Men At Work Podcast - The Underground Chess Club that Runs Philadelphia

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

FYI: This podcast was recorded on September 17th. Kyle and Matt went to Clark Park in West Philadelphia to talk about Kyle's terrible, no good, awful experience at the Eagles game on Monday Night Football. We then talk to the keeper of an underground chess club that runs Philadelphia where he tells us the most money he's lost in one night, where the best chess players are from, and the characters that play daily. Folks they got Diddy. We talk about the 1,000 bottles of baby oil, DJ Akademiks' livestreams, and Meek Mill's sassiness on the timeline. Finally we have a college public safety officer for St. Joes come on to tell us what they do with the alcohol when they confiscate it and a guy who works in Employer Relations at Temple University and Kyle asks him why he's never been asked to speak to a class. 00:00 - Kyle's Terrible Experience at the Eagles Game 18:10 - The Keeper of the Underground Chess Club 32:05 - Ladies and Gentleman...They Got Him 40:46 - College Public Safety Officer 48:29 - Temple University Employer Relations #chess #philadelphia #underground Check out our sponsor Thrive Flower! Thrive sells real cannabis products outside of the medical system. They have 9 strains of flower, 6 strains of pre rolled joints, 4 strains of vapes, gummies, and lemonades. They are the first and only company offering same day cannabis delivery within Philly. Order your cannabis at https://thriveflower.com/ and it will be delivered in about an hour. Use code menatwork15 for 15% off orders. Simply choose “same day delivery” during checkout. This applies for Philly residents ONLY. About Us: The Men At Work Podcast asks one question: What do you do for work? After that the conversation flows from there. We’ve met substitute teachers, Bangladeshi t-shirt moguls, a real estate broker tight with LeBron James, and more. And we’ll record anywhere. Random sidewalks during an eclipse, a baseball game, a bar crawl, casino, and more. We like to find out what people do for a living. If you want us to come to your event email us at: [e-mail] APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/men-at-work-podcast/id1373108039 SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4XcFWt0I6gFvMotqDp5bsZ?si=2273debc08e5485d If you want more bonus content from every episode check out our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/menatworkpod Follow Us: The Pod: https://www.tiktok.com/@menatpodcast https://www.instagram.com/menatpod/ Follow Matt: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattpeoplescomedy https://www.instagram.com/mattpeoplescomedy/ Follow Kyle: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kylepagancb/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kylepagancb Follow Vito: https://www.instagram.com/vito_visuals/?hl=en

Three, two, one. Welcome back to another episode of Men at Work. I'm Kyle Pagan, as always joined by Matt Peoples. Matt, where are we today? Dude, we did it. We finally did it. We've set out on this journey for millions and millions of years to make it to the Clark Park Parks on Tap.

Our first Parks on Tap this year. Can you believe we're here, dude? We're here in West Philly, born and raised. Playground. I knew you were going to do that. I'm not going to do it. I just said playground. It's the hackiest.

I was going to say the playground that I was at earlier today was do that. I'm not going to do it. I just said playground. It's the hackiest. I was going to say the playground that I was at earlier today was a good time. Jeez. Okay. Probably worse. Probably worse. And you want to talk about

our boys at Thrive. Thrive sells real cannabis products outside of the medical system. They have nine strains of flour, six strains of pre-rolled joints, four strains of vapes, gummies, and lemonades. Personal endorsement,

I love doing gummies on the podcast. If you want to see Kyle doing a gummy on the podcast, go back to the last one. Check this guy out. You can almost visibly and verbally tell. There's nothing better than a couple pre-rolls and a couple gummies,

especially after the Eagles lose a heartbreaker. 100%. Go right to bed. Nothing better than your producer having a wonderful joint after he gets home, and then you forgot that you gave him his debit card, and he got to drive to his parents' house the next day day i can't believe we didn't talk about this oh yeah veto had my debit card veto i gave you to my debit card to buy us a couple of libations on the last

episode and i forgot to get it back and i called him and he's like i know why you're calling me i hate that yeah dude just get apple pay like a real man yeah that's so uh well never i live in a tangible world i'm'm not Elon Musk's or Jeff Bezos' world. So I had to go get my debit card from Vito's parents' house and it's actually a really nice house.

Oh, don't go, boy. All right, all right. And yeah, you can use your debit card to buy Thrive. They are the first and only company offering same-day cannabis delivery within Philly.

Order your cannabis at thriveflower.com and it'll be delivered in about an hour. An hour. Nobody else is freaking doing that. You can't even get a Grubhub order in an hour anymore. Use code MENATWORK15 for 15% off orders.

Simply choose same-day delivery during checkout, and once more, this applies for Philly residents only. West Philadelphia is probably the only place that I don't know anything about the culture, about the nightlife, about the restaurants, about anything in Philadelphia. Yeah, you're a bit of a Philadelphia Stolen Valor type of guy. No, I'm not. You were giving me guff before the pod saying, I don't know where this is, where that is. Where are you from? I'm from Montgomery County. I don't say I'm from Philadelphia, though. I don't claim Philadelphia. I'm not one of those. Unless I go two hours outside of Philadelphia and then I just tell people

I'm from Philadelphia because it's just easier. Yeah, that's pretty fair. I do the same exact thing. I kind of fib. Take it back. Actually, I don't do that. I'm not having a good week. All right, take it back. What are you having a bad week about? I'm on the 48-hour rule. I'm on the 48-hour haze where Philadelphia Eagles lose, I give myself 48 hours. Is that okay? Okay, true.

You were in person too, huh? Yeah, I was there, man. It sucked. I watched that whole thing in person. I watched that video of you reacting and it made me feel sad. Thanks. You push your emotion through the camera. Thank you.

I appreciate that. No problem. I'm a thespian. Well, you're a lesbian. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I appreciate that. No problem. I'm a thespian. Well, you're a lesbian. Yeah. Are you... So, you're a Birds fan, but you don't wear it on your sleeve, right? Yeah, I'm like a Fairweather.

I'm a proud Fairweather fan, which I think more people need to admit that they are. I think there's a lot of Eagles fans, and we love you. Of course, you're great people. You guys are awesome. You deal with losses totally well. You don't act like it's the end of the world every single time, like children. But no, I would say I'm like a Fairweather fan where I'm like, if they're good, it's the end of the world every single time, like children. But, no, I would say I'm like a fair-weather fan where I'm like, if they're good, that's fun.

If they're bad, all right, I have stuff to do. Yeah, I mean, I think that's fair. But you, going back to that, you're a big Sixers fan. Yeah. And that hurts you. That hurts pretty bad, dude. That hurts pretty bad. Yeah.

Because usually I'll just equate the two together and I try to find the similarities. And it's really just you just land on the paint because there's not like the exact you know the differences between the Eagles and the Sixers are not one to one well yeah I mean the Sixers lose in the second round and the Eagles make it to Super Bowls

okay Kyle I'm gonna put my mitts on you if you keep this crud up dude you gotta get off the 48 hour roll and you gotta get back on the sugar Kyle's fully keto I don't know if you guys know this he's off sugar he's acting totally different dude heartbreaker I'm not off sugar by the way i could never be off sugar don't spread those i'm just gonna keep reporting that those vicious lies um yeah man it was just like a heartbreaker because like they get you know full 59 minutes in the last minute kirk cousins

kirk cousins of all people prime time kirk cousins is the one who beats the eagles he never beats the eagles he stinks out loud he's got a winning record against the Eagles, and I can't believe he's got a winning record. Does he really? Yeah, 6-7-5, but he hasn't beaten the Eagles before Monday in five fucking years, and I'm just worried. I'm worried. I got a quarterback that I don't know if he's good or not, and that's the worst place to be in the NFL. I got a coach that I don't think is good, I think is the most overpaid

cheerleader of all time. The defense, the edge absolutely stinks. Paid Bryce off $50 million. Guy absolutely stinks. The secondary, I think, besides CJ, GJ, stinks. The offense, I still love. I know AJ Brown wasn't there and everything, but just like I was so high on these guys. And I know we're only one-on-one, and it's insane.

I actually do think they go out and beat the Saints because the NFL was weird, even though Derek Carr's playing out of his mind right now. Yeah. But I just, I don't know. I'm in a weird limbo right now and i'm not happy about it and you know what the worst part about it is yeah i don't go to games who if you go to games you're a fucking psychopath why it is so hard

to get in and out of that complex it is insane like the stadium at the stadium at large like i i had an uber and it takes me usually 15 minutes on a good day to get there. It took me at least an hour just to get up to Jethro. I had an Uber. I didn't even have to park. My buddy came, who was filming for me for doing stuff. We were doing stuff with a brand. And it took him from your area of Jersey to park two hours.

He sat in a four-block line for an hour and 20 minutes. How is that possible? Were the Phillies playing the same night? No. Dude, I'm telling you. People complain about potentially having a Sixers Arena downtown. Yeah. Traffic wise.

The traffic is no better in South Philadelphia. It can't be worse. True. Yeah, that's a good point. The traffic is no better in South Philadelphia. Yeah. And more people drive to that complex. And it's just like, and then getting out of there.

I mean, after a heartbreaking loss, I will listening to people grown men as you're walking down the ramp scream bloody murder about other gigantic specimens that make millions of dollars yeah is very very funny and it takes a load off of the loss yeah i really do appreciate that appreciate that. But then you get to SEPTA and you try to take the subway home. Yeah. And then I want to be that guy screaming bloody murder at our billion dollar transportation.

Yeah, but that's reasonable. That's reasonable, dude. It is so bad. It took me three trains to try to... First off, usually the first game of the year, a brand will pay for SEPTA rides.

Not this year. They said no dice. No dice. So I guess SEPTA didn't secure a brand. Second, we're so ass backwards with our public transportation system that they just introduced credit cards and debit cards to be used at the turnstiles. I have noticed that. And that has fucked so many people up that don't come into the city regularly. Should it make it so much easier?

It should make it so much easier. But people are like, They can't pull their card out and tap it. Dude, I will say, tapping your card has shut down many an old folk. Oh my, I don't even care a wild anymore. It's awesome. But yeah, the old folk,

it's their kryptonite. If you're over 45 years old, you see like tap here, they're like, what the, what could that possibly mean? What is this goddamn machine? They'll sit there and get on their knees and start licking the turnstile. They'll be like, I don't know, I think this

might work. I have no idea what's happening here. I mean, do you think like the traffic though is people getting absolutely blacked out at games and then they're trying to change the station between like Sweet Caroline and like some ACDC thing? That might be what it is. No more WIP after games.

I mean, people become weaponized. I can't even imagine what our UPS driver, our poor UPS driver from last episode was going through. He's probably being weaponized right now. He probably got manhandled the past couple days. This poor guy. He probably still lost his voice. Back to my transportation story.

So I finally get through the turnstile. I get down. The express train already packed. So I got to through the turnstile. I get down. The express train already packed. So I got to go to the local train. Local train pulls up. I get in. All of a sudden, express train, another one pulls up. I get in on that one.

So I'm like, okay, because I have to go all the way down to Fishtown. Like express is like 40 minutes faster. We're sitting there for 10 minutes waiting for the train to go. A conductor from the train comes in and goes, this train is out of service. What are you guys all doing here? He looked at us like we were idiots. I said, dude, we've been sitting in here for 15 minutes.

You couldn't have told us that 15 minutes ago? Oh, my God. It was out of service. And that was just his entire thing. He's like, get off. Oh, they don't care. Why would they not care? Because they don't, the train, I don't know why the train is out. Why is the train out of service?

True. There's 80,000 people trying to get out of a stadium. Yeah. It makes no sense. Like we need, we need a government overhaul. We need Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A,

you ever go to Chick-fil-A? Yes. Whoever runs the logistics of Chick-fil-A should run the logistics of every single thing in this country. Whoever ran Chick-fil-A four or five years ago should be running it. Chick-fil-a four or five years ago should be running it chick-fil-a now has lost their minds dude dude have you been to a che filet recently

i guess not but the logistics are amazing are you talking about the food quality no food quality it's taking a hit with the whole introducing gmos into like the food they had no gmos beforehand the food is unfortunately better which i'm not proud to say they've introduced gmos and i'm like finally something i remember tasting. Yeah, dude. But, dude, Chick-fil-A has gotten to a point where they're like, we're going to add four lanes. You're going to have to do eight loops around the entire campus of Chick-fil-A so you can finally enter. What Chick-fil-A are you going to?

Oh. Real ones, dude. Real ones in New Jersey, dude, by the suburbs. That's fine. But you could be in a 50-person line, and those Chick-fil-A people, which they are, first off, the nicest people in the world. I don't know how they consistently find the nicest people in the world. But we also need to hire them for all our other customer service jobs. And they have the people out there with the iPads.

You don't even have to go to the drive-thru. If they're backed up, you go to the drive-thru. You hit one kiosk. They confirm your order. Then you hit your next kiosk. They have the order out there. They read it back to you. They confirm your order. Then you hit your next kiosk. They have the order out there. They read it back to you. They never miss anything.

They give you 15 different sauces. You're a saucy guy. Yeah. It's like a line of 50 people that would usually like shut a McDonald's down. Yeah. Chick-fil-A can have that going in 10 minutes. Yeah. I mean, all the people inside of the McDonald's working are unfortunately on heroin, but that

makes it tougher for them to process a lie, which is totally fine. It's true. But I will say, the Chick-fil-A thing, you don't ever feel guilty like looking at some poor 17-year-old girl holding an iPad in like 28-degree weather.

What do I care? You don't care at all. I got my hot chicken in the bag. Dude, you don't need any hot chicken. You need a hot... All right, well, I'm not going to finish that sentence. You need a young lady,

warm inside, standing behind the... By the way, I don't think... Don't draw the short straw. Is that how they do it, you think? I think it's probably seniority. But I'm assuming that can't make the line move any faster. Yes, it does. How so? They walk up to your car and they say, hey, how can I help you? What do you need? They see a problem and they fix it right away. Yeah, but I think the problem is not as much

how quickly... McDonald's used to do this and they just didn't do it as well. Heroin. But I'm saying, I think the people at Chick-fil-A, I don't understand how them being outside makes the line move quicker. I think they take your order quicker and it makes all these people who sit in their cars and they can't think past like an eighth grade level of like, I want to order now because it moves it quicker. All they do is they come up, they take your order.

You're not getting it any quicker. You're just having your order taken quicker. That's my opinion. McDonald's did the double lane, and they could not perfect it, but Chick-fil-A has perfected the double lane. We might have to agree to disagree on this one. The Chick-fil-A thing, I just feel bad that there's kids that's got to stand outside. I feel like it makes no point of difference.

I think they're just taking your order quicker so you can wait the same amount of time. Dude, they're 17 years old. Yeah. They have more cells than we do. I think that's true. I think that's gotta be true. I think you lose cells

as you grow older. And what is the powerhouse of the cell? The mitochondria. No. Is it mitochondria? It's mitochondria. Is it the nucleus?

No. Nucleus. Who cares? Oh, I got one more thing. Let's hear it. And this is old Kyle communism coming out right now.

Oh, this is all Kyle communism coming out right now. Oh, this is interesting. Yo. Hello, Kyle. What are you doing? Nothing. Sitting here watching the game. Smoking some Thrive. Are you all alone?

Waza. Waza. Who's that? Yo, pick up the phone. Waza. Waza. Waza. yo cheeto pick up the phone yo what's up what you doing son nothing just chilling killing true true Nothing. Just chilling. Killing. True. True. Enough with the fucking police escorts before the games.

Enough with the police escorts. Yep. If you want a police escort, get there two to three hours when everyone else is warming up on the turf. If you're not playing in the fucking game, Michael Rubin, I'm looking at you, the guy who was ever in this... The guy was in a... Who makes makes an escalates ford yeah catalogue maybe catalogue catalogue catalogue escalade the guy was in a catalogue escalade it wasn't even that nice of a car yeah he had like a five police fucking uh escort as we're like weaving in between traffic and stuff and there's a and there's a freaking line from Jethro down to the Women Bridge.

Yeah. And I'm just like, no, no more police escorts an hour before the game. Yeah. Unless you're playing in the game or unless Jalen Hurts needs something to play good. Because if you're going in there and you want to go shake hands with Big Dom and you want to just go, you know. Go on the field. Go on the field.

Wear like an Eagle starter jacket. You're going to go sit in a suite and everything. No, fuck you. Yeah. All right. Sit in line with the rest of us. Dude, you're going full Hunger Games. You really are Kyle Communism right now.

You should be like, I'm seeing the upper class. I don't like what they're doing. Dude. We're going to win the game. Michael Rubin is the worst with it. His chopper will fly over Wells Fargo Center during a playoff game. He'll land somewhere. All of a sudden, he'll split the seas like I-95.

Yeah. All the peons are sitting'll split the seas like I-95. All the peons are sitting in their cars trying to get in, who are sitting in the second level, paid hundreds of dollars that they don't have just to see their favorite team. And Michael Rubin's from the airport to the Wells Fargo Center in 10 minutes or less because he got a police escort. And it is

the most nauseating thing. And then he's out of there in 10 minutes. And he's not even a guy. He doesn't even have a tie to Philadelphia. Not anymore. He's just like a small guy that went on Ozempic like the rest of us. And then he's out of there in 10 minutes and he's not even a guy he doesn't even have a tie to philadelphia not anymore he's just like a small guy that went on ozempic like the rest of us and now he's like yeah just kind of do what i want no more police escorts i i totally agree did you how many did you see just the one just one yeah just one but that's like so you're sitting in traffic trying to get into the game finding a lot and you're watching some fucking guy who sells t-shirts that are ironed on joelle b's letter or whatever number probably like the fifth minority owner of the philadelphia eagles yeah and not even a minority which is crazy

can we get an actual minority owner for the love of christ and bumper to bumper traffic going both ways having to spread like the red sea that would drive me out of my mind yeah as as most of us are sitting here for an hour trying to just pay $40 for fucking parking. $40 is what it is now. That's crazy. Dude, people are always talking about trying to flip cars during civil unrest. Flip a billionaire's car. You could get over there, dude.

The cops aren't going to... Well, maybe don't do it. They might shoot you. But if they do, at least you're going out with a good cause. And I'm not saying specifically to flip Michael Rubin's car. Let him drive freely. Enjoy himself. I'm just saying, next time you're out, you're busy, you're with the boys,

you got a couple of zins in, had a couple of cold ones, flip a billionaire's car. I hope I didn't bring the energy of the podcast down. I like it. I feel pretty good. I'll say something positive. Yeah. Down the jumbo.

Yeah. Dude, you're such a glory hound. That's unbelievable. Bradley Cooper, Shane Gillis. All in different segments. That's for me to know and you to never find out three of the who's who of who might be gay and then kyle is the who's who of who uh so oh this is actually kind of fun so the jumbotron comes on you i'd be nervous dude look i'm a guy we're a couple on screen guys you and i if i got

the jumbotron i'd pag and do something weird don't know what to do with your hands what'd you do give me your move uh so i was doing a i was doing a bit with mirror light yeah so i was like just pointing at the mirror light trying to get facetime for like that somebody like thought that they would buy a mirror light because they saw me did you get your name underneath them did they bring up it's? No. What do you think? No, no, no. I'm a fucking regular. You're acting like Michael Rubens and nobody.

I'm thinking you're Kyle Big Bridges right now. I don't know what's going on here. I mean, there was like a thousand people that probably got on the Jumbo that day, but I'm just saying the top three. People were saying, I got a lot of texts. I got some DMs. Yeah. I saw you on the Jumbotron, so I'm just saying. But Shane Gilles didn't get that many DMs.

So, yeah, I'm sure he did not. Who is that guy? So you get on the J jumpotron and you go you went with like driving past a short bus and the kid looks out the window that was your move yeah okay i like that that's totally fair yeah i would panic that's that's honestly better than what i would do i was like a kid drowning in the in the pool that'd be good be like the only thing that could save me is a Miller Lite. If this pool was filled with Miller Lite, then I'm drowning. There's just something so innocent about getting on the Jumbotron and then just immediately being introverted back to just being a child.

Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. I'd freak out, too. You can see me? I'm totally on your side. You can see me? The people behind me were going bonkers.

Was it stated? Did they erupt? No. God damn it, dude. Erupt for Kyle one time, guys. Let him hear you. No, dude. We're humble.

Humble kings. Are we? You're talking about being on the Jumbotron. Dude, I just got on the Jumbotron because I happened to be next to a guy who was giving out Jumbotron invites. I'm happy to hear you got on the Jumbotron, dude. And I think you honestly did it much better than most would. You weren't even there. How do you know?

From what you're telling me, because I hate to say this, dude. Kyle, I respect you more than anybody. You seem like a guy who would floss on the Jumbotron. It makes me, I want to puke even saying it. I'm so mean. I would be the same way. I'd panic. And I'd be like... So you know how that tells me that you only go to strictly Sixers games?

Yeah. Because that's the only place where the floss actually happens. They still have the floss can. They have to retire the floss can. No, the floss can has to be there forever. We have not gotten out of the second round since they introduced the floss can. When the American empire falls and nobody has any more money left, I need to see small, cute black kids

flossing on the Jumbotron or else I'm going to have a bone to pick. Dude, they are so good. And then when they take the camera and they put it over to the white kid and he's just so offbeat, you're just like, how do you do that to our young brother? Let him. But the young brothers light it up, dude. The Jumbotron really should be reserved for like nine-year-old black kids because they knock it out of the park every time.

They knock it out of the park every time. It should just be black people on the Jumbotron. Yeah. They are so much cooler. Like so much cooler. They know what to do. Yeah. We lose like sense of our like motor functions and everything.

Yeah. I would panic. I would probably put a gun on my mouth and shoot myself, which I always think about. How funny. Who was the politician that did that? Oh, Ben Dreyer or something. Somebody Dwyer. Bud Dwyer.

Bud Dwyer. You would Bud Dwyer. That would be me because I'd panic. And then the funny part is the Jumbotron kind of comes back to you every once in a while, so it would be me with blood leaking out of the back of my head. It's just a one-way. Yeah, one kid's doing the dick in your mouth. And it cuts back to a black kid totally nailing it and then back to me.

And they're just booed. If I shoot myself and I get booed, I will be pretty pissed, dude. Just blood-drying yourself on the jumbo. I got no bones. Yeah, I think that might be the move. That would be my panic move because I just don't know what to do. That guy.

Is this guy coming on? Hell yeah, dude. Coming on? Dude, he lured you in? So you've been doing chess for 30 years? Or longer than 30 years? Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

And are these games daily? Are they weekly? No, if the weather's nice, we're out here. Got it. We're out here. And we see a lot of things go through. We've had people with, maybe I shouldn't say that. Hi.

Firearms. Some situations out here where we've had the police, like around four or five cars come down here and just like, this happened like four or five summers ago, just stop everything. Cause I'm expecting it to be a pretty competitive environment. You know, obviously these guys are going toe to toe with each other. And when someone loses someone manhood feels like it's been checked a little bit when it hasn't been checked.

That's almost like on a daily basis. And then the trash talk just explodes. And because we have a group of very strong chess players and some have, let's say backgrounds yeah i would love if you guys could sit there and just like record and say are you kidding me this is better than a sitcom but some of the guys who are very good chess players are like dude i don't want to be seen yeah is it just like this is my time away that i get to kind of enjoy myself i need to be kind of in a microscope kind of thing yeah 100're 100% right. Right. I feel like when you, could you imagine

going away from prison for 20 years? Imagine going away from prison in 2000 and coming out in 2020. The amount of technological advances. That's a good point.

That's a good point. What is this Twitter? Yeah. What is this social media thing? I can take a picture. The thing is, because the chess players are highly intelligent,

they pick up things very quickly, et cetera, et cetera. So a lot of them hate social media. They're like, what the hell is TikTok? Instagram and everything else. Like, what, this is bull.

Yeah, da, da, da. I can listen to music and take pictures on my phone? That'd be crazy. What an interesting kind of angle to come from. Because I think, at least from my experience, I would have just thought chess players are just like, you see these videos of just some old 80-year-old white dude. You say it, nerd.

Just kind of dorks sitting in the park. Bobby Fischer. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Right. We got power lifters over there at chess players. Just kind of dorks sitting in the park. Bobby Fischer. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Right. We got power lifters over there at Chess Players. Yeah. I would not be that guy.

I played for a basketball, you know, all over the... You have wrestlers, you have boxers, former professional boxers. You have two twins from Jamaica over there. We have players from Jamaica. Yeah. Egypt, China. They're all involved and we have an international group out here and we're the strongest chess park in the entire city sure philadelphia period yeah well no in terms of strength say like some jack dudes over there you know he's jack you guys are you know you guys are in the gym

yeah that's very nice yeah absolutely said I wanted to come over. I said a bunch of daisies over here. I'm not going to interview you. Well, we're still daisies. No, you guys are not daisies. We just got a plan of fitness nearby. Mental daisies. Don't say plan.

Mental daisies. Fitness. They come from North Philly, West Philly, Upper Derby, Jersey. And they're the alphas in their chest part. Jersey guys. And they come over here and they get crushed and they say, you mean I'm not the alpha over here?

Yeah. Really? Yeah. We got three guys who are like, they're on the councils, you know, and I won't give the name.

Yeah. Three guys who are just super strong though. How do you get on the council? You have to be super strong. I bring in masters. I bring in masters from the University of Pennsylvania

and they beat them. Like a push-up contest? No. Chess. Oh, okay. Push contest? No, chess. Push-ups too, yeah. They probably hand our ass to us too. Does anyone ever lose and then go double nothing and I beat you in a push-up contest?

Yeah, for $100. No, push-ups? No. Chess, yeah. $100 is okay. $200. There was one time they were playing for $300 a game. No, not slow chess. Speed. Oh yeah, how's that? I always see the timer and I always wondered what that is. $300 a game. No, not slow chess. Speed. Oh, yeah.

How's that? Is that time? So that's the timer. I always see the timer. I always wondered what that is. Five minute one time for one side, five minute for the other side. Whoever runs out of time loses. So you got to play that entire game.

What's the most you've ever seen someone lose here? In a night? Yeah. Myself? Four grand. Dang. Oh, my God. Four grand in one. How many games did you play? They started at $100 a game, then it went to. Oh, my God. Four grand in one.

How many games did you play? They started at $100 a game, then it went to $200, then it went to $300 a game. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And were you battling back and forth trying to win a bag and stuff, or was it straight loss, loss, loss, loss, loss? No, it was two players who knew each other, and they've been doing this for a while, and they said, what?

What? What? What? Let's go. What? Double it. What? What?

Wow. No kidding. So, like I was saying, you've been doing this for a while, and I'm sure you see new guys come in and out, people that you see for a year, two years, and then they're somewhere else. Oh, that's right. And then I imagine it seems like it's a tense environment. Do you ever see, like, these young guys come in, get in a fight,

and you're like, guys, can I finish my game? Can you guys settle that? Like, are you kind of like the elder statesman who's like, can we finish the game? That's all that matters? Yeah. Is that kind of the role? But sometimes you just got to let them go because, you know, we're men.

Yeah. There's a young man over there. He's playing. The guy in the red jacket, the young guy is right there. He's 20 years old. I call him the prodigy. We call him the prodigy. He just won a speed tournament and won another speed tournament.

When he came here at 18, he was a little daisy. He was like very quiet, very timid. Yeah. Now you can't, we can't shut him up. Because, you know, we got him to the point where he is just killing masters and experts in chess. And he just picked it up like freaking so fast yeah we call him the prodigy and he's just like exploding so he's going after the council the top three guys he says i'm the best i'm the best i said what are you 20 oh yeah sorry yeah so if he beats the council does

he get a seat at the council yeah that's what he's trying to do wow so this is like a bit of a pokemon type thing yeah i don't know i don't know if you ever played pokemon trainer pokemon you beat god Godfather. Who's that? Kind of Sopranos action. He's never seen Sopranos. Oh, I've never seen it. No, sorry.

Let's sit that one out. He's a cop right now, but he's trying to get... Don't say Pokemon around these guys. Oh, okay. Pocket monsters, the Japanese term. I'm a bit of a daisy.

We've covered that. Venus faces are right. I think he's about to turn into a Pokemon. Yeah, he's getting... You guys follow Kung Fu? You guys are Kung Fu guys? No, no.

Are you a Kung Fu guy? Yeah, you know, it's like you have the white Grandmaster with hands behind his back and he has white hair and he's like a super Grandmaster. Kung Fu. And the regular Masters try to fight him. He's like,

to attack an enemy and not know his strength is foolish. To still attack when not know his strength is foolish to still attack when you know his strength is stupid yeah yeah people that stupid don't deserve to live and that's what and that's what the 20 year old is trying to do right now kind of wow do you let new people in easily or does everyone have to go through kind of a matter of fact there's's a Canadian group. A Canadian father, he's from Toronto, brought his son in. He's 15, almost your height.

He plays basketball, too, but he goes to Germantown at this point in time. He said, the father, I took my son to New York. I went to Greenwich Village. I went to Bryant Park. I went to Times Square. Very good players. And my son says, you guys are stronger than the guys in New York. And we live here.

Why did you know it? Do you know the tolls? The George Washington Bridge? He's yelling at me. He's like, you guys are right around the corner. He brings his son here, who's 15, almost your height. And he's like, my son loves it here. And they hear the talk.

And they're from Canada. They hear the talk. You guys are Americans, so you know how we roll. And they're from Canada. They're like, is it okay? I mean, yeah. You know, it's okay. See, we're international here.

But they're really talking. It's pretty dangerous. So, yeah, they're dangerous guys. But, you know, we're here for one thing, chess and getting better. Is it pretty regulated? Because I guess technically you guys are gambling outside So you're regulated like regulated obviously use the word regulated. Okay, probably answers that question. Yeah, I did I'll say no more about that. Sure. Do you ever have like trouble with like the police and everything around you guys? matter of fact, we police the park because sometimes As you can see folks to see her have a good time. You get some guys who are homeless who start harassing them.

And we say, yo, don't do that, dog. This is our park. We police the park. So don't do that here. This is Clark Park. We don't roll like that here. Could be a rehabilitation process. If you get a homeless guy and he comes up and just amazingly starts playing chess,

you bring him in. Oh, yeah, you'll be accepted. Get him going. Really? Absolutely. Even if he's coming over kind of acting nuts, you'd be like, take a seat? Yeah, because we're all kind of crazy over there. I mean, we're all crazy.

We're all crazy to a certain point. Do you guys have nicknames for each other? Do you guys have nicknames and stuff for each other? Do we? Yeah. Oh, my goodness. What's yours? Me?

They'll call me, which I don't like, Mossy Poo. mossy poo i wouldn't like that one either and when they call me mossy poo i said i said um oh you're a pretty chess player and they hate that yeah so you call me pretty well you call me mossy poo so how'd you get mossy poo yeah you have to ask them that is is totally different just call me vince vince uh i'll definitely call you that but um yeah but nicknames are outrageous over there i mean you know the kid i was telling you about the 20 year old we call him the prodigy because he is and um we have big joe who your comrade was fighting with big joe yeah yeah he works with the city. Okay. So he's city tough. You know, he's been all around the city. I was out above my wake box.

Yeah. He's a big dude. Don't worry about that. Sorry, yeah. Yeah, just for your audience, Big Joe is 6'5", around 270. Big Joe is certainly Big Joe. So you have to call in your buddy over here, you know, to fill in for you. Your buddy was running that way. No, no.

Yeah. We're both going down. No, you know. I'll go down with you, too. No, no. You guys are real, man. We picked it up immediately. No, you know, you're fine. I'll go down with you, too. Yeah, dude. No, no. You guys are real, man. We picked it up immediately. That's the only reason why I came over here.

I love that. If you're some kind of like, well, I got to be careful in the park because there's a lot of, as you can see, a lot of lifestyles here. Otherwise, I'm a solid. The real guy. The real man. Old school guy. Yeah.

Old school guy. Yeah, yeah school guy yeah D-Block talk yeah yeah yeah but I love the guys as soon as I came over I said

oh Pack McAfee Energy I said you guys are great I'm like okay I'll interview with you you know

it's going to be fair and balanced and the event is I'm like yeah this is cool no this was great I mean seriously is there anything else you wanted to well know, it's going to be fair and balanced. And if it is, I'm like, yeah, this is cool. No, this was great. I mean, seriously, is there anything else you wanted to say?

Yeah, I don't want to hold it. No, no, no, please. Tell us about like the New York presence that comes in here. Like New York ballers, straight cocky, know they're the best. And they give us respect because, you know, we'll go toe to toe with them. But overall, they'll kick our ass. They call it they call all of the city, you know we'll go toe to toe with them but overall they'll kick our ass if they call it they call all the city you know because there ain't no more people yet yeah they they're they'll probably beat us you know but oh they know they're in a fight you know we're all fighters over here matter of fact you have um burt over there burt burt raise your hand

see he won't raise his hand he's like vietnam but he says we're all fighting we're all fighting Bert over there. Bert! Bert! Raise your hand. See, he won't raise his hand. He's like the... But he says, we're all fighting. We're all fighting. We're fighters. We're all fighting. Right. Yeah.

Firefighter. Yeah. Firefighters. Fireman. We live in the fire. Teddy Atlas. We live in the fire. And guess what?

He was dead as a storm. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, you have a lot of guys here. We're all fighters. And chess is about, you know, you see the nerds saying, oh, yeah, you know this, read this book, everything. Then there's the fight, the struggle.

You know, one of my favorite grandmasters of all time is Emanuel Lasker, Dr. Emanuel Lasker. He was 1910, 1920, 1930s. And he was a fighter. You know, he was world champion for 28 years. And he didn't really know openings it's oh you gotta read this book know this opening no no he says no you get in there you hang in there and then you fight you fight and he was world champion for 28 years yeah that's philosophy when'd you get into it just like americans were fighters when did you get into it

i was man i was very young you grew up around here? No, no, no, no. But when I came, I've been in Philly for like 30 years. Okay. Where are you from originally? Originally, I'm a Midwesterner. Midwesterner, okay. Yeah. So I love this town because it's a fighting town.

There's a bunch of fighters here. And chess is a fight, you know, more than anything else. There's some intelligence to it, too. But bottom line, you can get the, like I said, I bring masters from universities here, actual titled masters, and they lose out here in Clark Park. Isn't that crazy? Crazy. It really is crazy. Even I was shocked when the first time I was like, what do I have here?

And then I said, these guys are fighters and yeah and um dr man alaska is right says in order to um be a strong player you gotta have to fight it you gotta be a fighters and um you guys play sports you know we've all been in fights yeah i mean you guys know what it's like yeah it's just that extra will to win kind of the will that's the key word yeah sure you're 100 right you nailed it you know the will and and that's who we are you know as you know the will and that's who we are you know as a country and everything else that's who we are

that's sick I love that I love that I would have never thought I would have thought the chess scene in Philadelphia is one to be reckoned with that's pretty cool

that's why we do the pod dude trying to learn about stuff like this seriously why this is really it yeah well dude thank you so much

for sitting down Vince right yeah absolutely awesome and like do you guys have like a name for your stuff or are you guys

like anywhere we're Clark Park. Clark Park. Okay. If anyone ever wants to come to Clark Park and, you know. Test their will. Pay your dues. They better be good.

Yeah, you better be good. Come correct, dude. No checkers over here. No. It's funny. Yeah. What you just said? Yeah.

When people come here, and they're good players. You know, Class A players, they get crushed. And we say, this is chess chess sons, not checkers. They're like, what? There you go. They get it, too. They're like, okay, yeah, you guys are good. Shit.

Well, Vince, thank you so much, man. Thanks, I appreciate it. This was great. It was great being here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. Usually I got clammy hands. Thank you so much.

But you're out here all the time. Great story. Appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for giving me the time. Absolutely. Anytime. Are you, I'm kind of curious, are you, and I know you're working during this, so you

can't go as much. If you're going to like a sports game, just you hanging out with your buddies, with your girl, how drunk is appropriate to get at a sporting event? At a night sporting event? Is this me or is this me like 10 years ago? It's you in your idealized version of yourself. What do you think makes the most sense for like you and then the general populace around your age? Because I think some guys are just getting plastered.

No good. And I think some guys are like, I'll have one beer. And it's like also no good. Aren't you kind of jealous of those guys that can just get plastered in public and not give a shit about anyone else like eagles fans are like that where it's like even though like the stadium's a little bit newer and they've priced a lot of like the mongrels from the vet out and everything there are still people who have come over from the vet that are like hanging on to their tickets and stuff that it gets pretty crazy hard to watch like but i think everyone pre-games in and yeah pre-games before because they're not spending you know 15 hours on beers and stuff yeah i don't know honestly i never been a huge drinker at games because those beers are insane

but if i do go after it yeah i get after it i mean at least they get you the tall boys so you get a couple tall boys in you and you're good yeah if you get like one or two like two tall boys four beers two two three tall boys and then just crush at xfinity live after that's really what the the theory is i think you're right i think it's kind of like you get kind of hammered at the game. You pregame the game a little bit, hammered at the game. Xfinity Live, you might get on the bull. Oh, yeah.

That's the devil's lettuce. That's the one that's really whispering the entire time. Because once you have like six, seven beers in your system, you get to Xfinity after a good win. The vibes are high. You see a couple dudes before you get on.

You're like, that guy's the same size as me. I can get on the bull. But I will say, the minute that a guy gets on the bull, the energy deflates out of PBR bar so quick it's so hard to watch

when was the last time you were on the bull? would you believe it was like two and a half months ago, dude and I got on there and I fell off pretty quick yeah, they never want to see the dudes on the bull yeah, they get rid of you quick, which I think is some level of sexism. I've never been on the bull. I can't bring myself to go on the bull. No way. I can't. I think

I don't know how to have fun. You just point to your beard the entire time. I don't know how to make a fool of myself, I think. I think I've just had this weird block where I can't shed this I don't know this guy looks like an idiot

this I can't you think about that the entire time fuck yeah you just sit there like that's gotta be childhood trauma true yeah I think you gotta let loose I think our next pod will just be on the bull and it'll be you and I talking to each other as we sequentially get up the bulls aren't fun they suck yeah they're not fun they hurt. They hurt. Yeah. My insides kill. Your dingo? Well, no. What is this? Your quad?

Your quad? Yeah, your quads, man. You got to hold tight onto those things. I try, and I've done it many times. People don't understand that. You got to hold tight onto these things. Do you end up with bruises all over your quads and everything? Yeah, that's a tough one.

That's actually pretty good. And you didn't go to a diddy party? Whoa. Don't bring up the man of the hour. Dude, do not talk about the diddles. They got actually pretty good. Can you go to a Diddy party? Whoa. Don't bring up the man of the hour. Do not talk about the Diddles. They got them, folks. They nabbed them. Diddy is the guy. You're actually probably right because if you think about

what the worst version of you looks like, it looks a lot like P. Diddy. So P. Diddy's getting on the bull. P. Diddy's doing some weird dance on the Jumbotron. I think he's been on the bull for the last 30 plus years according to what we saw. I think you're probably right. What do you think about that? Because i think he's been on the bull for the last 30 plus years according to what we saw i think you're probably right what do you think about that he gets he finally because all the stuff's been building to this i got a lot of thoughts on it yeah all over the place i think like i mean first of all they catch him it had to be like a intentional thing to be like

thousand bottles of baby oil so that's the funniest part. Where it's like, he had AR-15s, he had videos and pictures of some of the most heinous shit you've ever seen, and he also had a thousand bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby oil. And you know what? This is so weird,

but I can kind of relate to Diddy's arraignment. So... Hold on now. Kyle relate to Diddy's arraignment. Hold on now. Kyle P. Diddy? So back in sophomore year of high school, we all got caught drinking at a kid's house and caught in the disciplinarian's office. You went to Catholic school. They take that shit way more seriously than they really should.

And so some shit was stolen and the kid was away he gave our buddies his password to his garage yeah and said hey throw a party my parents won't care but my parents won't know blah blah but some shit was stolen the freezer door was left open so like it kind of like traced back to like yo what the fuck happened when we were gone so we all get caught in this disciplinarian's office and And obviously, like, you're 15 years old, 16 years old. This is one of the first times I ever drank, so I got caught. And I was just, like, shit in a brick. Like, my parents are going to fucking kill me.

Absolutely. So all of a sudden, they're talking about, like, what they got. So they're like, all right, $300 was stolen. A PlayStation was stolen as well. And then the video game Banjo-Kazooie was also stolen. And all of us bit the fuck out of our tongue because we couldn't laugh in that situation. Stealing Banjo-Kazooie is Diddy's 1,000 bottles of lube. That's crazy, dude.

Because I bet you there's a lot of times Diddy was with some lady that didn't want to be there and he's about to give you the old banjo kazooie. And she's like, please no. I'd rather be playing banjo kazooie right now. Yeah, I'm about to play it inside. Did you see him hours before he was getting arrested? In the park, huh? Playing hacky sack.

Played hacky sack. Tell him to play tennis or play chess. He's playing some hacky sack. That takes a whole level of like that's the stuff that makes me nervous like him getting arrested that's good to see but then him getting arrested and knowing he was playing hacky sack aren't you kind of like you knew this was coming you're not worried about it but even the crazier video was him listening to a kid's uh mixtape on the uh street i didn't see that he's listening to this dude's mixtape off this

guy's phone and in the TMZ article it says our tipster said he would have signed him if it was in better circumstances I'm like Diddy you gotta be thinking of in better circumstances

actually might be the greatest excuse of all time that is so now everybody who sucks rapping comes up to you and be like

yeah dude the time was better for me right now I definitely would have signed you isn't that funny the older you get you just talk more and more like Trump dude That's such a

Trump line to be like, under better circumstances. Under better circumstances. I would have signed you, dude. I would have signed you. But unfortunately, the witch hunt continues. And then your boy, Ack. Dude, I'm pro-Ack. I know I was talking crud on him last time. I'm pro-Ack. Majorly pro-Ack

even. This guy, I'm here, Was sitting on his stream At noon Watching the Diddy Arraignment Just ripping From a bottle of tequila I'm waiting to hear the bad part dude It was noon

That sounds This old ass dude Go start a family First of all Not old He's perfectly aged He's 38 Or dude. Go start a family. First of all, not old. He's perfectly aged. He's 38 or whatever. Ripping.

Just straight. I think I watched the 30 second clip. He must have pulled four times. Dude, he's in straight, just self-made content creation. That's when you've earned being an alcoholic. Dude, he makes the funniest faces too. Like the funniest reactions. Yeah, he does.

He does. And he has in the top left his, like, GoFundMe for Drake to perform at the Super Bowl. He's an insane person, dude. He's the bro, dude. Sometimes bros look out for bros, and that's something you just don't get. Dude, Drake's going to have to get a restraining order against him.

It's gone that bad. Yeah. Dude's pulling tequila, defending Drake, and watching Diddy Aramans with... And just, like... And just like... And he's one of those guys that... A thousand bottles of lube!

A thousand bottles of lube! Is that what he's saying? He's one of those guys that you're like, I used to think you were playing a character, but you might just be this fucking out of your mind.

I can't do it because we're in a public place, but he like screams, like, Meek! Yeah. Meek! And Meek's getting a little sassy on the internet. Meek's getting very sweet on the internet, dude.

Because now the Diddy Meek video, which I am Team Meek on this one, but he's getting very sassy and he's releasing a lot of statements that are not denying the video. He's just like, all these billionaires that I've been around, all these millionaires that I've been around. I made myself into a millionaire. I've been reforming people these millionaires that I've been around. I made myself into a millionaire. I've been reforming people all these times and everything. And now people want to do these bot campaigns against me.

People from my city are turning on me and everything. It's like, dude, just deny that you're in the video. We don't need the 10 tweet thread, dude. His PR team has to be like, for Christ's sake, deactivate his Twitter. Just let us do it. Just let us do it, dude. What's up, man? How are you?

Let's go, man. We're recording a podcast called Men at Work. We ask you what they do for a living. And so we just kind of come out to different places and stuff. So we came to Clark Park for one. Yeah. Are you on the job right now? Can you talk or no?

Five minutes, maybe. Five quick minutes. Talk about the... Give me five minutes. Yeah, dude. I love that. Let's talk about the let's go man yeah dude I love that let's talk about it here go on this side

because we have headphones for you and everything yeah must be kind of interesting to talk about SJU public safety

I can't yeah dude you guys probably busy you guys are probably busy now you just bought up a bunch of different

and grab that mic for me you guys just bought did you guys just bought up colleges like different colleges and stuff now I don't know if we bought a couple colleges, but I know that we might be closing the one down here. Got it.

Down in New City. So I don't know if they're expanding or decreasing. Got it, got it. And so what do you handle, what does St. Joe's have down here in West Philadelphia? They have a campus over there right on Willard, 42nd and Willard. It's called the U City Campus. Okay. Yeah.

It's a little smaller than the normal one. Yeah. So they just get the kids that have special programs and just put them down here. Got it. Have you been in public safety before? Is this your first public safety job? No, I've been in public safety for like at least 10 years. Where else have you been? Oh, wow. Yeah. I've been hear it. Got it. Have you been in public safety before? Is this your first public safety job? No, I've been in public safety for like at least 10 years. Where else you been?

Oh, wow. Yeah. I've been at Penn Hospital right on 54th here. And then I was at the university also. What's your favorite one so far? The hospital. Really? Why just the hospital?

You really get to save people help people and also that you can it's it's it's so many different people that come in there you never know what you're going to get got it yeah so it keeps it interesting and stuff now you're kind of just like chilling i mean it's probably a little like sometimes it could be good not have been having such an excitable job maybe you get to throw a podcast in or some headphones in. Yeah, seriously. Watch some Netflix and stuff. I used to go to Temple, man.

I know how those guys who check the IDs, man. They just have the time watching Netflix and letting anyone go in. But we more patrol. So they honestly just, I don't want to talk for them really, but they kind of stick to one area. Just letting people in, showing IDs and everything. We walk around, we patrol the area, we do stuff more like that. So make sure the community and everything is safe around the school.

You don't get a gun? Oh, nah, nah. Taser? No. Walkie-talkie? You're all just hands?. Taser? No. Walkie-talkie? You're all just hands? Yeah, yeah. No, we got walkie-talkie.

And what else? Anything else? Nah. So people can just catch these hands if they start acting up? They got to do. Sleeper hold? I like that. Yeah, we train to, no, they train us to, we take a couple classes, Act 235 classes also. So, yeah, they make sure that we equip, but we really can't bring any type of weapons around.

What moves are they teaching out there? There's a couple of little locks, little takedowns. Have we ever had to use them before? Have we ever had to throw it out? Yeah. Well, working in the house. That's illegal in the NFL now. Yeah, it is. It is. It's a flag. Should the public safety That's illegal in the NFL now. Yeah, it is.

It is. It's a flag. Should the public safety guys? That should be 15 yards. For real, man. You do it to the guy, you got to back up 15 yards. Yeah, yeah. You penalize for it.

Here come the fines. But go ahead. You were saying something about having to use them before? Oh, yeah. So in the hospital man like i said you never know what you're gonna get people be in there they be in there for uh so much pain or loss you never really know so people be coming there acting how they need to act sometimes or some people don't need to act especially if they lose somebody real crucial to the family

so it'll be a lot of uh emotions going around and so i imagine you can gauge that to some effect where you see somebody who's dealing with like a major loss and you'll give them a little more leeway there's got to be just some i mean kind of dickheads that are just in there acting up and you're like yo i might have to do something this guy pretty quicker than yeah yeah yeah sometimes the sleeper hold is cause for certain people. But most of the time, you kind of try to show a little empathy with them. And you can understand when they lose somebody significant to them

and how would you want to be treated. Sure. So yeah, you try to treat people the way that the scene calls for almost. Some people you really do got to put in a chokehold and stuff like that. But most of the calls for almost. Yeah. Some people, you really do gotta put in a chokehold and stuff like that. Yeah.

But like, most of the time, people just hurt. Yeah. So you just gotta connect to them. Put them in a chokehold of love. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, I'm doing this, I don't wanna be doing this. I love you. It's not your fault. It's called tough love. Toughest of love. I like that. That's good for the insurance companies.

It was tough love, sir. It was not a chokehold. Well, there's gotta be, there's gotta be less of that now now that you're working on a college campus. Are you dealing with drunk idiots all the time? Actually, man, we got some of the best kids, man. Really? Yeah, it's very respectful.

No kid. Because they all live in Manion. True. Most of them. Yeah, they do. Yeah. But no, some of them come from different places, but they got some respect. Parents be very respectful.

Yeah. Why'd you leave the hospital? You liked it so much. To be honest, man, it was something called mandatory overtime. I wasn't feeling that. Mandatory overtime? Were they paying you for that? Oh yeah, they was paying me, but

at the eight-hour shift, sometimes you would want to just go home. Of course. I don't blame you. No, but they'd make you stay, though. And they can. How much longer? Sorry.

Another eight hours. You'd be working doubles? Yeah. Yeah. And mandatory doubles? Yeah. I just got a new family, too, man. I can't be playing with them all day.

Right. Choke a hole. Everybody left and right. I got to get home. 16 hours of choke holds. That weighs on people. You can tell me your lady's going to put you in a choke hold after another eight hours. Trust me, she already did a couple times. I hear you, man.

Came back to work with one eye open. My God. Anything else you got? No. I'm trying. I just can't get... I hate it. I'm glad to meet a public safety person. Cause I mean, I hated you guys in college. I hate us now. Don't even, we, we gotta, uh, we gotta do so much to, uh, prevent y'all from hurting y'all selves.

So yeah. And I remember how I felt when I was, I had to take some of my things or confiscate. I felt like I had to take somebody things or confiscate. I felt like I'm in a way or I'm drawing or something like that. What do they do with those beers that they take? Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

Makes the second overtime go by a little bit quicker. The mandatory doubles now you want to work through. A couple Modellos makes that second shift not too bad. No, we supposed to hand them in. Sure. Do they make it to the Christmas party? They might do it. I don't know.

Notice he started with supposed to. We're supposed to. I love that. I love that. Oh, my God, man. I knew it. I knew it. Hey, dude, let me jump off the roof, all right?

I'm 19 years old. One time. One time. Let me jump off the roof into the pool, or let me jump off the roof onto the table, dude. I'm 19 years old. I got strong bones at 19. This is not the Buffalo bills we're gonna save you okay all right i can't let you do that you'll be catching me on the way down i like that's pretty fair that's pretty fair thank you put a nice table right in front of you yeah yeah uh-huh table blocks not to be broken

well hey good luck on your uh on your patrol all right y'all have fun out here i love what y'all doing out here man keep up the what y'all are doing out here, man. Keep up the good work. We really appreciate it. You were great, man. That was a lot of fun, man. Thank you so much. Nice. Yo, you want to come on?

Cool. Head on this side. This side, if you don't mind. Yeah. What's up, dude? How are you? Thanks for hopping on. Welcome.

Doing good. Doing good, man. Throw some headphones on and grab a mic. If you want. If you don't want the headphones, no worries. Whatever's comfiest. We're talking about your job. Yeah. Yeah. What do you, whateveriest. We're talking about your job. Yeah.

What do you, whatever you, uh, whatever you do for a living. So I hear you went to Temple. One of you. Yes. I went to Temple. Yeah. I work at Temple University. Sweet.

What do you do there? You teach? No, I'm not a professor. I do our industry engagement work for the School of Sport, Tourism, and Hostility Management. Dude, this guy's never had me in class to speak to his people. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.

This could be the moment of joining minds. I'm going to be on the, not the brag, not the brag, not the brag, but the Temple Made and Temple Proud alums. Oh. I'm going to be on that video, that sizzle reel during the football games and the basketball games this year. Football games, no one goes, so they won't be able to see me, but basketball games when they're there.

What are you mowing the lawn in the background? What are you doing in the background? That's terrific. So that kind of gives you some cred, right? Yeah, a little bit. I'm going to be there with Merrill Reese. I'm going to be there with Michael Barkan. It's pretty sweet.

It's pretty sweet. Were you a Klein student then? No, I was a Fox business student. You were a Fox, okay. Yeah. Great. Marketing guy. But no, I do sports, a blog for Crossing Broad.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Never been invited. But that's okay. Hey, I don't hold it. I don't. Again, this is all not yet. marketing guy but no i do i do sports uh a blog for crossing broad oh okay yeah yeah never been invited but that's okay hey i don't hold it i don't again this is all try and make that happen maybe i'll donate when they call when they call maybe i'll donate now i get if i get to talk to one class and then donate to drake going to the super bowl but as you were saying i'd literally be the worst person to ever talk i'd be like fuck it okay probably not ideal so i know i'm not selling myself right now probably not the best but anyway selling your temple experience i and no i love temple i just loved everything

other than going to class um yeah it's not my podcast it's your time to shine so industry engagement yes so what's your what's your deal so our my job we are we have an office, a Center for Industry Engagement. And the idea is because our our our degrees are so hands on and practical sport and recreation management and tourism, hospitality and events that you really have to go out and learn by doing. So we have our students do 15 to 18 credits of internship and then another 250 hours of industry hours. So working events. Oh, yeah. Maybe helping out. I had a bunch of buddies in tourism.

Yeah. So, yeah. So my job is to just to build relationships with those employer partners and alumni sometimes. Got it. Because we don't place our students. Yeah. They have to get the internship, the job, the industry hours. Do they have to pay them?

We do need to give them connections and contacts. So that's kind of what I do. Do they pay them for these so-called internships? They do more now than before. Not all. Back then, I graduated in 15. I had one paid and one unpaid. Okay.

So, and now they're more paid nowadays? Yeah, much more. That's good. Yeah, yeah. Did you have any opinions on like unpaid internships? Were you kind of in the background being like, this is not great? I mean, everything I did, most of what I did was unpaid.

That's a long time ago. But yeah, I mean, we always talk to employers about, listen, I mean, these students are doing meaningful work. And, you know, you should dedicate a budget line to them. So that has happened. But the interesting part is some employers that say hired 20 interns in a year, when they switch to the paid model, the amount of opportunities decrease because now they're budgeting for them. So it might be like four or five in a year.

Sell more product, make more money. Yeah, I mean, pretty much. You have more manpower. That's supposed to be the way it works. Hire more people, make more stuff, sell more stuff. Here's the world's smallest violin at these companies. That's right. Or that we can't pay $15 an hour for an empire.

That's pretty soft. Yeah, that's crazy. Or even just a stipend or give them a... Credit sometimes is great for classes. That's right. That's right. So we can't pay fifteen dollars an hour for an impar. That's pretty. Yeah, that's it. That's great. Or even just a stipend or like give them a credit. Sometimes it's great for for class. That's right. Because those are worth something. Pay for a master's, things like that. I got to talk to you, though, man, about college and stuff, because I see it now with like NIL and everything for sports players anyway. College has become secondary, obviously, for people who aren't, you know, D one five-star athletes, college is necessary. Do you see a world where we take it from four years to maybe two to maybe two and a half? Maybe I don't have to do mosaics one. Maybe I don't have to do mosaics too. Maybe I don't have to do English one-on-one or Spanish for second credit.

Basket weaving. Basket weaving. I don't have to do yoga in my senior year. Cause I ran out of stuff to do. Like, do you ever see like i have do they have conversations about that in uh upper education right now um it's interesting well i don't hear much of that to be honest but the nil i mean athletics it's a it's the it's it's the wild west right now yeah um between you know students basically it's free agency you know student athletes so i think that i mean in the student athlete space yeah that's going to be very dynamic continue to change uh you know school like temple and the american conference is going to struggle oh 100

yeah um but you know the student athlete numbers at Temple is probably less than what? 10% of our student body. So, so I think there's a focus on doubling down on a four year or a four plus one getting your master's degree. But I'm saying like, do you think we'll ever be able to like kind of half college, like cut college in half? Why do I got to pay four years when I can just probably do it in two? I think, uh, it depends on the industry. I think some will never move that way, but others, yeah.

What kind of industries would you say that would maybe move and maybe stay? I think, to be honest, some of our service industries and maybe even a communications marketing degree, because there's a lot of certificates. There's, I mean, there's education online on YouTube that you can, I mean, you can, you can kind of learn in, in other ways, you know, and access some jobs and opportunities. But I can imagine that would make it tough for professors and people that are tenured. You're kind of cutting half of their, you know, basically client pool that they're coming through. It would. Um, but, but higher,

higher ed needs to continue to change and morph so that's the struggle yeah a little bit of reset and you know shout out to me for growing up i know that my buddies my buddies were grew up in fishtown no no no okay all right growing up mentally yeah and uh and having a brain i remember my buddies, yeah, so I can't graduate until I do, and this is sports and hospitality, until I do an internship for a full year or one semester? Yeah, we have a full-time one semester internship. One semester one. And I was like, that's fucking bullshit.

So, well, the idea behind it is it's basically the last thing you do before you graduate. And ideally, it's a three-month interview. And everyone got jobs thank you yeah you converted it maybe that three-month internship yeah so you're paying for the tuition for those last 12 credits hopefully now you're getting paid in the internship shot you know you're walking into you know your first full-time gig because back then it was unpaid yeah but now yeah yeah but let's go to, yeah. Shout out to me.

Complete shout out, dude. We can't wait to see you in the video talking about how bad degrees are. That's crazy. Tell them proud. Look, the honesty is the best policy except in this exact instance. But I guess last thing we'll ask you. Gap years. Good?

Bad? Are they worth it? What do you think? I have a nephew that did one. So I'll speak from that perspective. My kids, you know, I have two kids. They're not in college or age yet. They're getting there. But, um, for him personally, it made a big difference.

Really? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It did. He kind of, he's, he, he was in a program where they were out, you know, in the, in the, in the West, um, literally camping, literally camping hiking you know living on a ranch stuff like that he was surrounded by um a lot of kids with challenges and he didn't really fit in with

that group but he wasn't he was homeschooled he wasn't quite ready for for the college experience he did great when he went to his four-year institution. So I think they're meaningful for the right student, for the right youngster. Kind of just like studying abroad is good for the right person. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, and listen, guys, there's a lot of options. Community college, maybe just, you know, getting a certificate. Like we talked about doing a gap year.

So, again, higher ed is kind of at a crossroads. And there's less 18-year-olds. I mean, the demographics, there's less. I didn't think about that. I've heard that. College-age freshmen every year. Oh, they're going to get smoked in our generation. Yeah.

Our generation isn't getting married until like 35, popping out kids to like 37 there's gonna be another dip you're right in another generation so yeah it's interesting

yeah interesting topics though yeah this is great no man thank you so much and like I like anyone that might

be listening to this I think about going to Temple if you find this I love Temple I owe so much to Temple yeah

that's great and uh I owe nothing to them I went to Rowan. Okay. That's a good institution, too. Have you been invited back? I don't think I ever really went there, to be totally honest with you.

I don't know what I learned. That makes two of us. I'll get your information. We're going to make this happen. We're going to make the connection. I don't know. I don't know. Do you want me back?

I like it. I love it. All right. I'll just go in there and be like, hey, look up at the video board during the games. Yeah. Yeah. That's me. Maybe you'll see a familiar face.

Walk out. Awesome, man. Well, thank you so much. This was great, man. Great to have you guys. Thanks so much. He has all our information and all our podcast stuff and everything. He can give you my shit, too.

Okay. Good. We got to do an outro and we got to get the hell out of here, really. All right. Sounds good. Thank you, though, man. Thanks, man. Thanks, man.

Really appreciate it. All right, everybody. Hey, that's the podcast. If you're still with us, thank you so much. We are filming this. And if you are still with us, we should have put this in the beginning. We are filming this Wednesday, September 17th. And this is not coming out until the 24th.

So some of this stuff might be dated. A little bit. So if you find it that it is, that's the reason being. We're very, very busy. Are you busy with any dates? We got, yes. So this comes out the 24th. The 27 no i'm lying to you 27th will be in walt disney world being a disney adult with my girlfriend and i'm gonna try to see if i can get disney teeth by then is he like this yeah when i

smile my gums come out that's a disney adult smile oh no yeah i know i'm working on it uh but 26th come to 1972 uh distillery in ben salem i'm on a great lineup with a bunch of very funny comedians. That'll be a fun show. And then check the Instagram. I'm trying to get better at getting the dates onto the pods Instagram. So keep an eye out there, cutie boys. Cool.

And yeah, I mean, we appreciate everybody tuning in. We appreciate everybody always listening and stuff. We love you guys. The best. And we'll talk to you when we see you next. Peace. Peace. guys best and we'll talk to you when we see you next