RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 47 Pre-Game Day 2: Kishan & Rome

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Today, Rob and Mike discuss two more players on the Lavo tribe, Kishan Patel and Rome Cooney.

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Hey everybody, what's going on? Rob Sestrino back. will be handcrafted with care at Starbucks. Hey, everybody. What's going on? Rob Sestrino back. It's day two of our Survivor 47 cast preview. We've got two more people to talk about here today. Talking about Kashan and Rome here today with a man who interviewed them both. Give it up for Mike Bloom.

Yes, Rob. Famously, you can't drink lava, but we can drink Lavo as we're talking two more people from this tribe today. Okay. Mike, yesterday we got it all started. We talked about Asia and Genevieve. But today, let's talk about two of their tribe mates here. It's going to be Kashan and Rome. Yeah.

And already this tribe is shaping up to be very interesting. We'll get into it with these two. Also, a lot of mentions of other members of their tribe. So I know obviously we're going to save like the big analysis for this group of six next podcast when we finish off the tribe. But already, Rob, at least from my perspective, I'm already kind of piecing together where I expect things to fall based on, again, these very enigmatic vibes

they're giving each other in the preseason. We're piecing it all together now that we have a little bit more of this tribe. Tomorrow, we will finish out talking about this tribe. Make sure that you're subscribed

to our podcast, robswebsite.com slash subscribe, or hit that subscribe button here on YouTube to make sure you don't miss any of it. So first up, Mike, we have Kashan Patel. He's an ER doctor. We'll hear his interview uninterrupted in just a moment. Anything you want to set up about Kashan? Yeah. So Kashan is 27 years old. He is from San Francisco. A little bit of a later fan to Survivor, though the other person we'll talk about, I think, even more closely compares to that estimate.

And yeah, as you mentioned, he is an emergency medicine resident physician, I believe is his formal title, but colloquially an ER doctor. And yeah, certainly has some very interesting perspectives on both his job and why it makes him feel adequately prepared for all the mayhem that the new era throws at us. All right. So let's go ahead and hear from Kashawn. And then Mike and I are going to come back and talk about what we think right after you hear from him himself.

What's going on right now? I'm good. I mean, pre-week is pre-week. Good. I mean, pre-week is pre-week. It's been basically a silent retreat. And I feel like I'm slowly just like decaying my mind of like not having said a single word. I feel like a kid at like a toy store and the parents are like, you can buy a toy at the end. And they're just silently waiting the whole time. I've literally just been patiently waiting for something to happen. Well, look, you'll get a chance to play with some action figures right now. You can speak freely, speak openly. In fact, I hope you do.

Let's just start with some easy stuff. Give me your name, age and your occupation. I'm Keyshawn. I'm 27 and I'm an ER doctor. Interesting. So what was the path to getting there? Is medicine something you always wanted to do? Oh, good question.

That's a million dollar one. There's two folds to why I wanted to do emergency medicine and become a doctor. The more less significant one is that, you know, emergency medicine is chaotic. It's so fun. You see the craziest things. There's never a dull day and you never know what's going to walk through the doors. Like you could go from a stab wound to a gunshot wound to then like a stubbed toe and like the emotional whiplash of that. It's just it's something that's like I find it really enjoyable and not everyone will.

And, you know, it's something that's like, I find it really enjoyable and not everyone will. And you know, it's really fun, but a bigger portion of why I even went into medicine in the first place is like, no one in my family is a doctor. I'm like the first generation to actually go through to college. And so like the community that I grew up in was like a very uninsured, very low income community. So a lot of the people in my community and even my own family use like the ER as like primary care and like that's their only means of access to care. So I always found a special spot for people that are very underserved and very vulnerable that turn to ER when, you know, they have nowhere else to turn to. And it's just like the perfect place to be able to kind of like impart such a, like you're that first point of touch for that

person's medical experience, like their entire medical journey. And like, you can leave a lasting impact in their life. If you leave a poor impression versus a good one, like if you leave a poor one, oftentimes people won't seek further care versus you leave a good one, then, you know, you've kind of established their trust in the healthcare system. So that was kind of the broader reason why medicine and emergency medicine. But then it's also fun and chaotic and I really enjoy it. Well, then that sort of answers my next question is obviously the transition from ER to TC. Talk to me about your history with Survivor and what made you decide to your point to step out of one fun, chaotic environment into another one.

point to step out of one fun chaotic environment into another one yeah you know i am not out of everyone here probably i'm probably not the biggest super fan i only started watching like 2020 or 2021 like during the pandemic when i was like bored out of my mind and i was just like okay netflix had like one or two seasons on it and i was was like, okay, let's just see this. And then I watched it for the first time. And I like immediately became obsessed. And I've seen like so many seasons now. It's just, I absolutely love it. Like the chaos of it, how like, it's very similar to emergency medicine where it's like, there's chaos all around you. You're not going to be able to control everything in front of you and everything that goes around you. But you have to be aware of everything and know how to triage and know how to prioritize and keep in your mind a laundry list of tasks and everything that needs to happen to have a successful and like a successful outcome.

And like, that's what I do every single day in the emergency room. And that's what I'm going to end up doing here. It's like, you know, you don't need to be in control all the time. You don't need to be the point person every single time. You just need to be aware of everything that's going on and you need to know when to turn your attention and focus to something. And that's the most important thing.

And that's literally what Survivor is and why I love it. Yeah, right. We have RNs to take care of like dressing those wounds over there. Let me take care of what's the high priority in this corner. Exactly. We have that little to take care of, like dressing those wounds over there. Let me take care of what's the high priority in this. Exactly. Exactly. We have that little small alliance doing their own business. Don't need to worry about them right now. We'll deal with them later.

Like I need to focus on this first and then I can deal with that. It's just constantly triaging and prioritizing in your brain. And that's the fun of it. Well, I know you're a recent convert, but first, better late than never. That's what matters. But looking back on back on you know your time watching the show give me a winner and a non-winner who you identify with the most oh i'm so bad with names so that's fine you can describe them to me if you want to okay okay okay i'm obsessed i will never be but i'm obsessed with parvati okay i love her she's just such chaos but she's she knows what her strengths are and everyone should do that everyone should know what your strengths are

and just use that you don't need to fit your mold you don't need to become someone which is why i can say i'm never going to be a parvati but i love that she's able to hone in know what her strengths are and then use that to be able to kind of like manipulate the whole situation and be in control of it as well. And like, I will never be able to, I'm not a flirtatious person. I'm not going to do that. But I know what strengths I do have to be able to do exactly the same. So I really like that. And then someone who didn't win, but I also really, really enjoy how they played.

I'm going to go a bit more recent. And I think Carson. Okay. I really liked the fact that he was very much under the radar until he wasn't. And I think that's a brilliant way to play is like you know you need to be friendly you need to be strategic you need to like know what your strengths are and the challenges and every single aspect of it he was someone that

people really trusted in and no one really kind of like caught on that he was such a strong player And no one really kind of like caught on that he was such a strong player until he did get caught, unfortunately, which, again, there's ways of downplaying your strengths. And he didn't do that as well. But you just need to be able to like stay in that nice, minimal zone of like being under the radar, but still being able to like insert your influence um and kind of like going back to what i was saying of like you know keep in the back of your mind what tasks need to be done and do those but don't like don't need to like like put yourself into the spotlight too early and i think you did a really good job of that what would you say is your biggest superpower and your biggest piece of kryptonite that you're bringing into the game is the superpower speaking to what you were just mentioning, this idea to prioritize? Yes, I am very good at,

it's basically, in EM we call it triaging, and basically prioritizing. It's keeping a laundry list in your head of every single thing that constantly needs to happen and in real time updating it. Because, you know, you never know when a sicker patient's going to walk through the door and they get bumped to the top of the list. You never know when something more pressing is going to come up in terms of strategy or

something that's detriment to your strategy. And you need to push that to the top of the list. So you can't get stuck on one game plan. You can't get stuck on one thing, one task. I think even in Survivor, you can't just be just be like okay i'm focused on getting this person out you can't do that like you have to constantly be shuffling it because things are constantly changing and i do think that's going to be a huge strength of mine because i think people get so set in their ways and like it's hard for them to not like just have like a kill list and like go for it

versus like you need to be like keeping up with like what's happening around you absorbing new information i think krypton my kryptonite i am a very empathetic person i think it comes with the territory i would imagine it does it does and you know with that i've learned to i'm learning since i'm still kind of gaining my footing as being a near dog but i've learned to compartmentalize very well. But I think I still am. So I'm very empathetic that like I think I worry if someone's able to construe a story or say something that like pulls my strings. It's really hard.

Like, I know I need to separate things like game from like personal lives. But I do worry and I'm very aware that that might be my downfall. It's not being able to separate those two aspects. But again, I'm very aware of that and I know I need to do that. And I do that on a daily basis where like I go from that stab wound to the stubbed toe and I'm able to keep my emotions intact. the stubbed toe and I'm able to keep my emotions intact. But it's still something that, you know, it comes with the field of, you know, a very strong empathetic compass, moral compass. So I think that's something I need to be wary of. Well, let's move on from your field to the field of competitors around you, because like you said, you've been eagerly waiting for that toy,

but I'm sure you've been looking down the aisles, gaining some thoughts about all the people you are going to be playing with over the next 26 days. Let's start on the positive side. Who are some people that you're getting good vibes from? You think we hit the beach day one, best case scenario, this is my ride or die. I don't know anyone's names or their- Oh no, it's fine.

You describe them to me. We'll just do what we did before. Okay, I know where they're sitting because I've been observing a lot of where they're sitting everywhere so immediately the best vibes i've gotten so from have been i think his name is ko like this white dude the scruffy beard wears a hat um big fan of him i feel like he's very observant he's been like the only one who in addition to me has like observed the structure and like the building that we're in and has looked around and kind of just been like looking

around. And in addition is like always friendly, smiles. I noticed like he takes his plates up to the front. I don't know. Just a very kind human being. It seems like love the vibe. There's been certain people who like you can like smile at or you see their like general demeanor and it's very like kind and happy and like i gravitate towards those people and then there's

certain people who i haven't gotten those vibes talk to me about that yeah let's do it oh my god okay so there's tc um short hair um kind of short person um every single time i smile they don't smile back and like i like sit directly across from them and like i just nothing i'm like come on like literally like all we can do right now is just like share a small little grin and like nothing back i also haven't gotten great vibes from what's their name what's their initials aw african-american curly hair girl again similar um i actually was on the shuttle with them to the hotel and i could i kind of assumed that they were also on the show because like young person with like one to two big pieces of luggage not really talking or interacting around i'm like okay like

of course and they again didn't really like smile or like give me any reciprocal feedback or like any like just any like emotions back so not really getting good and then another person i definitely do not know her name and this is the most vague description so i apologize i know where she sits but like she i think cc or cc no like small petite white woman like really small petite um really nice but like she's so clumsy like like it's so messy so far like at the airport she assumed one of like the contestants was like one of the like crew people and i was like girl how did you not notice like we were all standing in a circle and like you saw each other's face like how did you think this person was like a crew person and not one of us?

Not observant. You know, you need to be way more observant than that, girl. Like, yeah. So what would you say is your biggest takeaway from Survivor 45 and 46 that you plan to bring into Survivor 47, incorporate into your game? that you plan to bring into Survivor 47, incorporate into your game? I definitely think that the gameplay has just been so much more elevated. Like, I feel like we say this every year,

but like it gets more and more, like more and more strategic, more and more cutthroat. And I think the reason for that is people are way more just observant and understanding of the social nuances that come with conversations i think before people probably took things for like like they they took them verbatim versus now people are a lot more skilled at understanding the small nuances that come with when people say something in a certain way or just like having a

larger i think emotional intelligence and like being able to pick up on those small cues and i definitely i personally anticipate on carrying that forward into this season and i will be um as i've already said to you the the judgments i made on people just by saying them without any words being said um but yeah i think a lot of people are going to be doing that because like i think that's like we saw in season 46 like three consecutive people went home with an idol and like those mistakes were made because they weren't picking up on the small nuances that they should have been and like all of that could be avoided if you pick up on those nuances. And I feel like the reason that's happening is because people are just becoming

way better at concealing and being able to kind of strategize and keep that away from them. And like, I think that's just going to continue because that's the exciting and brilliant part of the game. What would you say is your most controversial survivor pin? Your hottest take about a player, a season, the show in general? Am I going to get in trouble for this? I mean, by the very definition, but we're just between friends right now. You can worry about that later. I'm just saying we need to go back to two tribes.

We need to bring back the auction every single year. We need to get rid of the journeys. Like, no more of this journey BS. The journeys are, they're old. They're canceled. We're done. If a boat shows up at your camp, are you like, I'm good. I'm done.

I'm not going. Like, if you see every single time, no one believes, no matter how true you are, no one will believe you. There's still going to be that one person who's like, oh, like, I think they're lying. Even though, like, they said verbatim, like, everything that happened. It just sounds, it just, like, and then it creates doubts, like, oh, this person might have this. And it could be beneficial, but it often makes you an easy target, too easy target to to like be blindsided at any point. So, like, I'm not going for it. It's it's when you risk the way the risks and benefits like the risks are way higher than the benefits.

So I just think we get rid of them. And I'm not I'm not volunteering for that. I'm just. Well, last question I want to ask, if you could bring a celebrity or a fictional character out for a loved one's visit, who are you picking and why? Oh, OK. Hmm. Oh, I need to think about this. Hmm.

Pick your time. I know it's a tough decision. Fictional character or a celebrity. or a celebrity. I mean, there's so many people that I want to bring out. There's so many people I want to meet because I would also be meeting them for the first time. That's true, yeah.

It's like I'm thinking of, oh, oh, okay. I'm bringing my homegirl, Seri. Oh, there we go. I get to meet her. She can give me pointers. She's just someone I feel like I can have a fun conversation with. I love her vibes.

I'm bringing Seri. I know that's lame that it's Survivor related, but I really, really like her so much. And like, she'd be such a fun person to bring out and just like gab with. And like, oh, she's so real i love her yeah and listen she has been behind some of the most iconic loved ones visits in survivor history now she gets to be on the other side exactly exactly and although like of course i would definitely bring like my own loved ones first but like if it has to be someone from like a celebrity oh my god it has to be siri um yeah good well and also fellow uh hospital worker as

well right yes yes yeah do you have a lot to connect over well i'm so glad that we connected i know that again you know you have been lying in wait to talk to somebody and i'm so glad that i got to be here for it this was this was such a delightful conversation i just feel that that joviality and that spirit that you've been talking about through this screen. I can only imagine how it's going to translate to the island. And I am I'm so excited to see what you're going to to bring in that, you know, you'll be leaving a lot of people in your wake. Exactly. Oh, they're not going to see what's coming. They're not going to they're not until it's too late. That's the goal. Watch what catch my mark my words, mark my words. I plan on it. Well, thank you so much. It was so great getting to meet you and talk with you. Best

of luck, you know, triaging through the next few days in anticipation for what's to come. But I'm looking forward to seeing what comes on the other side. Thanks so much again, man. It's so good to meet you. So it's a new year. You know what that means? Setting big goals. Maybe you promised yourself you're going to hit the gym every day. Or maybe you said you're going to learn to make fire with a flint for once, or the classic save more money. But let's be honest, New Year's resolutions tend to fizzle out by February. Wouldn't it be great if at least one of those goals could be automatic? That's where Acorns comes in. Today's episode is sponsored by Acorns. You've probably heard me talk about them before,

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Kashan Patel, and looking forward to talking a little bit about him. He's ready to go in. I love his analogy about the chaos of the ER preparing him for the chaos of Survivor. Yeah, I mean, you could tell this was something that very much got his foot in the door throughout many times, and he probably said that over the course

of the casting process. And it is a really interesting perspective, because he does, of course, talk about the humanistic aspects of it. I really liked him telling his story about, you know, coming from a low income family and like getting to experience firsthand how like how absolutely necessary the ER is to have people survive, especially in this day and age when it comes to to medical care. But there's also a little bit of him that's like, yeah,

but I also love the kind of uh box of chocolates walk in every day and not know what to expect aspect yeah that was really interesting and then uh to hear him describe triaging and that being a skill that you have to do in the er and i i found that so relatable and and as far as like uh i don't know necessarily like if like i i feel like that i would be if i had any sort of like medical skill like i think i would be very good at triaging because that's basically the way that every one of my days actually works is like all right we gotta like uh all right this is a broken bone over here i got a gunshot over here i gotta go deal with this. Yeah. Whatever the podcasting equivalent of whatever is on fire. That's what I'm dealing with, as opposed to being able to work on something that

is not an emergency. Well, some podcasts are quite literally on fire. But yeah, I mean, I am intrigued to see how that skill translates from the ER to the N.E.W.E.R.A., if you will, just because I mean, the way he describes it and this idea of prioritization right like he is able to address needs in the moment versus more long-term needs yeah and what i find interesting is that when we talk to players in the new era sometimes they say especially with the shortened time frame that sometimes they don't necessarily think about the long term about like oh this is what I want my final three to be. I just have to concentrate in the moment.

So do you think that's a skill that is necessarily conducive to something like the new era? Yeah, that's pretty interesting. But I do think you have to do a little bit more of the medium term planning of figuring out like, okay, how I'm going to like survive today, but also like you have to be be looking ahead a little bit more. I'd love to just talk overall, though,

about Kashawn's prospects, because I'm not left with feeling especially hopeful for Kashawn's prospects here. Mostly where he's set up here in his tribe uh i like him very much personally he actually reminds me of uh my my doctor and so i like him uh you know very much as a person but as far as positioning goes here uh i'd love to talk a little bit about uh the people that he had good vibes with and not so great vibes with the person he had good vibes with is somebody who's uh not on his tribe yes kyle um but two of the people that he said he felt like he had bad vibes with

are two of the women that are on his tribe and potentially i'm not sure that the the clumsy white girl that he talked about that's not genevieve right no that is caroline i believe he said it was like cc i think it's it's cv uh so i would imagine that's case otherwise he'd be three for three but yes he does say that the people that he's he's picking up some either like not so good or maybe just like enigmatic, hard to read vibes are from TC, who is obviously teeny and AW. And this is why this exercise is so interesting, Rob, because if you remember yesterday when we were talking with Asia, right?

She's like, there are people who probably, yeah, there are people who probably recognize me. There's this guy KP and he keeps looking at me. And so I imagine that he recognizes me from somewhere. And now we find out from KP side. No, it's more so that like he's staring at her being like, I know you're on Survivor. Acknowledge my presence. And apparently, according to him, she's not necessarily doing that. Yeah. And so this is where this could be like a little bit of a wrinkle where if Asia feels like, OK, this person recognizes me from a podcast and

he did not seem to recognize her from the podcast. Is it like Asia? Is he is he holding back? Is he like so this is he is he lying? Does he actually know me? Is this somebody to get rid of because he knows the knowledge of my fandom? Yeah. But that being said, I feel like that this is more of a problem for Kashan than it really is for the other people, because there's more of them than there are of him. And I feel like I wish I could know a little bit more about his athleticism. It doesn't come up in the interview. He does answer that. Yeah. So he does say that when his bio, when asked what is something we would never know

from looking at you, he says, people see me as a nerdy Indian guy who's super wholesome, maybe a bit frail and unassuming. And not to necessarily glom onto any particular words, but like, I look at frail. Yeah, I look at frail Mary though, Mike. Yeah, true. Though I would also say, you know,

we're going to talk about the two other guys on this tribe in our next two interviews who are both pretty physically stacked uh by comparison so i would imagine it might be a case where like kishan is kind of pigeonholed onto puzzles as well and who knows man you know everyone's putting in prep work for this uh unless you're genevieve playing baldur's gate and so like maybe he still has that that athleticism to him even if he does look a bit skinnier compared to others uh but yeah i would imagine that there might be a chance that if they're if they are looking for like we're going to take out liabilities in the challenges again this is completely broad brushing kashan might be an absolute ace in some of this stuff but if you're looking from like a pure physical standpoint in the moment he Again, this is completely broad-brushing. Kashawn might be an absolute ace in some of this stuff, but if you're looking from a pure physical standpoint

in the moment, he might stand out from that perspective. So I think he seems like that maybe in a different tribe, he might be in a better position, but of the three people that we've talked about so far, I'm a little worried about Kashawn and where he is to start this game. Kashawn, this might be an odd comparison, but really reminds me of Ty in the way that he talked about his own personality and the game in that he's a very nurturing individual.

Obviously, again, excellent bedside manner, able to handle a lot of different situations and as a natural empathetic soul. But that blade kind of cuts both ways as he talks about multiple times you know treating stab wound victims uh in that he had said his piece of kryptonite was that he was too empathetic and that he was worried that like he might personally associate himself with these people too much that it might be difficult to cut them and again i think that's such an interesting aspect of ty's game is like he was this very nurturing persona but almost like kish that's such an interesting aspect of Tai's game is like, he was this very nurturing persona,

but almost like Kashan's, you know, embracing of chaos in his day-to-day, it didn't necessarily stop them from committing a lot of, you know, huge moves in the moment. So I don't think Kashan is necessarily someone that would say, oh no, I'm not going to do this because I care too much about them.

More so Tai's problem, especially in Ko Rong, was like, oh, I have all these feelings, so I'm just going to kind of sway wherever the wind flows in that moment. You're saying that his Hippocratic Oath is going to be a liability? I mean, it might happen. He might summon the Hippocratic Oath

and they'll call him a hypocrite for the stuff that he was doing in the game. I mean, I would love, again, for Kashawn to do well. I think he was a really fun person to talk to had a lot of fun sound bites i loved his take on like him just absolutely noping any journeys that come his way that his hot take is like get rid of that bs we don't necessarily need that anymore but i i do wonder if to your point you know if this tribe does does go especially to tribal early whether whether from, you know, a physicality standpoint or even from just like a personality standpoint where some of those preseason conceptions may immediately come into the picture. He could be somebody that is seen on the outs of that tribe early on.

And we know in the new era, especially like any excuse to get rid of somebody early on is a good one. Yeah. Mike, did he mention at all about if he's going to say what he does for a living? I imagine that he didn't tell me, but I would imagine that he is going to talk about it. Because I feel like, you know, there still is the stigma and obviously very much emboldened by season 45 around lawyers. I feel like we don't have a lot of people lying about their medical. Yeah. And I know that, that Voce specifically that the type of surgeon,

I think Evie had spoken about that. Like, okay, well that is like that, that that is a very specific personality type, but I don't know if that's going to increase his threat level to say that he is a doctor. Yeah. But again, if he does, I think people are just going to increase his threat level to say that he is a doctor. Yeah. But again, if he does, I think people are just going to look at that and say like, OK, you're Mr. Puzzle for the tribe now.

So get on there, solve it for us. And that can do really well or not so well for him. So, yeah, we'll definitely talk about it towards the end. the end but unfortunately i would i would not be terribly surprised that if and when this tribe goes to tribal first unless there's any other stuff happening amongst these people at the point that they do he could be someone who's at least on the chopping block okay mike anything else you want to add about kashan no i guess i will say uh really really loved the guy as well and yeah i think uh over under rob like three mentions of him talking about triaging when he's mentioning juggling all these alliances i don't know if the word triage will come i would take the under on that i might take the over i don't know they love their metaphors

they love their connections i love that metaphor i was like this is so relatable what if it turns out that your doctor was kishan the entire time? Yeah, I would be a little surprised because he has a different name. I mean, listen, could be the long con. Could be. All right, Mike, we are going to think about this person and their empire many times, potentially, as we discuss Rome when we come back right after this. Transat presents a couple trying to beat the winter blues. We could try hot yoga.

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Mike, let's talk about our second contestant here today. Okay, we went from the ER to talking about not a Clooney, but a Cooney Rome Cooney. Yes. Rome, a American British historical drama that aired from 2005 to 2007, but also the name of one of our contestants, Jerome Rome Cooney. Rome is 30 years old from Phoenix,

Arizona. And he is an e-sports esports commentator rob one of the few broadcasters media voices on this season okay and i don't know if that's part of the theme or what but uh yeah i mean listen i'm i'm happy about it he does come up with an interesting verb around his job which i didn't realize was a thing he talks about casting instead of broadcasting he shorts it to casting should we use that as terms as a podcaster ourselves i think his job, which I didn't realize was a thing. He talks about casting instead of broadcasting. He shorts it to casting. Should we use that as terms as a podcaster ourselves?

I think it's going to get very confusing because I think that we're stepping into Jesse Tannenbaum territory. I mean, if you ask people who voted in the Survivor 50 wishlist, they would have said we already stepped into those shoes. I don't want to get like, hey, Adam Klein got off on the wrong foot doing casting.

So I'm good. I'm good with staying as a podcasting. Got a lot already in the P in RHAP. Yes, absolutely. Well, that being said, Rome is somebody that is certainly used to bringing his voice, considering that he is someone who has done a lot of commentary for. Have you ever heard about Rocket League, Rob? Is that something your sons play? Yes. Yeah. So Rome is someone who has been doing commentary for that, for various esports events around that particular game for the past, like I want to say four years or so. And he very, very recently fell in love with Survivor, Rob. We're talking like

big brother Izzy territory in becoming very recent to the game when it comes to what Survivor is. But that, I would say, even further brightens his star as to the passion that he brings to this. And we'll talk about this, obviously, on the other side, but I would venture a guess

that I think Rome is going to be one of the bigger personalities of the season. All right. Let's hear from the man himself. Let's hear from Rome and then we'll come back and talk about it. All right. Well, let's start with something nice and easy.

Why don't you give me your name, age, and your occupation? My name is Jerome Cooney, but I go by Rome. And what I do is I'm a professional esports host and commentator. So pretty much what Jeff does for Survivor, I do for video games. So I travel across the world, across the country, and I get to commentate esports. I get to host things. I get to do the intros for players and all that stuff. So, yeah, that's pretty much what I do.

How tough is it going to be for you to not jump into that mode during the challenges? It's going to be hard. It's so funny. They asked me this during casting. They were like, do you ever like practice casting the challenges and stuff and i'm like oh all the time the second the challenge starts i'll mute i'll mute it so so i don't hear jeff at all and and i'll commentate it over and i'll say uh you know go through the challenge and all that stuff and then i'll rewind it and then i'll unmute it and hear how jeff called it and you know hear the

similarities or what's different or what i can improve on because i mean i mean jeff is the goat at this so you know being able to learn from him is always awesome well yeah let's move from being a commentator to now getting this commentary thrown at you as you become one of these competitors talk to me about your history with Survivor and what led you to become a player of your own in a manner of speaking wow okay so you would probably be surprised I probably started watching Survivor the most recent out of anyone on my season. So I started watching Survivor April of 2023. So literally just a little over a year ago. Oh my God. anything housewives survivor anything i've never even like really heard about survivor but i needed a new show to watch right there was a lot of downtime and so my fiance was like hey growing

up i used to watch this show called survivor you might like it and so i was like okay i'll give it a try and so you know we turned it on we went to season one and i was about five minutes in and i was like okay this is kind of boring i don't know if i could do this like and i was like okay let me and she was like okay jump to a future season jump to like a newer one and i was like okay so i randomly i just scrolled down and I just randomly click 30. Right. Season 30 ended up being the Mike Holloway win. Right.

With Joey the Amazing and all that stuff. The final auction. It was a pretty good season for a first season. So I was like, man, this show is amazing. Like, so that was like, OK, I'm super invested. I need to go back and see where it where it started. And so I'm sitting here watching Borneo and I'm like, where are the idols? Like, I was so confused, but I got to see the progression i got to see the progression

of the whole game so i actually binged every single season from april to july so within a three every single season every single season i binged it from april to july of last year um the reason i was able to do that is because there's a lot of downtime when i'm not hosting you know i might have one or two or three events a month. And aside from that, what am I doing? So there were some seasons I watched in throughout one day, like I would wake up at 6am, start watching Survivor. And then by midnight, I'd be done with the season. And I'd be like, awesome. So you know, I've crammed a whole lot into into my into my mind the last the last year about Survivor and things that a lot of people probably have over the last 20 years. So's a little spotty memory for them but i'm gonna be able to remember it like

the back of my hand yeah so then what made that translate to okay i love this game but now i want to play it what was that process like hook islands ozzy that that's all it took watching dominating challenges me knowing that i'm a pretty athletic guy, but I'm an under the radar athletic guy. I don't really look like I'm going to be jumping out the gym, but I got a 34 inch vertical like I'm super athletic. Right. So I love the challenges. I love like every aspect of the challenges. But also the the small thing that Ozzy didn't have was the social game as good as Yule did. And that was the reason that he ended up losing. I'm just like, man, if he was just a tad bit more social, this would have been one of the best wins ever. I absolutely loved the show, love Ozzy. And I was like, man, like I got to apply,

like I got to do this. So the second after watching season 14, while I was binging it, that was when I sent in my application. I hadn't watched any other season, 15, 16, 17. I didn't even watch heroes versus villains yet. None of greatest seasons all that things i had to apply so i sent in my application in in may i think it was like may 5th may 6th something like that and uh and yeah and then i got the call back in in october and i've been going through the process ever since and it's been incredible well i'm glad we got you down from a coconut tree to come talk about this because i'm sure you were just like ransacking ready to do it like ozzy uh on that note obviously you have to say you've crammed a lot of survivor. It is an understatement.

But from the absolute binge you did through everything, give me a winner and a non-winner who you identify with the most. Would Ozzy easily slide into that non-winner for you or are you picking someone else? It would be it would be probably be Ozzy for a non-winner. Yeah, for a non-winner, it would probably be Ozzy. For a winner though,

it's got to be Todd Herzog. I feel like he had the best final tribal out of any season ever. He went there with three, two other people that had just as good of a chance of winning as him,

but he was able to cater to the jury, tell people exactly what they wanted to hear. When he told John Rebear, you were starting to think along my lines, so I had to get you out.

That just stroked his ego to the moon. And he shut up him. Yeah, exactly. So that was perfect. And I'm like, man, this guy is a genius. Like between like giving James the two idols, like he wasn't selfish during his gameplay at all. I mean, Todd was an incredible winner. So I definitely can can relate to him the most non winners. It's got it's got to be Ozzy. Got to be Ozzy. I also like Jesse. You know, I can't be mad at Jesse. New era a little bit.

Jesse from 43. I like Jesse as well. So can't be mad at that. What's one life experience you feel has most prepared you for this? I know, again, the idea of this experience has been relatively new to you. But do you look back on your life and think about something that has prepared you the most physically or mentally for what you're about to jump into? Physically, it's got to be fully tearing my achilles so um yeah six years ago i fully tore my achilles you know i was playing basketball it was a pickup game it was 15 to 15 i'd already

scored like eight of our points so you know i'm the point guard my team's looking at me to put the last bucket in you know i'm over here doing this and i do a right to left crossover and boom i just crossed myself out of my own achilles and it popped and by the way i love that you're commentating your own like traumatic injury to pick up basketball game it's natural man it's natural it's just in me you know i can't help it you know um and yeah so so i tore my achilles and it's pretty ironic because kobe bryant is actually my favorite athlete of all time and he tore his achilles so i had already studied an Achilles tear and things like that and how to recover. And now I got to go through it. So I relearned how to

walk. I tore it in September and I was back running, jumping at the basketball court in January. I got four months of recovery time from a full tear. And the doctors even said that was unheard of, but I kicked physical therapies. But I made sure if they said do 30 sets, I did 60. If they said do, do, do 40, I was doing 80. I was making sure that I was getting this healthy as quick as possible. And the pain that is the other thing is that the pain people don't know when, when the doctor told me as a man, this is the most pain you can go through in your life because we can't have kids. So he was like, this is truly the most, the most pain you can ever feel. So the fact that you went through that and didn't even cry like that, that's a testament to you as a person.

And so now any pain that I'm gonna be feeling out here, bro, I'm not gonna be worrying about it, whether it's hunger pains, whether it's pain from a challenge, you know, an endurance challenge. And I'm like, oh, I'm about to give out. No, I still got more in the tank. You know, there's still gonna be a little bit there

because I understand the limits that you can go to. So on that note, if I were to ask you, what's your biggest superpower and what's your biggest superpower and what's your biggest uh piece of kryptonite that you're bringing into the game is that pain management your superpower or are you picking something else there no i think my biggest superpower is going to be my social game i feel like i feel like i'm going to be super underrated i don't you know even even during pregame i haven't like come across as the smart guy everyone out here is

reading books and doing sudokus and crossword puzzles. And I'm like, why are y'all doing that? I'm like, man, I'm doing that in my tent where no one can see me. Like, you know, I don't want people to think that I'm the smart guy. All these people are reading books. No, I got audio books that I can just listen to in my head. So I'm sitting here listening to how to make friends and influence people. And nobody else has any idea that I'm sitting here, you know, just processing how to be

even better socially and things like that. So, I mean, I think my biggest my biggest superpower coming into this is being an underrated, underrated strategist, honestly. Now, what about the other side? What's your your Achilles heel, for lack of a better term? Overconfidence. I truly think I'm going to win this game and I don't see a way that I won't. I have I got a few things up my sleeves, you know, up my sleeves. And I feel like if you't. I have, I got a few things up my sleeves, you know, up my sleeves. And I feel like if you don't come into the game with a few things up your sleeves,

like ready to go a few moves that you can crack out to, to try to save yourself, then you're, you're already setting yourself up for failure. So I've got a few things, a few moves that have never been done. You know, some,

some pretty interesting things that I'm ready to, ready to put into place. Can we take a peek into sleeves? Anything you want to tease to us? I haven't told anyone but my fiance and my sister. Those are the only two people I told. And they both said one. One said, wait, you're allowed to do that. And I was like, there's no rule against it. And they said, oh, that's actually genius then. And you guess what my fiance said? She said that might be one of the biggest moves in survivor history if you can pull it off so listen all i'm saying is i've studied the game i've crammed it a ton and

jeff says he's always looking for people that know how to exploit the game and you know you take these little details of the game and take use it to their advantage and that's exactly what i'm gonna do so let's talk about maybe some of these people that you're gonna pull this unprecedented move off on because i'm sure you've been sitting with your thoughts for days. I'm sure you have plenty about your competition. As you said, you've been watching them doing their Sudokus and reading their books. So let's look on the positive side first. Is there anybody that you're picking up good vibes from that you're like, best case scenario, I wind up on the beach with them day one.

This is a possible ride or die for me. Yeah, there's a few that are giving me, you know, the real nice smiles, you know, in the head nods when you see them, cause you can't do anything verbally. So you just gotta do that and then keep it moving. And, and so there's been a lot of people that have been giving me that mainly because I'm typically always smiling anyway. So like, you know, it's pretty easy to smile back at someone already smiling. So, um, I do think it's pretty interesting. I don't know if some of, some of the girls might've been given away what tribe they're going to be on, because there's a lot of toenails that are painted in red or blue. So, you know, I'm just saying that I'm noticing, you know, I'm noticing who might be on my tribe already.

So, you know, you're able to give those extra smiles and things like that. So, yeah, interesting. Well, what about on the other side? Is there anyone that's giving you red flags or red toes as it were yes yes there is this guy that reminds me of one of my friends growing up he's got he's got some some big curly hair i've smiled at him i think five seven eight times he has never never smiled back never given any because i'm like all right you can go bro like you're not even trying to smile like you, you can just, I'll see you later. Interesting.

Talk to me about idols, advantages, journeys, all big parts of the new era. How do you plan on incorporating them into your game? Listen,

I got some big plans. I think that when it comes to idols, I'm going to be able to get the edge over people because I feel like with us recently watching 46 up until the final seven, I'm going to be able to get the edge over people because I feel like with us recently watching 46 up until the final seven, I feel like because there's a lack of hunting for idols like post merge and like during the during the merge and things like that, that

people aren't really going to be looking for idols during the season as heavily just because of what they saw recently, you know. And so I think that's going to open up the door for me to go out and look for him, be able to sneak off and things like that. Also, I barely need to sleep. I have no problem looking for an idol in pitch black. I will have zero problem getting up on four hours of sleep. I'm a gamer, bro. I'm a longtime gamer. I'm used to sleeping on four hours and going good to go the whole day. So I'm going to be up in the middle of the night. If there's even a crack of dawn, crack of sunlight,

some cameraman's going to need to get on up and follow me around because guess what? We hit in the jungle. Let's go find an idol. Yeah. Coconut's going to be to get on up and follow me around because guess what? We hit in the jungle. Let's go find an idol. Yeah. Coconut's going to be your gamer fuel, I guess. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, exactly. So on that note of, you know, learning from prior seasons, I do feel like seasons 45 and 46 have already kind of like accelerated the new era from what came before it.

What is your biggest takeaway from 45 and 46 that you plan to bring into 47? My biggest takeaway is that people get too attached to people. I feel like I feel like people get too attached to people and people get big move itis and people also brag. I don't know why people are doing a move and then bragging about it. That is like one of the most illogical things you could do, because that just tells everyone else left in the game. Hey, you're a threat because of this reason. If you get to final tribal, they're going to say that. Just keep it to yourself and save it for final tribal.

There's literally no positive for bragging about your moves. And so, you know, the other thing is like, I mean, Tim was a perfect example in 46. He just refused to give up one of his one of his Seagas. Why, bro? There is 17 people that you have to beat. It's not just, you know, it's not just you know it's not just you and your tribe that's gonna make it to the end and it's gonna be that's it like no you have to

be every single person so i'm gonna have the sandra mentality anyone but me i'm sorry i didn't know any y'all a week ago i'm not gonna be mad about letting y'all go home and get some food i'm you know i'm chilling what is your most controversial survivor opinion What do you think is your hottest take? I mean, I know you were probably a bit disconnected from the fan base, considering, again, how recent of a convert you are. But do you already get a sense as to like a take that you find might be controversial to the fan base? Yeah, so I understand that, you know, a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people are not fans of Russell Hance.

Now, granted, I didn't see the social aspect of it when I watched and binged it. So I just got to see Russell without any outside thoughts or anything. And I'm like, OK, this guy's kind of mean to people behind the scenes. But I mean, hey, his gameplay was absolutely incredible. He ran both of the seasons he was on back to back. And I mean, it was one of the most incredible gameplay I've ever seen. But his social game was awful. Literally the worst social game and the best gameplay in Survivor history combined in one person. It's pretty incredible. So I think that Russell should have won his season. I feel like he should have won Samoa.

And I know that that's a controversial take. But I also feel like Yule, in my opinion, he's the winner that I least respect. Not because of him as a person. All right. I love him as a person. He's a great guy. It's because of the super idol. He found it immediately and then essentially didn't have to do anything all game except for play the social game.

So once he got to the final tribal, all he had to do was use the social game that he had to be able to, you know, figure things out. And Ozzy just couldn't compete with that. Even though Ozzy was winning all these challenges, it didn't matter because Yule you all he had to do was focus on the social game because of the super idol so that's that's my that's my controversial hot take right there last thing I want to ask if you could bring a celebrity or a fictional character out for a loved one's visit who are you picking and why oh man okay uh celebrity are they allowed to bring anything with them uh i mean if you listen i guess this is going back to what your fiance said it's not not in the rules okay uh then guy fury and i'm gonna have him make me some some nice burgers you know some fries you

know he's gonna he's gonna chef up something i gotta bring a chef out you know a famous chef um but character i don't know man uh that's gonna be tough i don't know there's so many there's so many characters out there i should have been ready for this because you asked this last season too so i should have been ready for this one i'll go peter griffin man yeah i need to laugh so i want somebody that can be out there and make me laugh someone i can vibe with someone that i can chill with and that's just gonna be a good time. So, yeah, I feel like if you're having Peter Griffin and Guy Fieri in the same room, it's not going to end well. No, I don't think so.

I cannot think so. No, not at all. OK, I can do that sometimes, too. You know, sometimes, you know, I got a cool Jeff one. I don't know if you want to hear that one yet. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. no no you invited that i gotta i gotta hear it now all right let's get it on that's a little taste a little taste for you oh i love it i love the taste man that is worth playing for i i love this that you again you all you didn't know him from a hole in the wall a year

ago now you're able to like mimic his voice that's incredible i appreciate that man this has been such a great time uh i know that again this this was like a hell of a year for you basically to like find the show fall in love and get onto it but like your your sense of of love for the game just goes to show that like that transcends you know i've never loved the. I've never liked the TV show more. Like it's straight up. I've never, ever liked anything on TV more than Survivor. And so the fact that, like you said, I found it a year ago. I've got so much passion for this, man.

I'm all over Reddit. I'm always looking at things. I'm all on Twitter. I'm following everybody. I'm seeing what the vibes are and things. I'm listening to every single podcast. I mean, they said, what are your what are your hobbies you like to do? I said, playing video games while listening to all the podcasts I listen to, whether it's you on fire. Rob has a podcast. I mean, they said, what are your hobbies you like to do? I said, playing video games while listening to all the podcasts

I listen to, whether it's you, On Fire, Rob has a podcast, literally every single one from the ones that are getting tens of thousands of views to the ones that are getting literally 50 views.

I'm watching every single one to try and take in as much survivor as possible to get as adapted to this game as possible. I absolutely love it. Oh, well, I loved getting the chance to talk with you, man. I think it's safe to say

by the end of this, we'll all be thinking about Rome like we were a bunch of years back. But this was such a great time. I know that you're, you know, probably sitting on pins and needles waiting for the big day to happen. But I wish you nothing but the best

and not only the anticipation leading up to the big day, but the big 26 days that are to follow. And I'm so looking forward to what you're bringing to the beach. Hey, listen, Rome wasn't built in a day, but it might be built be building 26 that's all i gotta say man that's all there we go what hell of a sign off this is a professional right here all right mike there you have it rome cooney there we go i was waiting for you to come in with your kendall roy voice saying rome

no i wasn't gonna go there um but i uh really do uh like romey very easy and likable to root for uh he reminds me just in in the way that he talks uh very much of uh a friend of mine who's been on the podcast from time to time uh ryan papola who uh is uh somebody who that's a deep cut. Yeah. For old school fans. Yeah. He's another broadcaster, works for the WWE network and just, I think, very personable guy, Rome, and I'm very excited to see what he's going to be able to do.

Yeah. That's what's so interesting about this guy is that I completely agree. I think he has such great energy. I mean, he talks about it during his time in Ponderosa as well, right? Like he just has this smiley, ebullient energy about him. Again, this passion is so palpable that even though he is so late to the show. Again, we talked in early May of 2024, Rob. He only had been watching Survivor for a year,

but watched all 40 plus seasons in a three month period in 2023. Yeah. So he's come into it. And I get that that's his personality, though, that he is just like when he's into something, he's very into it. And so, yeah, I don't think that necessarily

you need to have a certain amount of period. If he's seen the show, he's seen the show. That's the other thing. I mean, I know he's also putting forward the argument of like, well, these deep polls from season 14 are more top of mind to me than these other people. I don't think that necessarily is is is something that hampers or helps your game unless you're Hunter at that journey challenge where you have to put the seasons in order, in which Rome had the right idea. Because remember, Hunter, because he watched the seasons out of order in his binging, wasn't sure how to put things in order. Rome's story was he watched like a minute of Borneo,

said, this is boring-o. His fiance said, oh, no, put on a random season instead. He found Worlds Apart, and that was his hook. And so he said, I'm going to start from Borneo and move his way forward. So he'll be apart and that was his hook and so he said i'm gonna start from bordeaux and move his way forward so he'll be better at that but maybe asia was the one that manifested uh putting the winners in order instead and so maybe rome would do that but yeah rome is somebody who talks a big game yeah and listen we love that here i i know that people can can be wrong in their predictions both from our side and from their side, the players, but I

love when people cast out, if you will, not broadcasting these predictions about how they're going to do. And what a delicious tease from Rome about these never-before-seen moves he's going to pull off in the game. I can't wait to see it. I love Rome.

How often do you think about it? Mostly just today. I'll let you How often do you think about it? I mean, mostly just today. I'll let you know tomorrow if I think about him again. That being said, I do wonder, like, I think that if this goes sideways, the person that I'm sort of reminded of is another person that I really fell in love with in the preseason was JD and survivor. And I feel like that. I, I, I looked at JD and I said,

how could this go wrong? This guy, I love this guy. Listen to him talk. He's a great, he's such a personality. He's going to be so fun. He knows everything's super smart.

And then it turned out like a overconfidence potentially also was his weakness in the game. And so if it does go poorly, like I wonder if it does look similar. Yeah. So when it comes to Rome, I think on the positive side of things, again, I think he's incredibly personable. He's incredibly charming. He's incredibly personable. He's incredibly charming. He has this, as he would figure,

a very underrated physicality as well that I think would make him an asset in challenges. Seems incredibly level-headed when it comes to approaching the game. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised, Rob, that he ends up becoming kind of the mouthpiece, if not the outright leader of this tribe just because he kind of is so passionate about all this stuff.

I would, in Emily Flippant's style, I might push back on that. I don't see him as the leader of the tribe. And to me, like, I feel like that he is just maybe, I don't know if people would follow that type of leadership style here in this tribe. I mean, I think that my best case scenario for him, we heard Asia talk yesterday about how Asia said, I'm looking for a little brother. And while they're close in age,

that's only two years apart, I wonder, could he potentially, maybe with a more balanced player, not to say that Rome is not a balanced player, but might be a little bit more of a louder, more out in front player. Could could he could Asia sort of like, you know, round off some of those edges? And that could be a partnership that ends up working really well. I love that. Yeah, it's almost akin to like Tony and Trish, right? Of like, here is a guy who has all of these big ideas of what he wants to do. And then here comes somebody to maybe bring him back down to earth a little bit, regulate him

a bit more, sometimes maybe bat a little cleanup from the social perspective. So yeah, I feel like Rome has a lot of great, exciting stuff. But I think the two possible downsides that can come is one that's self-appointed and then one that's kind of appointed from the outside i think for the first one it's this idea that to your point and he even admits it there is this overconfidence and there is this desire to like hit the beach running to really play the game again i love when people come in and try to call their shot uh jd money style with some of these things that that they want to do but sometimes if you get a little too caught up in it in trying to play the game too much then that can really stick out you know it might wear

on some of the other tribe members it might wear down some trust the other side of things is that again i think rome is one of these perfect stereotypical candidates that ends up getting picked off in the mid merge of like I could very easily see an option where, again, Rome is a very charming presence. He was probably at that point in the game showing off his his skills and challenges as well. I would imagine he is going to light up tribal council with the way he's going to batter it back and forth. But Jeff, I hope he does an impression toff's face because that was very very fun to check out but if i'm his competition i don't see how you don't look at this guy at a certain point and be like we cannot let him get to the end yeah i don't think that there's any under the radar for rome i think that he's a big talker, which we love to see. We love it!

We love to see it. I think that also is the kind of thing that potentially gets you into trouble on the mat chat where we've seen a Jelinski type really catch the attention from the other tribes of talking too much. Jeff is going to love it

at Tribal Council, going to bring out more of it. So I think there's definitely going to be a lot of attention on Rome throughout the game. And that's where I also think that like, OK, having a Rome shield also could end up being like a good place to be, if you will, for some of the other players. So I think that Rome is going to be very fun to watch. It's hard for me to envision Rome, you know, being able to run the table and win with that style of gameplay. But we've seen other players who are big personalities like Marianne or Jam Jam ultimately win in the new era. So let's see. Yeah, that's the thing is that you look at people like Jam Jam,

even like Kenzie and Erica to a certain extent of these people did get called out at a certain point for being too much of a threat. And luckily, because other threats were taken out instead of them, they were able to make their way to the end game where they end up winning. And, you know, maybe that'll be the case with Rome as well. I nearly didn't make Rome my winner pick in reviewing these interviews, because, again, I do think there are a lot of pluses in his column. But those pluses can obviously also be seen by everybody else. And it really depends on on the timbre of this cast, right, on the tune that they are playing. If they're going to keep big game hunting like we've seen, especially in 46, where it really was a matter of these big players angling to take each other out i would not be surprised if a rome himself does that and then

b ends up becoming sort of like number one on on the hit list there you know the approach he has from the new era perspective is also really interesting where he says one of his big takeaways from the past two seasons is like you get too attached to people he brings up you know uh tim insisting that a sega needs to stay at mergatory as an example of that but at the same time you know i think that season 46 we almost saw the opposite of that by the end game right where everyone was turning on their number one ally and while we sort of talk about the follies of that, I do wonder if Rome had taken that lesson and might try to institute something like that

to his folly. Yeah, I'm a little worried about when he talks about like making this biggest move that nobody has ever seen before. But I feel like that in his favor, like I feel like that he's not necessarily like beholden to the past. I think that like coming from e-sports, very fast moving, like, you know, that things on things on his feet, things on his feet.

I don't think he's going to be overwhelmed and he doesn't have like a romanticism of like, oh, how survivors should have been in the past. how Survivor should have been in the past. Like, I think he has like a little bit more of a, is more in line with where the game is going and is ready to play that game. Yeah, I mean, he will also not be the last person on this season in these interviews who will mention Russell as well. And I do think, you know,

Rome describing Russell as like the best strategy in the worst social game mixed into one player is not only an interesting soundbite, but the fact that, you know, one of his hot takes is that he felt like Russell should have won. I'm always intrigued when those types of statements are made to extrapolate from there.

Like, okay, does that mean that he wants to play sort of as ferociously as Russell did at certain points during his first two seasons and also trying to mix some relationship management in there as well. I definitely think that Rome is willing to play like in the same way that, you know, when you play a video game, you know, it's, you know, cutthroat. You're out there to try and win. I don't know necessarily, though, if the jury is all there in terms of how they might reward a person who plays that way.

Well, Rome uses a Senate, not a jury. So I think, yeah, unfortunately, from a judicial perspective, he might be SOL there. Rome also talked about his recovery from injury. He had a full tear of his Achilles and had a four-month return. And that's really unheard of. This is an injury that I've studied greatly, really for almost the last 11 months, how long it takes a person to recover from an Achilles tear. They said it couldn't be done in four months, although some say that it could be done

and modern science is there. And so I'm happy to hear that Rome is able to prove a four month return is possible from an Achilles, a full Achilles tear. You know, the fun thing about this is that this podcast will release shortly before the NFL season begins. So we really get to see in hindsight whether or not that assessment is true or not this coming weekend. Yeah. OK okay so very excited yeah it should be it should be a good time uh i i think no matter what no matter how long we see rome whether it's one episode or 13 i think he is going to make for fantastic television again this guy knows how to make great sound bites know how to showcase his personality

that's very indicative in his interview. And so even if we talk about maybe some possible downsides that might see him get targeted at some point, no matter how long it lasts, I can't wait to see it. And especially when hashtag Rome's big move comes out. Yeah, this is what we want to see on Survivor, either incredible victory or spectacular flame out. And Rome is going to bring it one way or another.

Yeah, we'll see if he goes down in flames and who will be playing the violin alongside it, Rob. We shall see. All right, Mike, there you go. Tell us about who we're going to talk about tomorrow. Yeah, so tomorrow we finish off Lava with our last two tribe members. We are talking about Saul and Teenie. And then at the end of it all, Rob, we get a full view of this red tribe.

We'll be able to, I think, sketch out maybe some initial dynamics who might be in trouble early on and who we might peg to go far as perhaps one of the most powerful duos, trios, alliances to emerge from this into a merge situation. Okay. All right.

Be sure to check that one out tomorrow. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast. Hit that subscribe button if you're watching us here on YouTube. And Mike, what's coming up for you in terms of your press coverage for Parade? Yeah. So I am moving through another tribe, which we'll also be talking about soon in Agata. I will have talked at this point, released my interviews with Andy, Anika, John Lovett and Rachel. So be sure to check that out over at Pray.com. If you want a little bit of it, like an early scoop on the next child that we are going to be talking about, you can follow

everything I'm doing at a Mike Bloom type. And what did you think of Kashan and Rome? We'd love to hear from you in the comments. So leave your comments. And of course, keep it classy, people. Okay? And so... Wow, is that your... I mean, Rome did a fantastic sign-off. Is that like your Ron Burgundy sign-off now?

You're trying something out? No hate in the comments. Yeah, come on. We'd love to hear what you think about how everybody's going to do. And please be sure to check out our next episode. Take care, everybody. Have a good one. Bye.