RHAP: We Know Survivor - Ron Clark Talks Survivor 48 Ep 5
Episode Date: April 2, 2025This week, Rob and Ron Clark discuss Survivor 48 episode 5!...
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hey everybody, Rob here getting ready for my interview with Ron Clark.
Just a little bit of a heads up that Ron Clark and I are talking a little bit about the White
Lotus Season 3, about 35 minutes or so into this podcast.
So if you are not entirely caught up, maybe you want to skip ahead for about eight minutes
during that point in the interview when Ron and I are talking about Ron's theories
for the White Lotus season three finale.
And if you wanna watch the video,
check it out at watchrhap.com.
Enjoy.
Hey everybody, what's going on?
Rob Cistrino back and we've got a great podcast
for you today.
I'm so excited to get the chance to talk to some survivor
with just one of the best interviews out there.
Ron Clark, Ron, how are you?
I'm doing great, it's kind of you to say.
Not true, but I appreciate it.
Yes, okay, Ron, I'm just in awe of that.
Ron is on his porch, backyard?
Yes, just, yeah.
Out in nature.
When we bought our house, yes out in nature. We bought our house We went we went port shopping the the house is 120 years old and it's falling apart
But it's a great porch and so we have the best porch
It's a great porch and so here's Ron and with the sounds of nature in the background a
Beautiful lighting couldn't have done it any better
A beautiful lighting couldn't have done it any better.
It's a great day. So well lit, yeah, perfect.
Anyway, Ron.
I am covered in pollen though.
Oh.
You will slowly see,
I started to turn yellow with the pollen.
Yes, okay.
It happens, we have it so much over here.
My wife had the leaf blower out yesterday.
It was just like a huge cloud just in the taking over.
It's the worst in like a hundred years or something.
Yeah. Okay. Well, it seems like it. But anyway, Ron, we're not going to let that stop us. Okay.
The pollining can wait because we get to talk to some survivor. But first, how are you doing, Ron?
I'm doing awesome. It's spring break.
And so I don't have to teach classes today or tomorrow.
I don't have papers to grade. I'm all caught up.
So I'm just relaxing, enjoying myself today.
Yeah, Ron, I've been noticing over the last couple of months,
you've really been taking over on TikTok.
Yeah, I've just been sitting on my swing and posting these videos and just relaxed whenever
I had time just to share a story or two.
And it really took off.
Well, I'm sure you get this all the time, but it's so natural for you.
You're such a gifted storyteller.
And whether it's telling stories about your career or like spring break crazy stories that it's always a treat when the
algorithm finds you for me. That's kind of you. I appreciate that. Yeah. Well, Ron, what do you make
of and actually do you want to talk about mention your event up top here also? Yeah. So we have a big event on April 16th at our school here in Atlanta.
There's no tickets.
We don't charge for it.
And we just put the link up on Instagram.
Oh, well, I'm gonna have to charge next year.
Okay.
Because it's so expensive.
When I only have like 100 people coming, I was like, it's our duty as survivor castaways
to give back to the community.
So I was like, oh, you know what?
I'll find a way to cover this.
But now there's 800 people coming, it's too expensive.
So this is the last year I can do a free event
because the tickets were gone in an hour.
So I feel like we can charge
and then that would help offset the cost.
The event we do, it's unbelievable.
We build all of the obstacle courses, the challenges, the real puzzles.
It's just, we go all out with food and drinks and it's an amazing event.
And then we watch the show together in a state of the art theater, all
800 people gasping, cheering.
And we actually have 60 past castaways coming this year.
There's some people coming who you haven't seen
in years and years.
60.
Wow.
Okay.
All right.
Well, it's always a great time.
I hear so many good things about it.
So April 16th to watch Survivor with 60 former players.
That's crazy. That'sor with 60 former players.
That's crazy.
That's like three seasons of players.
I know you do.
I ask you every year.
Yeah.
And you don't take no for an answer.
And I feel horrible, but it is hard for me to travel
during the Survivor season and not even to do the live show.
Because my wife understands when I have to go travel
and do the live show because it's like,
hey, gotta make money. When I tell her, like, oh yeah, I have to go travel and do the live show because like, hey, gotta
make money, you know, when I tell her like, oh, yeah, I'm going to go to Atlanta.
They're like, why?
What is that?
Oh, you get to you get to go on vacation.
And Ron says, bring the whole family.
And then she's always like, well, they can't they can't miss school.
Like they're going to a school.
Right, right.
Yeah, I can put them in class a score day.
No problem.
Perfect. Perfect. We'll get a note for the teachers.
But Ron, here we are, Survivor 48.
Oh, by the way, happy 10 season anniversary from Survivor 38.
Appreciate that. Thank you.
Yeah. It feels like it was just like a few years ago.
It goes so fast, though.
It goes so fast. And now here we are in Survivor 48.
How are you feeling about this group?
I'm actually really enjoying this season the first episode I was like,
eh, but now I'm all bought in because I've got several people I'm pulling for.
Mitch, Mitch is a beast. He was an iron man. He's done all these things, but he's so unassuming,
but Mitch doesn't miss. And so I'm really enjoying pulling for Mitch,
but also I love the four.
You know, you've got Joe and Shaheen
and you've got the Camilitary.
She's awesome as a child.
Camilitary, I haven't heard that before.
I haven't heard that before.
Yeah, so my husband Lloyd said, if I were on the island,
I would join her Camilitary.
So he wouldn't want to be in her army
because she's a beast.
You know, she's only five one.
She's short.
And so she says she's unassuming,
but I think she could go really far.
And I'm pulling for those four.
I love when I watch the viral
and I'm really pulling for somebody.
So I'm pulling for all of them to do well.
Yeah. Okay.
Ron, I'm sure that you must have had a big response
to this week's episode with Joe and Eva.
What did you think about how that all unfolded and Jeff actually cried at the immunity challenge?
Yeah, I was like, what is that about? That was that was unusual to see. But I absolutely loved
it. I cried too. I'm an emotional guy. So I cried. I thought it was beautiful. The only one
moment is I wish that Jeff hadn't prompted Joe and said, you can go over. We don't really know.
Maybe Joe had asked, can I go? And Jeff had said, no, we can't do that. And then Jeff said, okay,
go ahead. We're not really sure. But I wish we had seen Joe just like, can I go and then him go over
there? But it's, it's, it's a beautiful moment. But it's not good gameplay for Joe,
because he put a big target on his back. All of survivor I think most people love this man now.
What an incredible human. Everyone's pulling for him. And I can see someone like say, saying,
oh, he's got to go. I can see her being the one to say, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, we gotta target them fast.
And so I'm worried about that.
But if Joe ends up winning, it will be epic.
It will be great for the show, great for Survivor.
I don't think he could actually make it there
because the target now, you never wanna,
your bond with someone else to be so obvious.
Ron, I'm always like trying to think, okay,
galaxy brain on this stuff.
And I feel like that in the new era, the players are so smart and so sharp
that I feel like that the fact that Joe and Eva made a decision
that was not based in strategy in any way.
Do you feel like that in some way that could lower their threat level
where people aren't looking at them as, okay, they're not sharks, these two.
Yeah, they have a bond, they're a duo,
but I'm not necessarily worried about them
pulling a fast one on me
because they're very cards up people.
Someone on that island is gonna say one of them has to go.
As soon as the merge happens, even if they did not,
if they're like, you know what,
we just genuinely care about each other and this is a special moment, aside from gameplay, someone
when you start trying to find who is an easy target, it's just an easy target.
And say it's got what like 41 confessions or something like she has spoken more than
anyone.
And I kept wondering why because I mean, like she's okay.
But I'm like, what where's this coming from? She's not winning any popularity polls.
And I'm like, why is she being pushed so much on us?
And I'm thinking, oh, she's going to have some arc
where she's going to be involved with something pretty big.
That's why I said, I think she might be the one to
orchestrate, but when the amount, something might happen,
but someone on that Island, it's going to,
once you smell blood in the water,
someone's going to target them. No one's you smell blood in the water, someone's gonna target them.
No one's gonna let them skate through.
No one.
Ron, I didn't know you kept such a close count
on the confessionals.
You're hardcore.
I may be wrong.
I think it's 41.
Yeah, I don't know the exact number.
I thought it was so weird.
Yeah, but good on you.
She speaks so much, I was serious.
How many confessionals did you have on the Edge of Extinction?
I have no idea, not enough.
Guess.
I have no idea.
I'm going to have the guys look it up.
Okay, give us a number.
You were on the prices, right?
Not 41.
Okay, if I had to guess, 28.
28. That seems low.
I don't know because remember we had the edge of extinction.
So half of the show was the people on the edge of extinction.
So we only really got half of an episode and then comma we won
travel every we won the challenges every time we never went to
so we weren't really on that much.
The guys are saying actual retail price, 27.
Oh, Ron, you went over.
You were right there.
I overestimated myself.
Yeah, I mean, you were very close.
Pretty good.
Just basic math. Yeah. Yeah, very close Pretty good just
Yeah
Ron you played right at the end of the old era
Do you have any thoughts on the new era in terms of how you feel it's going?
I think there's been some high moments and some low moments, but overall I love Survivor
I think they're doing a really good job this season. So some high moments and some low moments. But overall, I love Survivor.
I think they're doing a really good job this season.
So I'm okay.
Yeah.
I'm fine with it.
Yeah, okay.
You know, I really trust Jeff and I trust them
to do what they feel is best.
You know, sometimes I make decisions at my school
and people are like, why would he make that decision?
And I'm like, well, there's a lot of things
behind the scenes you may not know.
So I feel the same for Survivor.
Like, I don't know if you've seen,
but a lot of people are upset
that they got cut from season 50.
Did you see that?
I saw some of that, yeah.
Yeah.
And so like, they're really upset.
And so, but I had to rationalize it in my head
and Survivor's making decisions for survivors.
Survivors bigger than any of us as players.
And we just have to trust that they're making the decisions
and going in the direction they want to go in.
I actually didn't make it on season 37.
I applied, went through the whole process.
And I thought I was
gonna be on and then I was told last minute I wasn't and I was like wait a
minute what I've got my clothes I've done the physical the heart test had to
run on that treadmill forever it's like what in the world and so then I didn't
make it and then they said okay but we want you for season 38 and I was like
okay went through the whole process again
Got all hyped up thought I was gonna be on and then they said okay. Okay, we'll be in touch soon and excited for you
It was like a month later. I'm like it's about time for me to get on this plane
Let me see what's going on with my flights
So I'm texting and then all of a sudden they text back to okay jump on a call and I said
Oh, yeah, you didn't make it and I was like wait. Yeah, you didn't make it. I was like was no one to call me
Yeah, yeah, we were gonna call you and I was devastated
But and I told my husband boy said forget that that's so rude
I thought it was two weeks before us before the you're supposed to fly out for season 38
I got a text at 2 a.m
And it was from Lynn Spillman and she said call me and I was like, oh my god
Because I know exactly what that means call me at 2 a.m
And so I went in another room and I called her she said, okay
I don't know why but Jeff wants you he wants you on the show and you want she said he's got to have you
What do you mean she said she doesn't know why?
She said I don't know why I don't know why she said you weren't on his top list and all
of a sudden you are and you want you and you got to leave in two weeks. But then later
I found out that Dan was on season 39 and broken his hand to go on season 38. So he
broke his hand. And so they're like, we got to replace it with some old white man. And
so I think I was, I fit the old white man category. So I told my husband, I was like, so they want me to go and
to be on he's like, tell him no, this is rude. And I was like, No, I have to do it. So I learned through that process,
survivor, it's we're not the stars, we're not the big player, survivors, the player, we're just playing a little bit part in
this huge global phenomenon. And you can't let your head get
too inflated that you're more important than the game and that your feelings because they're
going to make decisions based off what's best for the universe of Survivor, not for the
individual.
Yeah, I mean, it's a tale as old as time with Survivor.
Go back to season eight and I was one of the people that I was lucky enough to go on season
eight. That was the first time that they brought people back.
And that was 2003 that we did that.
And in 22 years, there's been a lot of people
left at the altar or left at the bachelor party
or the bachelorette party.
Yeah, and Rob, for season 50, of every human on earth
other than Jeff prose
You have done more for survivor than anyone. Look at all these podcasts people are doing
It's you were the OG you started the phenomenon that has now spread
You have done more to grow the fan base to promote the show
If and I am appalled and maybe they have called you and said you've got to be on it
But you should have been the first call.
If we're going to have an epic season 50,
who deserves to be on this season?
It would have been you.
So I don't know if they called you or not.
Let me just receive that because that is incredibly kind
of you to say.
I really appreciate that.
I think that many other people have done quite a bit
for Survivor, but you know,
Survivor has also given me so much also in terms of like, I was a guy working in an insurance office
before Survivor called me the first time. And you know, I've been able to build my whole life around
this. So I'm very happy to give everything I have to Survivor and look who knows who knows what the
future may hold Ron but I'm very I've been blessed and content with everything and thank you so much
for saying that I appreciated you even shouting me out in one of your TikTok videos Ron.
Yeah of course of course. You put together a killer list. I wish I could be on Survivor
casting I think I would do a good job.
Yeah.
At least for who I wanna see play.
Yeah.
I mean, do you have to make those type of tough decisions
in terms of like bringing in the educators
that work at the Ron Clark Academy?
Is that similar?
Yeah.
We run not only a school where we educate kids,
but every week, hundreds of educators from around the world
Go to our school to watch us teach. We also have an app company merchandise company
There's a lot going on in this one building
Our goal was to make the most innovative creative school in the world and then to share it with other people
So there's a lot lots of tough decisions all the time. Yeah, but when you don't want to bring up one thing go for it
I was gonna ask you about when you played how much did you tell people about?
Ron Clark Academy did you give everybody the the full story or did you hide any parts of your?
outside the game life I
Said nothing all I said was I was a school teacher and I did not mention anything about the business, the movie, the books.
I was like, I'm not going to put that target on my back.
And I was just hoping that no one would know anything.
And then I realized that Rick Devons was a broadcaster in Georgia.
I was like, crap, he's probably sitting on TV, something here in Georgia.
And I was terrified.
That's why I was like, I've got to vote him out as quick as possible just in case he's
seen something But I told no one until I got to the edge of extinction when I realized I'm not winning this game
It doesn't really matter anymore
And I told Reem and that's when we first started to bond and we're still extremely close to this day
None until anyone oh, let me tell you something happen. So we're at a challenge
It's the one where you have to balance and I'm horrible at that.
So I'm really having to focus.
So we're all standing there balancing
and Jeff, you know how he's talking, trying to kill the time.
And he said, so Ron, your Oprah,
one of her favorite people in the world, tell me about it.
And I'm like, and I'm like looking
cause no one could see my face.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.
And I just kind of jumped down.
I'm like, oh, I got out, duh, duh, duh, duh. And that looked like I didn't hear his question. We go back to camp and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. And I just kind of jumped down. I was like, oh, I got out.
And that looked like I didn't hear his question.
We go back to camp and I'm like,
everyone's going to ask about this.
No one even asked.
No one even paid any mind.
Was everybody just so zoned in on the challenge,
like trying to block out what Jeff is saying?
Zoned in, no one even brought it up ever.
Yeah.
So I was grateful for that.
That's pretty amazing.
But, you know, if you I heard you a few
days ago on the show, you were talking
about.
Listen, Ron.
Yes. Wow.
Yes. I love you.
So you're doing it, Cedric and Chrissy.
And how all of a sudden
the vote goes for Bianca.
Isn't that it was
like, how did this happen?
Because it's rare in Survivor that you don't have some kind of idea of which way it could go.
And then it goes a complete different way.
And you were saying, perhaps there was a conversation between Cedric and Chrissy on the island.
They didn't show it.
They're trying to do a little something different.
And y'all mentioned maybe we should, I think it was Sam or someone said, maybe we should, they should do it once in a while, but not all the time, keep us guessing so I was curious about it so I found out so I did some research okay and I can
confirm there was no conversation at all prior to that tribal it was just eye contact yeah it was
slight eye contact and that's how they made the decision wow Wow. So, so Cedric, he wants so bad to be a passenger, but he's in the driver's seat.
Pilots and passengers.
Yeah, you remember.
You're such a passenger, Rick.
Famous line.
Yep.
But oh, and that was the downfall right there.
But yeah, so, it was just a slight glance at Chrissy and Cedric.
Then they glanced at Bianca and then they did it.
Yeah. So I thought it was wild.
Cedric is playing a chaotic game.
I call him the chaos king because it's just like, what is he doing?
But I'm enjoying it. I'm here for the cast.
Yeah, we love it.
So did you think that Cedric made the right decision?
Bianca comes to him and says, hey, I have no vote vote and then he somehow it takes that information and flips it around on her
Did you like that for his game? I?
Don't know man because like Cedric if you tell him something he's gonna boat you out if you don't tell him
He's gonna boat you out. So at this point no one's safe. He's just like firing everywhere. He feels like firing
So, um, I don't know, time will tell.
Yeah, it's so interesting because he was so loyal to Justin
and then Say got him flipped around
and now he seems to have like this loyalty for Say.
I'm wondering that, do you think that,
is there some kind of like sunk cost in his mind about,
hey, I've come this far with Say,
I can't cut ties with her now,
though we've been we've been through so much. You know, I can't speak for Cedric, but I think
perhaps I would be thinking, OK, she is a good shield. She's going to cause drama. And if she's
not targeting the drama at me, then I think I want to ride this ship perhaps.
Yeah, we'll see. I'm not sure. Yeah, I'll
Next time I talk to him. I'll find out. What have you spoken with Cedric before?
I have. Yes. Okay. Yeah. I mean he seems like a
The nicest guy ever but he's been like a little cutthroat here
a the nicest guy ever, but he's been like a little cutthroat here.
Yeah. Have you seen his watch parties? I saw one of them earlier on in the season. I saw on social media about his watch party. Yeah. He's having some big time watch parties. He has a
huge group of fans, friends, fans, family that show out for his events. So it was just interesting to watch.
Yeah. Okay.
Does that tell you anything about him as a player,
that he has the big watch parties?
Can you read anything into that?
I was gonna say that, but didn't wanna say it.
I was gonna say it, but didn't wanna say it.
Like whenever you see someone
who puts so much effort to watch parties,
oh, they're gonna go far.
There's something to be seen here.
They're celebrating. If you know you're not gonna, they're gonna go far. There's something to be seen here. They're celebrating.
If you know you're not gonna, you're celebrating.
You want people to be joyous with you.
You're not gonna pull everyone in a room
and then it's one, one.
Well, you know, there are people that I do feel like
from these last couple seasons,
like they know they've only got like one episode
and they do have like a pretty big watch party for it
or two episodes
They do invite everybody out
Really it could go either way. Yeah, so, you know, I think it's
Maybe like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I think people do want to celebrate it. But yeah, I'm happy that Cedric has so much going on
It's funny cuz when my season I was in my living room like by myself with Lloyd like
with a quilt over my head watching like I didn't want to be around anybody.
I couldn't do that.
Now you have the biggest watch parties.
Yes because there's no stress, no stress at all.
And I love my parties because during the commercial I asked the survivors what was going on right
in that moment?
What were you thinking?
Tell me the backstory.
And there's 800 people and we all watch.
Like there's no talking during the show.
People are cheering at all the right moments
and it's just a real beautiful experience.
I love the survivor community.
With the FIZ loyalty program,
you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan.
You know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data
and dollars off with your mobile plan,
you're not with Fizz.
Switch today. Conditions apply.
Details at fizz.ca.
This episode is brought to you by
FX's Dying for Sex on Disney+.
Based on the podcast of the same name,
Dying for Sex tells the story of Molly,
who is diagnosed with stage four breast
cancer. Determined to feel everything she can before she can't feel anything, she decides to
leave her unhappy marriage to explore her sexuality with some encouragement from her best friend,
Nikki. FX's Dying for Sex, streaming April 4th, only on Disney+. Sign up now at Disneyplus.com.
Ron, are there any players in Survivor 48 that you feel like that you especially relate to?
In Survivor 48? Yeah. That I relate to?
I don't know. I think in some ways, you know Kyle He's been a teacher before he's taught. I think with GD programs and so
He's a teacher. So he has that kind of compassion part, but he's also a gamer and a player
So I think because as a teacher, I love my kids
It's all about compassion and uplifting people
But then also I've got this side to me where I'm extremely competitive.
And I think he's got kind of that balance.
So maybe he's the most similar maybe.
Yeah. I feel like that he's set up in such an interesting spot here with him and Camilla
and now with Joe and Shaheen, that alliance that came together this week.
I really feel like that they're going to be like sort of like the center of gravity
coming into now going into the merge, where they're going to be just pulling other
people into sort of like this big central alliance where pulling in Eva and pulling
in David also maybe pulling Chrissy back in who was working with them.
Is that how you see things going after the merge?
Yeah, I do. And I got fingers crossed it happens because, you know, they are fan favorites. The foursome people love seeing that moment. And if you then
pull in Eva and you pull on a couple of others and if they make a long run, like
for example, if they plus their few that they pull in are the final seven
Like if they could pull in Mitch and Eva and that's the final seven
It will be an epic season like we haven't had in years where it would just be so exciting
And we can only hope and wish for something like that. Yeah, it would be exciting
That's a really big group that they've like built up a lot of those personalities a lot of confessionals for all those people
In the group, so it feels like they're important. Then you look at, yeah, then you look at Charity and Star, who I find interesting, but they're
not getting any airtime at all. And so I feel like since they're not investing in them at
all, it would seem to believe that they're going to be out pretty soon. And then the
ones that they're really invested in, we're going to be on a journey with them.
I think it could be exciting.
Ron, what do you think about charity?
I love to. Charity. Yeah.
You know, I don't have a whole lot to say.
Yeah, it's like, you know, they don't look out.
She's a flight attendant. Huh?
They don't love her. I don't love her.
No, you know, I'm sure you were indifferent about Charity,
but the other players don't seem to love her.
Yeah, I don't know.
I like how she said that she's a flight attendant.
So she plays Survivor in a tin can every day.
I like that she said that, but she's.
I feel like I don't want to,
how do I say this in a positive way?
I think she's making some social miscues
and how she's reading, she's not reading the island well.
I'll put it that way.
If you do feel like that charity is one of these people who,
it seems like that she's like expendable here at The Merge.
I feel like that there's always like one tribe
that's willing to throw somebody away.
And I'd be surprised if it's not gonna be her this week.
Right, because they haven't really invested us in her.
We're not invested in Star either.
I did like Star's move to actually give the idol to Eva
because at that point, everyone knows you have it.
It's nothing but a target on your back.
So give it to Eva, put the target on her,
perhaps make a stronger alliance with Eva,
then you get your vote back.
So maybe that was a smart move for her.
I think Star is intriguing.
I would love to hear more and see more from her,
but they're just not giving us a lot.
I think because there's so many other powerful storylines going on at the same time
Yeah, I do think that star ended up getting into a good situation
And I know it's kind of counterintuitive because she gave the idol away, but I think that by giving it to Eva
I think that then Eva's gonna tell Joe that big alliance
We're talking about in the middle is gonna pull her back in they lost Thomas
They lost Bianca.
Like I think that the old Purple Tribe,
I think they're gonna feel like,
hey, Star's one of our numbers.
We can't get rid of Star.
She's-
Yeah, I hope they pull her in.
I'd love to see it.
Yeah, we need her.
She gave the title to Eva.
She's with us.
Yep.
Yeah.
It's a good move.
I think it will end up being a good move for her so far. Ron,
I'd love to hear a little bit more about your backstory with Survivor and why it was so
important to you to one day come and play this game when you accomplished so much in all these
other areas in your life, why Survivor was important. I love it. I remember watching the very first season of Survivor
on the small TV, like the little 19-inch black and white TV.
That's all I had when I lived in New York City.
I was teaching there and I looked forward to it.
I saw the very first episode every day, looked forward to it,
couldn't wait to see it again.
It was more like a documentary back then and not like the thing of
reality show now.
But I was fascinated by it.
Wanted to be on the island, wanted to play,
wanted to eat the rat, wanted to do all of it.
And then I was teaching and busy,
and I was like, oh, I'll never get picked.
And so I never did it.
And then, as I progressed, I was like,
I was afraid that if I got on the show,
people would ask me, oh, who are you dating? Are you in a relationship? And and at the time I was very in the closet
This was 25 years ago, which at the time you don't say anything to anybody
Everyone was in the closet or most people in the closet
And so I was like I'm afraid that might come out on the show in the interview process
They're gonna pry it could I can't be outed on national TV.
And so that scared me quite honestly
from applying for years.
And then once I got married and all my students
and staff and family and everyone knew my husband
and it was just comfortable, I said,
okay, now I feel like I could do it.
And then we had one summer where I had a window
where we didn't have any conferences and I could go on the show and I said, let me just apply.
The year before I had gotten a phone call and they had asked me if I was interested in being on the Maze embrace.
And it was actually Jesse. And so I was like, oh my gosh. Yeah, I'm happy to love to do it.
But it was the season, I don't know if you remember, but when they had, you went by yourself
and they would pair you with somebody.
The blind date season basically, yeah.
Yes, I was like, I don't know if I wanna do that.
I'm not sure if that's, yeah.
And so then we had conferences that summer.
And so I called back and said, Jesse, I've changed my mind.
He was like, what?
He said, oh, you can't change your mind.
I was like, I've changed my mind. So I felt what he said. Oh, you can't change your mind. I say I've changed my mind
So I felt really bad. It's the next year. I went on and did the application online for survivor and I'm in an airport He calls me says so you don't want to be on the amazing race, but you go live on the island for 39 days
Sorry, it's school bus to pass. Yeah, it's okay. And I was like, yes survivors my dream
I really love to do it. He said said, okay, went through the whole process.
You do the seven days.
Funny story, you know, you go to LA
and you're there for seven days and every day,
like you see the numbers start, you know, dwindling down.
And so I was actually in the casting week with Natalie.
And so, you know, Natalie can have your coat,
can have your coat, that Natalie.
Okay.
And so she was in my group
and she did not follow any of the rules.
She just did whatever she wanted to.
You're not supposed to stand beside another cast member.
You're not supposed to do any of this stuff.
She didn't care.
She would get in front,
she broke the inline in front of me one time.
And then you go to take the IQ test
and we're sitting there taking the IQ test
and it's all very serious.
And ladies like, and begin in five, four.
Natalie stands up and walks over to get coffee.
And ladies like, I'm sorry, what are you doing?
And she's like, I'm getting some coffee.
And she's like, the IQ test is time.
She said, okay, give me just a minute.
She takes forever to make her a cup of coffee.
She goes and sits down.
Ladies are okay, now we can begin in five. Natalie stands up and goes over to the snack cart. And the lady says,
excuse me, she says, I want some Skittles. I'm going to need some Skittles. I'm going to take
this test. And she goes and gets the Skittles. So when Jeff Probst was first interviewing me,
he said, so Ron, tell me about the people that you've interacted with and seen this week are
also applying. I said, oh, you want to hear about Skittles? And he said, Skitt, tell me about the people that you've interacted with and seen this week are also applying.
I said, Oh, you want to hear about skills?
And he said, skills.
And then I started telling this story all about Natalie and he said, this is hilarious.
Because what I was trying to do is I was trying to show them how I would be able to read someone
on the island.
And I did that to Natalie.
So anyway, eventually she's got on the show and then she was on the white lotus.
Did you see of course?
Of course
I saw but you know first off like you probably helped get her on
David versus Goliath when you were talking about like how she's such a personality and such a character
Probably sealed the deal for her. And yes, of course. I saw her on the white lotus
Yeah, love the show. So great. Yeah, like White is a genius. Yes. Okay. We'll see if
sticks to landing on Sunday night, but that's for another podcast.
Yeah, definitely. If you want everyone to have me back on that one when you have to
do white lotus. Okay. Yeah, that'd be fun. I have all my own theories. Okay. Yeah. I
know people will get mad if you want to give us a theory Ron
Skip ahead and skip ahead
90-seconds if you don't want to hear Ron Clark's white lotus theory
well, I think everybody already knows what my theories but the father of Rick is
That that is his father. Yeah, what's the name of the man that he pushed over in the chair?
Nobody knows. Sretala's husband. Yeah, him. Yeah, that's Rick's dad. Yeah, obviously that's Rick's
dad. And then you know, the whole thing is building up from the first episode, the poison fruits going
to go in the blender. I think the dad's going to try and kill the whole family all at once. Let's just be done with this. So I
Don't know
Yeah, okay that all right you finish and then I have a response
Do your response first? Okay. I wonder you know, Mike white great survivor player personally Mia culpa
I underrated him in the real time in
His season and I just wonder, is Mike White setting us up
for a big blindside coming into Sunday night?
Like, are we being fed the fake plan
where we're the person that's about to go
sit at tribal council?
We all think we know what's gonna happen.
We're putting the pieces together.
We're watching the trailer.
Like, do you think that Mike White is setting us up
and that something might happen on Sunday night
that we completely don't see coming?
I don't think so because it's all so beautiful.
The way he's done the whole thing.
How many times has Chelsea said bad things come in threes?
And then you have the three siblings
with the senior evil, here no evil, speak no evil. You've got the three girlfriends.
What is horrible. She almost died twice. I mean, it's like,
I think he's going to give us, he's going to bring it all together.
I think Chelsea dies. Um, it's the third time I think, you know,
yeah, I don't think there's gonna be any real shockers or, Oh,
no one saw this coming. I think it's gonna be any real shockers or, oh, no one saw this coming.
I think it's gonna play out as we can,
because we've all over-analyzed this so much,
I think we can see the story he's building.
Because last season, when, spoiler alert for season two,
when Tanya died in the way she did,
that was a pretty big blindside.
I don't think that we saw that coming,
and I just wonder if he's ready to,
he's strung us along's strung us along,
strung us along, strung us, again, you know, me,
galaxy brain, did he string us along to this point
that we all think, okay, we know where this is going
and he's ready, something totally unexpected maybe.
Could be, could be. Can I ask you a question?
Of course.
So Piper sitting on the bed in the Buddhist temple
with her brother, and he says, Lachlan.
And Lachlan goes, yeah, I think I'm going to stay here with you.
I'll do this year with you.
And she instantly is like, hmm.
And you can see on her face that she's not feeling that at all.
In that moment, was she thinking, well, I was kind of thinking I wasn't going to do
it.
I've kind of changed my mind. Or was she thinking, well, this was kind of thinking I wasn't going to do it. I've kind of changed my mind.
Or was she thinking, well, this was going to kind of be my own thing.
And this is don't steal my thing that I'm doing.
What do you think she was thinking when her face dropped?
The second thing, I think it's sort of like, hey, this is me.
I'm rebelling against this family and this life and I'm doing this.
This is my thing. Like, don't don't try to then hop on my thing. Like, this is what I'm doing this, this is my thing. Like don't try to then hop on my thing.
Like this is what I'm doing to, you know,
maybe part of it is to get a rise out of mom and dad
and you're not a Buddhist, you know, to get everybody,
you know.
Piper.
Piper, like don't do it.
But I think it was more the second thing.
Do you think that the mom, Miss Radcliffe,
who is so wonderful,
do you wonderfully portray,
do you think that she actually knows more
than she's letting on?
Because do you remember when,
I can't remember her name,
but one of the three girlfriends goes up to the table,
she said, oh, remember,
we were at the weekend in Texas
and we were there.
And she's like, no, I don't know you.
I don't remember you at all.
There's something, why would Mike White have had that happen
unless it's gonna pull back around for something?
So I'm thinking, does she know something
and she's already got the money
and offshore account or something?
Does she?
I don't know.
I think that to me that you're right,
that was an awkward interaction between the two of them.
I just think that maybe she's on so many of these pills
that she is like spaced out from some of these things.
But I don't know.
That's a good point.
I didn't, I forgot about that from like the second episode.
Because I think that the,
one of that girlfriend I'm mentioning,
she's gonna call back home.
She's always talking to you back home and they're going to say to her, oh, you know
that lady that we were at the party with or her husband just all over the news.
And then she's going to go and tell her and that's how it's going to unravel.
And I do think when the police show up, because I think central, how do you say her name?
Sreetala Sreetala. I think she, they're going to call the police because they know
where Rick is staying and that he's assaulted her husband. I think the police show up. I
think when the police show up, I think that's when everything's going to fall apart because
Rick's going to think they're there for them. And then the Ratcliffe father,
he's gonna think, oh, they're there for me.
And then the man who killed Tanya is gonna think,
oh, she's called the police on me.
I think it's all come to a head.
Yeah. Okay. Ron, some great white lotus theories.
I love it.
And I would love to meet Mike White one day.
You never met him. What a brilliant mind.
No, I've never met, I've never talked to him.
I have no interaction with him.
He's not on social media.
So I was like, I don't know how to send him a message,
but that's a genius.
That is a genius right there.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's too bad.
I mean, I feel like that you played consecutive seasons.
You were almost on his season.
They can't have two old white men together,
but almost, we almost made it.
You almost made it.
And yeah, that would have been interesting
because you would have been on the same tribe.
You're not a David, right?
Depends on how you look at it.
Yeah, I would have loved it.
I would have laughed hilariously
all the time. Yeah. You don't think he maybe took your spot, right? I don't know. Maybe.
Maybe. Yeah. Cause you would have played on the same try. I'm much better than him having
it than me. Cause that's, he's incredible. Let him have it.
Yeah. OK.
That's not when somebody said you want to be on season 50.
I was like, no, I want to see the other people.
They deserve it more. Let's watch them.
Mm hmm. Yeah. So.
Ron, did you stay watching the whole way through,
even when everything in your career was taking off?
It was ever a point when you missed some seasons and then had to go back?
No, I've watched it all. I've watched the whole, I've never stopped. And my friends and I, through the like season 21 through 26,
it was a kind of a rough, rough go there.
We played games where we would all get together and you pick someone on the first episode,
you have to pick before the first challenge who your person is, and then you want to see who can make it the longest. And if your person gets voted out first, we had to go out to dinner somewhere and everyone else got to make you a t shirt. And so this was, it was that time period, they made a t shirt for me because my person got voted out first and it said I'm president of the clay Aiken fan club
So that was the shirt I had to wear. Yeah, but anyway, but yeah my friends and I we've watched it all these years
Yep, never stopped. That was it ironic that do you not love clay Aiken?
No, I did not love clay you were a Ruben guy. Yeah
Ruben stuttered over clay Aiken, but it wasn't that I had anything against Clay Aiken.
When he sang Bridge Over Trouble and Water, that was incredible.
But people kept saying, you sound just like him. You looking at just like Clay Aiken.
I was like, no, I don't. And so it was just, I got too much of that.
Nothing personally against him. It's just the comparisons.
Yeah. Should Clay Aiken do the Traders?
Oh god. I think it'd be awesome. Yeah. Now, do you feel like that survivor,
they brought people back for season 38 and then they did winners at war. Do you feel like that
they made a mistake by not bringing more people back in the 40s in the way that they did in The Edge of Extinction?
I think it was a mistake, but you know, they know what they're doing.
They're trying to build a new fan base.
Excuse me?
You said. They know what they're doing.
Yeah. Get some new blood, some new fresh faces.
I would have loved if they brought people back.
And back then, if they were like season 41, 42,
I would have loved to have gone then.
That'd have been a dream.
So it's like, maybe they'll have people come back
and maybe, oh, maybe they'll ask.
But that ship sailed.
They made the new era.
They made the new era?
Yeah.
They created something new.
Give them props.
Survivor, if they had had new people,
the same people come back, they could have fizzled. But here we are at season 50 and approaching,
and this season is so strong.
Survivor's on the way up.
These watch parties are growing.
Podcasts are growing.
So listen, good on them.
What they're doing is working.
Yeah.
You know, when they first brought back people
to be just a couple of people,
and it worked out great for Boston
Rob back when he won and then it worked out, you know, pretty good for coach and okay for
Ozzy that these people that they brought back really were able to, you know, have their
sort of like a run of things for a while. And, you know, a bunch of them also did well
in survivor Philippines. But when you and all the first time players
were out there on the edge of extinction,
it seemed like that the players had gotten too smart
for like, okay, listen,
we're not gonna let these returning players
tell us what to do.
We outnumber them.
As soon as you saw Boston Robb win,
it's kind of like, how could that happen?
How could they have let that happen?
So the second we're on the island and we see all of these returnees, I'm talking to Eric
and we're like, oh, they've had their chance.
They've had multiple chances.
Their target number one, we have to get them out.
I would have loved to work with Aubrey, but I just couldn't because if they get down to
the final, if they win,
the whole show is about them and their journey. And we're just bit players. And I think it's
natural. There's so many of you, you have a common enemy in the, in the old returning.
Let's just vote them out. I think the only way to do it well is if you've got a full
season of attorneys or a whole tribe ofes and whole tribe of new players.
Yeah.
You know, they've done the fans versus favorites
a couple of times.
I think that one idea that would be interesting to do
is that it's three tribes,
but one tribe is just returning players.
And maybe it's not even like the players
that are the dominant players.
Maybe it's sort of maybe a tribe of returning players
who are sort of like early boots, but that people like would like to see play
again. So it's not the biggest advantage in the world for these people. It's not
like that they've come in there and they've won and now they're gonna play
against new players. Players that maybe didn't get that far and you have a whole
tribe of them, they still are outnumbered. There's still 12 people who aren't the
returning players
But you know, you seem like a skeptical Ron. You don't like it. Yeah
I don't think that I don't think that works
His name is escaping me, but he recently he got his head hit he got out the first episode helped me out
Bruce so Bruce comes back
someone in their confessional and the first episode says
back. Someone in their confessional in the first episode says, it's not like he's really played before, but the fact that you've stepped your foot on this island before, you have
an advantage that we don't, you've got to go. So I don't think, I think they're still
going to say, I don't care if you got your first boot, second boot, third boot, you've
had your chance and there's 12 of us, let's target them. I don't think it's fair to the
returning.
Ron, do you have a person that you think
is potentially the winner of Survivor 48?
That's hard because my mind is cladded
with who I want to win.
Who do I think is gonna win?
I think it's Shaheen.
I think he wins.
I would love to see Camilla with her Camilla, Camilitary.
I would love to see Joe would be unbelievable if Joe won.
So those would be like epic moments.
Kyle, I would be where I have a Kyle t-shirt on Mitch.
I would have a Mitch t-shirt and a Mitch hat.
I mean, I would be so cheering for them.
And I like Shaheen as well. I mean, I would be so cheering for them. And I like
Shaheen as well. I think just from the winner edit, it looks like it's going in his direction.
Yeah. But say, I don't understand what they're doing. I don't understand something. Say something
get voted out next. And then something's gonna she's got a story, something's gonna happen. She
will come to play in big ways after the merge. I think. Yeah. Ron, I want to ask you about something that you're working on in real life.
Can you talk about The Amazing Shake and not the show that you were almost on?
Sure. So The Amazing Shake is a competition I thought up 17 years ago. Basically, I wanted
to teach my students soft skills. So I have an obstacle course around our school,
and it's business leaders, the mayor, the vice president of Delta, and each kid has to go up each station. And for 60
seconds, you have to have an interaction. Introduce yourself from handshake. Maybe the vice president of Delta says,
What qualities do you have that will make you a great employee here at Delta? So one corner
you turn, you have to eat with proper etiquette. One corner you turn, you have to give a toast at a wedding party. It's
just life skills. And it's kind of like a sport. You train to be able to do well at soft skills, how to present
yourself. And so we started at our school 17 years ago. Now it's all over the world. And if kids win their competition globally,
they come here to Atlanta.
And last weekend, we had 702 people from all over the world
who were coming to compete.
Last year's winner was Germany, runner up was Canada.
This year, actually a student from our school in Atlanta won.
So it's an amazing competition.
That's a free program.
We're a nonprofit school that we give to schools to use to train their kids on how to have their soft skills.
Yeah, Ron, I love this so much.
And I have two young boys and nine and eleven.
And I really do feel like that, you know, the kids, they spend so much time in the screens that a lot of these things are lost.
And they don't always do great with like engaging with people, especially strangers,
that they can be a little shy and maybe not like as outgoing.
And so I do try to like make sure that this is something
that they work on and I have some mixed results with that.
What inspired you to do this in particular?
Yeah, you're right.
We're dealing with the TikTok generation.
These kids live in their phones and
their kids are coming to my school and they don't know how to have a conversation with each other.
They don't know how to communicate. And so we had some kids that we had taught and they were really, really smart.
And these kids went to interviews to get scholarships and they didn't get the scholarship.
And then I sent them to get internships. They didn't get the internship. And I'm like, what is going on? We've got the test scores, what's happening here? And then when I talked to the people that did the interviews, they said, well, your, your kids aren't presenting well. I said, what do you mean presenting well? And then I said, we've got to do a better job of teaching our kids not only the academics, but also how to share a thought, how to speak with confidence,
how to be comfortable in your own skin.
Some people will know the right answer in a meeting
and won't say it because they're afraid,
but I wanted these kids to have the confidence
to share that idea.
So the program kind of teaches kids who are very shy
how to do that.
Yeah, I've thought about this in terms of Survivor
and I don't really feel like that I've seen it
really manifest on the show,
but I think that as people get younger
who are coming to Survivor and who are 21
and who have spent basically like their whole lives
more and more as Survivor moves on
and that 21 magic age gets further and further out into time,
there's gonna be more people that they've had to screen
their entire life.
And I'm looking to see if we ever get to a point
where people short circuit a little bit more
of being away from devices.
And if any of those, now they probably don't get on the show
if they don't have the skills
that you're working on with people.
But I do think it's interesting to see where there are people who are older who have had
both experiences of, okay, I had a life before screens and a life after screens and I can
kind of remember what it was like to not have the screens.
But I do think it's going to be something to watch as the show gets older and the contestants
keep staying the same age, you know, these
21 year olds come into it, how that that's going to be an issue.
Exactly. People send me in my Instagram videos all the time, can you watch my audition tape
and critique it for me? And they, I want to tell you, I think what Jeff and the team's
looking for, they're
looking for people who could do confessionals. Can you describe what's
going on well? That's why when I was in my interview, I said I need to show them
I can give a read on all of the people here that I've experienced. It's kind of
like if I were on the island, what would I be saying? How can I tell the story? And
so they don't look in the little hole, like right now as I'm looking, I'm not
looking at the screen, I'm looking in the hole up there. Like they don't look in the little hole like right now as I'm looking jump not looking at the screen
I'm looking in the hole up there like they don't even do that
they look down at the screen when they talk the whole time it shows a lack of social awareness and
They talk so long to say something really short
And so I think that's the biggest weakness is that social skill of explaining yourself
Ron I also saw that you and your staff recently played the Traders.
What was that like?
So I had this idea.
I was like, why don't we reenact the entire Traders event in one night?
Instead of playing it over a month's time, we played them one night.
And then we will approach...
Can I share it on the screen?
You posted on Instagram and now here's a little bit of you and your Alan coming
Right
Yeah, that's me. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, go ahead anyway
So it's it's the idea was that we would just do it with our staff and parents and
it was really epic.
It's a 30 minute episode you can watch on Instagram.
But the idea is that we're reaching out to Coca-Cola, Comcast, Truist, Delta, all these
companies in Atlanta.
And we're saying, would you like to sponsor for one member of your company to come to
a night of traders? And it's kind of like all the companies of Atlanta are competing against each other that night.
We make a 30 minute episode. It's kind of the best of Atlanta.
You can win the Traders event, but all the money goes to scholarships for kids.
And so that's kind of what we're doing. But we did it with our staff and students, staff and parents first,
just to make sure I could pull it off and it will be good and not hokey.
Okay. And so the real event is, yeah, the big one is still to come.
Yeah. Well, this, we did it with our staff and parents. You can watch the episode. It's
pretty epic, but now we're reaching out to companies to see, would you like to pay a
sponsorship for one member of your company to come? So that's the whole goal of why we're
doing it.
How did it go? Was there any hard feelings with your staff after the game was over?
People cried. Yeah.
So yeah, because, yeah, some people got emotional about it, but they loved it too.
And because as soon as you put it out or you go down the stairs getting a limo you're pulled off and
But every single one of them they're like, can we do this again? I will come back right now
I want to play again. They loved it. It's kind of like with Survivor
I cried like I laid in the in the in the in the sand beside Julia and cried my eyes out when I got voted out
But I loved it. I didn't go play it again. It's kind of all part of it.
Yeah. And did you do wardrobe changes like Alan Cumming?
Oh my God, of course. I had capes and drapes and scarves and all kinds of suits and hats and
glasses. You should watch the episode. Yeah, I'm intrigued. Yeah, I want to check it out. It looks
I'm intrigued. I want to check it out. It looks very fun. Ron, do you have any favorite players from these last couple of seasons, people that really spoke to you from the new
era?
Yeah, I really like Jesse. Did you see where his son won Mr. Beast?
Of course. Yes. How about that? Yes, awesome. So yeah, so I like Jessie Shan.
Big fan of hers, Caleb. I love Caleb.
Like Caleb should be back for season 50.
I thought just an epic, great, wonderful guy.
And I would love to see him play on a season where there's lots of threats.
He's not targeted so quickly and so easily.
Yeah, but yeah, love them. Yeah. They're some of my favorites. Yeah. Do you see anything that's
happening in this season that reminds you of what was going on in the Edge of Extinction?
Nothing. Edge of Extinction was miserable. Like, I'm so grateful I played, but my gosh, it was hard because being sent to that island
and you get a chance to come back.
I went in with a mindset of, oh, once I voted you out, once Rick Devons was gone, I was
like, solid, he's gone, don't have to worry about that.
But then as soon as the element comes back, oh no, these people could come back.
It messed up everything, messed up the gameplay, and it happens like in the middle of the game. So it messed with your mind, it messed up
with what I was trying to do. But yeah, I don't see any similarities really between the seasons.
What do you think now? I know that things would certainly be different in terms of the winner,
but what about if there was no edge of extinction in season 38?
How do you think that the whole season plays out?
In my dreams, I win.
I don't know when you came back from Survivor, if you did this,
but I would I would lie in bed and go through the whole scenario
of how it could have been different, what could have
happened if I voted this person out. I have relived it probably a thousand or two thousand times in my
head where I actually play out moment by moment what would happen on the island. It's kind of
neurotic. But I don't know. See, when I was on the island, Rob, I thought I was Boston Rob. I'm like, Oh, I'm killing it. Oh my god. I'm a
mastermind. No, but then you go watch it on TV and I'm like, Oh my god, what was I thinking?
So you think you're killing it and then you realize, Oh, I wasn't killing it as much as
I thought it was. But um, I don't know. I feel like I have built relationships enough
that I could have won if I got to the end
and sat with the right people.
I just, um, it didn't happen.
Yeah.
So when I was on season 38, I was consumed with getting out Rick Devens.
And the reason for this was that whenever we went to tribal council, anytime Rick Devens
would say anything, the jury would laugh.
They were smiling and I was like, oh my gosh, he's
just like a favorite here. They love him. I can't let him get to the end. He would beat me. And so
I became obsessed with getting him out. Ron, well, what you did, like that was a very like
new era move that you pulled where you gave Rick Devins the half of the clue of the advantage menu.
Like I could totally see something like that.
Maybe that you inspired the show to make these players do more like daring moves with the
advantages.
I don't know.
But my thought process was this.
Rick is like an energizer bunny.
Like we're all so tired. He's like, he's like climbing trees.
He's looking for idols constantly. I'm like, maybe I'll give him this and he'll calm down and stop
looking. Maybe he'll feel like I don't need to look anymore because I'm like, he's eventually
going to find something. And so I gave that to him. It ended up right before we left for tribal,
right before, few minutes before he finds the idol that he played that night
If he hadn't played it that night, he would have gone home and I wouldn't and so it just it's
Just moments. Yeah
Ron who do you still keep in touch with from your season? You mentioned Reem who I love also
Yeah, I love oneem. One of my all time faves.
Reem is the best.
Have you ever played any of those online survivor games?
You know, I never have.
Okay, listen.
So I get asked to do it, it's COVID.
I'm like, you know what?
Okay, they said 30 minutes a day.
Rob, I became so obsessed with it.
So I played with Missy. I played with Elaine, Bustacano Biscuits, Reem,
Karishma, we were all playing on this with lots of other fans.
It was the most fun.
They do challenges online and events and tribal councils.
And it was just, it was extremely well done and so I loved it.
So through that, I kept up with all those people quite a bit
for months and months, we did play that game.
But for my season, love Julia, of course, love Reem.
I just talked to Aurora the other day.
Oh wow.
I was texting with Aubrey last week.
Like, I don't know, just like Chris Underwood is great.
Like he'll be at the party on the 16th.
He came last time.
He's a wonderful guy.
He stayed at the apartment before with Lloyd and me.
He brought his wife.
So I'm close with quite a few of them.
Kelly Wentworth, I comment on her TikToks all the time.
I love following her.
It's a show message back.
Yeah.
You know, Ron, that in recent years,
the edge of extinction this the season, I feel
like has aged like fine wine. People have really been touting the virtues of the edge
of extinction. It's becoming as time goes by, yeah, as time goes by, a more beloved
season.
Gosh, let more time go by. Maybe it'll get better. We've got to get out of like being one
of the worst survivor seasons, which I didn't think it was one of the worst. But I think just
because you have somebody who got voted out at the beginning comes back to win. People didn't like
that. And it was hard to have any character development because of the split with the island.
But I'm glad to hear some people are enjoying it. The theme is not on trial.
Yeah.
Right?
That's what Wardog said.
And really, I think that maybe like when season 38 happened and it was the first like, oh,
the Edge of Extinction.
But like, there's been so many like, like, things, ways in which the game has changed
since then.
Like the idea of like the the pure 39 day game,
like forget all that now.
Like I think that people can get past
that there was an edge of extinction.
Okay, glad to hear that.
I mean, any season with Aubrey and you got Rick Devins
and then I mean, Kelly Wentworth, I mean, David and just so many,
so many big personalities and players. I think it was the entertaining season.
Yeah, I think so too. And I had gone back and I watched, I watched all the seasons and I went
back and watched it and I thought it held up. Yeah, I'm glad to hear that.
I go by how many boring episodes were there?
And not many, very few. Not many.
And I mean, and even watching Reem on that island,
I feel like Reem is somebody that should be asked back
because bless her heart.
She played on that island.
She was the first one to go and she stayed that whole time.
And Robbie was rough.
It's rough on that island
because if you're suffering on an island,
but there's camera
crews around, it's like you can pull through. Well, this is, I don't want to diss with my family,
but when you're on that little edge of extinction, there's one little person sitting there with a
little camcorder and you're thinking none of this is ever going to be shown. Right. And that goes
on for weeks and weeks and weeks. So she pushed through. I mean, she's a road dog. I love her.
That's such a good point because I do feel like that, you know, people say they forget
about the cameras, but I feel like that, you know, the camera brings out the best in it
can bring out the worst in people sometimes too. But it does bring out the best in you.
It's like, okay, well, like, I don't want to let everybody down. Like, I don't want
people to see me at my worst. Like, I'm going to really, you know, I'm trying to be inspiring
to whoever is looking at me, whether it's people, you know, I'm trying to be inspiring to whoever is looking
at me, whether it's people who I know, or people who are looking at me as a role model.
So I'm gonna put my, you know, best face forward in this. But such a good point about how,
like, nobody's gonna see this. They're not showing this today.
Right. And I'll be honest with you, there were moments when I was like, I know people gonna quit my fingers a water log
It's rain. It's a cyclone like I'm freezing
And the cameras are there so I would push through and be like, I'm okay
I'm okay
If there's no camera or one cameraman sitting there with a on a tripod and I'm paying attention I'd be like, oh my god
I probably would have been much more dramatic and complained about it. So it does play, play with how you react to situations.
How many days were you at the edge Ron? Okay. I got voted out day 31. I went to the edge
for four nights. So four nights. Okay. So that was, I mean, you got to see it. You got a
sense of it, you know, you didn't have to spend too much time there.
Listen to me. Don't you downplay those four days.
It felt like four months. It was horrific.
I can't even tell you how bad it was. It was so horrible.
Yes.
Like it's like, it's miserable.
Are you glad to have had the experience or do you wish that you would have just
day 31? That's it, go to Ponderosa?
Day 31, go to Ponderosa.
Yeah, if that had been the game,
if there had been no, I would have chosen
no edge of extinction, I'd go to Ponderosa.
Because when you get voted out,
I don't know about you, Rob, but it's like,
you've let your family down, your friends down,
you're disappointed, you're you're thinking
I'm so stupid while to make the decision all those thoughts going through your mind and
The one thing that can make it better is a cheeseburger and you're thinking I'm gonna have a beer and a cheeseburger
And I'm going to just at least put my face in this cheeseburger and I'm gonna eat my eat away my sorrow
Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no. Oh, you just got voted out now you're gonna sleep in the sand with no fire and no protection and no cover and no shelter and
ants and crabs and rats crawling on you and
That was the worst. Yeah
All right. Well Ron luckily
They haven't put should there be edge of extinction into the hands of the fans yet
Should there be Edge of Extinction into the hands of the fans yet?
No, if that's a vote, listen, I'm gonna start campaigning with Fine.
Yeah, lead the way Ron. No Edge for season 50. Because they did it for 40.
I don't know. Maybe it's better to watch it.
No, I didn't like watch it on season 40 either.
The only part I liked was when they did I thought that was really nice at
Jeff to let the loved ones go visit them on the edge
I really I like that part. Yeah. All right, Ron. Is there anything else you want to let people know about?
No, just I'm grateful I'm
If anybody is considering applying for Survivor, I wish you the best of luck. Go for it.
And I just feel like I'm, I feel indebted to the Survivor community.
It's why I did the party.
It's why, cause I like, I feel like we, as people who are on the show, we owe it
to the other community because we were the few lucky ones who were blessed with
the opportunity and it's just, it's a rare experience.
I loved it.
So grateful.
And, um, I'm just a huge fan and will be for life.
Well, Ron, I'm a big admirer of yours.
I don't know how you get everything done that you do.
And so I am just in awe that you even have time
to have the party, that you have time to talk to me
about Survivor.
And so just keep up the good work
and it's amazing to watch everything you've built
It's very kind of you to say I feel the same about you. Thank you Rob. Yeah, and you make time for things that love yeah, okay?
Anything else for people to look at Ron?
No, okay um
All right well just watch out for what we'll do a recap of the party on April 16th. It's gonna be a big one. Surprise is gonna happen. It's gonna be fun stuff. I mean, 60 survivors is incredible. Yeah, it's gonna be a wild time. Okay. All right. Well, we love to hear from everybody here in the comments and let us know what you thought about this chat here with Ron. We'd love to get your feedback. I'll be back Wednesday night.
Stephen Fishback will be back to break down the Mergetory episode of Survivor.
So we'll see what happens there and then all the podcasts to come this week.
Thank you so much for joining us. Take care. Everybody have a good one. Bye!