Barbell Shrugged - Talking Depth - NASA (part 2)

Episode Date: April 21, 2016

We discuss episode 2 of our new Series "Full Depth"

What's up everybody, this is Mike Mc... What's up everybody, my name is Ty My Suit. Oh shit! My name is Ty My Suit, how did it go after that? I don't remember. For a little freestyle. For a little freestyle? I can't believe you remember that.

What's up everybody, this is Ty My Suit. I'm here today to give you a little freestyle Dude I used to know that all right you want to start this piece You don't know anything What's up everybody this is Mike McGoldrick here with here with mike mcelroy kurt mulligan alex macklin and ctp we're here to talk about episode two of our brand new series full depth if you haven't checked it out yet just air it on barbell shrug go check it out this is talking depth Go, go, go, go, yeah. All right.

So we're back. New episode of Talking Depth. Very excited. We just watched episode two. Great ending. Everything about it blew me away. I got some notes here that I can't wait to talk about. Last time we saw.

A little nod to David Bowie there. Oh, man. I mean, it teared me up a little bit. That's one of my favorite ending Charlotte. That's, that's one of my favorite songs by far. Um, I listened to that right before I got married. Powerful. Well, the marriage is still going, so it's working.

So anyways, last episode, both of these have started with cool stories. The marriage and the moon buggy. The moon buggy wasn't a cool story. It kind of. You guys are too kind. What were you saying a minute ago? What are we about to do? Space bukkake, you're a Mayan Jaina.

Oh my gosh. I had to make up a saying. We're off to a good start. So episode two, some of the notes that i wrote down things that came to my attention that i wanted to bring up and chat about or uh some of the internal things that go on so i mean we talked more about strength loss and bone density loss the last episode but you know it makes they make it sound like oh like you know we're gonna get them in better shape when they come back to to town, and then just get them moving around a little bit better. But the vestibular issues they brought up, the vision,

that was pretty interesting, which honestly to me sounds way more scary than anything. If I'm not very strong for a little while or I need to work on bone density a little bit, that's fine. I can probably handle that. But if I can't see right, yeah, that's going to probably change my that but if i can't see right uh yeah that's gonna probably change my goals of going into space yeah they didn't did they say how long that lasts i

forgot what the the blurred vision the the depth perception uh i think it's temporary yeah so uh actually i was reading an article a while ago it was uh this guy this astronaut named uh chris hadfield he has a great book. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's it called? Check it out.

Um, I don't remember the title of it, but it's fucking cool. Yeah. So he actually experienced like coming back and couldn't see like blurred vision. And they were talking about like the intracranial pressure. Cause in, in space you're in this like state of weightlessness and free fall.

The, the normally what would happen is that your your the blood would pool in your lower body or lower extremities but because you don't have gravity that actually causes blood to go more into the head and so that increases pressure in the skull and so that can cause like pressure on the optic nerves and then that can lead to damage of the nerves uh like damage of the eyes like the retinas and all that stuff and that can that can cause like temporary blindness or blurred vision yeah you're getting a brain pump yeah you're getting a brain pump while you're out there but it's not i mean not healthy it's not healthy like you're not supposed to have a whole lot of like pressure, pressure in the brain because, you know, you can actually – I mean, that can actually put you into a, you know, dangerous situation.

Right. So that was something I did not know until, like, I read that article a while ago about that astronaut going – getting blurry vision. Right. I didn't think because of gravity. I assume blood is – like you said, it's not really evenly distributed throughout our body. Right. But when you're up in space, it's a little different. Right.

I mean, that's what I was saying in the last episode that we discussed is that, you know, gravity, we're not meant to be in space at all. Like, we're not. That's not what our bodies are designed for. That's not our habitat. No, it's not at all. I wrote that word down. I really wanted to say it later.

And, I mean, so, yeah, I mean, even if you look at this episode, they talked about a lot of the design of the suit and how it's basically a mini spacecraft because you have to recreate the environment that is sustainable for life in that tiny suit. It's a portable environment. Yeah, it's a portable environment. And it's a port-a-potty too.

Yes. We learned that. Yeah. I had to ask. I mean, everybody was thinking it. Yeah. You know, when you take a dump. What was Stone Cold Astronaut's name again?

Robert. Robert. And that dude was the coolest guy on the planet. I was telling y'all earlier, he was just awesome. Like, seeing how he interacted with all the people he worked with too you could just tell he was like everybody fucking loves that guy he's just full of shit in all the best ways possible uh always laughing always smiling like i would love to just get breakfast with that dude like once a week he looked pretty serious man he looked like

serious business he knows his shit and and i don't know if he'll make this in like some bonus stuff but he he won an award. So NASA gives out the Snoopy Awards, which is like their highest award. Snoopy? Yeah, it's called the Snoopy. I forget why they chose it. There's a whole reason. Was it Snoopy in space?

I forget. Wasn't there like a Snoopy? I don't want to say it wrong and look like a retard, but he won one of those, which is kind of super prestigious to have. But anyway, cool dude, smart as hell. But we could have gotten anybody when we went and did this interview. In the morning when we got there, we didn't know who we were going to get. It could have been some like – we just assumed to be like some nerdy pusher glasses up.

Like NASA. We didn't know who we were going to get, and then we fucking got that dude, and I was like, hell yeah. It was awesome. Yeah, you could make fart jokes, and he was laughing about it, and we'd play along for sure. Oh my gosh, he was awesome. Made it way more entertaining, and, you know, this, I mean, I've always respected astronauts in space, and it's always been an interesting topic, but it's not necessarily high on the

radar of cool factor. Yeah, which is weird, right? Right. I mean, because it's very cool stuff, but why is it's very cool stuff but why is it that you know why is it that way well what's funny is we all went to you know you saw in the footage we were all at worlds all of us in this room were there uh and i you know during that we got a picture with uh wwf wrestler strongman mark henry big dude sexual chocolate for anyone watching back in the day and then also also NBA Hall of Famer.

Oh, yeah, Dikembe Mutombo. Dikembe Mutombo. Yeah. Yep, nope, nope, nope. And what's funny is, like, that's going to get the most likes of all the ones we got. But I took a picture with the astronaut while we were there. I know, I know.

And it's like, that's so much more rare and so cooler. But, like, no one thinks. Like, you were just alluding to it. It's not like something you think about. Can you say that was the guy that fixed the telescope? Yeah, he fixed the Hubble. Like, okay, here's a picture with Mark Henry, which no disrespect to Mark Henry.

Like, actually, what's funny is if you look at the picture with me and Mark Henry, I think of any picture I've ever taken in my life, I have the biggest smile just hugging Mark Henry. But, yeah, that dude fixed the Hubble telescope, and how cool was that? The thing that you see all the crazy pictures of the galaxy, he just went up there and fixed it. That was incredible.

The fact that he got out there in those suits outside of the spaceship. Yeah, that was the perspective. Connected by one little tether. That's all that's holding him from just floating. I mean, you've seen it, you've seen pictures of it, but for some reason, that perspective, when from just floating. I mean, you've seen it and you've seen pictures of it, but for some reason that perspective when you can see the earth around and then just nothing but black behind it

and you just see this dude just floating, almost like that's the perspective that almost freaks me out. Everything else, like you're in a spaceship, you feel kind of contained and held down by gravity. And then you're out there and nothing is holding you, right? Yeah, you just go forever. That freaks me out. It makes my palms sweaty.

So I don't know if we said this in the dialogue. I can't remember that Chris does, which, by the way, that dude was born for that job, in my opinion. That dude is so great at doing those little overdubs. And actually, just to give him a nod of the hat here, those things take a fucking long time. You can't just be like, it takes forever to come up with just the right punchy thing to say so yeah oh yeah just for us to do this stupid little intro for this show it took a hundred

times so maybe not born for that but so not another had to chris uh which he has a huge part in this show too by the way so just want to give a big shout out like i mean of course of course go ahead sorry i got on a tangent but what i was going to say is i don't know if we said during one of his monologues but when you saw the astronauts um on that um i don't know what you call it but when they were setting up to be put in the water you know they didn't have the suits on when they got there they were put on so basically they were standing in this thing that holds them upright. And then piece by piece they were putting on the suit.

And that was, man, it was at the very least 40 minutes. And I don't know if he said it on there, but it could have very well been an hour. And it's just a whole bunch of people sitting there helping them put it on, making sure everything is just right. And the astronaut, yeah, they're just standing. Like they're not really talking. It's not like they're shooting the shit with their homies. It's just like, and what you learn is, like, those guys just have to have an insane amount of patience.

Patience. Well, to me, that looked just, like, so game day. You know, like, they were in the suit, straight face. Like, everything was super serious. They're cranking these suits down. There's all these tools. It takes an hour. And then they're basically just being, like, submerged in and to to practice for space you know for right for it how cool is that like well you know the one guy you talked about

he it took him nine years to actually fly yeah right so i guess there were some mishaps in between which is usually a longer period of time than most people would get but um yeah he was saying otherwise he would have been like three to four times to relate it to training and like how you would assume like i'm like man all these guys like aren't they miserable like doesn't this get boring at some point but maybe if you look at it from the perspective when you talk to like an elite athlete who's training and you're like don't you get tired of going to the gym every single day most of the time they're going to be like no i don't like this this is what i love because they're just after that goal. Like, they don't care.

Yes, that is the mission. They are, like, getting there and they are just chasing, chasing, chasing. And no, it does not feel like work to them. Right. I'm not saying it's the exact same. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, yeah, a lot of parallels. Well, I think that goes back

to what you were saying, like, about, yeah, we have this photo of Mark Henry. Like, we saw it at the Kimmy Baton. We were like, oh, this stuff is so cool. And then, you know, like, maybe people won't see the astronaut thing as cool as Mark Henry, but, like, as an adult, you kind of just, like, live through your experiences, like, you have this means to it in your head all the time. When you're a kid, space is this thing that you just think about, and you can't fathom it, you can't understand it, and you just spend so much time, like, discovering or just thinking about it.

I feel like those guys never left that. They're always discovering. And just like the world's best athletes, they're always reaching into every corner of discovery, and they don't have this perceived end. There's no means to it in their lives. I have so much gratitude for this because, you know, like NASA to me and space travel and setting big missions and goals like this is a sign of like, you know, it's an icon

of chasing goals, like setting a goal and chasing it down and actually sticking to it, even if it's not possible. Like, tell me the guy's name again at the end. Robert. Robert. Robert Knight, I believe. Talking about fixing the telescope. He brought it up, and all the astronauts were like,

that sounds impossible, and they did it. So if we give up that kind of thing, if we don't chase down these kind of goals and have that vision, we stop living. You've got it you've got to continuously push the limits and continuously raise the bar and and like to me nasa is that icon like yeah that's we always talk about like loving yourself and and picking a goal for yourself and not letting other influences tell you you can't do that right you know you can't go to regionals

you can't lose this amount of weight you can't do this or that or whatever. And these guys are, like you said, like the epitome of that because most everybody, I say most everybody, wanted to be an astronaut. I probably wasn't in that category. But most everybody thought about that. You probably didn't know they were out there. Too busy playing outside. What's an astronaut?

At some point along the road, somebody told them you can't do that. But these guys didn't listen to him and they kept going and when they got presented with the opportunity to fix the telescope they're like all right we'll we'll take on the challenge and we'll do it no matter what people put in front of us for sure another cool thing too they talked about when uh the psychological side of it so coming down from that peak right so you spend years and years and years building up to that point and then what do you have a plan after that and he talked about how some of them actually have trouble with that so i mean you spent your whole life trying to be an astronaut and go into space and then when you're back maybe you're done

what do you who are you then like yeah you've done it you're still an astronaut right but but what after that what are you actually dedicating your life to yeah i've heard i can't remember if it was a navy seal that was actually talking about this or who was they were talking about um the the you know when people come back from war it's not so much what they struggle with it's not so much about what they saw over there because people you know here see loved ones die and stuff and so it's not and yeah they die in different ways over there but it's not necessarily that that they're struggling with this is the struggle with finding their mission again so when they're your navy seal or whatever you are especially an astronaut you have a very specific mission and that's the only thing you're focused on when you wake up in the morning that's your

mission and then they get back here and it's like all right now what am i here for and it's so easy too in those kind of situations war and i'm sure space, just to be so in the present. Right. It's such a rush. It's such a crazy feeling. And, you know, you're in the present. You're living in the moment probably a lot. And I think just like you alluded that it might not just be the space or the war, but it's just like how do you get back to that, you know, kind of like going on like a first date. You know, it's always that novel feeling because you're usually present because you're not like going to just be texting and ignoring your first date

or whatever, but it's, so it's probably a lot to do with that as well. And people around you are just like, yeah, lay back,

like wake up, eat some breakfast, like chill for a little while. You've been in space forever and they're like, like that's what they live off of. On top of the fact that, yeah,

you're in fucking space. Like that's so cool. With them, like that's their job, but that's their purpose. Yeah. They're living their purpose. So much deeper than a job.

And here, you know, Ted in accounting, like, that's not his fucking purpose, you know? That's not his purpose. He's got something bigger, but. Yeah. I mean, you know, you can see that nowhere on the level of being an astronaut or in the military and, you know, going to war. But you see that with a lot of athletes. Like, they reach the big goal that they've chased after. And then after that, it's like, well, shit, I didn't really think past that point what do you do now and then yeah how did you handle

that you got to the you worked all your you know what i did i didn't ever think about past it honestly once i hit it i was like well well i don't i don't know what to do now maybe i'll try and go back again i don't know but it's not the same you know like it's absolutely not the same purpose well how do you feel after after the games what like where honestly it was like shoes check like yeah so it was like it was a build-up build-up build-up years and years and years of work and then you achieve it and then after that it was honestly i think i'll just continue to try that because that's who i am but it's definitely not the same you don't have the same drive you don't have the same passion and purpose not all athletes are the same way.

This is me personally. I think Rich has even talked about, though, with him winning. Like, they ask him how he goes right back into training, and he's like, winning and just, like, going is so temporary. Like, you stay on the podium one day, and then the next day it's like, all right, 364 days until the next time. So it's so temporary. Yeah, so that might have been a mistake I made,

is that I didn't really think past that point point because honestly you just get so consumed in achieving that goal but once you get past that yeah i mean maybe it's definitely worth me looking into but they can also slow you down i think on one hand though like you just said it might slow you down i think uh to achieve that kind of greatness and achieve that kind of oh thank you high time mission i mean it is uh no for real i mean to achieve something like that it takes 100 focus and you can't be distracted by other things going on what ifs yeah yeah well i think same thing happened to me is like i you know i unlike most guys in the room i didn't play a lot of sports growing up and like i wasn't athletic and trained until i was like 23 ish and i think that might have a direct correlation that when i was five played flag football we won

the championship game so what about being the top pizza delivery guy and i didn't know what to do with my life after that yeah ever since downhills is that yeah so um i mean i took a lot from this one and the first one was more technical. You know, we talked more strength and conditioning. This one was more, to me, psychological. And for one, I just obviously like seeing how important it is that when you, what your body goes through when you leave your natural habitat like that. When you go up there and it's just things you take for granted here, how easily adapted we are to this world and then you go up there in space for a couple of days months whatever and you're at things just go freaking crazy right and then you know another thing too that i had a huge

amount of appreciation for was how these how these astronauts slash athletes handle taking you know that that that coming down from that peak you know like do they do they make it their new mission now to help people to coach to you know provide support for the up-and-coming astronauts that's pretty cool and then uh of course you know i have so much gratitude for charlotte and chris for making this a message to me that met me where i was at in terms of how i viewed this this this subject yeah the thing that stuck out to me at met me where i was at in terms of how i viewed this this this subject yeah the thing that stuck out to me at the end was i'm sorry yeah no that was that was pretty much it just thank you for you know making it really cool all over yeah for me it stuck out

at the end when he was talking about like how much they have going on there and like about being on mars relatively soon and things like that and saying like i think you know when we were laying on the moon for the first time everything everybody was thinking about nasa and whatnot now everybody's kind of forgotten about it and to no surprise i'm definitely one of those who like i don't even think about that right now like what's going on there but he he brought that to attention there's not only is there a little bit that's getting out to the media but there's so much more going on there than even the media knows that's coming up. Right. That's right.

That was the right answer, Mike. Good job. Well, I think we just kind of get blind to it. I know in Facebook feeds, that's kind of where you get most of the news now, right? And you'll see NASA things, new things coming out, like water on Mars, and periodically you'll see something cool, like they passed Pluto recently, some photos,

but the hype isn't quite there there what other sources could people check out that maybe watch this and have a whole new interest in space and nasa and you know astronauts like what are some cool things they can check out like for me one of the coolest things that got me interested in the first place was um neil's showmos. The redone versions of Cosmos. And there's a book over there that I think everybody should read. The second one down. You're rolling your eyes at me. Death by Black Hole.

Death by Black Hole. And that's Neil deGrasse Tyson's book, a collection of essays that are really fucking cool and fun to read. That's my recommendation. Well, I don't know about any of you guys, but I have had astronaut ice cream yeah apparently they don't eat it but you know when you're a kid you got it from the gift shop yeah yeah science museum dude oh yeah um last thing i want to say is uh just again another tip of the hat i think i said this

after we were off air for episode one um uh to charlotte for the way she edited this like um beautiful we like i alluded to there was tons of hours of footage and she had to sit down and like she wasn't there like i had mentioned so she had to sit down and like watch it all and pull a story out and i thought she did a fantastic job of like tying things together along with chris's monologues like kept it entertaining yeah i was engaged the whole. That's a tough job to do for a one-person team, so props. You guys want to add anything else? Alex is back on the mic.

Here, Alex, take us away with something that's just really going to bring us home. No pressure. No pressure. No retakes. Hold on. I will say this too. I'm going to go ahead and put it out there. You've got a lot to say. I know, right? I want to get a Deet I will say this too. I'm going to go ahead and put it out there. Yeah. Let's say I'm going to, I know, right.

I want to, I want to get, I want to get a deep shirt in space. Yeah. That's, I'm going to send, I'm going to send all the astronauts, some deep shirts.

I mean, they would look like they were lifting in like beefy teas up there. I will, I will fly to Houston to witness the first deep session. I want to be there for the remote coaching call. Yeah. Pretty cool. All right,

Alex, you had a second to think about it? I'm sorry. You're speechless. I get it. You're absolutely speechless. Right. Speechless.

Blown away. Right. My mind gina is blown. All right. This is ground control. Cool. We done? I thought you were going to start singing with me.

Or am I sitting in a tent? Take care. Thanks for listening, guys. Peace, guys.