Massenomics Podcast - Ep.160: Big James "Swimhack" Strickland is on the Team

Episode Date: April 29, 2019

We are pumped to announce that Big James is now officially on the Massenomics team! It's pretty cool for us to say that one of the biggest bench pressers of all time is now in the crew.  We also give you the low down on multi-level-marketing schemes. (spoiler alert... they suck!!)

Welcome to Massanomics, the world's strongest podcast. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Massanomics. Make sure you go visit massanomics.com. There you'll find the rest of our powerful content. While you're there, check out our store and buy yourself some of that sweet Massanomics gear. Welcome, everyone, to episode 160 of the Massanomics Podcast, aka the world's strongest podcast, aka the lifting podcast about nothing. Your two favorite and strongest Massanomics hosts are here again today, Tommy and Tanner.

Tommy, how's it going? What is happening? It's going really good. Good. That's all I wanted to know. Thank you for listening today. Now that we got that taken care of, shut her down. As long as these are sitting right here, maybe it's good to bring these out right away.

Just time for show and tell. Yeah. I can only look at these and not talk about them so far. I mean, this is basically Tanner's sack right here. Yep. It was not formally announced, but we're jumping right into it. Yeah, I busted it out of the sack so quick. If you're watching on our YouTube full video, which hopefully you are, you'll see this is kind of a big deal.

This is a really big deal. I don't even know how to explain this. It's almost like hitting people when they're down. If you thought you were broke before, prepare to take things to a whole other level. Yeah. And that is, we have a new pair of shorts. Yes. And these shorts are red.

So because they're not black, red dye, I think, is more expensive than black dye. So we have the deadlifter shorts. That's what's going on here. Yep. And, man, these things, if you thought they were expensive yeah they look expensive i mean the way the light hits these things that screen printing in the corner if you thought the lift shorts were expensive you ain't seen nothing yet no you have not um man i just it's really hard to just put it into words what's going on here. We'd almost have to hire someone that writes to accurately describe these things.

Like a Game of Thrones writer or something. I'm sure they could really get descriptive with stuff. They would involve penises into it as well, probably. They'd find a way to slip a couple of penises into the... A couple of wiener, wiener, wiener. Wiener, wiener, wiener. That kind of does. The South... A couple of weiner, weiner, weiner. Weiner, weiner, weiner. That kind of does, the South Park, that kind of ruined that song forever, didn't it?

Yes. Because I'm going through the series right now, and I cannot watch the series without thinking of that every time I hear the song. My son and I sing that quite regularly, and my wife no longer allows us to sing that. It is an instant classic. Well, and she says,

I hate when you guys do that and then but she did admit to me the other day she goes but now i can't help but think that same thing when i just sticks it sticks it was made for that but uh yeah these shorts though um yeah they're champion brand mesh shorts with dual pockets yeah uh i think they're Champion brand mesh shorts with dual pockets. Yeah. I think they're the mid-length Champion mesh shorts. They're actually printed on the same shorts as our traditional lift shorts, just in the bright, vibrant red. Yeah, we took the black lift shorts, made them red, and put a different logo on them.

Yeah. And if that's not charging more for something, then I don't know what is. So we are, in fact, we did once again, just when he thought we couldn't do it again, we took the plain ones, slapped our logo on them, and then charged more. Yep. If you thought we could only do that once, you're wrong. We did it again. You know, it's like that thing you always see on the internet.

It's like step one, and then it's like step two's question marks, and then step three's profit. Well, here it's step one is shorts, step two's logo, step three is profit. We solved the equation. Would you say, like if someone asked you if you liked these, what would your response be? Either A, nah, I'm good with the plain ones, or B, I prefer these. Well, I mean, they both are valid responses, but I always do prefer these ones. I'm a man of, you know, class and I enjoy the finer things.

So you're not good with the plain ones. I'm not good with the plain ones. I really did like in the Instagram comments, someone was talking about the shorts, something, and you're like, no, these are not for poor people. Someone's like, man. You're just going right. I really respect the way that you just these 20 some dollar shorts are not for poor people uh i mean obviously the shorts are really expensive but when it comes down to it you know we haven't had a serious discussion on this in a long time.

We've done anything but be serious about the lift shorts for quite some time now. We've actually never been serious about them, besides maybe the very first time we ever talked about them. Maybe at the very first we recorded a podcast, and it's kind of like, dude, like, are you ridiculous? And since then, it's been a non-suffering joke. But is $27 too much for a pair of shorts? I don't think so.

I mean, if you do a very limited amount of market research, you'll find, yes, you can get shorts for $10. But also, I was going through a sporting goods store the other day, and I found shorts for $70 and joggers for over $100. Yeah. And I was actually shocked by that. Yeah. Like, these joggers are 810 dollars from nike yep wow well you know you know they're making those things for less than a dollar well i think if you're going to buy a pair of nike branded shorts or under armor or adidas or

anything like that you're probably not going to buy anything for like less than 40 bucks are you like i think that's kind of five 40 is probably like your entry level. I mean, unless you're getting something on sale. Right. And then 50 or 60 would be very not uncommon whatsoever. Yeah. So in the scheme of things here, we're practically giving them away. Yes.

But I mean, to be completely honest, we're robbing you just. yes but i mean to be completely honest we're robbing you just yeah i suppose if you really were good with the plain ones we could uh get some of these on printed and still charge you for the same if you're really really if you really wanted just the plain ones we could just get the plain ones just resell the play yes if you were truly non-good with the plain ones but i'm excited about these yeah the old deadlifter logo has really taken off we've actually we've uh restocked our store we are damn near completely out of the deadlifter shirt people clear this out on those things yeah i think that cleared out uh our initial order just about as quickly as has ever been cleared out before so but they are fully back in stock again yeah yeah we couldn't

leave people hanging on those ones yeah so it is good to market our shorts right right off the bat right here but don't want to get too much involved in actual massonomics things towards the beginning of the podcast we that's not not normally the way we we yeah we usually save that for the back right right so i was gonna say uh i've been listening to a new podcast. Oh, boy. It's not like a forever running podcast. It's not a weekly podcast. It's just a short series. And it does have a tie-in with some of the stuff we do. It's a topic we've discussed before. The podcast-

Cryptocurrencies. Yes, it's Bitcoin. It's bitcoin and how exactly you exchange that into structured annuities no it's uh it's called the dream and i think it's like 10 or 11 episodes is all there maybe 30 to 60 minutes each and it is about uh multi-level marketing schemes. It's almost the history of pyramid schemes. And each podcast in the series, it doesn't necessarily flow chronologically or not each one builds on the other one necessarily. Each one almost takes a piece of it. Okay.

And looks like one episode will be like you could hop in in the middle yeah yeah be fine because one episode will be like why are women so much so likely to be involved like and it'll just just specifically talk about that like why why are women and then for two of the episodes uh one of the reporters on there almost does they do like an undercover thing. They get – because they can't get the information they want out of these multilevel marketing companies without actually getting in. So they go into it and go through all the ridiculous crap. The initiations.

Yes. The public ridicule. But the history of it is crazy. But the history of it is crazy. Of all the pyramid schemes and Amway was one of the really popular MLM schemes. And they throw out a lot of statistics that are crazy but also not surprising. Isn't it like less than 1% of people ever make money on them? Less than 1% of people. But this is what I think is what it is.

It always plays on that thing of like the American dream of like, but I could make it. make money less than one percent of people but and this is what i think is what it is is it always plays on that thing of like the american dream of like but i could make it and it's like well you didn't make it like you can't make it selling cell phones how are you gonna like that is how they sell the that's amer amway is american way like that's like they've been there okay they talk about that like that was what they're pitching is that this is your chance to be an entrepreneur. And we've had this discussion, I know, whether on the podcast or not, but like selling, being a part of a cog in the wheel of the multilevel marketing thing, you're not an entrepreneur. No, they're laying out the blueprint for what they want you to do. Yeah, yeah, I guess you can go off the rails and do whatever you want. But look now.

You can go on your Facebook especially. You can go on your Facebook feed, and you can see exactly who is hucking Beachbody this week because their posts all do the same thing. They post two or three times a day. They hang on to a few before photos, a few after photos. They're continually in a cycle of a cycle of eight week turnarounds. It's like,

well, but also eight weeks ago you were doing an eight week turnaround. So like what happened in the last eight weeks that you have to do another eight weeks that you're going to revitalize yourself. Like, did you not just revitalize yourself already? But yeah, you can,

they just, it's like a, they give you like a blueprint of you should be doing this, this, and this, if you ever want any success. And it's, it doesn't play. They give you a blueprint of you should be doing this, this, and this if you ever want any success. It literally does not play out that way for almost anyone. The only people that are making anything are the people that were in so high up the chain.

And all of these rely on this thought that there's a never-ending… Yeah, that you'll never hit peak product of whatever. Right. Because you're there. There will never be market saturation because you, cause all you need to do is get five more people in your downstream next month. And like five and they each get five and they did the math on that because

that was one of the, or really popular one. I don't know if it was like 31 bags or, or one of these ones. And in their pamphlet, like their information, they give this example of each month, if you just get five new people in your downstream and you continue to do that each month, and then each of those five people get five more and they get five more. And they did the math and just on like a year of that if that was the case the the number of people that were distributors would be like all of america no would have exceeded the population of the world yeah yeah so yeah best case scenario

you might break even when it's all said and done yes no not like yeah that's that is best case scenario yeah but very unlikely like very very small chance of even breaking even i i'm a fan i do enjoy there's a show on uh hbo called last week tonight with john oliver and they go in depth on they pick a topic every week and um depending on how political you are you might say they have a certain bias there's an entertainment value there however you feel about politics but one of the things they did go in depth this one this episode is probably a year or two old if you want to go back and look for it but they did do one on multi-level marketing and they talk about all these things how like these people literally like they're not selling it and you have to one of the rules is

you have to have so much product quotas yeah so like these people in these poor communities i guess i think i thought they said hispanic communities get hit really hard and these people were just buying like taking out loans to buy more stuff just to stay in the game they're just buying the product themselves and like people literally had garages and storage units full of product that they weren't moving but they had to keep buying to stay in and it was like that it was like that gambler's fallacy of like, if I just keep playing, something will happen.

You're, you're like, you're going against the house that has unlimited money and you'll never win. You're throwing more bad money or you're throwing good money after bet bad. It's already like, it's cause that sunk cost is already out there. And you think if you just do a little bit more, you're going to be able to get it all back.

Yep. But where the best thing would be to just get out as soon as you first realize. The best thing you could have done is leave. Just leave yesterday. But it's nuts to me. You know, we don't always take like a super hard stance on everything because we're not looking to like alienate half of our potential audience all the time. We both kind of go with the philosophy of if it doesn't directly interfere with us, we don't really care.

Right. Yes, definitely. I would agree. We're both that way. But this is such a no-brainer bad for everyone. But it's like the public service announcement would be, if you or anyone in your life is doing those, just stop it. Stop now because it's not good.

It is. It's just a lose-lose. My Facebook feed, I don't even know how many people over time I've seen just – I mean, they all get muted because I'm not going to take your human spam. And actually, I did just read a book that was talking about this, becoming human spam. And that is exactly what these people do. It's like there is a spectrum.

On one side of the spectrum, there's a hoarder. And that person doesn't share anything. They have all of their information, whatever they have. They don't share with anyone. They hoard it for themselves. The other end of the spectrum is human spam. That person only shares everything. And you don't care about it at all.

And then in that middle, you could be be I think the word they use was contributor that person contributes to the discussion of her helps out and puts out useful things and these people literally just become human spam a human advertisement you know and even with massonomics we literally own a store that sells stuff how many product or how many posts of ours are directly related to selling on instagram is it like one if you look at a percent yeah that's probably 10 percent of them yeah yeah and it's like it's it's directly in our we're actually vested owners in a company we're not even like uh what is it uh independent contractors or whatever. Right, right. Like we don't post about Masonomics apparel three times a day. No.

Like we would be crazy people and no one wants to hear that. It would annoy people. And the type of people we would attract would be the worst kind of people. Right, right. Because those people definitely don't have a life if they want to be Masonomics fans after getting told three times a day to buy our stuff. if they want to be massonomics fans after getting told three times a day to buy our stuff it is a good example that we actually own a business where we are trying to sell things and we do not go about it with that kind of like yeah like messaging our close friends direct

messaging friends and ask them oh my god could you imagine doing that? No, I couldn't. Like for a business that we own, could you imagine messaging 10 of your old friends and being like, hey, we sell these shirts and these shorts and stuff? Is there any way? I was planning on scheduling a little get together at my house. We're going to have some wine and some. That's not how a business works. That's like a freaking. That feels like a scheme. You're scheming, man.

Most people are going to be like, no no i'm aware that you're doing that and i don't want even i also run my own business yeah i almost never just randomly i mean i never just message like without a without a lead or someone that said hey there's always a lead or someone looking for something or if it's an email it's a very thought out of like, oh, I really do believe I could help this person. It's not just like, hey, you should try my program. It's like, no, I can actually bring services. Like, I want to hear your situation and see. But, man, and I've done so little of that. Like, I'm not like doing the mass spam thing where like these people just like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like inbox all day.

Like, hey, I can help you. I can do this. I can do this. I can do that. help you i can do this i can do this i can do have you heard of this but you can do this like oh yeah it's it is crazy and you know what should probably be illegal is the thing like it and the crazy thing is because like the fitness and supplement industry is like so unregulated yeah okay whatever yeah but like the fact that these people can all of a sudden become like fitness and nutrition experts yeah you know yes it's just it's like oh we went to high school together and you could hardly pass senior year and now you're a nutrition expert yeah it doesn't do anything good for anyone like it's not helping anyone in any way it's it does bad things to people it does like i

just it it is and it's like none of this stuff is science back well we used to in the very beginning there was a few people if you go way back massonomics had some articles on some of these things and there's a few people that were trying to sell the product i can i would be willing to bet a lot of money that person that was defending their product does not sell that product anymore because it's been well three years they lost enough money and they're like okay i mean assuming that company even exists anymore is the other one um but yeah there's a good chance it doesn't yeah there's a good chance it doesn't like they made their money and got out and but there are some big you know companies that like mary k is a big one that's like people

know i mean even herbalife is huge like they're signing contracts with like you know companies that like mary k is a big one that's yeah like people know i mean even that name herbalife is huge like they're signing contracts with like you know athletes isn't it like rich froning is an issue i think he is and i think uh i don't follow soccer was like ronaldo or someone is i think they have a contract with him it's like well yeah i guess they get enough money they can get anyone on their side but then they have like but i'm like also dude are those the people you're like i guess to look more legit you can't just like sign on the mom down the street that sold because like who are your all-star your all-star people is the mom down the street that somehow got 2 000 people in her like marketing line right but that doesn't work as an endorsement deal so you

gotta find someone that obviously doesn't use your products and yeah even if the product is good is actually good like a usable product well we and we've talked about this before like herbalife okay they do sell protein yeah okay yep fine it's probably super overpriced annoying you have to go through someone else to order it can't just get it at a store and you know there's all these hoops you have to go through um you know they uh sell some type of pre-workout i've been told i've actually heard a lot of people say oh i need their whatever it is called i cannot think of what it is but it feels it's it makes you feel so good yeah it's loaded with caffeine that's it's scientifically proven that's what caffeine does like that's no surprise um i don't know outside of that they probably have a lot of really other weird supplements that don't make any sense,

and people spend a lot of money on every month to be no different than they were before they started buying them. That's almost supplements. I mean, that is sort of supplements in general. I guess what we're trying to say is we are looking for a supplement sponsor still. Herbalife, if you're hearing this, maybe we could work something out. Just any supplement sponsor just we love supplements i i would if if you ever came across if you got someone that like in your family that's really serious of wanting to do this stuff have them listen to the dream the dream is the name of the podcast and or if you just if you already know it

kind they kind of suck but you just want to hear more reasons. Yeah. Just more reasons to just hate on them. And some really crazy stories because a lot of them, it's like cult like almost. Yep. And you know what state is like the biggest producer of multi-level marketing? California. It's Utah because a lot of these are religious based, you know, religious tie-ins. Yeah.

Because they use that to try to. Yeah. It's all human psychology and manipulation. Yes. No surprise there. Yeah. Yeah. It's sad, but.

It's like Metallica said, sad but true. Sad but true. They said it best. And justice for all i think for whom the bell tolls um yeah i and with that even probably even the other thing that i've noticed that still surprises me is the number of different products that are getting roped into this whole thing because i'm certain there's certain there's, like, there's workout programs, you know, with, like, Beachbody. There's all these supplement programs and not even just, like, supplements, you know, like the cleanses.

Yep. There's, like, body wraps. Have you ever seen those ones? Oh, yeah. Yeah, like there's the body wraps. Like you wrap yourself to, yeah. There's, like, skin care ones. Yeah, a lot of makeup.

A lot of makeup ones. Bags. Well, Tupperware is, like, the, I mean, people say Tupperware like it's – Like it's Kleenex. Right, right, right. It's just become the product. Tupperware was – the funny thing about that too is they talk about Tupperware and like you could say this is cheap old ladies at the time, but they make a really good point.

Like a lot of people on there at the time when Tupperware was first new and coming out, wouldn't buy it because they said, well, all the stuff we buy from in the store already comes in those containers. We just reuse them. Like when they buy like cool whip or something, they're like,

yeah, it's already plastic. I'm not going to pay you money for that thing because that's what, you know what? I don't do that. And I, I'm pretty cheap and I wouldn't do that because I don't care about that but it makes a lot of sense it's like it's like well it already came plastic sealed like yeah and i'm not keeping it in this for weeks on end like

for the most part your food's going in there for a couple days yep yeah i never even thought of that that does make sense and they would just you know people would just save those and use them if they need those types of containers. But I'm even not that cheap usually. Yeah. Well, I did just buy new ones the other day, and I think a six-pack was $2. Right. Right. But you also didn't go to a party.

I did not go to a party. I could not think of a worse party to have. And also, man, the people that want to go to that party have to be some of the worst people. We are lucky that really it is much less common in men. So I don't have old friends that I barely know messaging me about wanting. But my wife does all the time. Yeah. Like, I mean, daily.

Yeah, you got to keep your guard up. There's a lot of traps out there. Daily, she gets, like, because she always, you know, she knows, she has the same stance on it as I do, which, thank God, or else we wouldn't be able to be married, I don't think. But, you know, so we get a good laugh about it every time. But, I don't know, I just, I almost can't get over how ridiculous the whole thing is, like how ridiculous they are.

Makes a $20-some pair of shorts look pretty good. I'm excited to host our first new deadlifter shorts party. Okay, we'll call a bunch of people in town, tell them that this is the path to getting in shape. Because first I've got to buy these shorts. We probably, you know, the people that have listened to the podcast and been with us a long time, you know, the least we can do is let them have the first opportunity to be.

Oh, yeah, to get in at the top. Right. Yeah, yeah. Right. All they have to do, if each of them, you know, their starting kit is just 25 pairs of deadlifter shorts, all they have to do is get five associates underneath them. And each buy 25 more.

Right, exactly. And just every piece of the upside-down triangle takes a little more. I think that's it. You can watch it all of a sudden. Is that what that's from? Don't they do that in the office, too? In the office, there's something. And then he goes up on the board.

Yeah, he goes, here. That's in the office. Yeah In the office, there's something. And then he goes up on the board. Yeah, he goes, here. That's in the office. Yeah, he goes, that's a pyramid. No. But I think the one in Always Sunny is it's an upside down triangle. They're like, see, you start here and you get another one and another one. And they're like, that's a pyramid scheme. No, it's an upside down triangle.

Yeah. Well, now they call it a ladder because they can't. Pyramid schemes are illegal the ftc made pyramid schemes illegal and a big thing that was illegal is if you weren't even selling a product like do you know these existed that were purely like one was called the airplane like a big one that started a part of it it was called like the airplane game i think that's what it was called really and what it was was uh like it's been a little while since i listened to this but this is how i remember it they would literally take folding chairs and set them out in a in a in an open room and they would make this airplane at the very front you put one chair that that's for the

pilot of the airplane but behind him is two chairs those are the co-pilots behind there is three chair or four chairs those are the uh stewardesses and uh and then behind them is eight chairs and those are the uh people flying on the plane it It was a literal pyramid that they laid out with the chairs. Eventually, they ended up not, you know, you didn't have to lay these chairs out. They just talked about it. So what they would do is if you got, you didn't get to start out as the pilot. You had to start out as one of the passengers. you didn't get to start out as a, as the pilot, you had to start out as one of the passengers.

So in order to be a passenger, one of those eight, you had to pay $1,500 to the pilot. Yeah. So eight people had to pay money or pretend money. Yeah. I think it was $1,500 because the pilot would get $12,000 for each of his plane. So once, so it was just a game of tricking people to give you money. Like, yes. So it was just like game of tricking people to give you money. Yes. It was just like gambling. Like, okay, if I pay this ticket and I can convince more people to come on, then it will – Because if you were one of the eight and you paid your $1,500 to get on this plane, then you got the opportunity next to have your own plane and be the pilot. Yeah. So then you could turn that $1,500 into $12,000 when you got to be the pilot.

Yeah. And there was no selling of anything. You could turn that $1,500 into $12,000 when you got to be the pilot. And there was no selling of anything. And there was some people that made hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is because they were good salesmen. Yes. Convincing. Right. Well, probably even using some shady tactics, I'm sure, and persuasion. Yes.

And it eventually, that, I think that one was a big part what led to them saying, you have to actually be selling something. So they started selling a rose. You gave them $1,500, and they gave you a single rose. But how crazy is that? And that goes to show, people are nonsensical creatures. Wow, that's really impressive. People are nonsensical creatures. Wow. Yeah. That's really impressive.

I may have a lit. That's pretty close to the accurate story. I mean, it doesn't surprise me. That sounds about right. I mean, that's. People do crazy stuff all the time. At least like 75% fact. Yeah, that's nuts.

That is insane. Yeah. Wow. We've now talked about this for almost 25 minutes. I just had to get all that off. Yeah. Well, I feel better now. Yeah. Wow. We've now talked about this for almost 25 minutes, Tanner. I didn't realize this. I just had to get all that off. Yeah. Well, I feel better now.

Yeah. So I guess we can all agree that don't do anything that we just described there. Yes. Or else we're not fans of you. Or you will get blocked from the Masonomics account. Ain't nobody want that. Should we talk about some more exciting stuff or fun stuff? I think so. That's negative being negative nancy's oh we've had someone's uh sporting some

massonomics gear lately and we hinted at this at the end of the last podcast but we were going so late on time that we uh that's right that we left it off and by hint at we actually even mentioned we did we hinted at the actual name by saying it yeah so it was it's uh Roberto Garza and he was in the NFL I think he played for 14 or 15 seasons he played for the Chicago Bears for for 10 consecutive seasons and uh was a starting starting interior offensive lineman center guard for I think all 10 of those years that he played for the bears and he wasn't a pro bowler but from what i've read like a lot of people felt like he could you know well i'm gonna go ahead and say that's maybe it's one of the greatest snubs of

all time that's kind of what it seems like that's how i feel now uh and i i do think that interior offensive lineman guards and centers are the least glorified position in football. Yeah. Like, that is – because if you're offensive tackle, if you're a bookend offensive tackle, you know, if you're one of the top five in the league, people know your name. Maybe people know, like, just casual fans know the name of, like, one guard. Yeah.

If he has, like, a beard or some tattoos that might add to his marketability. Maybe if you are a fan of one team and if you're a super fan, you probably know the names of all the – Yeah. But you're not going to run through like a list of – No. Yeah. But he was a – I kind of remember.

I remember his name when he played. And, you know, a lot of people here are Minnesota Vikings fans, so they play the Bears twice every year, and it's just common to hear things about the Bears, the Packers, the Vikings, and the Lions in that division. But he's got a whole bunch of Mastanomics gear, and it's funny. We didn't know right away. We sent him stuff and hadn't realized i would say sent him like he ordered yeah he ordered stuff and then you i

think you made the comment like oh this really big dude was like wearing masonomics stuff yeah and he had a blue check mark by his yeah yeah that's what happened he tagged us on some stuff and i clicked on his name and i saw he had a blue check mark and i was like that's weird uh-huh so then i looked at his i mean we have a lot of those people wearing our stuff but you know sometimes a few slip through yeah uh so i had to do my research and was like oh this guy's been buying stuff for a while and we didn't even realize it is pretty cool i think uh based on a little bit of you know i looked at his profile and followed him on there he is pretty tied in with donnie thompson so i think that that's where the okay where the connect i think he's a pretty big follower of uh the things

that donnie does that's a body tempering yeah yeah so i think that's probably the chain how he got turned on to massonomics at one point is uh probably saw donnie post something about it posting the good word yeah spreading. Spreading the gospel. I like that. That's cool. So that is cool. Yeah. You know, it's pretty crazy.

Just to see people outside of the little bubble that we think we know exists, like people outside of that somehow having an interest in Masonomics, those are the ones that always surprise you. Yeah. It's fun for me when I talk to the people people that aren't lifters like my uh friends and family that of course know about massonomics but probably don't really care about massonomics because they don't care about lifting yes and then i can tell you're telling me you're acquainted with people that aren't fans of massonomics standard well they

don't follow the ins and outs of it right unfortunately yeah i've tried to rule out as many of them in my life as possible but there's still a few hanging on yeah but that's a tidbit that's fun to tell them because everyone knows when you say this guy played for the nfl for 10 years like oh that's i can relate to you know that's something i understand i don't you know i might know you personally and interact with you i don't quite buy it but now that this guy that played football is on board, I'll come around. Right, right. Yeah, you got to get that.

It's that social proof. That's what it's all about. Yep. So, yeah, that's really cool. We were jacked to see that. Yeah. So, yeah, keep being a fan. If there's any more.

Any more hidden fans out there. Retired NFL vets that want to wear our stuff, we'd love to sell you some as well. Yeah, or if there are some, tell us about it because there's enough people buying stuff that we can't keep track of at all sometimes. That's true. We can't do the full background check on everyone. You know how it used to go? At a time when we sold much less than what we do right now, probably one-tenth, someone would buy something. I would go.

We send a note yeah you could hop on their instagram and just see like what this person's about and their interests well we would send a we still we send a handwritten note with uh with every package and i do like to include something in there that lets you know that it's not just completely generic yeah that we just print it off right here you go right so but at beginning, I could really do a good job because I could go on the person and see the guy, oh, he tore his pec a few months ago. I'd be like, oh, hope the recovery is going good. Yeah, now it's at the point where it's like orders would actually be delayed going out if it came to that.

It's like, oh, yeah, your order took an extra week because I had to write a personalized, like a super personalized order. Right, like a 15-year NFL vet whose name I actually do recognize in hindsight could order three or four times and I don't even, it doesn't register to me. Yeah. That's just part of us being famous, though. Like that's the cost. I mean, it comes with the territory.

You know, everyone wants what you got. When you sell luxury goods like these shorts. That's right. You have to just sit back and count the stacks. Speaking of people, big people wearing Masonomics gear, we have an important announcement to make. Yes. And that is that Big James Swimhack Strickland

is now officially on the Massanomics team. Yes. What does that mean, you ask? We don't know. But he is officially on the team. He's almost been honorary up to this point. Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know, he's definitely an avid listener and very good, you know,

many comments and suggestions that he shoots our way. He's a good contributor to the cause. He has a pair of lift shorts. He has a pair of lift shorts. Subsequently, he no longer has a home, but he has a pair of lift shorts. He comes with the territory. He does have a pretty impressive track record of being the first comment on YouTube. Yes.

He's legit. And letting everyone else know about it, too. He's legit. he's letting everyone else know about it too he's legit um i would say though uh if his james if your wife is listening right now she'll want to listen to this too but one week uh she his wife had me tell her she wanted me to tell her when we were going to go a lot post the uh youtube video so she could beat him oh and he didn't know she was going behind his back yeah so she was gonna beat him to first comment hey a little competition nobody i like that yeah going the extra mile yes yes and i don't know i still actually don't know

until he's hearing this right now if he's aware of that or not there could could be some. I don't want to cause a lot of friction at home. There could be some marital issues now. I don't want to cause a lot of friction in the SwimHack household. Were you trying to prevent me from getting first comment? Don't ever do that. Marriages have fallen apart for a lot less, I've heard. But, yeah, on the YouTube, subscribe on YouTube and just try to beat James the first comment when we put the podcast, new episode out there each week.

Just try to beat him. He has an uncanny ability. Yes, he does. He could add to his bio, benching almost 700 and always getting the first comment. Actually, I would say his bio should be always getting the first comment yeah and also benching a lot uh maybe we should in case people don't know maybe we should talk about james yeah do you do you do we have his uh yeah and uh we you know uh with our so we asked what it means to be

an official uh member of the massonomics team one thing it does mean is on our website you can go to our athletes page. It's one of the tabs at the top of the page and you can check out all the guys that are on the team. A pretty standout group of guys. Yes. A bunch of strong guys. We just recently talked about Kyle Hendricks.

Yep. Our neighbor to the north. Technically for us geographically he's our neighbor to the south. Yep. Technically for us geographically, he's our neighbor to the south, but which is weird, but he does live in Canada, just farther south than where we're at in America. Um, but we just recently, a couple of weeks ago, talked about him and now, uh, down on the bottom of the page, but not the bottom in our hearts is James Strickland. And, uh, I'll read his quick bio here because I didn't know some of this actually. And somebody out there might find this interesting as well. James started competitive powerlifting in late 2014.

He has since gone on to bench 661 pounds in the 275 weight class, as well as 672 in the 308 weight class. Pretty good, pretty good benching credentials right there i never knew he could bench i thought he's a squat specialist god um he is currently holding uh the 11th biggest raw bench of all time regardless of weight class uh he's a competitive swimmer since the age of 14 as well as an nfl tryout in 2010 did you know that, Tanner? No. I mean, I knew it because I've read it. I didn't know that until the bio, though.

He's a well-rounded athlete, not just a powerlifter. James' goal is to be not only one of the few men to bench over 700 raw, but to be the lightest body weight to do it. He is also a U.S. Navy veteran, husband and father of three, businessman and strength coach. James has learned to balance all of them. Does he talk much about swimming? What does it say about swimming?

He just said he was a competitive swimmer since the age of 14. Okay. I'm curious, James, you'll have to let us know what team you did the tryouts for in 2010. What NFL? Yeah. Or maybe it was more like a... It could just be just a... I don't even know what they call them.

I don't know if that's called a pro day or whatever. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, where you go try out. There are scouts there. Best meat lifts for James, 705 squat, 672 bench, 70-71 deadlift for a 2,100 full meat total. You don't sleep on James' deadlift. Yeah.

And his training seems like it's going pretty good for the other lifts too. Yeah, for sure. I mean, don't sleep on james's deadlift yeah and his training seems like it's going pretty good for the other lifts too yeah for sure i mean don't sleep on his total yeah exactly yes but like i mean he it's he'll probably i would say at what he's doing he probably is going to deadlift 800 pounds at some point in time i don't think that's a reason that's that i know in instagram world that things get like way out of whack of what you think is even uh impressive or not anymore but 800 pound deadlift is a lot and there's not that many people to do that and then the number of people that are pairing an 800 pound deadlift up with a 650 plus bench well that would probably be i wonder if that's anyone uh well career search yeah there's got

to probably be a couple but That would be about it. I wonder if there's anyone else. That would be really, really uncommon, yeah. But I'm super excited that James is on the team. To me, he definitely gets it. Whatever Masonomics is, he gets it. Yes. And there's a certain quality to that.

You know, we met him at the Arnold for the first time. I mean, we had actually talked to him years ago at the Arnold, just kind of just randomly. But this year was like the first year of like really knowing who he is. Right. Like after having a little bit of rapport built up. The first year at the Arnold. Was Ross tracked him down at the bar.

Yeah. And I didn't really, you know, I kind of knew maybe seen him on Instagram before at that point. But Ross, you know, loving bench. Yeah. Was like fanboying hard from across the room. Like, oh, my God, is that Swimhack over there? And he looked pretty neat. It's funny to think now, but I remember sitting there at the time and being like, oh, that guy looks like he's kind of mad right now.

Ross, you do. Yeah, well, because it was like this. We were eating at our table. It was the middle of the day. We left the Arnold just for the time being. He was sitting at the bar, and Ross was like, oh, I got to go talk to him. It was like he could not let this opportunity pass. And he goes over and taps him on the shoulder, and James turns around.

And he had like a – I mean, he wasn't smiling. He didn't look mean, but he just had kind of like a look of who's tapping me. And I'm like, oh, what's going on? And then all of a sudden they're both like smiling and laughing. I mean, that's always a good sign. And we got to interview him last year. That was probably like the first actual conversation we got to really have with him. And then this year at the Arnold, it was like, oh, yeah,

we've just known each other forever now until like all of a sudden. really have with him and then this year you know at the arnold it was like oh yeah we've just known each other forever now like all of a sudden so he really does get massonomics though and all of our ridiculous yeah like you said the stuff that that whatever it is that we do the things that we do he he gets it yeah so that's that's really awesome which that makes it fun because that's the people that we want to be working with on stuff like this is the people that understand you know they get this crap yeah we're to be working with on stuff like this is the people that understand, you know, they get this crap.

Yeah. We're not just trying to like find like, Oh, this person would be a, this person could, Oh, we could really leverage this person. That's not even part of the conversation.

It's like, do they get it? Yes. But the fact that we've, that someone gets it, that we get to have on the team that has the 11th biggest bench press of all time is really cool. That is like that.

We're able to find these people that are this strong for us. That's just a bonus. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's really odd. It's, it's crazy to think like when we started mass,

if there was ever like, Oh yeah. Somebody that is any skill in lifting wants to be associated with you guys, I'd be like, well, that's pretty cool. So if you could have told us at any point in time that someone like James would want to be associated with Mass Anonymous. Some of the best in the world at the things that we're interested in. They would have been like, no, that doesn't even make any sense. Right, right.

So it's just hard to comprehend the path and kind of the trajectory that these things go on. It is hard. And it kind of just makes you laugh when you think about it because it sounds so stupid when you say it out loud. To other people, it probably doesn't seem weird at this time, especially if you have only been following us for so long. It's like, oh, yeah, I see those guys on Instagram. They have a real thing that they're doing there. But there was a point in time where it didn't feel near as uh no it was just like well our best bet for selling t-shirts is that hopefully one of our family

members is like oh i should probably support those guys like that because that's what it was for a while you know right like my family being like uh oh we we really want to get one of your shirts being like oh okay go on the website, we don't want to do that. Can you just buy it for us? I'm like, oh, you don't understand. If you bought it through the website, it means so much to me. To see an order come through,

that would be a big deal. That probably means more than the money part of it. It was fun. Now it's meaningless at this point of that, but it was funny, especially at the beginning, how it's just like, oh, just do it through the website. We just want to see that working.

Just go on and order something. The person you're talking to clearly doesn't order anything online. Right. It's also funny that there's people that are like, oh, no, I can't go through or I have something going online.

And for me, it's like, that's easier for me than giving you cash. That's the easy way to do it yep yeah so james welcome to the team yeah i look forward to many more first comments in the future yes and i don't think uh we're gonna do anything uh you know we know you went through some hard times uh after you got those lift shorts and uh we're hoping maybe things were going to change with this affiliation with us and i'm sorry like we can't reverse what's already been done i mean you can't just dig yourself out of a hole like buying a pair of

some things are just the way they are to like try and mess with that would kind of be like interfering with it can take decades to for especially someone with a full family to recover from purchasing a pair of lift shorts. I've even heard generations. Yeah. It's a generational thing. Yes, it is. You know? But it's worth the status, though.

It is. I mean, can you put money on a status symbol, really? Well, $27.99. Oh, okay. Yeah. But it's the investment. Right. It's an investment.

Right. You know, I have a note here. It says podcast reviews, yeah. But it's the investment. It's an investment. You know, I have a note here. It says podcast reviews, Tanner. And normally we save those for the end, but we haven't been getting any of those lately. No, we don't have any to report to you this week. I know we have new listeners. We do have new listeners. I have numbers to support the fact that we have new listeners.

I also know that we just have more listeners than we do podcast reviews. You are right on that. Our podcast reviews, we have at least 10 more listeners than we have podcast reviews. We do have many, many more faithful listeners than we do podcast reviews.

We'll just say someone leave us a review. We would love to hear a review on there. Whether you write just a word or two and give us five stars, that's cool. We'll still read it on air. But if you want to write something ridiculous, we love reading those on air. So we would just like to see a few more, see that number bump up. We think maybe it helps something.

We're under the impression. Our ego does that. It gives us something to talk about on the podcast. I was going to say it helps with content in the podcast. And if you write a good one, it could become a whole discussion point even. So keep that in mind. And if nothing else, I like to look at how many reviews other comparable podcasts have sometimes. And I want us to have more than them.

reviews other comparable podcasts have sometimes and i want us to have more than them so yep because any good marketer will tell you it is all about the numbers associated with your stuff yeah vanity metrics are the most important thing in running a business it is so easy to get caught up in the stuff way more vanity numbers like oh we got 300 more instagram followers and it's like what does that mean it's like we got nothing like where is nothing where is what we're doing like the sales are the really the one metric that actually mean anything but it's it's sometimes they're connected yeah but a lot of times they are not connected at all right uh okay do we want to by the time this comes out we would have already announced the belt yeah so should we just say it right now yeah we should announce the the we had our uh massonomics belt

we partnered with uh pioneer to do a giveaway birthday massonomics giveaway anniversary you know we've had we've been doing this for three years and now it's time to give back to you guys a little bit yep so we did a uh what was what was the plan the plan on the belt here we haven't actually ordered it yet because we just picked the winner prior to this uh recording here but it's going to have our massonomics stencil logo uh on the back of the belt and then beyond that uh the winner here gets to basically choose how they want their belt to look and what closure and uh color yeah whether it's uh felt uh whether it's a suede or suede or leather yep yeah they

get a lot of options so i mean and it's a pioneer belt like that in itself we could have been giving away a stock pioneer belt and i would have been super jacked for it yep and i was also very upset when i found out that tanner did not pick me to win this i didn't feel like that it was very we did do it randomly from the uh you know it was commenting on our post and yeah oh yeah yeah because okay there's rules with these things like any good contest there needs to be rules the rules were simple comment someone on the post right was that the first was it yes comment someone take someone take someone on the post. Right? Was that the first? Was it? Yes. Comment someone on the post. Tag someone.

Tag someone on the post. Like our page. Like Pioneer's page. That was it. And you could comment. You could enter as many times as you wanted to. The first couple people didn't like our page. Yes.

So we actually went through and selected people at random. We know that there are some really bad people out there. We're going to give away something for free, and you couldn't even do us the justice of hitting the follow button on our page. The first one I went to, they comment, tagged someone in the comments. We went to check who they're following. They were following Pioneer. They were not following Mastodonics.

So there are people that missed out on winning this because they – And that's what your laziness of the follow button just cost you yeah probably over a hundred and some dollars probably the most valuable mistake you ever made on instagram i think that's safe to say for these people yeah i mean there's no other time that instagram is going to make them a hundred and some bucks you know unfortunately for those individuals they're never gonna know like i should know they're not i should have saved the name of that comment yeah it would yeah we don't want to write people too hard i know i know okay so the the actual winner should i announce yeah the name okay hit him with it

it is on instagram the handle is annie t136 so and her name is ann marie and it looks like she lifts yes she does she lifts um you know you always want to know that the belt's going to a safe home and it looks like it's going to be going to a good safe home with her yep um we'll get a hold of her we'll announce that on our instagram this week also and get a hold of her and get see what she wants for a belt from pioneer yeah congratulations yeah that's super exciting you won the first ever massonomics pioneer belt giveaway we do have if you didn't win this that sucks for you but you're not alone everyone but uh anne marie is in the same boat as literally she's the only person in the world to have this honor yes uh but in coming up and i believe in the only person in the world to have this honor. But coming up, I believe in the next month, we're going to actually

have an opportunity for you to win another belt from Pioneer. As long as some Masonomic stuff. We're going to be partnering with Pioneer as a part of the tribute meet as a raffle drawing. So actually, that one

will cost you to enter. Unlike this one was only a comment to enter this will cost you the uh price of a the raffle ticket but you'd be winning uh completely custom belt a lot of stuff as well as some massonomics gear in there too yeah so you're not going to want to miss out on that one but and and for the price of the raffle it's also all the proceeds for that are going to the tribute meet yeah so that go yeah it goes back into um uh you know supporting the lifters yeah and then i don't know if we give the details of it away yet but we're gonna have another another uh thing out there where we're gonna give all that money from our raffle is gonna go to the tribute meet we're gonna have uh almost you guys will be able to

decide how much more money we donate how much more money massonomics donates to the tribute meet um i'll just say that for now but we have a fun little thing yeah you you will all be able to play a part in deciding how much we donate how much of our lift shorts money you want us to give back. There's a lot of it. That'll be your chance. More details to come on that one. More details to come. Tanner, we are at 51 minutes already. We're going to have to skip the supplement game this week.

We'll save it for next week then. We still have time for over-under though, don't we? We do have. That's what I was getting at there. What about really quick best count Instagram? We don't need to really talk about it, but this is on a Jefferson deadlift. A guy did the Jefferson deadlift in a Lyft shirt.

And I like it because anytime there's a Jefferson deadlift video, I feel like we're setting a trap for some unsuspecting person just out browsing through Instagram to step into this trap. I started following the Jefferson deadlift hashtag. When it comes up, I usually comment and say, hey, nice Jefferson deadlift. So this was on a guy wearing a lift shirt. I can't remember his name.

We shared it. He did a 500-pound Jefferson deadlift. It actually got quite a few views on it, too. Yes, it did. It did. That's probably why it also got some ridiculous comments, because when things go more popular, that's when they get outside of our normal followers,

and they get people that don't understand the things that we do. Or life in general, really. Yes. And the comment on the video was, those are easier than regular deadlifts. It's like doing sumo and thinking you're deadlifting heavy, LOL. Proceeded to be many, many more comments. He had another response in there that said, cheating is cheating, LOL.

Trying to justify cheating, facepalm. Was that the one that you were like, no, open powerlifting made a chart about? Yeah, that's what I said. Because he said those are easier than regular deadlifts. It's like doing sumo and thinking you're deadlifting heavy, LOL. And I said, no, I know. I saw open powerlifting made a chart. Double agent.

We made it. We made it for open powerlifting. And he did not get the whole thing. And then I think someone was like, at the end, I think someone was like, you idiot. It's a joke. Yes. I liked it. Yes.

Just setting the trap. Yep. Okay. Now, we do have time for underrated or overrated, correct? Correct. Okay. We can't just hop into underrated or overrated. We have to read the rules of underrated or overrated.

This may be a problem. As is customary. This may make for a time constraint today, but that's all right. We still have to read the rules. We can't go rogue on this. Okay. The rules. Keep in mind, the rules are fluid.

They are a living, breathing organism that can evolve with time. Underrated or overrated consists of... Was that part in there last week? That statement is very important to this not only is it descriptive to the rules but also to what's happening yes right now yeah okay the rules keep in mind the rules are fluid they are a living breathing organism that can evolve with time underrated overrated consists of lightning round questions asked by myself to tomm. The questions come from a variety of topics including, but not limited to, pop culture, current events, food, and technology. There are also lifting related topics sprinkled in.

It's important to remember that the questions are in fact lightning round, but the answers are not necessarily. Tommy has his druthers when it comes to the length of the answers. What are druthers you ask? Well, Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines druthers as a person's preferences in a matter. All that being said, there does have to be a final answer. The initial issue of overrated or underrated must

be clearly resolved in the end. Due to demand, we have added a FAQ section for overrated, underrated. Overrated, underrated rules FAQ. Question. Can Tommy come up with his own over-under topics? Answer. section for overrated underrated overrated underrated rules faq question can tommy come up with his own over under topics answer it is not suggested suggested or preferable but under special circumstances it could be uh petitioned to be allowed wow i want to know who's asking

these questions on my behalf because they're really thinking ahead so that is the rules okay overrated all right uh learning more about this segment every week they're really thinking ahead. So that is the rules for overrated and overrated. All right. Learning more about this segment every week. They're a living, breathing organism. So they have rights just like a person, I guess. And also important to keep in mind, the rules do not get smaller. They only get longer.

Well, yeah. I mean, as it grows, it looks like an organism. It grows over time. We're not getting this. We want more clarification, not less. Yep. Okay. Underrated or overrated?

Chick-fil-A. Oh, okay. I feel like I will put out the disclaimer of I feel like I have not been there enough times to have a sufficient sample size to whether I'm completely qualified to answer this question. If you ask my wife, she would give a very firm overrated. Wouldn't even think twice about it. Around here, they're not super common in our part of the country. No, pretty rare. Probably the closest one is Minneapolis.

Yeah. About, what, 300 miles away? Yeah. That's their closest one. That's where I usually go for lunch. Oh, yeah. That makes sense sense it's just a quick trip i've both times i've ate there i've been like this is good if if i didn't know about all the hype and everything around it i would just assume it's a fast food restaurant that has better service than your average fast food restaurant i i'm gonna go overrated if i'm gonna pick a fast food place that people are gonna

freak out about i'm gonna pick in and out i would prefer that gotcha i probably agree but maybe it's just part of our us not having it that we're not in the oh it's like you know the sauce yeah sauce yeah i don't know it's it's what it is it's over overrated. Yeah. Overrated or underrated, the use of kilograms as the unit of measure for powerlifting. This is a tough one. In contrast to pounds. Yeah. Because the basis for this question is, from what I understand, powerlifting originated from the United States for the most part.

That's kind of what I was always led to believe. I guess you could say that there was probably... Fact check us and let us know if we're wrong on that. It's like, well, I don't know. Is there an affirmed date for when the actual first squat bench deadlift meet ever was? Because people will make arguments, well, powerlifting was overhead press and squat. Right. And it was an offshoot of Olympic.

Yeah. And like, okay, yeah, that has probably existed in some variation almost since Olympic lifting has existed. The thing that's more annoying to me is when it's in America and then people use only kilos, like the only talk in kilos. It's like, well, that's not really the system that we're using here. I don't know. Kilos as a system makes perfect sense. kilos yeah makes perfect sense but everyone's not on board with it so we're not talking the same

language now be like if half of our stuff we just spoke in spanish yeah it doesn't really make sense because most people a lot of people around us don't know that language right um i don't know i think kilos are like talking strictly in keels i think is overrated um yeah i think it's overrated yeah okay with that being said that we do have a few articles on tricks on converting the kilos in your head and which did make it less overrated for me when once i realized that your trick has made the math trick oh i use that all i mean yeah take it take it times two move the decimal place over one and add that and add that so 200 times two is 400 take the four add that onto the 400 you got 440 yep and like those ones are the easiest ones to do like yeah the even number but yeah it comes down to how good is your math when you have to multiply even like 216 times

two yeah but you can do you can get a really good estimate yeah but even 216 times two is 432 yep so you're adding 43 yep adding 43 pounds to 432 you're at like 475 yeah 470 and even that you're already way closer yeah my old way was like being like uh it's times two and then a little more yeah and i would if i was like within 100 pounds i felt good we're there it's like i can be within five now in seconds of mental math. My way before was pretty much like, I know 200 kilos is 440. I know 300 kilos is 660. And then I would just be like, well, it must be halfway in between there. Yeah.

That trick works really well. It does. And especially if it's an even number, you know, like 27. Okay, 27 times 2 is 54. So that's 540 plus – so 540 plus 54. Yep. Like it's just – it makes it very, very easy. So you need to be familiar with that trick.

But kilo only is still overrated. Okay, overrated. I'm not saying kilo plates are overrated. I'm saying only referring to the weights. We have kilo plates. I'm saying only referring to the weights in kilos is overrated. I'm not saying kilo plates are overrated. I'm saying only referring to the weights. We have kilo plates. I'm saying only referring to the weights in kilos is overrated. What about powerlifting using? Because it could use pounds.

Like the sport could just be in pounds. Yeah, I think there where it gets tricky, though, what you're saying, like not using kilo plates? Yeah. I mean, they could be calibrated pound plates. I think the issue there is just there's not a lot of – well, yes, the international thing, but then there's not a lot of calibrated pound plates around.

I know you can get them, but that's not super common. Right. And I would make the argument that for most federations outside of the IPF, kilos don't matter at all because there's not really an international level of competition that's true you know right like you're not going on to nationals and then hoping you do good at nationals and going to worlds like other federations are too fractured and can't get their shit enough together enough to even make that ever a thing so that's true um i guess it does make sense in the ipf given the the ladder they have there but everywhere else it's like it doesn't really.

I don't even know. Do other federations do you even call? Do you have to call your weights in kilos? It probably depends on the federation. I think, yeah, maybe. I think like RPS and some of those will even use pound plates sometimes, but I think a lot. Like I've done APF, and I know that was killer. It was still.

Same chart, but I think some of those. But it would get you prepared for APF Worlds, though, right? That's right. That's right. I was hoping to go on to that. Assuming you didn't go to SPF Worlds that year. That's true. Sounds funny when you say that. Yes, yes.

Sounds even more ridiculous. Underrated or overrated? Watching the news on television. Oh, way overrated. Now, I'm not the type of person that's like, oh, screw the news. I don't like. No, here's the thing is the news is now at a point where it's designed to be entertainment opinion-based shows. Like the amount of actual factual news going on is so minimal and i actually went through a period

um not that long ago where i was reading a lot of news on my phone like a lot of news i i was just like i had downtime apple news app comes out and i'm just reading news reading news didn't really care i'm not saying like oh i have to read from c CNN or I have to read it from Fox or I have to. I mean, I was just like, I just want to read the headlines, see what's going on. And then after a while, I'm like, I'm just reading this stuff. Most of it's speculation. A lot of it doesn't have facts. It's stuff that still we're waiting to find out on.

And it's making me stressed out and realizing how shitty for the most part people are. And then I read a book that talked about you don't need to check the news daily. And it said people are like, oh, but as part of being an informed citizen, you need to check the news. You need to know what's going on.

And their argument was actual news, like things that are actually fact newsworthy, worth knowing don't happen so fast that you can't catch up to them on the weekend. And if it really is that newsworthy, you will find out about it. You know, if it is an actual newsworthy event,

you're going to find it. People will be talking about it. Right. You will find out and yeah, take your time to Google it. People will be talking about it. You will find out. And yeah, take your time to Google it. I believe that that's true. But I've even talked to some people recently. I'm like, oh, well, what do you do?

Like, oh, have you watched this show? Have you watched this? Have you done this? Or like podcast? Like, what are you consuming for media? Oh, we just watch the news all night. Like, well, what do you mean? You know, we pretty much, after we get home from work and we have dinner, we pretty much,

we watch a few hours of the news. We watch this program, this one, this one. I'm like, what is that getting you? Like, you're just watching people speculate and opinionate on things all day long. Like, that's exactly what we're doing, but we're not claiming to be the news. And we don't do it every single night. We claim quite the opposite. to be the news and we don't do it every single night we claim we claim quite the opposite and i'm like and then to be basically caught up in like this gossip machine of of whatever the news

is you're like missing out on people that are actually producing like high quality works whether it is a tv show or a movie or a podcast or reading an actual book where you could learn something or maybe even whether it's a blog or on top of just learning a skill and knowing about something but no you're just like watching people talk and comment about what they feel like this piece of thing has in their life so i think the the daily news is incredibly overrated um and that's not even talking about like the integrity of the platform in general because now like you know with the politics of it all yeah that's where even talking about like the integrity of the platform in general. Cause now like, you know, with the politics of it all. Yeah.

That's where I'm like, well, I don't like it because of the policy. You almost can't even follow American news sources because they all have, there's all something. You almost have to like read a foreign news source and get like an objective opinion. Like I'm like,

I don't even, I don't want to spin on this. I just literally want someone to tell me the facts. And it's like, well, so-and-so said this because they were trying to do this. Like, no,

I don't want you, what you think they're getting. I just want to know the facts. Like give like well so-and-so said this because they were trying to do it's like no i don't want you what you think they're getting i just want to know the facts like give me some actual journalism here and so that's why yeah the news is incredibly overrated you can pick up what you need to pick up on the weekend in a quick hour or so of looking if it's really important okay you can tack on another 30 minutes and really get to the bottom of that. Otherwise, yeah, news overrated. Yeah, I agree with all of that. I like the point of, you know, pointing out it's not like a noble cause that you're doing to be like an uninformed citizen, you know, like. And there you could almost draw the line like local government, you could have more of an impact. But the people that I know that are most into the news don't do a goddamn thing with it.

Exactly. That's the thing. I should rephrase that. Don't do a thing with that besides post it on Facebook about how they try to show their intellectual superiority by commenting their opinion on it. And obviously, no one cares about their opinion. Agreed. Underrated or overrated? commenting their opinion on it. And obviously no one cares about their opinion. Agreed. Underrated or overrated?

Old Town Road. Oh, I think, all right, this is, you know, there's those times where you want to say you were first. And this is one of those times. I mean, I try to keep on the edge of music a little bit. And I don't know how on my Spotify. I mean, I probably get i try to keep on the edge of music a little bit and i don't know how on my spotify i mean i probably get a good depending on the day anywhere from three to six hours a day on spotify there's a lot of time that happens there and um i don't know if it was a year ago two years ago spotify added the feature when like a playlist was done or whatever you were on

it would just start randomly playing things so it would stop. Like it used to be like you'd be on something. And if it was a playlist with 30 songs, it would just stop. Well, a couple months ago, my playlist, whatever I had it on, had quit. And it was just playing songs. And I was working. And so I was not listening to them, not paying attention at all. And all of a sudden, the song comes on. I'm like, damn, this is kind of catchy.

And my first thought was when I heard the guy, when the song actually started going, once it got past the singing intro, I thought it was the I Love Makonnen guy, the going up on a Tuesday. I thought, because I'm like, it's kind of a weird voice. It kind of has this Atlanta trap thing to it. And I'm like, I think it's him. And I'm like, I'd be happy to see that guy make a comeback. It's kind of a weird voice. It kind of has this Atlanta trap thing to it.

And I'm like, I think it's him. And I'm like, I'd be happy to see that guy make a comeback. And I clicked, and it says Lil Nas X. What the hell is that? It sounds like a made-up name. So I'm like, there's something special about the song. So I start Googling it, and I see Genius. It's a website that has meanings of all the lyrics and everything. Talking about it and it was didn't have a whole lot of plays at the time and i'm like oh

this is kind of cool and i'm trying to do some research on it and basically there's almost nothing about the guy and he had some other songs on spotify so i'm listening to like all his other songs he had like some mixtapes and things are just like small little projects on soundcloud i listened to him like oh I find this guy enjoyable. This is cool. But this one song has really got something. And I kept playing it. My wife was like, what is this?

It's so bad. And like she likes that kind of music. And she was like, I cannot get behind this. No, I don't like this. And I kept playing it over and over and over again. I told Ryan, you could ask Ryan, I probably told Ryan for over a month and a half to listen to the song. He just never did it.

And then all of a sudden one day he's like, damn, I listened to that song. It's so good. And then Billy Ray's, and then there was the whole debacle of it was like climbing the country charts. Billboard says, nope, not allowed. They kick it off.

Billy Ray Cyrus comes in, gets on it. And I think he had something positive to contribute to it. He said, don't break my heart. That's what he did. And I think it's a cool song. Like country is, you know, around here, country is a huge genre. I'm not a country fan at all. I find the genre super repetitive and not progressive in any way.

And to me, country now, I'm not knocking on it. Tanner, you like country, I think, a little bit. Maybe more 90s country. Right, yeah knocking on tanner you like country i think a little bit maybe more 90s country yeah i don't really like current country which i think maybe they're you know 90s country is a whole different animal like that is um and i'm not knocking on anyone for liking it i like i can say for a fact i definitely listen to some music that 99 people be like this is absolute horseshit yeah um and to each their own yeah but uh i just i don't find country enjoyable and like for the most part the country that's popular now is like the closest thing to pop music that it could be i mean it's just it's just taking the influences from pop and just for sure it's it's like a joke

but um i like it i think it's cool uh i'd like to see more of it i guess certainly a catchy thing it is catchy and then now you know with apps like TikTok and things like that are you familiar with TikTok at all oh there's so many like just it's one of the biggest apps in the world right now and it's like it's kind of like a lip syncing kind of app where there'll be a song playing and people like sing and there's just so many

terrible things that come from it it's more geared towards kids but like weird adults get into it too yeah fun fact though did you know that song samples a nine inch nail song say that again what did you say uh old town road samples a nine inch nail song what do you mean by that so when it samples it means they're like the beat from it is like taking a beat from another song so it feels like the actual it's like uh no it's like uh i think it's from it's called

like ghost 34 i can't remember the name of it but it's it's something 34 i think it's ghost 34 it's he has like an album where it's just like tracks one two three four five it goes like it's like 38 or something and um that's like the the kind of the guitar banjo in the background so the very melancholy sounding guitar that is the the Nine Inch Nails one. Huh. And so if you listen to it, Tanner, let me see if I can just get to this right here quick. Isn't the song also only like two minutes long or something like that? Well, it was until Billy Ray Cyrus came on.

And I would imagine this song had to have gotten played a lot more on Spotify since this song. Oh, yeah. That right there. Yeah. I don't know if anyone can hear this or not but sounds a lot more and i was like how is that nine inch nails but now hearing it like this is like oh yeah now i see that now i can picture that yeah trent resner yeah musical genius he was kind of a kind of a uh ryan told me the other day my brother he said he said we were at the bar ryan goes um did you know trent resner said timberland is his favorite producer of all time and i go really oh i messed that up i mean timberland said uh trent resner is his favorite producer of all time. I said, okay, I can believe that more.

I mean, I'm not saying Timberland's a bad producer, but. I feel like Reznor would not like that. Very talented man. He has Grammys to his name. So, yeah, very skilled. So then I did listen to the entirety of, okay, the album is called Ghosts 1 through 4. So it's just 36 tracks. Ghosts 1 through 4. So it's just 36 tracks, Ghosts 1 through 36. And I listened to them all.

I found it very enjoyable. Good music to have on in the background while you're working. Yeah. Is there singing? No, it's all instrumental. Okay. All instrumental. And if you go into the deep cuts of Nine Inch Nails,

I mean, there's a lot of albums there. And I have, you know, I like my pretty hate machine as much as the next guy, but I don't know a lot of the other stuff in there just because there's a lot to take in. But it's all something that all does have a certain artistic value to it and something you can, there's a certain level of merit to all of it. Yeah. So, Old Town Road. Underrated. Underrated. I like it. value to it and something you can there's a certain level of merit to all of it yeah so old town road underrated underrated I like it you kind

of went on a tangent in that answer I'm gonna have to consult the rules I did almost I might have actually I might have gone but the rules do state that you have your druthers I mean those are my druthers it doesn't say any tangents in the rules either yeah I did go for that you have your druthers. I do have my druthers. No one can, but you can decide what your druthers are.

It doesn't say any tangents in the rules either. Yeah. I did go for, that might be my longest answer ever. It comes down to an interpretation of the rules though because you do have your druthers

and like how can anyone but you decide what those druthers are? Exactly. Really, I mean. There are no bounds. Yeah, maybe it'll be a frequently, something will pop up in the frequently asked questions section.

Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people will be asking after this week. So that's a safe to assume. Yeah. Yeah. But that does wrap up. Oh, that was it. Okay. That wraps up Overrated.

I was afraid I may have ruined the entire segment there. No, that's a good one to stop on here today. So that wraps us up for overrated or underrated. It also brings us to the end of our podcast for the week. Thanks again to Big James Strickland for joining the team. Let's see if he makes – the question will be, can he make first comment on the episode where we announce that he is on the Mastinomics team?

That would be a real accomplishment. Yes, that would be. Not to put the pressure on. Right, right. So we'll stay tuned to find that out. Don't forget about the new deadlifter shorts that we said we've got, that we also restocked the deadlifter shirt and the black-on-black lift shirt available in all sizes,

extra small through 4XL for both of those shirts. And now, really, almost all of our shirts are stocked again. So damn near anything you're going to want should be available. This doesn't happen often. Yes. No. No, it does not. And it probably won't last for a long time, again,

the way the Deadlifter shirts sell. So if you do want one of those, now would be the time to hop on it. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. We still need to break that 1,000. Our camera's going down. Hurry up, Tanner. We still need to break that thousand, thousands. Our camera's going down. Hurry up, Tanner. Really got to finish quick. Give us those Apple podcast reviews that we talked about.

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account at massonomics that is it we will catch you next time for episode 161 see you you just heard the massonomics podcast with your ears you're welcome check us out on facebook find us on instagram at massonomics and make sure you visit massonomics.com and buy some of that sweet massonomics gear. From your friends at Massanomics Studio, home of the world's strongest podcasts, stay strong.