RHAP: We Know Survivor - Gabby Pascuzzi Talks Christian Hubicki | The Survivor 50 Files

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Today, Brandon talks to Gabby Pascuzzi about Christian Hubicki's time on Survivor.

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E S. Let's get to the show. What is going on everybody? We are back again, another episode of the Survivor 50 Files. I am Brandon Donlin and we're talking Christian Hubeck, everybody's favorite doctor. Is that fair to say? Is he the best survivor doctor? That's a question for later. We'll get into that. But I'm joined by an ally of Christian Hubecky, but that's not, we don't lead with,

that didn't pass the Bechtel test of who this person is. This is one of my great friends, Gabby Fiscusi, who I've known for so long, much longer than me on the island, a little bit longer than her on the island. But I'm so thrilled that we've never done this together and this is great. Gabby, how are you?

I'm good, wow. That was such a good introduction. Actually, speaking of the Bechtel test, I'm currently reading a graphic novel by the woman that that's named after that I literally have right next to me. This was not planned at all. This is by Alison Bechtel.

So, shout out to that. To the Bechtel test. Does it that pass the Bechtel test? I assume it is. Is it about the Bechtel test? I assume it is. Is it about the Bechtel test? No, it's not. Um, yeah, she's, she's like a, an author and, um, this is a graphic novel about her life and I'm like one chapter in, but that's who it's named after the test.

But now I'm actually, I feel like I shouldn't have brought this up without knowing enough because now I'm like, I don't actually know why it's named that like named after her. If you read the first, it's not in the book. It's nothing to do with the book. You have nothing. No, if you're reading Harry Potter, the sorcerer stone isn't in the first chapter, but you didn't get there yet.

You know, it might be all about the back to the past. Has anybody done anything with the back told test? Like Kell Kellyn Bechtold? Like we make that into a game? Is that IP that's been less than... Yeah. Kellyn, if you're listening, and I know you are, we can make that into something magical. Brandon can help you copyright that. How are you? How are you doing? I'm good. I'm really good. Enjoying the summer off from, as you know, doing my PhD. This is weird talking to you on a podcast like this as if we don't talk all the time because now it's like we're talking publicly. So we match. We're

matching in our little green. For people who are watching this for the auditory listeners, you might not be able to get this, but we were matching, we are matching in green, but we were flexing before we recorded, you know. One of our arms of the two of us looks very toned. I won't say who it is, but it's not me. But Gabby's arms looking pretty toned, 2025. Thank you.

Listen, season 50, Gabby, would have been a different situation. You know what I mean? You and Jonathan would have been lifting stuff upby, would have been a different situation. You know what I mean? You and Jonathan would have been lifting stuff up. It would have been fantastic. Oh, yeah, me and Jonathan. Gabby, how do we know each other? How did this happen?

We know each other. Yeah. From before I was on Survivor and before you were on Survivor, but via Survivor through. The wonderful world of the fan community. Do you want to tell your version of the story? Picture this. It's the spring of 2018. The cast of Day of the Scylla, it gets leaked. Shout out to Redmond.

You know, you did a lot of good for people. No, it had to have been the summer because I already played the game of Survivor. And I'm reading the leak, right? And Gabby's tweets are so funny. There's such funny tweets. And I back in the day, I was funny. So I, I DM Gabby. I'm, I mean, I was funny. So I DMed Gabby. I'm fine. I mean, I DMed Gabby. I said your tweets are so funny. Good luck.

How was it? That was a tweet. I think you said they were hysterical by the way. And they were. We should you know what? You should go back and revisit that. There's the screen. And then we meet each other in person.

Yes, the dots are connected. Yes. I didn't know, but actually I think I complimented you on your t-shirt. Do you remember what shirt you were wearing? I was wearing a, you're familiar with Legend of the Hidden Temple, if you're listening to this.

I was wearing, what is it, the green parrots? I was wearing the t-shirt of the green parrot's team. I didn't remember which team it was, but yeah, it was, I thought maybe it was silver monkeys, snakes. Well, I'm sorry. I think it was the green monkeys. What did I just say? Green parrot. Purple parrot, green monkey, silver snake. Got it. They couldn't find an alliteration for the monkey. They didn't do like maroon monkey.

Maroon monkey. Yeah, it seems like it would make sense. I don't remember the other names and there was blue barracuda is the other one. Yeah, you won't maybe read. I think red Jaguar is speaking to me. I don't know if that's why we could look at we have the internet at our fingertips or not going to look it up. Well, you're wearing a shirt from legend of the hidden temples and, plural temple singular. And I was like, that's an awesome shirt. And then we started talking. And then I think you you were maybe you didn't want to say it,

but you were like, I have to address that I've actually sent you a DM before. And I was like, oh, I saw that DM. Thanks for thinking I'm funny. And now it's public and canon, which is great, which is what I've always heard. But then that was that's 2018. We're here. Look at us. That's amazing. Yeah. We literally became friends through that, which I can't say for.

I love meeting people in the community, but like you, you and I just immediately kind of hit it off. And we talked, uh, long before, uh, you were on the island and months before my season even aired, I think it was, I think I really appreciated having a friend who understood Survivor and was a fan of that whole world. Cause none of my friends were, but who wasn't somebody I had just played Survivor with. Because also it was my first time like in the fan community. So I didn't really have any like now I know you know, like the RHAP podcasters and people like I know them. But at the time, like I didn't really have any friends that watched Survivor. So

it was really, it's so wholesome, so wholesome for us to become friends. And I always knew that you would make it on the show one day and famously you did. Famously I did and I did really well once I got there which is the under reported story is that it was really well. You're being facetious but like I actually think you did do well except for the parts where you didn't do well. And as you know, this is my chair.

Hold on. I get to be on my soapbox because I've got a captive audience of being team Brandon, because you get a hard time for various incidents during your time on the program. But I think you were one of the funniest people. I think the reason you and I are friends are because we just tell each other that we're funny all the time. You were so funny on the program and that actually is under reported because you were very, very self aware the whole time.

And one of my favorite Brandon Donlon isms was when somebody said, like, how are you and where are you from and how are you doing? And you were like, New Jersey and bad. Just funny, just funny stuff. It's a good line. You had so many good lines. And yeah, I know that you're a social king that I feel is under appreciated. So if you're not a fan of Brandon Donlin, you're probably not listening to this podcast. But if you weren't before, you better be now by I don't know how many interviews you've had before me. But hopefully I'm so happy that everyone gets to see how freaking funny and smart you are. So yeah, I'm less. Yeah, this is just gonna be a who are we talking about today? Just talking about our car. Oh, who's on 50? I forget you're here for. I'm kidding.

Christian, if you think I'm funny, you definitely think Christian's... I mean, Christian, you know, for you, the listener, Christian's great and so funny and so social. Tell me, Gabby, about the pregame. You're in the airport. You're in the hotel. You're flying to Fiji. What's the Christian Hubecki first impression from you? Yes. Well, I immediately identified that this is the male nerd of the season. I believe one of his bags was a duffel bag. And I believe that this duffel bag, like one of his main bags, like I'm not talking like the personal item, like it was like it was a big duffel bag.

And I believe, and he can't correct me because he's in Fiji right now, that it was a, it was a Disney bag. Like it was Disney, it had embroidery on it or something, but it was like from someone who had been to Disney land or world. I'm not sure. I might say land because, um, cause Emily has partners, families from California. So I, and at the time they didn't, they live in Florida now. They didn't live there. So I'm going to guess it was Disneyland from California. They can correct me later. Um, remember thinking like, there's some guy with a Disney bag and it's a duffel bag like you didn't even bring a roller bag.

And also I thought he was a fair amount younger than he ended up being I think when we played he was 32. And I thought maybe he was, I don't know, 28 or something that that's not that much younger. I was 25. So I thought he was, I don't know, 28 or something. That's not that much younger. How old were you? I was 25. So I thought he was more in my direct age range because he just looked so wholesome with his Disney bag,

but I was worried that he was gonna be this Disney adult, which I don't even think he's like not even. So I think I've asked him about that afterwards. And it may have been like his dad's bag or like it was just like a bag. It's not like his dearest and nearest bag. But I remember being like Duffel bag was a bad choice. Yeah. In a game of first impressions, it's a tough one to lead off with. I think I'm thinking about a survivor Disney adult. I think there's only,

I only know of one canonical survivor Disney adult. Do you know of any survivor? It's Gavin. And we'll cut this out if he doesn't end up coming, but I believe he's on the podcast tomorrow to talk about Rick Devon. So Gavin, we're talking about you. We're here already. Last time I was on with Rob, I also shaded Disney adults,

so I'm just getting in all kinds of trouble, I'm sorry. I get it, listen, I don't have the money to be a Disney adult. If I did, not to say that Gavin has, I don't wanna assign a wealth to Gavin, but like it's so expensive. It is super fun to be at Disney. I've never denied it's a fun place to be. It's fun to go to a theme park.

Oh my God. Yeah, the thing is, I feel like I shade Disney adults, but then actually low key, I love Universal. I'm like a Universal girlie. So I'm just like, I'm on the other side, but I really like, I don't go every year, but when I used to, my family lives in Florida, my uncle actually used to work at Universal,

so I'd get comped tickets and I would go to Universal and I would love it. I loved it a lot. So I can't even better to go for free. You know what I mean? Going for free to a car park must feel good. For sure, because you go and then you already spend like $50 on food. But yeah. Anyway, who are we talking about again? He's not even a Disney adult. He's not. But it's a great phrase of immersion. Christian is a type of nerd and a type of like casting for Survivor that I don't think it ever presented itself, at least in recent times.

You have like your Aubrey and your David, but Christian is a new thing. What made Christian like a new thing to you? I think he is just a true, extremely intelligent, like a true nerds nerd. We've gotten super fan nerds kind of. I mean, we've had people like, you know, Cochrane or something. Not to say Cochrane's not smart. He like went to Harvard. Did he go to Harvard? I think, I think so. Does he have a law degree from Harvard Law maybe? I don't think so.

Underreported story, but I believe that's what he did. And I think he went on survivor as Harvard Law student. I think, I could be wrong. I think so. So anyway, we have had true nerds, but like, okay, I can tell you now as someone in academia myself, pursuing my PhD, when I met Christian when he was on the show, he

had finished his PhD, he had finished his post doctorate degree, not degree, but position. And academics are a different kind of nerd because you have to be so obsessed with what you do to make that your life's work. And he's just highly, highly intelligent, but he's also, as we know, very social, funny. He gets it. He's not, you know, like like I think that's what makes him different is

he's, he's not just like a nerd about Survivor or just like he's nerdy because he has dorky interests. It's like he's a true, you know, he's a really intelligent guy and it comes through in what he talks about, what he enjoys talking about, the way that he talks, the phrases that he uses, the way that he hyper fixates on a slide puzzle. It's just like you, they've never had someone like that before. Do you think, you know, you are just recently finished PhD, still in PhD? No, I still have a year or so left. You are the same age, Christian was, when he was on for the first time. Tell me like going through

all the schooling that you've now done, what skills like come with that experience that translate to Survivor that maybe he presented in the real time when you were there? That's such a good question. I think so PhD is, you know, yes, it helps to be to be intelligent to do it. But it's really not about raw intelligence. It is about perseverance and tenacity and sticking with something when it gets hard, when it is confusing. It's like a giant puzzle. A PhD is like a giant puzzle. And like I said, you have to

have a passion for that. You have to have an interest in it. You have to have curiosity, willingness to learn all of these things that I feel like, you know, he had and he, I mean, he would talk about robots and stuff like that. And I think one of the reasons that he and I got along so quickly was because I have that same curiosity, the same thing, you know, interest in learning that made me do a PhD, albeit in a different field, that I remember asking him questions about his work and robots and things like that.

But like, I really wanted to understand, like for example, he had said that he, his specialty was bipedal robots, you know, robots that can walk. And I was like, well, why would we need robots like that? Like, why do you need robots that can walk? Why can't you just have robots, you know, why does, why is it important that it's the same shape or whatever as a human? Why can't you just have robots? You know, why does why? Why is it important that it's the same shape

or whatever the human? Why can't you just have one on wheels or like one that's like a snake that wiggles through things? And he would answer my questions in great detail. Like he would talk about certain situations in which you would want something that could maybe fit into a space like a human could or like, I don't know, I want to say he had some example that was like about firefighting or something. I don't remember now. But anyway, he had an answer for my kind of like very specific questions. And I feel like maybe that's why we got along is because we both have this interest in learning and understanding and wanting to understand the why and how. and learning and understanding and I'm wanting to understand the why and how. So that's yeah, that's what I've gained from my PhD.

And that's definitely where he, you know, excels in his like intelligence and everything. They have your road to your grocery store have a robots, your robots, your gross. They have in in a lot, not in New York anymore, but when I lived in Philly, like the giant, shout out the giant if you're going to giant, but the giants have like a, it's a big robot, but it's on wheels and it will go from aisle to aisle, I guess doing, I don't know, quality assurance. I don't know what it does, but if that robot had two feet. I would hate that. If it was walking around over. I went to one of the fights I can win Gabby I can push that thing over. It's not gonna get up.

It's gonna lay there. Yeah, that's actually what Christian has said a lot of his lab spends time doing is just pushing robots over and making them fall. He was on the Stephen Colbert show, like a clip of their research was shown and all of the, because it was shown in like a funny way where it's like these nerds are pushing this robot around. So I'll try to find the clip. I think it's on his website,

but I remember he showed it to me once, um, on the island, on the secret, on the tablets that we have secretly. They have wifi there cause Kyle Frazier putting stuff on Instagram now. So I guess he found the wifi hotspot. Yeah. The old school didn't have it, but it's yeah. Season 37 and on they installed wifi. They took away our swimsuits, but they installed Wi-Fi. They took away our swimsuits but they installed Wi-Fi. Yeah, yeah. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest when I was there because it would calm me down. Yeah. Is Christian good at... You guys have like built-in report because you're both...

I don't want to assign nerdy to you, but you both have similar niche interests. You know, can Christian do that with like your Jessica Pete or a bee when like somebody who's not built in, like has a similar like subset of interests? Yeah, yeah, that's what makes him such a good, you know, survivor player and just like a fun and amazing human being. Is he really can get along with anybody he can find something so I think that same curiosity that I was talking about he will ask people questions but like meaningful questions you know like questions that get them talking about their interest.

And he also has a really special skill I think of being sarcastic in a way that amuses himself that other people don't notice. Like, if someone said something kind of wacky and pseudo sciency or something, you know, something like some kind of wacky conspiracy or something, I think he has the magic gift of like responding responding them, responding to them in a way that like doesn't make them feel bad

or stupid. But he's being a little bit facetious. Like I could imagine that with like, a coach or something out there, where he's like, he so even if you don't have the same interests, he will either be genuinely very interested or even if he thinks you're spewing crap, he is very skilled at, I don't know, being clever and biting without being mean. You know, the only the person that I thought of while you're describing that is is Rob, who would otherwise be hosting this podcast, if not.

Yes. A trip to Scotland. He can do that exceedingly. I think they both have that gear, which is a hard. I don't think I have that. I don't think most are that. Yeah, I don't have that. I think, yeah, he's good at that. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, I'm imagining Rob is doing that right now with like some of the housewives right there

just saying and he's like, Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah, no. And definitely he's so good at that. Christian is good at that sort of thing too. But yeah, he's also just I mean, you know, so part of the, you know, his and my story, I mean, his story really, it was with the with the brochachos on our season was because he could do that. He was like, I think like I have a bit of a harder time. Kind of like, I don't know. I think he's fine. He's he at least at the time, I don't maybe he's you know, he's a little older now, like, he's kind of fine. Like going jester mode. Like, I think that's why I was a little bit like,

when we were in the game, I maybe have a harder time with that of like, when it's like Dan, Dan rendering and John Hannigan, it's like, and they're like, growing out. I at the time was like, I'm not playing your stupid game. And Christian's like, I'm going to do pull ups on the on the tree, you know, and I was like, Oh, this guy, even though he's totally doing like the correct thing that you should be doing. So will he be able to, you know, be silly and goofy out there, I think, 100% and, you know, tell his robot stories and stuff like that. But no, he's very, very funny and personable and easy to get along with. And, you know, he has interests and stuff that are not just his research, which is good, as any researcher should, but I don't think it's true for everybody. But, you know, he watches movies, TV, you

can talk about that kind of stuff. He is somebody who I think like, when I think of popular survivor, characters, contestants, whatever you wanna call them in the last, you know, post season 20, I think he is the number one person in that regard. I think that he is on every list that you saw on people, you know, people would make TikTok or on Reddit.

He was, I think the Rob is a podcast. I forget what the number was, but they did a poll of who do you want to see on season 50? He had like some insane percentage with such a gap with the second person. Is that something that you could feel in person? Could you tell like this is this is a guy who's like going to, you know, leave a lasting impression? Yes, 100%. guy who's like gonna you know leave a lasting impression? Yes 100% like he just has that

something like he's so likable just as a person that all of us feel and then you could also just feel in his rapport with Jeff and the things he would say at tribal council I was like he is going to be a star and I remember like knowing that too like after after the game I remember thinking to myself like, Christian is going to be totally a breakout star. And ironically, I actually thought I would be kind of invisible or something because of that. Like I was like, oh, Christian's gonna be the star

and I'm gonna be like some kind of sidekick, like nobody person that he's aligned with. And then they showed me crying about every seven minutes on the show. So that was not true. But like, I think we all knew, I think that I remember there was, I think probably the first tribal council we went to, he says something that makes it on the show. He says he makes an analogy about, you know, like a roller coaster. And he's like, well, with a roller coaster, like, are you actually I can't even replicate what he said, but something like, you know, you're scared because you

you're, you're, it's not because you know, you're going to be okay after the roller coaster. It's because you actually for a second believe you could die. And there's like a silence in the show. And in real life, it was completely silent. And we're all like, oh, that's like, especially the first time you ever go to tribal councils, like the first time you're kind of hearing people speak really publicly in that kind of way, I guess, besides, you know, like match hats or something like that. But I think even from that early on, I was like, this guy is good at talking and he's good at like this thing.

Yeah, what a star. I, yeah, love him. When people meet like a Tom Cruise, like a larger than life, like actor of sorts, and you read like the Reddit threads of like, what's a celebrity encounter you've had? Like that's how I feel like people describe it is it's like, so big, it's such a big presence that they can feel, you know, from a distance. And I don't know how that works. Oh, go ahead. No, you say.

I put a pin but like, on season 50, I don't know if that's a good thing to have. Well, we can put a pin on that because I do think compared to some of those huge personalities, I actually think he'll be pretty normal. I actually think when I say all of that, I mean it really in the context of like, I don't know, Survivor was just kind of his jam. Like he was just like good at it. He just stood out. He was likable. But he didn't have

that kind of I wouldn't say it was like a Tom Cruise thing. Like, I don't think no offense to him adore him. But like, he didn't have that thing of there's an aura around him. He walks into a room and everybody kind of looks like I don't think so, which I think was his superpower. And like, you didn't expect this guy to be so charming and lovely. That was actually something I really ascribed that aura I really ascribed to the Goliaths. And I remember when people would ask me how I felt about like after the show would ask, how did you feel about your season with the theme

and everything? And like, did you think people were on the right tribe? And I remember there was discourse on Reddit and stuff after my season, people were like, well, why is Alec on the Goliath? He's just a bartender, as if it was something about your job. But really, it was about the aura. And I will say, the Goliaths had the aura. Like they there was just like a certain confidence like type of thing. And at the time, like, I don't think Christian really had that. In fact, one of one of you want to hear another first impression story, I think this has now been said, so I don't think I'm saying an embarrassing story that's never been said. But I don't think it's as well known of a story, which is that at Ponderosa, we get told like, you can't don't go in the water, or you don't go in the ocean, because like they

don't want you to get injured and stuff before the game starts. So like, right, we're all just kind of like sitting on the beach reading, you're in, you're sitting in the restaurant area or whatever it is. But there, when we were at Ponderosa, I think it's somewhere else now, there was like a dock that goes over the ocean, you could walk up and down that, people did, you could sit there, you could do whatever, you just weren't supposed to go in the ocean. But this man was, I think, probably sitting with his feet dangling over the edge and his flip-flop falls into the ocean from the dock. I don't remember if it was one flip-flop or two, it doesn't really matter because at that point you got to go retrieve it. And so I don't think we really noticed that the flip-flop

dropped because that's that's kind of subtle, but think we really noticed that the flip-flop dropped, because that's kind of subtle. But what we all noticed was him walking back from the dock, talking to a handler or something. And like, you know, you can't hear them. You just see them kind of like, I don't know, like pointing. And then just slowly start wading into the water just slowly start wading into the water to go retrieve the flip flop. And it's just like,

I think a lot further out than he thought. Like it just felt like it took a really long time. And he's hiking up his pants and he's waiting out there. And you know, at first you're kind of like, what's he doing? And everyone else is like making eye contact at each other, like kind of laughing at the situation. And he's like not making eye contact with anyone. He's like looking, you know, just like, he's just trying to get the thing done. And then yeah, you know, he eventually, he comes back with flip flops in hand. Um, but like we were laughing, people were laughing, but still it's not like when I saw that I wasn't like first boot, oh my God, loser energy by, I was just like, this guy, like, oh my God, like you lost your flip flops already. That in itself does feel like in order to have something

like that embarrassing happen to you. And like that wasn't anybody's first thought or maybe it was in the, it's under reported story. But if you can have something like that happen in front of 19 people and then it just is not canon. It doesn't ever come up. Like that's pretty, that's something, you know, you have to have like a fun way about you

to be able to do it. Exactly. Like maybe if he had really looked so like self pitying, if he had been walking back like Charlie Brown, like, like that would have maybe been really bad. But I think, I mean, I think I haven't talked to him about that story in ages. But yeah, I guess that is an aura. But like, he has a very non-threatening aura. So to return to the Goliath, the Goliath folk in the pregame, which you didn't know beforehand that they weren't in your tribe, did they exude aura before the buffs were decided? Like you could feel that then?

Yes. Oh yeah. A hundred percent. Because when they put us on, on the mat, on the side that we were supposed to be on, I didn't know the theme, but it was calculating, calculating. And I remember at one point, I thought to myself, I think the theme is going to be top dogs versus underdogs. So I was kind of right, but it took until we were, it was a good theme, but it's basically my theme in a like secular way. But oh, I have one more story about the about Christian and the and the tribe split, which is yes,

so you could feel people's aura, but since they'd never really had a season like that, when they were going out to start the game, we were first on boats because we had the shots with the where you're on the separate boats of each one is your tribe, but you're not wearing buffs yet. So like we don't know the theme. And you know, sometimes they do it where it's the people, you know, on your boat is your tribe, and sometimes they don't. So like, they're sorting people into the boats and

I'm thinking like oh my god this is it we're seeing our tribes and as many fans know now you know your wardrobe is kind of strategically chosen to match your tribe's colors more or less. So on my season it was orange and purple, orange david's purple goli's. And it made sense when you saw people come out in their game clothes for the first time, because people were sort of in shades of yellow, red, orange, that would be my tribe. And then people were in shades of purple, blue, green, cool tones, so cool.

And so when they start putting people onto the tribes, it's matching up with you know, with like the color shirt that they're wearing and everything and you know the gender split is looking even so I'm thinking like oh my god these are our tribes these are our tribes and so I'm looking at my tribe start to be built and I'm literally feeling like what is going? Because all these weak and small looking people are coming onto my boat and wearing the same color as me and I'm starting to freak out. And there were two

men left. Alec and Christian, and I'm looking at my tribe and I'm thinking, oh my god, we're so screwed. The other tribe has like, Dan and John and all these tall people on my tribe. I'm like, okay, Pat, he's a bigger guy. So I'm like thinking, I'm looking, Alec is wearing salmon colored shorts, aka in my color family. And I'm thinking, oh, they're gonna put him on my tribe. That guy looks, you know, to balance it out. And I was also thinking, I'm not on the same tribe as the male nerd, where like the male, you know,

different gender version of each other. Alec wearing salmon shorts. Christian is wearing a dark blue shirt, his robot shirt. And I'm like, okay, here's where the balancing thing comes. And the production assistant or whatever points at Alec and puts him on the other boat, puts at Christian, puts him in my boat. Now do I think to myself? Oh, I guess I was wrong. No. The entire first 20 to 30 minutes of the boat ride, I legitimately thought to myself that PA made a mistake. And it's so embarrassing for them. And they're probably going to get fired. And I even had like a, you know, 0.5% desire to be like, are you sure that was right? I almost said like, but he's wearing

orange shorts. Like, like you. And as they're they're filming the boats, they're filming the close ups, I'm still thinking, oh my God, we're gonna have to redo this whole thing. Is that P.A. Minimistic? I can't believe no one's catching this. They switched the guys. They put the guys on the wrong boat. They're wearing the wrong color.

We have the weak guy. We need that strong guy wearing orange. And it probably took me 30 minutes of like them filming the shots of us on the boat before I realized like, oh my god, this is survive. They would have noticed if there was a mistake by then like I really thought we were going to turn around and they were going to switch them off the boat. So then yeah, by that time, that's when I started thinking like

this season theme is something F'ed up. Like this, what's going on? So yeah, then when it was revealed, it was what it was. But I legitimately was looking at Christian thinking they're putting that blue guy on that other tribe because he's too weak. We need that strong guy Alec. Yeah. Top Dogs vs. Underdogs, a really good name.

It is essentially what you did. Like it's that season, but it is, I'm surprised they've never done that., a really good name. It is essentially what you did. Like it's that season, but it is, I'm surprised they've never done that. That's a great name. That's like an Australian survivor situation. They might take that. Top Dogs vs. Underdogs. That's what they'll say in that accent. We can go play that. However, we'll cut this out. We don't want to talk about it. We'll cut it out. Making it up. We'll cut it out making it. We'll cut it out season 40 in its original iteration Was not a winner situation. It was An all-star situation that I believe and tell me if I'm wrong that you've publicly said before

That that was something that you were involved with. I was Contacted but a lot of people are contacted. I did. Yeah, I was, I was contacted. And I, you know, assuming Christian was also, what is, what was that like for your then relationship after having played almost the entire game together? You come home, you go closer. Once like another opportunity is back on the table. How does that change a relationship with Christian?

I don't think it changed anything between us. I think we would have totally been cool and been happy to work together and things like that. But I always, and so it was the same way around for this time around season 50, I always had the thought like, you're coming back buddy. You're coming back. You're an all star. You are and always will be an all star. Um, it's a RuPaul quote. Um, I would always, always, always have been thrilled if he got on any kind of returning player season. And it would have been cool to play again, but I remember also we could be really targeted as a duo if we if we both went back. So,

yeah, I don't think it would have changed much about our relationship. But like I just always knew he would he would go back and even like this iteration. I think it was never a doubt in my mind that that he would get chosen. I felt actually for me it was it was more like what would they put two people from the same season? I mean then dot dot dot. He got three people from the same season. They put three. However, I will say also I know we're're not focusing on Mike and Angelina in this interview,

but you could not have chosen a better three for my season. I mean, and I'm saying that as somebody who like I would totally be willing to go back and I would say, you know, someone like Davey would be awesome to come back. But like, if you had to pick three, I am not at all shocked. Like for me, it was always going to be Christian like, please bring Christian back. I wanted him to come back. Angelina, iconic, like she is unlike anyone we've seen. There are not enough like women, like female player characters like her. And then like, how are you going to say no to the creator of the White Lotus? Like you're not going, you're bringing on Mike. So people, you know, friends of mine and stuff have been like,

Oh my God, but they brought back three from your season. Like, aren't you mad that you're not one of them? And I'm like, honestly, if I put on my producer ad, I would have chosen those three as well. And you are in a minority where you're on a season where it's not only just you and, and Davey, which would obviously be next you know whatever but there was like other people from your group too that would make a run again like you guys have

so many people who a second round makes so much sense where that's not the case with other seasons at all. Yeah I know yeah I think our cast was stacked in personality I don't know it was really a lightning struck or something but uh yeah I think I think a lot of people from my cast would be great on a return. Even people that people wouldn't think of or wouldn't expect. Like, I would love to see Elizabeth Olsen back. I think she's hilarious and iconic. She's one of my very good friends from the season still, actually. She's probably the person I talked to the second most after Christian.

Tell me about, and we're not focusing on Mike White, but tell me about like from the from the brief time that you spent with Mike White on Survivor or the times you chatted afterward like what about this experience do you think made him want to be back in for this? I know he's given interviews as of recent like this is what I have to do to get a vacation, which is like a cheeky funny thing. But like, tell me about what you know of the Mike White, like why another round on Survivor is something that he would subject himself to now. I think he just has a curiosity about people.

Like I think what he does as a writer and as, you know, creative person is explore stories, explore narratives and explore stories of people and characters. It's like, I think he just likes, first of all, seeing how others are. And then I think also when you go through something with such highs and lows as survivor, you learn things about yourself, you learn things about the human experience. It's like a way of getting an extreme, like something so extreme, right? There's very few times in life you get to experience something so extreme, I say get to but or are forced to, you like even like like pain or joy or anything

like those are relatively muted in your everyday experience and you know people talk about the best day of their life might be like when their child is born or something like that and so that's like an extreme high but that's not happening all the time that's happening once or twice or you know however many times you have kids and then the same with like I mean I imagine you know like giving like childbirth have kids. And then the same with like, I mean, I imagine, you know, like, give it like childbirth. It's like, that's probably the most painful thing you've ever again, it's not something you experience. So it's like, there's very few experiences in life, I feel that are so intense, that are so concentrated. And I think it's a

certain type of person that wants to experience those things, aka those 607 of us who have signed up to play. And I think it's rare for someone that exists in Hollywood, which is a place of relative comfort and luxury and all of these things. And I've been to Mike's house, he is a nice house, he has, you know, he lives in comfort. So I think it's really rare and like a special kind of person that would want to take himself out of that place of luxury and comfort and push himself. And, you know, I don't know him as well as other people do.

I can't speak to like what exactly that is, but I think he, like many of us, just has a curiosity and like a desire to learn more and to experience more. Like it's cheesy, it's like it's an adventure, right? Like just, I don't know, have an adventure that not everyone can have. You have always said to me, even pre me being on Survivor post you,

is you think you would have benefited on Survivor from being a couple years older. Like you played Survivor as maybe, which is 25. I was also 25 different situation. But like being a couple years older for the three people from your show who are now, I guess, eight years older, is there a change that you could see in their personality from like your Angelina's or your Mike's, you know, having that? I mean, granted, Mike has lived as I'm sure Angelina has also Mike has lived a whole lifetime since

then with just the success that he's found. And Angelina has now had I think what children, plural children, children. Yeah. So like they're like life experiences obviously come in eight years. But is there any benefit that you see for them now having been older? Yeah, I think so. I think I so probably the person I could speak on least about that would be Mike. I haven't seen him in several years. But you know, he's probably in a very different place now with like he you know, he was always

successful, but now he's certainly reached like a new level of success. And I wonder, I'd be curious to know like how that's affected him in some ways, like, you know, I don't think he's like struggled with confidence, but like, certainly like reaching some level of success has to kind of boost, you know, your belief in yourself and your craft and your ideas like even more. But then I also wonder like what it's like, you know, interacting with all these like famous, super duper famous people. But, you know, he's been in that world. So he's probably who I could speak the least on. And he's also he was 85 years old when we played.

So he is 93 now. So that might be hard for him. Representation wise, though, I really stand by that we should be doing that more is having 93 year olds on. Yeah, just because I needed somebody there to be better than you know what I mean? And if we if we're doing that every season, we have a 93, even 95 push it a little. And if they can if they can run our country in the government, they can play survivor. And we've always said it.

And we've always said it. I voted today. I just got back from voting. It's so for you for mayor of New York City. Yeah, they say ranking is arbitrary and reductive, but not in New York City. It's not New York City. New York City, you got to do it. You got to York City. It's important. In New York City, you gotta do it. You gotta do it.

That's awesome. Good for you. My voting day is next week for our mayor of Buffalo, New York. Sure. And you feel good about that? I do. I know who I'm voting for. And I have a lawn sign on my lawn for that person.

And the name of the candidate that I'm voting for is the first name, two first names of my landlords. Okay, cool. And that's why you decided to vote for that? I saw the sign and I was like, I guess like those are the names of my landlords, so I'll vote for that. No, my but my landlords are named. Am I allowed to endorse a political of a mayoral ballot in Buffalo on your. Yeah.

My landlords are named Sean and Ryan and Lauren, my partner and I actually refer to them as one entity, Sean Ryan, because we think it's funny. And because that's how their name was listed on Zillow when we applied for the apartments. We thought their name was Sean Ryan, then it turned out to be one guy named Sean, one guy named Ryan. Anyway, now the mayoral candidate is his name Sean Ryan. So I'm like, well, that's first and last name.

His first name is not Sean Ryan. Sean Ryan, Sean Ryan. Yeah, it would be tough. You go to Myrtle Beach, you're never finding a Sean Ryan keychain when you want to surf. No, you're not. Yeah, no. Do you want to give out your address to people if they want to see the lawn sign? No, I'm okay. Okay. We'll do that at the end. When we do plugs, we'll get there. The Chevrolet employee pricing event is on now.

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Mike is not 93. I think people know, but when we were on the island, it was a running joke that he was 85 years old, which I think was also a strategic thing on his part, because we all it was a self deprecating thing to be like, I'm not a threat, I'm 85 years old. So but now he's 93. So. So Angelina, I think she's she's had a lot of changes in her life in terms, like you said, she has two daughters now. I think what time would do the most for her and honestly, just like being able to see our season is like the self-awareness that like,

I'm not saying that just for her, but for all of us as we get older, we gain more self-awareness. And I think, you know, she made it really far on our season and then had to hear from the jury about here are some of the reasons that you maybe rubbed some of us the wrong way. And so for her having the opportunity to hear that and learn from that, as well as getting older, I think will be really good for her. And I think, you know, she she's seems like an amazing mother. I mean, she is I've seen her.

So I've seen her with her one daughter, but I've not seen her with her second daughter. I'm assuming she's as good of a mother to her second daughter. I follow her too. I would say that she seems like a good mom. She I mean, she adores her girls. They're so sweet. Yeah, I met her older daughter, but not her younger daughter's name is Gabriella. Named after me.

Yeah, middle name, Sean Ryan. She said she texted me. She said, she, she texted me. She said, can I need my daughter after you? I really miss hanging out with you and Fiji. And I said, sure. Sure. Sure. And you said sure with a period.

Cause you wanted her to know you didn't love it. Yeah. You said, sure. Yeah. Um, no, but that's fun. So, uh, yeah, I think, you know, she's beautiful life in San Diego. And also, she looks like she's been working out. So I'm sure she's like she looks she looks fit. So I mean, that can happen in shorter time than eight years. But but good for her. And then lastly, Dr. Hubecky, I think for him, confidence,

I think confidence is going to be probably like the biggest growth thing that's happened for him, because like I said, when he, when we played, he had finished his postdoc and he had just gotten, he had gotten job offers for being a professor, which is which is really hard to do for people not in academia. It's it's hard to get an offer as a professor, especially at what's called an R1 or research one university, which means there's a lot of research activity that happens at that university. And so he actually was getting

university. And so he actually was getting offers for these positions, these positions in the days leading up to like this was overlapping with when he was going to go to pre pregame ponderosa. So he was frantically none of us knew this obviously until the end that he was frantically trying to sign his paperwork and stuff to accept his job for. So he hadn't been a professor yet. When you're a PhD student, I think confidence can be hard to come by. There's a lot of self-doubt because you're trying to get your research out. You might have an advisor that you get along with better or

or not so great. You know, so he was doing a postdoc. So you you're still working under somebody when you do that. So there's a lot of like you're not in charge of your own lab like he is now actually fun fact on the the lab where Christian worked for his postdoc in Atlanta, Georgia at Georgia Tech Actually, fun fact, the lab where Christian worked for his postdoc in Atlanta, Georgia, at Georgia Tech, is the same lab that Eva was an undergrad research assistant

in, I think he told me. Her web connects us all. Eva is what they say about Eva. Her web connects Christian and all of us. Her boyfriend lives in New Jersey. I love him. You know, I lived there for a while. Pretty lit.

Yeah, but anyway, Christian runs his own lab now, you know, and he certainly, you know, he is married now to his amazing wife, Emily. He is married now to his amazing wife, Emily. And I think there's more that he, in a way that he's fighting for now. Like he has his family. He has his life that he's truly trying to build now that he is a professor.

He has tenure, he's settled. I think like that will motivate him in a big way. I think that also having to deal with students for as many years as he has maybe helps with a younger contingent. If he by chance meets people that are, I don't want to say much younger, but you get a couple of people who are fresh on the scene, you know, who knows? Could be. That's true.

I actually forgot that there were people younger because in my head, we're sometimes still frozen at the age that we were. But you're right that like these new I'm like, he's like similar in Asia, a lot of the old school contest and not a lot of them, but some of them, you know, for sure. Yeah. So I think he'll get along with them based on their age. But you're right, he can he can hang with the with the youngins. But I thought you were gonna say like just getting used to students and how they can sometimes be annoying and like,

not understand that like frustrating and oh, sure. By the way, I love I love my students. I don't mean to be to be so negative. But sometimes students can also be, it's like you're dealing with your handling. I thought you were going to say some of the survivor contestants can almost act like they can be immature at times. Oh, sure. And we'll get to that when we look at the graphic.

We'll point out who those people are a part of this group, you know, who those people who the problem is. Oh, I didn't know there was a graphic. I can't wait for the graphic. It's you know, I wonder about like the coachification of returning to Survivor where coach is on season 18 and he's like a lot. And then he watches it and people are receptive to it and maybe less so. But then coach returns to hear our civilians.

And he's like a lot more than he was. He comes in almost intentionally being a lot. I wonder that with with the day of a Scalia three that we're about to see do you think anybody comes in and really leans hard into their thing that they've created from survivor? I think if it's anyone then it's Angelina if it's anyone she's going to be making self-deprecating jokes about the jacket. She's going to be, you know, so we'll see, I think, like that level of self-awareness where she's a,

but like, I wonder how much, like, are we gonna get self-awareness at like a grander level about like, you know, you can't you can't just get by on like making a passing reference to like the jacket or whatever. So is the jacket her first confessional? Is it brought up in the first confessional? Do you think? 100% I think she even she's going to have a jacket, a thick jacket. Did you see her Instagram post? It was a lot of jackets. But even like I mean, it was a lot of the curtain I sent in and I sent them pictures. I remember vividly sending them to you. I said I bought a lot of yellow

jackets and then they all got rejected. Like I bought like a heavy like the pictures that Angelina posted. They were heavy snow jackets. Yeah. I think it's very funny. I don't know if she's kidding. It's very funny. I think it's a really funny bit to have. What do you think the opening line is in the confessional about the jacket? You want to like copyright with me and try to figure out what the exact line is that

she says? Oh my gosh. I'm not good at these improv games. Sure. Really, I... What do you think? Me saying that makes me think I had something to begin with. But like, I don't have that. But I

wonder, you know, is she wearing the jacket? Or she's wearing it? She's wearing it. And she's like, this time, I imagine like a real housewives thing where they turn with it's not that's not how survivors but she's like, this time, I'm not going to have to ask for a jacket. Because I have my own. Yeah, I kind of fizzled out there. No, I think she you know, she's I don't know. She could see this is why she's on and I'm not because she's going to think of gold that I could never think of.

No, tell me, tell me, Gabby, who have you had a personal experience with on this list that is not the three people that you've played Survivor with? Who have you interacted with in person that you you enjoyed the interaction or or not? Or not enjoyed. I've interacted with Rick. I think we were at like a like a Survivor event together. I've interacted with I've interacted with with a few of these people, but Emily, you know, we play the online games together, sometimes the blood on the clock tower and that which by the way, Christian also plays in. So I think, you know, you're a good pal, Emily, my good pal, Christian. Here's hoping they link up and that they don't let let like some social strategy games they've played in which you're literally assigned a role of a bad guy. Right. In these games of blood on the clock tower, you're assigned an evil role.

That's not how survivor is. So I'm hoping they, you know, they can actually work together and not let themselves have have paranoia of like, are they lying to me? It's like in that game, you have to lie because it's part of the game. But I mean, I guess in Survivor. But Emily, what a gem. What a sweetheart. I know she's your good friend, but she's she's she's she's great. She's so funny. She's so smart.

In the beginning of the people get told they're going on Survivor 50. Like people have been told they are leaving. People have told they've been cut and forever. Everybody's asking each other, like, who's on Survivor 50? And the only two names anybody had until like a week before the season they got they left was like oh i heard emily and christian yeah like we all heard emily and christian like they are like you know it makes sense you know and everybody else wanted yeah that's just yeah we got that together and then somebody was like i think i I heard Q. Like, yeah, I think Q makes sense for what this is.

Yeah, it's like people just saying like, who they think is like a sure shot, yeah. Those two were always, and I think they're gonna link up. I feel pretty good about that. I think so too. And actually, I think Christian and Rick might link up. I think they've communicated in the past, like they, because when your seasons are next to each other like ours, where you chat afterwards. And then who else I've interacted with?

I've interacted with Genevieve. Genevieve. Genevieve. You put some spice on that. I really like it. Yeah. I did. Because she and a bunch of her 47 castmates were in Buffalo one weekend with and so I had met Andy previously because he's from Buffalo and he was here for a few weeks on and off and so when they visited I met up with them. They were lovely cast. They were so nice. They bought me so many margaritas which was so nice of them. They were fun. Like were so nice. They bought me in so many margaritas, which was so nice of them. They were fun. Like it was fun. It's rare. I like that season a lot, like the actual people in it, because you know, it's not every time I meet people and I actually like them. But I remember specifically

loving Genevieve because let me tell you like an anecdote that I feel like really captures the type of person that she is. Why did I say I don't really know her? I hung out with her for a few hours once. To me, it told me about who she was, which was when you are in these groups, you know, everyone's excited, everyone's talking, everyone's also a huge extrovert. And like, you know, we're all these people that were cast on Survivor. So we're like, we're used to being the life of the party. Everyone's trying to tell a story. And people talk over each other and all those things. And Genevieve is the type of person where you know that thing where you start saying something that someone else kind of says something over it

and then your thing kind of gets forgotten. Genevieve was the type of person to say, oh, but Gabby, you were saying about blah, blah, blah, and she'll bring it back to you. And I literally remember feeling like that was so kind of her. And that was also she's just that so socially like aware. And and just like it was not coming from like a pretentious or anything. It was genuinely like a very kind, good thing to do. So I just I always like remembered that about her

from our very little interaction and always appreciated that about her. But you can just tell she is sharp as a tack and so sweet. Her husband also hilarious. Also, I do follow him on Twitter and he's, I love him on Twitter. But he's all sweet.

Can I tell you? I love Canadians. He's the funniest person I think I've ever been around in my life. Wow. I texted Genevieve to get to Mark. I said, Can you give me Mark's number? Like, I, you know, he was really funny. He really is so funny. I want to hang out with them more. Like I like I kind of I miss that that time that we all got to hang out with them more. Like I, I like, I kind of, I miss that, that time that we all got to hang out. I'm like, I kind of missing hanging out with this cast of season 47.

Can I tell you a Mark joke that he made that I really liked? He, I forget what the hat was and Mark, Mark listens to, you know, Hey Mark. Hi Mark. He was wearing a hat. I don't know if it was the the the general NFL logo or the NBA logo, but it was one of the two it was just the logo for the franchise logo and somebody asked him about it and he said, I just love that those guys are out there doing it was the quote and I was incapacitated with the idea of

just like he just loves the franchise. He loves the game. It's just the game. I love the game. I do. I love the idea of just loving the franchise. I'm not going to pick size. I just like the NFL. It's not nice to pick sides. You know, it's nice to just appreciate the game as it's happening.

I went to kindergarten with season 49 female. Really? Wait, I want to remove the graphic. Say that also. She's not on the graphic. No, season 49 female was my best friend in kindergarten. I remember her. She looked just like that. No, she looks the same. She had just white face, white body, no face, no features, just white, sort of that outline of hair. And we were friends in kindergarten. I can't believe she made it on season 49, female. Back then we just called her 49. So, you know, she, but so.

And you've told me this story before that she was sitting alone at lunch, kind of putting food into this void of nothing. She has no mouth. And you went inside there. Yeah, it was very nice of you to do that. I think female actually might be her married name, because I don't think that was her name

when we were in kindergarten. So what was her name? Did she have one? Smith. Yeah, it was Smith. It was 49 Smith. And now she's 49 female. I guess she married, she married a woman, I think. She made a female. Would she with the 49 female, would she get along with Christian from what you remember from kindergarten? She with the 49 female, would she get along with Christian from what you remember from kindergarten? No, because I'm on account of her having no face.

So, yeah, he's always and he's told me in text that he connects with you a best when they do have a face with a face. Yeah, I know. And the facial if he has to be able to read the facial expressions. So given that she's sort of just like a white blob silhouette. It's not. I don't think. I mean, it kind of made sense that she was sitting alone because it was she it was freaky. It was hard to look at for sure. It was hard to look at. Oh, you know, you know what

that I don't even know if that's her might have she had a few sisters in school. So it might have. Yeah, I might be getting them mixed up. Anyway, those are the people that I know. I met Ozzy once when we were in LA for the season of our finale of ours show, mine show, and he has a restaurant or had a restaurant that was near Mike's house. Mike was like, yeah, it's Ozzy's restaurant. Nick Wilson really wanted to stop in and we went in and he wasn't there. And then we asked somebody, is Ozzy here?

And they were kind of like, uh, and then like Nick was like, uh, we were on Survivor and they were like, uh, okay. And then they like grabbed him and then we were all like, hey, um, we were on Survivor and he was like, all right, awesome. And he like, I don't even think had like seen our season. So that was my interaction with Ozzy, but he seems cool as hell. He seems cool as hell.

Honestly, go Ozzy. I said this on the Patreon podcast that we did, the first boot draft, which you can still watch. It's not outdated until February, 2026. But I was with Ozzy at the Ron Clark Academy. One, Ozzy was so nice to me, which I really appreciated. Ozzy and I did not know how that interaction would go if he still watched the program. He was so nice. However, as the night elapses, and I'm saying this publicly, this is now canon, a fan gave him one of the Taylor Swift beaded bracelets that everybody has that they personalized with like the letters and Ozzy ate it.

Ozzy just put it in his mouth and chewed it and swallowed, swallowed many of the beads. He didn't swallow every bead. He spit out one or two beads, but most of the beads he swallowed the string. I believe he swallowed also. And there's no way of knowing if he thought it was edible. I was in shock. I just, I watched it the same way you would watch, you know, like, you know, there is the movie, you know, this is a weird film reference. They did the movie way back in the day where they showed the train coming and the whole audience wasn't used to that perspective. And they all started screaming. That's how I felt is, is, I was

so, is this real? Is this real? Yeah. It's like, if I take a Benadryl, that's normally what happens when I see in my dreams, but this was real in front of me. And I'd love to know if you're listening to this and you're the fan who witnessed that with me, tell me, I think if my memory is right, Kelly was next to me or Hannah Rose was next to me. I was next to somebody who I shared the moment with but a fan gave the bracelet. So if you're listening to this, I'd love to know you. I'm putting together a Netflix documentary about the moment. I need to interview you. What happened? I think probably he must have passed it as well. Do you think like it was in the toilet? It was spelling out like number one survivor. Yeah, but it was it was it was spelling out.

Got fun betrayal. Oh, my God. Yeah. Is Mike Mike White's going to like Joe? You see that? Is that an interaction that what what goes on there? Do you? I don't know. I have no idea. I can. I'm buckled in the same as all of you to see who these people get along with. Like I'm scared.

I'm scared for Christian. I'm like Christian, you better choose right because I. Christian is my number one rooting interest. Like it's actually kind of nice that I don't have that many, but I don't really have friends on the cast. Because there's a world in which like I could have been friends with like a lot of people on the cast right and then it's sort of like you, you know, I don't know who to root for. I mean you have like you have two friends from your season and Emily and Dee so it's like well, you know, Dee already won. So you don't have to root for her. I think she's going to win again. You think so? You don't think she'll be like? I, you know, it's so funny. So before we did this exercise and now we're halfway through it. If you're listening to every episode, I thank you so much. Um, I thought Dee was

going to win when the cast, when I see the cast, I feel good about Dee. Nobody in the world is better at locking in than Dee can lock in. If Dee wants to win, Dee's going to win. However, the amount of admiration that the older era folks have for Joe from season 48, I'm feeling a type of way about Joe. If Joe links up with them, the older folks, which he could, and Joe is the new era representative in a final three of older folks. I think the new era people want a new era person to win. I feel really weirdly good about Joe.

Whereas Joe will not get less than fifth place. Joe's gonna make it to the end of the game, I think, almost assuredly. Wow. No, no, no, no. I think everybody loves Joe. These older folks, so he seems like a lovely person. Izzy said that Suri would not like Joe, which I wonder, I agree with because as he said it,

but I'm curious to see that in action. But the other folks like Joe is one of the older folks. Joe is what they they played survivor with Joe's like they wanted to be. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I feel like there is an admiration amongst the new era people for a Joe type just because Joe is the only like type of his character that made it on this in the new era contingent. It's a lot of like younger, whatever, whatever folks Joe has kids. Yeah. Dad, whatever. Yeah. See, I think I for many of the same reasons that you said. I'm biased, like I actually think Christian Ubicki has a real shot, a real good shot, and I think that's because he's in the kind of in between.

He's not old school. He's not new era, but I think the new era people kind of admire him. They like him. The old era people, I I think are going to be charmed by him. He's similar in age to them. He, I think, is going to be able to connect with them on a more mature level. That is not just like, you know, yeah, I think you're right to clock that. I think some of the old old schoolers it's like they don't want to give money to like a 23 year old so much they want to give money to somebody like you know with a

family with with with real like like that they can connect to in terms of yeah it's not that you have to be the same age but just kind of same life stage. Feel like you're, you know, like there's just like a shared respect, I think, that that can come out of that. But I genuinely like, I mean, and I told Christian before he left, I was like, I am going to tell you good luck and that you're going to do amazing no matter what, because we're friends. But like I was like, you could win. You could really win. You really really win and do you we're gonna be so proud of

you no matter what happens which I hope he knows I mean he knows but I really think he could win I think there's so oh we said put a pin on it earlier because he is a you know he can be a personality these there are people on here with way bigger personalities than him way bigger way bigger egos he doesn't have an ego like that very a notable difference between him and the other folks here is there's no there's no ego does he think he can win did you get that sense Did you get that sense? I think so. I think so.

What was his prep for this? Was there a lot of physical prep or was he kind of as normal? And just like I feel like even the first time I feel like not that I got the indication that he did not prep, of course, but I feel like he had a good thing last time. So I wonder what what he sharpened this time. He prepped but not like a crazy amount. And I think a big part of that was like, he was very busy in his personal life. And you know, like being also being a professor, it's like he was busy up until the minute

that he left. He told me, you know, we talked on the day that he left and he was like, yeah, I submitted like five papers yesterday. I signed off on this thesis and this and that I signed up. My grad students almost couldn't get paid unless I signed this form. He was doing things until the second that he left getting stuff squared away with Emily getting stuff squared away at home like so so this man's been busy. So yes, I know that he was going to physically train. I know he's working on balance because actually

on our season, there was a lot of balance. And I think that kind of made him realize like balances so often in, in these things. And, you know, I think throughout the years he's he's done puzzles. I think he created himself a couple of years ago. I don't think this was so recent. He created himself an app or like a thing on his on his phone or on his computer. He coded a program is what I'm trying to say. He coded a program to randomize jigsaw puzzles so that he would so he would just practice jigsaw. You know, that we don't actually have to buy a physically a new jigsaw puzzles so that he would so he would just practice jigsaw

puzzle, you know that way you don't have to have to buy a physically a new jigsaw puzzle. So he randomized the jigsaw, you know, change the the shapes and that numbers of pieces and stuff like that. So like, I think he's practiced stuff like that. Obviously, he's an expert at slide puzzles. But yeah, did he go join CrossFit and he can look you can bench 100 pounds that is 100 pounds? Is 100 pounds a lot to bench?

I genuinely don't know. Wrong guy, my friend. We are not the right to talk about that. But anyway, he's not doing that kind of stuff. He is a busy man. But I think like mentally, you know, I think he's ready. I think he knows what he's fighting for. He knows what he's playing for. He he knows what he's fighting for.

He knows what he's playing for. He's like, he's locked in, he's locked in. Well, I'm excited to see it. Me too, I'm so excited. This is so fun. It's so unreal. It's so unreal to be on this side as almost like, like a loved one, as like a friend of of someone

going on the show. Like I'm like, you know, I've never I mean, I guess throughout the years, like when you went on and when but like there's something different about this being like a returning player season. It's just like it's all very surreal. And I don't know if you saw, but like after the cast was announced, there was some article on, I don't even know what website, but it was like the best, the person that I'm most excited to see on season 50 and it's not who you would expect. Have you seen this article? No. And it was, it's Christian.

It's like a clickbait article. Let me find it. It's on like Vulture or something. Okay. Season 50. Anyway, let me find it. And this was a complimentary article. It was complimentary.

Interesting. I can't find it, but it was a complimentary article. But the image, the top image graphic is like Mike White and I think maybe Angelina and Christian, it's like, you're like the best cast member. It's an article about Christian. I was texting with his partner Emily about it and I was like, lol, did you see this? And she was like, yeah, my mom found that we were like sending it around to like the like the family was sending it around. And I was like, this has got to be weird for you, right? Because like, it's weird the first time, I'm assuming as as the loved one of someone who goes. And then the second time, it's like now it's this

meta thing where people already know him. And they just left and they're writing articles about him. And like, you know, that's just like so weird and funny. And there has to be some added pressure to I and again, I'm making this claim and I'm not the expert but I think there's no male on this Survivor 50 cast that people are more excited for than him. I think that I think Angelina is probably the flip side of that for the women. I think there is nobody who people just you have the super fans and you have

people like my mom who watch and then forget, you know, everybody is the most excited to see him. And that has to, you know, it's just it's an exercise in how you deal with pressure, you know, it's just, you know, that can get to you, you know, that can get to a normal person. But I think there's a lot on his shoulders in a way that there was not the first time and in a way that people are going on this cast who just don't have that same experience, people who were like, not to say that there's anybody in this group that you'd, I mean, there is people that you'd maybe trade out, like they're not going in with the same pressure that a Christian is. that you'd maybe trade out. They're not going in with the same pressure that a Christian is.

Yeah, I think he's such a fan favorite, like you said, among super fans and casual viewers alike. And actually that was like one of the few pieces of advice I gave him before he left was, don't think about yourself as a character or what things are going to be like on TV. Just focus on the game because you are going to be amazing. You have the skills you need to succeed. And if you start thinking about how this or that is going to come across on TV, it's going

to get too meta. You're going to get in your head. Because I think also beyond what you said with the level of, the level of, you know, coming back again, he also is like, he's a professor now. I mean, given he has 10 years, so they can't get rid of him. But like, you know, I think you think about your public image, you think about what your family's gonna think.

Like, you know, now that you know what it's like when you come back and I know he's the type that, you know, he wants to have, to have, I think one of the things he was most proud of from the first season or from our season was there's like a random scene that is so adorable that he goes spearfishing and in it he talks about potential energy and kinetic energy, does like a mini science lesson.

And I know he's really proud of that scene because he feels, you know, this really captured who I am. I'm a science communicator. I'm a teacher. And it's very wholesome and cool scene. And my advice to him was like, don't produce yourself too much. Don't feel like you have to be some character of Christian, of what you say, because the way you speak naturally is so interesting and so funny and people are gonna like you, so don't worry about trying to live up to something or get something super specific like that out of it. Just like have fun and do your best. And so I really hope that's what he's doing right now. I'm checking the weather all the time. I'm checking the time all the time.

I might as well just add the Fiji clock to my phone screen and the Fiji weather. Because every time I look, it's always almost like, it's nighttime and I'm like, oh my God, they're at tribal council right now. And then I start sending out my positive vibes into the universe or often I'll look and it's like 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. Fiji time and I'm like,

oh my god, they're running a challenge right now. Like I just keep thinking about what they what they're doing and hoping that they're good. And yeah, it's so bad. I can't believe I want to know. And I can't just know. That's the thing about this is we can't know. And even if we can't know, nobody knows. But I want to know so bad. Nobody knows. We're't know. That's the thing about this is we can't know. And even if we can't know, nobody knows, but I want to know so bad. Nobody knows. We're going to know. We're going to know in February, 2026.

We're going to know. And like, how fun is that going to be? We're going to be able to watch our friends on TV. I mean, it's like, I, like I said, I've done it before, but this just feels different. Like that is my best friend from Survivor. That is somebody I spent 32 days with more than any new era season, by the way. 32 days with straight bond.

You know, then we spent three days apart and then he got voted out. Then we spent the rest of the time together, spent all 12 hours on the Fiji airplane next to each other talking, syncing up our movie Space Jam. Like, that's my buddy, man. That's my friend that is like. I know him from Survivor, like two people that met and he's my buddy from Survivor. And now he's going on Survivor season 50 and playing with like Saree Fields.

Like, that's so cool. It's so exciting. I'm like absolutely thrilled over the moon. And yeah, thinking about him all the time and just hoping he's doing well. Oh my God, that's so nice. I remember again, personal anecdote. I watched an episode, I watched the Lear subboot

with you during the season. And I remember that the morning afterward, you and Christian were debriefing for a while. And I just, you know, as somebody who wasn't on it, I like I really go, this is so cute. Like, this is such a wholesome thing. But that's what everybody does. That's your debrief partner. Oh, yeah. When the show is airing, that is your, you know, that's your closest, like, yeah, it's your debrief partner. That's your sanity check.

And yeah, it's wild to think now he and I have been friends for, when you said eight years, I was like, that can't be right. So is that right? No, it's right. It's right. I just can't believe it. We've been friends for eight years and like we've seen each other go through so much stuff. He's been an amazing friend to me throughout it all. Like even if we don't see each other in person as often as

as we would like, you know, like I when we do catch up, it's great. I often ask him to put me on speaker so I can talk to Emily and I check in on her, make sure she's doing okay. Having your partner be gone and like having no concept of what the process is like is probably also like extremely strange. Like, um, so yeah, you know, I just like, uh, I'm so excited and he knows that that we'll all be so proud of him no matter what, uh, genuinely. And I think, uh, he brought some textbooks on an e-reader. So he, you know, if he is first out, he said he's gonna, he's gonna make it a paid sabbaticals. What he's, you know, he's just gonna take the opportunity to do's gonna he's gonna make it a paid sabbatical. So he's

you know, he's just gonna take the opportunity to do reading and stuff like that. But I don't think he's gonna be the first boot. I don't. And I really hope having three David versus Goliath people there doesn't, you know, paint a horrible target on him. I think actually Angelina and Mike might look like more of a duo than than he does. So I'm hoping he can kind of like work that angle. Anyway, if it's not clear how excited I am, how much I adore him and like how much I really think he could do well, you know, hopefully people have gotten a sense from this podcast more about him.

I don't know, did we learn anything about him? Should I feel like? Yeah, I think we did. This is great. He's such a mainstay on RHAP. If you are listening to this because of season 50 and you're not a regular listener of RHAP, first of all, become a regular listener. But he has a whole series on RHAP called Ask Dr. Hubecky. So if you want to get to know him more, you can really get a sense of his personality and how just intelligent and thoughtful he is through that. And just like, he's just an amazing person and he deserves truly to have an amazing time

and a good time and I think really could win. And maybe if he wins, then he can pay for me to visit Florida so that I can hang out with them and Emily. Yeah, that lets the you know what, if D wins, she will do the same for me in a different town in Florida, but the same situation, you know, we should all just meet up in Florida. And we've always said that we love Florida and nothing, nothing bad happens Florida there ever. Um, Gabby, this is so much fun. Oh my God. So fun. I know you're so good at this.

Also. I'm so proud of you. Young, a young Cisternino. I'm just kidding. You're your own person. But how fun for you that you get to do this. The thing that I've been saying to people is you ever watch Whiplash with JK Simmons, the drumming movie? Yeah. You know what that is? That's what Rob does to you. He tells me.

That's the addendum that I make afterwards. He's never done that. But I like, I feel like I'm waking up every morning, like wondering how I can make him more proud. Like I feel like it's a weird thing to have for a man who's not your father, but I do have the this like inherent need to like impress him at every minute. Yeah, I have that for a lot of men who are my father. Where can people like more men, where can they follow you? Where can those men who have that?

I don't want the men to follow me don't follow me that was a riff and it was a bad one where can everybody follow you I mean I'm on Instagram at gabscousy but like I've really not been posting I'm on ex-formerly known as Twitter uh my gabby pascuszi, but like really I I'm on here sometimes T.B.H. And I feel like the R.H.A.P. people know that. And I think I am trying to be on social media. Oh, yeah, that's a good plug. Is I'm not going to be there.

Yeah, I've thought to myself, like if if I had been on a season like should it should everyone go Genevieve mode and like not have public social media, you know what I mean? Like good for her. She's a queen for that. I've thought to myself, like, if I ever went back on this, or if I was again public, like, would I kind of lean into it and be like, okay, let me make some money. Let me get some influencer dough out of this. Or would I be like, I'm deleting everything. I'm going dark because I feel like I flip flop between that every day now, not being an influencer because I don't have any cloud, but like every day I'm like, I got to just get rid of all of this.

I think. Yeah. Hannah Rose, my good friend, she'll be on it for a day. She'll make a new account. She'll say, Hey, everybody, I'm here. Three days later, gone. She does it three times a year, you know, you get the fix and then you get out of there. Well, and she knows all about getting, getting your fix and getting out of there. Famously, she did it to me. But we're here now. So it's great.

This was the Survive 50 Files talking about Christian. We're going to talk about Angelina and Mike, probably together. We're going to talk about them both. Stay tuned for next time. I'll see you soon. Thank you to our friends at Mantis Sleep for sponsoring this episode of the Survivor 50 Files. You've made it to the end of the podcast.

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