RHAP: We Know Survivor - David Wright, Victoria Baamonde and Gavin Whitson Talk Rick Devens | The Survivor 50 Files

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

Today, Brandon talks to David Wright about Rick Devens' time on Survivor.

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Discount code is 50FILES. 5-0-F-I-L- L E S. Let's get to the show. What is going on everybody? We are back with another episode of the Survivor, 50 files. Today we're talking Rick Davids. I should have listened to his little intro thing, so I could have done it. I didn't do that. Not prepared, but we have a great guest. One of my favorite players of all time. When I got voted off, I said, sometimes when you play Survivor, you're David Wright.

I was David Wrong. It's a great line, didn't make my final words. It's David Wright. David, how are you? Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. This just into the Survivor newsroom. Christian Hupicki is still talking. Q is still canceling Christmas and Rick Devin's still in the game.

There you go. That's all I got. I'm doing well. How are you? Did you write that for him? Because he's going to say that word for word. That's right. That's pretty on the money. Yeah, I heard he's actually like, as we know, the game is happening right now. He's still recording cameos. The guy doesn't quit.

Oh, that's so funny. I've got my rehab mug that Rob gave me like eight years ago. Justin, you David, right? I'm telling you, there's been few people that I've seen on Survivor that made me want to go play more than I thought I already did. And you are one of those people. So I am I'm so thrilled that you're here chatting. No, it's so cool to be here to talk to you. Yes. We were talking a little bit beforehand and and we remembered that we actually met before you ever played survivor. But after

I had my first time in the hearts of reality in Florida in 2017. And now we're here. Here talking about Rick Devons. Rick Devons. Oh shit. I thought oh crap. This is free for all workers. Okay. Rob's not here. And now we're here. We're talking about Rick Devins. Rick Devins. Oh, shit. I thought, oh, crap. This is free for all workers.

Rob's not here. Rob's in Scotland. Oh, yeah. What's he going to do? Do you watch the Traders? Are you a Traders fan? I love the Traders. I mean, here's the thing.

I love the Traders. I love watching it. It's kind of ridiculous, like, how weighted it is for the Traders to win. It's like you can kill them and then they just respawn because obviously we have to get to like 12 episodes that said I love it It's so much fun to watch Would you rather be trader or faithful if you were trader? Oh trader definitely. That's the fun I mean because if you know, you don't have to be well, I mean, I guess traders don't always know who the other traders are But but yeah, it's way more fun. You know, more and you can just kind of it's just

fun to lie. It's fun to lie. I love nobody loves lying with me. I and your two tours of Survivor, David, you like I feel like you had a great great two times. You had a really fun, really exciting two times that I think that a lot of folks who go back and they do a second round, like it doesn't

always go, I feel like, as well. But I feel like you really, you had a good trip twice. Yeah, yes and no. I, you know, certainly people have had worse. But, yeah, yeah, well, yeah. But yeah, I, you know, I wish it had gone a lot better than it did. Um, you know, and obviously I was relieved to get the edge, um, conceit, you know, so there was a safety net.

Um, of course it didn't end up, you know, I had like advantages that I got on the edge to get back into the game. Didn't matter. I don't know. I think I'm just terrible at challenges. Well, you're talking to the right guy. Okay, good. Yeah, Simpati go. Let's talk about Rick Devons.

Are you guys in the Edge of Extinction pregame? Are you with the other 14 folks? Are you guys are actually on a separate resort? And then you joined in that first day. The way it worked in my, I don't even know who knows how it works these days, but the way it worked with me is Kelly and I, Wentworth, were on our own little island.

And then we didn't know about Joe and Aubrey. We only met them, I think, I don't know, 20 minutes before the game started. They pulled up in a boat like, oh, Joe and Aubrey. And I know Aubrey. It's like, damn, I wish I had mentioned Aubrey beforehand that I was going to be playing a second time and wish he had mentioned to me. Obviously, it didn't matter. We were on different tribes. But yes, I don't know how they would do an entire returning season of now, I guess, what? Twenty two players or 20 players, 22, 24, 24 people out there in 26 26 days we're doing 24 people.

That sounds kind of awful, but for them, I mean. But yeah. Sorry, do you think that they're going to do a, I feel like this would be just so cruel in this era, but do you think they're going to do the thing where like they instantly eliminate one person at the beginning of the season, like they haven't passed? Well like with an expedited timeline, the theory that people are floating around is that only one tribe will win immunity out of three and then it'll be two tribes going to tribal council for those first five, I guess, cycles to get down to 12. But that's still, that's five. I do my theory, which I don't know if I've said on here, I think we're going to expand into the two hour episode for at least the first couple weeks, because it's, it's going to be so much.

It is. It is 90, you know, the Australian survivor seasons, which I do watch the Australian survivor. I used to, uh, but it's been a long time. I'm not caught up. They have folks who are on there who will go to episode eight, nine, 10, and they will have one confessional, you know? And I don't think that they want to do that with like their prized group that

they've now put together. Yeah. Which Rick Devons, your good friend. If Rick Devons is going to get one confessional, he's not going to get one confessional. He's going to get so many more. Yeah, he's going to, you know what? Reddit is going to love it. They love when people get screen time.

What was your first impression of Rick Devins after having talked with him a little bit? Oh, I instantly connected with him and felt that, oh, I'm so relieved because you just don't know what to expect. I'm meeting new people and I instantly had a rhythm with him. And he was hysterical, which was back when it was a 39-day game. But for that, the time is all you want out there. The laughter, it's a stress reliever. And yeah, he's just a hoot to be around. And yeah, so I think, not to get ahead of this or any of your questions, but I think

if Rick can get to final try ball, and I was at the big F, but if he can, I think he's got a great chance of winning because he is so likable. And he plays very hard too. So there's things to reward. Yeah, he also is coming into this with this with a huge advantage where he did get voted out in the pre jury his first time playing. He is the only person of this 24 people who has had that happen to them.

I don't know what the advantage is to that, but I think that's something. I think it is. I mean, you know, once you've gone through it, you know what that feels like, you know how you're going to react to it and hopefully you can avoid it this time. Yeah. And the thing is, you know what that feels like, you know how you're going to react to it. And hopefully he can avoid it this time. Yeah. And the thing is, you know, going back to like his challenge prowess or prowess and the challenges, I sent him an advantage from the edge. And then when I got to tribal, I saw that he was wearing the immunity access.

I'm like, Oh, great. My advantage helped him. And then I watched it on TV. It's like, he didn't even need my advantage. He was doing great in the challenge. He's going to win it anyway. So I feel really great about his chances. He's an underrated challenge beast. And I feel like when people are looking at this like cast graphic, which, which we can show is, you know, you have your Aussies, you have your Joes, you have your Colby's, you know, from, from days of your, but Rick was pretty good.

Really pretty good at those later half of the challenges. Really, really good. I mean, not only, yeah, you know, from from days of yore. But Rick was pretty good, really pretty good at those later half the challenges. Really, really good. I mean, not only, yeah, I mean, individual and I think also team. He really he was always pulling his weight. I don't think I always was, but he definitely was. You and me both, my friend.

Did you find that his business that he's in, like when he was newscasting and then jumps to Survivor, was that an advantage to him? Do you think of knowing how like his business that he's in, like when he was newscasting and then jumps to Survivor. Was that an advantage to him, do you think, of knowing how television production works in a way that the other people that are on the team maybe don't? I'm not so sure about knowing how production works. But I think being comfortable instantly from the minute your boots hit the ground and being comfortable in front of the camera,

I think that's very helpful. A lot of people can get a little gun shy, and especially a tribal, because you feel like anything you say tribal probably is going to end up on the air, especially if you're not saying that much. So you better say something good. But yeah, I think being comfortable in front of the camera, I think is a big advantage for him. But also, when was like newscasting and going out on field reporting and stuff and interviewing people, strangers, he just has a way of connecting with strangers. And the thing is, these aren't really strangers. He probably has met maybe almost all of the cast members that are going to that are happening right now playing the season. So yeah, I think

he's propped up for it's his game to lose. He is a really interesting like survivor cast. Like I feel like in season 38, you don't see a lot of people like him. And I think that, you know, Aubrey, I think in season 32, and I think you inspire a whole new wave of casting where I feel like he is there because of a blueprints that were laid before him? I mean, I feel like we all kind of like have the guy or girl, one of them who, you know, was there first. Like for me, I think like Cochran is what inspired me to play Sovereign.

That's when I saw myself, I feel like the first time. But I mean, really, you can go back before Cochran and you got Fishback and Rob. I mean, honestly, he's kind of the, not quite on the level of nerd that Cochran and he got fish back and Rob. I mean honestly he's kind of the, not quite on the level of nerd that Cochran maybe is or whatever. But and then my god Christian Hubecky is the poster child now for that archetype. But and I guess we didn't, I guess did we have any newscasters? I mean before Rick, I'm trying to think. I don't think so. He's just like for like the dad age guy to be so like exuberant and funny. Like I feel like it was a new like spin on something

that we had seen quite a few times. Have you, David, have you been watching Survivor linearly or have you taken time off? I always watch it. Like I never miss an episode. I don't have the same relationship that I had with it before playing. I don't think I'll ever go back, say, and watch Pearl Islands or whatever, which before

I played Survivor, I watched seasons again and again. I just really loved it. Now I don't quite get the same thing out of it that I did before playing. But yeah, I'm still, I'm caught up. I've seen every episode. You, I think you yourself and Aubrey both inspire this wave of casting, whereas you guys were, you had a transformational experience

in this really complicated game. And I feel like the new era really has leaned into like, they are looking for folks who want that transformational experience whilst the game is happening around them. Is there, is that any thought that you've had while watching it? You see a lot more folks who are going to like break out of their shell if you will, or they're looking for something from Survivor that isn't just that million dollars that you

and Aubrey were looking for. You had this transformational experience along the way. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we see that a lot now. And I honestly, I always get kind of nervous when I see the bio package or whatever come up when they start digging deeper into who they are off the island and maybe the struggle that they're going with. I'm like, Oh no, maybe they might be going home tonight. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it doesn't. So they keep you guessing. But yeah, that's definitely a real, a huge aspect to the show now. And I think like, obviously for anybody trying to get cast, don't make anything up. But if you have any kind of personal struggle or something you're trying to overcome or have,

I think that's a thing you better be putting in your audition video. For sure. You know, you see it a lot more now. And I think that your story of this evolution that you have, I mean, you really, what do you think that Survivor like if you had to put a word on it, or, you know, a couple, what did Survivor give you? What's the lesson that now eight years later, what's the thing that you carry with day to day that you didn't have before Survivor? I mean, for me, the what it really was, it was liberating, because I think before Survivor, I mean, I had, I still have anxiety, obviously, it doesn't, it doesn't take your anxiety away. Nothing really could. But it gave me kind of permission, I think,

to be myself and to be comfortable in my own skin and not feel like I had to hide my insecurities and flaws. Because once it's on national television, it's like, oh, I'm kind of free now. I don't have to hide because everybody knows who I am, what I'm about, and I can just be me. And and having like those insecurities and those anxieties and having permission to in the real world, you know, not hide them. It gave me confidence

that I don't think I quite had before that. So yeah, nothing, nothing but really great came out of it and and almost a million dollars. Oh, my. You're right. You're right there. As was as was Rick. Did you happen to see that a similar change in Rick from when you start to day one to day 39? Did he feel like a remarkable? I think in his final words that he says at tribal council that he felt like he had changed. What was that change that you had witnessed?

You know, it's funny. And I know I believe him that he says he changed. What was that change that you had witnessed? You know, it's funny. And I know I believe him that he says he changed. But to be honest, he seemed kind of the same to me from day that he was on day one, just this kind of gregarious, really fun to be around guy. And, and again, I'm sure he got he got something internal that that if he were here right now, he could, you know, weigh in on but I know he I didn't notice a huge change in him. So I don't mean to I don't mean to I'm not calling him a liar. I just didn't notice.

People are calling him a liar on the island. You would assume that people are calling it. Just wonder like, you know, how I hope we're allowed to talk about this, but how much pre-gaming went on before 50? Because obviously that's how you win an all-returning season. And I guess if there's too much, it just becomes irrelevant. Because you've got all these side deals with 22, whatever, other people. But yeah, I'm so excited for the season premiere. Which, if my math is correct and it usually

is not, Final Tribal is what? July 1st? Oh, is that right? I believe so. I haven't I wrote it on my calendar when I when I heard Jeff say the game started today. I'm like, okay, 123 or 26 July 1st. Thank you. That's so funny.

Yeah, I'm probably wrong. Yeah, I wasn't sure. I want to know so bad, David. I want to know what's happening so bad. And I can't know. None of us know. I want to. I want to know too. Yeah. I want to know what are they throwing at them? And then what do you think in terms of your your pregame? You never had the opportunity pregame because you only did you know of Kelly pre landing in Fiji? Or were you guys blind when you got there? You know, I so I thought I said, OK, this is cool.

I'm sorry. I'm going to go into the weeds here first. Before I played my first time, I poured so much energy into like trying to figure out what the theme was going to be. And I actually figured it out well before the game started. I was really proud of myself when I even said to Jeff beforehand, I think the theme is millennials versus Gen X. And then when he said it on the island, I'm like, oh, that's right. That's so cool. And I tried to figure out the theme for 38. And I thought I had figured it out. And because I thought I'd figured it out, I actually expected Kelly

to be there. And when she was, I'm like, oh, I was right. I wasn't right. I thought it was going to be... I thought it was going to be I thought it was going to be any returning was going to be somebody who got voted out last, you know, sort of like the fourth place people. And so yeah, I thought it was going to be Kelly and God now I'm blanking on the other guy's name. But anyway, obviously, I was wrong, didn't matter. But I did expect Kelly to be there. But for the wrong reasons. Yeah, so that but there was no conversation with Kelly up until leaving there. So you had an idea she'd be there, but there was no like actual

think of the pregame. Right. And you know, what's funny, though, is because I did expect her to be there. I did like a deep dive on Kelly Wentworth and it kind of affected our game a little bit because I'm like, oh, I don't think she likes me. This is not breaking news. I told her this on the edge. I'm like, yeah, I didn't think you liked me. And she's like, why? I said that nice thing about you on Rob has a podcast. I'm like, yeah, but anyway, it was a whole, it was a whole thing. But, and not that's, that's not why I targeted her. I just felt like she wasn't going to work

with me. And then, and by the way, you know, now I'm really getting into the weeds. Who cares? Money morning quarterbacking game from eight years ago. Anyhow, uh, but yeah, no pre-gaming with Kelly is the main is the main point. This is David, one of my top five favorite seasons of the show. I love this. I love it. I said it. That was my Dalton Ross shout out if you're listening. Um, you pray not. I, my hot take for him, I think, was that it's criminally underrated. Everything about it is so, so good the whole season. That is an incredibly hot take. That's a boiling hot take. It's a boiling hot take, but I love one of my favorite survivor moments ever. And now,

if you thought we were in the weeds before, oh my God, buckle up. Is Reem gets voted out, is walks down the path and then she has this decision. She reads the plaque and it says like, you can, you can be done. We're happy to let you be done or you can go and continue your adventure. And there's the torch there and she takes a second, like there's a beat. And then she just says, all right, and then takes the torch and then the episode cuts when she vanishes off to the distance. That's like such good storytelling. It's really like, it's like how you get involved. And then you have Keith, who's right after her, who has this very long decision of whether

Keith wants to go or not. I just think the idea of like, how bad do you want it is not in Survivor as in your face as it is when you do have the Edge of Extinction in play and then it pays out when you get to see Rick Devins who was fun for four episodes and without the Edge of Extinction, you know, the game is obviously much different but we're not talking about Rick right now. Rick might be my guest on this podcast if not, you know, if not for the Edge of Extinction. Yeah, yeah.

Who knows? Yeah, that's really true. Yeah, okay. You know what? I like that defense of liking that season. And you're right. How bad do you want it was definitely in your face that season. And it's like, these days, we don't, I feel like we don't have those challenges anymore, where you have to keep your hand on something or, you know, they're really like remember there was that one pole. And was it in Thailand or wherever where they were like for hanging onto a pole for like 12 hours or something like the sun went down. In Palau. Yes.

Tom and Ian were on there for 11 hours. Yeah. And didn't he just quit? He's like, you know what? It's here. Oh, man. Yeah. Tom wore him down. I think they, you know, he was so unrelenting for for 10 and a half hours. And then that last half hour is like, I think I'm all right. I'll just I'll hop.

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on your schedule. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Unwind from work with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash RHAP. That's betterhelp.com slash RHAP. Yeah, they mean with the 26 days, which I, you know, I play, I play the same amount of time on both seasons, but on both on both variations of

the show. But you do miss that. And then I think like when it's at the expense of really good storytelling, the 26 days, I think that's when it feels worse to me. Like the actual format of the game. I've always said another hot take is if they never told you the days to begin with, you never would notice. Like as a viewer. 100% I agree. Although I guess some we haven't ever had a day or a, since the game has been 26 days, we've never had a loved one's visit, right? No and that does suck. And that's the extent of storytelling also is that you're missing such a great moment.

And maybe they'll bring it back, but it is a little weird. It's like, dad, I saw you two weeks ago. You dropped me off at the airport. You're wearing the same shirt. How is that with your dad? Is your dad still revel in that experience with you guys? You know, no. It's funny.

Like when I told my dad and I said, Mom, that I was going to play Survivor, they could not have been less excited or interested really. And honestly, I think they just didn't get it. Like, why are you doing it? You're doing what? What? So I think they just thought it was kind of a weird thing to do. But yeah, I mean, my dad had fun in Fiji for like three or four days, whatever it was for him, hanging out with everyone else's parent and brother. But yeah, no, he, I mean, I know he doesn't regret it, but no, it's not really anything that he talks about.

It's a fun trip to be I guess it's just a vacation. It's a private. Probably his lack of interest is what would even drive someone like me to do a reality TV show, because obviously I'm like searching for love from somewhere. I got to get it from somewhere. I've always wanted to do like the deep dive on the loved ones visit for these. These are now eight strangers who are like, kind of have something in common that they have to travel

together. They're in the same resort. And you have to mean, people that go on Survivor sometimes are unpleasant. But you have to imagine there are unpleasant loved ones that like, there's a whole second game that's happening. Throw a camera crew there. Yeah, 100%. I mean, obviously we don't do the loved ones, so there's no one to point at. But yeah, I mean, in fact, my first time specifically,

they were all told, the loved ones, not to discuss or give up who your player was, the name and stuff. So, but the thing is everybody did, except my dad. It's like, well dad, once everybody but you gives it up, you might as well, but now he wouldn't. He would not say. So they thought, they were convinced that I was in the CIA. My dad was like so secretive about who I was.

He's keeping it close to the best sometimes. You know, like the Kenny Rogers song, you got to know when to hold it. You know, he's keeping it even a federal. Totally. It's crazy because he's he's really not such a rule follower. But maybe he thought that if he broke the rules, he'd be, you know, sabotaging my chances. But obviously, it didn't matter. Can I ask you about the...

Now, you play with Aubrey also, tangentially. You guys spend time on the Edge of Extinction together. What is your Aubrey take going into season 50? I am very curious, actually, to see how she does because when I saw her get off the boat 20 minutes before our marooning, I was like, Oh, wow. Because I think at that time, she had played again within like a year maybe. And you know, not my not my business or whatever. But I thought, Oh, man, I wonder if it's like too soon for her. That was her, I think, I think third time, right? Because this is her fourth time, correct? Yes, she was 32, 34 and 38.

So this is like within two years, she's playing three times. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I think I just felt like, oh, that's too much, you know, in a small amount of time. Although when you say years, it's like, oh, it's not really that bad. But it does take a while to get over the experience. And so, and she seemed like a little, she seemed like she was still living in the survivor space

in a way that was detrimental to her game. And I think now that enough time has passed since 38, and now I think she's given birth, I think she might be propped up to do much, much better than she did in 38. Yeah, I'm shocked that she wanted to go. Like, I've never I've never met her or interface with her in any way, but she was never somebody that I considered to be on my radar for wanting to go again,

especially after the last time, which did not look fun for her. She keeps it close to the vest, like, as I said, I mean, I guess I did, too. But like when when she got off that boat, I'm like, what? You're here. Yeah, that's experience. The new era, folks, I don't think we'll ever have that because everybody is so connected. But you may have been the last time that you show up in one of these scenes and you just you don't know. You know what I mean? Like even in the full All-Star seasons,

I guess winners at war, everybody has an idea. It's only 40 people who could be there potentially. But you were the first or maybe the last person, she's like Aubrey? Aubrey from the other day when we were hanging out? You know, that's very, it's an interesting experience. Yeah. Oh man, it was so frustrating. I, you know, it's funny, like talking about Edge right now, like it, it feels like yesterday, but it was. But we shot it in 2018, which is just crazy to me how much time has passed. But yeah, Aubrey, man. Yeah, it was nuts. It was bonkers. I wish we had been on the same tribe. I think we would have done a lot better.

Yeah, I think you guys would have made sense. And then having Kelly and Joe in the other tribe would have also made sense. I'm just because of like, you know, I don't know what that theme is, but. Do you miss themes? Do you wish we had themes again? 100 percent. I miss themes. You know, it's funny. Jeff came to my friend's dinner party. This was, I think right after I'd done Edge, but before it had aired.

And and he actually put it to the table. There's like, I don't know, eight of us. He's like, do you guys like themes? Because we're thinking about not doing themes. I'm like, no, no, no, keep the table. There's like, I don't know, eight of us. He's like, do you guys like themes? Cause we're thinking about not doing themes. I'm like, no, no, no, keep the themes. Themes are great. And he didn't take that advice clearly. And I don't know that we've seen the last of themes.

I think like, I actually thought 50 was going to be a second chance season and obviously it wasn't, but I do think we will see a second chance season again. So that's obviously that's a theme, but yeah, I miss themes. You miss themes, right? I miss themes. You know, it's going to be funny when they do the Jeff always does in these

all star seasons like, oh, we ran this challenge in, you know, Palau. And then in Here's Us Villains and 41 and 45. Like, it just doesn't sound as like, you know, I'll take I'll take the heroes, healers, whatever, whatever that was. Do that again. I 100% agree because even like, quote unquote, maybe crappy theme like that is still fun. I love when Jeff swings even on a bad theme or whatever because it just adds to the fabric that is Survivor and it's just fun to talk about and watch.

I think it was Zeke, you know, but my favorite theme is Second Chance. And and we were I was talking with Zeke this back when it was airing Healers, Heroes, Healers, Hustlers. And it's like nobody really kind of as Zeke said, nobody really identifies as like, you know, oh, I'm a I'm a I'm a healer. I'm a hustler. You don't really have that, but everybody can relate to a second chance. So I think the more relatable you can make the themes, the better.

And I think they were just kind of having trouble coming up with themes that made sense, that were relatable and that fit whatever cast they had. Because they had the cast first and then they figure out the theme. Except of course for second chance. I was always surprised they didn't just stick with... Brain's beauty brawn makes sense for a survivor. Like it makes sense for whatever. And it doesn't necessarily change the, you know, naming conventions of the show.

But just do that every time. You know what I mean? Like that works every time. It does twice. And it gives you a lens, a point of view to approach things that happen in the game and conversations at Tribal. I know Redick, you know, or whenever we get really annoyed like, oh, like for Millennials Gen X is like, oh, really? You're talking about how people text? I'm like, no, it's kind of fun. Whatever.

Let's have the debate. Let's have the discussion. There was a Tribal Council on Millennials versus Gen X about like, Jeff randomly brought up if you guys have vinyl records. Is that right? What was that conversation? Yeah, you did. You did. That's right. I forgot that that even made the air, but I do remember that conversation. And what's funny is, I think that was like, oh yeah, the older generation has records. But now it's very common for the new generation, younger generation to have vinyl. Like it's kind of the

hip thing to do. So it's funny how- You can't see it because of my nameplate, but they're all right there. You know what I mean? Oh. They're looking at it, you know? What's your favorite vinyl over there? I listen, my favorite album of all time, David, right, is Michelle Branch's The Spirit Room, you know, you know, Michelle Branch.

You were around in 2001. Yeah, yeah. I can't name a single song, unfortunately, but I do know her. Oh, my God. Listen, I my music taste is if you found like an I an iPod 2002 dusty, it's pink. That's what I'm listening to in my rotation. It's a lot of No Doubt. It's a lot of Michelle Branch. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I love it. I love it. And is that your primary what you listen to is vinyl records? Your primary? Yeah. Oh no, I've never listened to it. I just, I bought it more for the collection

of it all. It's I think it's still in the cellophane. It's it's autograph. I don't want to brag. It's all about what I do. We're not listening to them. We all buy them. Us young kids were buying them. We never plug them in. We never put them on the actual thing. We're listening on Spotify. We just like to... There's something really fun about the holding of the vinyl record. Oh my god, yes. I mean, you know, when I was growing up, they were on their way out. It was audio cassettes and then eventually CDs. But yeah, I still would buy the vinyls. And I just, yeah, you're right. I love holding it and opening it up. The gatefold and then the lyrics or whatever, the photos. It's the best.

You're a big classic rock guy. Yeah, yeah. Actually, I don't know if I'm breaking any copyright rules, but I'm sitting on a stones blanket right now. We'll blur that. That's fine. We'll take that out in post. But that's yeah, I don't know why I remember that. But I remember you being a big classic rock guy. What would have been your if you're on the edge, you're hungry, you're exhausted. What's the album that gets you through on the edge?

Let it bleed. By the stones. Let it bleed. Yeah, yeah're exhausted. What's the album that gets you through on the edge? Let it bleed. By the stones. Let it bleed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is appropriate. Was there a lot of bleeding on the edge? Were people bleeding? Oh God. Yeah. I bled a bunch. Um, yeah, yeah. It was, it was, it was awful. And I, I had like, um, I, I was eating a lot of crabs, but I was so hungry.

I was eating the shells too. And it was anyway, it was awful. Rick Evans is the person I think you had alluded to this who you want on the edge because he's a fun presence. But you your whole time on the edge, Rick isn't there. Who's the funny presence for you on the edge? And it could be you. You could be the funny presence for you on the edge.

I know I don't think it was me. I mean, honestly And it could be you. You could be the funny presence for you on the edge. I know. I don't think it was me. I mean, honestly, it's Reem. Reem is so uniquely funny without trying to be. I feel really bad. She was just in town like a week ago with her daughter seeing her daughter's plan at the daughter's band play at the whiskey and at Hotel California or Hotel Cafe. And I didn't get a chance to go, and I felt really bad. I said I would, and then I couldn't. But anyway, Reem was hysterical on the edge.

It just like, did, you know, just like, her honest attitude. You did that well. Yeah, well, she will tell you what she, you never have to guess what Reem is thinking. She'll tell you, and that's just so endearing and what I love about her. She was easily the funniest. And she would give voice to things we were maybe only thinking but were afraid to say. Anybody from the past couple

seasons there or you know the whole history of the show that is not there that you wish was there? Yeah I mean you know I would love to see actually I would love to see Cochran play again. He's only done it twice and I asked him when I met him well before I was ever playing Survivor, I ran into him at a, I forget what it is, the pizza ref where you can build your own pizzas. And I asked him, yeah, I'm like,

hey, would you ever play again? And he's like, well, what would be the point? I could only do the same or worse and probably worse, right? So yeah, but I would love to see Cochran play again. What about you? If we pull up, you know, I really, you look at this group, and I love the newer era folks, they're like everybody from the new era is like people that you went to high school with is what the analogy that I use. It's just like, it feels very familial, but they're

all and Rob has said this, like they're all they can play in two years. You know, I would have rather like let the chapter close with folks where this would be the last time that you're going to get the most likely like is Jonathan Panner coming to play Survivor in five years? Likely no, you know, I don't know what space Sean Rector is in. Maybe he can play in five years, but wouldn't it be nice to have him now? You know, I think I would have preferred a little bit more of the old guard as opposed

to who we have. And I just this isn't, you know, it's fine, but it's not it's not the season 50 that I would have drawn up myself. Really the season 50 that I'm drawing up myself are the guests from this podcast. Everybody everybody I'm having as a guest throw you guys back out there. Well, I mean, I hear what you're saying. And I would say these people are easy to throw under the bus because we don't know who they are. But season 49, those two slots, but whatever two icons you want to put in there. And of course, we don't know who said yes or no or

any of that stuff. But yeah, I mean, I don't want to throw anybody under the bus other than those people I don't know. But I do agree that it doesn't quite look like what you would imagine a season 50 would look like. But at the same time, there's so many people now. And yeah, it's hard to say what a 50 should look like exactly. You had mentioned running into rock. Have you run into any of these folks out at survivor events?

Anybody you had a nice interaction with that are playing season 50 that are not Aubrey or Rick Devons? Yeah. I remember very vividly because it was right before the world ended. I met Christian Ubicki at the Survivor 40 premiere in February of 2020. I think all my dates are right there. And yeah, he was very nice. I had a great conversation with him. And he's so perfectly suited for this game. I think he also has a really good chance to see who else that I meet. I've I've only like texted with coach like on Instagram or DMs or whatever, like years ago. Nothing really nothing to write about.

I was coach via text. Is coach a fun text? Sir, he was kind of funny because, you know, this is a little closer to like my when my survivor fandom was at its peak. And I'm like, Oh my God, Coach is so cool. Like, you're one of your one of my favorites or whatever. He's like, and it just I forget what he said exactly. But it was something like, yeah, it's pretty cool. Talk to me. And it was like, it was like that kind of vibe. Like, oh, that's so coach. That's perfect. I do wonder how that'll translate on the show,

because I do think he does that out loud also. I wonder how the newer era folks are going to react to, you know, my dear friend, Emily Flippen, I'm seated for the Emily and coach interaction. I think that'll be magical. Totally. No, you're right. Like, yeah, coach feels like not only of a different era of survivor, but just like because of just how unique he is,

he's just gonna feel like an alien in this game, I think. And he might be up for a rude awakening or who knows, maybe actually makes it to the end. I mean, that would be incredible. I'm still like not even sure what happened with that story where he was getting hunted or whatever, like the most dangerous game or something. Yeah, right before smartphones that happens, you know,

I would have loved to have seen footage, you know, it's like big foot. It's like, I don't know definitively if it happened, but I'm excited for it. Yeah, I assume it didn't. But he did pass a lot. One would assume. My my one of my favorite survivor confessional of all time is you talking about your fear of death that ultimately turns into a fear of life.

I want to check in eight years later on the fear of death. Where are we on death at this point? I mean, I still think about it every day, which I don't know if there's a pill I can take for that. But yeah, I am living my life far more than I was before I played Survivor. So the win is still there in terms of the growth. But yeah, I think about death every day.

Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night, I'm like, oh my God, we're all gonna die at some point. And yeah, I just can't shake it. I've met other people like that, so I don't think it's like so uncommon. But what do you think about it? I don't think about it. And it's so funny when I thought about when I did think about it and was thinking about it, it was when I was watching you.

And I like that that really aligned with me. Not that I wanted to die while watching it, but I do hear how that sounds. Now, this is my first time with these, you know, I wanted to die. Oh, man, I'm very envious of you being able to like not think about it. I think that's the, I would say that's the worst thing about being human is the knowledge that it is going to end. Like, you know, when I had a dog and I look at my cats, I'm like, oh my God, it's so great. They have no idea what's coming. They're just blissfully ignorant.

And, but yeah, I just think about it every day. It's hard not to, I don't know. Since I was a kid, by the way, like, since I was, no joke, like two or three years old, I've thought about it every day. And has it gotten better, or has it just changed over that time? I mean, in a way it's gotten worse because I'm getting closer to it.

There there. It reminds me of there's my favorite children's book is it's called There's a Monster at the End of This Book and it's Grover. And every page is like, please don't turn the page. There's a monster at the end of this book. And you just turn the page. You're getting closer and closer and closer. And that's that's the death at the end of the book. I'm closer to it than I was when I played Survivor. It's like, you know,

it's it makes me that Mitch Hedgeburg. Is that his last name? That joke he's got about? Yeah, this is a photo of when I was younger, dude, every photo is a photo of you when you were younger. Yeah, but yeah, so anyway, I think about death all the time. And I'm sorry to now drag your list. That's why I asked. I'm so interested. Yeah.

And Survivor is a lot like a death, like getting voted out is death. And I feel like you had really good deaths both. That's dude. That's why I like was drawn. I'm positive that's why I was drawn to the game of Survivor because it is, I think I even said this maybe in a ponderosa or something but it is a way to cheat death like you know you can not really but but yeah you can cheat game death and and it's like like oh take that death I'm gonna win you didn't think I could but yeah and obviously eventually I actually did die in it so yeah

I'm gonna die three times I guess. Maybe another time. You have a really good when you leave the first time. And I think you do as well in the edge of extinction. But when you leave the first time, you have a very nice like parting words to everybody. But you address the group. And now the new era kids, David, right? Me included.

Everybody's addressing the group. Everybody addresses the group. Do you like when the group is addressed? You are a pioneer in addressing the group. I'm not sure. Do you like when the group is addressed? You are a pioneer in addressing the group. I'm not sure I was a pioneer, but yeah, I like, you know, I think my season the first time, I think was perhaps a reaction to kind of like Worlds Apart and and and Korong where we saw some people who weren't so super friendly on the island and maybe off, who knows. But I felt really lucky with the cast we got because I think we were intentionally cast

as more likeable, maybe less toxic people than had appeared in recent seasons at that point. And so, yeah, if people are having, if that's the air we're in still, and maybe even better in that department, obviously there are people we can point to like, oh, that person should not be on. But yeah, maybe like, it makes sense. Like, you know, oh, these are these really likable people and you feel compelled to say thank you and address them.

It's like, it's wonderful. And that's how I felt. I felt so lucky to say thank you and address them. It's like this wonderful and that's how I felt. I felt so lucky to get the people that I got. You got a good group. It's a very, very fun group of folks. And even the second time, it's a good it's a good situation. But our good buddy Rick Devins, how do you think what's the final is the final verdict winner for Rick Devins? How do we think the story ends for Rick Evans? How do we think the story ends for Rick Evans? Yeah, obviously, it's hard to say because we can't we have no idea what his resume is going to look like. But I do think of the of the people that you had up there, he's in my top five in terms of likely to win.

Obviously, knowing nothing about what happens in the game. But I think if he can, hopefully he doesn't end up on a tribe like Manu where we lost every challenge for like, I don't know, six weeks straight or whatever it was. Hopefully he's on a better, stronger tribe than that. But yeah, I think Rick Devon's solid, solid chance at winning, if he can get to the end, which I think he can. He you know, he didn't previously pretty close. You know, it's almost the end. That fire challenge, you know, hopefully he's been practicing. Oh, my God. I first of all, I mean, this isn't me bragging,

but I can start a fire in like under 15 seconds and with a flint, obviously not with a bamboo. So we can brag about that. That's it. But I just think like, I hope everybody out there can do that because it's very easy to do once once you know it, it's easy to do. But yeah, come on, man. Rick, you better you better have learned you better have improved your fire making skills. Well, we'll see. David Wright, thank you so much for joining us.

Anywhere to follow you anywhere you want to direct people? Sure. Yeah. Instagram is my main source of social media. And that's I always I always say this when I'm on here, I feel like. But my handle is real Dave Wright. And I hate that handle. I did it before I was ever on TV. And now it just feels like, oh, I was on TV. I'm like, I'm the real Dave Wright.

But I'm not. There are many Dave Wrights, including a former Mets third basement. But yeah, real Dave Wright on Instagram is where you can find me. Well, you're not letting me go. We haven't talked about Love Island season seven yet. Do you know, David, that the prior survivor Ponderosa is that property? Like I was on I slept on that property when I got voted out, as did many seasons. Okay. I'm so glad actually we're talking about this because I saw somewhere on Reddit or online

it said that that island was Mana. I'm like, that's not Mana. I can tell that's not Mana. So was it Pocana? Is it Pocana, do you know? No, no. It's on the main island. It's on the main island.

Okay. And I hate to unveil this. It's so close to the airport, David. It's like 30 main island. Like it's on the main. Okay. And I hate to, you know, unveil it. It's so close to the airport. It's like 30 minutes to the airport. Um, it really is close. And that's where for folks listening, you start the game and the pregame and then that resort becomes the Ponderosa. It no longer is the Ponderosa because love Island bought it, I guess, and

renovated it, but the doc that you see all of them, you know, I don't know. I don't know their names. Charlie. There's a Charlie. I saw people tweeting about a Charlie. You know, I think Charlie's one. I'm not watching. I watched the first episode. And I really it was fun because I paused it on a wide shot of the house.

And I got up. I looked like that Charlie Day meme from Always Sunny, where I'm like pointing at stuff, you know And I'm like this was the dock that Hannah Rose and I would stand on, you know So the property is the same. I think you and I had different Ponderosa Islands or properties. Yes. I think that this one was a new era change I think if I if I'm correct, I believe 43 through 46 were at the one that I was in. And then they moved for 47 and 48 because Love Island took over.

Yeah, it was Bacana when I was there. So that was probably right before the 43. Are you watching Love Island? Yeah, yeah. You asked you in seven. I am. Tell me your takes. Well, I mean, Jeremiah, you know, the whole by the way, I'm a couple of episodes behind

because my fiance is actually out of town for her bachelorette party. So I watched with her. Yeah. Although, actually, I think she was watching. So I should catch up anyhow. But yeah, I love Jeremiah Huda. If she's still in again, I'm a couple of times. If she's still there. Oh, God, it is so cringey to watch.

But you don't know who that is, I guess. But yeah, it is painful. I hope she's not there because she, it's torturous because she got split up and she has nobody now. Or as of two episodes ago, she didn't. Anyhow, yeah, I find it so fascinating. I see her name on Twitter a lot. Twitter, Twitter is really big on on Huda. Yeah, no, I mean, like you talk about Rick Devon's getting a lot of screen time

in Love Island season seven. I'm not sure anybody's got more screen time than Huda. I'm sure the other cast, of course, they don't realize it, but I'm sure when they get back to me, come on, man. I had so many good confessionals they didn't put on because it's so much Huda. Yeah. Yeah. It's so funny. it's so much who to. Yeah. Yeah. It's so funny.

So funny. I get people love it. People are listening to the reality. We're back. Reality TV was, you know, pass a for a little bit. But competition reality shows were full force. Yeah. And Traders is great because it like it has so much fun with the campiness of it and like

pulling people from very, very different reality TV shows. Some games, some games, some not. And I love it now. Coming is amazing. Yeah. I mean, it's obviously, you know, I've said it's a weighted heavily for the traders, but it's still fun. Have you thought about people do this on Tic Tac? Well, they'll start a group chat with all of the people with their same name.

There's only one other Brandon Donovan in the world and we interface occasionally. But you've got a lot of David Wright. You could make a very large David Wright group chat if you wanted to. I can only think of two, to be honest, me and and the Mets third baseman.

Who else? Have you interacted with that guy? No, no. But I sometimes get people following me thinking or I used to thinking that I was him. I'm like, I played one season of Little League and I don't even know what the positions call it. Whatever that position behind first base did bases.

That's where I was where the ball usually doesn't go. And I would panic when it did because it was someone who was left-handed. But yeah, no, no. But like if you're left-handed, you're more likely to hit a ball where I was. And obviously, so it's kind of rare or less, less, less common. But yeah, and actually, I think there's a photographer or an artist that did a yes album cover named David Wright. But I can't think of any other David Wrights other than me and those two.

I mean, there's probably like guys in Nebraska, like you got some accountants. I'm sure you have a good network of jobs. You know what I mean? Like just across the country, you throw in a bunch of David Wrights. That we could make that into something. Yeah, that we could do. I thought you meant like David Wrights

that were in entertainment or been on TV or whatever. No, okay, yes. Yeah, it's a pretty common name. That's kind of why I hate my name. Everything about me is so like ordinary and common and not interesting. You know, like David Wright. Wow. You know, you are the real Dave Wright, which is pretty good.

Exactly. That's the most important thing about me. We could pitch that. And you obviously you have a fiance, so it won't be you. But we could pitch a dating show where you have to date. You have to lock in on a David Wright. And we're only casting people named David Wright. We call it we call it the Wright stuff with the W. The Wright stuff.

Are we doing this? No, we can't do this. I'm getting married and getting married. You're not, you hosted. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I'll host. You and your fiance hosted. I think that's pretty good.

I think we have a case here. I like this. This is good. Yes. Okay. Grab your cameras. Cancel Christmas. I got a pen.

David Wright, thank you so much for joining me. We're talking Rick Devens. We've got more Rick Devens coming up, but thank you everybody for listening and stick around because there'll be more. We're not ending with David Wright. How could we? We love David Wright,

but we've got more guests for Rick Devens. And we're here with somebody that I love, somebody that I see, somebody I'm not gonna reveal where we live, although I think I've done it many times with this podcast, somebody lives very close to me. It's Victoria Bumonde, Victoria, how are you? I'm good, I'm hot, it's 100 degrees, but we're chilling anyway.

We're filming this on Tuesday, this'll come out on Friday. We may all be gone by Friday, because it's that hot. We may all be gone by Friday because it's that hot. We may all melt away. This is my final will and testament. What would you like to say to everybody listening if this is it? Somebody take care of Gibby for me. Somebody tell my mom I love her. And somebody take my place as nevermind.

What was that? It was a secret. No? It was a secret. No, it was a secret. I almost blew it. I almost blew it. Oh, you know, it's not a secret is the survivor. 50 cast this in Fiji right now. And people for months were like, where's Victoria? Victoria is not on this.

You know what happened? Nothing. I didn't even get a phone call. I'm honey. I was like, but were you close? I was like, not even a little. You really, and I just talked to Kellan the other day. You really got the short end of the stick with the 40 being the winners and then you missed. And again, I'm telling you something that you know. All right. But it really does suck for those couple seasons. You're 35 to 39, I guess. But the 35 to 38 who missed out on getting to go one more time,

because you would have been there for one more time. I would like to think that my only chance still is a second chance this season with audience vote. I think that is my only chance of going back because it's been dead silent from Jeffy Poo. Were you dead silent after 38? Were you in it for 40 when 40 was supposed to be something else? No, never heard anything from anyone.

Sure. But not too late. People go so many years without getting anything and then they pop up and then they win. It's true. You know what? I don't even care. I care. I care so much. We all do. We all say we don't care. It's true. You know what? I don't even care. I care. I care so much. We all do. We all say we don't care. We all I care. We all care. I mean, honestly, I really would like to be on the traders,

because that's a bad place to say that. Traders, producers. I would love to be on it. Yeah. Do you want to be trader or faithful in the traders? Come on. You tell me. Everybody wants to be a trader. I think I'd be a better faithful. I wouldn't be be a trader. I think I'd be a better faith.

I wouldn't be a good trade. It would be a better faithful. I would be a very good trader. Nobody ever knows I'm lying. Nobody ever knows. They have these like live games that put that people put together in New York where they like play the traders. We should just like pay somebody and we all play the trade.

Let's all like get the let's like bite the traders bug, you know, let the traders bug bite us. I would like to do that. Wouldn't that be fun? Yeah, let's make that happen. We have a nice New York contingent. Everybody in New York is fun and we all get along great. I think that'd be great.

I have ideas. Tell me about Rick Devons. Rick Devons, Rick Devons. He's a funny guy. You know, I did not have the pleasure of meeting him until about not quite halfway through the game. What day did he come back on? Day 15, something like that.

But no, he's a riot. You don't see it at all in the editing or what was aired of the season, but me and him were actually, you know, pretty close on the island. We had a very similar sense of humor, even though we didn't get the chance really to strategically work together. We would talk shit all the time. We hated the same people. We liked the same people.

We had a very good moment of when he just daddles into the forest one day after a challenge and nobody wanted to run after him. And I was like, what the fuck guys, it's Rick Devons. He clearly has something. So I skedaddled after him. I was, I'll run so fast. The cameraman literally said to me, he's like, can you slow down?

I was like, no, I'm busy. And then we made it to everyone who's been in Fiji, what to what I call secret beach where you walk up the like steps on that mountain and you're going on the other side and there's like a little beach. Anyway, that's where he was practicing fire making. And I was like, this is a decoy. This man is doing something else. But he wasn't. So we sat down and we swapped fire making tips and we chatted for probably what was at least an hour.

I don't know. Nobody gave me a watch. And eventually it was getting late and I was like, I'm going to go back to camp to get some rice because I'm hungry. And so I said bye. And then I went back over the hill and head behind a tree for at least 30 more minutes, thinking this man is now gonna do his actual plan of finding something, which is what he was definitely doing. And no, he just, I just kept hearing the flint and the machete whacking. Yeah. You find something during that cycle? Like, did he already have something or he just wasn't looking that day?

He probably already had something, honestly. He wasn't looking in that moment, that's for sure. And do you think your fire making tips hurt Rick Devon? No, they helped. He was not good at it. Rick, love you. You were not good at fire making. Yeah, that's interesting. I wonder how much you practiced that pre-going to this.

I hope a lot considering. I hope, you'd have to hope. What was your what was your pregame vibe of Rick like? I talked to both Kelly and David on this podcast and they were only with each other. They were, you know, on a different thing. So I haven't talked to anybody who got to experience the pregame Rick Davids. How was that for you? I mean, pregame, you know, obviously we don't get to talk to each other.

So I didn't have a big opinion of him until the morning of. What do you even call it? Launch cast away whenever there's sending us out in our little game outfits. So it's like whatever four o'clock in the morning, it's dark out. We're all in our actual outfits that we're going to wear. And he is wearing a full suit and I am wearing a cotton hoodie and joggers. And you know, he's not supposed to speak,

but I look at him and I like, I catch his eye and I just mouth like, that sucks. And so he just starts laughing. And I was laughing and so my impression of that was, he's a funny guy. I mean, he gets my sense of humor. Like I was able and so my impression of that was a funny guy. I mean, he gets my sense of humor. Like I was able to say that sucks and make him laugh. But yeah, the suit wasn't sure what it was gonna be about, wasn't sure what his occupation was gonna be.

News anchor wasn't where I was going with that. What would you have guessed? If somebody made you guess, would you have guessed something else? I mean, I guess it's a suit in general. I would just guess is businessman doing business things, although that does not suit him at all. So not a lot of suits in the new era of survival. Nobody's in a suit. I think he may have been the last suit.

Yeah, I mean, the new era of survivor has a lot of things the old era of survivor doesn't have. Sure. Sure. And I've heard all about it on on these on these things. What is the thing that you miss the most watching? Not even villains. No, I raise Rome. Was Rome not villainy enough? What did Rome have to do better to be considered like?

Because I think of Rome as like the New Era survivor villain. I couldn't tell you anything about that, man. Yeah. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe that's the problem. Where's my problem in a nutshell? I think. That they are casting the same person in different fonts now. And that could be any type of person.

This isn't about like the type of person they are, although they are, we are skewing more towards nerd, I'd say. Sure. Which is fine, nerd. But any one type of person on Survivor is going to be boring, in my opinion, especially if they're all intelligent in some way. Because they're not going to want to hurt each other's feelings. They're not going to want to like talk shit. They're not going to want to backstab as much and they're all going to get along. You know, my favorite thing to say is that

like, I can't remember who brought it up, but somebody was brought up like playing Pokemon Go. And I've played Pokemon Go before. Again, this is no hate towards this person. I would get a beer. Brando. Shout out to Brando. Brando. I would get a beer with pretty much everyone on these casts. But if you bring up on Survivor that you love Pokemon Go, I'm sorry, you should be bullied. And not half of the cast should agree with you that they love Pokemon Go, that's just boring TV. And I just wanna make it so, so clear that I think these are all good people. Not all of them, not everyone's great, right?

But like in general, they're casting very good people. They're so nice, they're so friendly. Terrible reality television. You want people who are angry. And did you find on your I want to make an addendum. I don't want to be bullied. Nobody bully Brando or I'll take care of it. Like, I don't like it.

I don't know how to make these two. I guess to me, like, it's such a game, right? Like, I'm able to see it as such a game. Sure. That like. This is probably wrong, but it's like, you're not bullying Brando, you're bullying the idea of him. It's very in perks of being a wallflower. It's very like abstract. I'm so sorry, Brando. No, you shouldn't be bullied. It's true. But like on the game of Survivor, you should have like the preacher's daughter and like the farmer and like, you know, the middle-aged mother all being like Fuck is Pokemon go. Yeah. Tell me about

your pre-swap Cometry I watched we talked about Aubrey the other day and I watched a confessional of Aubrey Well, you guys Ron Clark is like leading a dance. You guys are all dancing We were all was that the vibe the whole time or was there inner arguing amongst the nine of you? There was really no arguing I'd say that happened. I mean there was definitely groups forming and strategies trying to be put in place but as a whole we were all you know kumbaya because we hadn't lost really is what it was. There was no reason to start any problems because there, there was nothing,

there was going to be no way to alleviate those problems we hadn't lost. So when you have, haven't lost and you're being fed well and you know, there's just, yeah, you're going to learn a silly dance, but then, you know, you're going to talk off to the side about who you want voted out secretly. But no, no real drama. Nobody liked Aurora, which is funny to say now because she eventually became one of my greatest allies. But nobody liked Aurora. I don't, I love that season, which I think I mentioned to you. I love that season so much. I am interested in, you know, the people, the new era, there's always a tribe who's losing.

I was on one. My buffs on my door break. I made a tribe that was losing too, just wasn't me. But that's what I mean. You guys had a disaster tribe also. And in a two tribe situation, the disaster tribe still happens, they lost three immunities in a row. Yeah, sucks.

Tomorrow's site. Sucks to be them. And then on the swap, you end up voting out Aubrey, who was also on season 50. What do you think Aubrey should do to avoid that happening again? I mean, what I like a genuine answer would be to separate the game from reality. I think her biggest downfall with me was that we bonded over real things. I wasn't. There's no reason for me to bullshit about my personal life.

And I didn't, you know, we bonded about things like like social anxiety. Like I am I'm an antidepressant girlie. It's no secret. And, you know, we anti-depressant girlie, it's no secret. And we both bonded over things like that, like tough things and it was very prevalent in my life at that time and she understood it and so we talked about that as people and that was all true.

And then when it comes to a million dollars, that means nothing to me. So I think she needs to learn that people can very much like you as a person and talk to you about their personal life. And that does not mean you're in an alliance. Do you think that her playing like she plays three times and I think like three and a half years, like that third time, I think remarkably harder because she's so in it.

Do you think with now I think was what six, seven years of distance since you guys played seven years, maybe how it. Do you think with now, I think it was what, six, seven years of distance since you guys played seven years, maybe. How does how do you think that has evolved Aubrey into like, is that a mistake she makes again? I would hope not. I think that the distance should definitely be able to like re-energize her and like have her like learn from her past mistakes. I think she was probably burnt, like definitely burnt out

by the time she played my season. And also if you've played three seasons and you do worse and worse every time, like that is a big, like, that's a big mindfuck, I'm sure. Like you come very close to winning and then you're like the fifth one out, like that sucks. So I think at this point with as much distance as she's had enough,

this much time, I hope she comes into it with like a fire in her belly and, you know, wanting to redeem herself and get back to her, you know, her status as a strategic mastermind, as Jeff said, because. We did not see that last time she played, and she definitely has that capability, clearly. But it wasn't there in season 38. And Rick, too, what does Rick need to work on in terms of his game to now,

I believe if he gets to the end of your game, he does win, I think. Yes, he definitely wins. Wins by quite a bit. But I do know that he rubbed people in the jury the wrong way, that people were on the jury that would have voted for him regardless. What does he need to do to kind of tighten up to make sure that doesn't happen? That's hard to say, because I don't know that he necessarily

rubbed a lot of people the wrong way on the jury, unless you've heard that specifically. Maybe I'm just wrong. But I just think he had the cards stacked against him by being someone who came back into the game and was immediately a target because of that. And then once he started winning all of these challenges back to back and he always had an idol, he just became even more of a target.

So that he was never able to shed that target status. He came back in with it. And then by becoming a challenge threat, it stayed. So the best thing he could do, honestly, in my opinion, is play like a little bit more under the radar if he can. Make more silent connections, like have a strong social game, which he did. He definitely had, you know, alliances, but he had to be a threat to be fair. He had to keep winning those

challenges or he was gone. So if he can start this game not in that position, which he obviously everyone's starting pretty much equal playing field, if he can find himself to be a little bit more low-key at the beginning, use other people as shields, keep that initial target off of him and keep using his skills to find idols and hustle in the way that he hustles and uses personality to make friends, I think he has a much better chance of, you know, making it to the end, which, you know, he did, except for fire, and then winning because he really is a likable guy. So I don't think he should have any problems with, you know, the jury liking him or wanting

to vote for him. He's got a great family at home. There's nothing about him that's going to make you not want to give him the money. He just has to be less of an obvious threat. Yeah, I mean, he's on a season like with you, you know, where he is a loud person in a sea of quieter people. And I think this is like the best thing for him, where he's, I mean, you've seen the cast of Survivor 50.

It's a lot of most of them are loud. It's like it's a it's a loudest group that they've ever put together. So I do you have any perception of like who he what kind of person he wants to align with, like who you can see him getting along with? Well. I would love to think that him and Christian Ubicki would get along. I could see that.

I could see that happening. I would have to like really look at the cast. Well, you're not gonna believe this. I have everything. Oh, get out of here. Let's see. Who could I see him aligning with? I mean, I really, I would see him not,

this is hard to say, because I know I'm more cynical than certain people, or at least more publicly cynical about the newer seasons. I've spoken to some of my former castmates who feel similarly about things as I do, but they won't post about it. So I don't know where his public persona is gonna lie on this split, you know, season 40 pre and post. Yeah.

But I would just see him probably mostly aligning with people of similar personalities to him. So I could see him liking Mike. I could see him liking Mike. I could see him liking Christian. The new people, I mean. I do think that if there's anybody who's, I wouldn't even say like, are laying for the white lotus spot,

but I know Rick Devens would make a meal out of the white lotus. Rick Devens and the white lotus. Biggest regret in life, which isn't even mine to have, because this isn't anything I can control, is not being on fucking Mike White's season. I'm on a spot. But no, I think he's gonna find people like himself.

Although, you know, when I think about David Wright, I mean, like, is he like Rick? That's a great question. I don't know if Christian is, I think Christian and Rick are more similar to Jonathan, like than Jonathan, certainly. But I don't think that they're super, you know, like I said to, I think I said to David Wright

that Christian, I mean, sorry, Rick represents a casting choice that I don't think has happened before Rick on Survivor. Like he's not a David, he's not an Aubrey, he's not a Cochran, Rick. He's like silly in a way that isn't in Survivor. That's what I'm trying to like think. I'm like, who else is like silly?

And that's probably why I see Christian because he's just so like adorable that he would be like down with the silly. And like I feel like you know obviously Mike White is like a comedy writer and other than he does more than comedy but like I could see them like who could who could Rick gossip with he's a gossip. He likes to gossip. Well I mean I like to gossip and he gossips with me. So in my head, he too is a gossip. Sure.

But he's also friendlier than I am. So I think that he could go kumbaya route if he had to, but I don't think he'd like it. What would your strategy have been if you are on this season, you're season 38, you have half new era, half older era. Yeah. You're jumping to older era, I think.

I honestly think I would. I think I would I would play the line. You got to play the line. Yeah, I think I would. I'm in a unique position to have met a lot of these people. So I could probably go both ways very quietly. I could see myself a lot with the women in the new era. I think that a lot of them have been the strategists

in the more recent seasons and I respect that. And I could see myself working with them. And I could also see using my status as technically an older old school player or old era player to pull in some of the people that I know from that side. You know, I've spent some time with Ozzy and you know, Ozzy is the king of the jungle.

And if you have him, you maybe have more people. And I could see myself probably being in a position to work both sides quietly, sticking with the quiet thing. You were a survivor fan. You loved old Survivor, like big. Are you excited for your Jenna Lewis's, your Colby's, that card? Is that something that you're pumped to see?

Here's the thing. I have seen every single season of Survivor. I have never missed one. Actually, not true anymore. I did not finish the most recent season. I was so not interested. So that's saying a lot, but anyway. Good news, they're all on season 50.

So you'll see them when you get them. Right, literally. And completely unrelated to Survivor and just something about me, I have a terrible memory. Terrible. As a fun little anecdote, I watched the movie War Dogs, and that's funny because of my war dog, but and then I watched it again, like maybe a year later,

maybe, and I was like, oh, because I've never seen this movie. And about three quarters into the movie, I was like, wait, I feel like this is about to happen. And then I realized I've seen that entire movie before. So I have a very, very bad memory. So I can't say that I'm like super excited about the old, old, old school players because I can't I can't remember their game. I do remember Stephanie LaGrosse. So I would be excited to see how she does now.

I know she was just on the Traders, but I didn't actually. Yes, she did. I mean, the interesting thing there is that she was on the Traders with Saree and kind of get the best advice to Saree. And then they had this show, Snake in the Grass, it was called, where they flew four people out. It's Rachel from her brother, Janelle from her brother, Saree and Stephanie, to play like a mole like game.

One of them had to sabotage. They now have been together in a lot of pasties. And Stephanie was the saboteur and very bad at it. And Seree caught on immediately. So Stephanie has been bested by Seree. Like, and in Heroes vs Villains. So this is now, Stephanie is going to be shot out of a cannon. You would assume?

I so like I am excited to see those dynamics. I'm excited to see like how the older school players handle the newer school players. I think more than anything, you're going to see a big difference in personality with a lot of them. And I wonder how that's going to translate to strategy. And I wonder how much of maybe an advantage that the newer players might have because if they don't change the format, if this is just a new era formatted season, they may very well have an advantage, knowing the 26 day style, knowing the types of advantages

that can come up and how to play them, and just having experience with that. So I would say I'm rooting for the old school players. I'm definitely interested to see how the dynamics play out, but I can't say I'm like, I'm like, hell yeah, season two. I just don't really remember it. I was eight years old.

That's what I do. I do, hell yeah, season two. You would have had a lot of fun on the journey. Do you regret not being able to go on a journey? No, I'm not really sentimental like that. No, not like you want to go play like the dice game. That's not your scene. No, no.

Yeah. Oh, wait, a journey you're talking about. I thought you meant like the old school like carrying in a torch going on a journey. Like, I'm like, no, I'm so glad that that doesn't happen anymore. Would I have had fun on a journey? That's interesting. I don't know.

I mean, I'm sure I would have had fun playing the challenge and trying to win the advantage or whatever might come out of it. But I also think it's a bad idea to put yourself in that position. I also always avoided hero positions and challenges. I avoided anything that would like launch me into the spotlight because I think that that's a risk that isn't always necessary.

Like it's the same thing as like looking for an idol and everyone knows you're looking for one and if you weren't endangered before, now you sure are. So depending on where I was in the status of the game, I don't know that I'd ever choose to go on a journey or like advocate for myself to go on one. Cause I just don't know if it's a good enough choice. Cause no matter what the outcome is, you're gonna tell your story back at camp

and people are gonna choose not to believe you, right? Even if you're telling the truth, which I probably wouldn't be. Because you're a traitor. You'd be a great traitor. But yeah, the idea of giving somebody the ability to have an opinion of you in any way is net negative a lot of the time.

Net negative, and it's, you know, if you can control people's opinions of you by presenting something that you want them to see, that's the best case scenario. And when you, yeah, when you're on a journey, you cannot control the perception because something certainly happened and you are going to be an unreliable narrator

in everyone's minds. People who I've talked to on here, now you're one of the last people to do 39 days you were there what 36 days 37? 36. 36. Tell me about how bored you were on the days where nothing was happening. Because now there's no days where nothing's happening. There's very few out of 26. What was the length of of boredom that you reached?

I don't know that boredom is the right word. I think that anxiety is a better word. And I almost got angry. I was I was angry on those days because you are sitting there in these horrible conditions. You are fucking starving. And on the days that nothing's happening, I would be like mad. I'm like, I'm here.

And today means nothing. It's progressing nothing. And I just have to be here. And it's not even like you can sleep the day away, like just try to relax, like try to ignore your hunger, just like get your head out. Like, cause you have to watch everyone constantly when there's nothing going on.

Something's going on, production's just not hosting it. So you have to, where is everybody? What are they doing? What are the conversations happening? Like who wants to go look for firewood? Who's at the water well? So it's, you have to be even more on, you have to be even more perceptive.

And at the end of the day, nobody went home. So you just went through all that mental stress and you didn't forward yourself at all. So I wouldn't say I was bored. I would say I was pissed. Yeah, and there's many of those days. You're pissed for many days. Yeah, there was a good amount.

Not as many as you'd think, but at least like four or five maybe. Yeah. Yikes, really bad. This new era where everybody's, it's every day you're doing something. And it'll be an adjustment for the folks who have had to do that day.

Then maybe they're less angry. If people are like you, maybe they're in a better spot to do those things. Because at least every day that you're starving and dying, as long as a challenge is happening, somebody's getting voted out, there's something to move yourself along. It's not quite as painful.

And it feels like the game is progressing, like you're getting closer to the end of the story. You're getting closer to something. And that's why I am forever grateful that I did not deal with Edge of Extinction because when they revealed that twist to us, however many days into the game, we had already experienced some of those off days.

And I said to myself, I was like, just fucking kill me if I end up there, because every day would be an off day. And that would be the ultimate form of torture, in my opinion. Like, I honestly don't know how they did it out there. Like, just to sit there and wait for something to happen and you are just in the same survivor conditions

with nothing stimulating and you're not necessarily moving towards anything that is actually torture. So. I asked David, how much does it benefit having somebody funny there with you on the edge of extinction? But you had Rick who is funny

just the whole time of the merch, who's just like, is that an entertaining thing for you to have? Like, does that make the situation better to have like the morale guy? I don't know if Rick was the morale guy because when he was in the game with me, nobody wanted him there.

Sure. So I don't know that he was the funny guy when everyone was after him, but I think it definitely helps, at least me on a personal level, it was really helpful to have him as somebody to gossip with and there was one person in particular that we both always talk shit about.

So that was helpful to me. I liked that. I liked having somebody who shared my sense of humor. I think the funny guy on the island, and I'm not saying this is Rick, this isn't Rick. You know, somebody who's always trying to make jokes and like tell stories. I think they're probably annoying because they think they're the funny guy, but they're not. But somebody with a genuinely good sense of humor or somebody more than

just a good sense of humor, somebody who matches your sense of humor and your personality. I think that's invaluable. Is there anybody on season 50 other than Rick that you're hoping does really well? Anybody that you have like a personal connection with? I have some personal connections, but am I hoping they do well? Not necessarily. Thank you. Thank you for this again. I'm looking at I'm looking at the names. I mean, I've never met Christian. I think I spoke with him once online, but I just like him. I want to see him do well. I just think he's adorable and I like him.

It's interesting because he is like universally beloved and I think he's the only person here that's universally beloved. Yeah. I wonder how that factors in. I would like to see Genevieve do well. I think I respect her. I don't know if I want to say most. I'm going to say most out of the new era players here.

Oh, interesting. Okay. And why is that? I just remember feeling she was very strategic. Yeah. And not annoying and a little bit villainous, maybe. Sure. Sure. Sure. Who I like is very personal to me, really. Not not.

I mean, it usually is about their gameplay. If they're a bad player, I'm not going to like them. But I remember also finding her pleasant. I heard Kyle was a great winner, and I've heard he was really good, like him and Camilla. I saw him only some of the season. They are great and he's the best and I don't know if this is a situation where he is being set up to succeed, which is a bummer because I think that I would like to have seen him

in like five years. The same way that like you see, you know, people that one season like Michelle on Winners of War is like a nice couple year distance. The return flight there with 22 people and Dee, who really, really want to win the game, seems like he's being set up for failure. But I think for sure him and Camilla, I know enough that him and Camilla were like a tight thing and like having them both there is hurt, hurts the other. And it's a bummer for Camilla too, who didn't get to win.

For her, yeah, because she didn't get to win. I like heard that she helped him in a lot of ways get there, not that, you know, he didn't deserve it. Again, I'm speaking just on hearsay mostly. Yeah, big bummer for her because he already won and people know that they were tight and now they're a twofer package and that sucks that she's probably not going to get to play

how she wants to because of that. And I don't think we really. Have anyone else quite like that, I mean, Stephanie and Suri, you're telling me that they like were against each other and all these shows that they played, but they still played a bunch of shows together. And, you know, the devil, you know, right. And the devil, you know, right. So, you know, I guess Christian, Angel Right. The devil you know. Right.

So, you know, I guess Christian, Angelina and Mike are all the same season. I just find the spread so interesting. Tell me about the spread. Why, why did we skip? How many times have you spoken about this already? Probably. Why did we skip all of the 20s? Yeah.

But we have five people from the last two seasons. Yeah. There's six. No, five. It's five. Yeah, we have the last two seasons. Yeah. No, five, it's five. Yeah, we have the 249 folks as well as these three. Five people from the last two seasons, but we skipped an entire 10 seasons in the middle, ain't that? Yeah.

I'm just so confused by that. Who who's not there, would you have liked to have seen there? Who's not, obviously you. And to have seen there? Who's not obviously you? And a lot of people share that same sentiment. Who else from that group should have been there? I mean, I think about like. The brains versus beauty versus bronze season.

I just felt like that season had a bunch of people that like. Rememberable. Yeah. Where's Bryce? Where's my boy Bryce? Where's Bryce? I thought for a while, this was the perfect, when this was being like touted as like the celebration of what Survivor is, I think Bryce is a huge part of like this back half of the Survivor community

being what it is. He would be an old school player with love for the new people. And so that was interesting to me. I really thought he was going to get on it. I heard that Spencer was really close. Yes. You know, like these kinds of people like Raymond, I believe he's now Raymond. He goes by both, doesn't he? Oh, does he go by both? Well, it's his name says Raymond Spencer.

So I think he'll I think he'll respond to either. Well, he's putting on his own show now. Oh, he is putting on his own show. I don't know if that's a secret, but he is putting on his own show. Yeah, he tweeted it. Oh, he tweeted it. He ex-tweeted it.

What do you call it now? Anyway, I know Cass would never go back on, but somebody like Cass or like Malcolm. Like where are both? Malcolm is a glaring omission for me. Yeah, where are the, I mean, unless they called him and he said no sort of thing, right? Did all these people get called

and say no? I guess I can't know that. But um. Malcolm went out in a pretty shit way last time too. You know, it sucks to go out forth like in this crazy thing. You know, I would have loved for more Malcolm. I think everyone probably would. Yeah, I just feel like there's some there's some big names and faces that like people would have

liked to see back and like to see back before they saw the people they just saw on their screens again. Would you entertain a big brother run for yourself? I will be honest. I've never seen it. Yeah, I feel like seen it. Yeah. I feel like you would be good at that. I can't know. Don't really know exactly what it entails. But as a PSA to all who watch,

I'm open to anything really. I was almost on Squid Game. Oh, I remember you told me that. You were almost in the first Squid Game. Yeah, I was cast. I was actually fully cast. And then I think six days before I was supposed to fly out, they called me and like, bummer, bad news.

Casting went in a different direction. I'm like, what do you mean? I already you were already cast. I was already cast. I had filled out all I'd sent back the contracts. I'd taken off time from work. I had canceled lots of stuff. And then, yeah, like six days before I was uncast. Yeah. I'm open to another show, challenge based, you know, lying based, those are my favorite things, strategy based. I'm not open to a love island based show. Because you have a lovely

boyfriend who I've met. It's our anniversary. Well, it's going to air on Friday, so Friday is not our anniversary. So when you were in a DM, Victoria, and say congratulations on your anniversary, you will be three days late. Just know that when you send the DM. Tell people Victoria where to follow you. If you want that. No, I share stuff mostly on Instagram at Veebles the rapper. No, I share stuff mostly on Instagram,

at Veebles the Rapper. No, I don't rap. This was an inside joke from high school when I first made this Instagram account in high school. I never changed it. And now it's funny because I have a following and people think that I have a following perhaps because I'm a rapper and now I can never change it. So at Veebles the rapper. You are a very good singer.

I can sing, yes. That is, thank you for the compliment. I don't know where I've heard you sing but I've heard you sing and it's very good. I don't know where you've heard me sing either. I do a lot of karaoke mostly with Brooke from the Amazing Race. Shout out to Brooke.

Brooke's on the floor. Brooke is on the floor.. Brooke's on the floor. Brooke is on the floor. Everybody watch Brooke on the floor. The floor is a TV show for those. It is, yeah, we should make that clear. She has been on the floor of a karaoke room. I have a good picture of that. It's very funny.

Yeah, I feel like I have seen that a couple times. I might have. I might have shown you, yeah. Sure. You should come to karaoke with us. Yeah, mostly Instagram is where I post the most. I lurk a bit on X. I will tweet about Survivor usually when I'm watching it. I do enjoy a little schmokey schmokey

and live tweet session. So you feel free to follow me there. And that's it. Those are my only platforms. I technically have a TikTok. Wow, I couldn't even get the name. I'm old. I don't use it though. So if somebody's't even get the name. I'm old. I don't use it though.

So if somebody's posting is me there, it's not me. Okay. Instagram is where I'm at usually. Yeah. Send me funny reels. I'll laugh at them. I'm thrilled that you came. This is so much fun.

Shout out to Rick Devins. We'll be back next time with another episode of the Survivor 50 Files. My name is Brendan Dillon and we'll talk soon. We're back again in this super-sized episode of The Survivor, 50 Files. You didn't think we were going to talk about Rick Devens without having his best friend here to talk about him, right? Exactly.

We got Evan Wits in here. We caught him on a day where he wasn't in a Disney park. One of the five a year. Yeah, leave tomorrow. So gotta keep this short and sweet. How you doing my man? I'm doing good. How are you?

I'm excited to be here. I think this is my first time ever on Rob has a podcast. I was too salty to talk whenever season 30 ended. So I'm here for a very good reason. That's for, you know, my BFF Rick. How do you reflect on your experience now? Like a couple years out? Still very salty.

You know, I don't think that's ever gonna go away. Whenever you're that close to having that much malamani, I know you don't know what it feels like, but it does. The ads though that I'm making Gavin from this much more than you were going to make that day. That's true. Yeah, it does. It, uh, it's still, it still hurts. And you know, honestly I haven't watched the survivor in a hot minute and I'll blame that on, you know, being a dad now, we watch Elmo until 10 PM. Ellie,

she's still awake right now watching baby shark. But yeah, super thankful for everything Survivor gave me. But yeah, that wound is still fresh and it's probably always gonna be fresh. And that's just part of it. How do you think Elmo would do on Survivor? I would be a lot more positive about losing than I would, you know, so he.

Yeah, I feel like what a good teammate. Yeah, he might do the social game kind of like me. He would be a social king, you know, but otherwise, I don't know. You played Survivor with a couple of dads, including Rick Evans. Yeah. Do you find yourself doing like dad tendencies that you witnessed from the men that you played with? You know, they paved the path.

And I think every morning, whenever I wake up, I say, what would Eric Kaifman do? What would Rick do in this situation? So that's really what I try to live by. But no, being a dad now, like I do, I feel for these people who are out there on Survivor 50 and they have kids because I really, I don't know how they do it.

You know, I was crying on Survivor and that's, you know, it is, it's embarrassing to say, but I was crying because I missed Carly. And you know, that was, that's not even your blood at that point. So whenever you have a kid and you're missing them, it puts a whole nother spin on it. So as I'm watching season 50,

I've got a pull for the parents because I know they've got that little extra motivation that you don't realize you have until you have that kid. So yeah, being a parent, it does change things. Have you been crying at home because Rick Evans is gone? Yes, every Thursday night around 10 p.m. that's whenever we play. We've played Fortnite together every Thursday, basically since Survivor ended.

And, you know, we haven't stopped outside of vacations on Arumit Disney. So about every other week we don't get to play. But, you know, usually we're every Thursday. And, yeah, it's been tough. We still have a group text going and we text him, just let him know. I mean, nothing important has really happened right now, you know, going on in the world. Nothing that I missed. There's a guy, you didn't watch season 46, but Ben Katzman, who was on season 46, he ran into big justice at the airport. That's the biggest update that I

think I have in terms of global stuff. Well, I was gonna say, well, we'll have to fill him in on that because I haven't haven't told him about that. With that in terms of global stuff. Well, I was going to say, well, we'll have to fill him in on that because I haven't, haven't told him about that. Put that in the group. Yeah. Were you guys close on the island? Were you, did you get that? We were, and that's what's funny is, you know, it never showed that and you would have never

known that. But really, I think we hit the merge on day 17 and me and Rick, we honestly, we just connected talking about the office. It's, you know, and sometimes that's all you need is that little connection. And I think everyone else probably hated us because of that, because we would just be quoting Andy Bernard and Michael Scott just back and forth at each other. And they're like, what are these idiots talking about? So, yeah, we were super close. And I think maybe part of the reason that it wasn't shown one,

I probably needed to act a little bit more excited, you know, to get an edit. But outside of that, you know, we didn't really, we never worked together. It's like we could hit it off, but whenever the sun went down, I was still going to try to vote him out. And we, and he kind of knew that. So it was just one of those, you know, maybe off the game separated from art. I don't know what you want to call it. But yeah, we were able to connect out there and we've been BFFs ever since. I think something that really stood out, you know, Rick's gone. And hopefully he's in like the final six right now.

But, you know, Becca, she texted me the other day. She had a question about something with the Nintendo switch. She was getting Jack one and she's like, Hey, you know, what time do I need to go to GameStop to get this? And like, you know, that's, that that's pretty dang cool that I was the person that she texts if Rick's not there, then who's the biggest man child that she knows and that's me. So did you get your Nintendo switch too?

I did not. I'm strictly PSI. Like I said, I only get to play like once a week, so I'm not going to push my luck, but sure. Yeah, for sure. What was it like for you when Rick told you he was going to season 50? Obviously Rick's not someone who's going to break his NDA. So I didn't find out until whenever they announced it, but you know, we, we, we had hypothetically talked about how cool would it be if one of us got to play again?

And I knew that day was gonna come. I was hoping it was gonna be before season 50 for Rick's sake, but I think maybe in the long run, it's gonna help him waiting 12 seasons for him to get that second chance. So I'm super excited for him to finally have that opportunity and

Just the way Yeah, I guess I'm not gonna be the best give in-depth analysis. I still I'm on Twitter I know who these people are but I still think with the amount of time that's passed I think he's in a heck of a lot better spot than if he would have been on season 40 or season 41 something like that Do you have any insight into the prep that he would have been on season 40 or season 41, something like that. Do you have any insight into the prep that he would have done if he hypothetically played Survivor again? I know, you know, back in the day he quit his job. You know, I don't know if that was because of Survivor, if that was because Sia, you know, shout out Sia for giving him that extra money, but I feel like he was ready back then, like after season 38, he was ready and he even got LASIK, you know, so like he wasn't going to have to worry

about the glasses anymore. And that's the only thing that concerns me now is Jonathan doesn't have glasses either. So there's going to be like some comparisons. They're like, is that Rick? Is that Jonathan? Who's pulling that boat in the ocean? But yeah, I think and honestly, like whenever you looked at Rick on season 38, he didn't necessarily stand out physically whenever you're looking at him compared to some of these people you had dang Joe or I guess he who should not be named. You had Chris Underwood,

you had myself who's just a beast. You had Eric, you know, we had some physically fit guys, Keith. who's just a beast. You had Eric, you know, we had some physically fit guys, Keith, and you know, going into that, like, Rick didn't stand out, but he was the one who was performing every single challenge. And I think it's going to be that same thing. You know, you've got all these guys, you've got Ozzy, you've got Colby, you know, who are a little bit more seasoned, but they're still in super good shape. And, you know, I feel like Rick is in a lot better shape than probably he was that first season, but I still think that he can manage his threat level and kind of slide under the radar.

Yeah, people forget that, that he was really, really good at those challenges. He was a beast at everything. You know, it wasn't just the puzzles, it was the physical as well. And the finding of the idols. Yeah, see, that's something I have no experience with. I got ripped on that because I felt like it wasn't a necessity whenever you put yourself in such a good spot. And hopefully Rick doesn't have to do that this time, but he is. He's a magnet. He also, he's a hard worker. So he had that work ethic out there. I was pretty dang lazy.

I blame it on me being a little bit more on the scrawny side. I had no energy out there. But but yeah, he's going to do whatever it takes. And going into that, I hope that he in his second opportunity, he plays more like Tony Velachos on season 40 than he does season 34. I think for Rick to be successful, he has to manage his threat level and he has to know when he can act crazy and be Rick Devens and when he needs to pull back and kind of fall into the shadows. You know, so he can let some of these

newer people or some of these bigger egos from these earlier seasons kind of go at it and he can beast out whenever the time comes. You don't, you don't watch them, but they have these people go on these journeys and they get on the boat. They go to the Island and they win like a little advantage or something. They play a game, you know, Rick's going to be all over that. Rick's going on all the journeys. Yeah.

Is it my choice? Do you get to volunteer for it? You get to volunteer for it, but Rick's volunteering on all the journeys. Yeah. Is it my choice? Do you get to volunteer for it? You get to volunteer for it, but Rick's volunteering for the journeys. I don't know. That's what I'm hoping is if Rick's smart and he's had that second opportunity, he knows what it's like to play with house money,

but Rick's back playing with his money, there's not gonna be that second chance. And I think that he'll think about that. I think he's going to be a little bit more careful, if I would think so. But yeah, he's also he's going to be Rick Devons about hope he can be Rick Devons and confessionals, and not as much in travels where he's this high performer, where everyone's like, we've got to

get this guy out ASAP. You know, so is that is that house money mentality like the best part about coming back from the edge? Like, is that the biggest benefit that he has from that experience? Um, I would think so. I mean, he, he had that extra life and, um, you know, not many people know what that feels like, but Rick does, and he, he did it to the fullest extent. Uh, but I think he can take what he learned from that second opportunity and hopefully do that for 26 days.

I would assume the game is going to be 26 days again. But yeah, that's my hope for him is he's still Rick Devens that gets to that end and everyone's rooting for him. But he has to be more tactful in the way he gets to the end. And I think he's aware of that. And I think I'm excited to see him do that. My I wouldn't even call it a concern. But my thought with Rick Devins is I don't think there's another player

who would make a meal out of a White Lotus performance more than Rick. Hypothetically, if you know, Rick and I talked before the season, that was our main takeaway is do not screw this up for me. You know, I have one opportunity to get on the white lotus and it's right now. So, you know, don't be calling me to ask about Rick after, you know, if he pisses Mike off, if he votes Mike out and me and Rick are done.

So, Brandon, you can, yes, the whole thing's gone. Do you want to get a sound bite in really quick about Mike White? You want to just get something to have? Yeah, I was gonna say thing's gone. Do you want to get a sound bite in really quick about Mike White? Do you want to just get something to have? Yeah, I was going to say, well, what do you want to do? Because there's there's so many things that we talked about with Mike White. You know, so just going through that, some of the things, you know, off the top of my head, we were talking about,

you know, in order to get on Mike's good side, some of the things we can talk about is our favorite movies. You know, I think with season 48, who was it, Kyle and someone else on this season, they talked about how Holes was their favorite movie. My quiet has no idea. The Emoji movie is Rick's favorite movie. Emoji movie School of Rock and what? Lotus like that's literally all we talk about. Right. You remember that one scene in the Emoji movie?

It was so funny. And so I'm hoping that whenever we're there sitting around the campfire, like it can just organically come up. Like, hey, you know, this reminds me of that one scene. And, you know, just making that common ground so I can solidify, you know, getting us out to Thailand or Fiji, Fiji would be cool, but whatever it is. Yeah. Pretty cool. How was your flight to Fiji? Did you enjoy the flight? That was honestly, that was my biggest flight, you know, outside of that. And whenever I went through casting, it was that same thing. I'd flown to Florida once and that's like an hour and a half flight. And you know, I think that was part of the reason that I got cast on Survivor in the

first place is it was I was so inexperienced with life, the way I talk, you know, I got on the Uber and I was telling Jeff and Matt and those guys, I was like, hey, you know, the Uber that's first time I'd ever been in an Uber, they were taking us through somewhere in LA and there's this big building with the G on it. And I was asking, I was like, Hey, is that Google? He said, No, that's our movie theater. And I was like, Oh, okay, cool. You know, like I was just blown away. And just trying to have casual convo. And he's like, what an idiot. You know, like I was just blown away and just trying to have casual convo. He's like, what an idiot. But yeah, the flat there, it was fine. You know, I think we I was able to watch a movie, but it was more just me.

You know, my balls were in my throat. Just think like, what in the heck have I gotten into and just kind of sizing everyone up. It's an experience. I mean, you know how it is. It's very, very different. It always reminds me now of like the Hunger Games. It's just like you're sizing up your competition and you're just looking at everyone. And it is, it's a surreal thing

that only a few people get to experience. It's so funny because people have compared this particular season to the Hunger Games. There's a couple, like you have Kyle and Camilla who were just in this last season. We're talking about holes like duos. Like you have the districts. The districts are here. Yes, absolutely.

If they were with the districts. Rick's District 1. Rick's District 1. He's a... If they went with the district theme, you would have been there. You would have been there together. I guess they do man and woman on the districts. Is that right?

Well, you never know. you know, it can be, it can be. Yeah, I was gonna say I would take a spot. Is there any strategy that Rick can take from Fortnite into Survivor 50? Um, yeah, there's a lot of different strategies that we play. We can, we can do the Rick Devon's approach or we can do the Gavin Whitson approach and hopefully he's going to do the Gavin Whitson, which is where you hide in the bush until that final circle. And then you just hope to shoot someone in the head as they run by. But if not that, then it's you get a strong team and you work together until that certain point.

And then you've just got a ball out. And that that's what Rick is capable of. And kind of like you said, tying it back into the Hunger Games and these districts and all these people, you've got these legacy characters like Haymitch and Saree and Ozzy who've played for the 48th time, who I can't wait to see play again because I know they've got a lot of different things

that they haven't done the first 12 times. You know, and outside of that, you've got other people who have played together and those are the people that we need to be worried about picking off, not someone who's kind of a standalone. So yeah, I think Rick, you know, our Thursday nights, if he wins, it's obviously it's going to be because of the training that we've done for the past seven years on fortnight, you know, and going into that, I'm super excited to take full credit for it. It's depending on how he does.

Sure. Um, but yeah, so if he camps in a bush, I'm going to be proud of him because that means he's making it to the final three. And I know that he has the capabilities that I didn't to persuade that jury to vote for him. So if he does that, then I'm going to be super proud of him. And if he goes out, you know, Oh, in that first storm,

that's because he went down five and then I'm still going to be proud of him. That way as well. And hopefully my internet to be hold on. Can you hear me? I can hear you. I think the internet may have. Oh, we're back. We did it. There we go. We're good. We're good. Do you know about how Rick was going to be the shopkeeper if they went that route where he was going to like own the general store of Survivor? So that and going back to Mike, Mike, why owes Rick now because he ruined that opportunity for Rick. And we didn't even talk about that.

But honestly, like he should be a shoe in for something like that. That's the equivalent of a speaking role, you know, hotel manager or something. But he didn't, I don't think he had any clue about that. Like it was like all news to us at the same time. And we discussed it over fortnight. Rick's like, what the fuck? You know, come on mike so yeah that that would have been awesome also you you love disney what is what is the disney

ride that it closest resembles survivor hmm are you asking um i still love survivor either way, either way, but are you asking Gavin who was out there as a super fan who was super excited for the opportunity or Gavin who's now watching again, you know, for the first time in a hot minute, just due to time constraints and he is excited to watch again. You know, there, there's two different, two different people riding the ride. I would take both of those answers. Okay. You need both. Let's see. I think first Gavin, super fan Gavin,

who's getting out there for the first time, it's like tower terror. You know, you know that you're getting ready to be on some hell of a ride and you're not sure exactly what sequence it's gonna take, but you have that idea of how it's gonna finish. And I think that was me. I knew what I was getting into, but I really didn't. You know, you can be an armchair quarterback and.

Thank you can do everything. And I remember saying in those interviews, I know more about survivor than anyone on that season. I remember people talk crap on me because we had all those returning players. I still think I probably know just as much as anyone. But yeah, it's one of those things where you think you know it's going to happen, but you're getting ready to have some drops and those sequences that you don't expect. But still, it's a great ride nonetheless. And let's see, Gavin, now there's a new ride. It's called Guardians of the Galaxy. And I personally don't care for the movies.

You know, it's one of those things, but I experienced the ride, and it was one of those life changing experiences, and that's what I'm hoping this is gonna be for me. I haven't gotten to watch too much of the new era now, so this can be that opportunity for me to get hooked back into something that maybe I wasn't watching

or wasn't necessarily interested at this time just due to personal reasons. But yes, Guardians of the Galaxy, it's one of my favorite rides now. So still haven't seen all the movies, but it's one of those things like you can appreciate something for what it is even if you don't necessarily feel that you're attached to that anymore. What a beautifully, it's awesome. It's awesome. Me and D and Emily were in a horrible shape after the guardians of the galaxy, as was Julie, who was also on my season. Okay.

And I couldn't look up for 30 minutes. I love guardians. It's got us so good. Is there anybody here who's been on the show? I've been on the show for a while. I'm not sure if I've been on the show. I'm not sure if who was also on my season. OK, and I couldn't look up for 30 minutes. Now it is. I love Guardians. It's got is so good. Is there anybody here that you have a strong feeling towards?

Maybe there's somebody that you watch that you enjoyed or somebody who you saw in passing on Twitter or something that you enjoyed their presence. So obviously, you know, Rick, he's a no brainer. I'm super excited to see Christian again. And that's someone that I hope Rick can link up with. But not only that, I hope Rick can use Christian as a shield. I think Christian is one of those people who can maybe, and it depends on how close he is with Angelina and Mike, that trio, that can be dangerous. But overall, I think Mike White, if Rick doesn't win, honest to God, I think Mike White is your winner.

I think people are going to vote for him because for one, you're not going to vote him out because you want to get a spot on season four, season five, season six, whatever it is. If I vote out Mike, then he's definitely not putting me on the show. Some people aren't going to vote for Mike in that pre-Merge stage because of that. Same going into into merge and then hell, if you're on the jury, why are you gonna vote for Jonathan, Aubrey, whoever it is, any of these 18 people over 26, 38, how many of your people there are, why would I not vote for Mike?

Because that's gonna benefit me again. So I really think if Rick's not in that final three, I think Mike's a shoe in to get in there. And I'm honestly, I know, if Rick's not in that final three, I think Mike's a shoo-in to get in there. And I'm honestly, I'm okay with that. It's not that he needs the money, but I think all of these people are gonna be looking out for themselves again. And yeah, so I'm excited to see

how that plays into this season. And excited to see Chrissy again. I'm obviously, I'm leaning more towards that era that I'm most familiar with. And also I got to show some love to Colby, not even love. I'm just curious to see how this season's gonna play out because I think the last time we saw Colby, he wasn't on steroids, you know?

So I'm super excited to see kind of what he does now because I looked him up on Instagram, he's a big dude. So, you know, Elm, Rick, Jonathan, like that type archetype. I'm excited to see what happens. They're going to be out for blood. And they all want each other. They all want to be the biggest. Exactly. So, yeah.

You're the Mike White point is interesting because, you know, if you're on the jury, you've already lost. Right. And the Mike White in the final three is like the only return on investment jury vote that's ever existed. If Rick's not there, if I'm on that jury and Rick's not in that final three, it doesn't matter what they say at final tribal council, Mike White has my vote. And I think if Mike White gets there, I think there'll be other people with that same mindset. Why not? My voting confession will be like, I would like a speaking role. And he just put it in there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm putting whatever, whatever role I want on the wild voters below his name,

you know, bar attendant or whatever bartender, you know. Sure. Gavin, this is so much fun. No, it was great. Yeah. I was happy to come out of retirement for, for this and only for you, Brandon. You heard that. This is this is great. Thank you for joining this super size episode of the Survivor 50 Files. We will be back next time with another episode. Take care, everybody. Have a good one. Goodbye. Thank you to our friends at Manta Sleep for sponsoring this episode

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