grade teacher. Okay. Fine. Well, we'll keep workshopping that. But anything can happen in the open era, Sharon. Anything. That is true. Anything. Fire tokens. Including the things that have already happened, which were always on the table. They are even on the table. Yes. Yeah. So, Ashley, Mike, yay or nay? I mean, I am. I have no. I have no actual opinion on Mike right now. No. But he seems really kind. I'm glad his life is amazing. Yes. I would not vote for him to win a million dollars. Okay. Hold on. Yeah. Well, what if you knew in the industry they call him Ass D? I would call him that as well if I knew him personally. Okay. That doesn't make me. That's going to be his like teary flashback montage is going to be like sometimes. This senior director of baseball operations calls him Ass D. Someone's going to cry off of that. Okay. Well, yeah, that's it. That is going to be sad. The sad music. And then when Jeff's like, what does this game mean to you? Like, if Jeff asks you that, you know, you're either getting voted out then or the next one. Like that's. If Jeff asks you what this game means to you at Tribal Council, you know you are done. I don't know why people haven't picked up on that yet. Okay. We've got Linnea. She had the next most views on YouTube. Again, totally arbitrary way to organize this. Don't read into it. 25, New Jersey. Owns a lingerie and adult toy store. Not weird. With her brother. With her brother. Weird. That's the weird part. Yeah. The twist is that it's with her brother. Which isn't necessarily so weird. Maybe they're just so healthy and open with all of that that it's totally fine. But their parents hate it and try to hide it. Mom is a scientist. She's very logical. I like that. I like a logical person when you're playing one of these games that makes it easy to explain maneuvers and get them on board with maneuvers that are logical for the group. And yeah. What'd you think, Riley? You stopping into the adult toy superstore in New Jersey? Meet her and her brother? I'm definitely not stopping in on the adult toy sibling run sex shop. But I would connect with Linnea over her. She threw multiple jabs at astrology on this. And I was like, that was great. I think astrology is pretty fake. Ashley, I think you're into this. I think you're into astrology, right? So I'm sorry. No, you're not. I have it wrong? I know a lot about astrology. I do not believe in astrology. Okay, good. That's good. So we can keep you on the pod. So what is your belief system then, Riley, before we just continue to mock other people's belief systems? Man, I don't know. I just believe in myself. Do you go to church on Sundays? I do not go to church on Sundays. That's why we're getting real personal on this pod. I was just wondering, like, what is the, like, if astrology is not the thing that you're being, then what is it? You're just a student of logic, reason, and science. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. Totally. So, you know, logical, like Linnea. So I would connect with her over that. I would not have so much of a connection with her. You know, I don't have a lot of, like, experience or familiarity. No, especially not if they're sibling run. Yeah. Okay. And that's going to be, like, hard for you? Like, you're not, that's going to be the hurdle for you to align? She's not going to have a lot to add to the conversation about that. Okay. Yeah. I mean, but as an entrepreneur, maybe take a step back and make it about entrepreneurism instead of entrepreneurialism? Instead of about, yeah, instead of about what's actually being sold. I should have a more open mind. Do you think, so she said that her older brother says she needs to be flirty and, like, lock on to the guys. I wrote that down here. Do you think that's the same brother that she owns the store with or is that, because I think she had two brothers. Yeah. So the, her co-owner brother was like, you're really good at flirting. Yeah. You're really good at flirting. Ashley hates this. I don't like that part. Sharon, which brother was it? I don't know which brother it was, but I really like her, I will say. Yeah. I like her. I also like that she's open and, like, just like, yep, I own a sex store with my brother. My parents hate it, but now they know. Everybody knows all about it. They've tried to keep it a secret. I like that she is open. I think that. I think it's great. I mean, that's what they're looking for on Survivor is somebody who's willing to be fully honest in that capacity. So she's got that going for her. Okay. What else, Sharon? Sorry to cut you off there. Oh, no, it's fine. She's from Jersey. I'm from Jersey, so I can, I feel like she has, like, that I don't give a energy a little bit. Obviously, entrepreneur, I think it's interesting she mentions Kyle, that she really liked him because he was like a leader without sort of coming off as one. And I do think because she runs her own company, you know, that's a hard one. It's a hard thing to do, right? Like, so I'm interested to see if she can sort of do that. She mentioned that she gets injured a lot. She broke fingers in rugby. I feel like she's gonna be very athletic and like competitive. So, yeah, there's like a lot I liked about her. I don't, again, don't know how far it'll take her, but in terms of characters, she like jumped off the screen for me. What is the likelihood of her getting medically evacuated from herself? Is she going to seem high? She has a shoulder injury. It does seem high. Is she going to bruise herself and just smack her head early or fall and break, like the girl who jumped into the net and broke her hand on day one? Like, there's a lot of things that can go wrong on Survivor and like, you know, falling the wrong way hurts. Someone as athletic as me definitely is not going to have an issue with that. But someone, you know, like Lewis could also just based off. Based off of the coordination I saw with him on the surfboard, could have also some of these injury issues. Is she going far, Ashley? I think so. She has a really good personality. She seems to be able to, she has like a charisma to her. So I wonder if maybe people are going to be like, you know, gravitate towards that a little bit. I think she can go pretty far. And she's, she should, I think she'll be good. it challenges. So, and I don't know what the tribe thing is going to happen, but I know there's going to be a challenge so yeah she's gonna get that i think i also think she's gonna go far i think she's like seems pretty cool seems like she's gonna be pretty cool with people i'm wondering if she's going to like be too focused on linking up with the guys because her brother that she owns a sex store with told her to like is that but again she may be totally open and shift and be with the girls but i do believe that she's gonna also be one of those people that it's gonna be easy to connect with on whatever uh level because she's logical and filled with reason and hates astrology like riley um and i think she's gonna settle in as not the leader of the group too which is also a good spot to be so i think she's i think she's gonna go far i feel like yeah i feel like if you work at a sex shop like you you you have to be comfortable talking about uncomfortable things with men and women so i think that is also a really good thing to have and so maybe she'll flirt with the guys but i can't see her being a one of them that's like that's her entire game like i think it could be part of her game so yeah also a lot of people saying she's a leader of the group too which is also a good spot to be so i think she's gonna go she looked a lot like amanda kimmel in some of the shots uh some of the action shots from the promo she definitely did look like amanda kimmel on these videos not as much um alia 25 from new jersey uh another new jersey person in rhode island now as a chef bold independent woman raised by bold independent women not here to find herself she's not here to find herself she's here to win and uh obsessed with survivor pumping she knows she's got to pump the egos like in the kitchen there's a lot of egos and you got to punch them you got to pump them and uh lots of social politics going on there we got a lot from her i think in this little short time frame she did very good at telling us what she was here for and how she was going to do it and why she was good for it so uh what will be her downfall because i think we're all pretty like i also am like okay she's cutthroat she's ready to play she also has this working in a high pressure situation as a chef with other chef with other people in the kitchen she knows how to navigate that i think she has the opportunity to be very good here on survivor uh but if not what will have happened she's gonna want to take charge is is she yeah that was my worry like i really like her she's also one of my favorites uh it's actually surprising me she's only 24 because she gives off like very mature energy 25 24 when she played maybe i don't know i think she said it said 25 is what i wrote uh okay but yeah i i thought she was even older just the way that she speaks but it's because probably she said she has had 15 different jobs um being in a male dominated industry i'm sure she's used to dealing with egos and social politics so i have like a lot of i guess trust in in that in that ability uh but i my guess my only worry would be when you're a chef and you're in charge of a kitchen there are times where like i don't know like is she gonna be too bossy yeah yeah but she did say leading with kindness and showing loyalty which does negate that a little bit in that you know she understands that you have to lead with kindness here which is more of a currency than currency because you don't have money to pay people with out there so uh you have to do it in different ways and so yeah but i could see her also doing that i do like that she's like i'm here to win because we do have a lot of those people that are like ah i can't believe i'm here that's all all even when it gets hard i can't i'm gonna be smiling because i'm on survivor uh and we get a lot of those i think that when they do casting they should say what's your number one motivation for going on survivor and if you're not going to do it you're not going to do it you're not going to do it you're not going to do it if you don't say the million dollars they'll still cast you but you're ineligible for the million dollars so then they're like okay you can play mr beast you can play but you said your number one thing was to get the adventure or to or to be in touch with yourself so that's already your prize you will be ineligible for the million dollars a lot of people sadly will still do that i think oh i know i know that's okay with me not me but other people i appreciate that she's here to win money and not find herself so i like that uh riley thoughts on aliyah yeah i mean i feel i feel similarly to her where as with some of these other players where it's like i just felt like she was not a clip that we got here and i just i'm like really interested in seeing a lot more out of her um so i had no red flags um nothing that really makes me feel like she won't be able to make a deep run um and i liked her also she uh she followed our instagram account before i went through and followed everybody so she may be a pod listener so we didn't say anything bad right there yeah yeah all right aliyah i mean same with lewis he obviously knows who i am so uh you know it wasn't following her instagram account so i don't know if he listens oh okay well never mind we are aliyah fans over here at the pod has spoken let's go aliyah uh who else follows us or are you going to tell us as we get to them i can i can tell us as we get to them there were there were only three people who followed us before i went through and then one other player who dm'd the account the moment i followed back to say that uh they listened to our podcast exclusively on their way out to fiji wow okay save that for the end everybody don't tell them who it was yeah what oh we're gonna guess who it was before that's what we're doing yeah do you want to guess who i can tell you at the end at the end saving this for the end do not tell us when we get to this person okay okay but you can tell us that you want your honest opinions yeah yeah yes okay i'll keep it keep it keep it in the bag for the very end okay so next we have everyone so funny if you shit all over this person and then we say they're our biggest fan now i have to be just be super optimistic nice to everyone i like everybody listen it's all fun here we are not out here to hurt anybody's feelings except for terrible peoples uh we love everyone we lead with love and uh we're just having fun so if you are not having fun uh message us and we'll go a little harder this episode is brought to you by boar's head you know what i love about football season it's the football but also the football watching food and nothing hits like a boar's head sandwich when i'm watching a game really any game day sandwich better with boar's head philly cheesesteak layer up buttery slider rolls with boar's head london broiled roast beef american white cheese and picante provolone delicious then add 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swamped with requests for vehicle floor liners and although elves are terrific toy makers their little hammers and chisels don't come close to the laser measured fit of a weather tech floor liner cargo liner or truck bed impact liner even santa uses them cookie crumbs glitter a reindeer hitching a ride home he just hoses them off visit weather tech.com for all your holiday shopping today it's all santa approved now we have everyone's brody brady brody man i feel like i would not say the word brody enough to be able to connect what does that mean can someone explain i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know bro it's like bro right brody what up brody yeah it's just like another term for bro yeah but uh i wouldn't like being called brody by a person that i mean maybe it depends the energy with brady is fine maybe i'm accepting a brody from a brady uh maybe not uh but he's a wrestler 27 illinois grew up hunting and fishing eating deer hearts and smearing blood on his face while driving a truck as a young teenager at age seven at age seven big family and everyone the pedals I think he has like he's been big for a long time died to his foot or something oh he's been big he's been adult sized for his entire life yeah yeah you're probably right has three degrees including pre-law which do you think he'll lie about or do you think he's going to tell everybody he's pre-law and everybody's going to get him out for that's the closest to a lawyer he's out of here that would be hilarious because there's a few other lawyers on here who have already admitted that they are going to lie about being a lawyer he says he wants people to think he's dumb though so he probably won't say that yeah that he's a big dumb jock yeah I think you're right and he's open to working with everyone but interested in going with totally opposite personalities and I do like that strategy but it can be hard if it's a totally opposite personality because you're not connecting which then is not building the loyalty that sometimes you you need to make that work it's like oh we can't there's no commonality between us let's trust each other like that's hard that's a hard sell for someone because then it takes just a single whisper to all of a sudden have distrust between the two of you yeah I think he's going to end up with Kilby even though he wants opposite I think Kilby likes wrestling I could see it I don't know yes yes it's the Christian and whatever John Hennigan or whatever the wrestler was on Christian's original season this is that yeah I guess the mayor of Slamtown yeah the mayor of Slamtown yeah so we have Brady and Kilby together but I do like yeah let's everybody think he's a big dumb jock is he more than that or are we going to see more than that from him I don't really have that many thoughts he wasn't like my favorite he said he wants to model his game after Jonathan and be like a laid back provider which obviously can work and get you far it's just not my favorite game to watch I thought it was interesting he's a former gymnast and I think obviously challenge wise he's going to be really good I just the third person talking would annoy me so I'm not into that but yeah okay Riley yeah I feel like I'm in I'm always into the idea of the like big muscly dude being like I'm going to you know work within like everybody will assume I'm the big dumb jock but actually I'm going to play a strategic game and I'm going to play and then and so I was like okay like obviously if you're Brady I think this is the way that you need to play it and I'm into that but then when I saw that he compared himself to Jonathan I was like ah like I think Jonathan we just saw him play a pretty fatally flawed game in 50 I mean Jonathan really tried to do that be strategic and be more than you know the big challenge guy and he wasn't able to make it work for certain reasons that I think you know you know tanked his his ability to win jury votes in the end and so that's where I was like a little like ugh like I don't I don't know I don't love that comparison for him so I'm not sure if Brady like fully understands what he has to do here to make that work so the Brady-Jonathan comparison obviously they know each other Jonathan probably recommended him to casting um oh they know each other I did not know that I think there's pictures of them posted on Instagram together I believe now you're making me doubt myself but I believe that is accurate and you said Jonathan's fatal flaw I think I mean Jonathan won some votes last season he did he was pretty close to winning the season you know all things said and done um but you said his fatal flaw what is this fatal flaw is that is he trying too hard to do something other than what he is like what are or something that people don't expect or what is it what like what jumps out at you well I guess specifically Jonathan's fatal flaw was when he was betraying people he wasn't thinking that like you know he would still need their jury votes and kind of their respect and he was sometimes like you know when he was doing the worm after winning a challenge and stuff he was kind of like rubbing people's noses in it a little bit um which maybe won't be a problem for Brady at all but I yeah Brody Brady um but you know I do think that if you're going to play kind of the dumb jock archetype and then eventually you're going to stab somebody you need them to respect you more than they feel like they got got yeah they had to feel like there was some loyalty and there was a good reason for you to get rid of them and that they can respect it even though they may not like it um I'm excited to see Brady and Lewis talk to each other and not understand each other at all yeah that'd be great like Brody good crack Brody good crack Brody great crack and you're just like well and then they're eventually just have to not communicate at all we just have to agree that we do not understand each other goodbye can we get that are we going to get that with somebody with Lewis uh probably yeah they just can't understand him at all they can't they're just like stop talking to them because somebody just stops talking to Lewis because they can't understand him or yeah and I think Lewis could also be the same with somebody who's character is odd here where he's like I don't understand what they're saying I just have to go a different direction um okay is Brody getting past the merge Brady is Brady getting we're going to call him Brody for a lot of the season uh and that's just a term of endearment for uh Illinois wrestlers so Sharon Brody making it past the merge I hate to use the trope of just being a merge boot but it could happen I mean if he's winning challenges and helping provide he could be good early on there's been a you know Carter wants to do the same thing so who knows I could see him making the merge okay yeah I mean he's kind of the classic archetype of somebody who you keep around until the merge and then you start targeting well season 51 anything could happen it's true that's the crazy thing about it yeah but yeah you all it is like if he's good at challenges you never know sometimes these big guys that are even athletic sometimes you know the challenges do not suit their strengths but with the tribe challenges generally there is an aspect of strength to some of them or muscle so I agree I think if he's on a winning tribe and he's helping that tribe move forward he's gonna have no problem to get to the merge but at that point where does he go let's go to another self-proclaimed athlete Rob a 40-year-old works at Logan Airport is he what is he Boston but works in Rhode Island now and he's Rhode Island Rob which we call him Rhode Island Rob yes oh yeah Rhode Island Rob or RIR R-I-R cause that's Rhode Island Rob yeah I like Rhode Island Rob better Rhode Island Rob R-I-R-B-R-O-B yeah he has a Patriots tattoo on his arm he's got some tribal tattoo stuff going on kind of a mixture of Boston and Tony type character and what do we think is this guy he's a lot in what way is he is he what we think of when we were saying like you know are they casting more like big brother types is he who you're watching right when your wife came in right now Rachel kind of thought that but then also she was like he's like Tony he's like Tony a little bit and I was like yeah he is bald you're right and he does have a giant tribal tattoo that was done in the 90s that shouldn't have been done and so yeah there are some similarities definitely but I thought that was funny that she was like he's just like Tony and I was like no he's that's a Boston accent not in New York so they're all the same to me yeah that's what I mean but when you're when you're from the inner mountain southwest all east coast accents are the same fine we'll take it yeah we'll take it what do you think you're kind of from that area over there Sharon you on board with Rob he's 40 years old now he's learned he's not the young jock he's not the young super athletic super jacked super tough super strong uh that guy could lift a bunch of weights kid that he was when he was a super athlete but he's still pretty good I just realized okay I'm the same age as him which is wild to me but you thought he was older I thought he was a little older or maybe I just don't consider myself that age but I think he's interesting he loves reality TV he's really into traitor like he's probably like one of those guys that's gonna want to be on traitors after this um he called himself he's like a lasagna he has like multiple layers yeah um quite a lot I think the one there's one thing I liked when he said it was a business trip because again I like when people are like no I'm here and I want to win the money like I think that's great I do worry he said he hates to lose to kids in board games I know he coaches his kids sports teams he seems like that parent that's just like really intense and so I'm interested to see like in the game if he can sort of not be the coach or you know I think he will be I think he's gonna be the guy at camp who's like guys we should be doing this yeah that could that could be overbearing a little bit so that would be like my one where he he does want to find friends for life and a bromance. He wants a bromance. Also a red flag. Sorry. Yeah. Who's he bromancing? Is he targeting someone? Is he getting out there and just like immediately him and Brady are just like full embrace? Or the Yankees guy, Mike. Mike, yes. They love sports together. Yeah, Boston. Yeah, they're like finally Red Sox and Yankees together. They're like, no one will suspect this. No one will ever suspect this. We're complete opposites. Yeah. In every way. Our underground alliance. Yeah. I like baseball, but it's the Red Sox. You like baseball, but it's the Yankees. We are complete opposites. Okay. So you think that. Mike and Rob in a bromance. I could see it. I could just see him being in like a bro-y alliance. Yeah. I mean, that's what he wants. Like, you don't have to foresee it because he's told us that's what he's seeking out. I know. So it's going to be hard when Linnea is like, hey, guys, I'm with you. And he's like, nope, I'm bromance only over here. But if he watches Real Housewives and Love Island, he could connect with some of the women if they're more into that. I mean, I don't watch those shows, so it's not like every woman watches that. But yeah, I guess. Does he watch those shows? What does he say? Specifically, just like he loves reality TV? It says, I wrote down Real Housewives, Traders, Love Island, The Challenge. Wow. He watches everything. The Challenge surprises me too. Okay. Yeah. But he's in that age range that like I grew up watching The Challenge. So he kind of makes sense. He's subscribing to Paramount Plus? Ew. He's probably stealing someone else's password or something. Yeah, he definitely is. Like the rest of us. He definitely is. Um, okay. Rob is there. He came to win. Everyone else is on vacation. I think that could be a blind spot too when he's assuming he's the only one playing the game. Yeah. So, I mean, everybody's playing to some degree. And then you have the cutthroat people and there are some cutthroat people. But I do like that we have a few people that are like, this is not a vacation for me. This is. Does that mean we're going to get some saltier exits finally? I hope so. Yeah. Anything can happen. That's our tagline here at The Pottest. Anything could happen. Yeah. Season 51. Let's go to our next guy. Eric. 34. Clinician of mental health counseling from Rhode Island. Dad is a traditional Italian. He has abandonment and rejection wounds from his traditional Italian dad. Damn. That's real. He was really just going, deep on his dad. He was. Yeah. Watched Survivor as a child with probably his dad. And watched Pearl Islands during the pandemic and loved it. And he's a therapist. Needs to build bonds fast. Ready for Jeff to throw everything at him. And yeah. Sharon, thoughts on Eric, the therapist? There are things I liked about him. He doesn't like super machismo type guys, which I think there are a bunch of them on this cast. So that'll be interesting. He says he doesn't present as athletic, but he's trained in Mai Tai and used to be a competitive swimmer. And I think there's a bunch of people on this cast that said they're not good at swimming. So I think he actually could be pretty decent in the challenges. He's probably one of those like middle people that doesn't look athletic, but does well. He said he's charming and slightly sassy East Coast Italian American like Dom Abate, which I thought, it's funny. But yeah, I don't know. He was kind of, I'm in the middle with him. I don't have like a great read on him, but I feel like as a mental health counselor, you have to like, I'd assume be pretty good with people. So yeah, that's about it from him. Okay. Ashley? I think that it's really funny that he told us all of his like trauma story like before we started filming officially. It's like, I just got to get this out of the way right now. I'm proud of him for it. Isn't this what they call like trauma dumping? It's 100% trauma dumping. I mean, you're kind of prompted into it on Survivor. So like we can give him a lot of grace. Yeah, he already started it. Five seconds in, you're like, by the way, my dad left me with like abandonment and rejection wounds. He's not connecting with Mike in any capacity. Mike is like, my dad gave me everything. Yeah, and more. But you could probably connect with my dad because he had a hard childhood. I just wonder if the question was like literally, how are your parents? Tell us about your childhood because everyone seems to be mentioning that. Yeah, I'm sure it was. Give us your daddy issues. Yeah. Okay. I like him. Like he stood out to me initially as I was watching these. I was like, okay, he's honest. He's self-aware, it seems. The other thing that stood out to me was his shirt. The red and black stripes. And it's very bold shirt. And it's also an aggressive shirt. Freddy Krueger vibes. Yeah. Is what you wear on Survivor, is that subliminal messaging to other contestants in some, like, is this like, oh, I can't, he looks evil. He looks evil. He does look kind of evil. Like he looks like a bad guy villain type character from a cartoon. But now that you say it. His, I just pulled him up. It's like, you know, his main publicity photo is him like rubbing his hands together with like, he's almost like twirling him around. Using a mustache. Yeah. So that's why with a, like a monocle. So that's why I'm saying, yeah. He knew his friend. But I like, I'm curious, like, is that, is that a detraction from. Well, so what should he dress as? What is the most like trustworthy outfit to. You should literally ask AI. Be like, if I want people to trust me just based on appearance, here's a photo of me. What should I do? What should I wear to, Survivor? What should I wear on Survivor? How should I have my hair cut? Uh, how should I have my facial hair? All of it. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah. Um, then that's just a question that popped into my head. Cause those, the red and black striped shirt was a particularly villainous looking. Um, and I think he could lean into being that villain a little bit if we need, if we, if he wants to. Uh, but I liked him and, uh, I think he has something to offer maybe. Um, now probably the, one of the more. We'll be one of the more recognizables from the cast Christian from Salt Lake city, Utah. HR loves firing people. It's easy. It's easy for him. Loudest laugh, uh, father, uh, passed away and, uh, but loved his dad and had a great, has a big spiritual connection with him out on the island. If you can't win, he's going to make sure someone else loses. That's the energy I love. I love that. Like, oh, I can't win. Well, guess what now? Neither can you because I'm going to sabotage it. Uh, so what do you think? Christian, Ashley, you like Christian is laugh. Is it endearing or magnetic? I'll have to hear more of the laugh. Like even when he did, I was like, that's not loud enough. That's not loud. Loudest survivor. Like, come on, but I did. So I checked his tick talk as well to see what he is normally. So he seems like a really nice guy and he's around women a lot. So he might be drawn to more, uh, girl alliances, but also during 2020, he sent out like affirmations, like through like balloons floating through the air so that people can get them from their apartments. And I feel like a guy who's ready to cut down. Anybody would not do such a thing. I think he's going to be a lot nicer. Than what he's presenting up this villainous side of him. He's going to be a lot nicer. Now I'm second guessing. Cause I, I was like, wait, he called himself a heartless bitch. And I was like, I love it. And then now I'm like, wait, maybe he's like projecting that more than he actually is. But, uh, I mean, if you have to fire people, obviously I think you've, you've seen and navigated a lot of complicated situations, but yeah, he says he's cutthroat, but now I'm questioning it, Ashley. I don't know. I kind of feel like he's a nice guy too. Um, and I do think he's going to make connections pretty easy somewhere. He seems like, you know, he, and he said that he gives off that little brother energy type of thing. It is, somebody is going to take him under their wing and be like, you're with me. And, uh, if I were out there, I would do that to him. I would be like, you can go with Lewis or you can go with a more athletic, older version. Uh, me come with me, Christian. I like Christian. I, uh, I'm, I'm excited to see, and I hope that he is not an early target from being on a tribe that isn't winning challenges. Cause I do see him being smaller, maybe not as physical. Um, if he's on a tribe that's losing a lot and they're trying to figure out how to win challenges, is that the way this is going to go? Or is everybody so open to things changing on a dime that they don't care about that anymore? Tribe strength. Because on returning seasons, you don't really care about it as much knowing that Tribe swaps are going to be happening. What do you think? Plus, if there's two tribes, you can kind of hide a little bit better. So it'll be interesting. And you're assuming it's going to three soon too. You assume that probably at 18, it's going to go to three. Yep. That's a good point. Sorry, I was also thinking about something else. Because you're talking about what people are wearing and he's wearing a bow tie. I can't tell if it's like wood. I don't know what it is, Mado. Oh yeah, it was the pattern. What was the pattern on it? I saw it too. I'm trying to look, but doesn't that give off something too when you're arriving on the beach and someone's in a bow tie? You're like, okay, he's the smart one. So like, I don't love that for him because I'm worried. Yeah, I don't know. I'm struck by. So he said he went to college. He started college at 15 and a half. Yes. And so then he graduated super early. I actually popped into his LinkedIn. He basically immediately went into HR after like a year. I'm just like, can you imagine? Well, overachiever. But can you imagine if you're at a company and you're getting fired by like a 19 year old? Infuriating. It's like getting a speeding ticket. It's like getting a speeding ticket from someone like Lewis as someone who's my age. From like someone with their driver's permit or something. Like a high schooler is writing you up. Excuse me. Good point. You cannot fire me. You are not able to joke yet. And then he laughs super loud and you're like, that's a good joke. I'll be at my desk. He's like, no, really, you're fired. You're actually out of here. Here's the cardboard box. Wow. Yeah. I, yeah, I think, I think he's going to be okay. I think there's a lot of places to hide. He does seem like a challenge as challenges go, especially the strength based challenges with tribes early. He does look like he's one of the weaker guys on this cast. If I'm just based off of appearances, I didn't see him. I stand on a surfboard, so I don't know exactly what his coordination level is. But yeah. Can he win? Ashley, Ashley's contemplating. Can Christian win? I hope so. I don't know. That's the big thing because if he's going to be little brother energy, people don't really like giving a million bucks to their little brother. So yeah, I thought the exact same thing. It's like that's a good, way to like keep yourself around and go further. But ultimately, yeah, you need to ditch the little brother energy at some point. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's go to Kristen. Kristen is 49 from Santa Barbara, California. Crisis consultant, calm, cool, collected. Friends and family describe her as agitating. That was crazy. That was crazy. I can see not agitating, but serious. She seems very serious. Which is agitating sometimes. Which can be agitating, but you can also like need that sometimes and you're like, okay, we need somebody to drive this train and the only one that's willing to be serious enough is Kristen. She's been applying to Survivor for 20 years and she's here and very excited. She's very, very excited to play and just wants to have the most fun. Does she care about the million dollars? This is the one where this is one of them where they're like, you're actually, you can play, but you're ineligible for the million because we're just going to save it and roll it into, you know, future seasons. But you're more than welcome to be out here, Sharon. Yeah, I'm worried about, I'm worried about her. You're worried about her? I can tell you're worried about her. Why? Why are you worried about her? Listen, I think if you work in crisis management, that's great, right? Like you must have the skills to figure totally different situations out. But I almost feel like she was too serious. And I think when you come off really intense, like, I just want her to have fun a little bit, like, open up a little bit more. I just felt like her energy was super intense and that would maybe agitate me at some point. She also, did you see that she mentioned papaya bandits, Tyson? Something about, she wants to be a papaya bandit. Yeah, that's what she said. There's not enough papayas out there, Kristen. Nice try. The papaya bandits. Papaya bandits. I'm assuming it's like the coconut bandits, but with papayas. Yep. But there's not, it's not like papayas are going crazy out there. They've been picked by, over by season 50. Unless they're just throwing them out there, but yeah, she, she loves astrology too. I mean, red flag for Linnea. Yes, I noted this. Was it Linnea? Yeah. Yeah, Linnea. And for me. I need this conversation to happen. I need Linnea and Kristen to argue over the factualness of astrology. I feel, I feel like Linnea gives off energy like she might be really into astrology. Yeah. And so, they're like, so I'm going to give you two facts about me and you name the third. And she's like, I own a sex shop with my brother. And they're like, you love astrology. She's like, no, actually, that's not true. That's totally opposite. Like, yeah. Okay. I get it, Riley. I want, I want Kristen to come up and be like, did you know that the stars are aligned for an Aries? And Linnea would be like, oh my God. You know, we'll get the confessional. Yeah. Yeah. Or Kristen's going to try and lure people into being in her alliance by we using astrology and just be like, right now, Venus and Mercury are in retrograde. And so, what you're going to get and you're like, okay, I hope that happens. I need that to happen. That's my only hope. And you know, what we say over here, Sharon, anything can happen. This is season 50, the new era. Thank you for reminding my guests. Literally anything except for all the rules that they outline and then also the rules that they put on the advantages that they hand out. There's a lot of rules, but within those parameters, anything. But also no rules. Okay. But also, somebody said no rules, which only tells me they haven't played Survivor before. Let's go to Jelly. 29, sociology, professor from Texas and in Indiana now. And yeah, she watched Survivor with her grandma, doesn't like fish, uses Survivor in her classroom and likes the natural hierarchy and how that shakes out. And yeah, it seems like she at least understands the human element of the game. Is that going to be enough to win? What do you got, Sharon? Yeah, I think it's going to be enough. I think it's going to be enough. What do you think of Jelly? Tell me all your thoughts. You like Jelly? I like Jelly. I think if you're a sociology professor, again, you have really good, I feel like you know people skills. What else did I, yeah, doesn't like fish, not outdoorsy. I don't think that's like a big issue. She mentioned Katora and Shan, which I think are two interesting players to mention. I could see her honestly being a little under the radar and getting very far now that I'm thinking about it. She wants to ride or die. She can brainstorm with who is less ego driven than herself. And I like the self-awareness that she's saying, yeah, I have an ego. So there are a lot of things I liked about her. She doesn't like people that talk about themselves a lot. So that'll be an issue because I feel like this cast is just a few of them. Her and Lewis are not going to get along. Yeah. But I like Jelly. I don't know. Okay. I liked her too. But also like if her goal is to be humbled and grow from the challenges and leave a better person, you're already setting yourself up for failure. Like I'm going out as a survivor to get humbled. It's like, well, 99% of the people, that's actually the prize they win. So you're in, you have a great chance. That's probably the best chance you have of being humbled and forever scarred mentally and emotionally, which she's looking forward to. Sharon, do people become better people? After going on reality TV, has that been your experience in general? I think it's a mix. I think a lot of people become definitely worse, but I think there are definitely people that watch themselves on TV and actually grow from the experience, which I always like to chat with people about. But it's a mixed bag. I have high hopes that she would just because if you're a sociology professor, again, I feel like you understand humans. So if anyone's going to grow from the experience and maybe be humbled, like I could see it being her, but yeah, I don't know. She's also young. Like that's the other thing. Like she's 29. If she hasn't fully figured out who she is, then this watching it back from as a third party can also be a thing that you can learn and grow from. Does she have a chance to win with that mentality of like hoping to be humbled? It's interesting. She didn't really, at least from my, what I saw, did she talk about like really wanting to win? Like I don't think she did. So I'm curious what her motivation is. She loves the sociology aspect of the game and how the hierarchy shakes out and all of that stuff. And so I think that like she's interested in that. She wants to see how she can handle that. But it doesn't seem like she has that diehard like cutthroat energy to force her and will herself to win, which can always come later in the game as you edge closer. I do think that if you want to win, You want to protect yourself emotionally Mentally, while you're playing survivor, you go in with the expectation of not winning. But then the closer you get to it, you're like, oh, I can win this. And then it hurts way worse when you get close and then don't do it. So that could also just be her protecting herself and her emotions and her sanity until she can taste the victory and then gets humbled and then becomes a worse person for all of it. Yeah. I hope that doesn't happen. Let's hope not. Yeah. Not with her. She won't do it. No, I think she's fine. I hope she gets out there and is like, I need to slit some throats. Yeah, we need killer instinct from her. I want Jelly to be killer instinct. Yeah. Alexis, 34, from Atlanta, criminal attorney, sober for 10 years, married and a child, only cares about her family, social butterfly and a chameleon. Wants to exploit people's worst moments, but also will not judge them for it. And going to lie about being a lawyer. Loved Cooked Islands. The racial separation was her favorite season of Survivor. And never seen the complete package on Survivor until now. It's her. Nothing off the table in 51, she states. And she's nervous. Mm-hmm. Sharon. Oh, man, you've got to meet again. I, I'm worried about her. The lawyer. I don't know. I'm just worried. We also, so she's a criminal defense attorney and we also have a prosecutor on the cast, right? Yes. And they're both going to lie? Yes, they're both going to lie. That conversation of them lying about their jobs to each other. Oh, man. Yeah. Also, yeah, I don't know. I didn't get a good read from her. I'm not sure. She says she's a social butterfly. Be a chameleon. I'd like to see it in practice before I. I feel like I can. I'm a social butterfly who can be a chameleon. I understood that when she said that I can mix and melt with a large cross section of humanity and also be social and boisterous. But she's one of those people on this cast. That pretty much only talks about herself. She talks about herself. Focusing on her family. Her family is the only thing she cares about. That can be tricky in a game like this where you need to build alliances. You know what I thought? This is less about her specifically and more about the show. But I was surprised to see that she has a 14-month-old back home because I feel like moms of youngsters are very rarely cast or young moms are rarely cast. Yeah. Or they're being. I believe I remember seeing some old, old interview with Sandra where because she had really young kids on Pearl Islands and that was like extremely rare that they would have cast somebody like that, especially back then. But even through to today, I still think it's rare. So I am like interested to watch how, you know, because it's so often it's like if they have a mom there, they want them to be in that like older mom role, like mom to the tribe role. So she's 34. There are plenty of people her age on the cast who. Who don't have children that I find that really interesting. I'm going to be like having a real eye on like how that changes, you know, her dynamic or approach to the game. Yeah. That is a good point, Riley. I think especially if it was very difficult for her to leave that young child, then it does make you more cutthroat out there as you're like, I can't squander this time away from my child. Like I have to make it worth it. Which does give you an extra level of. 14 months old. I mean, I mean, my, my son is 22 months. So like pretty, I mean, when this was filmed, actually probably really similar in age. And it's like, you're missing stuff, you know, in one month you're missing stuff. So don't tell her, tell her you're missing nothing. No, no. But like, that's a huge commitment. It's a huge commitment. As long as she won, she's not going to regret going on Survivor. Then is. Yeah. Okay. As long as she won out of 21 people. But I don't, I don't love that she's, I mean, I don't know. I don't know why every lawyer feels like they're going to be, they have to lie about their job. I just like, don't love that anymore at this point. And then the other thing I did not love is that she compared herself to Parvati. She also mentioned Kyle and Rachel, but she did do, I feel like just like one of the original like red flags for Survivor contestants to me is if they think they're going to play like Parvati. Yeah. Okay. Well, nobody's really been able to do that. Maybe Savannah a little bit. But yeah. Okay. We'll see. I think she has her work cut out for her. I do want the lawyers to come together. What I want is the two lawyers that are lying to have a conversation and not know that each other are. And then Brody of all people is like, I went to pre-law and both of these guys are lawyers. Like, don't you have to assume though, at this point, there's always a lawyer on the cast. Like, just trying to sniff out who is it? Yeah. Who is it? Who's the fireman? If you're a lawyer, raise your hand. Let's just get it out of the way. We don't care. Who wants to come clean? Yeah. I'm not a lawyer because I did not want to be a lawyer. Not because lawyers are more intelligent than I am. Exactly. I think when lawyers understand that, they're going to be more successful on Survivor. Although we did have some lawyers when Survivor that lied about being lawyers, right? Did we have that happen? Did Kyle ever tell? Kyle? I don't think he ever told anyone. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to remember if he lied or not. Yeah, I don't think he did either. Okay. Let's go to the next. We have Jenna, wedding photographer from Ohio. I do like that she, this is her destiny and all of her photography contracts within the last five years. Had a Survivor clause in them. That was cute. And what else about her? Energetic, empathetic, determined, focus on her dreams rather than feeling bad about killing other people's dreams in the game. So empathy might be a hurdle for her. Something really interesting about her is she watched Survivor as a child with her family. From seven years old? Yeah, from seven years old. Wild. Yeah. And it's going to be good at connecting with people and be underestimated. And she's been preparing like it's her destiny. I remember when Brandon Donlan said that. And then somebody was like, couldn't you just try climbing a ladder once before the show then? Like, yeah. If you say you've been preparing for this like it's your destiny, do not fail in any capacity or you will be eternally mocked. You heard it first here, guys. Yeah, that's right. Sharon, are we going to end up mocking Jenna for her preparation like it's her destiny? I worry about her. Like, she's one of those players that I don't have a ton of confidence based on what we've seen. Again, this is very small sample size. But like she mentioned Kenzie and she's kind of the person I was thinking of when I was watching her video of like she could end up pulling it out somehow. Because she's like, I'm very artistic, bubbly. I'm going to work off vibes when I. Her family calls her an energy. Like she's just like out there. But again, she has a very social job being a wedding photographer and stuff like that. So who knows? I think I'm a little worried about her, but she could pull it out toward the end. There was a weird story she told about like giving something away to 154 people and then they're all playing. I'm like, do you guys catch that? I don't know what she was talking about. No, I did not catch this. Yeah, she like gave people gave her quotes or something. I don't know. It was very like. Like woo-woo energy that again, usually I'm like unsure about, but. Like astrology almost? Manifesting maybe. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. It's not my favorite thing. Listen. Okay. So this was. She was asked, why will you be the sole survivor? And she said, so back before I ever heard anything from Survivor, I wrote this little poem inspired by my dream to play. It says, I can't wait for you to look back at all these times you believed in it. Believe it was. Visible. It made no sense, right? I'm like, what? Yeah. Yeah. So that I read that verbatim. That doesn't make sense. But then I had an idea. What if I could give this poem to anyone who wants them, but in exchange, they have to tell me their dream. I gave away 154 poems. I will be the sole survivor because I have an army of people who are believing in it with me. I'm playing for them. Yeah, this is. I have no idea what's going on there. Sorry. So at the end, when she wins, she'll say, you're welcome, everyone. Yeah. She has. I think she should have to divide up the million into 154, 155 lots and hand it out. Hand it out. Split it up evenly. This was actually the person that Rachel was like, is this. Are you watching Big Brother? I think this was her. And I think part of it was her outfit. She had a neckerchief on with a denim top and something a little colorful and different. And I also think. the other thing is that they keep doing the cutbacks to their life and that's a big brother thing that survivors only started doing more recently and so i do think that yeah whatever it was that this was the one um i like that she is so focused on this and that we're in an era of survivor where they take this into consideration as they cast people now they're like what's your lifelong dream and they're like you're like uh to have a family and they're like you're fucking out and they're like i mean to see jeff probst in person and with survivor like you are in make sure you say that how rough was your upbringing like did you have struggles or challenges and you're like not really they're like well you're out and they're like i know i did my parents did they're like yeah it counts you're in so i hope she tells people on the cast that it's her destiny to win survivor you are the one or the confession of like kill out of this person i don't i had robbed uh boston rob told me on season 40 that he doesn't know why but he just felt like it's his time to win this i was like that's what i'm feeling like why are you like so yeah it was a funny conversation to have and it does happen out on the island like even uh ozzy when he was talking to aubrey last season about it you know you have these moments where you're just like hey just a heads up i really want to win this so thank you let me i'm just gonna say thank you right now for you know whatever support you can lend me because this is my dream currently uh we need that i want that from jenna i need a conversation where she tells someone her dream is to win survivor on survivor um anything can happen season 51 we have devon next what do you think of devon he's a tall handsome gorgeous model he's an actor also gonna lie about it yes he was what eight episodes eight episodes pretty good he died i don't know if he died i think he just stopped working at the gray's anatomy place did you know how it works who walks who watches gray's anatomy any of us i fell off like 30 seasons ago but uh i think he's just like they bring in like they'll introduce a new doctor and like he probably still technically works at the hospital but they just don't show him anymore um but he was a doctor i don't really know what his but he's been on his wiki his gray's anatomy wiki and his character was in an accident at a restaurant and he was like oh my god where a car drove into it and so he had a whole episode where he was like you know sick and stuff and but then he had one more episode after that and then he there was no more gray's anatomy after that oh gray's for him yeah oh yeah gray's anatomy is still going it's crazy forever 30 seasons yeah okay wow nobody talks about that we're here talking about survivor being on air for 25 25 years but now nobody's talking about gray's anatomy or are they i don't know uh not as much anymore yeah and then uh devin uh doesn't want to put himself in a box it seems like he read that it's like somewhere some motivational thing where he's like people are afraid of other people putting them in a box but i'm more afraid of putting myself in the box uh which was interesting um he did have a interesting upbringing by racial raised by hillbillies uh who were drug addicts and his grandma was in a biker game uh so that definitely is different uh how do we feel ashley ashley's like rolling her eyes and like shaking her head devin can't win will he win what does he gotta do i dug into this into this man's stuff because he has a lot of tiktoks you know he's an actor yeah okay so you have a big following no but he's an interesting guy not yet not yet he will soon he's interesting guy um i can't figure out his accent because either he has a really like extreme southern accent in some videos in some videos he doesn't but i'm assuming that's just an actor thing he said that he's the the love child of rick devins and joe um which i think is interesting because an earlier video on tiktok said he's a love child of corbin blue so what's the truth what does it mean i don't know what he means anymore so i'm just a little confused by also i don't know he just likes to be love childs he's just like survivor either i don't know like i don't know if he's ever actually watched survivor he doesn't seem like it he wants to find a new way to play but he's playing the yes i don't understand him i'm like i felt like i was like in a rabbit hole just like looking him up and figuring out how to play and he's like i don't know how to play and he's like i don't know about yes he's very interesting guy yeah is he gonna disappoint us yeah i think he just watched season 50 and like if because the devins and joe thing is also interesting because they did not get along on the beach yeah yeah um but joe also and this is no shade to joe please joe no shade but like joe lost two in a row essentially from being so loyal right that was his thing so like him saying he wants to get to the end without lying i'm like didn't we just we've seen this before right yeah we just we've seen it a lot and we didn't like the ending told me about it in season 18 like we've seen this a lot from people it doesn't work because if you're not lying you're not taking control of your own destiny to get to the end and because you're letting someone else for you so then you're not the driver and i think i think we're not going to see any of that from him i don't think we're going to see a new creative way to play and i don't we may see loyalty and honesty but it's not going to get him to the end yeah this is the exact type of guy i would like to play with on survivor give me 19 devins very predictable which is great as a member maybe he wakes up and is like oh everyone's lying and just snaps out of it that would be awesome that'd be great he says he plays dungeons and dragons i don't know what that game entails but he says so it's like a bit of a gamer oh i also don't know what pokemon is it's cards there's cards with secret powers it's like astrology but on in cards oh okay i don't know what it is i know a little bit yeah there's characters like goblins and ghouls and stuff and then you have these power cards that give you like certain powers and then you play them on your adversary who has other cards with other you lost me already but we're gonna have the magic the gathering community uh totally uh uh make fun of the knowledge i have of their beloved game and that's okay um okay so he plays these games he does love games he said he loves games and he loves people but he's not aquatic not a camper not not a fisher doesn't like coconuts so uh i don't mind that aspect let's watch the video watch that i do like to watch when people are definitely out of their comfort zones on survivor i think he might have a bit of pretty privilege in the early days because i think he's just so attractive and charismatic and like he might not be the biggest fan of the show or the biggest gamer but he could get you know get a little further just based on like him looking nice i hate to say it but it's like he jumped off screen he's used to being on camera right so that also probably helps um so i like him i just am like yeah if he doesn't have that cutthroat energy it's hard for me to root for that but is he uh going to tell everybody he's an actor and that wasn't he was on gray's anatomy i don't i don't i think he said he said he was gonna keep it a secret yeah yeah okay but then what do you say uh that he's a lawyer pre-law yeah he's pretty law him him and brody will uh connect like so hard over that uh okay next is anna the voice actor from toronto 34 years old uh this is a pretty interesting piece of uh information survivor is important to her family so yeah so let's let's know yeah let's jot that down and uh mom and sister watch religiously to take minds off of mom's illness she passed of cancer um wants to trick manipulate people i like that that's fun and uh she's playing to win no one will see it coming because she's a cutesy and uh i found yeah that that part where she was like oh you know i want to trick people and be manipulative but i'm cutesy so no one will keep see it coming i was like i don't see that at all i felt like she gave off like instant gamer yeah energy where it's like that that is actually exactly what i would see coming so i'm very worried yeah you're a voice actor which means you probably go to conventions uh which means that yeah you are a gamer in some capacity if you're a convention person you're some type of gamer like playing I don't mean like a video gamer I mean more just like a you know like strategic like she's gonna be yeah like okay I totally see the lying manipulation from her and so I'm like I don't know if like just oh I'm cute so like they won't see it coming I'm like I think you're gonna need to do more to like obfuscate that okay Sharon what do you think she can be able to go under the radar with her cutesy no I I don't I I didn't get much from her also very few notes I think she she keeps talking about being chaotic and not you know people shouldn't trust her with their secrets I just worry about her flaming out like doing too much too early and just not going well caught out I think she's gonna get caught out manipulating early and they're gonna be like why did you pit us against each other on day two she's like oh I'm cute I'm cute and you're like no yeah I just don't think it's gonna work I don't know yeah I again though you see these interviews and a lot of them you know there is some truth to what they're saying but some of them they get out there and they're jolted by exactly the overwhelmingness of all of it and just slink into a hole and are under the radar and it can be for good or for bad and so until we see that first episode we don't know how these people are going to react to being in the group with each other that's a great point people play up their character or play up what they think casting wants to hear and so whatever we're saying can be completely honestly totally different yeah you get out there and you're like oh I gotta lay low I didn't realize now or someone is just like way over the top and like stomping you out every time you try to say something and then you're like okay that person's in charge of talking and I will say nothing until they're voted out like there's so many variables when they all come together like they can't all have the loudest laugh only one can have the loudest laugh and so even if you think you have the loudest laugh somebody else might come in laughing a little harder and that's life you know man I didn't think we're gonna get that deep out here but we did so deep and next we have tanan a 24 year old medical student she can be freaking weird because she loves talking about farts my nightmare and this is interesting about her is her family watched Survivor when she was young yeah no way yeah right here in my notes it says it yeah did you just copy and paste for every person just that sentence yeah she's applied for years I mean there's a few people that haven't watched since they were long young Lewis looks like he started watching when he moved to Puerto Rico um some people started watching during covid yeah um tanan's been at playing since she was eligible to at with her age and she has a big smile that helps people connect uh being nice uh will make the game harder for her uh because she's nice to people and she does take losing personal though but in Survivor it's not a big deal it's a big deal it's a big deal it's a big deal but in Survivor a lot of times when you lose if you're voted out and there's you can't even if you take it personal at that point it's gonna have to just be in real life because you can no longer hurt someone in the game so as long as she's willing to take the game outside the game to seek her Vengeance then she'll be fine there um she wants to play the most authentic cutthroat game possible enjoy life to the fullest because you never know when it's gonna end Yolo 51 is uncertain tension is high everyone's like what's next uh she's young I think you can tell she's young in her uh video I didn't know 24 year olds said Yolo I thought that was like more of my generation no they 24 year olds said Yolo but that was 15 years ago so yeah when they were not saying it no when they were 15. when no when they were 24. when you were 24 yeah yeah yeah that's what I'm saying I'm like I felt like I was like oh that's an interesting like she's probably like this is like an old reference it's like saying yeah with the older yeah yeah with the older generation even I say Yolo ironically now um I think she's young she is young she's 24 is she the youngest on the cast yes I believe she was probably a year or two and uh she's a little intimidated by all the big muscly guys it sounded there's a lot of big muscly guys there I think she's going to be fine physically it seems like she's physical enough that she can at least you know beat Lewis in a surfboarding competition or something um but will she be able to connect with people Sharon they're Riley Riley I was just gonna say I looked it up there are three 24 year olds on this cast I'm not gonna go into you know all the exact birthdays but um she's tied at least tied for a youngest yeah okay um can she connect with people I just I'm worried about her I feel like she has very much pre-game jitters right now that's what I got from her for a video and I really liked her there you know she's obviously a fan she's been a Boy Scout I feel like that's not that not even the survival aspect just being around men all the time um I'm assuming um it's not it's not Boy Scouts anymore it's just scouts is that true yes I didn't know that is scouting it's no longer Boy Scouts of America it's just scouting and it's Scouts but there's still the Girl Scouts right there's still the Girl Scouts but that's a separate thing and it's not Boy Scouts is for all boys and girls see I know this because the Scouts come and do like a career fair thing at the and my kids were like my daughters were super interested in it and I was like is this should we join the Girl Scouts they're like no the Girl Scouts is like a separate thing they sell cookies and do crafts we do camping and not tying and all of that stuff so we're the Scouts you were the Boy Scouts you remember but now anyone can join but she called it Boy Scouts in her thing so it's probably still Boy Scouts when she was a kid maybe yeah I think okay when did Boy Scouts become Scouts I don't know we don't that's not as a different podcast too much research yeah look it up changed in February 2025 so last year a little after her time okay um I do I do agree with you Sharon I got that she was very nervous in this interview in this that's her first time on camera she's young she's on the show that her family's watched since she was little um I felt that way too my very first interview even to the point where Matt Van Wagnon was like you're nervous I was like I am nervous I've never been on camera I don't know know what to expect I don't even know what I'm doing I haven't watched very much of the show and he's like don't worry you'll settle right in so like in two days you're not even gonna think about talking to the cameras it's just gonna be natural so I think we'll see her settle in a little bit but I still am I'm I'm having a hard time envisioning which group she's going to connect with out there because in my mind she seems like the youngest by a lot her youthfulness is far more youthful because even like who are the other 24 year olds you have is uh you have Carter's a farmer and Aaliyah is a chef so yeah she's a student yes I do feel like there's a a trend on this cast at least for me for like people reading a lot different than their ages like some of like Aaliyah I felt like read a lot older than 24 in a good way like more mature yeah um and but I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know um and but uh Tanan is someone who I'm like she's she's young okay yeah and that's how I feel I think I mean somebody can obviously take her under their other wing you've got Christian under one wing you've got Tanan under the other wing and uh you're ready to go with uh these people you've just decided to mentor uh I think she is going to need to find someone like that though some type of parental or mentor style uh relationship um so we'll see I can she win I don't I honestly do not think she can win I think she'd be a tough road skews too youthful it's that you know that whole like she's so young feeling with the energy that I think that she's it's going to be hard for her to win this game um yeah Maggie West Virginian Farmer therapist and uh I mean I didn't have to say all that all I really had to say was homeschool mom Ashley that's right can a homeschool mom win this game maybe have you ever been on a homeschool mom Forum on Facebook I have I love that those kind of little things to read through I also noticed that she's a she has a degree so she said that she knows how to work people but she also says she doesn't register fear which makes me a little nervous with how she works with people so I don't know if she does register fear and it's just playing it up like she's a badass or do you think 100 okay 100 but it's about the thought right if you come in and you're like why is everyone so scared there's nothing to be scared about then everyone's gonna think that she's crazy so yeah I think maybe, just maybe, I don't want to, like, assume that her being a homeschool mom is what makes her think that she already knows a lot of things and how to work people. Like, she's assuming a lot of things before actually doing it, but that's what it feels like a little bit. I think she's going to have a very hard time integrating. I think she's, this is going to be her struggle from day one. She is homeschooled, so she thinks she knows the way things should be done. She probably is very particular about that. She also has this checklist of things she wants to do. She wants to start fire without Flint. She wants to do this. She wants to do that. So she's going to do this bucket list thing on Survivor where she'd be like, no, actually, let me try and do it without Flint. And it's like, let's just use the Flint and get the fire going. She's like, no, I'm going to try without. Give me six hours. If I can't do it, then you can have your, like, I feel like she's going to. So be a little overbearing on some of those check marks she wants to hit rather than assimilate into the group. She mentioned hunting and so did our Brody Brady. Yeah. So I'm putting like. And they're both farmers. So let's, let's, I'm going to give it like plus 200 odds that we get those two connecting and comparing themselves to Malcolm and Denise. Okay. Malcolm and Denise, you think is what? Yeah, it could be. Okay. Oh, a hundred percent. Any younger guy, older woman combination is instantly a Malcolm and Denise. Yeah. Okay. Sharon, Maggie. Yeah. I had the same kind of read. I, I feel like she's there more for the experience than anything else. Cause she like talked about that checklist. She mentioned Parvati, which is another, a bit of a red flag. I just, she also, I think she said her biggest inspiration is Jesus, which again, no shade to anyone that's religious. I just think when people, I don't, I don't love that. Answer sometimes, um, when you're talking very little about him. Yeah, actually, um, how would Jesus approach? Survivor? We know that he watches every episode, but obviously, yeah, we don't know how he'll play. He's not on a podcast talking about it. So, yeah, it'd be a good get though. We're going to try and get him on this season. That's your number one guy. If you got him, uh, yeah. I'm worried about Maggie. I don't have the best hopes. I feel like she was coming off a little, I don't want to say overbearing. Maybe that's not the right word, but yeah, no, I don't know. Didn't, didn't feel great about Maggie. Sorry, Maggie. I mean, I got a bit of a red flag too from when she was like, oh, I have a therapy degree. So I know how to work people. And I'm like, is that what a therapy degree does? It's a manipulation degree. I don't think that's what, I don't know. It is. It is. It is. It's what, that's what I would go to get a degree for is to learn how to manipulate people. Therapy. Why do you want that? To manipulate people. That's like a misunderstanding of therapy. Or if I ever have to homeschool my own children, then I can, yeah. I think that there's a certain energy, not all the time, but if you're like pull, pulling your kids out of school to homeschool them, uh, sometimes it's because you know better than whatever's happening, wherever. You're at and, uh, which could be definitely be the case, but also that's a certain type of energy that doesn't work well on survivor. If you feel like, you know, better than other people. So, um, no shade, no judgment. That just seems to be that, that style of energy. And, uh, I guess that is judgment and shade. But if you're connected to homeschooling in any capacity and listen to this podcast, please keep listening. We did not mean to offend. Uh, let's go to Ori, who I think had maybe the best shirt of everybody here. Uh, model from New York, a fitness coach, former pro athlete. What was he? A football player, I guess. Yeah. So yeah, he was a football player. I could. Did he play in the NFL? I could not find evidence that he was in the NFL. Me too. But he said it. And I was like, as my journalist skills, I was like, wait, I don't see the evidence of this. So I don't know. I paused the video and didn't see any NFL. I don't think he was in the NFL jerseys. Ooh. I do not think he was in the NFL. He may have played. I don't know. Practice squad or something. It's possible he could have played. Yeah. It's possible he could have been a practice squad player who never made a roster. And so then they kind of can disappear from, um, you know, like they, they don't really end up on any of the, like the stat keeping stuff or maybe he played in like an overseas league. Like they have some small ones in like Germany or wherever. Um, I don't like, I did like some Googling too and couldn't find it, but, um, you know, the fact that he said pro athlete makes me think, okay, he must've played something beyond college. Yeah. He'll let us know. Uh, I'm sure he played somewhere beyond college, uh, for some amount of time. Uh, he is consistent, no highs or lows, always optimistic, plays to win, uh, wants to change his family's life and retire his mom. And. And, uh, wants to play with women because the most recent women's winners are mostly women. And, uh, yeah, I, I don't know. I could see it. Ashley smile. Ashley, Ashley, your body language is giving something. Oh, well, how do you feel about Ori? Another person I like dug up his Tik TOK and everything and look through all this stuff. Okay. Um, he seems like he likes himself. He loves himself and that's great. I'm so happy for him. I'm a little worried about his social game and honestly, any type of challenge for him. Uh, I feel like he, I feel like a lot of people who are fitness athletes, they're working on certain things, but not so much like the things that you need to work on. Yeah. And then he's going to lose all the muscle, the definition he has, he brought on, he got shredded for survivor. And I'm like, that's probably not the best thing. Yeah. That's not the best thing to do for survivor. Cause everyone knows you're going to do the bucket challenge sooner or later and you're going to be kind of not feeling good. Um, I'm just worried about how he's going to butt heads with people. He's a type a personality. He's like, he has like a coach type of mentality, not coach or a friend, but just like coach in terms of teams and everything where he needs things to be like, you guys are going to make it, we're going to make it. And then he's extremely. Positive. He told us that he stays positive for his family, which means that he probably goes through a lot of toxic positivity. So I just worry that it's going to not feel that right for a lot of people. If he doesn't like turn it down a little bit, he might just turn them off a little bit during the challenges, during any type of the building, if they're not doing it right to his standards. Is he going to connect with Brady Brody? Like, I feel like if he connects with that group and like bros out, I think he says he wants to work with most of the women, mostly women. I feel like that's what his read is on the season, but I think he's going to connect more with like, with, with Brody, um, maybe even someone like Eric Robb for sure. Uh, I think, I think he's going to find himself in an all guys alliance, even though he told us he was going to be working with the women. I wonder if he actually, if he like kind of falls into it, if it's like, oh, you know, the Brody's are like, Hey, Yeah. And then he's the one that's kind of like, I can do like 600. Okay. Well, we should align. I wonder if he's the one he's in it. He's got like one foot out the door where he's like, this actually isn't kind of the way I wanted to play the game. And so then he's able to almost play the middle. Maybe. Yeah. Um, Sharon, I don't have too much to add. I, I also, I, I must, I have to go rewatch it. Cause I thought he was talking about, he didn't like, or he was just clocking. That's all. All the recent winners were women. And I, I was, maybe I, it was too quick. I didn't pick up on that, but. Yeah. I think he said he wants to play with women. Cause the most recent winners are women. Yeah. I was going to say that was a red flag. Yeah. The opposite. Okay. Got it. Um, he doesn't like people that need attention and he's going on reality TV. So welcome to reality TV. Yeah. What's happening? 21 of 21 want attention. You know? Yeah. I think he might struggle. He says his hobby is eating. I'm like, bro, you're not, you know what you're going into, right? That's a funny hobby though. I do like that. I don't like attention and I love eating. I'm going to go on Survivor. Yeah. To change his family's life, dude. That's the, that's the part I really liked. Like he had a lot to say. He was very verbose and, and I appreciated that. But then there was just like a couple of things where I'm like, I don't feel that great about it. But yeah. Okay. Last but not least, we have Pat. The Navy attorney in DC process prosecutes the Navy's crimes or the crimes in the Navy or something along those lines. Nerd homeschooled. Will she connect with Maggie as her student? Uh, first woman in the family to go into the military, not a super fan watched a season during COVID and then applied years later, which is pretty cool. Interesting. We'll see. My fear there is that for the last. a handful of years, the fanbase has been begging for someone who is not a super fan to go on the show. Does the Navy attorney have a chance, Sharon, on the season? I got really intense energy from her. So I was, again, a little worried. I don't think necessarily like being a fan matters all the time, of course. But I do think going into this open era where anything can happen, not knowing sort of the history, like what is certain advantages, like I don't know if that could come into play. Yeah, I just feel like she's a bit, and this is a compliment, Pat, like a bit of a know-it-all. She was like, I don't like when people who are less informed than me are telling me what to do. That's going to happen on Survivor. Like it's just going to happen. And so I worry how she handles that. And she's also a federal prosecutor. She's used to being in charge and taking command of a room. And I just worry she's going to be a little overbearing, which I've said about other people. But listen, I hope I'm wrong. Yeah. Somebody has to be the most overbearing. Yeah, she gave me like interesting energy. She felt a little bit like 33 going on 23, which could be to her benefit because, you know, as she said, she's underestimated in the courtroom and she can be underestimated in Survivor. But you hope it doesn't come at the cost of her being able to connect with other people on this cast. I'm really excited to see her reactions to all the Survivor twists that are like normal to us. Like, is she just going to be outraged all the time? Like, what do you mean? What do you mean? All right. We've come to the end of the podcast. And like we promised, Riley is going to let us guess who has already DM'd us from this cast. Three people already followed us at the pod has spoken on Instagram. And then Riley goes through and follows everybody that's played Survivor. And someone immediately followed us back and sent us a DM. Who is it? Pat DM'd us yesterday afternoon. She said, honored by the follow. This is the only Survivor podcast I listened to in the lead up to Fiji. Love y'all. So. That's nice. Now she knows everything. She's got to be our girl. I mean, I probably do the same thing, so I can't even hate. Yeah. Okay, let's do some predictions. I feel like the only real prediction. that I actually care about is winner picks at this point. Especially because everything's going to change after we get one episode and we get trap divisions and we get, you know, more of a look at what these people are like actually on the island. But we still got to do some preseason winner picks. So Sharon, I guess I'll start with you. What's your gut telling you? Who wins this season? Yeah, I'm looking at the board here. I feel good about a couple of the women specifically. And so I'm just trying to decide between them. I feel like I'm going to. This is a little silly reason. Not just because she's from Jersey, but I really liked her. And I think she's just like out there. And I'm Linnea. I'm just going to pick Linnea. I really liked her. I liked her a lot too. Are they going to give her the money when she runs a business with her brother? Who knows? But I like it. Well, but who says that that business is like doing well? Like, I don't know. It's a tough business probably. I'm assuming. Didn't like Kenzie own her own hair salon? Hair salon. She was like the owner too. So she owned a business. And I mean, nobody was like, oh, Kenzie's rolling in dough, so we can't give it to her. Right. Yeah. I think Linnea would be great. Ashley, who do you have? So I picked out like five people that I like. You got to pick one. You cannot do all five. What do you mean? Because you can't pick five and then at the end of the season be like, I got it right. I got it right, guys. The odds are in my favor. I'm going to say Sharonda. I enjoy. I like her vibe. I like her. I would vote for her to win a million dollars. Just from the vibes alone. But also Linnea's on my list and Jenna and Kilby and Carter. I think Carter's like a very old man in a young man's body. And I really like that about him. And I feel like I could sit down and just listen to him talk about farming and snow cones and stuff. So I'm going to say Sharonda though. Sharonda's my pick. You and I have the same winner pick. I have Sharonda too. What? I always pick the person I think I will. I try not to pick the person I think I will pick. I don't read too much and be like, oh, who will do the best or whatever. I kind of just am like, who would I connect with the best? And the one season that worked out for me incredibly well was I picked Kyle as a preseason pick for 48. And then he went all the way. And this season it's Sharonda. I think it's usually the person with the most chill energy because it's often, especially in these clips, like so in your face and frantic. Yeah, that I just end up picking the most laid back person. All right. So Ashley hedging her bets by choosing a bunch of people. Very smart. I like that. Yeah, the true gambler there. You bet $100 on five people and hopefully one of them hits for a 10X payout. You double your money. Brilliant. Riley, on the other hand, not a gambler, just chose one. So Sharonda. Sharonda is also your favorite, right, Ashley? And Sharon going with Linnea, also a good pick. I think she's good. I think she could do it. I'm going to go a different route because we like to, again, hedge our bets here as the pod collectively. I like Eric, but I think Carter. He's given me that real JT vibe from the first season where everybody loved him. He got along with everybody. He was able to meld into certain groups at different times. He was unassuming and non-threatening. And I think Carter isn't quite that because he seems like he has been the boss in his life more often with the snow cone truck and with the moving company and stuff like that. So maybe he'll be a little more commanding and that will not be as good for him. But I'm hopeful that if my vibe is correct, my vibe reader, what do they call it? I don't know. Yeah. I'm going with Carter. And that's it. But we change week to week. So after the premiere, we'll probably all have different picks or do we need to keep the same this week? Ashley, are we keeping them from, are we riding and dying or no? No? Okay, good. Yeah. So after the premiere, we will choose our ride or dies for the season. That'll do it here at the pod as spoken. We're so happy to be back. Thank you all for listening. Sharon, thank you so much for your time and energy and insight. Sharon, where can people find you? Yes, I will be covering Survivor all season long. I also cover Big Brother, The Traitors and other reality TV over on Men's Journal currently. And then I have a podcast where I'm always covering the show, doing different interviews. It's called The Exclusive, which you can check out on Spotify, YouTube, all that good stuff. And yeah, thank you guys so much for having me. This was really fun. Thank you, Sharon, again. Listeners, thank you all for tuning in. And that's it. See ya. This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. 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