RHAP: We Know Survivor - Gabby Pascuzzi Talks Survivor 51 Ep 3

Episode Date: October 11, 2026

Gabby Pascuzzi Talks Survivor 51 Ep 3 Also available on YouTube! Survivor recapper Rob Cesternino welcomes back Gabby Pascuzzi for an in-depth look at the latest twists and turns of the current Survivor season. With the game heating up, Rob and Gabby break down big moments, new strategies, and the chaos brewing both on the beach and on social media. Gabby draws from both her Survivor and PhD experience to unpack what’s really going on with this cast of characters and why this season might just be an “instant classic.” Rob and Gabby open by comparing Gabby’s multi-year PhD grind with the ever-shifting eras of Survivor, before diving right into this week’s episode. They discuss Rhode Island Rob’s much-debated medical exit, whether it was truly a quit or a calculated decision, and how Rob’s antics made for must-see TV. The duo also explores the vote that split the tribe, how alliances of five can crumble in a group of eleven, and why secret alliances (or lack thereof) drive the drama. Social media battles among this season’s cast are front and center, showing how the open era is changing both gameplay and the Survivor fandom. Highlights from the episode include: – Gabby’s take on why Rob’s “quit” is both hilarious and secretly great TV – The debate over radical honesty in Survivor, featuring Devin and Kilby’s clash – The fallout from a blown-up “nameless five” alliance and the mechanics of swing votes – A close look at the potential for an all-women’s alliance and why social science classes should use Survivor as a textbook – Behind-the-scenes reality TV impressions, plus why “funny 115” moments are making a comeback As the game heads for a possible 3-tribe swap, Rob and Gabby ask: Will shifting alliances and tension-filled votes keep the momentum going, or could smaller tribes lead to less excitement? Who rises and falls in a season where everyone’s playing out loud—both in the game and online? Don’t miss Gabby’s expert analysis of this fast, funny, and unpredictable season—tune in to see who can survive the chaos and who will flame out next! Chapters: 0:00 Catching Up With Gabby Pascuzzi 2:08 Comparing Survivor Eras and Vibes 5:18 Rob’s Medical Exit Sparks Debate 8:32 Psychological Versus Physical Game Struggles 12:06 Swing Votes and Pat’s Exit 14:23 Alliance of Five Gets Exposed 16:19 Cast Social Media Drama Ignites 21:43 Survivor’s Social Media Restrictions Ease 25:31 Gabby Mimics Lewis’s Irish Accent 32:42 Strong Women’s Alliance Potential 36:33 Devin’s Radical Honesty Examined 41:01 Kilby’s Chaotic Gameplay Analyzed 53:03 Survivor’s Teachable Moments and Gossiping 1:01:34 Survivor as a Social Science Case Study 1:05:27 Three-Tribe Swap Predicted Never miss a minute of RHAP’s extensive Survivor coverage! LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor podcast feed WATCH:  Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT:  Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks!

Hey, everybody, what's going on? Rob Sestradino, we're back, and this is going to be such a fun chat because I've been looking forward to catching up with this person who's just been firing on all cylinders every week about the Survivor episode over on Ramble, formerly Chat BCC. Please welcome back. Our great friend, Gabby Pescusi, Gabby, how are you? Hi, I'm good. I'm so good. I'm so excited to talk about this, and it's good to see you. Good to see you too. And soon, maybe one day we could say, Dr. Gabby, Pascuzzi.

Hopefully soon. Hopefully within the next year, I am in my sixth year of my PhD, which has been plenty. Six years. That's longer than the new era. Oh, my God. Yes. It's longer than the new era. Have you heard that before? That is so funny. I'm so... You never heard that before. funny concept that this is the first time that I'm hearing. No, it's good. It's true. I've been in a PhD longer than 11 seasons of Survivor. That's how I measure time.

That's how I measure time also. This is the one, the COVID year, which was really just so weird in so many ways. That's the one year we can't measure by Survivor seasons. Yeah, we can't. And actually, it throws me off because I sometimes think that I start. my PhD yesterday the same way that I think that I was on Survivor like two years ago. Yeah. Because my sense of time is all messed up. And then here I am. I'm in the phase of life where I'm currently realizing like my car is 10 years old, but that can't possibly be because I got it after I graduated college. And my students are born in a year that comes after the year 2000.

Like I'm, I'm starting to be like, so my season of Survivor was eight years ago. That doesn't seem right. Yeah. But old is new. And new. is old because it's the open era. And Gabby, I feel like that this season is, it's giving me some David versus Goliath vibes. Here we are. We've got two tribes of, you know, double digit people to start off. And it's going back and forth. And everybody is loving it. We lost a pat early on. Oh, my gosh. Is Pat's back all right? Pat's back was kind of messed up. Her pants, pat. Pat's pants all right?

Pat's pants, we never recovered. But she did have a pretty bad injury on her back. Oh, she actually did? Yeah, she was really scraped up. I don't know what exactly happened to her, but she had like a big open wound on her back. Oh, my gosh. Okay, Pat's, watch your back when you go on Survivor.

It's been kind of stormy so far also. So, yeah, some David versus Goliath in the air. And that's a good sign for us. Yeah, yeah, definitely. It's such a fun season, so it's an honor to have it compared to the season that I was on. It's weird because you don't have a perception of like, you know, is my season good? We had some idea, but then afterwards, like, I didn't have the experience of watching it that you're talking about. So now I feel like I'm having that experience now.

I felt it at times during the new era, but this for me is the first time in a long time where I'm like so, stoked about Survivor. It feels vintage. Tell me if I'm misquoting you, but you said the other day that this season is an instant classic. I did. I did. I should put that on the commercial. Future Dr. Gabby Pascozy

says this season is an instant classic. Yeah. That's all the average Survivor fan wants to have their Survivor season described. Yeah, it is an instant classic to me. It's all, I mean, it would have to crash and burn, I think, but like three episodes in, and it has given me like new survivor happenings, new things that haven't happened in ages. Like, it just feels so fresh. And like I said, vintage at the same time. Yeah, top three, baby.

Top three. Wow. Of all time. Oh, well, no. Top, did I say that. Well, you did say top three. So I'm not sure what is the top three. I don't jump into that really quickly. I think I'm thinking top three funniest so far. Top three funniest. Top three is crazy. Top three of the last eight years. Top three. Yeah, hold on. Numbers are really not where I want to be going right.

That's fine. That's fine. But I want to talk about everything that's going on. And so I've been following your posts. You actually had a pretty lengthy post on Friday, I believe, where you talked about the I'm sorry, medical intervention that happened where Rob left the game on Friday. And since Wednesday night, there's been a lot of

big feelings about Rob walking away from the game. Fans are upset. Many Survivor alumni have really taken to social media to call out Rob for walking away from this once in a lifetime opportunity. But Gabby, you do not seem to mind that Rob did this.

It's fine. You want to know why? Why? It's funny. It is so funny. It's hilarious what he did. And I think that that's the ultimate goal of reality television

is entertain me. And I think it's hilarious that he did everything that he did. You know, it's a good point. There's so few issues that unite the masses where people across, like, all walks of life are sort of like united in that this, boy, this was dumb. Yeah. Here's the thing.

I believe both things at the same time. Yeah. It was 100% dumb. I don't like quitters. And also, it was amazing television. And I'm not mad at him because he provided what I think was probably the best thing that that, that hit. him in casting could have provided the show. Like, we maxed out on him in, like, three episodes in terms of shenanigans, the accent,

and, like, he'll go down as an icon for those three episodes. It's hilarious. Yeah. It was a funny moment, and he then, he doubled down quite a bit in his exit press about the incident. I've heard only a little bit. Do you want to tell me a little bit more about it? Because I've only seen a couple things.

Yeah, so I don't want to misquote. But in his conversation with me, you know, he just really said, hey, this is, this wasn't a quit. And this is, you know, hey, like, you can't take your fool around with your health. And his wife had talked to him a lot about infections. And so this was a very real concern for him that this was going to get infected. and that the pain was very real, but he's very eager to, if they do some kind of second chances,

that he would come back. He's ready to go. He was the main character of the first couple episodes, and he would be ready to bring that forward, and he would have dominated had he not gotten hurt. I did see that.

Yeah, I saw that, yeah, had he not gone out, everyone should have been scared of him because he was the best player there. Well, I don't want to misquote. You have journalistic integrity. I'm merely a consumer of the content. And thank you for that summary.

It was better than any summary AI could have ever given me. But I, this is even better. The entertainment continues. This is fantastic. And you know what? I will say, as a psychologist, I know, research backs that there are legitimate connections between mental suffering and pain and the two totally go together.

Yes. So I definitely don't undermine that he was having some experience that was very uncomfortable, perhaps even painful, and he may be localizing it in the bottom of his foot, but it could also be the very real difficulty of the game, which is psychological, and that's kind of, you know, so I can't undermine his experience. But at the same time, it's okay to admit that you're psychologically struggling.

You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Yeah. I'd love to get your thoughts because I tried to, from my, you know, armchair psychologist's position, think about what Rob was trying to do last week, where he had this mastermind plan where he really wanted to, you know, dictate his own exit from the game. game where he was going to have Rob or have have Eric play the shot in the dark and then he was going to nullify all of the votes that were against Eric and he was going to write down his own name

and he was going to engineer this historic thing that had never been done before if Eric just followed his directions to which Eric was like, I'm not doing that. And then. You've been against me the whole game. And I'm to believe. And this week, then we got to see his thought process of like, hey, like, you know, and he explained what he tried to do and then said, you know, and like I would never quit, like, quitting like that sucks, but like, but medical is different. And I do have, I do have this issue. Yes, that is what he said. Yes. I think, um, there's a lot of mental tricks that people can use to make themselves feel better, whether it is about a quit or whether it's about. doing worse in the game than you thought you would,

or whether it is even a legitimate concern about getting sick, but maybe it feels exaggerated because all these other things are going on. So I think it's very astute to point out that the day before, you know, he seemed to want to vote himself out. And I, I, listen, do I think it would have been a historical move? Yes, absolutely. was it even funnier that even if he had managed to vote for himself,

it wouldn't have even worked because he didn't even, he was out of the vote. It's all, you know, getting in his way of, I think, determining how he wants to leave the game. Yeah. And it just seemed like to me that he really was somebody who was looking to regain control in terms of like what was how was how. happening to him on some level.

Absolutely. Yeah. Your armchair psychology is fantastic. That is what it is, right? When people feel a lack of control or a lack of autonomy and agency, then they'll try to regain it in some way. And he seemed to do this by, for the first time, bringing up a medical issue. And he was concerned for his health. But was that concerned heightened after?

after multiple things went wrong. Yeah. So, all right. So for Rob, that's ultimately how his story ends up going. I'd love to talk to you a little bit about this vote where we had, here comes Carter and here comes Lewis who come in to shift things around. Do you feel like in any way, was this vote at all similar to the first vote of your survivor career, the vote where Jessica Pete, who was part of,

this group of people with with Carl and Davy and I don't remember who else and then and then here come and then it's it's was it was it Christian and Nick who went or who were kind of the swing votes there they were yeah Christian and Nick were the swing votes two plucky guys maybe somebody with an accent yeah absolutely again it's the external perception watching it is like I I'm like no those guys aren't anything alike. And then I'm like, wait, yes. Christian is kind of like an Irish guy with bleak blonde hair. Yeah, they do have a lot in common. Yeah. You know, I could kind of see it. So here we had this swing-go, were you happy with how this worked out? In terms of Pat going home? Yeah, in terms of like, what were you rooted?

for to have happened? I was rooting for this level of gameplay and it not being an easy vote. So first of all, that's a win for me. I didn't want Kilby to go. And I also really liked pass. So for me, it was lose, lose. And it was just the entertainment factor that was, you know, seeing what these swing votes would do.

And I don't know that they had one decision that was better than the other. I actually listened to you. and Stephen talk about debate the decision on the know-it-alls. And I was like, I don't know what my opinion would be. It's just kind of like I could see benefits for both. And this is the way the cookies crumbling. I think it's more exciting for us as viewers to see the tighter alliance of five lose somebody

because that seems to kind of be who is holding power. Although everyone keeps pointing out online that five is not a majority of 11. Right. Okay. So I want to talk about that because I see. that Kilby had posted on social media about how, like, hey, when you make an alliance of five in a tribe of 11, and then he posted the image of the sorry for you flag. And Jelly responded is like, yeah, but when was that alliance of five made?

And so, you know, things do get shown a little bit out of order, sometimes on Survivor. do you think that the Alliance of Five got made before, maybe even before Lewis showed up or was even a part of the team? Because they would have had nine at that point. Yeah, I think that that is the implication. I think there is a bigger majority that the group that just came out on top this last time

was not a part of. And I don't know who's a part of it. And they don't have names like they have for alliances on Big Brother, which I learned about this summer. I didn't even, you watched, see, I kind of thought that you were coming into the Survivor season shot out of the canon because you had been just like in a reality TV vacation this summer. No, I, this is so tangential. I was locked in, dude. Rick Devons and D.V.R. Days were my best friends that summer. I don't know them. But Rick is like my friend in law because of Christian. Like he's my friend of my friend. Yes. And then D is friends with like Brandon and peace.

I'm like, I'm rooting for your friends and also just the survivor player. So it was really fun. Yeah. It's like a real like sex in the city situation where Christian is the carry and then has these friends one on one. But you never would hang out with like Samantha, right? I don't know sex in the city apparently as well as you do, Rob. This is like this reference. She's like the nucleus.

I know this friends. Maybe they might all get together, but not like, you know, nobody's getting together with not Christian. Wait, the other friends of Carrie and Sex and the City don't hang out with each other without her? I think, I mean, I'm sure somebody's going to drag me because I'm not the encyclopedia, but it was very rare that you would see any of the, like, it seemed like the other people in the friend group didn't really have, you know, they all seemed like they were best friends with Carrie. Yeah, okay. Yeah, in this case, Christian is the Carrie. So so far, Christian is Irish and he's like Carrie from Sex in the City.

Let's keep it going. Yeah, okay. Done and done. Yeah. So that, I don't even remember. Oh, so that jelly said, hey, we made this alliance of five before there was 11. Right, right. So the tribe used to be nine straw.

So they lost Alia in the first tribal council. Right. They went from 10 to 9. And somehow they're at 11 at this next tribe. And I blew it came back. So they were back in 10. era. That's so good. Yeah. So they had the alliance. It must have been right before Lewis came back. Or even when he came back. I don't know.

Lewis, I don't know. He didn't integrate himself too well, I think. Or he had trouble with it. I don't know. But now he's made a buddy. So that's good. Yeah. So I asked Pat in her exit interview about, you know, what I said, Pat, what did you do wrong? And she said, well, maybe it was some of the allies that I made. I didn't pick the right allies. I thought initially she was talking about dev, but I asked her, like, who was a bad ally? And she said Brady. She said Brady had loose lips. And I guess was telling everybody about the five.

Oh. That's so, yeah, that's not a great alliance member move. But, okay. So, so people knew. people knew about the five, the nameless five. The nameless five. And then I guess that's what got the six people so much on the same page because it seemed like that they really didn't have a ton in common.

Maggie seemed like that she was not even particularly interested in voting against somebody from that group. But I guess the word really got out that, hey, that's a tight five. I see. I see. Okay. So if they'd been able to keep it more on the down lower, I guess if Brady had, then they wouldn't have been as big of a target.

So, yeah, because that's a good, I mean, it's not inherently a bad thing to have an alliance of five on a tribe of, you know, like, you can have an alliance of any number of kind of sub numbers. It doesn't mean that your alliance always has to be the majority alliance. This isn't Big Brother, am I right? Not Big Brother. And Big Brother, it's really important to keep your alliance as a secret. That was one of the keys to Rick Indies success. They had a lot of secret alliances. For sure, for sure.

So, yeah, you know, I have seen. several people from the cast online dragging like making math related jokes I saw that Tianan had a Instagram post where the captions were like math equations and it was like I'm not good at puzzles but at least I can do math yeah yeah the group of six really is dunking on

the group of five makes me feel like that maybe this season is going to be a little tense I would love that I love when there's drama between catsmates. Like a shady season. Outside observer who's not friends with any of them. Yeah, that, give me the social media entertainment. Like, let's extend the entertainment of the season a little bit.

Yeah. And then at the same time, I don't want to sound so jaded. I don't think I should turn into the jaded along. You're not jaded. But I am a little jaded because the old me was like, I hope they all get along. And I hope that they're not, that they're friends and they're not too tormented. And I do still hope that. But I also think that it's kind of fun for us as viewers when there's drama.

Yeah, because Gabby, I don't know if you've seen this or you must have because you're looking at Tanan's Instagram, that the survivors are posting a lot more about their season. And I don't remember where the line was during David versus Goliath, but at points during the 40s, the survivors were on like a very strict lot. Well, they probably were on a number of lockdowns in the 40s of that social media. especially of don't post, don't talk, don't tweet, nothing. And now it truly is an open era of social media. It is. Yeah, it is. It was strict back in my day too.

And I have seen and heard that they're posting a lot. For the record, I'm not stalking you to none because now she's going to go see that. I don't think I actually follow her. Yeah. You don't have to. Follow means nothing. It's all the algorithm. It's popping up on my feet.

everyone so I don't want people to think oh well she doesn't follow me or why is she only mentioning that person social media you think I have any control over any of this like oh you watch survivor here's any here's every survivor piece of content yeah I'm sorry I don't I don't I don't go looking it comes and finds me it comes to me but yeah the the thing is they are a lot more active on social media so it does pop up a lot but can you imagine how much we would be eating if not only are they allowed to post on social media, but they don't like each other? Yeah, exactly. That's vintage. That's that's the old stuff where people were posting on social media. Is this classic survivor? It is. Let's get let's run it. They know some people tried in the 40s.

Like we had little pockets here and there and it was like, oh, juicy. I actually feel like during my season, it was a really strict one. So I feel like we, well, besides some famously, initial posts. Right, right. Yeah, sometimes they're very, and sometimes they're very strength. Like, okay, like, yeah, where's, where's Alec right now where it's like, wait, hold on, I took a picture with somebody and that I didn't get to come to the finale, but now, but if we would have done a TikTok dance, it would have been okay? Yeah, exactly. Like, you're going to make an example out of me because I took a picture? Yeah, it's wild. I don't even know if Alec watches anymore, he would, if he would even know about this, but it would be, it's not fair.

Braddon, could you check? Did Alec Merlino's head explode recently? Find out. Let's see. That was so Guillermo coded. You're just calling him in for a little fact check. Yeah, find out. Find out about that for me. Because yeah, I mean, that, that is very different. But I do think it's like, it is a pendulum of like that. So, like, it's, like, it's. Inevitably, like, the survivors have no chill. They will go too far. Yes. Jeff's head will explode. And then they will reach a point of, like, who said this was okay? What are we doing?

And then by like Survivor 53, they'll be on complete, like, you know, you have to like get permission from CBS to like a post. And, you know, it goes, they say like, lay, let them cook. And then no, no, no, no, no. They go too far. Yeah. Yeah, they'll go too far. That's 100% what it is. So in that case, the 51 cast is smart because they're like, listen, let's enjoy it while we have it.

And people are so much more, you know, they really are like social media knowledgeable people who are all like, I'm going to like leverage this. Like I'm not like just in a, the content is what people want. People online were saying that what Rob is doing post whatever is. being off the show now is engagement bait or rage bait. Hmm. I wish that I could say that this is so calculated that this is, you know, it's like we've seen, we've seen this man at work in terms of his planning and thinking ahead and coming up with all the contingencies.

So I just, I wish I could give him that kind of credit. Exactly. I think that's the thing. This is just more of his personality. And that's what it's so great. Is Rhode Island Rob playing 4D chess with us all? I'm also like, yeah, it is engagement bait in a sense. Like what he's doing now is engagement bait because that's who he is as a person.

He wants engagement. He wanted to make an iconic survivor moment. He wanted to do these things. This is so consistent with what we already know. Of course, it's engagement bait. That doesn't make it any less Rob or exactly what you signed up. for with like following these reality contestants. Yeah.

One of the highlights of my Wednesday night was you had posted that you had gotten distracted because you were too busy working on doing impressions of Lewis. Are you able that? Did you perfect that in a couple of days since the episode? Oh, God. I haven't even, I haven't practiced. The thing was, the Tang was, the Tang was. The ting was, oh, it's coming out.

It's bubbling up. It's bubbling up. I would hear him say something. And I have, it's called echolalia. It's like where you repeat something that you hear. And I have that real bad. I do that a lot. And so whenever you would say something, I would just repeat it back.

It was easier when I could hear him saying it and I could repeat it. And now I'm like, I don't know if I could pull it out of Tener. Yeah. This is so interesting because I do, I didn't know the name for it. but as somebody who does a lot of impressions of survivor players that I will hear something, and then that will be sort of like the hook and the thing I go back to that I can hear them saying in their head. Do you do any other impressions of people? Impressions? No, no. No way. No, I'm not. I don't. All I do is just mimic. I'm like a little parrot.

Is a parrot an impressionist, Rob, or is it merely a tape recorder? Yeah, I think it's a mimic. more than an impressionist. Because I think an impressionist can say things and extrapolate, right, and do it into a character. You're good at that. In this little corner of our world. Yeah.

You, you, I think now just have a podcast as a platform to practice your impressions. Yeah. Not untrue. I won't deny it. Guilty is charged. but I will say that Lewis pissed me off in this episode because there was one point where he described the group of five and he said that he said like those five there as as as

you got it wait wait he says there is Titus Deves and it's like Tickus Teaves was right there my guy he didn't say tick of Tis Tis Tiv's he didn't say Tick of Tis Tives he said Titus Tis Tives he said Titus Teves. Oh my gosh. I like Mandela effect in my mind where he said there's tick as teaves. He said in the first episode that that was a tick piece of wood. But he missed it on tick as teaves.

Maybe that's what the saying is in Ireland. Tight as teaves. Tight as teaves. By the way, why is he Irish? Why is an Irish guy here? I was just supposed to accept from episode one There's an Irish guy to hear I believe he was born in Ireland

I think that's why I love the Irish So that and I think he said in the episode But he married a woman who was from Puerto Rico And so that he is And I don't know if we've ever had this before Where somebody is like a citizen by marriage Who appears on Survivor Diversity, diversity. Now we have a

white Irish guy. I actually love it. Did that count towards the diversity initiative? Probably. In today's America, probably. Brandon Donlin said that him being there is like when there used to be a random

European guy in an episode of the traders in a season of the traders. Would be a random British guy or European guy. That's him. Yeah, because it was like, Why isn't this guy on Traders UK? Why is he here? Yeah.

Yeah. I can actually understand his accent really well because I watch a lot of Love Island. Yes. So I'm like, I, you know, I feel like in the winter when I can't watch Love Island, at least I can get a little bit of an Irish accent. Well, of course, I was very recently exposed to a lot of Mora Higgins. And so that's, of course, where I've heard the most Irish accent. accent. And I was wondering that is this duo of Carter and Lewis? Is this like the Rob Rausch and Mora Higgins combo? Yes. That's it. You nailed it with that. People are kind of sleeping on him,

teaming up with a chaotic Irish person. Yeah, like a model-esque, very good looking Irish person who like, you're like, and how did you end up here? How's he at dancing? We got a lot. We got a find out. Yeah. We got to find out. Does he kind of like also like doesn't really know what the show is and doesn't really want to be there, but it's just going through the motions. It's great. Yeah. I could see it. Final two. This chaotic duo could run things. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, that's good news for for Carter. Sorry everyone. Traders spoilers. Sorry everybody. Yeah, but for last year. For last year. It's fine. That's two traitor seasons. go, really. It's the traitor season that you were on. I don't think anyone here didn't watch it. Yeah. Imagine they didn't, though. Yeah, they have no idea who you are. They're just here for me.

Sometimes I will get from people, especially during Big Brother season, that they're like, oh, I didn't even know Rob was on Survivor. Yeah, yeah. I think like it's past that phase now where it's like you're so well known for the podcast that it's like, how do you have so much knowledge? And it's like a little Easter. Because I think a lot of people that listen to the podcast weren't aborn when I'm, you know, I was on Survivor, so I grant them that. But, you know, maybe it is, it is maybe for newer listeners. Like, I'm really like, oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, cool little surprise. I thought it was just on the traders.

Maybe I should say that at the start of the podcast, like, you know, so people would know my bona fides. Yeah, you need to start listing all of the seasons that you were on of things. And soon to be, dancing with the R.HAP stars. That was free show, that idea. We didn't announce that to the public. Yeah. That's a spoiler.

That's a spoiler. Okay. Not the real one. Not the real one. Okay. None. You know, we haven't talked too much about the other tribe this week. It's really been all about the tribe that Carter mutiny to the 11-person tribe that went to tribal council.

But we had this other tribe that we spent a lot of time with last week. And I wanted to get your take on what's going on. what's going on over there because it really feels like that we have this power structure that's blossoming there where I don't know necessarily who's at the center of it, but I would hazard to guess that Sharonda is the person with the most connections over there and that we have Sharonda and Linnea and also Alexis and Kristen. And it does feel like, and I know we may be going into a tribe swap, but there is like this core of a potentially strong women's alliance forming over there and potentially with an avenue to connect back with jelly over on the other side.

It does feel like this could be a thing, Gabby. That would be awesome. That would be really cool. I love all of the people that you mentioned. And I love any season where the women start outsmarting the men. Sorry to say it. It's just, it's great. That's classic Survivor. I saw a tweet, I wish I could credit the person that Survivor, especially now, that we cast on the show like very capable women. And a lot of the men that get cast on the show are like very one-dimensional. What do you think about that? Justice for the one-dimensional men on Survivor.

A lot of the men, they're going to like maybe one thing, if anything. Yeah. Yeah. But then the ones that aren't, the ones that are well-rounded, like, win. Like, the ones that aren't are like Kyle Frazier. Sure. Sure. Yeah.

But, yeah, a lot of, a lot of doofy men for sure, which, I mean, diversity in casting, representativeness in casting, you know. Yeah. It's all important. Yeah. But the women seem like they're off to a great start in this season. Yeah, that's great. I, you know what?

I actually didn't perceive it that way, but I think it's, because of who we're seeing so much of. So I actually, I feel like I think the women are super capable, but I have like a feeling that a man is going to win this season. Like I feel like there's just so much, there's like growing out between like Devin and Brady, and I always want to call him Brody, by the way. That's not him.

He makes it intentionally confusing. He does because then he calls other people Brodies, so are they the Brodies and you're the Brady? Okay. I mean, imagine he got really indignant of like, hey, Gabby, my name is Brady, okay? I don't know where you got this from. But my name is Brady. Get it right.

Get it through your thick head, your tick head. Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of broying out that might take us far. Because the women are capable, but I don't know that I... I will see you. I will see that. bro down between Dev and Brady but is there

is there is there other broiness going on because I feel like that like there was I guess Lewis and Lewis and Carter could be another

bro duo but outside of that like I feel like that we're pretty I don't know if there's another pair of men yeah I guess there's it's not that there's so many

but that they seem to be a big focus of it so I've gotten to know their alliances the best which are are very compelling and they're all those people are all um i've not not enjoyed watching it yeah but i feel like i don't know oh on the helicopter alliance i like the helicopter alliance um which i also think is so cool that then they got to kind of cross and reconnect with the

twist that happens so so anyway i don't know i feel like i haven't seen the women having like a you know a real like let's have an alliance let's you know let's name it or let's number it or whatever Yeah, that hasn't been named or numbered. But I did think that it was interesting that in the wake of Anna throwing names out there, it did seem like that the other four women on that tribe did connect. Not all in one scene, but that seemed to be like a path where they brought in Eric and they tried to talk to Ori about the vote. They talked to Christian, but it seemed like that the three guys that they talked to were all sort of like ancillary to what was actually happening in terms of that vote. Yeah, that makes sense.

I think that, you know what? Yeah, I'm good with what you said. Okay. Tell me... I'm nothing more to add. Tell me about Dev, who, I'd say, he's been quite a Goliath so far in this season, for sure, and has been at the center of everything.

And it's talked about this idea of radical honesty in terms of how he approaches the game. Do you have any thoughts about that approach to Survivor playing? funnily enough when I finished my season and you just talked to your friends Christian and I of course we would talk on the phone debrief about the game one of the things that we came up with that we said oh we wish we would have done this was this idea of radical honesty because we always we talked about how obviously famously I tried to get him out it backfired on me I got out then right after me he got out

And so both of us were kind of like, well, that kind of messed both of us up. What a big brain play it would have been for him to say, hey, I actually heard about your plan. And, you know, I don't think you should do it. I'm going to play my idol. You're going to go home. And why don't we just actually now do something new? And obviously, it's so easy to say that after the fact that it's not easy when you're in the game.

But we actually coined it, radical honesty. We were like, what a different kind of game that would be. if only with your, here's a thing, only with your number one or only with your close alliance, I think radical honesty makes sense. Does it make sense to do it with the entire tribe? Which is, I can't tell if that's what Devin's MO for radical honesty is, is with the entire tribe. That feels like it might not be as effective. Yeah, it's such a specific instance with you and Christian. It's almost like, if you found out like, okay, that's all right, well, I found out that you are trying to murder me. And so, but just so you know that if you murder me, that then like my bodyguard is going to kill you.

So don't murder me tonight. And it's like, okay, well, that saves me a lot of trouble because I was, I, you're right. I was going to try to murder you. But now let's not do that. Like, can you come back from that? I mean, that's why I'm saying I think it's hard and it's not as if we're like, oh, we solved Survivor and this is the one thing that would have changed our whole game. But I think it is like a next level layer of playing if you're playing with somebody that you really trust. And we did really trust each other, the reasons for returning were not to do with trust, if that makes sense.

So I think it could definitely backfire or just be ineffective. And so the same thing in Devon's case. it could have really great benefits, which he seems to have identified. People are then pretty much always going to take you at face value so they feel like they can work with you. Or we don't know if at some point in the game, is he going to then leverage that and be like, well, now everybody trusts me as radical honesty, but they don't know that I told myself, you know, final five and here on out, I'm fine with backstabbing. Like, we don't know his game, but he's definitely a different kind of player that we haven't seen

in a minute. Yeah. I think that there's, like, a degree to which it can work, and I think that what you're saying about, that you can have radical honesty with your allies. And I think that Devin, who interestingly compared himself to both Rick Devin's and Joe Hunter, who I spoke with Joe Hunter about this on the podcast on Friday,

he, we talked about this, and Joe Hunter kind of agreed with this. You can have radical honesty with your allies. And that is also, I think, how Rick Devin is, views the game of, look, with my closest people, we have to share all of our information. We are going to be totally upfront to everybody else. But I think that where Devin is getting it wrong is like, you can't then be going to, you know, hey, I am going to, you know, hey, everybody, I'm voting for Jenna tonight.

You know, because we even thought he is not having radical honesty with Kilby. Like, he is lying to Kilby when he says to Kilby. I never said that you were a liar. I never said, like, I didn't say any of these things. It's like, I think that radical honesty in that scenario is like, hey, we are not on the same page. I am, you know, no comment on any of this stuff. No comment. Yeah, I'm not going to talk about this with you because we're not on the same page.

So if he can't say it, then he has to say no comment. Like, if he can't say something honestly, he has to say no comment. Yeah. It's like, hey, I don't think we should talk about this. It's almost like if I have radical honesty and you ask me, what's your social security number? And I don't want to tell you. It's like, well, I don't think I should be sharing that information with you. Like, that's my, that's radical honesty.

Yeah, that makes sense. Isn't telling you a fake social security number or, or telling you my social security number. My radical honesty is like, you know, I don't think I, like, I can't talk about that with you. Yeah, I guess, I guess, the thing is, did Devin try to do that a little bit? Did he say, I actually don't remember now. Did he say like, yeah, you know, I was saying that or like I was saying something similar, but that's because you, you know, you were kind of, I heard you were saying stuff about me. Like, did he open it up?

I don't remember. I have to look at my notes and see how close I got on that conversation. But I think that where they really got into it was about the, Devin told Kilby to not be in the challenge. And Kilby was really upset about that. He did it. felt like that Devin didn't like him ultimately. And he said, no, it was just that I, you know, I wanted to make sure you were playing on the next challenge.

Yeah, that was a lie. Yeah, he said, Dev said, in his radical honesty, he said, I never said I don't like you. And, you know, maybe he said, maybe he did say, you're sneaky. And he wanted to know who went around saying that, that I was saying that you're a liar. But I do think that Dev was really, like, especially when he went to the other tribe.

Like, he was really smearing Kilby's name all over the place. Oh, he was. Yeah, but I think in his mind that's radical honesty. Because that is how he sees it. So he's going to radically honest with the other tribe. But I think what you're saying is I think the difficulty with that strategy is you can't be radically honest to everyone, I think, is what you're getting at. because then at some point you are actually betraying the people

that you're supposed to be holding the trust with. So I don't know if that's what he's doing, or if we don't know where his line is. We haven't seen or heard where his line is. Yes, it is inherently dishonest to say that you can be radically honest and not just be a maniac with like no chance to win the game to be radically honest in Survivor. Like it's impossible to do in a game.

such as this where you're not cooperating with everybody, you can't just be, unless it's like, you know, you're just an agent of chaos. You cannot play like a normal game of Survivor and be honest to everybody. Yeah, so I don't think that's his strategy because I think he's actually going to, he seems to have a decent beat on the game

in terms of what he needs to do. So I don't know if he's going to go that wild. Yeah. But maybe he is. It's like chaotic good or something. I don't know what like alignment this is. Someone can tell me. I'd love to know your takes on both of these gentlemen.

What's your take on Devin? Wait, is that not who we were just talking about? Well, Devin and Kilby. I want to ask you at Devin first. Okay. Well, then we were talking about Dev and I thought, is that someone different that I didn't know about him? You know, I noticed that I call him Depp.

I could have sworn people called him Dev. No, I'm like, where did that nickname? come from. You're just very familiar with him? Maybe. Maybe I just feel so close to Devin. I call him Dev. I won't be using a nickname unless someone tells me, tells me that I can. But if they say it on the show, then it's fair game. Like pantsless fat. People were really on me during Big Brother that I call Rick Devin's. I often will call him Rick. Oh, I mean, that's his name. That's his name. Like, I know, I've known him as Rick. I'm not like, I don't like, if I talk about it on the phone, they're like, hey, Devons, what's happening? Yeah, it's his stage name.

It's a stage name. Yeah. I know, like, I don't remember as Rick or even Rick Devons, but, you know, I, you know, but people like were on me for that. But now here with Devin, I guess I've shortened it to Dev. I don't remember if he does. So, so look into it, maybe put in a petition, say, can I call you Dev on the show? Yeah, yeah, I got to find out. He's very entertaining.

He's very entertaining. Yeah. He is currently giving main character, sorry to Rhode Island Rob, because he's a very good narrator. Like, you know, he's an actor. He's so, he's very charismatic and easy to listen to talk, very creative and has the wee-wee-wee, which clearly he thought was so good because he said it twice. But it is really good. So Gabby, Jeff Probst had said before the season started that he thought there was somebody who could potentially replace him as host in this cast.

And my theory was that it could be Deb, aka Devin. What do you think of that? Wow. I could see it. I don't know what? What am I basing this off of? That's so, that's kind of a crazy guy. Could be Jeff Prope's idea of a person that could potentially host the show after him.

I mean, definitely an idea of Jeff Prope's idea. Right. Definitely Jeff Prope's idea. Yeah. Whether he, okay. I mean, that's a huge compliment. Amazing. I mean, he's, listen, he didn't get on the pit for nothing.

Mm-hmm. Was it the pit? He was on Great's Anatomy. Oh, he should get on the pit. Could be it. It's the new thing. Could get on the pit. He should get on the pit if he can get on the pit.

Mm-hmm. Sure. Why not? I'm sure his agents are putting him in for the pit. Yeah. Okay. Then tell me about Kilby. What do you have you thought about

Kilby so far? What an entertaining little lad. He's wild. Like, I know that he plays games, you know, whether LRGs, I don't know if he's done LRGs. You know, he's in the gaming community. So I know that he thinks strategically. Have you ever encountered Kilby

in any types of these blood on the clock tower or any of these games? We are in a group chat together for playing blood in the clock tower in Toronto at the last RJAP in Toronto. Wow. Which me, Franny, and Omar, a bunch of people, Dwight,

all played blood in the clock tower. That was when either you or Franny did some damage to Omer's car. What did we do to his car? Didn't somebody, didn't somebody either Omer's car or another car? I have no idea about, Homer's car. This is

turned into one of those AI videos where I start getting asked about insurance. What happens in those?

The AI starts asking you about insurance? Oh my gosh. This is such a tangent, but there's this guy online

that he shows himself interviewing with like AI interview bots and he has a character called Chick Bongo and Chick Bongo

goes to and interviews at jobs but he gets the AI off track. Yeah. And then in one of the videos, Chick Bongo had to have a reference.

So his friend, which was just himself saying a different name, was a reference. And he's giving a reference for Chick Bongo, but it completely devolves into the AI getting off track and asking him about a car crash that he was in once. And then basically becoming this like insurance chat bot and being like, what landmark was nearby when you got into this car crash? Yeah. What make and model was your car? So just to check, we're still doing a reference for Chigbongo?

Oh, it's great. It's great content. Yeah, I've seen a lot of videos of people like messing with the interview chat by... I've never been in any sort of circumstance where I've had to be interviewed yet by an AI. But it would be an interesting experience. Do you think they'll ever, like, outsource any of the... Survivor casting where you will then. Like Adam Klein will get you ready.

Maybe Adam Klein could have like a Jesse Tannenbaum like casting AI bot that gets you ready. Like maybe Adam, if you're listening, like get a developer on the phone. I feel like we've had some AI like AI people like in like I listen. I don't know if Christian could maybe even like potentially help out with this. I'm keeping Christian away from LN. Jesse Tannenbaum bot. And then like,

or even like a generic survivor casting person bot, it's like now, now you really get ready. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

It's coming. Yeah. Because I don't think that the actual survivor casting would use a bot, but you could maybe practice with a bot. You could for sure

practice with a bot. And it might get derailed. And you think you're killing it on the, on the interview because it's just like boosting you up. It thinks everything you say

is great. but really it's capturing data about your insurance information. You'll have to tweak it to get it to be like really good. Oh, man, I don't even remember what we were talking about. You were telling me about Kilby in the time that you were in the group chat with him. We were in a group chat together of people that were being organized to go play this game. And I didn't know a lot of the people. And so it wasn't until months later when the show is coming out that somebody bumped an old post from back in March when we were planning all of this.

And it is someone who is Kilby saying, I don't know if I'll be able to make it on that day, guys. But, you know, keep me in the group because he was going to Fiji. He did not make it because he was going on Survivor. So we've never played a game together. Convenient excuse. Right. Yes. Okay.

And had you heard about how he is at playing the game? No, I have not heard, but how I see him playing on Survivor. Not Survivor. On, on the Clock Tower. No, I haven't heard how he is on that. But I'm saying, like, is he chaotic on that? I think so. I think that that's what the word is.

I think that Stephen has also played with him. I think has said that he's very chaotic. Okay. So it tracks. It tracks. Yeah. I don't think that, you know, it would be very surprised. He was like, no, he is actually, like, very, like,

Dossile, like, doesn't do anything weird. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, he's cracking me up on the show, too, because he's, I mean, he's, he's, he's been very entertaining, but then his reads are totally wrong, which I can relate to. Listen, playing blood on the clock tower, I probably have the worst reads of all time.

So I don't know, maybe his reads are better on there, but some of his reads in the Survivor game, currently a little off. Yeah. he had an interesting theory that he put out there in this episode where he talked about how, like, he went to Pat and he said, you know, Brady, the guy, he's like playing the PlayStation with your brother, your little brother and the controller's not plugged in, but he thinks he's doing everything. And then Pat ended up relaying that information back to Brady. But, but Kilby said to us that, hey, you know how you really can make friends with people, talk bad about people? Because if you're, you're going to, because if you're. You know, he'll be said to us that, hey, you know how you really can make friends with people. talk bad about people because if they're going to talk bad about other people with you, then you know you have something.

Now, it seemed like it backfired in this case, but do you think that Kilby was on to something? In theory, it could, but it also signals pretty negative information, which is that you're willing to talk bad about someone else. And so if you talk bad about someone else, then how do I know you're not talking bad about me? So it really only works usually when you're in like

close friend situation or you really have the most trust with that person and you can be sure that you share the same opinion about the person because otherwise if you're talking trash about someone and they're closer with that person then of course it completely backfires yeah i we this is like the the boys the like my kids like hey like somebody is like gossiping about somebody else like they're probably gossip about you also like you know that right you know that really like the inverse is really what you want to do like uh you You want to, like, give compliments about people, like, in the third person, a person who's not there. And then when that gets passed to another person, then it's like, wow, I guess, well, like, Gabby, really, I guess is, is very, it really likes me because she, like, she told Stephen Fishback that, like, oh, that my jokes actually are funny.

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. I think that's the move. That's the move. That's the move. You say something nice about someone. Speaking of which, I told Stephen Fishback when I was watching the Big Brother feeds one day that Rick Devons was talking about escape. Yes. I texted him, I go, Rick Devins is saying amazing things about escape right now on the feeds. So there you go. People love hearing that you're saying something nice through a third party. But even that wouldn't get Stephen Fish back to watch the Big Brother Live feeds.

No. No, I suppose not. And his response was actually pretty mild. He was like, that's nice. I'm like, I'm like, no, you don't understand. Rick's talking about it on the feeds. I happen to be watching it. I'm relaying this information to you. You need to be really a lot more excited than you are. You don't understand the significance. You know, I think in that instance, if you told him like,

boy, Rick is really panning escape on the live feeds. Like, I think he would have been maybe like, oh, send me the clip. You are so right. There you go. People care more about negative information. and then positive information. So maybe I'm trying to think about how do we workshop this? Maybe you have to give like such a bizarre compliment

that they have to pass it along of, you know, hey, Stephen, Rick Devin, but I guess this is a lie. But, yeah, Rick Devons, like he described Escape as like a, it was a tick piece of literary masterwork. Like, oh, really? Why do you say that? Yeah, yeah. By the way, I feel like you were asking me if I do impressions, but I guess I should have teed you up and said,

do you have a Lewis impression or are you just really sticking in the white tick? No, I think I just do a generic, you know, Irish person impression. It might be like offensive, like when Drew hosted that HOH competition. Yeah. It started becoming offensive. Yeah. This is why they need the diversity on the cast so that you can learn about Irish. Yeah.

I think it needs, I think it needs to, if the impression is, like, actually of, like, the specific person, I think it should be okay. But if it's just, okay, this is a generic impression of a, of a, like, group of people. Of an ethnicity group. Yeah, you know what? I'd say that's a good line. That's where the line is, I think. I'm really proud of you for coming to that conclusion. I think that's great. Yeah. So we'll see. So maybe I hope that at one point I can do a specific impression of Lewis.

Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm excited to hear it. Yeah. I'll work on it. What was the word you used? Could you do Mora? So, yeah, for Mora, I feel like it was, you know, when we went to the traders, finale for the taping in person, like, people were like on her ass and then they were like talking about how she

had, because we had just like all seen the finale and it was like and she was kind of like unbothered by the whole thing. Like it was like the people, there were other people that were in the cast. It was a little bit kind of like Rob quitting like Rhode Island Rob quitting the game. Like other people

were more mad about it than she was. Like she was like and they were like, they were like, they were like, oh, like, you, like, I can't believe you. You got, you got duped. And you thought, and she was like, she's like, get over it. He's buying me a burkin bag. You know, and she was a burkin bag, like 5,000 times that day. That's great. That was your, I got a burkin. She was like so indignant about the whole thing. It's like, oh, yeah, well, where's your burkin? That's good. That's good. Yeah. Okay. So we'll work on the Lewis one so far.

It seems like it will involve the word tick. Tick, tick. That's got to be where Mora, hers was Tink. Tink, I think that... Yeah, I don't think so. His has been Tick. I see. There was one, let me think of the phrase that I did, I was repeating when I said I was practicing doing his accent

instead of watching the episode. I do have big balls, bro? I was not that. It was not that. I was told I actually am misquoting that. Well, which one, I don't remember which was the one that asked about the church bells and which one was the one with the ball. So Carter said to him like, oh, I can't. You got it.

You got it. Get in there. He's like, go, if we're going to pull this off, we're going to need balls as big as church bells. That was really good. And he's like, I do have big balls, though. Yeah, it was like, it was like, it was like, it was T. my. You know, it was, it was bottom of the barrel.

Bottom of the barrel. They tink were to bottom of the barrel. Something, something. I don't remember what it was. Bottom of the barrel. That was in the middle, that was in my head for a long time, bottom of the barrel.

Is there anybody else in this cast that's caught your attention? It is a very dynamic cast. I like jelly because I, I, she's a sociology, PhD, which is like not, far off from what I do. Like she studies people and how they, um, you know, interact and are in groups and why people are the way that they are, but from sort of like a, a more of a group level, usually sociology is. And then I'm psychology and I look at individuals, but I look at them within groups. Like,

I just really, I like relate to her in that regard and she seems extremely intelligent and, um, which now sounds braggy because I just said I relate to her and then I said she's intelligent. But she's a freaking like professor. She's, she's smart, but she's smart in a people way, which is really good. Do you find that these reality TV shows are instructive for learning about people? Or do you feel like that because it's so edited that you really can't take a ton away from it? Oh, no. It's totally instructive.

It's such a great example of so many sociological and psychological phenomena. I know multiple people who have survivor colloquial. level classes where they teach about psychology through it and I've guest lectured in their classes and I see connections all the time and it's like it's there's there's really honestly

manufactured or almost perfect examples of a lot of sociological and social psychological phenomenon because you're putting them in this artificial situation so you're like well I'm putting you into two different groups well what does that do to their group identity okay well you're forced you're putting people against each other

there's all these situations that are kind of like the exact situations that you would want to observe someone's behavior and how people are different or how people cope with different things. And so it actually ends up producing a lot of really good content that is great for teaching social sciences and things about people. You said over the summer that Rick Devons and Dee became your best friends. So I assume you were following the live feeds on Big Brother. And how was that for you? as somebody watching the unedited interactions of these people? Oh, it was very cool.

It was fun to see the game unravel in more of a real time. And it's a good representation, I feel like, of how the game goes. And, you know, I only played Survivor, not Big Brother, but seeing the way that just, you know, a lot of the game just happens in conversations and conversations over time and seeing how. how things develop and how plans change. And by the way, I came to love the game of Big Brother. The TV show is wild, which I've known for years.

I've hopped in and out at different Big Brother seasons. You know, I've hopped in and out. I'm a more low-key watcher than I think people realize. But it actually, I feel like reflects what I felt like a game was like. So when people are like, well, you know, podcasters or like these fans, like, don't know what they're talking about. I feel like for the Big Brother feeders, like you do know what you're talking about. talking about because you're watching the game unfold. Could you do it? Could you go into the Big Brother

house for 90 days? No, I think I would be so bored and get really sick of people. The game is so cool. I think it'd be fun to play the game, but I think living with 16 people who also who are the type of people who get cast on Big Brother, which is not shade towards Big Brother, the type of person to get cast on reality TV period. Being stuck in a house with them for months and months is a little crazy. But what a cool game. Great game design and mechanics really came to enjoy it. Yeah. I think that it would be a struggle to do it for so long. And I have to commend like all the people who went deep into the game because I think that I, I think that I would burn out at some point. I do not think that I would, you know, I think I could really give it my all for like, even

26 days, no problem. Yeah. 86 days, that's tough. Yeah, I think you have to be really a really big extrovert. And I know you are outgoing and you are very personable, but I don't, you're not an extrovert, are you? You're an introvert. Yeah, I think I play one on the podcast, but I think in my real life, like, I also like,

okay, I'm just like, I'm good to have just some downtime. Yeah, yeah, which I love introverts. My partner is a huge introvert, and I feel like I have a lot to learn from introverts, which is just like, take some time for yourself. But I feel like introverts would do struggle on Big Brother. And you know what? On Survivor, too, but it's less, yeah, it's not as long, so it's not as draining. Mm-hmm, yeah.

And it's just like, there's a lot more going on. There's like, you know, things are changing. You know, you're on this adventure. Yeah. You know, things change every single day. And Big Brother, it's like a lot of, like, day in, day out, a lot of monotony. Yeah, yeah. Survivor is, like, the ADHD of reality TV games.

Yeah. Well, there's not a lot of monotony here in the open era where things are changing and having permanent uncertainty. We potentially could have three tribes coming into this next week. We've been away from three tribes for, you know, at least three episodes. here so far to kick off the open era. Are you worried that we could potentially slip back into some samey same when we go to three tribes? I guess it could slip back from a strategy standpoint in terms of if you're in three tribes, there's only so many people in the tribe. And I feel like

there's less exciting votes when there are fewer people. And I feel like we saw proof of that in the past few episodes with the big tribes having really interesting. social dynamics going on. So I think that would be the downside that could make it slide back into, you know, like less exciting would be because the tribes are smaller. Yeah. But in terms of the format and stuff, I feel pretty confident that Survivor finally unlocked what I think they should have been doing for seasons and seasons is just like, let the format be looser. Don't be repeating the same thing every other season. So the idea of the open era is like, that's great. That's how it should have been. That's how it. Yeah.

That's how it was kind of for a long time. I think of anything. I think that maybe the, I don't want to say a fumble, but the branding, I think, is bad. I think that the branding should have been like, Survivor is back. Not that this is a new, that this is old. This is like, but I feel like that maybe for Jeff,

from a creative standpoint, it needs to feel like, no, this isn't, we haven't gone backwards. We've gone forwards. and maybe there's this is some things feel like a throwback but the idea is actually new when I think that for the fans

I think that it could be the exact same thing and just say oh no we fixed it right yeah I think the brand thing was confusing it was confusing I think I prefer what you were saying too

I think like I used the word vintage earlier and I feel like it kind of has more of that vibe so don't I think Jeff misunderstands us when he says oh, you guys all say you want classic survivor and then he does a poll in the first episode. So which one of you, you know, would you not want idols?

Would you not want advantages? Would you not want final four firemaking? I don't actually think that's what most people mean when they say we want fewer advantages or idols. They don't mean none at all. They mean the way that they've been implemented in this season, which is you could find one. It's hidden.

There's not some horrible, you know, disadvantage attached to it. Or if that does exist, do it every once in a while. not kind of the initial first three idols that are out there. All of these things, you know, give them different chances, give them a chance to mutiny, give him the chance for an advantage. But he has to chop down a tree. Those are all fantastic. And that's what we've been wanting.

I don't think nobody thinks we're going to go back to season five with no idols. Yeah. Don't know why I chose five. No, I agree with you. I don't know if it's necessarily the most like fair argument. And I think that it's sort of like, okay, well, then, you know, we can't, you. you know, make up your mind. What do you people want? You know, so I think that it allows them to have a lot of flexibility with what they're putting out there because, well, there are some people,

some people do want this. So, but anyway, I don't want to get into the negative because I think they're doing a really great job. It's fantastic. And I think that, I think it'll be two episodes in whatever they do. So even if it takes a bit of a dip, I think that we have enough momentum where I don't think it could go possibly completely off the rails, and I think they'll probably have, I think that we'll lose three people in these next two episodes in merge at like 14. That would still be fine.

That would be fun. You're right, we have momentum. So I think fans are less picky about the format than maybe even they think. I think what they really want is fun, flexible survivor. And whatever format it takes to kind of get that is fine. And I don't really care if we merge at 14 or 11 or this or that or if we have two tribes or three tribes. As long as the fun of it is there and the players can play.

And that's really, I think, what's making the season so great so far. So if they can carry on the momentum, then it'll be fantastic. And I just want to give you my theory of the case for where I think this is going. Okay. So now I think that we're going into three tribes. I don't know that for sure. But look, I saw red buffs in the – which is not a buff color. so far in this season. I think we're going into

three tribes. There's really, there's two groups that I'm really keeping an eye out for, and I think there's some overlap here of the group of the women and Christian who voted against Anna at that last tribal

council, that feels like kind of a big block of voters. And then also the helicopter alliance, that crew, and what's, What's the overlap there? And I think the people that are not in those two groups are the people that I think are really maybe in some trouble here as they're spread out.

So the Kilby's and the Erics of the world, like I think that those are people that could be potentially vulnerable. I think that maybe Mike, if he doesn't end up swapping into the right set of numbers, is somebody also who could potentially be in trouble. So I do feel like that there's some vulnerable people coming into this three tribe situation. Yeah. Anybody that doesn't seem to have a solid alliance now when you get split up, that's going to really hurt you. I think that's maybe also what feels different about this season is starting from the big tribe, the new god alliances. Now you're switching. You have small tribes.

It does feel more like more's at stake if you get separated from not just your tribe mates from your previous tiny tribe, but with, people that you actually had a bond with because now you could be on a tribe with people from the other tribe or people from your tribe who you weren't aligned with. So it's not an automatic numbers advantage. And I feel like that variability adds a lot to it. So yeah, if you're not in a solid alliance, it's going to be risky. Come swap. I want to ask you about one other thing from this episode where we had Maggie who really wanted to get the advantage. And so she ended up going to Brady who was working on the ore and he was chopping and smashing

and then ultimately he found it and that she said that she really wanted it and eventually he gave in. What did you think about Maggie's approach to? Come on! Perfect. Perfect. Amazing. No notes. As she should. Yeah.

Women are not as well. good at negotiating when they, I shouldn't say that. Not that women aren't as good as. What about Angelina? Well, there's always exceptions to the rule, Rob. Women can be just as good of negotiators as anyone, but they often fare worse because they don't ask for what they want or they're deferring or they're low-balling themselves, their own, you know, best interest. And Maggie didn't do that. And I think it's actually so awesome. And I feel like on someone like Brady, it worked, right? He's kind of like, I don't know, he wants to get along with people sort of thing. I was really worried at first when he seemed to be taking in. He was just kind of giving her a pinky promise. I'm like, a pinky promise

means nothing. Nothing. And she said, but you have more numbers. He's like, all right, I guess you're right. I didn't even remember that. That's so funny. She's like, you have more numbers than me. And he agreed. Yeah, and he agreed. Oh, that's pretty good. That's great. Yeah. It was not the only pinky promise in the episode, because then we had a talk where it was actually the people who were going to vote against Pat in the episode, and they pinky promises, and they're like, okay, we're not going to tell it's Pat.

We're not going to tell anybody else. Smash cut to. Next scene is, okay, now they're telling Brady that it's going to be Pat. It still worked, but it was a funny cut. Not like the one that Brady got. Yeah. Oh, man. There's so much little humor. Top three funny seasons of all time.

Bring back the funny 115, they're saying. Exactly. I'm saying this. But this season is so funny 115 coded. You know, you had posted on Rambla, and I hope that I'm giving the proper attribution. The picture of Michael Scott with the bandana on his head. Triple bandana. Is that a...

A Gabby Pescusi original? Oh, well, you know, it's from the TV show at the office. Yes. But I did replace the word prison with Ponderosa. So, yes, a Gabi Pescusi original. Yes. Should survivors be allowed to have bandanas? His bandana was the same color as the buff.

And I was wondering the same thing. Like, was he only allowed because it was purple? Because that would be really confusing. Yeah, I feel like you have a buff. You don't need a bandana. Do you get a second bandana? We have bandanas at home. They're called buffs.

You don't get to bring a bandana. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little overkill. But in this case, gave us great content where I haven't seen the office in years. It emerged from my memory while watching the episode. I just posted a picture of Prison Mike because that's who he reminded me of.

He's got a goofy accent. He's like talking about how hard things are. And like literally Purple Buff wearing it the same way. And oh my gosh, it's he, the hot, the hottest thing, the hottest thing about Survivor was bamboo. Like, that's, that's, that's my impression at an impression, attempt at an impression. Yeah. Well, Gabby, this was such a delight. You are on fire on the ramble.com or I'm sorry, Ramble, you can check it out at survivor.com.

No desktop mode. Yes, I don't know desktop. It's for the mobile app. Yeah, Gabby, are you going to be watching the Rambal Battle Royale that we're going to have next week? Oh, apparently my friend Christian Irish Carrie Hubicki is in it. Bring radical honesty to the Ramble Battle Royale. I have no idea what the game entails, and I doubt Christian does either. They're saying it's a survivor style game for legal reasons.

Okay, yes. a Survivor style game. He'll be as honest as he needs to be to pull out the Battle Royale win. I know how much it means to him. Yes. Okay. So that'll be very fun.

Gabby, what else are you up to that people can keep up with? Anything? No, honestly. I'm kind of, I've retreated into my academics and trying to finish my PhD. You know what? Rob, I actually had to say

no to doing a podcast with the amazing Leanna on the B&B because I was like, I'm too busy. And here I am podcasting with you. Oh, that's going to create some drama. When the podfather calls, you can't say no to the pod father. No, I'm so busy. So it was a joy to take an hour and a half today to talk about Survivor because I really am not posting online or anything. I'm just trying to get my stuff done.

Only a Ramble exclusive. Ramble. I'm on Ramble. That's where I am. Yeah, that's where Gabby is posting impressions of Lewis. Yeah. I'm not going to do one. She's not going to do one now.

You have to go on Ramble if you want to see that. And in the meantime, in the meantime, she's going to be auditioning for Big Brother with an AI bot from Adam Klein. Yes. Practicing. Yes. I'll be practicing. All right. Well, Gabby, this was so fun.

Everybody check out my interview with Joe Hunter, which I thought was so interesting also to hear what he has to say. And then we're going to have plenty more coming up, including Wednesday night, when I will be with Omer Zahir for a special edition of the No-at-alls as Stephen travels to Australia. We'll have a live show from Washington, D.C. And then check out on Thursday afternoon,

the Big Ramble Battle Royale, where eight stars of Big Brother are taking on eight stars of Survivor in a Survivor style game that's going to be hosted by yours truly. It should be very, very fun and be on the lookout for that. Take care, everybody. Have a good one. Bye.