Survivor Winner Savannah Louie on Navigating Food Struggles After the Show & What Filming Is Really Like

The following podcast is a deer media production. Welcome to RealPod. It's your host, Victoria Garrick Brown, and this is the podcast where we hold nothing back. Oh, so we're getting deep, huh? I've really cried for 12 days straight. Why do I want to be perfect? There's nothing in my life that is perfect. Every week, I'll bring you honest, unfiltered, and eye-opening conversations to help uncover the real in all of us. I crave the type of content that you're talking about. I actually felt insecure. Oh, my God, I'm not going to cry. Let me just unload everything. New episodes every Wednesday leave those filters at the door because it's time to get real. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to RealPod. I hope that this episode is finding you well, and for any survivor fans out there, I'm so excited because we have a survivor winner joining us today, and that is Savannah, Louis, the winner of Survivor 49. As you probably know, Max and I are huge fans of Survivor. We have seen every single season. We are just obsessed with the show. And so getting to have Savannah on the most recent winner of Survivor was so surreal and special for me. I just loved nerding out about all Superfan things with her, but also getting to hear more about her experience and journey, not only in the game, but beyond the game when it came to her body image and relationship with food. Something I've always been curious about watching the show is what it is like for these contestants to pretty much be starved. And Savannah and I actually connected over DM on Instagram and she was sort of opening up about her experience. And that is something she'd be willing to talk about for the first time ever on RealPod. And the fact that Savannah feels comfortable doing that on this show is just a testament to what we've built here and how important it is to have these conversations. So not only is Savannah going to dive into the disordered eating habits that she developed following her win on Survivor, she's also going to talk about the difference for her between intuition and anxiety. She'll detail her experience of navigating a toxic workplace environment and what that taught her. And she'll also tell us if she'd ever consider going on Survivor again. I loved watching her even though it was quickly on Survivor 50, which Max and I are watching right now on CBS. It's incredible. And I was so grateful that you took the time to come on the show today. So if you're not already following Savannah on Instagram, make sure that you do. Her handle is S-A-H-H-V-S-Savs. So make sure you go through her follow and without further ado, I hope you enjoy this episode with Survivor season 49 winner and 50 contestant Savannah Louis. Oh my God, Savannah, we loved watching your season, you're such a badass. How have you been doing? You obviously dominated your season 49. You were the sole survivor. Then you were on 50, which is such an honor. I was devastated when you went home because I drafted you to my fantasy team, but I'm glad that you got to go rest. Like let's be real. Come on. Let's have you would probably like this is it's bittersweet, but you can't win them all. I'm so sorry to let you down. I hope you didn't lose any money. I didn't. Don't worry. But I will be honest, like when people ask, how are you doing? It's such a day by day thing, right? Because even though we filmed everything over the summer, so we're pretty far removed from all the actual on the island stuff, we're watching it play out now on TV. So it's kind of a weird kind of like mind fuck, you know, rewatching things that happened eight months ago, right? But today, now that I'm honestly off TV, at least in the reality sense, like I'm in a really good spot. It's kind of hit now that I've won a season. I've been able to play with the legends and over the past few weeks, it's really felt like I can finally sit back and celebrate and kind of just rest after what's been like this crazy freaking almost a year or now that that I've officially gone to the process. Yeah. And I'm so glad you do get that rest because I mean, when you audition for the show, and you try to go on, you can't predict what your experience is going to be like. That's something else. Max and I my husband talk about is like the biggest fear being going and then getting voted off first and then just having to like wait somewhere and like lose months of your life, you know, so what an incredible story that you've had. I mean, did you expect to win? I know everyone goes thinking they can win, but you did it. You know, it's so crazy going into season 49. So that was my first season. I felt it in my bones the entire time before I even went out there. I'm like, Oh my God, I'm going to win this thing. And just to give context, dude, the first time I applied for the show, I was 17 years old. I was in high school. I'm 32 now. Okay. So I've been trying to get on this show for a long time. I've had a long time to study up and to watch the show. But also, I have a lot of life experience, right? I worked as a journalist for about 10 years. I went to college. You learn a lot of life experiences and life lessons in college and with both of those things in particular, like I just became a person who is more aware of who I am, but more importantly, how I fit into the world and how I fit into the world with other people around me. And that's ultimately what really helped me out there on the island, like in some situations in my initial season, like I knew there were situations where I'm not going to be able to work with everybody. Everybody's not going to want to work with me. But I know kind of how I can fit in and how I can navigate some of these situations. But dude, seriously, for 49, like I felt it in my bones before I even got out there. And even in some of my pregame press, I think I even corrected one of the interviewers when he asked, like, I'm talking to Savannah, who's going to be on season 49. I corrected him. And I was like, Oh, no, you're talking to the future winner of Survivor 49. That's how sure I was. I love that. I want to go deeper into that because I've been thinking more about intuition and trusting my gut and really being connected to the universe and timing. So have you always been someone that's been able to have a sense of something like that? Was this the first time it felt different for you? Tell me more about that relationship with the unknown and then the trust of your intuition. You know, I think I always have been someone who is very go with your gut. And there have been times in my life where I haven't gone with my gut and I've gone kind of with my head. So here's an example for you. When I was in my mid 20s, I had a job opportunity and I visited the station and everything in my head said, This is a great career move. This is going to be a great path for you. It's a step up. You're on the right trajectory here. But when I was in that space, something in my gut told me, no, it doesn't feel right. The vibe is off. The vibe is weird. And I ignored that feeling because I was just really looking at a possible resume builder and what this could do for my future. And this work situation actually ended up being a really toxic work environment. There weren't necessarily signs that it was going to be a toxic work environment during my visit. But it was just something in my gut that was almost warning me. Maybe something that I didn't immediately register. I think there's something to be said about a woman's intuition. One of my best friends always tells me there's nothing more powerful in the world than a woman's intuition. And I think there's so much truth to that. It's almost like this biological gift that we have. And when we choose to listen to it, which is something that I've leaned into as I've gone older, it can guide us in some of these decisions, whether it's in survivor, making alliances with certain people, deciding to trust certain people, whether it's to take a job, whether it's to move to a new place. Our intuition is always going to give you little clues and it's really up to us, whether we decide to trust that intuition or whether we go with our head or whether maybe there's a way that we can mix the two, right? And it can be really difficult to determine like what is our intuition, what is right, what's our anxiety. I just had to make a really big life decision in my personal life. And my intuition knew this was right. But my head and my anxiety was very scared, very scared. Like, I want to know, I want to be positive, I want all the things. And I had to like literally over the past week just figure out like what voice is correct. And I'm so glad that I was able to just make the right choice. And then recognize that like, it's just fear, it's anxiety, it's the unknown, but sometimes you just have to take a leap in life and listen to that voice. And I agree with you, it's so powerful. And I think all women should work on developing and fine tuning that, especially in a world that wants us to take so much advice from other people. And we see so much all the time. I've been trying to push myself more to be like, okay, well, that might be what someone else does or what they want, but what do I want? Yes. And I will say something about course correcting, right? Because sometimes we do make what might be considered the wrong decision. But I'm a firm believer that, you know, there's never really a true wrong decision, right? You're always going to course correct. Everything is going to work out just the way it should. Yeah. And even if you make a decision that feels so difficult in the moment, everything's always temporary. It's a good stuff and a bad stuff. That can be a good thing. That can be a bad thing. But everything is going to work out just how it should. You have to make the wrong decision, quote, sometimes because then you learn from it. So yeah, everything's meant to be your learning something from everything. I mean, the experience you had at that job, I know was really difficult for you. You opened up about that on the show. I feel like you had mentioned that there was some bullying or there was exclusion, just what was that experience like? Dude, it was actually insane. It was crazy. Typically, I think when people hear about bullying and things like that, they think about that time in maybe elementary school, middle school, high school, you know, when you're surrounded by adolescents, kids, right. Very rarely do we hear about or do we talk about this happening when you're an adult, right. And so I went into this work situation. I was so excited to be there. It was a new job. It was a great opportunity. And what essentially had happened was I joined a very tight knit team. And one of the members of the team was maybe demoted is a strong word, but they were given a different position off that team, essentially. And I basically took their place. And as the outsider coming in, it was incredibly difficult for me to make an inroads with this group. And I'll be honest, I wasn't the best person at the job. I started to get so anxious that it would affect my performance on air. And it felt like I was almost digging myself into this even bigger hole. But ultimately, it felt like my team was ostracizing me. There were times when I would hear them talking about me behind my back or not even behind my back, but literally like six feet away from me. I remember once I brought my family to the TV station where I worked. And I was so excited to show them where I worked and introduce them to everybody and they ignored my family. They wouldn't even look up from their iPads where they were working when my parents were saying hello to them. And it just felt like they were treating me and my family like trash. There were other incidents too, but it was just so much. And the fact that it was happening every single day. And it was very lonely. It was very isolating. And loneliness is it's such a powerful human emotion because when you're lonely, oftentimes, you're also sad. You lose hope and a lot of senses. And every day just felt like it was this huge obstacle just trying to get through. It was a long two years. I was there on the contract. So I literally couldn't leave. I mean, that's so difficult. It enforces you to kind of look in in words too and learn more about who you are. That makes sense. Yeah, definitely. And I think it's important that you share that that happened in your adult years because it's true. A lot of workplace environments, you might not click with the people you're working with. And that sucks, you know, especially when you're so excited. Right. And you know what's crazy is I think before I went through this situation because I'm I'm typically a pretty mentally tough person. I think you see that when I face the vibe, we're like Intel. I'm kind of a hard ass sometimes. I'm a tough cookie. And I think that going through this situation made me a lot more empathetic to people because on the surface, yeah, you know, it might sound a little silly or sensitive. Oh, like you're upset that your co-workers wouldn't talk to you or that your co-workers were fake to you. Welcome to the real world. But honestly, like that was actually very hard and very traumatic. Yeah. And I don't want to say it's good that it happened because it was very difficult, but I think in a lot of ways, open my eyes to maybe being a little bit more compassionate and sensitive towards others who might be going through anything like that. You know what I mean? Yeah, when you're on the outside, you're like, holy shit, this sucks. I never want anyone to feel like they're on the outside. Real bodice brought to you by elements. And you know how much Max and I are obsessed with elements. Actually, just the other day, he was like, do we have element on us? Because I usually have an element pack on me somewhere, whether it's in my car, in my purse, or the hundreds that we have in our pantry. We love all the flavors. They're so good. And we just love element because it's so important to replenish the lost electrolytes that many of us don't even realize we're losing through our workouts, through sweat, and through our every day. 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You can get yours at drink element dot com sash real pod. This deal is only available through my link. So you must go to drink element DRI and K element E dot com sash real pod. I had an experience like that at a camp when I was young, what back to your thing about usually elementary school, but I remember feeling like really excluded at this camp and bullied. And I was like, Oh my god, I never want anyone I encounter to ever feel this way. So you know, those experiences help make you then a better person in like the world you you live in. But yeah, I thought it was awesome that you opened up about that on the show and like a vulnerable because I do think for a long while on your season, you were like a really tough cookie. And I think that vulnerability is so important because it's like what people connect with. And I think what your alliance and tribates ended up connecting with two. Yeah, no, you're so right. When we are vulnerable with other people, it gives some the opportunity to see a little bit of themselves in us. And you know, that's a lesson I kind of learned and I'm still continuing to learn to this day. I'm someone who I do not like to get vulnerable with people easily. I have a really hard time trusting people in my normal everyday life. And so trusting people with the most vulnerable parts of me is literally like scary, whether it's someone who I'm trying to create an alliance with in the game or even like my boyfriend. In a lot of senses, I was very slow to open up to him in a lot of ways. But if you can find a way to be vulnerable with other people, it's so freeing. And you don't get me wrong. Like when I shared that story in the show, I heard from a lot of people. Some of the comments were really negative and nasty. And I go, I can't tell you how many people were like, oh, listen, Dana probably deserved it. I would love to talk to her co-workers like he is probably the bad guy here. But the amount of other people who had something positive to say, who maybe are going through something similar, who feel lonely, and who almost saw a part of themselves in my story, and who were encouraged that I was able to get out of that situation. And maybe they can get out of that situation too. That's the way I shared that story before. Even if it helps one person, like that's why I'm sharing and hoping to just help one person out of time. It definitely does. And I'm sure you've been through it with all the online comments, all that, but it's all part of it. I was super honestly excited when we were DMing each other and you had said that you had quite a bit to share about the body image of it all and the kind of sort of reading of it all because I as someone who's had my own eating disorder and love survivor has thought about that. Like what would it be like to not have food and pretty much be starving out there and how that could affect you mentally and physically. So I'd love to know maybe what your relationship was like with your body image and food prior to the show and then how going on the show affected that. Dude, this is going to be like a long answer. We might need to unify. I'm getting comfy. I've got to blink it for your heart out. So you know, all prep is this kind of by explaining like, I've never had an eating disorder. I've always been an athlete and you know, there are times in my life where I've thought, okay, I've been lose a few pounds, but I've always generally appreciated my body and the strength more importantly that my body has provided for me. Going on the show, I thought I was in great shape and you know, I'm out there for about 26 days and during that time, you're not really eating much, right? There might be coconuts that you find on the island or some papaya every now and again, but you really are, you know, there's no real bars behind the scenes like that's you're eating except for a few times during the season where there might be a reward challenge. And during those reward challenges, you have the opportunity to win anything from a steak dinner to tacos to a grilled cheese sandwich. I mean, that was one of the first rewards that we won. And you know, as the season goes on, the rewards get progressively bigger and greater and more delicious. And so when I won some of those rewards, I would go from basically not eating anything to gorging and trying to eat as much as humanly possible. And I'll be real with you like anyone who's ever gone out to dinner with their friends or, you know, their family like it's fun to have an experience where you sit around the table and you eat and you have conversation and in survivor, you you strategize, right? It's part of that that experience where you're enjoying some of those delicacies that just make everything so much more enjoyable. So after playing, it kind of warped my experience and my mindset whenever I had food in front of me. It's the craziest thing because for that period of time, I was so used to whenever I had big plate of food or any opportunity of food to just consuming as much as I humanly could. And so this was especially hard after I got boated out of season 50 because I played two seasons back to back. And so two seasons, essentially, even though one of them was quite short of this weird, awkward relationship with food. And so when I finally got boated out from 50, I'm like, all right, I'm going to be eating everything, right? And so it starts off maybe, okay, I'll have some cake. And instead of having like maybe one slice of cake, I'll have, and I kid you not, but like five very large slices of cake and this would be after like a full day of eating. And when I would eat, I wouldn't just stop when I was full. I would eat until I was in physical pain. And even when I hit that point to where I felt like I was gonna be sick, I would still feel the need to consume. And I probably lost maybe like 10 pounds or something. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but you know, I'm five foot tall. So 10 pounds on, I mean, that's quite a bit. I lost about probably 10 pounds after I played season 49. Two months after I finished survivor 50. So that's, you know, about two months removed from the game, I had gained about 30 pounds total, which was like more than I had ever weighed in my entire life. And I trust me. I know it's not all about the number on the scale. It should not be all about the number on the scale. My body was also so inflamed. It hurt to work out. I used to be very into like the bootcamp. I was like, I did not do that anymore, but even just like the long walks that I would do around my neighborhood, that would actually be, you know, painful for my joints at times, just because my inflammation was so bad. I was losing a hair. Like my body just like it was in this state of confusion. And it had no idea really what to do in terms of the food. When I got back to the US, I mean, my relationship with food, it got even worse at times. I remember going into the grocery store and having like a full-blown panic over, oh my gosh, there's so many options here. What am I going to eat? What am I going to get? Am I going to get the wrong thing? And my fear with that was that I would get the wrong thing and I used both around that, you know, because what I know now is there's no true wrong thing to eat in that time when your body's trying to recover. But would I get the wrong thing? And then just go on this crazy binge where, again, I wouldn't be able to stop eating. And as someone who typically loves to have control over every aspect of their lives, I felt like I had zero control over when I was consuming. And it felt like a worse nightmare kind of thing. But it's really honestly the first time I've talked publicly about this. And it was really hard to go through. My hope in sharing this is that maybe it can help someone. I'm so thankful that you are, Savannah. And I'm honestly shocked. There's not been more conversations about it from past contestants and people who play the game. You know, it sounds like almost the brain process this food scarcity of we don't have food. We're not going to have food. So the next time foods in front of us, let's eat it all. And then obviously you're literally in a survival state on the show. So then leaving the show, there's parts of your wiring that might not fully feel safe and realize, hey, we can have food when we're hungry each day, right? There's maybe this subcon just part of you. That's like, is this going to get taken away? I've got to get it all in while I can, which makes so much sense. Savannah used to have a binge eating disorder. And I mean, one of the top triggers that leads to that is the brain thinking. This is my only opportunity to eat food. So I'm going to eat all the food that I can. I mean, the five pieces of cake example been there. Like, I once had a whole, like a whole box of crispy cream donuts before going into a volleyball practice because I just was like, well, I'm never going to buy myself crispy cream donuts and someone brought them and everyone left the locker room and I'm here by myself. So I could just eat them all now. And then tomorrow, I'm never going to have another donut. I know what those games are like. Yeah, it is so hard. And so actually one of the things I'm so grateful for from CBS, they set me up with a therapist. And they set all of us contestants up with a therapist. But they set me up with one in particular who specialized in eating disorders. And she helped me basically all summer long. Like we went through a workbooks together. I met with her every week. And kind of like what you're saying, my body did not recognize necessarily that it wasn't in this starvation mode anymore. And it felt like it just had to have as much, you know, especially like the eye calorie and the sweets as possible because it was so scared that I was going to put it back into that starvation mode that had been through survivor. And of course, like my brain knows, like, oh, that's not going to happen. I'm not playing this game again, but my body, no matter how hard I got it, my body could not grasp that. Yeah. And I don't know how you overcame your eating disorder. But for me, I had to just kind of like lean in and say, like, all right, like I want all these cookies. Like, all right, I guess I'll eat all these cookies. And, you know, over time, it ended up stabling out, which I'm so grateful for. But dude, it was a very hard summer. I'm so grateful to hear that that's been better. And I'm so I was going to ask you about resources because I'm sure they provided them. And look, we're not trying to bash survivor. Like, and I think that's what's important about this, right? Is people need to be able to feel like they can talk about these things. And like, I would be shocking to go on a show where you're essentially starved and not come out of it with slightly a different relationship with food or feeling different physically. I'm so glad that they're providing you with the resources that you need to feel better. And I'm sure you know going on to the show. Like, I've never even auditioned and it's something I think about. If you go on the show, you've got to accept, you know, that's one of the things you're signing up for. And so I think it's healthy to be able to have this conversation and be like, you had a great experience, you love CBS. And hey, I left with a pretty gnarly thing to tackle. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, honestly, CBS, like they are very well aware of a lot of the struggles that the contestants go through, whether it has to do with struggles around food, whether it's struggles that have to do with maybe other relationships that are going on in their lives because playing the game like it can also alter the way that you think about other people and your own paranoia and your, I heard that. Like, it's wild when they leave. It's insane. It really is. And for me, I'm grateful for the experience because, you know, even though I had this, this really difficult element to it, it was so much greater. And I would never want that element when I thought back to it's a tarnish, you know, that the experience as a whole, it was overall great. And the producers know what they're doing in terms of making sure all of us are taken care of. Good, good. And to answer your question about how I sort of overcame my binge eating, it was through into a deviating, which to your point was, I am going to allow myself to eat what it is when I'm hungry and trust myself because the self-trust is what, at least for me, was really warped because I didn't trust myself to allow myself to have the food again or to not restrict the next day. So, you know, you have to slowly build back that relationship with yourself. But just by the way you're talking about it, I mean, isn't too a deviating and approach that your counts are had been taking with you or how's that been framed? Yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely. It's kind of interesting because before a survivor, I've always been someone who's very health-focused and like I'm eating vegetables every meal, like maybe should I get my protein in. And that's kind of like the household that I was raised in. And so, coming out of survivor, I'm like, I don't give two shits about a vegetable, like I don't want anything green, like I just want like all the carbs and all the sugars. And I was told to kind of like lean into that, you know, and I did for a couple months. And then after a while, my body stopped braving, a lot of those super sugary, high fat, high calorie, you know, fast food, kind of things that I was eating at the time. And things just sort of stabled out over time. You know, there's so much truth to the cliche, time heals all. And I think a lot of times people hear that and they think, okay, time heals all. Maybe that just means, you know, something mental or spiritual. But it can also like, there's so much of the physical part, at least in my experience, where I'm was key in healing my mindset around food. So yeah, I mean, to go back to Intuitive Eating, like now, I pretty much eat what I want, when I want it. I'm not like typically a first thing in the morning, I'll eat kind of person. But if I am, like, I'll go down the street and get a breakfast burrito, like, and I won't allow myself to feel bad about it. Because for a long time, I was feeling bad if I would go and eat something that big, that really in the morning. But now it's just about honoring my body and recognizing every day is different. I don't necessarily do the same thing. I don't necessarily have the same routine every day. My body, also depending on like, you know, what's going on inside of my, you know, on my period or, you know, what's going on. I might be craving different things. And that's okay too. And to be perfectly honest with you, it's still something that I struggle with, especially with the anxieties that were so linked to my weight gain over the summer. There's part of me whenever I do feel some of these cravings, maybe we'll call them. I do get a little fear in my head sometimes. Like, oh, my gosh, is this the start to another slip down, down a road that I don't necessarily want to be on? But in those moments, it goes back to what you said about rusting yourself and reminding yourself, like, hey, we've been here. We've done that. We've gotten through this phase, a little, a little treat's not going to kill you. Right. And you know what, even if you dig in a little weight, like, okay, like whatever, right? Like, it's not the end of the world. Like, come on. Like, no one really actually cares. It's crazy because like, you know, on the iPhone, like, you'll see sometimes old pictures from like, you know, like, it'll randomly show you old pictures where you don't necessarily care to see them, but I've come across some of the pictures from over the summer where I thought I looked awful, and I thought I looked huge and, you know, bigger and all that stuff. And I see them now. And I'm like, wait, I did not look bad at all. Like, I was so hard on myself, but it was just such a weird mindset to be in. I think because everything changed so fast. I looked myself at the time and I'm like, oh, my God, I just want to give her a hug. I completely understand that. I'm glad to hear, though, that things have gotten better. And I totally appreciate the honesty. And I find that when I have that thought creep in, which I have all the time where like we are women existing in a world that's telling us to constantly lose weight. and be smaller. We now are seeing like every celebrity just evaporate into thin air in front of us. You know, I will have thoughts frequently that are like, should I eat this? Let's cut this out. And I try not to get upset with myself that I'm having the thought, right? Because I'm a human being and we're all going to have silly thoughts. Like, could this roof collapse? Like, is there someone hiding in my closet? And it's like, no, there isn't. I'm safe. And just reminding myself, oh, there's that thought, but I'm not going to let action follow. And that's actually my path to the healthy, peaceful life I want to live. Yeah. And I think, you know, it's funny that you say happy and peaceful when I think about this to the two letters, I come to my mind or kind of like f you like fuck you like, and not to you directly, but like kind of like to that industry that makes us feel like we have to be like the tiniest versions of ourselves. And like, that's the best version of ourselves that exists because you don't like fuck that, you know? Yeah. It's no. I love that. It's sustainable. It's it is. Honestly, one of the paths to healing is if you can't be like, I want to do this for myself, because I'm worth it. Like if you struggle with the self worth aspect, another strong entry point is fuck the patriarchy, fuck the systems that make women think they should be small and like not subscribing to that. And then as a byproduct, you're working towards a better relationship with yourself. Exactly. Yeah. So you can take the happy, peaceful, I'll take the angry, fuck you side. This episode is brought to you by Premier Protein. And I love Premier Protein so much. I feel like I don't go a day anymore without having a protein drink because it's just so hard to ensure that we're getting enough protein and the amount that we need every single day. And sometimes I'm super busy. I just like can't think about that in every single meal. And I don't like to hyperfixate on it, right? So that's where Premier Protein is the solution. It's easy and delicious and a protein packed way to power your day. There's so many incredible flavors. I like to keep mine in the fridge, because I always like my protein drinks cold. They have so many delicious flavors. I love the chocolate and the coffee flavor. And the coffee flavor even has caffeine. 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I know you said this was the first time you're kind of opening up about this publicly. I'm curious if you've talked to any other contestants that you have a close with. Yes, and that's a big reason why I feel some problem people talking about this because it's not just me who's gone through it. When I went through my season and I came back and I gained all this weight, I leaned on a lot of different people who had played the game before me. I looked primarily at women who had either gone through the game and made it pretty far. I also looked at women who had had similar edits to me in the show. And you know how accurate on a skill of one to a ten of accuracy of how you feel like you played and showed up in the game. I would give it an 8.5. Like honestly, it was pretty good. It did a good job. I think that they showed a very intense and very tough version of me. I absolutely have like a very soft side too. And my close allies in the game absolutely saw that. But they definitely made me look like very scary. Maybe they wanted a ferocious winner. That's why I put you on my fantasy draft. I was like, I know Savannah's not letting her ask you vote it out. I think that there also is going to always be something with a woman who plays in a very confident way, who's very bold, and who can honestly like be a little abrasive at times. Yeah, if I'm not eating, of course, I'm going to be abrasive. Like, are you kidding me? Like, I'm going to be angry every day. Those things, though, can often get associated with being a bitch, being a mean girl. In my normal life, like, I don't think I'm a mean girl. I spoke to a lot of people when the season was airing, who actually knew me in real life because that was another thing I had a hard time with was, you know, kind of hearing all the noise about how I'm this mean, awful person. When I don't necessarily see myself like that, and I leaned on people in my real life, people who are going to be brutally honest, and legitimately tell me if there's an issue with how I'm acting. All of them said, no, Savannah, like, we know you, you're not a mean girl, which was very comforting to hear. And what I also did was reach out to other women who had similar edits to me, who had maybe been called a mean girl online, and to have gotten hate. And what I found was I had actually admired some of these players, some of these female players when they had actually been playing their season. And they had all been called mean girl, bitch, all these awful negative things. Honestly, it's very genderized. Yeah, it's unfortunately, I think part of being a woman in 2026. Yeah. Earlier when you're going to be someone who's bold and fearless on TV like that. But, you know, it's our world is learning. And I hope that that's not going to be the case forever. Right. Women are just so heavily criticized. I always try to check the women around me and myself. You know, I'll hear people say, she just bothers me. I don't know why she just bothers me. And I'm like, that's not a good enough reason. We need to be like, anti that and how to make sure no woman bothers us. And we have their benefit of the doubt for them, you know, all the times. I also with reality TV, like unless I met someone face to face, I don't have a judgment about them, like a visceral one. I think people who go finish watching a show and are like, I have these intense feelings about this. It's like, okay, you've literally never met them in its reality TV. Like, calm down. I do want to know a little bit about just survivor superfan stuff. How different was it being actually on the show versus watching it from TV? How do they divvy up when you guys do your confessionals? How does no one hear what you're saying in your confessionals? Does everyone have equal time? Yeah, that's such a good question. From my perspective, they do a pretty good job at allotting everybody equal time for their confessionals. So what they'll do is they might have one or two producers on the same island and they might pull one or two contestants or castaways at the same time. And when you're pulled for a confessional, you are walking all the way down the beach. Okay, so there's no way anyone's going to hear you unless you're screaming at the top of your lungs. But your confessionals honestly kind of feel like you're talking to a friend, right? Because, you know, when you're playing the game, you might have allies, but you can't necessarily trust someone 100%. And when you're sitting there with a producer, you kind of just, it's like kicking back and having a beer with a buddy minus the beer. You do. You do. And the producers are all amazing. And I think to their credit, they do. Like, they feel invested in you. Whenever I was talking with them, I felt like they were so genuinely curious to know what I was thinking and why I was thinking it. And I felt empowered in a lot of ways after talking with them. Like, you know, afterwards, I felt like, yeah, you know, I just sold my case to this producer about what I'm going to do next and why I think I can do it. I'm going to go do it and I'm going to go with. Right. Right. I love that. What was the craziest thing that happened during filming or that you weren't prepared for? Didn't expect that you think viewers at home, like, should know. Oh my gosh. Well, I will say this. Everything is on camera, which is so wild. You always think maybe, like, oh, like, maybe there's some breaks or something, but like, no, the camera is always on. Even when you're sleeping, there would be times where I would wake up in the middle of the night. And like, there was literally a cameraman, like, right here filming. And it's like, what are you filming? Like, literally nothing is going on, but they are non-stop. Right. I will also say, like, in my experience too, like, we never had to reshoot anything. Everything that you see out there, it's like documentary style. So if you find an idol, if you have a crazy conversation or something funny happens, like, you're not recreating it, they are so good at capturing everything, every little movement. Everything is so authentically real. And I don't know that I can say that about every other reality TV show, right? Right. Right. Definitely. Oh my God. That sounds so exciting and crazy. But the camera people, they weren't allowed to talk to you, right? Yeah. No, they don't say a word to you. Another crazy thing about the cameras is really like those challenges that you watch on TV, like the huge obstacle course challenges. Walking into those, it feels like there's like 50 cameras all pointing at you. And it's the line of producers. It's so intimidating. Wow. I don't think I've ever had like anything that will compare to the very first challenge that we did on season 49. Because it was so new to me, but I had so much adrenaline. My body literally felt electric. I was shaking. I've never experienced anything like that before and I'm like a former athlete. I've had some crazy life situations before. Nothing has ever prepared me for like that adrenaline moment from the first marooning challenge. We forget that there's even cameras there. I'm like, it's you guys playing a game in Jeff's there. And also Jeff's commentating, like, you're not hearing it the way we hear it at home. And there's no like inspiration. you're just competing and like the dance island. You know what? I know some people kind of pay on Jeff for some of his narration. I've heard people say, "Oh, that's so annoying. Like, hearing Jeff just talk, talk, talk." I love it. Yeah. Because you're right. Like it would be so awkward to just compete in dead silence. If you've ever gone to like a sports game or anything like that, you'll hear people cheering, right? Right. It's not necessarily the same when you're playing a survivor. Maybe your tribe's cheering for you, but for the most part, like it's pretty dead out there. And so when you hear Jeff kind of bringing a little extra life to some of these challenges, it's like, all right. Like, you know what? I am going to get this ball in the hole and I am going to do a faster than them over there. Like, we can do this. It's all about how you like kind of channel Jeff's energy. I know. I like his announcement. My husband and I, we know all the Jeffisms will be like, it is time to vote. Oh, I wanted to ask you about tribal council. Those are long, aren't they? And they cut him down to like two minutes. Dude, it's crazy. Like tribal council, I think usually lasts about an hour. I mean, of course, like we don't know for sure because we don't know what time it is like ever. But yeah, like you are talking for a long time. And Jeff, I don't think like decides to stop tribal council until he feels completely satisfied. So you could be in there. And Jeff might think, okay, we're going in this one direction. But then the tribal council might go longer and longer, depending on what unfolds. And I feel like sometimes watching it at home, to me. And I feel like sometimes watching it at home, to me, it's super obvious. What's going to happen? But when you're actually there, is it that obvious? Who the votes between? And it really depends on the specific tribal council. So for example, like the one where I got sent home, I'm like, all right, I'm pretty sure it's me. But maybe there's like a 1% chance that everybody is going to vote with me and decides to vote out on. So you felt like it was going to be you? Yeah, I did. In my boot episode, like there's a moment at tribal council where I get like a little emotional, and I get kind of flustered. And I'm all over the place because I could kind of feel like the door was shutting on my experience. And there was just, there was so much emotion going on. Right. I had a pretty good feeling. It was going to be me going home unfortunately. And what? Not that I think that you should have played it any differently. I'm just curious. If you're feeling that way, I've seen some tribals where people will just like call it out. Like you guys, we should all vote Aussie because Aussie this and they put their life on the line. Did you not want to do that because you were worried if they weren't voting you at all? It makes you look like just like can't be trusted. And then your games blown if you go back to camp like, you know, it's easy for us to watch it and think Hail Mary at more. But what were you thinking? You know, I thought maybe there's a one percent chance that they could be with me and I was in a position to where these people all kind of knew each other before the game started or at least they knew of each other. They had seen each other play. Some of them had mutual friends. Some of them have even talked before. So they have a sense of familiarity. For me, being the new kid on the block and already playing a huge uncertainty. Yeah, and a winner. Like that's not a very good thing. When you're coming into this group, I wanted myself to see as normal and stable as possible, especially because like in 49, like I was a little bit of a firecracker. And I knew that that could be a red flag in some cases. I was really trying to just be like it's normal and low key and like chill as possible. Yeah, that makes sense. It would be tough. They're very smart people to think they'd let an unknown winner just slip through the cracks. I mean, you were up against a lot. Lastly, Savannah, I'm curious. Would you ever play again? Yeah, I would. I think the difference, though, is for 49, like I told you, I felt it in my bones. I'm like, I'm going to win this thing. This is mine. I was not in a good place mentally when I went to play 50. And I feel like if I ever play again, I need to play with the contingency that I genuinely feel like I can win because, you know, the experience is fun. But I think winning is even more fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, of course it is. Of course it is. Can I ask you who are you rooting for for 50 now? Now that I'm out. Yeah. Now that you're out. It's tough. I, I'm confused if Christian's going to win. And that's why he's getting so much screen time. Or if he's going to get the boot. And I don't, he just has a lot. They've just been going a lot of tribal councils and he's running that tribe. I love the oldies. So like, I would love to see Aussie make it really far. Who else? I do love her. Yeah. I'd love to see him keep going. I did draft him to my team too. I'm so surprised to re hasn't just been taken out. Now I mean, D said she was not going to play with her. Now she's in alliance with her. So it's crazy to watch. But yeah, it's been good. Savannah, thank you so much. And this was so fun. I hope we get to meet some. I voted for the real life live reunion winner announcements. So I hope they do that. You know, I'll let you in on a little secret because Jeff was already kind of shared. But they are going to be doing the live finale. Okay. So we got to find a way to get you there. Yeah. Thank you for sharing your story. And I'll be rooting for you in whatever your next adventure is. And hopefully get to meet you soon. Thank you so much. It was so good to chat with you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of real pod. If this hit home or helped you in some way, send it to a friend, a teammate, Rumi. Share the love, share the realness. All of these episodes of real pod come out every single Wednesday. So make sure you are subscribed to this podcast so you never miss an episode. To leave a rating or review of the show, head to iTunes and let me know what you think. I love hearing from you. Not to mention you can stay connected with real pod throughout the week. Seeing behind the scenes info and sneak previews of upcoming guests. By following the @realpod account on Instagram. All information about today's show and guests will be linked in the description of this episode. Thanks again for listening. I love you guys so so much. Let's go dominate the day and as always, keep it real. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.