RHAP: We Know Survivor - Shauhin Revisits Survivor 48 Encore Episode

Episode Date: February 21, 2026

Shauhin Revisits Survivor 48 Encore Episode On this episode of Rob Has a Podcast, Shauhin revisits Survivor 48 as CBS airs Encore episodes leading up to the premiere of Survivor 50, a special all-returnee season celebrating the show’s 25th anniversary. Hosting the conversation is Brandon Donlon, who helps unpack strategic decisions, social dynamics, and the nuanced gameplay that defined Survivor 48. A big reason fans are rewatching Survivor’s past is to refresh their memories on players returning for Season 50. Survivor 48 returnees include Kyle Fraser, the winner of Survivor 48, Kamilla Karthigesu, who made a memorable deep run, and Joe Hunter, another standout finalist from that season. Shauhin and Brandon break down how watching these players in Season 48 gives new insight into what they might do on Survivor 50, how their past alliances could shape their next game, and which moves feel even more pivotal now with the returnee stakes higher than ever. Whether you’re rewatching for fun or gearing up for the big Season 50 premiere, this episode blends sharp analysis with engaging reflection. 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!

At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet winds. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today, and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. The healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life.

Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. If weight management is one of your new year goals, Quicksilver Scientific's GLP1 amplifier can help. This science-backed formula supports metabolic balance, curbs cravings, and promotes healthy blood sugar levels, making it easier to stay consistent and in control. It helps give your body the boost it needs to keep you on track. Feel confident and energized this year with QuickSilver Scientific's GLP1 amplifier.

Get 10% off and free shipping at tryqs.com slash podcast. Again, that's tryqs.com slash podcast for 10% off and free shipping. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. What is going on everybody? We are back with the final episode of the Survivor 50 lead-up recap podcast. It's your good friend, Brandon Donlin. The second best beard in the room, if you're here watching us, you already see our guests. From Survivor 48, the episode that we're going to talk about, his boot episode, he's got the fingers in the beard. I'm jealous.

how are you? It's good to be back on our HAP, especially now that Rob's away, we can really have a good time, you know? There's no red tape. We can do whatever, we can say whatever we want. Yeah, we're here. Rob is always so, you know, strict,

and we're just going to have a good time and talk about my trauma. You know, the other night was technically boys night, but this is a boys night. We're two boys. Yeah, exactly right. I love it. Boys night.

And like, the only thing that I'm upset, about is I feel like you probably have chest hair and I don't think that the people have ever seen yeah I got tattoos and tattoos

you don't have chest hair you have chest hair you have tons of chest hair yes that's why I was talking about like I think we could have had a chest hair and beard episode we have we should have done this shirtless I think that's what the people

probably want if I'm getting honest I don't know those people I'd love to meet them if you're out there let me please Oh, I rip your DMs, my friend. Now you have asked for it. Please. Tell me, Shaiyan, your boot episode.

Yes. Have you rewatched your boot episode since the night that it happened? Just almost, you know, a little bit under a year ago? Yeah. The night that I watched it, I was surrounded by friends and family and my mom's house. Actually, in the house that I'm in right now. I'm actually at my mom's place. And so had, you know, 30 of my really close friends.

And it was a. really fun at night because I had accomplished and like now they actually knew everything that happened. I had not told my friends, family, nobody really what happened, except for, you know, my partner at the time. But yeah, I hadn't I hadn't told anybody. And so that was finally the moment where I could really start talking about all of the different things that had happened in the game. So I don't want to give anything away. And you know, that first night that you're watching your boot episode. It's like you're your grid that you're just holding yourself so tightly and didn't get to like really even process everything that got shown. And I watched it again maybe three weeks

after it aired. Like, you know, I'd gone on a trip after the finale. And I had said some really dumb things to Joe at the finale, like really stupid, just like I was not in the right mental space going into the finale and watching the first episode that you're not on is like kind of a weird experience as well like when you're on it for a while and so it was I was just not in a healed space and said some dumb shit to like my best friend who I really care about and um and like okay cool took me a while like come back down from all that and then finally watched it again a couple weeks later and realized like okay cool this is this was fine it was great and um yeah and it was a good episode it was really cool and

that's, I think that's the kind of crazy thing about at least my boot episode is, number one, I think it's a great episode. And two, it's like, I got to talk about some really important things to me. I got to talk about my mom. I got to talk about the ganglion cyst community, which just doesn't get enough representation. Can I actually, hold on, I want to show you, because I had the thought of the Google search increase for ganglion cyst. Here's the boot episode. You put them on the map. You got people talking about the ganglion cyst. And it's only shying gone down since that.

Yeah. Nobody's talking about it anymore. The number of people that were in my DMs, like, thank you for representing the ganglion. Not exactly the community that I was hoping to get the representation cred for. That's true. I think the Persian community is what I was really going for. But like, you know, we've actually had some really amazing, you know, Persian competitors on the show. I just happened to be the first male, you know.

Oh, right. Right, right. We've had Venus and we had Shereen before that and both just incredible players and great television. And then I got to be the first Persian male, which was cool. What was that outreach like for you? Are there a lot of Persian Survivor fans that you got? Definitely. A huge, huge outpouring of support from the Persian community.

And what's crazy is like even today I'll still get like, you know, maybe a message or two, maybe three a month of like, hey, I just watched your season because now that it's all streaming, you know, people are like watching whenever. A lot of people are trying to catch up before 50. And because there's three people from this episode that are going to be on 50, a lot of people are like now catching up and watching. And so yeah, it's been really cool to see like, hey man, like you're, you know, I, I watch Survivor. I never get to see a Persian person play or a Persian man play. And, um, especially from the men. Like, it's been cool. Especially young kids. Like, I have a, uh, I throw a watch part in Orange County.

And if you're not doing anything, you're in Southern California, you're looking for something to do for the premier, you know, links in bio, like go get a ticket. But one of the people that you'll meet at the watch party is mini Jeff Probst.

We have like a seven, eight-year-old, maybe I think he's maybe a little older than that now, eight-year-old fan who dresses up like Jeff Probst every single watch party he comes to and he comes and hides idols around our watch party. you have.

Oh, I dig that. The people that find the idols, you get to participate in a challenge. And if you win the challenge, then you get to take home like a prize. Like last time we did the Survivor game. And we've also done like a buff or whatever for that person, which is super fun. And Jeff, Minnie Jeff will help me like call the challenge. So he'll like- How did Minnie Jeff pop up?

Is he somebody, was he doing this and then you saw him or you, this is, this is your idea. No. So he actually is the son of this woman that I went to law school with. And she's Persian and I'm Persian. And so we had this, Patisa. Hi, Patisa. She and I had an amazing relationship. She was like an older sibling for me because she was in her third year when I was in my first offered some amazing guidance. And then when I was on the show, her son is half Persian. And so he like watched it and saw like, oh, wait, that's like a Persian guy. Like that's like me. And I actually got to go talk to his class, third grade class, I think. And it was really fun.

I got to teach them a little bit about speech, which is what I do. And so I came and did like a little thing. And we talked about Survivor a little bit. And it was really, really cool and empowering. One of the coolest things about this whole like survivor thing. And you get some distance from the, oh, man, you got booted or whatever. And you realize, oh, man, what cool opportunities and things come to your life because of, Survivor, how awesome it is that you get to walk around as an ambassador for this, you know, now really

family-friendly show. Like, one of the things that I think a lot of fans have a hard time with is that it's transitioned to become a more family-friendly show than what it was when it was in the early stages of Survivor. And I certainly understand that, that gripe. I get it, especially when it's something that you love and you watch it change. And you're like, I just want it to be the way that it was. and that's just not what it is anymore. And it's a different thing now. And part of that is cool. Like my watch parties are family friendly.

We have five-year-olds and seven-year-olds and nine-year-olds and newborns. And that's actually a really cool part of bringing a community together on a Wednesday night. And not for nothing, but I don't host my, I know that other watch parties are at bars and they're really, really fun. By the way, if you're listening to this and you're not in Southern California, you're not in Orange County, go to a watch party. In every major city right now, I think that the survivor community has really come out and thrown these awesome events. Obviously, RHAP is throwing a watch party in Los Angeles, week three. Right? March, March 11th.

Yeah, week three. April 22nd, Toronto. Go to that awesome. Yeah, there you go. Like, no matter what city you're in, I highly recommend you go find the watch party. And you know what? I'll put together something and put it on my Instagram story, a list of all the different watch parties. So if you want to find it, you certainly can.

But they're so funny You say that You know, I'm watching Survivor as an 11 year old And yeah, I'm watching the older show Yeah, yeah, yeah And loving it the way the kids are loving this one But this world didn't exist in when I was watching it Like you couldn't go anywhere

I mean, then it's, you know, Thursday night But you couldn't go anywhere Thursday night And watch like that is such a new thing And I'm so glad the kids watching now Get to have that mini Jeffers I would have loved to have been Mini Jacker I mean, can you imagine like he comes and gets to hide And his little sister is super cute too.

And now they have friends that come every went. They know, like, okay, cool, we're going to go to the watch party together. And it's been really, really fun, especially to provide a space that's not alcohol-based. It's not, we don't host it at a bar. We hosted an event venue. And for me, that's super important. Like, my family had a ton of alcohol use disorder throughout all of our family. My father passed away from alcohol use disorder in 2021.

And so providing a space that's not alcohol-based on a Wednesday. where there's food and drink and games and community and a place to go and have fun and hang out. Like that was that's one of the coolest things that's happened from Survivor. And I did it before. I was hosting Survivor Watch parties when I wasn't on the show just because I was hosting a Survivor Fantasy and doing it on a spreadsheet. And now it's not even on a spreadsheet anymore. I had a friend that was in the league that wanted to design a website, drop your bets.com, by the way.

So if you're interested in Survivor Fantasy and you want to play Survivor Fantasy for Survivor Season 50, drop your bets.com. Are you won for season 50? Are you betting for drop your buffs? Oh, so I am just the league administrator and I like write emails and get other survivors to like come through and comment and stuff. And but the league is cool. Like you get to bet your like you everybody can draft the same people if they want. So you get to draft whoever you want. And then after the merge you bet the points that you earn, right? The survivors earn points for idols and whatever. Then you bet the points that you earned. after the merge on who goes home next. So everybody's still in it instead of, you know, half the league being gone

because one of their favorite players went home or, you know, oh, I didn't even get to draft my favorite player because someone else already drafted them. This league is much more about do you know ball? Like, do you know Survivor? And can you can you can you're in it no matter who you draft. It doesn't actually, the draft is actually not that important. It's important, but it's not that important. The most important part is the finale.

Like last year, we had a woman who was in 45th place sneak up into ninth, which was in the prize places. And it's all because she called, she accurately predicted fifth, fourth, third, second, and first. She predicted them all and bet a bunch of her points. And so that's another thing. It's like, you know, I was doing that before I was on Survivor. But now it's like everything just increased, right? Like I just got, I have so many more people involved in that. And it's just so fun.

Like it's such a cool thing that you get to have. And so now they're, you know, now that I have distance from it, it's even easier. Well, what's so funny about even just the family friendly of it all is I'm seeing TikToks of folks watching all of these encore episodes with their family prime time live. And out of X amount of episodes, you are one of 10 who is now prime time, primetime again. Talk about the, you mentioned the edit with, if you can read the edit on drop your bets.com. You know, what do you remember about the edit from the episode where you leave? Did you have any takeaways from how that episode was edited comparative to your experience?

Yeah, they were incredibly kind. Thank you, Survivor Production. Holy crap. They're listening. They're here. Yeah, they could have made me look really, really, really bad. And they decided to be very, very kind in the edit. So I'm very appreciative of that.

Talk about that. What could have been bad about your perception? I definitely had a couple really big mistakes from like a gameplay perspective and also from a like just a what were you to think like why did you say that? Like why did you do that? And from like looking at the camera to being like confident like that's great gameplay. I like literally said that to the camera. at one point.

And I think you did. I wrote that down. That's in there. Yeah. And so it's just like, oh, God. What were you thinking, dude? Like, and, you know, in retrospect, I think they painted a pretty accurate portrait in some ways.

And in some ways, they didn't really, like, they can't show everything. They got an hour and a half. They got a story to tell. And so, you know, a really powerful episode. And one of the things that I recognize on the rewatch was, where my biggest mistake was, was not really being attuned

to what Joe had just gone through. He told me about his sister. I knew every, I knew, look, we talked for hours about what had gone on. And, you know, he even told me, like, I got to go handle something with my sister. And then when he came back from that, what was an obviously super intense moment for him,

something he'd been waiting to do for a really long time, his best friend out there comes at him and is like, hey, so who are we voting for? And what are we going to do? And like right back into gameplay. And you can't do that with someone that you've been on a beach with for 23 days

where you know everything. I saw the look on his face and I just didn't pay attention to it because I wanted to talk the game and we didn't have long to talk or I felt like we didn't have long to talk. And that created the schism that allowed

you know, Camilla and Kyle to really get in there and to do the thing that they tried to do. And like, not for nothing. I think that if we hadn't had that moment, if I hadn't had that schism, I don't think the vote would have gone the way that it did. You couldn't have fixed any, like,

do you have the moment of you see him and you recognize that he is not himself? And then that conversation still happens? Or you had no, okay, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that. I saw him walking back from that moment. moment and kind of gave him like, you know, maybe like maybe like a pat. Like, okay, cool, got. Anyway, let's talk game. And, and then when he didn't want to, then I got upset.

Right. I was upset that he didn't want to talk game with his like, at the time, number one, right? Like that I obviously knew that him and Eva had a very special connection. It's not like I didn't know that. But remember, Eva and him weren't on the same beach the entire time. Joe and I were on the same beach the entire time. We didn't have a single day away from each. other. We woke each other up in the middle of the night all the time. Fun fact, like, you know, everyone kind of had a really hilarious time with the like wombat episode, you know, where I woke Joe up in the middle of the night, like standing over him like Spider-Man Kiss style like upside down, you know? And, uh, people are like, man, if that was me, I would have freaked out. Well, why do you,

like the critical thinking always kind of stops there with the audience. They don't ask like, oh, well, why didn't you freak out? He didn't freak out because we've been doing that every night. Like I'd been waking Joe up in the middle of the night, or he had woken me up in the middle of the night every single night to talk. And you do see that in an episode here and there. It just kind of doesn't get paid attention to. Was that your first, like, spirited conversation that you two had had that day?

Or had you had conversations the moment that we were off. Wow. We were on fire for 23 days in a row. I mean, I've, like, it was so, so fun to play that game with Joe Hunter. like so incredibly fun. We had such a good time figuring things out and coming up with plans and not committing too much to plans.

And that was actually a huge part of the game that I was a little surprised, got cut. But Joe and I had made a bunch of plans and the thing that we kept coming back to was, hey, we're not committed to that. Like that's an idea. And that allowed us the opportunity to like,

okay, cool, actually, we're going to swing and go over here. We're going to swing and go over here. And, you know, they can only tell so many, narratives at the same time. But yeah, that was actually one of the coolest parts of working with Joe out there. He was very willing to, oh, okay, cool, that's not going to work. Let's go a different way. And he was always open to listening to all of the hairbrained ideas I had. And we had a really good time giving feedback to each other. And Eva as well, like, Eva was definitely involved in that, too. A lot of the talk between Eva and I started to slow down during those last like three or

or four days. And that's another thing that Kyle ramped that up during those three or four days. And so that also didn't help. You see the scene where, you know, Joe goes to Eva and it's like, so who do you want to trust? Kyle or Shaughin? And Kyle's like, or and Eva just says, Kyle. And that was interesting to me. Is there, I don't know if there was context given free of why it was so easily Kyle and not you. Like, I don't know where you're. That, that's it. I mean, I think that over the previous three or four days, Kyle really had work. on his relationship with Eva, especially during the David vote out. I had gotten pretty frustrated at that point because David was playing like a Boston Rob-style game. He was very paranoid and

like didn't want people to talk. And that was really, really bothersome to me. I'm a grown man. Like you're going to tell me not to talk to somebody. I'm talking to somebody that's in the alliance and you're still upset. Like, what is this? And he had floated this idea of tell me, to vote Camilla, they won't vote Camilla out. They'll vote somebody else, but they just want me to vote that way as a test of loyalty. And Eva told me that. And when I heard that, I was like, oh, you're not going to play that. Like that. I'm not going to play like that. That's absolutely not happening. So let's vote out David. Let's pretend we're voting out Camilla and we'll vote out David. And David and Joe have that a spirited conversation that is almost reminiscent of

the one that you and Joe have a couple days afterwards. Yeah, good call. Actually, hadn't thought about that. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Interesting. Why do you think this is the episode they picked? Like, I wonder if it is more, you have Joe who, I don't even want to say gets like duped, but Joe has this moment where the vote goes towards you. And then you have Kyle and Camilla, who are masterminding their, you know, this plant. Like, I wonder, why this episode gets picked to high like who it's highlight is my gosh I mean I think it's the it's the

best episode for those three like yeah it's a great episode for all three of them Joe wins immunity Joe has this amazing you know send off with his sister and then you have Kyle and Camilla finding that as a moment to take advantage

and I think that that makes for good TV and plus like the letters from home is such a fun episode as well You have this amazing letter from home from Kyle that gives him the motivation to kind of keep in the game. And you get to see Joe's kids handwriting. And like I think I think a huge part of it is the the ganglion cyst community needed more representation. Yeah. They made a call to CBS.

Can we run it back? Yeah. And also just like I think that's a huge untapped market for Survivor. And they wanted to really tap into that market before. And like not for nothing also, you know, there's not many. people on the episode, right? Yes. So there's only, there's only, you know, six people on the episode.

And so, and three of those people are going to be on 50. So it's a pretty good episode, I think, right before we send off. One of the other folks who's not those three or you, you know, Mitch opens the episode. He's, he's listening. Mitch is, you know, he's wanting to make the move, which I don't know, in the term, you know, Twitter really ran with the making the move of it all in terms of Mitch. But you say something really interesting, which is like, nobody wants to go up against Mitch in the end,

which are like, is Twitter, like are the people that, that are so, like Mitch is big move on there? Let me break it down like this. You get out there on day one, and after one day you've been there for 24 hours,

an entire season of Survivor is 13 hours. Sure. So you realize very, very quickly, oh, they're not showing any of this. Like, they're just not.

They just can't show everything. And I think that the idea, idea of like making moves is a meta of Survivor that when you're playing the game is different because you're navigating, okay, how many moves am I going to make? And if I make them too early, those are bad moves. Like people who make too many moves early, that's bad gameplay. You're going home. And so you have to walk this line of making moves and not taking credit for them or making moves and then getting out of the way for a while and letting other people, allegablering, if you will, and getting out of the way.

And this might make fans upset, but I don't care. I'm trying to play a game for a million dollars and win a game. And part of that is navigating that dichotomy of like, okay, cool, I need to make enough moves to win and be the narrative of the game. But I think a lot of fans confuse the bigness. the bigness of a move. Like a big move could be I didn't do something here. I could have done something.

I could have moved the vote. And I decided not to because I needed to exercise restraint so I don't go home. Because look at what happened on 46. Every single time someone made their big move, they went home. And that's the season that we saw right before we went out. And so we're sitting there going, okay, cool. If you make a big move, you go home. If you make a big move, you go home.

And like this is why a lot of, lot of people get confused. I think this is the fan frustration that as someone who played, it's not frustrating to me at all because I get why they're doing the thing that they're doing. At the end of the day, the edit is the edit is the edit. And you like arguing with the edit is is like a fool's errand sometimes. And I would offer to survivor players and I would offer to, I would offer to survivor players this piece of advice. Instead of rhetorically framing it like, oh man, they cut my strategy. They didn't show anything.

Stop talking like that because it hurts you and it hurts the interaction that you're having with other people. Instead, I would frame it like, oh, I have a secret to tell. And you didn't get to see everything. And so if you want to know, like, I'm happy to tell you the secret, that's not going to work on Twitter. That's not how Twitter works. It's not a place for it.

But in person interactions and like that, that is going to help, I think, process the fact that they didn't show the thing that you did. Mitch played a great game. He played an amazing social game. And that's the other thing about Survivor. It's one of those things that always gets nuked in the edit is social players. Because you can't show the five-hour conversation that you had sitting on a log where you fell in love with somebody. And you want to give them a million dollars.

You can't show that. It's not possible. How was your Ponderosa, your couple of days before the final travel? console. I love Cedric so much. Really. Like, you know what? So do I. So do I. Like, fuck the Survivor fandom for not being cooler to that guy. And I, and I get it. Like, I get the way that they edited him. They, they kind of didn't give the Survivor fandom a choice. But talk about one of the most kind-hearted, sweet, incredibly profound men. I was going through a lot that day after, as you always do, the first day that you're voted out.

And, you know, was out there by myself looking at the beach and just contemplating and writing in my journal. And I was going through a lot in my personal relationships back home that I, you know, had basically put on hold for those days. And so that morning, okay, well, my game is over. And now all of those thoughts started flooding back. And Cedric was really incredible in that moment. He was so kind and thoughtful and listening.

and was cool about everything and didn't judge all of the crazy ways that I think. And I do think in very crazy, crazy ways. I have very weird views of certain relationships and styles and all of that stuff. And he was so, so, so kind and cool. And I was very, very grateful for him. And, you know, David and I played ping pong and chess. And Mary and I got to hang out and really finally get to know each other a little bit better. And Chrissy was very, very focused.

on getting tan and staying in incredible shape. And she did. And, you know, Star is, you know, that's another thing about the edit is, you know, we didn't get to see enough of Star. I think Star is probably one of the funniest people I've ever met in my entire life. I've never laughed harder than, you know, the story of Star and the way that Silver Mars was conceived. And I'll just leave it at that.

Okay. I'll just leave it there. What's so funny about Star is you guys get home in this summer and then just, you know, all summer through 47, 48, you know, meeting people who played Survivor with you. Like, the only person that anybody wanted to talk about was Star. And you go into 48 thinking, I mean, me as a viewer who would host it. Like, she is the star of the season. And then that was not the case.

I'm, yeah, look, I'm as surprised as you are. Like the crazy part is it's like though we were all dead set that one of the episodes was going to be named. It is what it is because Star set it over and over and over again during this like one like three day period. And I think it was the episode where I don't know if it was the episode where she went home or where Mary went home. But we were dying laughing at tribal council like just really beside ourselves. The hardest I'd laugh maybe on the island. and it just never, never came up. It's just the way that it goes sometimes with the edit.

Edit is tough, man. They got so much stuff to choose from, and they have to tell a narrative. And that's the way that it goes. You're not making it. You're not making a fucking documentary out there. You're making a reality TV program. And I think that some players,

advice to players that are applying right now that are in the process, I hope you're listening. They probably are. They're here. Understand that. You're not making a document. You're making reality TV. Accept that.

Understand that. That things are just going to be edit. You sign a contract that says that. So relax. Enjoy whatever it is. Enjoy the process. Be stoked. Make those promises to yourself now.

Set the frame up for you to be successful. And I'm, you know, I made mistakes for sure. But I set a lot of mental frames for myself when I came out of the game and before I went into the game. Because at the end of the day, the numbers are the numbers.

17 of 18 people are not going to win this game. And if you are only going to be proud of yourself, if you win the game, then you're really wasting an opportunity that 26,000 other people would have taken advantage of. So make sure you take advantage of your opportunity. But in order to do that, you have to set the proper mental frames up for yourself. And once you do that, that frees you up to really go and play. So no matter what the thing is that you're going to go do, right, no matter what this risk is that you're going to go take in your life. If you set up the proper mental frames to go be

successful, if you set up, okay, and go through the scenarios and you set yourself up like, okay, cool, I'm going to take advantage of this no matter what this ends up being. If I go out first, if I go out in second, if I win the fucking thing, I'm going to make sure that I keep my frame correct. So I've been given an awesome opportunity to go have an absolute life changing and time of my life experience. And I know the Survivor fan. hates the fact that it's a life-changing experience now. I get it. I understand why. But that would, it, it, you can't love Survivor and understand the importance that it has as part of the pop culture zeitgeist and then be upset that people know that it exists and are

applying for it as they know that it exists. The game evolves because it's been around for a long time. and part of that evolution is understanding what it can provide you instead of letting it ruin your life. Like, for fuck's sake, man, some of these people that I've met that were in, you know, season seven and eight and nine and 14, they had their like lives turned upside down by survival. Oh, yeah. They got destroyed by this television program. And especially back then when the internet was way less kind to women. Women especially got torched by the show.

show and they have changed that. And now it's, it's weird because it's not the same thing. They're not torching people in the same way. And people are weirdly upset. And I get it. I get it. I get it. It's your entertainment. I understand. There are real people there that are out there doing this. And so for me, it's like, okay, set up the mental frames, understand that it can be an awesome and incredible experience. If you frame it that way, and if you understand it in that context, and if you don't, then it can suck. Then it can really screw you up. And there have been people for the entire time the show has been on that want to go there for a life change changing experience. Right.

Somebody, season 17, his name is Dan Kay, who unfortunately has passed away, he goes, the first thing he says to Jeff is I'm looking to find myself, which you never in like, I feel like finding yourself was something that you heard about in the 2000s where now I think it's just called different things. But aren't we all like anybody who wants to go, you know, you want to go because you seek something. And now I, you are undoubtedly in, in the story. Survivor New Era hearing about it more. But that hasn't changed. The essence of why people want to go do this, there are people, maybe pre-new era, who were going there for the money

and would put themselves through a sucky thing for money and the experience did not matter. I would love to have some of those, but I want to have some of those. I went for the money. Sure. You know, like obviously, I think a lot of us go for the money also.

The idea that you're not watching the show and understanding that it's like, a life-changing experience is ridiculous. Give me a break. Of course we understand that it's, it's a television, we watch it. We're doing our research.

It's like being mad about the forward pass. You know, it's like before the football didn't always have the forward pass. It used to just be running the ball. And now it's like, oh, the game changed entirely. It's like,

no, you don't. You don't miss it that much. The, you know, the early seasons were fine. And everyone's just mad about what's happening now. And I get it.

I get it. You all hated season 40. it's fine. I don't, that's fine. They're not listening to that. We got the people that are. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

If you hit season 48, you're not listening to me for this long. That's for sure. Because I was definitely the I or some fire fucking A. Oh my goodness. One of the things that you do in this episode that I thought was super interesting was, you have a confessional talking about the reward challenge. You get the tree mail that it's,

it's going to be an arm situation. Yeah. And they air you in a confessional that's like, can we not with the arm stuff? Which they, they never do that. No. Like, you are, you are a rare. in you are somebody who is not bad at challenges talking about like can we just get different challenges which is like you hear the people who are bad saying can we get different stuff but

it's just so funny they left that it you know what's so funny is I was complaining to me when Mitch was gently rocking me in the which by the way I made note of that also yeah Mitch gently rocking me is like amazing television for me and I was complaining to Mitch and, you know, the production, like, sees me and hears me complaining to Mitch. And it's like, hey, let's go for a confession. And so it's like, all right, sure, let's go. Let's go rip. And, of course, I do the, like, you know, the leg thing.

And, like, my legs belong in a fucking museum. I worked on my legs. And it's true, by the way, like, you watch Survivor. They love the torture feet. They have leg challenges for sure. They have balanced challenges. These are all things that I trained for and wanted desperately. And, of course, I get put on, you.

you know, survivor with the mon stars, right? Like, it's like I walked down into the hotel and saw like Kyle and then Joe and David. And remember Kevin's huge and you didn't know this, but our alternate that year, the male alternate was jacked. Like, oh, is that right? I didn't know that. It looked like Popeye. Like he was just absolutely shredded this dude.

Yeah. And do we know who, have you spoken with? Have people? Really? No idea. And by the way, if you're listening to this, dude, like, of all the people you should reach out to, it's the alternate who then play it.

Like, reach out to me. What are we doing? Yeah, he might be going. Like, the way they do this. He might be heading there. He seemed super cool. I wrote in my journal about him. I called him Thomas Shelby in my journal

because he kind of had that haircut and that vibe. Wow, a reference, a reference that I knew immediately. I love a reference that I know immediately. Everybody had certain names in my journal. Like, everyone had a different name. Who were Kyle, Camilla, and Jeff. Joe was I mean Joe's just

Joe's obvious Iron? No the rock The rock Yeah Yeah the rock David David David David was

The guy who ate Tom Cruise Sure sure I can see how that I get that Kyle was kid in play Okay Sure You got a little

Yeah sure And then Camilla was I think like ninja Okay Because she just gave nothing Like in pregame Camillo was just like nothing. Really?

No reactions. Yeah, I couldn't get a read on her. Was she your worst pregame read? Was she giving the worst vibe of the pregame? No, she just gave nothing. Like,

you get nothing. Yeah, which is fine. I actually think that's a fine strategy in pregame. It's just like be mellow and not do anything and be fine. Yeah. I think any intentional action can be seen as too much. So if you're,

but also if you're intentionally not doing anything, maybe, you know, who knows? Also, like, not for nothing and respectfully to people who have talked a lot about pre-gaming. Let me just say this. Pre-game means nothing once the game is started. Give me a break, okay?

I just want to put this out there. You know, you're going to get a couple sentences. And I've talked to people about like, okay, but the pre-game stuff, like how much pre-gaming can you really do before you get kicked out? My interpretation of free game, and I think this might help people understand, is it's like being in a movie theater. while a movie is playing. Okay?

If you say one word, you might catch a look from production. Don't like, you know, excuse me, fine, not a big deal. You say a sentence,

and now the people in the movie theater are going to be like, hey, knock it off. If you start trading paragraphs while a movie is playing, it's like, all right,

time, you're out. Get out. Sure. Yeah, right? Now, imagine at the end of a movie,

you've never met somebody. You sit next to them in a movie theater, right? You trade like a sentence or two. Then you leave the movie and you go get dinner with that group of people that you were sitting next to. Is that conversation that you traded one sentence really going to have that big of an impact on who you like the most at the end of the dinner? No, it's not. Maybe you set a little bit of a precedent, but give me a break. like I do find that so many things have to go right in a row for anything to have to any

conversation to have meant anything I can see a world where they mean something but I think just like nine things have to happen for it to ever make any tangible thing yeah and like a three hour you know you're out there on the beach there's no phone there's nothing to do you just sit there and talk for three hours with everybody at some point and that three hour conversation is going to be a lot more important to anybody who's decent at this game, then the two-minute conversation you might have been able to sneak at Ponderosa, which you're never going to be able to sneak again. I bet you that. There's no way anybody's, I think, taking that risk anymore. Yeah. No, I think, I think, well, I'm curious to see how things are tightened, if they're

tightened. I mean, that's the, we'll never know, but that's an interesting thing. I want to, you know, end with, you know, you say at the beginning of our chat here, the conversation that you have with Joe at the finale. I mean, it doesn't matter what that was, but was that thing like planting in your head because of this episode? Was that thing, that was something that was spurred by this? I was just mad. I was just mad that I got voted out.

And you say finale, you mean finale of season 48 in person or the LA finale when it airs? The finale of season 48 in person when we went to L.A., because they host. Okay, so not, not in Fiji. This is in Los Angeles. No, no, no. This was in Los Angeles. Yeah.

So by the time, you know and I had talked a lot throughout the entire season. We called each other every, every single day. And another moment where I was just, you know, we just had an off day.

And it was because I was just in my fields and wasn't healed. And thought I was and thought I was fine and just did not come at my, my friend in the right way. It's inappropriate. So by the time, you rewatched this episode.

And then is that the moment? moment that you're thinking about the conversation that you had this Joe thing. And then Joe at this point is on season 50. Joe is not around to call. Yeah, yeah. Joe's gone. So what was it like when Joe returned? And then you had this thought in your head. Uh, I mean, it took a while for us to like get back to like normal, you know, because and that's the way that it goes with stuff like this, man. This is not an easy thing to put on a relationship. And I think each day on Survivor is like six months of friendship. Yeah. Because you spend about that much alone time with somebody in about six months, right? Face to face time with no screen, no whatever. Takes about six months of that to have that

type of time. And so, yeah, when he got back, we had a bunch of really good, hard conversations where I explained and he explained. And yeah, suffice it to say, I'm definitely rooting for Joe Hunter and and hope he comes home with a million. Sure, sure, sure. I hope he's the title of Soul Survivor for sure. And excited to see him play again without, you know, without something like the Eva thing, which is a really heavy thing to be placed on somebody,

a really heavy responsibility to be put into his lap. And for him to take it the way that he did and to take it on in the way that he did is, you know, you can say, I think a lot of the internet is, is in this weird negative space about stuff like that, but I'm not. I think that was an incredible thing that he did and pretty cool way to go about it. And I think I'm excited to see that him have an opportunity where he's, you know, playing with a bunch of people that are

savages and he knows it. Like it's not like he's confused about this, this opportunity. And I'm excited to see what he has to do. And, and not for not. Nothing. excited to see what Camilla and Kyle are going to do to avoid the fact that they just got seen. Their whole game just got exposed. And Kyle's in particular, like, how is he going to navigate knowing that everybody knows he won and they saw how he won? And by the way, I don't know if Kyle ever talked about this. I didn't really watch a lot of his interviews, but that dude planned it from day one. Actually, he read us part of his journal. Was this, is this Lord? Do people know this? I want to expose his thing.

unclear. I was nodding because I feel like I've heard this story, but I don't know if it's published. Yeah, he wrote down exactly what he wanted to do in his journal before he went out on the island, like in the, you know, Ponderosa and then went out and executed. And, you know, I have a feeling. He probably did the same thing. And so it'll be interesting to see what he does. And then Camilla, man, she no longer gets to run on that underestimated. She no longer gets to be this underestimated person. And so it'll be interesting to see what Kyle, Camilla and Joe do coming fresh off of 48. And I'm excited to see how these 48ers do it.

I mean, they pick three people from our season for a reason. And these three, I think, are great, really entertaining, fun representatives of, you know, of our season and of Survivor. Is there any specific takeaway from your round where you leave that you think any of the three of them will take with them in 50? Is there any lesson that anybody learned this round? Do you mean like with season 48 or this episode? Your boot episode.

Like you're a specific round of play. I mean, I think if the people that are going out there to play with them, I think if they're smart and they are, then they'll probably try and find a way to make, you know, Joe emotional. I think if, if, and Joe is smart, I think he's going to probably be a lot. I think we'll see a lot more.

of a controlled version of Joe. And I think that for Kyle and Camilla, I think people are going to be a lot more skeptical of them than maybe I was, I would assume. And for them to learn, you know, okay, cool, I wonder how they're going to change up their gameplay.

Like, I wonder, are they going to try and find a secret alliance with somebody else? Is that going to be the thing that they run back to? Or secret alliance, quote unquote? Nobody would suspect it. Another secret. It would be so egregious that nobody would expect it.

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I could see that. I'm excited. Yeah, it'd be interesting to see. And I wonder how, you know, if and how the three of them will work together or be on the same beach or not or what. Like, I, you know, three beaches, 24 people. Like, I imagine that a lot of people are going home per episode. There's got to be a couple.

I would imagine so. Yeah. I think they'll do, and they did it a couple times in the 30s where, you know, they'll have three tribes and two of them lose, you know, like, I think they're going to do stuff. like that. But I'm excited to see it. And you talk about it in the beginning of the podcast, but you've got a great viewing party coming up in Orange County. People go to your Instagram to find out where to go for that. Yeah, I got a bunch of different things going on, man. Yeah, if you want more information on me, certainly the Instagram is fine. I also, I coach public speaking and help people find their voice, heal their voice and use their

voice. And actually, the last time that I was on RHAP, I got a email from a person who was like listening to RHAP. They're a civil rights attorney and they had a gala coming up. And we worked together on their gala speech and they just had it this past Thursday. And it went awesome. She went from, you know, not feeling super confident because she has, you know, a little bit of imposter syndrome and didn't know exactly what to say and how to start and where, like what, what to say to actually make people feel special and heard. And then all of a sudden, by the end of, you know, a couple sessions of coaching, she's like, dude, this was fun.

I had a great time. And she's also starting in the cohort. We have a small cohort class. It's, uh, it was supposed to be 10 people, but we, we actually ended up with 11. 11 people, eight weeks to transform their communication ability. And if, um, if that's something that you're interested in, uLouter.org, um, or you can certainly go to, you know, my. Instagram and find the link there.

And let me know. I love working with people. We're full for this thing, but for the future, certainly open to working with people. I really, really love. And I've been doing it for a decade. I've been coaching public speaking and teaching people how to find their voice and then navigate healing that voice so that they can use the voice so they don't leave conversations like, damn it, I wish I would have said that differently.

Or I have a conference coming up. I've, you know, another client. I'm like, I have a conference coming up, and I don't even know where to begin. I have a keynote speech that I've been asked to do, and I don't know what to do. Or I've always wanted to do a TEDx talk, and I don't even know how to get started with that. And that's stuff that I love helping people with. Because once you figure that out, life just gets so much easier. You improve your communication.

Everything else improves. Yeah, it's one of those ripple effect things where you figure out how to structure it, then everything else. You know, you can structure anything. We can structure anything. Yeah. Internalized structure and then it's game over. Everything's easy. You were advertising something for the 18th.

of February. Was that another writing class you could sign up for? I remember seeing something posted about the 18th. That was a webinar. So I do a free webinar once a month where people can come and learn a little bit about public speaking and see if, you know, working with me is right for them. That you can find the information on the website, ullouter.org. And the next free webinar is on March 17th. It was supposed to be on Wednesday, but we, you know, know, we wear pink on Wednesdays. ULowder is a really good name. YouLowder is, how long have you had ULowder?

I don't know, a while, actually. Like, it's this I've been doing it on the side for a long time. And then just started really, really focusing on it now. But, you know, part of it's because I got to finally take a sabbatical from being a college professor. And so I have time to, like, really focus on this. And you louder came from me realizing too many public speaking coaches and communication coaches, try to make you into something that you're not.

They try to make you talk like, you know, in this newscaster voice or whatever. And it's like, that doesn't fucking work. Like, you have to be authentic. And you've got to just learn how to be yourself a little bit louder, armed with the right stories and the right structure and the right framing of those stories and understanding how to navigate the anxiety instead of running away. from the anxiety, then you have the opportunity to be yourself a little bit louder. But thank you.

That does remind me, I need to go trademark that. Yeah, it's really good. Somebody's been saying. Yeah, it's interesting. If you don't, if you do so much work, that is a distraction when you deliver your speech for everybody. And if you do no work, also to get people to focus on the content, you have to be you louder. Exactly right.

We're so good. We're so good. You're hired, Brandon. tired. This has been such a fun time. Thank you, showing, for joining me. Rob wrote a book. Rob has a book.com. If you want to go pre-order Rob's book that comes out. Oh, you don't know this? No. Oh, hold on. I'm going to turn off my camera. You had Philibuster for 30 seconds. I'm going to go show. Hey, everybody. I'm very excited that I get to hear all about Rob's book. Pretty cool, right? And also, I think Stephen Fishback wrote a book. I haven't gotten a

copy of that. Fishback, send me a copy of your book. Survivors writing books. And you know what? Here's the deal. I think that in order to be on Survivor, you have to be an excellent storyteller. And if you're an excellent storyteller, you're probably an excellent book writer. You can do a little of this? Yeah, I talk about escape.

Awesome, yeah. Escape here, Stephen Fishback, phenomenal. I'm not allowed to open this because I think it's all secret, but it's Roswood. It's phenomenal. Comes out on May 5th or 6, and I should know today. But you guys know if you can pre-order.

Okay. Hardback, illustrations, the whole thing. Crazy. You guys, it's so good. You really, you will all love it. I can't wait. But also just keep listening. I'm so thrilled that you guys joined us for our final Survivor 50 Encore episode recap.

My name is Brandon Donlin. So thrilled to have you here and we'll chat soon. Bye-bye.